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• Application design question, best approach?

  - by Jamie Keeling

  Hello, I am in the process of designing an application that will allow you to find pictures (screen shots) made from certain programs. I will provide the locations of a few of the program in the application itself to get the user started. I was wondering how I should go about adding new locations as the time goes on, my first thought was simply hard coding it into the application but this will mean the user has to reinstall it to make the changes take affect. My second idea was to use an XML file to contain all the locations as well as other data, such as the name of the application. This also means the user can add their own locations if they wish as well as sharing them over the internet. The second option seemed the best approach but then I had to think how would it be managed on the users computer. Ideally I'd like just a single .exe without the reliance on any external files such as the XML but this would bring me back to point one. Would it be best to simply use the ClickOnce deployment to create an entry in the start menu and create a folder containing the .exe and the file names? Thanks for the feedback, I don't want to start implementing the application until the design is nailed.

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• Design Philosophy Question - When to create new functions

  - by Eclyps19

  This is a general design question not relating to any language. I'm a bit torn between going for minimum code or optimum organization. I'll use my current project as an example. I have a bunch of tabs on a form that perform different functions. Lets say Tab 1 reads in a file with a specific layout, tab 2 exports a file to a specific location, etc. The problem I'm running into now is that I need these tabs to do something slightly different based on the contents of a variable. If it contains a 1 I may need to use Layout A and perform some extra concatenation, if it contains a 2 I may need to use Layout B and do no concatenation but add two integer fields, etc. There could be 10+ codes that I will be looking at. Is it more preferable to create an individual path for each code early on, or attempt to create a single path that branches out only when absolutely required. Creating an individual path for each code would allow my code to be extremely easy to follow at a glance, which in turn will help me out later on down the road when debugging or making changes. The downside to this is that I will increase the amount of code written by calling some of the same functions in multiple places (for example, steps 3, 5, and 9 for every single code may be exactly the same. Creating a single path that would branch out only when required will be a bit messier and more difficult to follow at a glance, but I would create less code by placing conditionals only at steps that are unique. I realize that this may be a case-by-case decision, but in general, if you were handed a previously built program to work on, which would you prefer?

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• Class design when working with dataset

  - by MC

  If you have to retrieve data from a database and bring this dataset to the client, and then allow the user to manipulate the data in various ways before updating the database again, what is a good class design for this if the data tables will not have a 1:1 relationship with the class objects? Here are some I came up with: Just manipulate the DataSet itself on the client and then send it back to the database as is. This will work though obviously the code will be very dirty and not well-structured. Same as #1, but wrap the dataset code around classes. What I mean is that you may have a class that takes a dataset or a datatable in its constructor, and then provides public methods and properties to simplify the code. Inside these methods and properties it will be reading or manipulating the dataset. To update the database afterwards will be easy because you already have the updated dataset. Get rid of the dataset entirely on the client, convert to objects, then convert back to a dataset when needing to update the database. Is there any good resources where I can find information on this?

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• Database design - table relationship question

  - by iama

  I am designing schema for a simple quiz application. It has 2 tables - "Question" and "Answer Choices". Question table has 'question ID', 'question text' and 'answer id' columns. "Answer Choices" table has 'question ID', 'answer ID' and 'answer text' columns. With this simple schema it is obvious that a question can have multiple answer choices & hence the need for the answer choices table. However, a question can have only one correct answer and hence the need for the 'answer ID' in the question table. However, this 'answer ID' column in the question table provides a illusion as though there can be multiple questions for a single answer which is not correct. The other alternative to eliminate this illusion is to have another table just for correct answer that will have just 2 columns namely the question ID and the answer ID with a 1-1 relationship between the two tables. However, I think this is redundant. Any recommendation on how best to design this thereby enforcing the rules that a question can have multiple answer choices but only one correct answer? Many Thanks.

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• Object Design: How to Organize/Structure a "Collection Class"

  - by CrimsonX

  I'm currently struggling to understand how I should organize/structure a class which I have already created. The class does the following: As its input in the constructor, it takes a collection of logs In the constructor it validates and filters the logs through a series of algorithms implementing my business logic After all filtering and validation is complete, it returns a collection (a List) of the valid and filtered logs which can be presented to the user graphically in a UI. Here is some simplified code describing what I'm doing: class FilteredCollection { public FilteredCollection( SpecialArray<MyLog> myLog) { // validate inputs // filter and validate logs in collection // in end, FilteredLogs is ready for access } Public List<MyLog> FilteredLogs{ get; private set;} } However, in order to access this collection, I have to do the following: var filteredCollection = new FilteredCollection( secialArrayInput ); //Example of accessing data filteredCollection.FilteredLogs[5].MyLogData; Other key pieces of input: I foresee only one of these filtered collections existing in the application (therefore should I make it a static class? Or perhaps a singleton?) Testability and flexibility in creation of the object is important (Perhaps therefore I should keep this an instanced class for testability?) I'd prefer to simplify the dereferencing of the logs if at all possible, as the actual variable names are quite long and it takes some 60-80 characters to just get to the actual data. My attempt in keeping this class simple is that the only purpose of the class is to create this collection of validated data. I know that there may be no "perfect" solution here, but I'm really trying to improve my skills with this design and I would greatly appreciate advice to do that. Thanks in advance.

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• Design question for windows application, best approach?

  - by Jamie Keeling

  Hello, I am in the process of designing an application that will allow you to find pictures (screen shots) made from certain programs. I will provide the locations of a few of the program in the application itself to get the user started. I was wondering how I should go about adding new locations as the time goes on, my first thought was simply hard coding it into the application but this will mean the user has to reinstall it to make the changes take affect. My second idea was to use an XML file to contain all the locations as well as other data, such as the name of the application. This also means the user can add their own locations if they wish as well as sharing them over the internet. The second option seemed the best approach but then I had to think how would it be managed on the users computer. Ideally I'd like just a single .exe without the reliance on any external files such as the XML but this would bring me back to point one. Would it be best to simply use the ClickOnce deployment to create an entry in the start menu and create a folder containing the .exe and the file names? Thanks for the feedback, I don't want to start implementing the application until the design is nailed.

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• Database design: Calculating the Account Balance

  - by 001

  How do I design the database to calculate the account balance? 1) Currently I calculate the account balance from the transaction table In my transaction table I have "description" and "amount" etc.. I would then add up all "amount" values and that would work out the user's account balance. I showed this to my friend and he said that is not a good solution, when my database grows its going to slow down???? He said I should create separate table to store the calculated account balance. If did this, I will have to maintain two tables, and its risky, the account balance table could go out of sync. Any suggestion? EDIT: OPTION 2: should I add an extra column to my transaction tables "Balance". now I do not need to go through many rows of data to perform my calculation. Example John buys $100 credit, he debt $60, he then adds $200 credit. Amount $100, Balance $100. Amount -$60, Balance $40. Amount $200, Balance $240.

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• Java: design for using many executors services and only few threads

  - by Guillaume

  I need to run in parallel multiple threads to perform some tests. My 'test engine' will have n tests to perform, each one doing k sub-tests. Each test result is stored for a later usage. So I have n*k processes that can be ran concurrently. I'm trying to figure how to use the java concurrent tools efficiently. Right now I have an executor service at test level and n executor service at sub test level. I create my list of Callables for the test level. Each test callable will then create another list of callables for the subtest level. When invoked a test callable will subsequently invoke all subtest callables test 1 subtest a1 subtest ...1 subtest k1 test n subtest a2 subtest ...2 subtest k2 call sequence: test manager create test 1 callable test1 callable create subtest a1 to k1 testn callable create subtest an to kn test manager invoke all test callables test1 callable invoke all subtest a1 to k1 testn callable invoke all subtest an to kn This is working fine, but I have a lot of new treads that are created. I can not share executor service since I need to call 'shutdown' on the executors. My idea to fix this problem is to provide the same fixed size thread pool to each executor service. Do you think it is a good design ? Do I miss something more appropriate/simple for doing this ?

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• SQL Databases and table design/organization

  - by John McMullen

  (NOOB disclaimer) I'm working on a system (a type of map), that is accessed mostly via 3 fields: ID (auto incremented), X coordinate, and Y coordinate. As it is right now, i have all data on the map, stored in 1 table. Whenever the map display is loaded it simply queries the database for contents in x and y, and the DB gives the data (other fields in the same entry). If an item on the map is doing something, it has a flag saying its doing something, and then has an ID of the action in another table holding that type of 'actions'. Essentially, for all map data, its stored in 1 table. All actions of a certain type are stored in their own table. I'm a noob, and i'm wondering what the most effective/efficient structure for such a design? (a map that has items, and each item has stats/actions). I'm using PHP atm, using standard SQL queries to get my data. Should i split up the tables so that there are only x number of entries on a table? (coord range limits)? Should it just keep growing and growing? There's a lot of queries to the table... so just tryin to see what is best :/

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• C++ design related question

  - by Kotti

  Hi! Here is the question's plot: suppose I have some abstract classes for objects, let's call it Object. It's definition would include 2D position and dimensions. Let it also have some virtual void Render(Backend& backend) const = 0 method used for rendering. Now I specialize my inheritance tree and add Rectangle and Ellipse class. Guess they won't have their own properties, but they will have their own virtual void Render method. Let's say I implemented these methods, so that Render for Rectangle actually draws some rectangle, and the same for ellipse. Now, I add some object called Plane, which is defined as class Plane : public Rectangle and has a private member of std::vector<Object*> plane_objects; Right after that I add a method to add some object to my plane. And here comes the question. If I design this method as void AddObject(Object& object) I would face trouble like I won't be able to call virtual functions, because I would have to do something like plane_objects.push_back(new Object(object)); and this should be push_back(new Rectangle(object)) for rectangles and new Circle(...) for circles. If I implement this method as void AddObject(Object* object), it looks good, but then somewhere else this means making call like plane.AddObject(new Rectangle(params)); and this is generally a mess because then it's not clear which part of my program should free the allocated memory. ["when destroying the plane? why? are we sure that calls to AddObject were only done as AddObject(new something).] I guess the problems caused by using the second approach could be solved using smart pointers, but I am sure there have to be something better. Any ideas?

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• Design an Application That Stores and Processes Files

  - by phasetwenty

  I'm tasked with writing an application that acts as a central storage point for files (usually document formats) as provided by other applications. It also needs to take commands like "file 395 needs a copy in X format", at which point some work is offloaded to a 3rd party application. I'm having trouble coming up with a strategy for this. I'd like to keep the design as simple as possible, so I'd like to avoid big extra frameworks or techniques like threads for as long as it makes sense. The clients are expected to be web applications (for example, one is a django application that receives files from our customers; the others are not yet implemented). The platform it will be running on is likely going to be Python on Linux, unless I have a strong argument to use something else. In the beginning I thought I could fit the information I wanted to communicate in the filenames, and let my application parse the filename to figure out what it needed to do, but this is proving too inflexible with the amount of information I'm realizing I need to make available. Another idea is to pair FTP with a database used as a communication medium (client uploads a file and updates the database with a command as a row in a table) but I don't like this idea because adding commands (a known change) looks like it will require adding code as well as changing database schemas. It will also muddy up the interface my clients will have to use. I looked into Pyro to let applications communicate more directly but I don't like the idea of running an extra nameserver for this one purpose. I also don't see a good way to do file transfer within this framework. What I'm looking for is techniques and/or technologies applicable to my problem. At the simplest level, I need the ability to accept files and messages with them.

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• Design by contracts and constructors

  - by devoured elysium

  I am implementing my own ArrayList for school purposes, but to spice up things a bit I'm trying to use C# 4.0 Code Contracts. All was fine until I needed to add Contracts to the constructors. Should I add Contract.Ensures() in the empty parameter constructor? public ArrayList(int capacity) { Contract.Requires(capacity > 0); Contract.Ensures(Size == capacity); _array = new T[capacity]; } public ArrayList() : this(32) { Contract.Ensures(Size == 32); } I'd say yes, each method should have a well defined contract. On the other hand, why put it if it's just delegating work to the "main" constructor? Logicwise, I wouldn't need to. The only point I see where it'd be useful to explicitly define the contract in both constructors is if in the future we have Intelisense support for contracts. Would that happen, it'd be useful to be explicit about which contracts each method has, as that'd appear in Intelisense. Also, are there any books around that go a bit deeper on the principles and usage of Design by Contracts? One thing is having knowledge of the syntax of how to use Contracts in a language (C#, in this case), other is knowing how and when to use it. I read several tutorials and Jon Skeet's C# in Depth article about it, but I'd like to go a bit deeper if possible. Thanks

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• java : how to handle the design when template methods throw exception when overrided method not throw

  - by jiafu

  when coding. try to solve the puzzle: how to design the class/methods when InputStreamDigestComputor throw IOException? It seems we can't use this degisn structure due to the template method throw exception but overrided method not throw it. but if change the overrided method to throw it, will cause other subclass both throw it. So can any good suggestion for this case? abstract class DigestComputor{ String compute(DigestAlgorithm algorithm){ MessageDigest instance; try { instance = MessageDigest.getInstance(algorithm.toString()); updateMessageDigest(instance); return hex(instance.digest()); } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) { LOG.error(e.getMessage(), e); throw new UnsupportedOperationException(e.getMessage(), e); } } abstract void updateMessageDigest(MessageDigest instance); } class ByteBufferDigestComputor extends DigestComputor{ private final ByteBuffer byteBuffer; public ByteBufferDigestComputor(ByteBuffer byteBuffer) { super(); this.byteBuffer = byteBuffer; } @Override void updateMessageDigest(MessageDigest instance) { instance.update(byteBuffer); } } class InputStreamDigestComputor extends DigestComputor{ // this place has error. due to exception. if I change the overrided method to throw it. evey caller will handle the exception. but @Override void updateMessageDigest(MessageDigest instance) { throw new IOException(); } }

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• C++ socket protocol design issue (ring inclusion)

  - by Martin Lauridsen

  So I have these two classes, mpqs_client and client_protocol. The mpqs_client class handles a Boost socket connection to a server (sending and receiving messages with some specific format. Upon receiving a message, it calls a static method, parse_message(..), in the class client_protocol, and this method should analyse the message received and perform some corresponding action. Given some specific input, the parse_message method needs to send some data back to the server. As mentioned, this happens through the class mpqs_client. So I could, from mpqs_client, pass "this" to parse_message(..) in client_protocol. However, this leads to a two-way association relationship between the two classes. Something which I reckon is not desireable. Also, to implement this, I would need to include the other in each one, and this gives me a terrible pain. I am thinking this is more of a design issue. What is the best solution here? Code is posted below. Class mpqs_client: #include "mpqs_client.h" mpqs_client::mpqs_client(boost::asio::io_service& io_service, tcp::resolver::iterator endpoint_iterator) : io_service_(io_service), socket_(io_service) { ... } ... void mpqs_client::write(const network_message& msg) { io_service_.post(boost::bind(&mpqs_client::do_write, this, msg)); } Class client_protocol: #include "../network_message.hpp" #include "../protocol_consts.h" class client_protocol { public: static void parse_message(network_message& msg, mpqs_sieve **instance_, mpqs_client &client_) { ... switch (type) { case MPQS_DATA: ... break; case POLYNOMIAL_DATA: ... break; default: break; } }

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• Rationale of C# iterators design (comparing to C++)

  - by macias

  I found similar topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/56347/iterators-in-c-stl-vs-java-is-there-a-conceptual-difference Which basically deals with Java iterator (which is similar to C#) being unable to going backward. So here I would like to focus on limits -- in C++ iterator does not know its limit, you have by yourself compare the given iterator with the limit. In C# iterator knows more -- you can tell without comparing to any external reference, if the iterator is valid or not. I prefer C++ way, because once having iterator you can set any iterator as a limit. In other words if you would like to get only few elements instead of entire collection, you don't have to alter the iterator (in C++). For me it is more "pure" (clear). But of course MS knew this and C++ while designing C#. So what are the advantages of C# way? Which approach is more powerful (which leads to more elegant functions based on iterators). What do I miss? If you have thoughts on C# vs. C++ iterators design other than their limits (boundaries), please also answer. Note: (just in case) please, keep the discussion strictly technical. No C++/C# flamewar.

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• GridView edit problem If primary key is editable (design problem)

  - by Nassign

  I would like to ask about the design of table based on it's editability in a Grid View. Let me explain. For example, I have a table named ProductCustomerRel. Method 1 CustomerCode varchar PK ProductCode varchar PK StoreCode varchar PK Quantity int Note text So the combination of the CustomerCode, StoreCode and ProductCode must be unique. The record is displayed on a gridview. The requirement is that you can edit the customer, product and storecode but when the data is saved, the PK constraint must still persist. The problem here is it would be natural for a grid to be able to edit the 3 primary key, you can only achieve the update operation of the grid view by first deleting the row and then inserting the row with the updated data. An alternative to this is to just update the table and add a SeqNo, and just enforce the unique constraint of the 3 columns when inserting and updating in the grid view. Method 2 SeqNo int PK CustomerCode varchar ProductCode varchar StoreCode varchar Quantity int Note text My question is which of the two method is better? or is there another way to do this?

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• database table design

  - by e.b.white

  I design the tables as below for the system which looks like a package delivering system For example, after user received the package, postman should record in system, and the state(history table) is "delivered",and operator is this postman, the current state(state table) is of course "delivered" history table: +---------------+--------------------------+ | Field | Desc | +---------------+--------------------------+ | id | PRIMARY KEY | +---------------+--------------------------+ | package_id | package_tacking_id | +---------------+--------------------------+ | state | package_state | +---------------+--------------------------+ | operators | operators | +---------------+--------------------------+ | create_time| create_time | +---------------+--------------------------+ state table: +---------------+--------------------------+ | Field | Desc | +---------------+--------------------------+ | id | PRIMARY KEY | +---------------+--------------------------+ | package_id | package_tacking_id | +---------------+--------------------------+ | state | latest_package_state | +---------------+--------------------------+ Above is just the basic information to record, some other information( like invoice, destination,...) should be recored as well. But there are different service types like s1 and s2, for s1 it is not needed to record invoice but s1 need, and maybe s1 need some other information to record (like the tel of end user). After all, at delivering way stations there are additional information to record, and for different service type the information type is different. My question is: 1. For different service type, shall I need to declare different tables(option A) or just one big table which can record all information for all types(option B)? 2. If option A, since the basic information above is MUST, how can prevent from declaring there duplicate fields in different tables?

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• database design - empty fields

  - by imanc

  Hey, I am currently debating an issue with a guy on my dev team. He believes that empty fields are bad news. For instance, if we have a customer details table that stores data for customers from different countries, and each country has a slightly different address configuration - plus 1-2 extra fields, e.g. French customer details may also store details for entry code, and floor/level plus title fields (madamme, etc.). South Africa would have a security number. And so on. Given that we're talking about minor variances my idea is to put all of the fields into the table and use what is needed on each form. My colleague believes we should have a separate table with extra data. E.g. customer_info_fr. But this seams to totally defeat the purpose of a combined table in the first place. His argument is that empty fields / columns is bad - but I'm struggling to find justification in terms of database design principles for or against this argument and preferred solutions. Another option is a separate mini EAV table that stores extra data with parent_id, key, val fields. Or to serialise extra data into an extra_data column in the main customer_data table. I think I am confused because what I'm discussing is not covered by 3NF which is what I would typically use as a reference for how to structure data. So my question specifically: - if you have slight variances in data for each record (1-2 different fields for instance) what is the best way to proceed?

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• Windows Form UserControl design time properties

  - by Raffaeu

  I am struggling with a UserControl. I have a UserControl that represent a Pager and it has a Presenter object property exposed in this way: [Browsable(false)] [DesignSerializationAttribute(DesignSerializationAttribute.Hidden)] public object Presenter { get; set; } The code itself works as I can drag and drop a control into a Windows From without having Visual Studio initializing this property. Now, because in the Load event of this control I call a method of the Presenter that at run-time is null ... I have introduced this additional code: public override void OnLoad(...) { if (this.DesignMode) { base.OnLoad(e); return; } presenter.OnViewReady(); } Now, every time I open a Window that contains this UserControl, Visual Studio modifies the Windows designer code. So, as soon as I open it, VS ask me if I want to save it ... and of course, if I add a control to the Window, it doesn't keep the changes ... As soon as I remove the UserControl Pager the problem disappears ... How should I tackle that in the proper way? I just don't want that the presenter property is initialized at design time as it is injected at runtime ...

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• Design Advice Needed For Synonyms Database

  - by James J

  I'm planning to put together a database that can be used to query synonyms of words. The database will end up huge, so the idea is to keep things running fast. I've been thinking about how to do this, but my database design skills are not up to scratch these days. My initial idea was to have each word stored in one table, and then another table with a 1 to many relationship where each word can be linked to another word and that table can be queried. The application I'm developing allows users to highlight a word, and then type in, or select some synonyms from the database for that word. The application learns from the user input so if someone highlights "car" and types in "motor" the database would be updated to link the relationship if it don't exist already. What I don't want to happen is for a user to type in the word "shop" and link it to the word car. So I'm thinking I will need to add some sort of weight to each relationship. Eventually the synonyms the users enter will be used so they can auto select common synonyms used with a certain word. The lower weight words will not be displayed so shop could never be a synonym of car unless it had a very high weight, and chances are nobody is going to do that. Does the above sound right? Can you offer any suggestions or improvements?

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• Patterns to deal with with functions that can have different kinds of results.

  - by KaptajnKold

  Suppose you have an method on an object that given the some input alters the objects state if the input validates according to some complex logic. Now suppose that when the input doesn't validate, it can be due to several different things, each of which we would like to be able to deal with in different ways. I'm sure many of you are thinking: That's what exceptions are for! I've thought of this also. But my reservation against using exceptions is that in some cases there is nothing exceptional about the input not validating and I really would like to avoid using exceptions to control what is really just in the expected flow of the program. If there were only one interpretation possible, I could simply choose to return a boolean value indicating whether or not the operation resulted in a state change or not and the respond appropriately when it did not. There is of course also the option to return a status code which the client can then choose to interpret or not. I don't like this much either because there is nothing semantic about status codes. The solution I have so far is to always check for each possible situation which I am able to handle before I call the method which then returns a boolean to inform the client if the object changed state. This leaves me the flexibility to handle as few or as many as the possible situations as I wish depending on the context I am in. It also has the benefit of making the method I am calling simpler to write. The drawback is that there is quite a lot of duplication in the client code wherever I call the method. Which of these solutions do you prefer and why? What other patterns do people use for providing meaningful feedback from functions? I know that some languages support multiple return values, and I if I had that option I would surely prefer it.

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• Designing status management for a file processing module

  - by bot

  The background One of the functionality of a product that I am currently working on is to process a set of compressed files ( containing XML files ) that will be made available at a fixed location periodically (local or remote location - doesn't really matter for now) and dump the contents of each XML file in a database. I have taken care of the design for a generic parsing module that should be able to accommodate the parsing of any file type as I have explained in my question linked below. There is no need to take a look at the following link to answer my question but it would definitely provide a better context to the problem Generic file parser design in Java using the Strategy pattern The Goal I want to be able to keep a track of the status of each XML file and the status of each compressed file containing the XML files. I can probably have different statuses defined for the XML files such as NEW, PROCESSING, LOADING, COMPLETE or FAILED. I can derive the status of a compressed file based on the status of the XML files within the compressed file. e.g status of the compressed file is COMPLETE if no XML file inside the compressed file is in a FAILED state or status of the compressed file is FAILED if the status of at-least one XML file inside the compressed file is FAILED. A possible solution The Model I need to maintain the status of each XML file and the compressed file. I will have to define some POJOs for holding the information about an XML file as shown below. Note that there is no need to store the status of a compressed file as the status of a compressed file can be derived from the status of its XML files. public class FileInformation { private String compressedFileName; private String xmlFileName; private long lastModifiedDate; private int status; public FileInformation(final String compressedFileName, final String xmlFileName, final long lastModified, final int status) { this.compressedFileName = compressedFileName; this.xmlFileName = xmlFileName; this.lastModifiedDate = lastModified; this.status = status; } } I can then have a class called StatusManager that aggregates a Map of FileInformation instances and provides me the status of a given file at any given time in the lifetime of the appliciation as shown below : public class StatusManager { private Map<String,FileInformation> processingMap = new HashMap<String,FileInformation>(); public void add(FileInformation fileInformation) { fileInformation.setStatus(0); // 0 will indicates that the file is in NEW state. 1 will indicate that the file is in process and so on.. processingMap.put(fileInformation.getXmlFileName(),fileInformation); } public void update(String filename,int status) { FileInformation fileInformation = processingMap.get(filename); fileInformation.setStatus(status); } } That takes care of the model for the sake of explanation. So whats my question? Edited after comments from Loki and answer from Eric : - I would like to know if there are any existing design patterns that I can refer to while coming up with a design. I would also like to know how I should go about designing the status management classes. I am more interested in understanding how I can model the status management classes. I am not interested in how other components are going to be updated about a change in status at the moment as suggested by Eric.

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• Objective-C wrapper API design methodology

  - by Wade Williams

  I know there's no one answer to this question, but I'd like to get people's thoughts on how they would approach the situation. I'm writing an Objective-C wrapper to a C library. My goals are: 1) The wrapper use Objective-C objects. For example, if the C API defines a parameter such as char *name, the Objective-C API should use name:(NSString *). 2) The client using the Objective-C wrapper should not have to have knowledge of the inner-workings of the C library. Speed is not really any issue. That's all easy with simple parameters. It's certainly no problem to take in an NSString and convert it to a C string to pass it to the C library. My indecision comes in when complex structures are involved. Let's say you have: struct flow { long direction; long speed; long disruption; long start; long stop; } flow_t; And then your C API call is: void setFlows(flow_t inFlows[4]); So, some of the choices are: 1) expose the flow_t structure to the client and have the Objective-C API take an array of those structures 2) build an NSArray of four NSDictionaries containing the properties and pass that as a parameter 3) create an NSArray of four "Flow" objects containing the structure's properties and pass that as a parameter My analysis of the approaches: Approach 1: Easiest. However, it doesn't meet the design goals Approach 2: For some reason, this seems to me to be the most "Objective-C" way of doing it. However, each element of the NSDictionary would have to be wrapped in an NSNumber. Now it seems like we're doing an awful lot just to pass the equivalent of a struct. Approach 3: Seems the cleanest to me from an object-oriented standpoint and the extra encapsulation could come in handy later. However, like #2, it now seems like we're doing an awful lot (creating an array, creating and initializing objects) just to pass a struct. So, the question is, how would you approach this situation? Are there other choices I'm not considering? Are there additional advantages or disadvantages to the approaches I've presented that I'm not considering?

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• Design question for WinForms (C#) app, using Entity Framework

  - by cdotlister

  I am planning on writing a small home budget application for myself, as a learning excercise. I have built my database (SQL Server), and written a small console application to interact with it, and test out scenarios on my database. Once I am happy, my next step would be to start building the application - but I am already wondering what the best/standard design would be. I am palnning on using Entity Framework for handling my database entities... then linq to sql/objects for getting the data, all running under a WinForms (for now) application. My plan (I've never used EF... and most of my development background is Web apps) is to have my database... with Entity Framework in it's own project.. which has the connection to the database. This project would expose methods such as 'GetAccount()', 'GetAccount(int accountId)' etc. I'd then have a service project that references my EF project. And on top of that, my GUI project, which makes the calls to my service project. But I am stuck. Lets say I have a screen that displays a list of Account types (Debit, Credit, Loan...). Once I have selected one, the next drop down shows a list of accounts I have that suite that account type. So, my OnChange event on my DropDown on the account type control will make a call to the serviceLayer project, 'GetAccountTypes()', and I would expect back a List< of Account Types. However, the AccountType object ... what is that? That can't be the AccountType object from my EF project, as my GUI project doesn't have reference to it. Would I have to have some sort of Shared Library, shared between my GUI and my Service project, with a custom built AccountType object? The GUI can then expect back a list of these. So my service layer would have a method: public List<AccountType> GetAccountTypes() That would then make a call to a custom method in my EF project, which would probably be the same as the above method, except, it returns an list of EF.Data.AccountType (The Entity Framework generated Account Type object). The method would then have the linq code to get the data as I want it. Then my service layer will get that object, and transform it unto my custom AccountType object, and return it to the GUI. Does that sound at all like a good plan?

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• SQLAlchemy unsupported type error - and table design issues?

  - by Az

  Hi there, back again with some more SQLAlchemy shenanigans. Let me step through this. My table is now set up as so: engine = create_engine('sqlite:///:memory:', echo=False) metadata = MetaData() students_table = Table('studs', metadata, Column('sid', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('name', String), Column('preferences', Integer), Column('allocated_rank', Integer), Column('allocated_project', Integer) ) metadata.create_all(engine) mapper(Student, students_table) Fairly simple, and for the most part I've been enjoying the ability to query almost any bit of information I want provided I avoid the error cases below. The class it is mapped from is: class Student(object): def __init__(self, sid, name): self.sid = sid self.name = name self.preferences = collections.defaultdict(set) self.allocated_project = None self.allocated_rank = 0 def __repr__(self): return str(self) def __str__(self): return "%s %s" %(self.sid, self.name) Explanation: preferences is basically a set of all the projects the student would prefer to be assigned. When the allocation algorithm kicks in, a student's allocated_project emerges from this preference set. Now if I try to do this: for student in students.itervalues(): session.add(student) session.commit() It throws two errors, one for the allocated_project column (seen below) and a similar error for the preferences column: sqlalchemy.exc.InterfaceError: (InterfaceError) Error binding parameter 4 - probably unsupported type. u'INSERT INTO studs (sid, name, allocated_rank, allocated_project) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)' [1101, 'Muffett,M.', 1, 888 Human-spider relationships (Supervisor id: 123)] If I go back into my code I find that, when I'm copying the preferences from the given text files, it actually refers to the Project class which is mapped to a dictionary, using the unique project id's (pid) as keys. Thus, as I iterate through each student via their rank and to the preferences set, it adds not a project id, but the reference to the project id from the projects dictionary. students[sid].preferences[int(rank)].add(projects[int(pid)]) Now this is very useful to me since I can find out all I want to about a student's preferred projects without having to run another check to pull up information about the project id. The form you see in the error has the object print information passed as: return "%s %s (Supervisor id: %s)" %(self.proj_id, self.proj_name, self.proj_sup) My questions are: I'm trying to store an object in a database field aren't I? Would the correct way then, be copying the project information (project id, name, etc) into its own table, referenced by the unique project id? That way I can just have the project id field for one of the student tables just be an integer id and when I need more information, just join the tables? So and so forth for other tables? If the above makes sense, then how does one maintain the relationship with a column of information in one table which is a key index on another table? Does this boil down into a database design problem? Are there any other elegant ways of accomplishing this? Apologies if this is a very long-winded question. It's rather crucial for me to solve this, so I've tried to explain as much as I can, whilst attempting to show that I'm trying (key word here sadly) to understand what could be going wrong.

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