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• php open source for link building

  - by Bharanikumar

  Hi Team , Refer some best link building open source (PHP), Thanks Bharanikumar

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• Python File Search Line And Return Specific Number of Lines after Match

  - by Simos Anderson

  I have a text file that has lines representing some data sets. The file itself is fairly long but it contains certain sections of the following format: Series_Name INFO Number of teams : n1 | Team | # | wins | | TeamName1 | x | y | . . . | TeamNamen1 | numn | numn | Some Irrelevant lines Series_Name2 INFO Number of teams : n1 | Team | # | wins | | TeamName1 | num1 | num2 | . where each section has a header that begins with the Series_Name. Each Series_Name is different. The line with the header also includes the number of teams in that series, n1. Following the header line is a set of lines that represents a table of data. For each series there are n1+1 rows in the table, where each row shows an individual team name and associated stats. I have been trying to implement a function that will allow the user to search for a Team name and then print out the line in the table associated with that team. However, certain team names show up under multiple series. To resolve this, I am currently trying to write my code so that the user can search for the header line with series name first and then print out just the following n1+1 lines that represent the data associated with the series. Here's what I have come up with so far: import re print fname = raw_input("Enter filename: ") seriesname = raw_input("Enter series: ") def findcounter(fname, seriesname): logfile = open(fname, "r") pat = 'INFO Number of teams :' for line in logfile: if seriesname in line: if pat in line: s=line pattern = re.compile(r"""(?P<name>.*?) #starting name \s*INFO #whitespace and success \s*Number\s*of\s*teams #whitespace and strings \s*\:\s*(?P<n1>.*)""",re.VERBOSE) match = pattern.match(s) name = match.group("name") n1 = int(match.group("n1")) print name + " has " + str(n1) + " teams" lcount = 0 for line in logfile: if line.startswith(name): if pat in line: while lcount <= n1: s.append(line) lcount += 1 return result The first part of my code works; it matches the header line that the person searches for, parses the line, and then prints out how many teams are in that series. Since the header line basically tells me how many lines are in the table, I thought that I could use that information to construct a loop that would continue printing each line until a set counter reached n1. But I've tried running it, and I realize that the way I've set it up so far isn't correct. So here's my question: How do you return a number of lines after a matched line when given the number of desired lines that follow the match? I'm new to programming, and I apologize if this question seems silly. I have been working on this quite diligently with no luck and would appreciate any help.

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• DLL administration

  - by carlos

  I build some dlls to be used in a big application, and have a team working in the dlls heart of the application and another team working in the gui, but i am having a problems in the deployment of the dll's when a change is done, because the gui team needs or copy the new dll to the project folder, or delete the old reference and add the new one. Is there a best practice to deal with this problem? I am using Visual Studio 2008 and devoloping int VB and C# Thanks !!!

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• Flash type casting gone wrong

  - by Malfist

  Sorry, I'm new to flash I have this line of code: BaseEntry( _entryList[i] ).topTeamName = ((Team)(teamList.getNameAtIndex( i*2 ))).Name; and I get the error: TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert "[object Team]" to ncaa.Data.Team. What do I need to do to fix it?

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• How to integrate cardinalcommerce authentication processing in a flash and Asp.net project?

  - by Krishnan

  Our Asp.net//Flash team doing a shopping cart project. We are integrating First Data Alternative payment gateway. Shopping cart items are selected through flash and our asp.net team taking the data from flash and integrating the first data alternative payment. We have already integrated first data payment gateway. Now we want to integrate First Data Alternative payment gateway. Please help our team to do so

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• Planning and coping with deadlines in SCRUM

  - by John

  From wikipedia: During each “sprint”, typically a two to four week period (with the length being decided by the team), the team creates a potentially shippable product increment (for example, working and tested software). The set of features that go into a sprint come from the product “backlog,” which is a prioritized set of high level requirements of work to be done. Which backlog items go into the sprint is determined during the sprint planning meeting. During this meeting, the Product Owner informs the team of the items in the product backlog that he or she wants completed. The team then determines how much of this they can commit to complete during the next sprint. During a sprint, no one is allowed to change the sprint backlog, which means that the requirements are frozen for that sprint. After a sprint is completed, the team demonstrates the use of the software. I was reading this and two questions immediately popped into my head: 1)If a sprint is only a couple of weeks, decided in a single meeting, how can you accurately plan what can be achieved? High-level tasks can't be estimated accurately in my experience, and can easily double what seems reasonable. As a developer, I hate being pushed into committing what I can deliver in the next month based on a set of customer requirements, this goes against everything I know about generating reliable estimates rather than having to roughly estimate and then double it! 2)Since the requirements are supposed to be locked and a deliverable product available at the end, what happens when something does take twice as long? What if this feature is only 1/2 done at the end of the sprint? The wiki article goes on to talk about Sprint planning, where things are broken down into much smaller tasks for estimation (<1 day) but this is after the Sprint features are already planned and the release agreed, isn't it? kind of like a salesman promising something without consulting the developers.

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• "Could not load" error whenever I click a work item.

  - by Mohammadreza

  I have recently installed Team Explorer on one of my machines that has Visual Studio 2008 SP1 installed. But know whenever I click a work item or trying to open a team query I get the following error: Could not load type 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client.WorkItemTypeDeniedOrNotExistException' from assembly 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' I even repaired the installation of Team Explorer 2008 but it does not solve my problem. Does anybody know how can I get rid of this error? Thanks.

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• Nhibernate, can i improve my MAPPING or Query

  - by dbones

  take this simple example A staff class which references other instances of the staff class public class Staff { public Staff() { Team = new List<Staff>(); } public virtual int Id { get; set; } public virtual string Name { get; set; } public virtual IList<Staff> Team { get; set; } public virtual Staff Manager { get; set; } } The Fluent Mapping public class StaffMap : ClassMap<Staff> { public StaffMap() { Id(x => x.Id); Map(x => x.Name); References(x => x.Manager).Column("ManagerId"); HasMany(x => x.Team).KeyColumn("ManagerId").Inverse(); } } Now I want to run a query, which will load all the Staff and eager load the manager and Team members. This is what I came up with IList<Staff> resutls = session.CreateCriteria<Staff>() .SetFetchMode("Team", FetchMode.Eager) .SetResultTransformer(Transformers.DistinctRootEntity) .List<Staff>(); however the SQL (does what i want) has duplicate columns, 2 team2_.ManagerId and 2 team2_.Id SELECT this_.Id as Id0_1_, this_.Name as Name0_1_, this_.ManagerId as ManagerId0_1_, team2_.ManagerId as ManagerId3_, team2_.Id as Id3_, team2_.Id as Id0_0_, team2_.Name as Name0_0_, team2_.ManagerId as ManagerId0_0_ FROM [SelfRef].[dbo].[Staff] this_ left outer join [SelfRef].[dbo].[Staff] team2_ on this_.Id=team2_.ManagerId The question is, should this be happening? did i do something wrong in the query or map? or is it a feature of the HHib im using (which is Version 2.1.0.4000)? many thanks in advance

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• TFS 2008 and Common libraries folder structure.

  - by Doerr

  TFS 2008 and Common Libraries I have created a Team Project called "Common Library" that will host code used in numerous different Team Projects throughout TFS. For sake of argument, lets say we have 2 distinct Librarys under the "Common Library" Team Projects, MailProject and LoggingProject. Other projects throughout TFS will be using the binary representation of these projects via branching and not the actual source code. What is the best way to set up the folder structure for this Team Project? Do I add the project to the "Common Library" and simply "include" the bin/release folder as part of the project? I have seen some examples of people creating a seperate "Deploy" folder. I assume this is synonamous with the bin/release folder?

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• session variable values are not being passed between pages

  - by ravi nankani

  hi, i am a little new to php and although i have managed to pass values of session variables before this piece of code is leaving me puzzled <form action="team_reg2.php" method="post" name="form1" class="cent" id="form1"> Team Registration "; print "member$i"; print "\n"; print "\n"; print "Please enter only id\n"; } ? now this will pass via post to team_reg2.php echo " please note your team id is 1 "; echo " your team members are : "; for($i=1;$i<=$num;$i++) { $name='mem'.$i; echo "$_POST[$name]"; } } else { $str="select * from $query where ("; for($i=1;$i<=$num;$i++) { $name='mem'.$i; $text="p_id='$_POST[$name]'"; if($i==1) $str=$str.$text; else $str=$str.' or '.$text; } $str=$str.')'; $query2=$str; echo "$str"; // echo "$query2"; $que=mysql_query($query2,$con) or die(mysql_error()); $num=mysql_num_rows($que); if($num!=0) { while($result=mysql_fetch_array($que)) { echo "$result[p_id] is already registered in team $result[t_id]"; } //include("reg_team.html"); } else if($num==0) { //echo $query; $query2="select max(t_id) from $query"; $que=mysql_query($query2,$con) or die(mysql_error()); //echo "$que"; $result=mysql_fetch_array($que); $max=$result['max(t_id)']; $max++; $num=$_SESSION['max_team']; for($i=1;$i<=$num;$i++) { $name='mem'.$i; if($_POST[$name]!="") { $query2="insert into $query values($max,'$_POST[$name]')"; $que=mysql_query($query2,$con); } } echo " please note your team id is $max "; echo " your team members are : "; for($i=1;$i<=$num;$i++) { $name='mem'.$i; echo "$_POST[$name]"; } } } ? i have done session_start(); at the beginning of the page itself. The problem is that echoing $_SESSION variables in second file is not printing anything. someone please explain me whats going on. thank you

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• How to loop through an array return from the Query of Mysql

  - by Jerry

  This might be easy for you guys but i could't get it. I have a php class that query the database and return the query result. I assign the result to an array and wants to use it on my main.php script. I have tried to use echo $var[0] or echo $var[1] but the output are 'array' instead of my value. Anyone can help me about this issue? Thanks a lot! My php class <?php class teamQuery { function teamQuery(){ } function getAllTeam(){ $connection = mysql_connect(DB_SERVER,DB_USER,DB_PASS); if (!$connection) { die("Database connection failed: " . mysql_error()); } $db_select = mysql_select_db(DB_NAME,$connection); if (!$db_select) { die("Database selection failed: " . mysql_error()); } $teamQuery=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM team", $connection); if (!$teamQuery){ die("database has errors: ".mysql_error()); } $ret = array(); while($row=mysql_fetch_array($teamQuery)){ $ret[]=$row; } mysql_free_result($teamQuery); return $ret; } } ?> My php on the main.php $getTeam=new teamQuery(); $team=$getTeam->getAllTeam(); //echo $team[0] or team[1] output 'array' string! // while($team){ // do something } can't work either // How to loop through the values?? Thanks!

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• ordering a collection by an association's property

  - by neiled

  class Person belongs_to :team class Status #has last_updated property class Team has_many :members, :class => "Person" Ok, so I have a Team class which has many People in it and each of those people has a status and each status has a last_updated property. I'm currently rendering a partial with a collection similar to: =render :partial => "user", :collection => current_user.team.members Now how do I go about sorting the collection by the last_updated property of the Status class? Thanks in advance! p.s. I've just written the ruby code from memory, it's just an example, it's not meant to compile but I hope you get the idea!

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• How to deal with 2 almost identical tables

  - by jgritty

  I have a table of baseball stats, something like this: CREATE TABLE batting_stats( ab INTEGER, pa INTEGER, r INTEGER, h INTEGER, hr INTEGER, rbi INTEGER, playerID INTEGER, FOREIGN KEY(playerID) REFERENCES player(playerID) ); But then I have a table of stats that are basically exactly the same, but for a team: CREATE TABLE team_batting_stats( ab INTEGER, pa INTEGER, r INTEGER, h INTEGER, hr INTEGER, rbi INTEGER, teamID INTEGER, FOREIGN KEY(teamID) REFERENCES team(teamID) ); My first instinct is to scrap the Foreign key and generalize the ID, but I still have a problem, I have these 2 tables, and they can't have overlapping IDs: CREATE TABLE player( playerID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, firstname TEXT, lastname TEXT, number INTEGER, teamID INTEGER, FOREIGN KEY(teamID) REFERENCES team(teamID) ); CREATE TABLE team( teamID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT, city TEXT, ); I feel like I'm overlooking something obvious that could solve this problem and reduce stats to a single table.

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• That Escalated Quickly

  - by Jesse Taber

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/GruffCode/archive/2014/05/17/that-escalated-quickly.aspxI have been working remotely out of my home for over 4 years now. All of my coworkers during that time have also worked remotely. Lots of folks have written about the challenges inherent in facilitating communication on remote teams and strategies for overcoming them. A popular theme around this topic is the notion of “escalating communication”. In this context “escalating” means taking a conversation from one mode of communication to a different, higher fidelity mode of communication. Here are the five modes of communication I use at work in order of increasing fidelity: Email – This is the “lowest fidelity” mode of communication that I use. I usually only check it a few times a day (and I’m trying to check it even less frequently than that) and I only keep items in my inbox if they represent an item I need to take action on that I haven’t tracked anywhere else. Forums / Message boards – Being a developer, I’ve gotten into the habit of having other people look over my code before it becomes part of the product I’m working on. These code reviews often happen in “real time” via screen sharing, but I also always have someone else give all of the changes another look using pull requests. A pull request takes my code and lets someone else see the changes I’ve made side-by-side with the existing code so they can see if I did anything dumb. Pull requests can facilitate a conversation about the code changes in an online-forum like style. Some teams I’ve worked on also liked using tools like Trello or Google Groups to have on-going conversations about a topic or task that was being worked on. Chat & Instant Messaging  - Chat and instant messaging are the real workhorses for communication on the remote teams I’ve been a part of. I know some teams that are co-located that also use it pretty extensively for quick messages that don’t warrant walking across the office to talk with someone but reqire more immediacy than an e-mail. For the purposes of this post I think it’s important to note that the terms “chat” and “instant messaging” might insinuate that the conversation is happening in real time, but that’s not always true. Modern chat and IM applications maintain a searchable history so people can easily see what might have been discussed while they were away from their computers. Voice, Video and Screen sharing – Everyone’s got a camera and microphone on their computers now, and there are an abundance of services that will let you use them to talk to other people who have cameras and microphones on their computers. I’m including screen sharing here as well because, in my experience, these discussions typically involve one or more people showing the other participants something that’s happening on their screen. Obviously, this mode of communication is much higher-fidelity than any of the ones listed above. Scheduled meetings are typically conducted using this mode of communication. In Person – No matter how great communication tools become, there’s no substitute for meeting with someone face-to-face. However, opportunities for this kind of communcation are few and far between when you work on a remote team. When a conversation gets escalated that usually means it moves up one or more positions on this list. A lot of people advocate jumping to #4 sooner than later. Like them, I used to believe that, if it was possible, organizing a call with voice and video was automatically better than any kind of text-based communication could be. Lately, however, I’m becoming less convinced that escalating is always the right move. Working Asynchronously Last year I attended a talk at our local code camp given by Drew Miller. Drew works at GitHub and was talking about how they use GitHub internally. Many of the folks at GitHub work remotely, so communication was one of the main themes in Drew’s talk. During the talk Drew used the phrase, “asynchronous communication” to describe their use of chat and pull request comments. That phrase stuck in my head because I hadn’t heard it before but I think it perfectly describes the way in which remote teams often need to communicate. You don’t always know when your co-workers are at their computers or what hours (if any) they are working that day. In order to work this way you need to assume that the person you’re talking to might not respond right away. You can’t always afford to wait until everyone required is online and available to join a voice call, so you need to use text-based, persistent forms of communication so that people can receive and respond to messages when they are available. Going back to my list from the beginning of this post for a second, I characterize items #1-3 as being “asynchronous” modes of communication while we could call items #4 and #5 “synchronous”. When communication gets escalated it’s almost always moving from an asynchronous mode of communication to a synchronous one. Now, to the point of this post: I’ve become increasingly reluctant to escalate from asynchronous to synchronous communication for two primary reasons: 1 – You can often find a higher fidelity way to convey your message without holding a synchronous conversation 2 - Asynchronous modes of communication are (usually) persistent and searchable. You Don’t Have to Broadcast Live Let’s start with the first reason I’ve listed. A lot of times you feel like you need to escalate to synchronous communication because you’re having difficulty describing something that you’re seeing in words. You want to provide the people you’re conversing with some audio-visual aids to help them understand the point that you’re trying to make and you think that getting on Skype and sharing your screen with them is the best way to do that. Firing up a screen sharing session does work well, but you can usually accomplish the same thing in an asynchronous manner. For example, you could take a screenshot and annotate it with some text and drawings to illustrate what it is you’re seeing. If a screenshot won’t work, taking a short screen recording while your narrate over it and posting the video to your forum or chat system along with a text-based description of what’s in the recording that can be searched for later can be a great way to effectively communicate with your team asynchronously. I Said What?!? Now for the second reason I listed: most asynchronous modes of communication provide a transcript of what was said and what decisions might have been made during the conversation. There have been many occasions where I’ve used the search feature of my team’s chat application to find a conversation that happened several weeks or months ago to remember what was decided. Unfortunately, I think the benefits associated with the persistence of communicating asynchronously often get overlooked when people decide to escalate to a in-person meeting or voice/video call. I’m becoming much more reluctant to suggest a voice or video call if I suspect that it might lead to codifying some kind of design decision because everyone involved is going to hang up the call and immediately forget what was decided. I recognize that you can record and archive these types of interactions, but without being able to search them the recordings aren’t terribly useful. When and How To Escalate I don’t mean to imply that communicating via voice/video or in person is never a good idea. I probably jump on a Skype call with a co-worker at least once a day to quickly hash something out or show them a bit of code that I’m working on. Also, meeting in person periodically is really important for remote teams. There’s no way around the fact that sometimes it’s easier to jump on a call and show someone my screen so they can see what I’m seeing. So when is it right to escalate? I think the simplest way to answer that is when the communication starts to feel painful. Everyone’s tolerance for that pain is different, but I think you need to let it hurt a little bit before jumping to synchronous communication. When you do escalate from asynchronous to synchronous communication, there are a couple of things you can do to maximize the effectiveness of the communication: Takes notes – This is huge and yet I’ve found that a lot of teams don’t do this. If you’re holding a meeting with  > 2 people you should have someone taking notes. Taking notes while participating in a meeting can be difficult but there are a few strategies to deal with this challenge that probably deserve a short post of their own. After the meeting, make sure the notes are posted to a place where all concerned parties (including those that might not have attended the meeting) can review and search them. Persist decisions made ASAP – If any decisions were made during the meeting, persist those decisions to a searchable medium as soon as possible following the conversation. All the teams I’ve worked on used a web-based system for tracking the on-going work and a backlog of work to be done in the future. I always try to make sure that all of the cards/stories/tasks/whatever in these systems always reflect the latest decisions that were made as the work was being planned and executed. If held a quick call with your team lead and decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to build real-time validation into that new UI you were working on, go and codify that decision in the story associated with that work immediately after you hang up. Even better, write it up in the story while you are both still on the phone. That way when the folks from your QA team pick up the story to test a few days later they’ll know why the real-time validation isn’t there without having to invoke yet another conversation about the work. Communicating Well is Hard At this point you might be thinking that communicating asynchronously is more difficult than having a live conversation. You’re right: it is more difficult. In order to communicate effectively this way you need to very carefully think about the message that you’re trying to convey and craft it in a way that’s easy for your audience to understand. This is almost always harder than just talking through a problem in real time with someone; this is why escalating communication is such a popular idea. Why wouldn’t we want to do the thing that’s easier? Easier isn’t always better. If you and your team can get in the habit of communicating effectively in an asynchronous manner you’ll find that, over time, all of your communications get less painful because you don’t need to re-iterate previously made points over and over again. If you communicate right the first time, you often don’t need to rehash old conversations because you can go back and find the decisions that were made laid out in plain language. You’ll also find that you get better at doing things like writing useful comments in your code, creating written documentation about how the feature that you just built works, or persuading your team to do things in a certain way.

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• Convert ddply {plyr} to Oracle R Enterprise, or use with Embedded R Execution

  - by Mark Hornick

  The plyr package contains a set of tools for partitioning a problem into smaller sub-problems that can be more easily processed. One function within {plyr} is ddply, which allows you to specify subsets of a data.frame and then apply a function to each subset. The result is gathered into a single data.frame. Such a capability is very convenient. The function ddply also has a parallel option that if TRUE, will apply the function in parallel, using the backend provided by foreach. This type of functionality is available through Oracle R Enterprise using the ore.groupApply function. In this blog post, we show a few examples from Sean Anderson's "A quick introduction to plyr" to illustrate the correpsonding functionality using ore.groupApply. To get started, we'll create a demo data set and load the plyr package. set.seed(1) d <- data.frame(year = rep(2000:2014, each = 3),         count = round(runif(45, 0, 20))) dim(d) library(plyr) This first example takes the data frame, partitions it by year, and calculates the coefficient of variation of the count, returning a data frame. # Example 1 res <- ddply(d, "year", function(x) {   mean.count <- mean(x$count)   sd.count <- sd(x$count)   cv <- sd.count/mean.count   data.frame(cv.count = cv)   }) To illustrate the equivalent functionality in Oracle R Enterprise, using embedded R execution, we use the ore.groupApply function on the same data, but pushed to the database, creating an ore.frame. The function ore.push creates a temporary table in the database, returning a proxy object, the ore.frame. D <- ore.push(d) res <- ore.groupApply (D, D$year, function(x) {   mean.count <- mean(x$count)   sd.count <- sd(x$count)   cv <- sd.count/mean.count   data.frame(year=x$year[1], cv.count = cv)   }, FUN.VALUE=data.frame(year=1, cv.count=1)) You'll notice the similarities in the first three arguments. With ore.groupApply, we augment the function to return the specific data.frame we want. We also specify the argument FUN.VALUE, which describes the resulting data.frame. From our previous blog posts, you may recall that by default, ore.groupApply returns an ore.list containing the results of each function invocation. To get a data.frame, we specify the structure of the result. The results in both cases are the same, however the ore.groupApply result is an ore.frame. In this case the data stays in the database until it's actually required. This can result in significant memory and time savings whe data is large. R> class(res) [1] "ore.frame" attr(,"package") [1] "OREbase" R> head(res)    year cv.count 1 2000 0.3984848 2 2001 0.6062178 3 2002 0.2309401 4 2003 0.5773503 5 2004 0.3069680 6 2005 0.3431743 To make the ore.groupApply execute in parallel, you can specify the argument parallel with either TRUE, to use default database parallelism, or to a specific number, which serves as a hint to the database as to how many parallel R engines should be used. The next ddply example uses the summarise function, which creates a new data.frame. In ore.groupApply, the year column is passed in with the data. Since no automatic creation of columns takes place, we explicitly set the year column in the data.frame result to the value of the first row, since all rows received by the function have the same year. # Example 2 ddply(d, "year", summarise, mean.count = mean(count)) res <- ore.groupApply (D, D$year, function(x) {   mean.count <- mean(x$count)   data.frame(year=x$year[1], mean.count = mean.count)   }, FUN.VALUE=data.frame(year=1, mean.count=1)) R> head(res)    year mean.count 1 2000 7.666667 2 2001 13.333333 3 2002 15.000000 4 2003 3.000000 5 2004 12.333333 6 2005 14.666667 Example 3 uses the transform function with ddply, which modifies the existing data.frame. With ore.groupApply, we again construct the data.frame explicilty, which is returned as an ore.frame. # Example 3 ddply(d, "year", transform, total.count = sum(count)) res <- ore.groupApply (D, D$year, function(x) {   total.count <- sum(x$count)   data.frame(year=x$year[1], count=x$count, total.count = total.count)   }, FUN.VALUE=data.frame(year=1, count=1, total.count=1)) > head(res)    year count total.count 1 2000 5 23 2 2000 7 23 3 2000 11 23 4 2001 18 40 5 2001 4 40 6 2001 18 40 In Example 4, the mutate function with ddply enables you to define new columns that build on columns just defined. Since the construction of the data.frame using ore.groupApply is explicit, you always have complete control over when and how to use columns. # Example 4 ddply(d, "year", mutate, mu = mean(count), sigma = sd(count),       cv = sigma/mu) res <- ore.groupApply (D, D$year, function(x) {   mu <- mean(x$count)   sigma <- sd(x$count)   cv <- sigma/mu   data.frame(year=x$year[1], count=x$count, mu=mu, sigma=sigma, cv=cv)   }, FUN.VALUE=data.frame(year=1, count=1, mu=1,sigma=1,cv=1)) R> head(res)    year count mu sigma cv 1 2000 5 7.666667 3.055050 0.3984848 2 2000 7 7.666667 3.055050 0.3984848 3 2000 11 7.666667 3.055050 0.3984848 4 2001 18 13.333333 8.082904 0.6062178 5 2001 4 13.333333 8.082904 0.6062178 6 2001 18 13.333333 8.082904 0.6062178 In Example 5, ddply is used to partition data on multiple columns before constructing the result. Realizing this with ore.groupApply involves creating an index column out of the concatenation of the columns used for partitioning. This example also allows us to illustrate using the ORE transparency layer to subset the data. # Example 5 baseball.dat <- subset(baseball, year > 2000) # data from the plyr package x <- ddply(baseball.dat, c("year", "team"), summarize,            homeruns = sum(hr)) We first push the data set to the database to get an ore.frame. We then add the composite column and perform the subset, using the transparency layer. Since the results from database execution are unordered, we will explicitly sort these results and view the first 6 rows. BB.DAT <- ore.push(baseball) BB.DAT$index <- with(BB.DAT, paste(year, team, sep="+")) BB.DAT2 <- subset(BB.DAT, year > 2000) X <- ore.groupApply (BB.DAT2, BB.DAT2$index, function(x) {   data.frame(year=x$year[1], team=x$team[1], homeruns=sum(x$hr))   }, FUN.VALUE=data.frame(year=1, team="A", homeruns=1), parallel=FALSE) res <- ore.sort(X, by=c("year","team")) R> head(res)    year team homeruns 1 2001 ANA 4 2 2001 ARI 155 3 2001 ATL 63 4 2001 BAL 58 5 2001 BOS 77 6 2001 CHA 63 Our next example is derived from the ggplot function documentation. This illustrates the use of ddply within using the ggplot2 package. We first create a data.frame with demo data and use ddply to create some statistics for each group (gp). We then use ggplot to produce the graph. We can take this same code, push the data.frame df to the database and invoke this on the database server. The graph will be returned to the client window, as depicted below. # Example 6 with ggplot2 library(ggplot2) df <- data.frame(gp = factor(rep(letters[1:3], each = 10)),                  y = rnorm(30)) # Compute sample mean and standard deviation in each group library(plyr) ds <- ddply(df, .(gp), summarise, mean = mean(y), sd = sd(y)) # Set up a skeleton ggplot object and add layers: ggplot() +   geom_point(data = df, aes(x = gp, y = y)) +   geom_point(data = ds, aes(x = gp, y = mean),              colour = 'red', size = 3) +   geom_errorbar(data = ds, aes(x = gp, y = mean,                                ymin = mean - sd, ymax = mean + sd),              colour = 'red', width = 0.4) DF <- ore.push(df) ore.tableApply(DF, function(df) {   library(ggplot2)   library(plyr)   ds <- ddply(df, .(gp), summarise, mean = mean(y), sd = sd(y))   ggplot() +     geom_point(data = df, aes(x = gp, y = y)) +     geom_point(data = ds, aes(x = gp, y = mean),                colour = 'red', size = 3) +     geom_errorbar(data = ds, aes(x = gp, y = mean,                                  ymin = mean - sd, ymax = mean + sd),                   colour = 'red', width = 0.4) }) But let's take this one step further. Suppose we wanted to produce multiple graphs, partitioned on some index column. We replicate the data three times and add some noise to the y values, just to make the graphs a little different. We also create an index column to form our three partitions. Note that we've also specified that this should be executed in parallel, allowing Oracle Database to control and manage the server-side R engines. The result of ore.groupApply is an ore.list that contains the three graphs. Each graph can be viewed by printing the list element. df2 <- rbind(df,df,df) df2$y <- df2$y + rnorm(nrow(df2)) df2$index <- c(rep(1,300), rep(2,300), rep(3,300)) DF2 <- ore.push(df2) res <- ore.groupApply(DF2, DF2$index, function(df) {   df <- df[,1:2]   library(ggplot2)   library(plyr)   ds <- ddply(df, .(gp), summarise, mean = mean(y), sd = sd(y))   ggplot() +     geom_point(data = df, aes(x = gp, y = y)) +     geom_point(data = ds, aes(x = gp, y = mean),                colour = 'red', size = 3) +     geom_errorbar(data = ds, aes(x = gp, y = mean,                                  ymin = mean - sd, ymax = mean + sd),                   colour = 'red', width = 0.4)   }, parallel=TRUE) res[[1]] res[[2]] res[[3]] To recap, we've illustrated how various uses of ddply from the plyr package can be realized in ore.groupApply, which affords the user explicit control over the contents of the data.frame result in a straightforward manner. We've also highlighted how ddply can be used within an ore.groupApply call.

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• Agile Testing Days 2012 – Day 2 – Learn through disagreement

  - by Chris George

  I think I was in the right place! During Day 1 I kept on reading tweets about Lean Coffee that has happened earlier that morning. It intrigued me and I figured in for a penny in for a pound, and set my alarm for 6:45am. Following the award night the night before, it was _really_ hard getting up when it went off, but I did and after a very early breakfast, set off for the 10 min walk to the Dorint. With Lean Coffee due to start at 07:30, I arrived at the hotel and made my way to one of the hotel bars. I soon realised I was in the right place as although the bar was empty, there was a table with post-it’s and pens! This MUST be the place! The premise of Lean Coffee is to have several small timeboxed discussions. Everyone writes down what they would like to discuss on post-its that are then briefly explained and submitted to the pile. Once everyone is done, the group dot-votes on the topics. The topics are then sorted by the dot vote counts and the discussions begin. Each discussion had 8 mins to start with, which meant it prevented the discussions getting off topic too much. After the time elapsed, the group had a vote whether to extend the discussion by a further 4 mins or move on. Several discussion were had around training, soft skills etc. The conversations were really interesting and there were quite a few good ideas. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience, certainly worth the early start! Make Melly Happy Following Lean Coffee was real coffee, and much needed that was! The first keynote of the day was “Let’s help Melly (Changing Work into Life)”by Jurgen Appelo. Draw lines to track happiness This was a very interesting presentation, and set the day nicely. The theme to the keynote was projects are about the people, more-so than the actual tasks. So he started by showing a photo of an employee ‘Melly’ who looked happy enough. He then stated that she looked happy but actually hated her job. In fact 50% of Americans hate their jobs. He went on to say that the world over 50% of people hate Americans their jobs. Jurgen talked about many ways to reduce the feedback cycle, not only of the project, but of the people management. Ideas such as Happiness doors, happiness tracking (drawing lines on a wall indicating your happiness for that day), kudo boxes (to compliment a colleague for good work). All of these (and more) ideas stimulate conversation amongst the team, lead to early detection of issues and investigation of solutions. I’ve massively simplified Jurgen’s keynote and have certainly not done it justice, so I will post a link to the video once it’s available. Following more coffee, the next talk was “How releasing faster changes testing” by Alexander Schwartz. This is a topic very close to our hearts at the moment, so I was eager to find out any juicy morsels that could help us achieve more frequent releases, and Alex did not disappoint. He started off by confirming something that I have been a firm believer in for a number of years now; adding more people can do more harm than good when trying to release. This is for a number of reasons, but just adding new people to a team at such a critical time can be more of a drain on resources than they add. The alternative is to have the whole team have shared responsibility for faster delivery. So the whole team is responsible for quality and testing. Obviously you will have the test engineers on the project who have the specialist skills, but there is no reason that the entire team cannot do exploratory testing on the product. This links nicely with the Developer Exploratory testing presented by Sigge on Day 1, and certainly something that my team are really striving towards. Focus on cycle time, so what can be done to reduce the time between dev cycles, release cycles. What’s stops a release, what delays a release? all good solid questions that can be answered. Alex suggested that perhaps the product doesn’t need to be fully tested. Doing less testing will reduce the cycle time therefore get the release out faster. He suggested a risk-based approach to planning what testing needs to happen. Reducing testing could have an impact on revenue if it causes harm to customers, so test the ‘right stuff’! Determine a set of tests that are ‘face saving’ or ‘smoke’ tests. These tests cover the core functionality of the product and aim to prevent major embarrassment if these areas were to fail! Amongst many other very good points, Alex suggested that a good approach would be to release after every new feature is added. So do a bit of work -> release, do some more work -> release. By releasing small increments of work, the impact on the customer of bugs being introduced is reduced. Red Pill, Blue Pill The second keynote of the day was “Adaptation and improvisation – but your weakness is not your technique” by Markus Gartner and proved to be another very good presentation. It started off quoting lines from the Matrix which relate to adapting, improvising, realisation and mastery. It has alot of nerds in the room smiling! Markus went on to explain how through deliberate practice ( and a lot of it!) you can achieve mastery, but then you never stop learning. Through methods such as code retreats, testing dojos, workshops you can continually improve and learn. The code retreat idea was one that interested me. It involved pairing to write an automated test for, say, 45 mins, they deleting all the code, finding a different partner and writing the same test again! This is another keynote where the video will speak louder than anything I can write here! Markus did elaborate on something that Lisa and Janet had touched on yesterday whilst busting the myth that “Testers Must Code”. Whilst it is true that to be a tester, you don’t need to code, it is becoming more common that there is this crossover happening where more testers are coding and more programmers are testing. Markus made a special distinction between programmers and developers as testers develop tests code so this helped to make that clear. “Extending Continuous Integration and TDD with Continuous Testing” by Jason Ayers was my next talk after lunch. We already do CI and a bit of TDD on my project team so I was interested to see what this continuous testing thing was all about and whether it would actually work for us. At the start of the presentation I was of the opinion that it just would not work for us because our tests are too slow, and that would be the case for many people. Jason started off by setting the scene and saying that those doing TDD spend between 10-15% of their time waiting for tests to run. This can be reduced by testing less often, reducing the test time but this then increases the risk of introduced bugs not being spotted quickly. Therefore, in comes Continuous Testing (CT). CT systems run your unit tests whenever you save some code and runs them in the background so you can continue working. This is a really nice idea, but to do this, your tests must be fast, independent and reliable. The latter two should be the case anyway, and the first is ideal, but hard! Jason makes several suggestions to make tests fast. Firstly keep the scope of the test small, secondly spin off any expensive tests into a suite which is run, perhaps, overnight or outside of the CT system at any rate. So this started to change my mind, perhaps we could re-engineer our tests, and continuously run the quick ones to give an element of coverage. This talk was very interesting and I’ve already tried a couple of the tools mentioned on our product (Mighty Moose and NCrunch). Sadly due to the way our solution is built, it currently doesn’t work, but we will look at whether we can make this work because this has the potential to be a mini-game-changer for us. Using the wrong data Gojko’s Hierarchy of Quality The final keynote of the day was “Reinventing software quality” by Gojko Adzic. He opened the talk with the statement “We’ve got quality wrong because we are using the wrong data”! Gojko then went on to explain that we should judge a bug by whether the customer cares about it, not by whether we think it’s important. Why spend time fixing issues that the customer just wouldn’t care about and releasing months later because of this? Surely it’s better to release now and get customer feedback? This was another reference to the idea of how it’s better to build the right thing wrong than the wrong thing right. Get feedback early to make sure you’re making the right thing. Gojko then showed something which was very analogous to Maslow’s heirachy of needs. Successful – does it contribute to the business? Useful – does it do what the user wants Usable – does it do what it’s supposed to without breaking Performant/Secure – is it secure/is the performance acceptable Deployable Functionally ok – can it be deployed without breaking? He then explained that User Stories should focus on change. In other words they should focus on the users needs, not the users process. Describe what the change will be, how that change will happen then measure it! Networking and Beer Following the day’s closing keynote, there were drinks and nibble for the ‘Networking’ evening. This was a great opportunity to talk to people. I find approaching strangers very uncomfortable but once again, when in Rome! Pete Walen and I had a long conversation about only fixing issues that the customer cares about versus fixing issues that make you proud of your software! Without saying much, and asking the right questions, Pete made me re-evaluate my thoughts on the matter. Clever, very clever!  Oh and he ‘bought’ me a beer! My Takeaway Triple from Day 2: release small and release often to minimize issues creeping in and get faster feedback from ‘the real world’ Focus on issues that the customers care about, not what we think is important It’s okay to disagree with someone, even if they are well respected agile testing gurus, that’s how discussion and learning happens!  

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• Automatically create bug resolution task using the TFS 2010 API

  - by Bob Hardister

  My customer requires bug resolution to be approved and tracked.  To minimize the overhead for developers I implemented a TFS 2010 server-side plug-in to automatically create a child resolution task for the bug when the “CCB” field is set to approved. The CCB field is a custom field.  I also added the story points field to the bug WIT for sizing purposes. Redundant tasks will not be created unless the bug title is changed or the prior task is closed. The program writes an audit trail to a log file visible in the TFS Admin Console Log view. Here’s the code. BugAutoTask.cs /* SPECIFICATION * When the CCB field on the bug is set to approved, create a child task where the task: * name = Resolve bug [ID] - [Title of bug] * assigned to = same as assigned to field on the bug * same area path * same iteration path * activity = Bug Resolution * original estimate = bug points * * The source code is used to build a dll (Ows.TeamFoundation.BugAutoTaskCreation.PlugIns.dll), * which needs to be copied to * C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Application Tier\Web Services\bin\Plugins * on ALL TFS application-tier servers. * * Author: Bob Hardister. */ using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.IO; using System.Xml; using System.Text; using System.Diagnostics; using System.Linq; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client; using System.Collections; namespace BugAutoTaskCreation { public class BugAutoTask : ISubscriber { public EventNotificationStatus ProcessEvent(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext, NotificationType notificationType, object notificationEventArgs, out int statusCode, out string statusMessage, out ExceptionPropertyCollection properties) { statusCode = 0; properties = null; statusMessage = String.Empty; // Error message for for tracing last code executed and optional fields string lastStep = "No field values found or set "; try { if ((notificationType == NotificationType.Notification) && (notificationEventArgs.GetType() == typeof(WorkItemChangedEvent))) { WorkItemChangedEvent workItemChange = (WorkItemChangedEvent)notificationEventArgs; // see ConnectToTFS() method below to select which TFS instance/collection // to connect to TfsTeamProjectCollection tfs = ConnectToTFS(); WorkItemStore wiStore = tfs.GetService<WorkItemStore>(); lastStep = lastStep + ": connection to TFS successful "; // Get the work item that was just changed by the user. WorkItem witem = wiStore.GetWorkItem(workItemChange.CoreFields.IntegerFields[0].NewValue); lastStep = lastStep + ": retrieved changed work item, ID:" + witem.Id + " "; // Filter for Bug work items only if (witem.Type.Name == "Bug") { // DEBUG lastStep = lastStep + ": changed work item is a bug "; // Filter for CCB (i.e. Baseline Status) field set to approved only bool BaselineStatusChange = false; if (workItemChange.ChangedFields != null) { ProcessBugRevision(ref lastStep, workItemChange, wiStore, ref witem, ref BaselineStatusChange); } } } } catch (Exception e) { Trace.WriteLine(e.Message); Logger log = new Logger(); log.WriteLineToLog(MsgLevel.Error, "Application error: " + lastStep + " - " + e.Message + " - " + e.InnerException); } statusCode = 1; statusMessage = "Bug Auto Task Evaluation Completed"; properties = null; return EventNotificationStatus.ActionApproved; } // PRIVATE METHODS private static void ProcessBugRevision(ref string lastStep, WorkItemChangedEvent workItemChange, WorkItemStore wiStore, ref WorkItem witem, ref bool BaselineStatusChange) { foreach (StringField field in workItemChange.ChangedFields.StringFields) { // DEBUG lastStep = lastStep + ": last changed field is - " + field.Name + " "; if (field.Name == "Baseline Status") { lastStep = lastStep + ": retrieved bug baseline status field value, bug ID:" + witem.Id + " "; BaselineStatusChange = (field.NewValue != field.OldValue); if ((BaselineStatusChange) && (field.NewValue == "Approved")) { // Instanciate logger Logger log = new Logger(); // *** Create resolution task for this bug *** // ******************************************* // Get the team project and selected field values of the bug work item Project teamProject = witem.Project; int bugID = witem.Id; string bugTitle = witem.Fields["System.Title"].Value.ToString(); string bugAssignedTo = witem.Fields["System.AssignedTo"].Value.ToString(); string bugAreaPath = witem.Fields["System.AreaPath"].Value.ToString(); string bugIterationPath = witem.Fields["System.IterationPath"].Value.ToString(); string bugChangedBy = witem.Fields["System.ChangedBy"].OriginalValue.ToString(); string bugTeamProject = witem.Project.Name; lastStep = lastStep + ": all mandatory bug field values found "; // Optional fields Field bugPoints = witem.Fields["Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.StoryPoints"]; if (bugPoints.Value != null) { lastStep = lastStep + ": all mandatory and optional bug field values found "; } // Initialize child resolution task title string childTaskTitle = "Resolve bug " + bugID + " - " + bugTitle; // At this point I can check if a resolution task (of the same name) // for the bug already exist // If so, do not create a new resolution task bool createResolutionTask = true; WorkItem parentBug = wiStore.GetWorkItem(bugID); WorkItemLinkCollection links = parentBug.WorkItemLinks; foreach (WorkItemLink wil in links) { if (wil.LinkTypeEnd.Name == "Child") { WorkItem childTask = wiStore.GetWorkItem(wil.TargetId); if ((childTask.Title == childTaskTitle) && (childTask.State != "Closed")) { createResolutionTask = false; log.WriteLineToLog(MsgLevel.Info, "Team project " + bugTeamProject + ": " + bugChangedBy + " - set the CCB field to \"Approved\" for bug, ID: " + bugID + ". Task not created as open one of the same name already exist, ID:" + childTask.Id); } } } if (createResolutionTask) { // Define the work item type of the new work item WorkItemTypeCollection workItemTypes = wiStore.Projects[teamProject.Name].WorkItemTypes; WorkItemType wiType = workItemTypes["Task"]; // Setup the new task and assign field values witem = new WorkItem(wiType); witem.Fields["System.Title"].Value = "Resolve bug " + bugID + " - " + bugTitle; witem.Fields["System.AssignedTo"].Value = bugAssignedTo; witem.Fields["System.AreaPath"].Value = bugAreaPath; witem.Fields["System.IterationPath"].Value = bugIterationPath; witem.Fields["Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Activity"].Value = "Bug Resolution"; lastStep = lastStep + ": all mandatory task field values set "; // Optional fields if (bugPoints.Value != null) { witem.Fields["Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.OriginalEstimate"].Value = bugPoints.Value; lastStep = lastStep + ": all mandatory and optional task field values set "; } // Check for validation errors before saving the new task and linking it to the bug ArrayList validationErrors = witem.Validate(); if (validationErrors.Count == 0) { witem.Save(); // Link the new task (child) to the bug (parent) var linkType = wiStore.WorkItemLinkTypes[CoreLinkTypeReferenceNames.Hierarchy]; // Fetch the work items to be linked var parentWorkItem = wiStore.GetWorkItem(bugID); int taskID = witem.Id; var childWorkItem = wiStore.GetWorkItem(taskID); // Add a new link to the parent relating the child and save it parentWorkItem.Links.Add(new WorkItemLink(linkType.ForwardEnd, childWorkItem.Id)); parentWorkItem.Save(); log.WriteLineToLog(MsgLevel.Info, "Team project " + bugTeamProject + ": " + bugChangedBy + " - set the CCB field to \"Approved\" for bug, ID:" + bugID + ", which automatically created child resolution task, ID:" + taskID); } else { log.WriteLineToLog(MsgLevel.Error, "Error in creating bug resolution child task for bug ID:" + bugID); foreach (Field taskField in validationErrors) { log.WriteLineToLog(MsgLevel.Error, " - Validation Error in task field: " + taskField.ReferenceName); } } } } } } } private TfsTeamProjectCollection ConnectToTFS() { // Connect to TFS string tfsUri = string.Empty; // Production TFS instance production collection tfsUri = @"xxxx"; // Production TFS instance admin collection //tfsUri = @"xxxxx"; // Local TFS testing instance default collection //tfsUri = @"xxxxx"; TfsTeamProjectCollection tfs = new TfsTeamProjectCollection(new System.Uri(tfsUri)); tfs.EnsureAuthenticated(); return tfs; } // HELPERS public string Name { get { return "Bug Auto Task Creation Event Handler"; } } public SubscriberPriority Priority { get { return SubscriberPriority.Normal; } } public enum MsgLevel { Info, Warning, Error }; public Type[] SubscribedTypes() { return new Type[1] { typeof(WorkItemChangedEvent) }; } } } Logger.cs using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.IO; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Windows.Forms; namespace BugAutoTaskCreation { class Logger { // fields private string _ApplicationDirectory = @"C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Team Foundation\Server Configuration\Logs"; private string _LogFileName = @"\CFG_ACCT_AT_OWS_BugAutoTaskCreation.log"; private string _LogFile; private string _LogTimestamp = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss"); private string _MsgLevelText = string.Empty; // default constructor public Logger() { // check for a prior log file FileInfo logFile = new FileInfo(_ApplicationDirectory + _LogFileName); if (!logFile.Exists) { CreateNewLogFile(ref logFile); } } // properties public string ApplicationDirectory { get { return _ApplicationDirectory; } set { _ApplicationDirectory = value; } } public string LogFile { get { _LogFile = _ApplicationDirectory + _LogFileName; return _LogFile; } set { _LogFile = value; } } // PUBLIC METHODS public void WriteLineToLog(BugAutoTask.MsgLevel msgLevel, string logRecord) { try { // set msgLevel text if (msgLevel == BugAutoTask.MsgLevel.Info) { _MsgLevelText = "[Info @" + MsgTimeStamp() + "] "; } else if (msgLevel == BugAutoTask.MsgLevel.Warning) { _MsgLevelText = "[Warning @" + MsgTimeStamp() + "] "; } else if (msgLevel == BugAutoTask.MsgLevel.Error) { _MsgLevelText = "[Error @" + MsgTimeStamp() + "] "; } else { _MsgLevelText = "[Error: unsupported message level @" + MsgTimeStamp() + "] "; } // write a line to the log file StreamWriter logFile = new StreamWriter(_ApplicationDirectory + _LogFileName, true); logFile.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + logRecord); logFile.Close(); } catch (Exception) { throw; } } // PRIVATE METHODS private void CreateNewLogFile(ref FileInfo logFile) { try { string logFilePath = logFile.FullName; // write the log file header _MsgLevelText = "[Info @" + MsgTimeStamp() + "] "; string cpu = string.Empty; if (Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem) { cpu = " (x64)"; } StreamWriter newLog = new StreamWriter(logFilePath, false); newLog.Flush(); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "===================================================================="); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "Team Foundation Server Administration Log"); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "Version : " + "1.0.0 Author: Bob Hardister"); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "DateTime : " + _LogTimestamp); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "Type : " + "OWS Custom TFS API Plug-in"); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "Activity : " + "Bug Auto Task Creation for CCB Approved Bugs"); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "Area : " + "Build Explorer"); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "Assembly : " + "Ows.TeamFoundation.BugAutoTaskCreation.PlugIns.dll"); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "Location : " + @"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Application Tier\Web Services\bin\Plugins"); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "User : " + Environment.UserDomainName + @"\" + Environment.UserName); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "Machine : " + Environment.MachineName); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "System : " + Environment.OSVersion + cpu); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText + "===================================================================="); newLog.WriteLine(_MsgLevelText); newLog.Close(); } catch (Exception) { throw; } } private string MsgTimeStamp() { string msgTimestamp = string.Empty; return msgTimestamp = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss:fff"); } } }

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• SSMS Tools Pack 2.5.3 is out with bug fixes and improved licensing

  - by Mladen Prajdic

  Licensing for SSMS Tools Pack 2.5 has been quite a hit and I received some awesome feedback. The version 2.5.3 contains a few bug fixes and desired licensing improvements. Changes include more licensing options, prices in Euros because of book keeping reasons (don't you just love those :)) and generally easier purchase and licensing process for users. Licensing now offers four options: Per machine license. (€25) Perfect if you do all your work from a single machine. Plus one OS reinstall activation. Personal license (€75) Up to 4 machine activations. Plus 2 OS reinstall activations and any number of virtual machine activations. Team license (€240) Up to 10 machine activations. Plus 4 OS reinstall activations and any number of virtual machine activations. Enterprise license (€350+) For more than 10 machine activations any number of virtual machine activations. 30 days license. Time based demo license bound to a machine. You can view all the details on the Licensing page . If you want to receive email notifications when new version of SSMS Tools Pack is out you can do that on the Main page or on the Download page . Version 2.7 is expected in the first half of February and won't support SSMS 2005 and 2005 Express anymore. Enjoy it!

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• Microsoft, please help me diagnose TFS Administration permission issues!

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  I recently had a fun time trying to debug a permission issue I ran into using TFS 2010’s TfsConfig. Update 5th March 2010 – In its style of true excellence my company has added rant to its “Suggestions for Better TFS”. <rant> I was trying to run the TfsConfig tool and I kept getting the message: “TF55038: You don't have sufficient privileges to run this tool. Contact your Team Foundation system administrator." This message made me think that it was something to do with the Install permissions as it is always recommended to use a single account to do every install of TFS. I did not install the original TFS on our network and my account was not used to do the TFS2010 install. But I did do the upgrade from 2010 beta 2 to 2010 RC with my current account. So I proceeded to do some checking: Am I in the administrators group on the server? Figure: Yes, I am in the administrators group on the server Am I in the Administration Console users list? Figure: Yes, I am in the Administration Console users list Have I reapplied the permissions in the Administration Console users list ticking all the options? Figure: Make sure you check all of the boxed if you want to have all the admin options Figure: Yes, I have made sure that all my options are correct. Am I in the Team Foundation administrators group? Figure: Yes, I am in the Team Foundation Administrators group Is my account explicitly SysAdmin on the Database server? Figure: Yes, I do have explicit SysAdmin on the database Can you guess what the problem was? The command line window was not running as the administrator! As with most other applications there should be an explicit error message that states: "You are not currently running in administrator mode; please restart the command line with elevated privileges!" This would have saved me 30 minutes, although I agree that I should change my name to Muppet and just be done with it. </rant>   Technorati Tags: Visual Studio ALM,Administration,Team Foundation Server Admin Console,TFS Admin Console

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• SharePoint – The Most Important Feature

  - by Bil Simser

  Watching twitter and doing a search for SharePoint and you see a lot (almost one every few minutes) of tweets about the top 10 new features in SharePoint. What answer do you get when you ask the question, “What’s the most important feature in SharePoint?”. Chances are the answer will vary. Some will say it’s the collaboration aspect, others might say it’s the new ribbon interface, multi-item editing, external content types, faceted search, large list support, document versioning, Silverlight, etc. The list goes on. However I think most people might be missing the most important feature that’s sitting right under their noses all this time. The most important feature of SharePoint? It’s called User Empowerment. Huh? What? Is that something I find in the Site Actions menu? Nope. It’s something that’s always been there in SharePoint, you just need to get the word out and support it. How many times have you had a team ask you for a team site (assuming you had SharePoint up and running). Or to create them a contact list. Or how long have you employed that guy in the corner who’s been copying and pasting content from Corporate Communications into the web from a Word document. Let’s stop the insanity. It doesn’t have to be this way. SharePoint’s strongest feature isn’t anything you can find in the Site Settings screen or Central Admin. It’s all about empowering your users and letting them take control of their content. After all, SharePoint really is a bunch of tools to allow users to collaborate on content isn’t it? So why are you stepping in as IT and helping the user every moment along the way. It’s like having to ask users to fill out a help desk ticket or call up the Windows team to create a folder on their desktop or rearrange their Start menu. This isn’t something IT should be spending their time doing nor is it something the users should be burdened with having to wait until their friendly neighborhood tech-guy (or gal) shows up to help them sort the icons on their desktop. SharePoint IS all about empowerment. Site owners can create whatever lists and libraries they need for their team, and if the template isn’t there they can always turn to my friend and yours, the Custom List. From that can spew forth approval tracking systems, new hire checklists, and server inventory. You’re only limited by your imagination and needs. Users should be able to create new sites as they need. Want a blog to let everyone know what your team is up to? Go create one, here’s how. What’s a blog you ask? Here’s what it is and why you would use one. SharePoint is the shift in the balance of power and you need, and an IT group, let go of certain responsibilities and let your users run with the tools. A power user who knows how to create sites and what features are available to them can help a team go from the forming stage to the storming stage overnight. Again, this all hinges on you as an IT organization and what you can and empower your users with as far as features go. Running with tools is great if you know how to use them, running with scissors not recommended unless you enjoy trips to the hospital. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility so don’t go out on Monday and send out a memo to the organization saying “This Bil guy says you peeps can do anything so here it is, knock yourself out” (for one, they’ll have *no* idea who this Bil guy is). This advice comes with the task of getting your users ready for empowerment. Whether it’s through some kind of internal training sessions, in-house documentation; videos; blog posts; on how to accomplish things in SharePoint, or full blown one-on-one sit downs with teams or individuals to help them through their problems. The work is up to you. Helping them along also should be part of your governance (you do have one don’t you?). Just because you have InfoPath client deployed with your Office suite, doesn’t mean users should just start publishing forms all over your SharePoint farm. There should be some governance behind that in what you’ll support and what is possible. The other caveat to all this is that SharePoint is not everything for everyone. It can’t cook you breakfast and impregnate your cat or solve world hunger. It also isn’t suited for every IT solution out there. It’s a horrible source control system (even though some people try to use it as such) and really can’t do financials worth a darn. Again, governance is key here and part of that governance and your responsibility in setting up and unleashing SharePoint into your organization is to provide users guidance on what should be in SharePoint and (more importantly) what should not be in SharePoint. There are boundaries you have to set where you don’t want your end users going as they might be treading into trouble. Again, this is up to you to set these constraints and help users understand why these pylons are there. If someone understands why they can’t do something they might have a better understanding and respect for those that put them there in the first place. Of course you’ll always have the power-users who want to go skiing down dead mans curve so this doesn’t work for everyone, but you can catch the majority of the newbs who don’t wander aimlessly off the beaten path. At the end of the day when all things are going swimmingly your end users should be empowered to solve the needs they have on a day to day basis and not having to keep bugging the IT department to help them create a view to show only approved documents. I wouldn’t go as far as business users building out full blown solutions and handing the keys to SharePoint Designer or (worse) Visual Studio to power-users might not be a path you want to go down but you also don’t have to lock up the SharePoint system in a tight box where users can’t use what’s there. So stop focusing on the shiny things in SharePoint and maybe consider making a shift to what’s really important. Making your day job easier and letting users get the most our of your technology investment.

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• How to update all the SSIS packages&rsquo; Connection Managers in a BIDS project with PowerShell

  - by Luca Zavarella

  During the development of a BI solution, we all know that 80% of the time is spent during the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) phase. If you use the BI Stack Tool provided by Microsoft SQL Server, this step is accomplished by the development of n Integration Services (SSIS) packages. In general, the number of packages made ??in the ETL phase for a non-trivial solution of BI is quite significant. An SSIS package, therefore, extracts data from a source, it "hammers" :) the data and then transfers it to a specific destination. Very often it happens that the connection to the source data is the same for all packages. Using Integration Services, this results in having the same Connection Manager (perhaps with the same name) for all packages: The source data of my BI solution comes from an Helper database (HLP), then, for each package tha import this data, I have the HLP Connection Manager (the use of a Shared Data Source is not recommended, because the Connection String is wired and therefore you have to open the SSIS project and use the proper wizard change it...). In order to change the HLP Connection String at runtime, we could use the Package Configuration, or we could run our packages with DTLoggedExec by Davide Mauri (a must-have if you are developing with SQL Server 2005/2008). But my need was to change all the HLP connections in all packages within the SSIS Visual Studio project, because I had to version them through Team Foundation Server (TFS). A good scribe with a lot of patience should have changed by hand all the connections by double-clicking the HLP Connection Manager of each package, and then changing the referenced server/database: Not being endowed with such virtues :) I took just a little of time to write a small script in PowerShell, using the fact that a SSIS package (a .dtsx file) is nothing but an xml file, and therefore can be changed quite easily. I'm not a guru of PowerShell, but I managed more or less to put together the following lines of code: $LeftDelimiterString = "Initial Catalog=" $RightDelimiterString = ";Provider=" $ToBeReplacedString = "AstarteToBeReplaced" $ReplacingString = "AstarteReplacing" $MainFolder = "C:\MySSISPackagesFolder" $files = get-childitem "$MainFolder" *.dtsx `       | Where-Object {!($_.PSIsContainer)} foreach ($file in $files) {       (Get-Content $file.FullName) `             | % {$_ -replace "($LeftDelimiterString)($ToBeReplacedString)($RightDelimiterString)", "`$1$ReplacingString`$3"} ` | Set-Content $file.FullName; } The script above just opens any SSIS package (.dtsx) in the supplied folder, then for each of them goes in search of the following text: Initial Catalog=AstarteToBeReplaced;Provider= and it replaces the text found with this: Initial Catalog=AstarteReplacing;Provider= I don’t enter into the details of each cmdlet used. I leave the reader to search for these details. Alternatively, you can use a specific object model exposed in some .NET assemblies provided by Integration Services, or you can use the Pacman utility: Enjoy! :) P.S. Using TFS as versioning system, before running the script I checked out the packages and, after the script executed succesfully, I checked in them.

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• Preview of MSDN Library Changes

  - by ScottGu

  The MSDN team has been working some potential changes to the online MSDN Library designed to help streamline the navigation experience and make it easier to find the .NET Framework information you need. To solicit feedback on the proposed changes while they are still in development, they’ve posted a preview version of some proposed changes to a new MSDN Library Preview site which you can check out.  They’ve also created a survey that leads you through the ideas and asks for your opinions on some of the changes.  We’d very much like to have as many people as possible people take the survey and give us feedback. Quick Preview of Some of the Changes Below are some examples of a few of the changes being proposed: Streamlined .NET Namespaces Navigation The current MSDN Class Library lists all .NET namespaces in a flat-namespace (sorted alphabetically): Two downsides of the above approach are: Some of the least-used namespaces are listed first (like Microsoft.Aspnet.Snapin and Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine) All sub-namespaces are listed, which makes the list a little overwhelming, and page-load times to be slow The new MSDN Library Preview Site now lists “System” namespaces first (since those are the most used), and the home-page lists just top-level namespace groups – which makes it easier to find things, and enables the page to load faster:   Class overview and members pages merged into a single topic about each class Previously you had to navigate to several different pages to find member information about types: Links to these are still available in the MSDN Library Preview Site TOC – but the members are also now listed on the overview page, which makes it easy to quickly find everything in one place: Commonly used things are nearer the top of the page One of the other usability improvements with the new MSDN Library Preview Site is that common elements like “Code Examples” and “Inheritance Hierarchy” (for classes) are now listed near the top of the help page – making them easy to quickly find: Give Us Feedback with a Survey Above are just a few of the changes made with the new MSDN preview site – there are many other changes also rolled into it.  The MSDN team is doing usability studies on the new layout and navigation right now, and would very much like feedback on it. If you have 15 minutes and want to help vote on which of these ideas makes it into the production MSDN site, please visit this survey before June 30, play with the changes a bit, and let the MSDN team know what you think. Important Note: the MSDN preview site is not a fully functional version of MSDN – it’s really only there to preview the new ideas themselves, so please don’t expect it to be integrated with the rest of MSDN, with search, etc.  Once the MSDN team gets feedback on some of the changes being proposed they will roll them into the live site for everyone to use. Hope this helps, Scott

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• So, how is the Oracle HCM Cloud User Experience? In a word, smokin’!

  - by Edith Mireles-Oracle

  By Misha Vaughan, Oracle Applications User Experience Oracle unveiled its game-changing cloud user experience strategy at Oracle OpenWorld 2013 (remember that?) with a new simplified user interface (UI) paradigm.  The Oracle HCM cloud user experience is about light-weight interaction, tailored to the task you are trying to accomplish, on the device you are comfortable working with. A key theme for the Oracle user experience is being able to move from smartphone to tablet to desktop, with all of your data in the cloud. The Oracle HCM Cloud user experience provides designs for better productivity, no matter when and how your employees need to work. Release 8  Oracle recently demonstrated how fast it is moving development forward for our cloud applications, with the availability of release 8.  In release 8, users will see expanded simplicity in the HCM cloud user experience, such as filling out a time card and succession planning. Oracle has also expanded its mobile capabilities with task flows for payslips, managing absences, and advanced analytics. In addition, users will see expanded extensibility with the new structures editor for simplified pages, and the with the user interface text editor, which allows you to update language throughout the UI from one place. If you don’t like calling people who work for you “employees,” you can use this tool to create a term that is suited to your business.  Take a look yourself at what’s available now. What are people saying?Debra Lilley (@debralilley), an Oracle ACE Director who has a long history with Oracle Applications, recently gave her perspective on release 8: “Having had the privilege of seeing a preview of release 8, I am again impressed with the enhancements around simplified UI. Even more so, at a user group event in London this week, an existing Cloud HCM customer speaking publically about his implementation said he was very excited about release 8 as the absence functionality was so superior and simple to use.”  In an interview with Lilley for a blog post by Dennis Howlett  (@dahowlett), we probably couldn’t have asked for a more even-handed look at the Oracle Applications Cloud and the impact of user experience. Take the time to watch all three videos and get the full picture.  In closing, Howlett’s said: “There is always the caveat that getting from the past to Fusion [from the editor: Fusion is now called the Oracle Applications Cloud] is not quite as simple as may be painted, but the outcomes are much better than anticipated in large measure because the user experience is so much better than what went before.” Herman Slange, Technical Manager with Oracle Applications partner Profource, agrees with that comment. “We use on-premise Financials & HCM for internal use. Having a simple user interface that works on a desktop as well as a tablet for (very) non-technical users is a big relief. Coming from E-Business Suite, there is less training (none) required to access HCM content.  From a technical point of view, having the abilities to tailor the simplified UI very easy makes it very efficient for us to adjust to specific customer needs.  When we have a conversation about simplified UI, we just hand over a tablet and ask the customer to just use it. No training and no explanation required.” Finally, in a story by Computer Weekly  about Oracle customer BG Group, a natural gas exploration and production company based in the UK and with a presence in 20 countries, the author states: “The new HR platform has proved to be easier and more intuitive for HR staff to use than the previous SAP-based technology.” What’s Next for Oracle’s Applications Cloud User Experiences? This is the question that Steve Miranda, Oracle Executive Vice President, Applications Development, asks the Applications User Experience team, and we’ve been hard at work for some time now on “what’s next.”  I can’t say too much about it, but I can tell you that we’ve started talking to customers and partners, under non-disclosure agreements, about user experience concepts that we are working on in order to get their feedback. We recently had a chance to talk about possibilities for the Oracle HCM Cloud user experience at an Oracle HCM Southern California Customer Success Summit. This was a fantastic event, hosted by Shane Bliss and Vance Morossi of the Oracle Client Success Team. We got to use the uber-slick facilities of Allergan, our hosts (of Botox fame), headquartered in Irvine, Calif., with a presence in more than 100 countries. Photo by Misha Vaughan, Oracle Applications User Experience Vance Morossi, left, and Shane Bliss, of the Oracle Client Success Team, at an Oracle HCM Southern California Customer Success Summit.  We were treated to a few really excellent talks around human resources (HR). Alice White, VP Human Resources, discussed Allergan's process for global talent acquisition -- how Allergan has designed and deployed a global process, and global tools, along with Oracle and Cognizant, and are now at the end of a global implementation. She shared a couple of insights about the journey for Allergan: “One of the major areas for improvement was on role clarification within the company.” She said the company is “empowering managers and deputizing them as recruiters. Now it is a global process that is nimble and efficient."  Deepak Rammohan, VP Product Management, HCM Cloud, Oracle, also took the stage to talk about pioneering modern HR. He reflected modern HR problems of getting the right data about the workforce, the importance of getting the right talent as a key strategic initiative, and other workforce insights. "How do we design systems to deal with all of this?” he asked. “Make sure the systems are talent-centric. The next piece is collaborative, engaging, and mobile. A lot of this is influenced by what users see today. The last thing is around insight; insight at the point of decision-making." Rammohan showed off some killer HCM Cloud talent demos focused on simplicity and mobility that his team has been cooking up, and closed with a great line about the nature of modern recruiting: "Recruiting is a team sport." Deepak Rammohan, left, and Jake Kuramoto, both of Oracle, debate the merits of a Google Glass concept demo for recruiters on-the-go. Later, in an expo-style format, the Apps UX team showed several concepts for next-generation HCM Cloud user experiences, including demos shown by Jake Kuramoto (@jkuramoto) of The AppsLab, and Aylin Uysal (@aylinuysal), Director, HCM Cloud user experience. We even hauled out our eye-tracker, a research tool used to show where the eye is looking at a particular screen, thanks to teammate Michael LaDuke. Dionne Healy, HCM Client Executive, and Aylin Uysal, Director, HCM Cloud user experiences, Oracle, take a look at new HCM Cloud UX concepts. We closed the day with Jeremy Ashley (@jrwashley), VP, Applications User Experience, who brought it all back together by talking about the big picture for applications cloud user experiences. He covered the trends we are paying attention to now, what users will be expecting of their modern enterprise apps, and what Oracle’s design strategy is around these ideas.   We closed with an excellent reception hosted by ADP Payroll services at Bistango. Want to read more?Want to see where our cloud user experience is going next? Read more on the UsableApps web site about our latest design initiative: “Glance, Scan, Commit.” Or catch up on the back story by looking over our Applications Cloud user experience content on the UsableApps web site.  You can also find out where we’ll be next at the Events page on UsableApps.

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• UPK Customer Success Story: The City and County of San Francisco

  - by karen.rihs(at)oracle.com

  The value of UPK during an upgrade is a hot topic and was a primary focus during our latest customer roundtable featuring The City and County of San Francisco: Leveraging UPK to Accelerate Your PeopleSoft Upgrade. As the Change Management Analyst for their PeopleSoft 9.0 HCM project (Project eMerge), Jan Crosbie-Taylor provided a unique perspective on how they're utilizing UPK and UPK pre-built content early on to successfully manage change for thousands of city and county employees and retirees as they move to this new release. With the first phase of the project going live next September, it's important to the City and County of San Francisco to 1) ensure that the various constituents are brought along with the project team, and 2) focus on the end user aspects of the implementation, including training. Here are some highlights on how UPK and UPK pre-built content are helping them accomplish this: As a former documentation manager, Jan really appreciates the power of UPK as a single source content creation tool. It saves them time by streamlining the documentation creation process, enabling them to record content once, then repurpose it multiple times. With regard to change management, UPK has enabled them to educate the project team and gain critical buy in and support by familiarizing users with the application early on through User Experience Workshops and by promoting UPK at meetings whenever possible. UPK has helped create awareness for the project, making the project real to users. They are taking advantage of UPK pre-built content to: Educate the project team and subject matter experts on how PeopleSoft 9.0 works as delivered Create a guide/storyboard for their own recording Save time/effort and create consistency by enhancing their recorded content with text and conceptual information from the pre-built content Create PeopleSoft Help for their development databases by publishing and integrating the UPK pre-built content into the application help menu Look ahead to the next release of PeopleTools, comparing the differences to help the team evaluate which version to use with their implemtentation When it comes time for training, they will be utilizing UPK in the classroom, eliminating the time and cost of maintaining training databases. Instructors will be able to carry all training content on a thumb drive, allowing them to easily provide consistent training at their many locations, regardless of the environment. Post go-live, they will deploy the same UPK content to provide just-in-time, in-application support for the entire system via the PeopleSoft Help menu and their PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal. Users will already be comfortable with UPK as a source of help, having been exposed to it during classroom training. They are also using UPK for a non-Oracle application called JobAps, an online job application solution used by many government organizations. Jan found UPK's object recognition to be excellent, yet it's been incredibly easy for her to change text or a field name if needed. Please take time to listen to this recording. The City and County of San Francisco's UPK story is very exciting, and Jan shared so many great examples of how they're taking advantage of UPK and UPK pre-built content early on in their project. We hope others will be able to incorporate these into their projects. Many thanks to Jan for taking the time to share her experiences and creative uses of UPK with us! - Karen Rihs, Oracle UPK Outbound Product Management

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• Urban Turtle is such an awesome product !

  - by Vincent Grondin

  Mario Cardinal, the host of the Visual Studio Talk Show, is quite happy these days. He works with the Urban Turtle team and they received significant support from Microsoft. Brian Harry, who is the Product Unit Manager for Team Foundation Server, has published an outstanding blog post about Urban Turtle that says: "...awesome Scrum experience for TFS.” You can read Brian Harry's blog post at the following URL: http://urbanturtle.com/awesome.

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