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• From Bluehost to WP Engine, My WordPress Story

  - by thatjeffsmith

  This is probably the longest blog post I’ve written in a LONG time. And if you’re used to coming here for the Oracle stuff, this post is not about that. It’s about my blog, and the stuff under the hood that makes it run, AKA WordPress. If you want to skip to the juicy stuff, then use these shortcuts: My Site Slowed Down How I Moved to WP Engine How WP Engine ‘Hooked’ Me Why WP Engine? I started thatJeffSmith.com on May 28th, 2010. I had been already been blogging for several years, but a couple of really smart people I respected (Andy, Brent – thanks again!) suggested that I take ownership of my content and begin building my personal brand. I thought that was a good idea, and so I signed up for service with bluehost. Bluehost makes setting up a WordPress site very, very easy. And, they continued to be easy to work with for the past 2 years. I would even recommend them to anyone looking to host their own WordPress install/site. For $83.40, I purchased a year’s worth of service and my domain name registration – a very good value. And then last year I paid $107.40 for another year’s services. And when that year expired I paid another $190.80 for an additional two year’s service in advance. I had been up to that point, getting my money’s worth. And then, just a few weeks ago… My Site Slowed to a Crawl That spike was from an April Fool's Day Post, I think Why? Well, when I first started blogging, I had the same problem that most beginner bloggers have – not many readers. In my first year of blogging, I think the highest number of readers on a single day was about 125. I remember that day as I was very excited to break 100! Bluehost was very reliable, serving up my content with maybe a total of 3-4 outages in the past 2 years. Support was usually very prompt with answers and solutions, and I love their ‘Chat now’ technology – much nicer than message boards only or pay-to-talk phone support. In the past 6 months however, I noticed a couple of things: daily traffic was increasing – woohoo! my service was experiencing severe CPU throttling – doh! To be honest, I wasn’t aware the throttling was occuring, but I did know that the response time of my blog was starting to lag. Average load times were approaching 20-30 seconds. Not good when good sites are loading in 5 seconds or less. And just this past week, in getting ready to launch a new website for work that sucked in an RSS feed from my blog, the new page was left waiting for more than a minute. Not good! In fact my boss asked, why aren’t you blogging on Blogger? Ugh. I tried a few things to fix the problem: I paid for a premium WordPress theme – Themify’s Grido (thanks to @SQLRockstar for the heads-up) I installed a couple of WP caching plugins I read every WP optimization blog post I could get my greedy little eyes on However, at the same time I was also getting addicted to WordPress bloggers talking about all the cool things you could do with your blog. As a result I had at one point about 30 different plugins installed. WordPress runs on MySQL, and certain queries running via these plugins were starving for CPU. Plugins that would be called every page load meant that as more people clicked on my site, the more CPU I needed. I’m not stupid, so I eventually figured out that maybe less plugins was better, and was able to go down to just 20. But still, the site was running like a dog. CPU Throttling, makes MySQL wait to run a query Bluehost runs shared servers. Your site runs on the same box that several hundred (or thousand?) other services are running on. If you take more CPU than they think you should have, they will limit your service by making you stand in line for CPU, AKA ‘throttling.’ This is not bad. This business model allows them to serve many, many users for a very fair price. It works great until, well, until it doesn’t. I noticed in the last week that for every minute of service, I was being throttled between 60 and 300 seconds. If there were 5 MySQL processes running, then every single one of them were being held in check. The blog visitor notice this as their page requests would take a minute or more to be answered. Bluehost unfortunately doesn’t offer dedicated server hosting, so there was no real upgrade path for me follow and remain one of their customers. So what was I to do? Uninstall every plugin and hope the site sped up? Ask for people to take turns on my blog? I decided to spend my way out of the problem. I signed up for service with WP Engine and moved ThatJeffSmith.com The first 2 months are free, and after that it’s about $29/month to run my site on their system. My math tells me that’s a good bit more expensive than what Bluehost was charging me – to the tune of about 300% more a month. Oh, and I should just say that my blog is a personal blog even though I talk about work stuff here. I don’t get paid for blogging, I don’t sell ads, and I don’t expense the service fees – this is my personal passion. So is it worth it? In the first 4 days, it seems to be totally worth it. Load times have gone from 20-30 seconds to less than 5 seconds. A few folks have told me via Twitter that they notice faster page loads. I anticipate this will indirectly lead to more traffic as Google penalizes you in search results if your site is too slow, and of course some folks won’t even bother waiting more than 5-10 seconds. I noticed right away that writing posts, uploading pictures, and just using the WordPress dashboard in general was much more responsive. So writing is less of a chore now, which means I won’t have a good reason not to write How I Moved to WP Engine I signed up for the service and registered my domain. I then took a full export of my ‘old’ site by doing a FTP GET of all my files, then did a MySQL database backup, exported my WordPress Theme settings to a .zip file, and then finally used the WordPress ‘Export’ feature. I then used the WordPress ‘Import’ on the new site to load up my posts. Then I uploaded the theme .zip package from Themify. Then I FTP’d the ‘wp-content’ directory up to my new server using SFTP (WP Engine only supports secure FTP – good on them!) Using a temporary URL to see my new site, I was able to confirm that everything looked mostly OK – I’ll detail the challenges and issues of fixing the content next – but then it was time to ‘flip the switch.’ I updated the IP address that the DNS lookup tables use to route traffic to my new server. In a matter of minutes the DNS servers around the world were updated and it was time to see the new site! But It Was ‘Broken’ I had never moved a website before, and in my rush to update the DNS, I had changed the records without really finding out what I was supposed to do first. After re-reading the directions provided by WP Engine and following the guidance of their support engineer, I realized I had needed to set the CNAME (Alias) ‘www’ record to point to a different URL than the ‘www.thatjeffsmith.com’ entry I had set. Once corrected the site was up and running in less than a minute. Then It Was Only Mostly Broken Many of my plugins weren’t working. Apparently just ftp’ing the wp-content directory up wasn’t the proper way to re-install the plugin. I suspect file permissions or file ownership wasn’t proper. Some plug-ins were working, many had their settings wiped to the defaults, and a few just didn’t work again. I had to delete the directory of the plug-in manually via SFTP, and then use the WP Dashboard to install it from scratch. And here was my first ‘lesson’ – don’t switch the DNS records until you’ve completely tested your new site. I wasn’t able to navigate the old WP console to review my plug-in settings. Thankfully I was able to use the Wayback Machine to reverse engineer some things, and of course most plug-ins aren’t that complicated to setup to begin with. An example of one that I had to redo from scratch is the ‘Twitter @Anywhere Plus’ plugin that I use to create the form that allows folks to tweet a post they enjoyed at the end of each story. How WP Engine ‘Hooked’ Me I actually signed up with another provider first. They ranked highly in Google searches and a few Tweeps recommended them to me. But hours after signing up and I still didn’t have sever reyady, I was ready to give up on them. They offered no chat or phone support – only mail and message boards. And the message boards were rife with posts about how the service had gone downhill in the past 6 months. To their credit, they did make it easy to cancel, although I did have to do so via email as their website ‘cancel’ button was non-existent. Within minutes of activating my WP Engine account I had received my welcome message and directions on how to get started. I was able to see my staged website right away. They also did something very cool before I even got started – they looked at my existing site and told me by how much they could improve its performance. The proof is in the web pudding. I like this for a few reasons, but primarily I liked their business model. It told me they knew what they were doing, and that they were willing to put their money where their mouth was. This was further evident by their 60-day money back guarantee. And if I understand it correctly, they don’t even take your money until after that 60 day period is over. After a day, I was welcomed by the WP Engine social media team, and was given the opportunity to subscribe to their newsletter and follow their account on Twitter. I noticed their Twitter team is sure to post regular WordPress tips several times a day. It’s not just an account that’s setup for the sake of having a Twitter presence. These little things add up and give me confidence in my decision to choose them as my hosting partner. ‘Partner’ – that’s a lot nicer word than just ‘service provider,’ isn’t it? Oh, and they offered me a t-shirt. Don’t ever doubt the power of a ‘free’ t-shirt! How awesome is this e-mail, from a customer perspective? I wasn’t really expecting any of this. Exceeding expectations before I have even handed over a single dollar seems like a pretty good business plan. This is how you treat customers. Love them to death, and they reward you with loyalty. But Jeff, You Skipped a Piece Here, Why WP Engine? I found them on one of those ‘Top 10′ list posts, and pulled up their webpage. I noticed they offered a specialized service – they host WordPress installs, and that’s it. Their servers are tuned specifically for running WordPress. They had in bolded text, things like ‘INSANELY FAST. INFINITELY SCALABLE.’ and ‘LIGHTNING SPEED.’ And then they offered insurance against hackers and they took care of automatic backups and restores. The only drawbacks I have noticed so far relate to plugins I used that have been ‘blacklisted.’ In order to guarantee that ‘lightning’ speed, they have banned the use of the CPU-suckiest plugins. One of those is the ‘Related Posts’ plugin. So if you are a subscriber and are reading this in your email, you’ll notice there’s no links back to my blog to continue reading other related stories. Since that referral traffic is very small single-digit for my site, I decided that I’m OK with that. I’d rather have the warp-speed page loads. Again, I think that will lead to higher traffic down the road. In 50+ days I will need to decide if WP Engine is a permanent solution. I’ll be sure to update this post when that time comes and let y’all know how it turns out.

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• More Animation - Self Dismissing Dialogs

  - by Duncan Mills

  In my earlier articles on animation, I discussed various slide, grow and  flip transitions for items and containers.  In this article I want to discuss a fade animation and specifically the use of fades and auto-dismissal for informational dialogs.  If you use a Mac, you may be familiar with Growl as a notification system, and the nice way that messages that are informational just fade out after a few seconds. So in this blog entry I wanted to discuss how we could make an ADF popup behave in the same way. This can be an effective way of communicating information to the user without "getting in the way" with modal alerts. This of course, has been done before, but everything I've seen previously requires something like JQuery to be in the mix when we don't really need it to be.  The solution I've put together is nice and generic and will work with either <af:panelWindow> or <af:dialog> as a the child of the popup. In terms of usage it's pretty simple to use we  just need to ensure that the popup itself has clientComponent is set to true and includes the animation JavaScript (animateFadingPopup) on a popupOpened event: <af:popup id="pop1" clientComponent="true">   <af:panelWindow title="A Fading Message...">    ...  </af:panelWindow>   <af:clientListener method="animateFadingPopup" type="popupOpened"/> </af:popup>   The popup can be invoked in the normal way using showPopupBehavior or JavaScript, no special code is required there. As a further twist you can include an additional clientAttribute called preFadeDelay to define a delay before the fade itself starts (the default is 5 seconds) . To set the delay to just 2 seconds for example: <af:popup ...>   ...   <af:clientAttribute name="preFadeDelay" value="2"/>   <af:clientListener method="animateFadingPopup" type="popupOpened"/>  </af:popup> The Animation Styles  As before, we have a couple of CSS Styles which define the animation, I've put these into the skin in my case, and, as in the other articles, I've only defined the transitions for WebKit browsers (Chrome, Safari) at the moment. In this case, the fade is timed at 5 seconds in duration. .popupFadeReset {   opacity: 1; } .popupFadeAnimate {   opacity: 0;   -webkit-transition: opacity 5s ease-in-out; } As you can see here, we are achieving the fade by simply setting the CSS opacity property. The JavaScript The final part of the puzzle is, of course, the JavaScript, there are four functions, these are generic (apart from the Style names which, if you've changed above, you'll need to reflect here): The initial function invoked from the popupOpened event,  animateFadingPopup which starts a timer and provides the initial delay before we start to fade the popup. The function that applies the fade animation to the popup - initiatePopupFade. The callback function - closeFadedPopup used to reset the style class and correctly hide the popup so that it can be invoked again and again.   A utility function - findFadeContainer, which is responsible for locating the correct child component of the popup to actually apply the style to. Function - animateFadingPopup This function, as stated is the one hooked up to the popupOpened event via a clientListener. Because of when the code is called it does not actually matter how you launch the popup, or if the popup is re-used from multiple places. All usages will get the fade behavior. /**  * Client listener which will kick off the animation to fade the dialog and register  * a callback to correctly reset the popup once the animation is complete  * @param event  */ function animateFadingPopup(event) { var fadePopup = event.getSource();   var fadeCandidate = false;   //Ensure that the popup is initially Opaque   //This handles the situation where the user has dismissed   //the popup whilst it was in the process of fading   var fadeContainer = findFadeContainer(fadePopup);   if (fadeContainer != null) {     fadeCandidate = true;     fadeContainer.setStyleClass("popupFadeReset");   }   //Only continue if we can actually fade this popup   if (fadeCandidate) {   //See if a delay has been specified     var waitTimeSeconds = event.getSource().getProperty('preFadeDelay');     //Default to 5 seconds if not supplied     if (waitTimeSeconds == undefined) {     waitTimeSeconds = 5;     }     // Now call the fade after the specified time     var fadeFunction = function () {     initiatePopupFade(fadePopup);     };     var fadeDelayTimer = setTimeout(fadeFunction, (waitTimeSeconds * 1000));   } } The things to note about this function is the initial check that we have to do to ensure that the container is currently visible and reset it's style to ensure that it is.  This is to handle the situation where the popup has begun the fade, and yet the user has still explicitly dismissed the popup before it's complete and in doing so has prevented the callback function (described later) from executing. In this particular situation the initial display of the dialog will be (apparently) missing it's normal animation but at least it becomes visible to the user (and most users will probably not notice this difference in any case). You'll notice that the style that we apply to reset the  opacity - popupFadeReset, is not applied to the popup component itself but rather the dialog or panelWindow within it. More about that in the description of the next function findFadeContainer(). Finally, assuming that we have a suitable candidate for fading, a JavaScript  timer is started using the specified preFadeDelay wait time (or 5 seconds if that was not supplied). When this timer expires then the main animation styleclass will be applied using the initiatePopupFade() function Function - findFadeContainer As a component, the <af:popup> does not support styleClass attribute, so we can't apply the animation style directly.  Instead we have to look for the container within the popup which defines the window object that can have a style attached.  This is achieved by the following code: /**  * The thing we actually fade will be the only child  * of the popup assuming that this is a dialog or window  * @param popup  * @return the component, or null if this is not valid for fading  */ function findFadeContainer(popup) { var children = popup.getDescendantComponents();   var fadeContainer = children[0];   if (fadeContainer != undefined) {   var compType = fadeContainer.getComponentType();     if (compType == "oracle.adf.RichPanelWindow" || compType == "oracle.adf.RichDialog") {     return fadeContainer;     }   }   return null; }  So what we do here is to grab the first child component of the popup and check its type. Here I decided to limit the fade behaviour to only <af:dialog> and <af:panelWindow>. This was deliberate.  If  we apply the fade to say an <af:noteWindow> you would see the text inside the balloon fade, but the balloon itself would hang around until the fade animation was over and then hide.  It would of course be possible to make the code smarter to walk up the DOM tree to find the correct <div> to apply the style to in order to hide the whole balloon, however, that means that this JavaScript would then need to have knowledge of the generated DOM structure, something which may change from release to release, and certainly something to avoid. So, all in all, I think that this is an OK restriction and frankly it's windows and dialogs that I wanted to fade anyway, not balloons and menus. You could of course extend this technique and handle the other types should you really want to. One thing to note here is the selection of the first (children[0]) child of the popup. It does not matter if there are non-visible children such as clientListener before the <af:dialog> or <af:panelWindow> within the popup, they are not included in this array, so picking the first element in this way seems to be fine, no matter what the underlying ordering is within the JSF source.  If you wanted a super-robust version of the code you might want to iterate through the children array of the popup to check for the right type, again it's up to you.  Function -  initiatePopupFade  On to the actual fading. This is actually very simple and at it's heart, just the application of the popupFadeAnimate style to the correct component and then registering a callback to execute once the fade is done. /**  * Function which will kick off the animation to fade the dialog and register  * a callback to correctly reset the popup once the animation is complete  * @param popup the popup we are animating  */ function initiatePopupFade(popup) { //Only continue if the popup has not already been dismissed    if (popup.isPopupVisible()) {   //The skin styles that define the animation      var fadeoutAnimationStyle = "popupFadeAnimate";     var fadeAnimationResetStyle = "popupFadeReset";     var fadeContainer = findFadeContainer(popup);     if (fadeContainer != null) {     var fadeContainerReal = AdfAgent.AGENT.getElementById(fadeContainer.getClientId());       //Define the callback this will correctly reset the popup once it's disappeared       var fadeCallbackFunction = function (event) {       closeFadedPopup(popup, fadeContainer, fadeAnimationResetStyle);         event.target.removeEventListener("webkitTransitionEnd", fadeCallbackFunction);       };       //Initiate the fade       fadeContainer.setStyleClass(fadeoutAnimationStyle);       //Register the callback to execute once fade is done       fadeContainerReal.addEventListener("webkitTransitionEnd", fadeCallbackFunction, false);     }   } } I've added some extra checks here though. First of all we only start the whole process if the popup is still visible. It may be that the user has closed the popup before the delay timer has finished so there is no need to start animating in that case. Again we use the findFadeContainer() function to locate the correct component to apply the style to, and additionally we grab the DOM id that represents that container.  This physical ID is required for the registration of the callback function. The closeFadedPopup() call is then registered on the callback so as to correctly close the now transparent (but still there) popup. Function -  closeFadedPopup The final function just cleans things up: /**  * Callback function to correctly cancel and reset the style in the popup  * @param popup id of the popup so we can close it properly  * @param contatiner the window / dialog within the popup to actually style  * @param resetStyle the syle that sets the opacity back to solid  */ function closeFadedPopup(popup, container, resetStyle) { container.setStyleClass(resetStyle);   popup.cancel(); }  First of all we reset the style to make the popup contents opaque again and then we cancel the popup.  This will ensure that any of your user code that is waiting for a popup cancelled event will actually get the event, additionally if you have done this as a modal window / dialog it will ensure that the glasspane is dismissed and you can interact with the UI again.  What's Next? There are several ways in which this technique could be used, I've been working on a popup here, but you could apply the same approach to in-line messages. As this code (in the popup case) is generic it will make s pretty nice declarative component and maybe, if I get time, I'll look at constructing a formal Growl component using a combination of this technique, and active data push. Also, I'm sure the above code can be improved a little too.  Specifically things like registering a popup cancelled listener to handle the style reset so that we don't loose the subtle animation that takes place when the popup is opened in that situation where the user has closed the in-fade dialog.

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• Is Financial Inclusion an Obligation or an Opportunity for Banks?

  - by tushar.chitra

  Why should banks care about financial inclusion? First, the statistics, I think this will set the tone for this blog post. There are close to 2.5 billion people who are excluded from the banking stream and out of this, 2.2 billion people are from the continents of Africa, Latin America and Asia (McKinsey on Society: Global Financial Inclusion). However, this is not just a third-world phenomenon. According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), in the US, post 2008 financial crisis, one family out of five has either opted out of the banking system or has been moved out (American Banker). Moving this huge unbanked population into mainstream banking is both an opportunity and a challenge for banks. An obvious opportunity is the significant untapped customer base that banks can target, so is the positive brand equity a bank can build by fulfilling its social responsibilities. Also, as banks target the cost-conscious unbanked customer, they will be forced to look at ways to offer cost-effective products and services, necessitating technology upgrades and innovations. However, cost is not the only hurdle in increasing the adoption of banking services. The potential users need to be convinced of the benefits of banking and banks will also face stiff competition from unorganized players. Finally, the banks will have to believe in the viability of this business opportunity, and not treat financial inclusion as an obligation. In what ways can banks target the unbanked For financial inclusion to be a success, banks should adopt innovative business models to develop products that address the stated and unstated needs of the unbanked population and also design delivery channels that are cost effective and viable in the long run. Through business correspondents and facilitators In rural and remote areas, one of the major hurdles in increasing banking penetration is connectivity and accessibility to banking services, which makes last mile inclusion a daunting challenge. To address this, banks can avail the services of business correspondents or facilitators. This model allows banks to establish greater connectivity through a trusted and reliable intermediary. In India, for instance, banks can leverage the local Kirana stores (the mom & pop stores) to service rural and remote areas. With a supportive nudge from the central bank, the commercial banks can enlist these shop owners as business correspondents to increase their reach. Since these neighborhood stores are acquainted with the local population, they can help banks manage the KYC norms, besides serving as a conduit for remittance. Banks also have an opportunity over a period of time to cross-sell other financial products such as micro insurance, mutual funds and pension products through these correspondents. To exercise greater operational control over the business correspondents, banks can also adopt a combination of branch and business correspondent models to deliver financial inclusion. Through mobile devices According to a 2012 world bank report on financial inclusion, out of a world population of 7 billion, over 5 billion or 70% have mobile phones and only 2 billion or 30% have a bank account. What this means for banks is that there is scope for them to leverage this phenomenal growth in mobile usage to serve the unbanked population. Banks can use mobile technology to service the basic banking requirements of their customers with no frills accounts, effectively bringing down the cost per transaction. As I had discussed in my earlier post on mobile payments, though non-traditional players have taken the lead in P2P mobile payments, banks still hold an edge in terms of infrastructure and reliability. Through crowd-funding According to the Crowdfunding Industry Report by Massolution, the global crowdfunding industry raised $2.7 billion in 2012, and is projected to grow to $5.1 billion in 2013. With credit policies becoming tighter and banks becoming more circumspect in terms of loan disbursals, crowdfunding has emerged as an alternative channel for lending. Typically, these initiatives target the unbanked population by offering small loans that are unviable for larger banks. Though a significant proportion of crowdfunding initiatives globally are run by non-banking institutions, banks are also venturing into this space. The next step towards inclusive finance Banks by themselves cannot make financial inclusion a success. There is a need for a whole ecosystem that is supportive of this mission. The policy makers, that include the regulators and government bodies, must be in sync, the IT solution providers must put on their thinking caps to come out with innovative products and solutions, communication channels such as internet and mobile need to expand their reach, and the media and the public need to play an active part. The other challenge for financial inclusion is from the banks themselves. While it is true that financial inclusion will unleash a hitherto hugely untapped market, the normal banking model may be found wanting because of issues such as flexibility, convenience and reliability. The business will be viable only when there is a focus on increasing the usage of existing infrastructure and that is possible when the banks can offer the entire range of products and services to the large number of users of essential banking services. Apart from these challenges, banks will also have to quickly master and replicate the business model to extend their reach to the remotest regions in their respective geographies. They will need to ensure that the transactions deliver a viable business benefit to the bank. For tapping cross-sell opportunities, banks will have to quickly roll-out customized and segment-specific products. The bank staff should be brought in sync with the business plan by convincing them of the viability of the business model and the need for a business correspondent delivery model. Banks, in collaboration with the government and NGOs, will have to run an extensive financial literacy program to educate the unbanked about the benefits of banking. Finally, with the growing importance of retail banking and with many unconventional players eyeing the opportunity in payments and other lucrative areas of banking, banks need to understand the importance of micro and small branches. These micro and small branches can help banks increase their presence without a huge cost burden, provide bankers an opportunity to cross sell micro products and offer a window of opportunity for the large non-banked population to transact without any interference from intermediaries. These branches can also help diminish the role of the unorganized financial sector, such as local moneylenders and unregistered credit societies. This will also help banks build a brand awareness and loyalty among the users, which by itself has a cascading effect on the business operations, especially among the rural and un-banked centers. In conclusion, with the increasingly competitive banking sector facing frequent slowdowns and downturns, the unbanked population presents a huge opportunity for banks to enhance their customer base and fulfill their social responsibility.

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• Basics of Join Factorization

  - by Hong Su

  We continue our series on optimizer transformations with a post that describes the Join Factorization transformation. The Join Factorization transformation was introduced in Oracle 11g Release 2 and applies to UNION ALL queries. Union all queries are commonly used in database applications, especially in data integration applications. In many scenarios the branches in a UNION All query share a common processing, i.e, refer to the same tables. In the current Oracle execution strategy, each branch of a UNION ALL query is evaluated independently, which leads to repetitive processing, including data access and join. The join factorization transformation offers an opportunity to share the common computations across the UNION ALL branches. Currently, join factorization only factorizes common references to base tables only, i.e, not views. Consider a simple example of query Q1. Q1:    select t1.c1, t2.c2    from t1, t2, t3    where t1.c1 = t2.c1 and t1.c1 > 1 and t2.c2 = 2 and t2.c2 = t3.c2   union all    select t1.c1, t2.c2    from t1, t2, t4    where t1.c1 = t2.c1 and t1.c1 > 1 and t2.c3 = t4.c3; Table t1 appears in both the branches. As does the filter predicates on t1 (t1.c1 > 1) and the join predicates involving t1 (t1.c1 = t2.c1). Nevertheless, without any transformation, the scan (and the filtering) on t1 has to be done twice, once per branch. Such a query may benefit from join factorization which can transform Q1 into Q2 as follows: Q2:    select t1.c1, VW_JF_1.item_2    from t1, (select t2.c1 item_1, t2.c2 item_2                   from t2, t3                    where t2.c2 = t3.c2 and t2.c2 = 2                                  union all                   select t2.c1 item_1, t2.c2 item_2                   from t2, t4                    where t2.c3 = t4.c3) VW_JF_1    where t1.c1 = VW_JF_1.item_1 and t1.c1 > 1; In Q2, t1 is "factorized" and thus the table scan and the filtering on t1 is done only once (it's shared). If t1 is large, then avoiding one extra scan of t1 can lead to a huge performance improvement. Another benefit of join factorization is that it can open up more join orders. Let's look at query Q3. Q3:    select *    from t5, (select t1.c1, t2.c2                  from t1, t2, t3                  where t1.c1 = t2.c1 and t1.c1 > 1 and t2.c2 = 2 and t2.c2 = t3.c2                 union all                  select t1.c1, t2.c2                  from t1, t2, t4                  where t1.c1 = t2.c1 and t1.c1 > 1 and t2.c3 = t4.c3) V;   where t5.c1 = V.c1 In Q3, view V is same as Q1. Before join factorization, t1, t2 and t3 must be joined first before they can be joined with t5. But if join factorization factorizes t1 from view V, t1 can then be joined with t5. This opens up new join orders. That being said, join factorization imposes certain join orders. For example, in Q2, t2 and t3 appear in the first branch of the UNION ALL query in view VW_JF_1. T2 must be joined with t3 before it can be joined with t1 which is outside of the VW_JF_1 view. The imposed join order may not necessarily be the best join order. For this reason, join factorization is performed under cost-based transformation framework; this means that we cost the plans with and without join factorization and choose the cheapest plan. Note that if the branches in UNION ALL have DISTINCT clauses, join factorization is not valid. For example, Q4 is NOT semantically equivalent to Q5.   Q4:     select distinct t1.*      from t1, t2      where t1.c1 = t2.c1  union all      select distinct t1.*      from t1, t2      where t1.c1 = t2.c1 Q5:    select distinct t1.*     from t1, (select t2.c1 item_1                   from t2                union all                   select t2.c1 item_1                  from t2) VW_JF_1     where t1.c1 = VW_JF_1.item_1 Q4 might return more rows than Q5. Q5's results are guaranteed to be duplicate free because of the DISTINCT key word at the top level while Q4's results might contain duplicates.   The examples given so far involve inner joins only. Join factorization is also supported in outer join, anti join and semi join. But only the right tables of outer join, anti join and semi joins can be factorized. It is not semantically correct to factorize the left table of outer join, anti join or semi join. For example, Q6 is NOT semantically equivalent to Q7. Q6:     select t1.c1, t2.c2    from t1, t2    where t1.c1 = t2.c1(+) and t2.c2 (+) = 2  union all    select t1.c1, t2.c2    from t1, t2      where t1.c1 = t2.c1(+) and t2.c2 (+) = 3 Q7:     select t1.c1, VW_JF_1.item_2    from t1, (select t2.c1 item_1, t2.c2 item_2                  from t2                  where t2.c2 = 2                union all                  select t2.c1 item_1, t2.c2 item_2                  from t2                                                                                                    where t2.c2 = 3) VW_JF_1       where t1.c1 = VW_JF_1.item_1(+)                                                                  However, the right side of an outer join can be factorized. For example, join factorization can transform Q8 to Q9 by factorizing t2, which is the right table of an outer join. Q8:    select t1.c2, t2.c2    from t1, t2      where t1.c1 = t2.c1 (+) and t1.c1 = 1 union all    select t1.c2, t2.c2    from t1, t2    where t1.c1 = t2.c1(+) and t1.c1 = 2 Q9:   select VW_JF_1.item_2, t2.c2   from t2,             (select t1.c1 item_1, t1.c2 item_2            from t1            where t1.c1 = 1           union all            select t1.c1 item_1, t1.c2 item_2            from t1            where t1.c1 = 2) VW_JF_1   where VW_JF_1.item_1 = t2.c1(+) All of the examples in this blog show factorizing a single table from two branches. This is just for ease of illustration. Join factorization can factorize multiple tables and from more than two UNION ALL branches.  SummaryJoin factorization is a cost-based transformation. It can factorize common computations from branches in a UNION ALL query which can lead to huge performance improvement. 

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• 12c - Utl_Call_Stack...

  - by noreply(at)blogger.com (Thomas Kyte)

  Over the next couple of months, I'll be writing about some cool new little features of Oracle Database 12c - things that might not make the front page of Oracle.com.  I'm going to start with a new package - UTL_CALL_STACK.In the past, developers have had access to three functions to try to figure out "where the heck am I in my code", they were:dbms_utility.format_call_stackdbms_utility.format_error_backtracedbms_utility.format_error_stackNow these routines, while useful, were of somewhat limited use.  Let's look at the format_call_stack routine for a reason why.  Here is a procedure that will just print out the current call stack for us:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> create or replace  2  procedure Print_Call_Stack  3  is  4  begin  5    DBMS_Output.Put_Line(DBMS_Utility.Format_Call_Stack());  6  end;  7  /Procedure created.Now, if we have a package - with nested functions and even duplicated function names:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> create or replace  2  package body Pkg is  3    procedure p  4    is  5      procedure q  6      is  7        procedure r  8        is  9          procedure p is 10          begin 11            Print_Call_Stack(); 12            raise program_error; 13          end p; 14        begin 15          p(); 16        end r; 17      begin 18        r(); 19      end q; 20    begin 21      q(); 22    end p; 23  end Pkg; 24  /Package body created.When we execute the procedure PKG.P - we'll see as a result:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> exec pkg.p----- PL/SQL Call Stack -----  object      line  object  handle    number  name0x6e891528         4  procedure OPS$TKYTE.PRINT_CALL_STACK0x6ec4a7c0        10  package body OPS$TKYTE.PKG0x6ec4a7c0        14  package body OPS$TKYTE.PKG0x6ec4a7c0        17  package body OPS$TKYTE.PKG0x6ec4a7c0        20  package body OPS$TKYTE.PKG0x76439070         1  anonymous blockBEGIN pkg.p; END;*ERROR at line 1:ORA-06501: PL/SQL: program errorORA-06512: at "OPS$TKYTE.PKG", line 11ORA-06512: at "OPS$TKYTE.PKG", line 14ORA-06512: at "OPS$TKYTE.PKG", line 17ORA-06512: at "OPS$TKYTE.PKG", line 20ORA-06512: at line 1The bit in red above is the output from format_call_stack whereas the bit in black is the error message returned to the client application (it would also be available to you via the format_error_backtrace API call). As you can see - it contains useful information but to use it you would need to parse it - and that can be trickier than it seems.  The format of those strings is not set in stone, they have changed over the years (I wrote the "who_am_i", "who_called_me" functions, I did that by parsing these strings - trust me, they change over time!).Starting in 12c - we'll have structured access to the call stack and a series of API calls to interrogate this structure.  I'm going to rewrite the print_call_stack function as follows:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> create or replace 2  procedure Print_Call_Stack  3  as  4    Depth pls_integer := UTL_Call_Stack.Dynamic_Depth();  5    6    procedure headers  7    is  8    begin  9        dbms_output.put_line( 'Lexical   Depth   Line    Name' ); 10        dbms_output.put_line( 'Depth             Number      ' ); 11        dbms_output.put_line( '-------   -----   ----    ----' ); 12    end headers; 13    procedure print 14    is 15    begin 16        headers; 17        for j in reverse 1..Depth loop 18          DBMS_Output.Put_Line( 19            rpad( utl_call_stack.lexical_depth(j), 10 ) || 20                    rpad( j, 7) || 21            rpad( To_Char(UTL_Call_Stack.Unit_Line(j), '99'), 9 ) || 22            UTL_Call_Stack.Concatenate_Subprogram 23                       (UTL_Call_Stack.Subprogram(j))); 24        end loop; 25    end; 26  begin 27    print; 28  end; 29  /Here we are able to figure out what 'depth' we are in the code (utl_call_stack.dynamic_depth) and then walk up the stack using a loop.  We will print out the lexical_depth, along with the line number within the unit we were executing plus - the unit name.  And not just any unit name, but the fully qualified, all of the way down to the subprogram name within a package.  Not only that - but down to the subprogram name within a subprogram name within a subprogram name.  For example - running the PKG.P procedure again results in:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> exec pkg.pLexical   Depth   Line    NameDepth             Number-------   -----   ----    ----1         6       20      PKG.P2         5       17      PKG.P.Q3         4       14      PKG.P.Q.R4         3       10      PKG.P.Q.R.P0         2       26      PRINT_CALL_STACK1         1       17      PRINT_CALL_STACK.PRINTBEGIN pkg.p; END;*ERROR at line 1:ORA-06501: PL/SQL: program errorORA-06512: at "OPS$TKYTE.PKG", line 11ORA-06512: at "OPS$TKYTE.PKG", line 14ORA-06512: at "OPS$TKYTE.PKG", line 17ORA-06512: at "OPS$TKYTE.PKG", line 20ORA-06512: at line 1This time - we get much more than just a line number and a package name as we did previously with format_call_stack.  We not only got the line number and package (unit) name - we got the names of the subprograms - we can see that P called Q called R called P as nested subprograms.  Also note that we can see a 'truer' calling level with the lexical depth, we can see we "stepped" out of the package to call print_call_stack and that in turn called another nested subprogram.This new package will be a nice addition to everyone's error logging packages.  Of course there are other functions in there to get owner names, the edition in effect when the code was executed and more. See UTL_CALL_STACK for all of the details.

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• 12c - flashforward, flashback or see it as of now...

  - by noreply(at)blogger.com (Thomas Kyte)

  Oracle 9i exposed flashback query to developers for the first time.  The ability to flashback query dates back to version 4 however (it just wasn't exposed).  Every time you run a query in Oracle it is in fact a flashback query - it is what multi-versioning is all about.However, there was never a flashforward query (well, ok, the workspace manager has this capability - but with lots of extra baggage).  We've never been able to ask a table "what will you look like tomorrow" - but now we do.The capability is called Temporal Validity.  If you have a table with data that is effective dated - has a "start date" and "end date" column in it - we can now query it using flashback query like syntax.  The twist is - the date we "flashback" to can be in the future.  It works by rewriting the query to transparently the necessary where clause and filter out the right rows for the right period of time - and since you can have records whose start date is in the future - you can query a table and see what it would look like at some future time.Here is a quick example, we'll start with a table:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> create table addresses  2  ( empno       number,  3    addr_data   varchar2(30),  4    start_date  date,  5    end_date    date,  6    period for valid(start_date,end_date)  7  )  8  /Table created.the new bit is on line 6 (it can be altered into an existing table - so any table  you have with a start/end date column will be a candidate).  The keyword is PERIOD, valid is an identifier I chose - it could have been foobar, valid just sounds nice in the query later.  You identify the columns in your table - or we can create them for you if they don't exist.  Then you just create some data:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> insert into addresses (empno, addr_data, start_date, end_date )  2  values ( 1234, '123 Main Street', trunc(sysdate-5), trunc(sysdate-2) );1 row created.ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1>ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> insert into addresses (empno, addr_data, start_date, end_date )  2  values ( 1234, '456 Fleet Street', trunc(sysdate-1), trunc(sysdate+1) );1 row created.ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1>ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> insert into addresses (empno, addr_data, start_date, end_date )  2  values ( 1234, '789 1st Ave', trunc(sysdate+2), null );1 row created.and you can either see all of the data:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select * from addresses;     EMPNO ADDR_DATA                      START_DAT END_DATE---------- ------------------------------ --------- ---------      1234 123 Main Street                27-JUN-13 30-JUN-13      1234 456 Fleet Street               01-JUL-13 03-JUL-13      1234 789 1st Ave                    04-JUL-13or query "as of" some point in time - as  you can see in the predicate section - it is just doing a query rewrite to automate the "where" filters:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select * from addresses as of period for valid sysdate-3;     EMPNO ADDR_DATA                      START_DAT END_DATE---------- ------------------------------ --------- ---------      1234 123 Main Street                27-JUN-13 30-JUN-13ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> @planops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select * from table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor);PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT-------------------------------------------------------------------------------SQL_ID  cthtvvm0dxvva, child number 0-------------------------------------select * from addresses as of period for valid sysdate-3Plan hash value: 3184888728-------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Id  | Operation         | Name      | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT  |           |       |       |     3 (100)|          ||*  1 |  TABLE ACCESS FULL| ADDRESSES |     1 |    48 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Predicate Information (identified by operation id):---------------------------------------------------   1 - filter((("T"."START_DATE" IS NULL OR              "T"."START_DATE"<=SYSDATE@!-3) AND ("T"."END_DATE" IS NULL OR              "T"."END_DATE">SYSDATE@!-3)))Note-----   - dynamic statistics used: dynamic sampling (level=2)24 rows selected.ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select * from addresses as of period for valid sysdate;     EMPNO ADDR_DATA                      START_DAT END_DATE---------- ------------------------------ --------- ---------      1234 456 Fleet Street               01-JUL-13 03-JUL-13ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> @planops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select * from table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor);PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT-------------------------------------------------------------------------------SQL_ID  26ubyhw9hgk7z, child number 0-------------------------------------select * from addresses as of period for valid sysdatePlan hash value: 3184888728-------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Id  | Operation         | Name      | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT  |           |       |       |     3 (100)|          ||*  1 |  TABLE ACCESS FULL| ADDRESSES |     1 |    48 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Predicate Information (identified by operation id):---------------------------------------------------   1 - filter((("T"."START_DATE" IS NULL OR              "T"."START_DATE"<=SYSDATE@!) AND ("T"."END_DATE" IS NULL OR              "T"."END_DATE">SYSDATE@!)))Note-----   - dynamic statistics used: dynamic sampling (level=2)24 rows selected.ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select * from addresses as of period for valid sysdate+3;     EMPNO ADDR_DATA                      START_DAT END_DATE---------- ------------------------------ --------- ---------      1234 789 1st Ave                    04-JUL-13ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> @planops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select * from table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor);PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT-------------------------------------------------------------------------------SQL_ID  36bq7shnhc888, child number 0-------------------------------------select * from addresses as of period for valid sysdate+3Plan hash value: 3184888728-------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Id  | Operation         | Name      | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT  |           |       |       |     3 (100)|          ||*  1 |  TABLE ACCESS FULL| ADDRESSES |     1 |    48 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Predicate Information (identified by operation id):---------------------------------------------------   1 - filter((("T"."START_DATE" IS NULL OR              "T"."START_DATE"<=SYSDATE@!+3) AND ("T"."END_DATE" IS NULL OR              "T"."END_DATE">SYSDATE@!+3)))Note-----   - dynamic statistics used: dynamic sampling (level=2)24 rows selected.All in all a nice, easy way to query effective dated information as of a point in time without a complex where clause.  You need to maintain the data - it isn't that a delete will turn into an update the end dates a record or anything - but if you have tables with start/end dates, this will make it much easier to query them.

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• HTC Launches HTC Mozart Windows Phone 7 In India

  - by Gopinath

  Here comes the second Windows Phone 7 device to Indian market – HTC Mozart. HTC India website has a special page for this smartphone that showcases details of the phone. The phone is not yet  widely available in retail stores across Indian and it’s expected to be available in couple of weeks. The first Windows Phone 7 smartphone released in India was also from HTC, the HTC HD7. It’s available in selected retail outlets at a price tag of  Rs. 27,885. HTC Mozart is expected to cost around Rs 30,000. Features of HTC Mozart Specs of  HTC 7 Mozart is nearly identical to HTC HD7, apart from 8 GB internal storage, 3.7 inches screen size and 8 MP camera. 3.7 inch, 480 x 800 16M colours S-LCD capacitive touchscreen. Accelerometer, Proximity sensor and pinch Zoom. 11.9mm thick and Weighs 130g. 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 Processor. 8GB Internal Memory with no Expansion Slot. 8 MP Camera with Auto focus, Geo tagging and Xenon Flash, 720p Video recording, No secondary camera. 3G HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n FM radio with RDS, GPS with A-GPS. 1300 mAh Li-Ion Battery Standby 360 h (2G) and 435 h (3G), Talk time 6 h 40 min (2G) and 5 h 30 min (3G). This article titled,HTC Launches HTC Mozart Windows Phone 7 In India, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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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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• ASP.NET AJAX Microsoft tutorial

  - by Yousef_Jadallah

  Many people asking about the previous link of ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 documentation that started with  http://www.asp.net/ajax/documentation/live which support .NET 2. Actually, this link has been removed but instead you can visit  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb398874.aspx which illustrate the version that Supported for .NET  4, 3.5 . Hope this help.

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• SQL Developer Database Diff – Compare Objects From Multiple Schemas

  - by thatjeffsmith

  Ever wonder why Database Diff isn’t called Schema Diff? One reason is because SQL Developer allows you select objects from more than one schema in the ‘Source’ connection for the compare. Simply use the ‘More’ dialog view and select as many tables from as many different schemas as you require Now, before you get around to testing this – as you should never believe what I say, trust but verify – two things you need to know: I’m using SQL Developer version 3.2 On the initial screen you need to use the ‘Maintain’ option Maintain tells SQL Developer to use the schema designation in the source connection to find the same corresponding object in the destination schema. Choose ‘maintain’ if you want to compare objects in the same schema in the destination but don’t have the user login for that schema. So after you’ve selected your databases, your diff preferences, and your objects – you’re ready to perform the compare and review your results. The DIFF Report Notice the highlighted text, SQL Developer is ‘maintaining’ the Schema context from the two databases. Short and sweet. That’s pretty much all there is to doing a compare with SQL Developer with multiple schemas involved. You may have noticed in some posts lately that my editor screenshots had a ‘green screen’ look and feel to them. What’s with the black background in your editors? In the SQL Developer preferences, you can set your editor color schemes. I started with the ‘Twilight’ scheme (team Jacob in case you’re wondering) and then customized it further by going with a default green font color. You could go pretty crazy in here, and I’m assuming 90% of you could care less and will just stick with the original. But for those of you who are particular about your IDE styling – go crazy! SQL Developer Editor Display Preferences

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• Upgrade to Win7 with upgrade key and full disc

  - by Jamin

  I just ordered a retail copy of Windows 7 Professional Upgrade to finally upgrade my work computer from Vista. It's not scheduled to be delivered until Monday, though, and I was hoping to take my computer home and upgrade over the weekend. I already have a full retail (non-upgrade) disc for the same edition that I'd bought for myself, though. So can I use that disc to perform the install, and then just enter my upgrade key on Monday when it comes in? Will that make everything activate properly? Or do I need to wait till I get my actual upgrade-specific disc before I try to use my upgrade-specific key? Thanks in advance.

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• Toorcon14

  - by danx

  Toorcon 2012 Information Security Conference San Diego, CA, http://www.toorcon.org/ Dan Anderson, October 2012 It's almost Halloween, and we all know what that means—yes, of course, it's time for another Toorcon Conference! Toorcon is an annual conference for people interested in computer security. This includes the whole range of hackers, computer hobbyists, professionals, security consultants, press, law enforcement, prosecutors, FBI, etc. We're at Toorcon 14—see earlier blogs for some of the previous Toorcon's I've attended (back to 2003). This year's "con" was held at the Westin on Broadway in downtown San Diego, California. The following are not necessarily my views—I'm just the messenger—although I could have misquoted or misparaphrased the speakers. Also, I only reviewed some of the talks, below, which I attended and interested me. MalAndroid—the Crux of Android Infections, Aditya K. Sood Programming Weird Machines with ELF Metadata, Rebecca "bx" Shapiro Privacy at the Handset: New FCC Rules?, Valkyrie Hacking Measured Boot and UEFI, Dan Griffin You Can't Buy Security: Building the Open Source InfoSec Program, Boris Sverdlik What Journalists Want: The Investigative Reporters' Perspective on Hacking, Dave Maas & Jason Leopold Accessibility and Security, Anna Shubina Stop Patching, for Stronger PCI Compliance, Adam Brand McAfee Secure & Trustmarks — a Hacker's Best Friend, Jay James & Shane MacDougall MalAndroid—the Crux of Android Infections Aditya K. Sood, IOActive, Michigan State PhD candidate Aditya talked about Android smartphone malware. There's a lot of old Android software out there—over 50% Gingerbread (2.3.x)—and most have unpatched vulnerabilities. Of 9 Android vulnerabilities, 8 have known exploits (such as the old Gingerbread Global Object Table exploit). Android protection includes sandboxing, security scanner, app permissions, and screened Android app market. The Android permission checker has fine-grain resource control, policy enforcement. Android static analysis also includes a static analysis app checker (bouncer), and a vulnerablity checker. What security problems does Android have? User-centric security, which depends on the user to grant permission and make smart decisions. But users don't care or think about malware (the're not aware, not paranoid). All they want is functionality, extensibility, mobility Android had no "proper" encryption before Android 3.0 No built-in protection against social engineering and web tricks Alternative Android app markets are unsafe. Simply visiting some markets can infect Android Aditya classified Android Malware types as: Type A—Apps. These interact with the Android app framework. For example, a fake Netflix app. Or Android Gold Dream (game), which uploads user files stealthy manner to a remote location. Type K—Kernel. Exploits underlying Linux libraries or kernel Type H—Hybrid. These use multiple layers (app framework, libraries, kernel). These are most commonly used by Android botnets, which are popular with Chinese botnet authors What are the threats from Android malware? These incude leak info (contacts), banking fraud, corporate network attacks, malware advertising, malware "Hackivism" (the promotion of social causes. For example, promiting specific leaders of the Tunisian or Iranian revolutions. Android malware is frequently "masquerated". That is, repackaged inside a legit app with malware. To avoid detection, the hidden malware is not unwrapped until runtime. The malware payload can be hidden in, for example, PNG files. Less common are Android bootkits—there's not many around. What they do is hijack the Android init framework—alteering system programs and daemons, then deletes itself. For example, the DKF Bootkit (China). Android App Problems: no code signing! all self-signed native code execution permission sandbox — all or none alternate market places no robust Android malware detection at network level delayed patch process Programming Weird Machines with ELF Metadata Rebecca "bx" Shapiro, Dartmouth College, NH https://github.com/bx/elf-bf-tools @bxsays on twitter Definitions. "ELF" is an executable file format used in linking and loading executables (on UNIX/Linux-class machines). "Weird machine" uses undocumented computation sources (I think of them as unintended virtual machines). Some examples of "weird machines" are those that: return to weird location, does SQL injection, corrupts the heap. Bx then talked about using ELF metadata as (an uintended) "weird machine". Some ELF background: A compiler takes source code and generates a ELF object file (hello.o). A static linker makes an ELF executable from the object file. A runtime linker and loader takes ELF executable and loads and relocates it in memory. The ELF file has symbols to relocate functions and variables. ELF has two relocation tables—one at link time and another one at loading time: .rela.dyn (link time) and .dynsym (dynamic table). GOT: Global Offset Table of addresses for dynamically-linked functions. PLT: Procedure Linkage Tables—works with GOT. The memory layout of a process (not the ELF file) is, in order: program (+ heap), dynamic libraries, libc, ld.so, stack (which includes the dynamic table loaded into memory) For ELF, the "weird machine" is found and exploited in the loader. ELF can be crafted for executing viruses, by tricking runtime into executing interpreted "code" in the ELF symbol table. One can inject parasitic "code" without modifying the actual ELF code portions. Think of the ELF symbol table as an "assembly language" interpreter. It has these elements: instructions: Add, move, jump if not 0 (jnz) Think of symbol table entries as "registers" symbol table value is "contents" immediate values are constants direct values are addresses (e.g., 0xdeadbeef) move instruction: is a relocation table entry add instruction: relocation table "addend" entry jnz instruction: takes multiple relocation table entries The ELF weird machine exploits the loader by relocating relocation table entries. The loader will go on forever until told to stop. It stores state on stack at "end" and uses IFUNC table entries (containing function pointer address). The ELF weird machine, called "Brainfu*k" (BF) has: 8 instructions: pointer inc, dec, inc indirect, dec indirect, jump forward, jump backward, print. Three registers - 3 registers Bx showed example BF source code that implemented a Turing machine printing "hello, world". More interesting was the next demo, where bx modified ping. Ping runs suid as root, but quickly drops privilege. BF modified the loader to disable the library function call dropping privilege, so it remained as root. Then BF modified the ping -t argument to execute the -t filename as root. It's best to show what this modified ping does with an example: $ whoami bx $ ping localhost -t backdoor.sh # executes backdoor $ whoami root $ The modified code increased from 285948 bytes to 290209 bytes. A BF tool compiles "executable" by modifying the symbol table in an existing ELF executable. The tool modifies .dynsym and .rela.dyn table, but not code or data. Privacy at the Handset: New FCC Rules? "Valkyrie" (Christie Dudley, Santa Clara Law JD candidate) Valkyrie talked about mobile handset privacy. Some background: Senator Franken (also a comedian) became alarmed about CarrierIQ, where the carriers track their customers. Franken asked the FCC to find out what obligations carriers think they have to protect privacy. The carriers' response was that they are doing just fine with self-regulation—no worries! Carriers need to collect data, such as missed calls, to maintain network quality. But carriers also sell data for marketing. Verizon sells customer data and enables this with a narrow privacy policy (only 1 month to opt out, with difficulties). The data sold is not individually identifiable and is aggregated. But Verizon recommends, as an aggregation workaround to "recollate" data to other databases to identify customers indirectly. The FCC has regulated telephone privacy since 1934 and mobile network privacy since 2007. Also, the carriers say mobile phone privacy is a FTC responsibility (not FCC). FTC is trying to improve mobile app privacy, but FTC has no authority over carrier / customer relationships. As a side note, Apple iPhones are unique as carriers have extra control over iPhones they don't have with other smartphones. As a result iPhones may be more regulated. Who are the consumer advocates? Everyone knows EFF, but EPIC (Electrnic Privacy Info Center), although more obsecure, is more relevant. What to do? Carriers must be accountable. Opt-in and opt-out at any time. Carriers need incentive to grant users control for those who want it, by holding them liable and responsible for breeches on their clock. Location information should be added current CPNI privacy protection, and require "Pen/trap" judicial order to obtain (and would still be a lower standard than 4th Amendment). Politics are on a pro-privacy swing now, with many senators and the Whitehouse. There will probably be new regulation soon, and enforcement will be a problem, but consumers will still have some benefit. Hacking Measured Boot and UEFI Dan Griffin, JWSecure, Inc., Seattle, @JWSdan Dan talked about hacking measured UEFI boot. First some terms: UEFI is a boot technology that is replacing BIOS (has whitelisting and blacklisting). UEFI protects devices against rootkits. TPM - hardware security device to store hashs and hardware-protected keys "secure boot" can control at firmware level what boot images can boot "measured boot" OS feature that tracks hashes (from BIOS, boot loader, krnel, early drivers). "remote attestation" allows remote validation and control based on policy on a remote attestation server. Microsoft pushing TPM (Windows 8 required), but Google is not. Intel TianoCore is the only open source for UEFI. Dan has Measured Boot Tool at http://mbt.codeplex.com/ with a demo where you can also view TPM data. TPM support already on enterprise-class machines. UEFI Weaknesses. UEFI toolkits are evolving rapidly, but UEFI has weaknesses: assume user is an ally trust TPM implicitly, and attached to computer hibernate file is unprotected (disk encryption protects against this) protection migrating from hardware to firmware delays in patching and whitelist updates will UEFI really be adopted by the mainstream (smartphone hardware support, bank support, apathetic consumer support) You Can't Buy Security: Building the Open Source InfoSec Program Boris Sverdlik, ISDPodcast.com co-host Boris talked about problems typical with current security audits. "IT Security" is an oxymoron—IT exists to enable buiness, uptime, utilization, reporting, but don't care about security—IT has conflict of interest. There's no Magic Bullet ("blinky box"), no one-size-fits-all solution (e.g., Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs)). Regulations don't make you secure. The cloud is not secure (because of shared data and admin access). Defense and pen testing is not sexy. Auditors are not solution (security not a checklist)—what's needed is experience and adaptability—need soft skills. Step 1: First thing is to Google and learn the company end-to-end before you start. Get to know the management team (not IT team), meet as many people as you can. Don't use arbitrary values such as CISSP scores. Quantitive risk assessment is a myth (e.g. AV*EF-SLE). Learn different Business Units, legal/regulatory obligations, learn the business and where the money is made, verify company is protected from script kiddies (easy), learn sensitive information (IP, internal use only), and start with low-hanging fruit (customer service reps and social engineering). Step 2: Policies. Keep policies short and relevant. Generic SANS "security" boilerplate policies don't make sense and are not followed. Focus on acceptable use, data usage, communications, physical security. Step 3: Implementation: keep it simple stupid. Open source, although useful, is not free (implementation cost). Access controls with authentication & authorization for local and remote access. MS Windows has it, otherwise use OpenLDAP, OpenIAM, etc. Application security Everyone tries to reinvent the wheel—use existing static analysis tools. Review high-risk apps and major revisions. Don't run different risk level apps on same system. Assume host/client compromised and use app-level security control. Network security VLAN != segregated because there's too many workarounds. Use explicit firwall rules, active and passive network monitoring (snort is free), disallow end user access to production environment, have a proxy instead of direct Internet access. Also, SSL certificates are not good two-factor auth and SSL does not mean "safe." Operational Controls Have change, patch, asset, & vulnerability management (OSSI is free). For change management, always review code before pushing to production For logging, have centralized security logging for business-critical systems, separate security logging from administrative/IT logging, and lock down log (as it has everything). Monitor with OSSIM (open source). Use intrusion detection, but not just to fulfill a checkbox: build rules from a whitelist perspective (snort). OSSEC has 95% of what you need. Vulnerability management is a QA function when done right: OpenVas and Seccubus are free. Security awareness The reality is users will always click everything. Build real awareness, not compliance driven checkbox, and have it integrated into the culture. Pen test by crowd sourcing—test with logging COSSP http://www.cossp.org/ - Comprehensive Open Source Security Project What Journalists Want: The Investigative Reporters' Perspective on Hacking Dave Maas, San Diego CityBeat Jason Leopold, Truthout.org The difference between hackers and investigative journalists: For hackers, the motivation varies, but method is same, technological specialties. For investigative journalists, it's about one thing—The Story, and they need broad info-gathering skills. J-School in 60 Seconds: Generic formula: Person or issue of pubic interest, new info, or angle. Generic criteria: proximity, prominence, timeliness, human interest, oddity, or consequence. Media awareness of hackers and trends: journalists becoming extremely aware of hackers with congressional debates (privacy, data breaches), demand for data-mining Journalists, use of coding and web development for Journalists, and Journalists busted for hacking (Murdock). Info gathering by investigative journalists include Public records laws. Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is good, but slow. California Public Records Act is a lot stronger. FOIA takes forever because of foot-dragging—it helps to be specific. Often need to sue (especially FBI). CPRA is faster, and requests can be vague. Dumps and leaks (a la Wikileaks) Journalists want: leads, protecting ourselves, our sources, and adapting tools for news gathering (Google hacking). Anonomity is important to whistleblowers. They want no digital footprint left behind (e.g., email, web log). They don't trust encryption, want to feel safe and secure. Whistleblower laws are very weak—there's no upside for whistleblowers—they have to be very passionate to do it. Accessibility and Security or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Halting Problem Anna Shubina, Dartmouth College Anna talked about how accessibility and security are related. Accessibility of digital content (not real world accessibility). mostly refers to blind users and screenreaders, for our purpose. Accessibility is about parsing documents, as are many security issues. "Rich" executable content causes accessibility to fail, and often causes security to fail. For example MS Word has executable format—it's not a document exchange format—more dangerous than PDF or HTML. Accessibility is often the first and maybe only sanity check with parsing. They have no choice because someone may want to read what you write. Google, for example, is very particular about web browser you use and are bad at supporting other browsers. Uses JavaScript instead of links, often requiring mouseover to display content. PDF is a security nightmare. Executible format, embedded flash, JavaScript, etc. 15 million lines of code. Google Chrome doesn't handle PDF correctly, causing several security bugs. PDF has an accessibility checker and PDF tagging, to help with accessibility. But no PDF checker checks for incorrect tags, untagged content, or validates lists or tables. None check executable content at all. The "Halting Problem" is: can one decide whether a program will ever stop? The answer, in general, is no (Rice's theorem). The same holds true for accessibility checkers. Language-theoretic Security says complicated data formats are hard to parse and cannot be solved due to the Halting Problem. W3C Web Accessibility Guidelines: "Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust" Not much help though, except for "Robust", but here's some gems: * all information should be parsable (paraphrasing) * if not parsable, cannot be converted to alternate formats * maximize compatibility in new document formats Executible webpages are bad for security and accessibility. They say it's for a better web experience. But is it necessary to stuff web pages with JavaScript for a better experience? A good example is The Drudge Report—it has hand-written HTML with no JavaScript, yet drives a lot of web traffic due to good content. A bad example is Google News—hidden scrollbars, guessing user input. Solutions: Accessibility and security problems come from same source Expose "better user experience" myth Keep your corner of Internet parsable Remember "Halting Problem"—recognize false solutions (checking and verifying tools) Stop Patching, for Stronger PCI Compliance Adam Brand, protiviti @adamrbrand, http://www.picfun.com/ Adam talked about PCI compliance for retail sales. Take an example: for PCI compliance, 50% of Brian's time (a IT guy), 960 hours/year was spent patching POSs in 850 restaurants. Often applying some patches make no sense (like fixing a browser vulnerability on a server). "Scanner worship" is overuse of vulnerability scanners—it gives a warm and fuzzy and it's simple (red or green results—fix reds). Scanners give a false sense of security. In reality, breeches from missing patches are uncommon—more common problems are: default passwords, cleartext authentication, misconfiguration (firewall ports open). Patching Myths: Myth 1: install within 30 days of patch release (but PCI §6.1 allows a "risk-based approach" instead). Myth 2: vendor decides what's critical (also PCI §6.1). But §6.2 requires user ranking of vulnerabilities instead. Myth 3: scan and rescan until it passes. But PCI §11.2.1b says this applies only to high-risk vulnerabilities. Adam says good recommendations come from NIST 800-40. Instead use sane patching and focus on what's really important. From NIST 800-40: Proactive: Use a proactive vulnerability management process: use change control, configuration management, monitor file integrity. Monitor: start with NVD and other vulnerability alerts, not scanner results. Evaluate: public-facing system? workstation? internal server? (risk rank) Decide:on action and timeline Test: pre-test patches (stability, functionality, rollback) for change control Install: notify, change control, tickets McAfee Secure & Trustmarks — a Hacker's Best Friend Jay James, Shane MacDougall, Tactical Intelligence Inc., Canada "McAfee Secure Trustmark" is a website seal marketed by McAfee. A website gets this badge if they pass their remote scanning. The problem is a removal of trustmarks act as flags that you're vulnerable. Easy to view status change by viewing McAfee list on website or on Google. "Secure TrustGuard" is similar to McAfee. Jay and Shane wrote Perl scripts to gather sites from McAfee and search engines. If their certification image changes to a 1x1 pixel image, then they are longer certified. Their scripts take deltas of scans to see what changed daily. The bottom line is change in TrustGuard status is a flag for hackers to attack your site. Entire idea of seals is silly—you're raising a flag saying if you're vulnerable.

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• Slides of my HOL on MySQL Cluster

  - by user13819847

  Hi!Thanks everyone who attended my hands-on lab on MySQL Cluster at MySQL Connect last Saturday.The following are the links for the slides, the HOL instructions, and the code examples.I'll try to summarize my HOL below.Aim of the HOL was to help attendees to familiarize with MySQL Cluster. In particular, by learning: the basics of MySQL Cluster Architecture the basics of MySQL Cluster Configuration and Administration how to start a new Cluster for evaluation purposes and how to connect to it We started by introducing MySQL Cluster. MySQL Cluster is a proven technology that today is successfully servicing the most performance-intensive workloads. MySQL Cluster is deployed across telecom networks and is powering mission-critical web applications. Without trading off use of commodity hardware, transactional consistency and use of complex queries, MySQL Cluster provides: Web Scalability (web-scale performance on both reads and writes) Carrier Grade Availability (99.999%) Developer Agility (freedom to use SQL or NoSQL access methods) MySQL Cluster implements: an Auto-Sharding, Multi-Master, Shared-nothing Architecture, where independent nodes can scale horizontally on commodity hardware with no shared disks, no shared memory, no single point of failure In the architecture of MySQL Cluster it is possible to find three types of nodes: management nodes: responsible for reading the configuration files, maintaining logs, and providing an interface to the administration of the entire cluster data nodes: where data and indexes are stored api nodes: provide the external connectivity (e.g. the NDB engine of the MySQL Server, APIs, Connectors) MySQL Cluster is recommended in the situations where: it is crucial to reduce service downtime, because this produces a heavy impact on business sharding the database to scale write performance higly impacts development of application (in MySQL Cluster the sharding is automatic and transparent to the application) there are real time needs there are unpredictable scalability demands it is important to have data-access flexibility (SQL & NoSQL) MySQL Cluster is available in two Editions: Community Edition (Open Source, freely downloadable from mysql.com) Carrier Grade Edition (Commercial Edition, can be downloaded from eDelivery for evaluation purposes) MySQL Carrier Grade Edition adds on the top of the Community Edition: Commercial Extensions (MySQL Cluster Manager, MySQL Enterprise Monitor, MySQL Cluster Installer) Oracle's Premium Support Services (largest team of MySQL experts backed by MySQL developers, forward compatible hot fixes, multi-language support, and more) We concluded talking about the MySQL Cluster vision: MySQL Cluster is the default database for anyone deploying rapidly evolving, realtime transactional services at web-scale, where downtime is simply not an option. From a practical point of view the HOL's steps were: MySQL Cluster installation start & monitoring of the MySQL Cluster processes client connection to the Management Server and to an SQL Node connection using the NoSQL NDB API and the Connector J In the hope that this blog post can help you get started with MySQL Cluster, I take the opportunity to thank you for the questions you made both during the HOL and at the MySQL Cluster booth. Slides are also on SlideShares: Santo Leto - MySQL Connect 2012 - Getting Started with Mysql Cluster Happy Clustering!

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• Getting started with Blocks and namespaces - Enterprise Library 5.0 Tutorial Part 2

  This is my second post in this series. In first blog post I explained how to install Enterprise Library 5.0 and provided links to various resources. Enterprise Library is divided into various blocks. Simply we can say, a block is a ready made solution for a particular common problem across various applications. So instead focusing on implementation of common problem across various applications, we can reuse these fully tested and extendable blocks to increase the productivity and also extendibility as these blocks are made with good design principles and patterns. Major blocks of Enterprise Library 5.0 are as follows.   Core infrastructure Functional Application Blocks Caching Data Exception Handling Logging Security Cryptography Validation Wiring Application Blocks Unity Policy Injection/Interception   Each block resides in its own assembly, and also some extra assemblies for common infrastructure. Assemblies are as follows. Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching.Cryptography.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching.Database.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Configuration.Design.HostAdapter.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Configuration.Design.HostAdapterV5.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Configuration.DesignTime.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Configuration.EnvironmentalOverrides.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data.SqlCe.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.Logging.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.WCF.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging.Database.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.PolicyInjection.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Security.Cache.CachingStore.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Security.Cryptography.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Security.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation.Integration.AspNet.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation.Integration.WCF.dll Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Validation.Integration.WinForms.dll Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation.dll Microsoft.Practices.Unity.Configuration.dll Microsoft.Practices.Unity.dll Microsoft.Practices.Unity.Interception.dll Enterprise Library Configuration Tool In addition to these assemblies you would get configuration tool “EntLibConfig-32.exe”. If you are targeting your application to .NET 4.0 framework then you would need to use “EntLibConfig.NET4.exe”. Optionally you can install Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010 add-ins whilst installing of Enterprise Library. So that you can invoke the enterprise Library configuration from Visual Studio by right clicking on “app.config” or “web.config” file as shown below. I would suggest you to download the documentation from Codeplex which was released on May 2010. It consists 3MB of information. you can also find issue tracker to know various issues/bugs currently people talking about enterprise library. There is also discussion link takes you to community site where you can post your questions. In my next blog post, I would cover more on each block. span.fullpost {display:none;}

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• How can I run supervisord without using root?

  - by Jason Baker

  I seem to be having trouble figuring out why supervisord won't run as a non-root user. If I start it with the user set to jason (pid 1000), I get the following in the log file: 2010-05-24 08:53:32,143 CRIT Set uid to user 1000 2010-05-24 08:53:32,143 WARN Included extra file "/home/jason/src/tsched/celeryd.conf" during parsing 2010-05-24 08:53:32,189 INFO RPC interface 'supervisor' initialized 2010-05-24 08:53:32,189 WARN cElementTree not installed, using slower XML parser for XML-RPC 2010-05-24 08:53:32,189 CRIT Server 'unix_http_server' running without any HTTP authentication checking 2010-05-24 08:53:32,190 INFO daemonizing the supervisord process 2010-05-24 08:53:32,191 INFO supervisord started with pid 3444 ...then the process dies for some unknown reason. If I start it without sudo (under the user jason), I get similar output: 2010-05-24 08:51:32,859 INFO supervisord started with pid 3306 2010-05-24 08:52:15,761 CRIT Can't drop privilege as nonroot user 2010-05-24 08:52:15,761 WARN Included extra file "/home/jason/src/tsched/celeryd.conf" during parsing 2010-05-24 08:52:15,807 INFO RPC interface 'supervisor' initialized 2010-05-24 08:52:15,807 WARN cElementTree not installed, using slower XML parser for XML-RPC 2010-05-24 08:52:15,807 CRIT Server 'unix_http_server' running without any HTTP authentication checking 2010-05-24 08:52:15,808 INFO daemonizing the supervisord process 2010-05-24 08:52:15,809 INFO supervisord started with pid 3397 ...and it still doesn't run. If it's any help, here's the supervisord.conf file I'm using: [unix_http_server] file=/tmp/supervisor.sock ; path to your socket file [supervisord] logfile=./supervisord.log ; supervisord log file logfile_maxbytes=50MB ; maximum size of logfile before rotation logfile_backups=10 ; number of backed up logfiles loglevel=debug ; info, debug, warn, trace pidfile=./supervisord.pid ; pidfile location nodaemon=false ; run supervisord as a daemon minfds=1024 ; number of startup file descriptors minprocs=200 ; number of process descriptors user=jason ; default user childlogdir=./supervisord/ ; where child log files will live [rpcinterface:supervisor] supervisor.rpcinterface_factory = supervisor.rpcinterface:make_main_rpcinterface [supervisorctl] serverurl=unix:///tmp/supervisor.sock ; use unix:// schem for a unix sockets. [include] # Uncomment this line for celeryd for Python files=celeryd.conf # Uncomment this line for celeryd for Django. ;files=django/celeryd.conf ...and here's celeryd.conf: [program:celery] command=bin/celeryd --loglevel=INFO --logfile=./celeryd.log environment=PYTHONPATH='./tsched_worker', JIVA_DB_PLATFORM='oracle', ORACLE_HOME='/usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server', LD_LIBRARY_PATH='/usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/lib', TNS_ADMIN='/home/jason', CELERY_CONFIG_MODULE='tsched_worker.celeryconfig' directory=. user=jason numprocs=1 stdout_logfile=/var/log/celeryd.log stderr_logfile=/var/log/celeryd.log autostart=true autorestart=true startsecs=10 ; Need to wait for currently executing tasks to finish at shutdown. ; Increase this if you have very long running tasks. stopwaitsecs = 600 ; if rabbitmq is supervised, set its priority higher ; so it starts first priority=998 Can anyone help me figure out what's going on?

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• Deployment Options for AutoVue 20.0 Users

  - by celine.beck

  AutoVue release 20.0 boasts a brand new architecture. As part of this product rearchitecture, AutoVue can now be deployed either as a desktop deployment to serve the needs of individual users in their personal productivity; or in a Client / Server deployment for those that require connections to enterprise applications / back-end systems. The most common question that we hear from our customers about this new architecture is the following: "Is AutoVue Desktop Version still part of release 20.0 and if so, what is the difference between AutoVue Desktop Version and the Desktop deployment of AutoVue release 20.0?" A detailed answer to these questions is provided in a very complete article entitled Understanding Deployment Options for AutoVue 19.3 Desktop Version users upgrading to AutoVue 20.0 (note 1058254.1) which was posted on My Oracle Support. Is AutoVue Desktop Version still part of AutoVue 20.0? Yes, AutoVue Desktop Version 20.0 is still available to customers and partners, as a maintenance release of AutoVue 19.3. As such, it will not contain any of the new capabilities featured in AutoVue release 20.0. All format enhancements and new format support have been added to release 20.0 Desktop Version though. What is the different between AutoVue Desktop Version 20.0 and the Desktop Deployment of AutoVue release 20.0? AutoVue 20.0 Desktop deployment works like the AutoVue Desktop version. It is installed as a standalone product on each user's machine and runs a local instance of AutoVue. The AutoVue 20.0 Desktop deployment includes all new features, formats and performance enhancements included in release 20.0 (walkthrough capability, improved compare, ...) What deployment options are available to AutoVue 19.3 Desktop Version customers? AutoVue Desktop Version users can evolve at their own pace to the new AutoVue platform. With release 20.0, customers can opt to: Option 1: Stay on AutoVue Desktop Version 20.0 Option 2: Migrate to AutoVue and select the desktop deployment method Option 3: Migrate to AutoVue and select the Client/Server deployment method What is the Client / Server deployment of AutoVue 20.0? The Client/Server deployment has AutoVue installed on a server, to which local client machines connect to access and view documents. AutoVue 20.0 Client Server Deployment allows users to leverage the new online/offline capabilities in release 20.0 and easily switch between online and offline modes of operation. With the Client/Server deployment, customers also get a complete, open and standards-based set of integration tools that allows them to tie AutoVue to any enterprise applications to provide users with a consistent view of data and business objects and expand workflow automation to document-based processes. Related articles: AutoVue Release 20.0 Now Available, New Walkthrough Capability in AutoVue 20.0, Watch the AutoVue 20.0 Release Webcast, April 27 at 12pm EST

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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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• Easy Listening = CRM On Demand Podcasts

  - by Anne

  OK, here's my NEW favorite resource for CRM On Demand info -- podcasts! Specifically, the CRM On Demand Podcast site -- signed, sealed, and delivered with humor and know-how. Yes, I admit, I know the cast of characters. But let's face it, sometimes dealing with software is just soooo dry! Not so when discussed by the two main commentators, Louis Peters and Robert Davidson, whom someone once referred to as CRM On Demand's "Click and Clack." (Thought that was too good not to pass along!) Anyhow, another huge plus about the site is the option to listen OR to read. Out walking my dog or doing the dishes? Just turn up the podcast. Listening to music or watching TV? I'll read Louis's entertaining write-ups to glean great info about CRM On Demand in a very short period of time. So that you get a better understanding of why I like this site so much, here's a sampling of what's discussed: Five Things about Books of Business As Louis Peters put it in his entry, when you see "Five Things" in the title, "you'll know you're going to get some concrete advice that you can put to work right away." Well, Louis and Robert do just that, pointing you in the right direction when using Books of Business to segment data. Moving to Indexed Fields - A Rough Guide (only an article, not a podcast) I've read all about performance and even helped develop material around it. But nowhere have I heard indexed custom fields referred to as "super heroes." Louis and Robert use imaginative language to describe the process for moving your data to indexed fields for optimal performance. Data Access QA from the Forums I think that everyone would admit that data access and visibility is the most difficult topic to understand in CRM On Demand. Following up on their previous podcast on the same topic, Louis and Robert answer a few key questions from the many postings on the Oracle CRM On Demand forums. And I bet that the scenarios match many companies' business requirements...maybe even yours! We Need to Talk About Adoption Another expert, Tim Koehler, joins Louis to talk about how to drive user adoption: aligning product usage with business results, communicating why and how to use the product, getting feedback on usability, and so on. Hope I've made my point -- turn to these podcasts to hear knowledgeable folks discuss CRM On Demand tips and tricks in entertaining ways. One podcast is even called "SaaS Talk"!

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• Why does my motherboard go through an endless reboot cycle when 8 GB of memory is attempted vs 6 GB?

  - by nizm0

  I never got an answer in my googling to this about a year ago and have an extra stick of memory I'd like to be able to use. When is inserted the computer starts, and then reboots immediately in an endless reboot cycle. As soon as the 4th stick is removed, the computer works fine. Right now I have 6 GB of my 8 GB installed. Is there a solution that I am missing to enabling this motherboard to actually boot up with all 8 GB (it supports it). Right now it won't even boot up to BIOS with the 4 sticks... only 3? Memory: 1 x G.SKILL 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1100 (PC2 8800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI - Retail (URL: ) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231194 Motherboard: 1 x GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail ( URL: )http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359

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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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• Ancillary Objects: Separate Debug ELF Files For Solaris

  - by Ali Bahrami

  We introduced a new object ELF object type in Solaris 11 Update 1 called the Ancillary Object. This posting describes them, using material originally written during their development, the PSARC arc case, and the Solaris Linker and Libraries Manual. ELF objects contain allocable sections, which are mapped into memory at runtime, and non-allocable sections, which are present in the file for use by debuggers and observability tools, but which are not mapped or used at runtime. Typically, all of these sections exist within a single object file. Ancillary objects allow them to instead go into a separate file. There are different reasons given for wanting such a feature. One can debate whether the added complexity is worth the benefit, and in most cases it is not. However, one important case stands out — customers with very large 32-bit objects who are not ready or able to make the transition to 64-bits. We have customers who build extremely large 32-bit objects. Historically, the debug sections in these objects have used the stabs format, which is limited, but relatively compact. In recent years, the industry has transitioned to the powerful but verbose DWARF standard. In some cases, the size of these debug sections is large enough to push the total object file size past the fundamental 4GB limit for 32-bit ELF object files. The best, and ultimately only, solution to overly large objects is to transition to 64-bits. However, consider environments where: Hundreds of users may be executing the code on large shared systems. (32-bits use less memory and bus bandwidth, and on sparc runs just as fast as 64-bit code otherwise). Complex finely tuned code, where the original authors may no longer be available. Critical production code, that was expensive to qualify and bring online, and which is otherwise serving its intended purpose without issue. Users in these risk adverse and/or high scale categories have good reasons to push 32-bits objects to the limit before moving on. Ancillary objects offer these users a longer runway. Design The design of ancillary objects is intended to be simple, both to help human understanding when examining elfdump output, and to lower the bar for debuggers such as dbx to support them. The primary and ancillary objects have the same set of section headers, with the same names, in the same order (i.e. each section has the same index in both files). A single added section of type SHT_SUNW_ANCILLARY is added to both objects, containing information that allows a debugger to identify and validate both files relative to each other. Given one of these files, the ancillary section allows you to identify the other. Allocable sections go in the primary object, and non-allocable ones go into the ancillary object. A small set of non-allocable objects, notably the symbol table, are copied into both objects. As noted above, most sections are only written to one of the two objects, but both objects have the same section header array. The section header in the file that does not contain the section data is tagged with the SHF_SUNW_ABSENT section header flag to indicate its placeholder status. Compiler writers and others who produce objects can set the SUNW_SHF_PRIMARY section header flag to mark non-allocable sections that should go to the primary object rather than the ancillary. If you don't request an ancillary object, the Solaris ELF format is unchanged. Users who don't use ancillary objects do not pay for the feature. This is important, because they exist to serve a small subset of our users, and must not complicate the common case. If you do request an ancillary object, the runtime behavior of the primary object will be the same as that of a normal object. There is no added runtime cost. The primary and ancillary object together represent a logical single object. This is facilitated by the use of a single set of section headers. One can easily imagine a tool that can merge a primary and ancillary object into a single file, or the reverse. (Note that although this is an interesting intellectual exercise, we don't actually supply such a tool because there's little practical benefit above and beyond using ld to create the files). Among the benefits of this approach are: There is no need for per-file symbol tables to reflect the contents of each file. The same symbol table that would be produced for a standard object can be used. The section contents are identical in either case — there is no need to alter data to accommodate multiple files. It is very easy for a debugger to adapt to these new files, and the processing involved can be encapsulated in input/output routines. Most of the existing debugger implementation applies without modification. The limit of a 4GB 32-bit output object is now raised to 4GB of code, and 4GB of debug data. There is also the future possibility (not currently supported) to support multiple ancillary objects, each of which could contain up to 4GB of additional debug data. It must be noted however that the 32-bit DWARF debug format is itself inherently 32-bit limited, as it uses 32-bit offsets between debug sections, so the ability to employ multiple ancillary object files may not turn out to be useful. Using Ancillary Objects (From the Solaris Linker and Libraries Guide) By default, objects contain both allocable and non-allocable sections. Allocable sections are the sections that contain executable code and the data needed by that code at runtime. Non-allocable sections contain supplemental information that is not required to execute an object at runtime. These sections support the operation of debuggers and other observability tools. The non-allocable sections in an object are not loaded into memory at runtime by the operating system, and so, they have no impact on memory use or other aspects of runtime performance no matter their size. For convenience, both allocable and non-allocable sections are normally maintained in the same file. However, there are situations in which it can be useful to separate these sections. To reduce the size of objects in order to improve the speed at which they can be copied across wide area networks. To support fine grained debugging of highly optimized code requires considerable debug data. In modern systems, the debugging data can easily be larger than the code it describes. The size of a 32-bit object is limited to 4 Gbytes. In very large 32-bit objects, the debug data can cause this limit to be exceeded and prevent the creation of the object. To limit the exposure of internal implementation details. Traditionally, objects have been stripped of non-allocable sections in order to address these issues. Stripping is effective, but destroys data that might be needed later. The Solaris link-editor can instead write non-allocable sections to an ancillary object. This feature is enabled with the -z ancillary command line option. $ ld ... -z ancillary[=outfile] ...By default, the ancillary file is given the same name as the primary output object, with a .anc file extension. However, a different name can be provided by providing an outfile value to the -z ancillary option. When -z ancillary is specified, the link-editor performs the following actions. All allocable sections are written to the primary object. In addition, all non-allocable sections containing one or more input sections that have the SHF_SUNW_PRIMARY section header flag set are written to the primary object. All remaining non-allocable sections are written to the ancillary object. The following non-allocable sections are written to both the primary object and ancillary object. .shstrtab The section name string table. .symtab The full non-dynamic symbol table. .symtab_shndx The symbol table extended index section associated with .symtab. .strtab The non-dynamic string table associated with .symtab. .SUNW_ancillary Contains the information required to identify the primary and ancillary objects, and to identify the object being examined. The primary object and all ancillary objects contain the same array of sections headers. Each section has the same section index in every file. Although the primary and ancillary objects all define the same section headers, the data for most sections will be written to a single file as described above. If the data for a section is not present in a given file, the SHF_SUNW_ABSENT section header flag is set, and the sh_size field is 0. This organization makes it possible to acquire a full list of section headers, a complete symbol table, and a complete list of the primary and ancillary objects from either of the primary or ancillary objects. The following example illustrates the underlying implementation of ancillary objects. An ancillary object is created by adding the -z ancillary command line option to an otherwise normal compilation. The file utility shows that the result is an executable named a.out, and an associated ancillary object named a.out.anc. $ cat hello.c #include <stdio.h> int main(int argc, char **argv) { (void) printf("hello, world\n"); return (0); } $ cc -g -zancillary hello.c $ file a.out a.out.anc a.out: ELF 32-bit LSB executable 80386 Version 1 [FPU], dynamically linked, not stripped, ancillary object a.out.anc a.out.anc: ELF 32-bit LSB ancillary 80386 Version 1, primary object a.out $ ./a.out hello worldThe resulting primary object is an ordinary executable that can be executed in the usual manner. It is no different at runtime than an executable built without the use of ancillary objects, and then stripped of non-allocable content using the strip or mcs commands. As previously described, the primary object and ancillary objects contain the same section headers. To see how this works, it is helpful to use the elfdump utility to display these section headers and compare them. The following table shows the section header information for a selection of headers from the previous link-edit example. Index Section Name Type Primary Flags Ancillary Flags Primary Size Ancillary Size 13 .text PROGBITS ALLOC EXECINSTR ALLOC EXECINSTR SUNW_ABSENT 0x131 0 20 .data PROGBITS WRITE ALLOC WRITE ALLOC SUNW_ABSENT 0x4c 0 21 .symtab SYMTAB 0 0 0x450 0x450 22 .strtab STRTAB STRINGS STRINGS 0x1ad 0x1ad 24 .debug_info PROGBITS SUNW_ABSENT 0 0 0x1a7 28 .shstrtab STRTAB STRINGS STRINGS 0x118 0x118 29 .SUNW_ancillary SUNW_ancillary 0 0 0x30 0x30 The data for most sections is only present in one of the two files, and absent from the other file. The SHF_SUNW_ABSENT section header flag is set when the data is absent. The data for allocable sections needed at runtime are found in the primary object. The data for non-allocable sections used for debugging but not needed at runtime are placed in the ancillary file. A small set of non-allocable sections are fully present in both files. These are the .SUNW_ancillary section used to relate the primary and ancillary objects together, the section name string table .shstrtab, as well as the symbol table.symtab, and its associated string table .strtab. It is possible to strip the symbol table from the primary object. A debugger that encounters an object without a symbol table can use the .SUNW_ancillary section to locate the ancillary object, and access the symbol contained within. The primary object, and all associated ancillary objects, contain a .SUNW_ancillary section that allows all the objects to be identified and related together. $ elfdump -T SUNW_ancillary a.out a.out.anc a.out: Ancillary Section: .SUNW_ancillary index tag value [0] ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM 0x8724 [1] ANC_SUNW_MEMBER 0x1 a.out [2] ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM 0x8724 [3] ANC_SUNW_MEMBER 0x1a3 a.out.anc [4] ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM 0xfbe2 [5] ANC_SUNW_NULL 0 a.out.anc: Ancillary Section: .SUNW_ancillary index tag value [0] ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM 0xfbe2 [1] ANC_SUNW_MEMBER 0x1 a.out [2] ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM 0x8724 [3] ANC_SUNW_MEMBER 0x1a3 a.out.anc [4] ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM 0xfbe2 [5] ANC_SUNW_NULL 0 The ancillary sections for both objects contain the same number of elements, and are identical except for the first element. Each object, starting with the primary object, is introduced with a MEMBER element that gives the file name, followed by a CHECKSUM that identifies the object. In this example, the primary object is a.out, and has a checksum of 0x8724. The ancillary object is a.out.anc, and has a checksum of 0xfbe2. The first element in a .SUNW_ancillary section, preceding the MEMBER element for the primary object, is always a CHECKSUM element, containing the checksum for the file being examined. The presence of a .SUNW_ancillary section in an object indicates that the object has associated ancillary objects. The names of the primary and all associated ancillary objects can be obtained from the ancillary section from any one of the files. It is possible to determine which file is being examined from the larger set of files by comparing the first checksum value to the checksum of each member that follows. Debugger Access and Use of Ancillary Objects Debuggers and other observability tools must merge the information found in the primary and ancillary object files in order to build a complete view of the object. This is equivalent to processing the information from a single file. This merging is simplified by the primary object and ancillary objects containing the same section headers, and a single symbol table. The following steps can be used by a debugger to assemble the information contained in these files. Starting with the primary object, or any of the ancillary objects, locate the .SUNW_ancillary section. The presence of this section identifies the object as part of an ancillary group, contains information that can be used to obtain a complete list of the files and determine which of those files is the one currently being examined. Create a section header array in memory, using the section header array from the object being examined as an initial template. Open and read each file identified by the .SUNW_ancillary section in turn. For each file, fill in the in-memory section header array with the information for each section that does not have the SHF_SUNW_ABSENT flag set. The result will be a complete in-memory copy of the section headers with pointers to the data for all sections. Once this information has been acquired, the debugger can proceed as it would in the single file case, to access and control the running program. Note - The ELF definition of ancillary objects provides for a single primary object, and an arbitrary number of ancillary objects. At this time, the Oracle Solaris link-editor only produces a single ancillary object containing all non-allocable sections. This may change in the future. Debuggers and other observability tools should be written to handle the general case of multiple ancillary objects. ELF Implementation Details (From the Solaris Linker and Libraries Guide) To implement ancillary objects, it was necessary to extend the ELF format to add a new object type (ET_SUNW_ANCILLARY), a new section type (SHT_SUNW_ANCILLARY), and 2 new section header flags (SHF_SUNW_ABSENT, SHF_SUNW_PRIMARY). In this section, I will detail these changes, in the form of diffs to the Solaris Linker and Libraries manual. Part IV ELF Application Binary Interface Chapter 13: Object File Format Object File Format Edit Note: This existing section at the beginning of the chapter describes the ELF header. There's a table of object file types, which now includes the new ET_SUNW_ANCILLARY type. e_type Identifies the object file type, as listed in the following table. NameValueMeaning ET_NONE0No file type ET_REL1Relocatable file ET_EXEC2Executable file ET_DYN3Shared object file ET_CORE4Core file ET_LOSUNW0xfefeStart operating system specific range ET_SUNW_ANCILLARY0xfefeAncillary object file ET_HISUNW0xfefdEnd operating system specific range ET_LOPROC0xff00Start processor-specific range ET_HIPROC0xffffEnd processor-specific range Sections Edit Note: This overview section defines the section header structure, and provides a high level description of known sections. It was updated to define the new SHF_SUNW_ABSENT and SHF_SUNW_PRIMARY flags and the new SHT_SUNW_ANCILLARY section. ... sh_type Categorizes the section's contents and semantics. Section types and their descriptions are listed in Table 13-5. sh_flags Sections support 1-bit flags that describe miscellaneous attributes. Flag definitions are listed in Table 13-8. ... Table 13-5 ELF Section Types, sh_type NameValue . . . SHT_LOSUNW0x6fffffee SHT_SUNW_ancillary0x6fffffee . . . ... SHT_LOSUNW - SHT_HISUNW Values in this inclusive range are reserved for Oracle Solaris OS semantics. SHT_SUNW_ANCILLARY Present when a given object is part of a group of ancillary objects. Contains information required to identify all the files that make up the group. See Ancillary Section. ... Table 13-8 ELF Section Attribute Flags NameValue . . . SHF_MASKOS0x0ff00000 SHF_SUNW_NODISCARD0x00100000 SHF_SUNW_ABSENT0x00200000 SHF_SUNW_PRIMARY0x00400000 SHF_MASKPROC0xf0000000 . . . ... SHF_SUNW_ABSENT Indicates that the data for this section is not present in this file. When ancillary objects are created, the primary object and any ancillary objects, will all have the same section header array, to facilitate merging them to form a complete view of the object, and to allow them to use the same symbol tables. Each file contains a subset of the section data. The data for allocable sections is written to the primary object while the data for non-allocable sections is written to an ancillary file. The SHF_SUNW_ABSENT flag is used to indicate that the data for the section is not present in the object being examined. When the SHF_SUNW_ABSENT flag is set, the sh_size field of the section header must be 0. An application encountering an SHF_SUNW_ABSENT section can choose to ignore the section, or to search for the section data within one of the related ancillary files. SHF_SUNW_PRIMARY The default behavior when ancillary objects are created is to write all allocable sections to the primary object and all non-allocable sections to the ancillary objects. The SHF_SUNW_PRIMARY flag overrides this behavior. Any output section containing one more input section with the SHF_SUNW_PRIMARY flag set is written to the primary object without regard for its allocable status. ... Two members in the section header, sh_link, and sh_info, hold special information, depending on section type. Table 13-9 ELF sh_link and sh_info Interpretation sh_typesh_linksh_info . . . SHT_SUNW_ANCILLARY The section header index of the associated string table. 0 . . . Special Sections Edit Note: This section describes the sections used in Solaris ELF objects, using the types defined in the previous description of section types. It was updated to define the new .SUNW_ancillary (SHT_SUNW_ANCILLARY) section. Various sections hold program and control information. Sections in the following table are used by the system and have the indicated types and attributes. Table 13-10 ELF Special Sections NameTypeAttribute . . . .SUNW_ancillarySHT_SUNW_ancillaryNone . . . ... .SUNW_ancillary Present when a given object is part of a group of ancillary objects. Contains information required to identify all the files that make up the group. See Ancillary Section for details. ... Ancillary Section Edit Note: This new section provides the format reference describing the layout of a .SUNW_ancillary section and the meaning of the various tags. Note that these sections use the same tag/value concept used for dynamic and capabilities sections, and will be familiar to anyone used to working with ELF. In addition to the primary output object, the Solaris link-editor can produce one or more ancillary objects. Ancillary objects contain non-allocable sections that would normally be written to the primary object. When ancillary objects are produced, the primary object and all of the associated ancillary objects contain a SHT_SUNW_ancillary section, containing information that identifies these related objects. Given any one object from such a group, the ancillary section provides the information needed to identify and interpret the others. This section contains an array of the following structures. See sys/elf.h. typedef struct { Elf32_Word a_tag; union { Elf32_Word a_val; Elf32_Addr a_ptr; } a_un; } Elf32_Ancillary; typedef struct { Elf64_Xword a_tag; union { Elf64_Xword a_val; Elf64_Addr a_ptr; } a_un; } Elf64_Ancillary; For each object with this type, a_tag controls the interpretation of a_un. a_val These objects represent integer values with various interpretations. a_ptr These objects represent file offsets or addresses. The following ancillary tags exist. Table 13-NEW1 ELF Ancillary Array Tags NameValuea_un ANC_SUNW_NULL0Ignored ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM1a_val ANC_SUNW_MEMBER2a_ptr ANC_SUNW_NULL Marks the end of the ancillary section. ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM Provides the checksum for a file in the c_val element. When ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM precedes the first instance of ANC_SUNW_MEMBER, it provides the checksum for the object from which the ancillary section is being read. When it follows an ANC_SUNW_MEMBER tag, it provides the checksum for that member. ANC_SUNW_MEMBER Specifies an object name. The a_ptr element contains the string table offset of a null-terminated string, that provides the file name. An ancillary section must always contain an ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM before the first instance of ANC_SUNW_MEMBER, identifying the current object. Following that, there should be an ANC_SUNW_MEMBER for each object that makes up the complete set of objects. Each ANC_SUNW_MEMBER should be followed by an ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM for that object. A typical ancillary section will therefore be structured as: TagMeaning ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUMChecksum of this object ANC_SUNW_MEMBERName of object #1 ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUMChecksum for object #1 . . . ANC_SUNW_MEMBERName of object N ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUMChecksum for object N ANC_SUNW_NULL An object can therefore identify itself by comparing the initial ANC_SUNW_CHECKSUM to each of the ones that follow, until it finds a match. Related Other Work The GNU developers have also encountered the need/desire to support separate debug information files, and use the solution detailed at http://sourceware.org/gdb/onlinedocs/gdb/Separate-Debug-Files.html. At the current time, the separate debug file is constructed by building the standard object first, and then copying the debug data out of it in a separate post processing step, Hence, it is limited to a total of 4GB of code and debug data, just as a single object file would be. They are aware of this, and I have seen online comments indicating that they may add direct support for generating these separate files to their link-editor. It is worth noting that the GNU objcopy utility is available on Solaris, and that the Studio dbx debugger is able to use these GNU style separate debug files even on Solaris. Although this is interesting in terms giving Linux users a familiar environment on Solaris, the 4GB limit means it is not an answer to the problem of very large 32-bit objects. We have also encountered issues with objcopy not understanding Solaris-specific ELF sections, when using this approach. The GNU community also has a current effort to adapt their DWARF debug sections in order to move them to separate files before passing the relocatable objects to the linker. The details of Project Fission can be found at http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission. The goal of this project appears to be to reduce the amount of data seen by the link-editor. The primary effort revolves around moving DWARF data to separate .dwo files so that the link-editor never encounters them. The details of modifying the DWARF data to be usable in this form are involved — please see the above URL for details.

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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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• How to create Adhoc workflow in UCM

  - by vijaykumar.yenne

  UCM has an inbuilt workflow engine that can handle document centric workflow approval/rejection process to ensure the right set of assets go into the repository. Anybody who has gone through the documentation is aware that there are two types of work flows that can be defined using the Workflow Admin applet in UCM namely Criteria and Basic While criteria is an Automatic workflow  process based on certain metadata attributes (Security Group and One of the Metadata Fields) , basic workflow is a manual workflow that need to be initiated by the admin. Any workflow  that can be put on the white board can be translated into the UCM wokflow process and there are concepts like sub workflows, tokens, events. idoc scripting that be introduced to handle any kind of complex workflows. There is a specific Workflow Implementation guide that explains the concepts in detail. One of the standard queries i come across is how to handle adhoc workflows where at the time of contributing the content, the contributors would like to decide on the workflow to be initiated and the users to be picked for approval in each step, hence this post.This is what i want to acheive, i would like to display on my Checkin Screen on the kind of workflows that a contributor could choose from:Based on the Workflow the contributor chooses, the other metadata fields (Step One, Step Two and Step Three)  need to be filled in and these fields decide who the approvers are going to be.1. Create a criteria workflow called One_Step_Review2.create two tokens StepOne <$wfAddUser(xWorkflowStepOne, "user")$>,  OrginalAuthor  <$wfAddUser(wfGet("OriginalAuthor"), "user")$>View image3.create two steps in the work flow created (One_Step_Review)View image4. Edit Step1 of the Workflow and add the Step One token and select the review permissionView image5. In the exit conditions tab have atleast One reveiwerView image6. In the events tab add an entry event <$wfSet("OriginalAuthor",dDocAuthor)$> to capture the contributor who shall be notified in the second step of the workflowView image7. Add the second step Notify_Author to the workflow8. Add the original author token to the above step9.  Enable the workflow10. Open the configration manager applet and create a Metadata field Workflow with option list enabled and add the list of values as show hereView image11. Create another metadata field WorkflowStepOne with option list configured to the Users View. This shall display all the users registered with UCM, which when selected shall be associated with the tokens associated with the workflow. Refer the above token.View imageAs indicated in the above steps you could create multiple work flows and associate the custom metadata field values to the tokens so that the contributors can decide who can approve their  content.

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• Adding Descriptive Flex Field (DFF) through OAF Personalization

  - by Manoj Madhusoodanan

  In this blog I will explain how to add a DFF to a existing OAF page through personalization.I am using Supplier Quick Update Page ( /oracle/apps/pos/supplier/webui/SuppSummPG ). If you want to see how to create DFF please click here. In this scenario I am using a custom DFF. Following are the details. Application -> Payables ( Code: SQLAP )Name -> XXCUST_SUPPLIER_DFFTitle -> XXCUST - Supplier DFFTable Name -> AP_SUPPLIERSDFV View name -> XXCUST_SUPPLIER_DFVReference Fields -> ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY Following are the Context Field Details. Prompt -> Supplier TypeValue Set -> XXCUST_SUP_TYPE ( Values : External and Internal )Reference Field -> ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY Below table shows the segment details of XXCUST_SUPPLIER_DFF. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Code Segments Column Value Set Global Data Elements Identification Number ATTRIBUTE1 15 Characters External Type ATTRIBUTE2 XXCUST_EXT_SUP_TYPE Values          Domestic           International Internal Department ATTRIBUTE2 15 Characters Following steps you need to perform to create flex item in the Quick Update page. 1) Click on Personalize Page.In the Personalize Page click on Complete View. 2) Click on Create Item.( Based on where you want to place the DFF choose appropriate layout). 3) Create flex item with following details. 4) If you want to arrange the item in the page click on Reorder. Following is the output.

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