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• Windows Azure Evolution &ndash; TFS Integration (WAWS Part 2)

  - by Shaun

  So this is the fourth blog post about the new features of Windows Azure and the second part of Windows Azure Web Sites. But this is not just focus on the WAWS since the function I’m going to introduce is available in both Windows Azure Web Sites and Windows Azure Cloud Service (a.k.a. hosted service). In the previous post I talked about the Windows Azure Web Sites and how to use its gallery to build a WordPress personal blog without coding. Besides the gallery we can create an empty web site and upload our website from vary approaches. And one of the highlighted feature here is that, we can make our web site integrated with a source control service, such as TFS and Git, so that it will be deployed automatically once a new commit or build available.   Create New Empty Web Site In the developer portal when creating a new web site, we can select QUICK CREATE item. This will create an empty web site with only one shared instance without any database associated. Let’s specify the URL, region and subscription and click OK. After a few seconds our website will be ready. And now we can click the BROWSE button to open this empty website. As you can see there is a welcome page available in my website even thought I didn’t upload or deploy anything. This means even though the website will be charged even before anything was deployed, similar as the cloud service (hosted service). It is because once we created a website, Windows Azure platform had arranged a hosting process (w3wp.exe) in the group of virtual machines.   Create Project in TFS Preview Service and Setup Link Currently the Windows Azure Web Sites can integrate with TFS and Git as its deployment source, and it only support the Microsoft TFS Preview Service for now. I will not deep into how to use the TFS preview service in this post but once we click into the website we had just created and then clicked the “Set up TFS publishing”, there will be a dialog helping us to connect to this service. If you don’t have an account you can click the link shown below to request one. Assuming we have already had an account of TFS service then we need to create a new project firstly. Go to your TFS service website and create a new project, giving the project name, description and the process template. Then, back to the developer portal and clicked the “Set up TFS publishing” link. In the popping up window I will provide my TFS service URL and click the “Authorize now” link. Click “Accept” button to allow my windows azure to connect to my TFS service. Then it will be back to the developer portal and list all projects in my account. Just select the one I had just created and click OK. Then our website is linking to the TFS project I specified and finally it will show similar like this below. This means the web site had been linked to the TFS successfully.   Work with TFS Preview Service in VS2010 In the figure above there are some links to guide us how to connect to the TFS server through Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 RC. If you are using Visual Studio 2012 RC, you don’t need any extension. But if you are using Visual Studio 2010 you must have SP1 and KB2581206 installed. To connect to my TFS service just open the Visual Studio and in the Team Explorer, we can add a new TFS server and paste the URL of my TFS service from the developer portal. And select the project I had just created, then it will be listed in my Team Explorer. Now let’s start to build our website. Since the website we are going to build will be deployed to WAWS, it’s NOT a cloud service, NOT a web role. So in this case we need to create a normal ASP.NET web application. For example, an ASP.NET MVC 3 web application. Next, right click on the solution and select “Add Solution to Source Control”, select the project I had just created. Then check my code in. Once the check-in finished we can see that there is a build running in the TFS server. And if we back to the developer portal, we will see in our web site deployment page there’s a deployment running. In fact, once we linked our web site to our TFS then it will create a new build definition in our TFS project. It will be triggered by each check-in and deploy to the web site we linked automatically. So that when our code had been compiled it will be published to our web site from our TFS server. Once the build and deployment finished we can see it’s now active on our developer portal. Now we can see the web site that created from my Visual Studio and deployed by my TFS.   Continue Deployment through VS and TFS A big benefit when using TFS publishing is the continue deployment. Now if I changed some code in my Visual Studio, for example update some text on the home page and check in my changes, then it will trigger an new build and deploy to my WAWS automatically. And even more, if we wanted to rollback to a previous version we can just select an existing deployment listed in the portal and click REDEPLOY at the bottom.   Q&A: Can Web Site use Storage work with a Worker Role? Stacy asked a question in my previous post, which was “can a web site use Windows Azure Storage and furthermore working with a worker role”. Since the web site is deployed on the windows azure virtual machines in data center, it must be able to use all windows azure features such as the storage, SQL databases, CDN, etc.. But since when using web site we normally have a standard ASP.NET web application, PHP website or NodeJS, the windows azure SDK was not referenced by default. But we can add them by ourselves. In our sample project let’s right click on my MVC project and clicked the “Manage NuGet packages”. And in the dialog I will search windows azure packages and select the “Windows Azure Storage” to install. Then we will have the assemblies to access windows azure storage such as tables, queues and blobs. Since I have a storage account already, let’s have a quick demo, just to list all blobs in a container. The code would be like this. 1: using System; 2: using System.Collections.Generic; 3: using System.Linq; 4: using System.Web; 5: using System.Web.Mvc; 6: using Microsoft.WindowsAzure; 7: using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient; 8:  9: namespace WAASTFSDemo.Controllers 10: { 11: public class HomeController : Controller 12: { 13: public ActionResult Index() 14: { 15: ViewBag.Message = "Welcome to Windows Azure!"; 16:  17: var credentials = new StorageCredentialsAccountAndKey("[STORAGE_ACCOUNT]", "[STORAGE_KEY]"); 18: var account = new CloudStorageAccount(credentials, false); 19: var client = account.CreateCloudBlobClient(); 20: var container = client.GetContainerReference("shared"); 21: ViewBag.Blobs = container.ListBlobs().Select(b => b.Uri.AbsoluteUri); 22:  23: return View(); 24: } 25:  26: public ActionResult About() 27: { 28: return View(); 29: } 30: } 31: } 1: @{ 2: ViewBag.Title = "Home Page"; 3: } 4:  5: <h2>@ViewBag.Message</h2> 6: <p> 7: To learn more about ASP.NET MVC visit <a href="http://asp.net/mvc" title="ASP.NET MVC Website">http://asp.net/mvc</a>. 8: </p> 9: <div> 10: <ul> 11: @foreach (var blob in ViewBag.Blobs) 12: { 13: <li>@blob</li> 14: } 15: </ul> 16: </div> And then just check in the code, it will be deployed to my web site. Finally we can see the blobs in my storage.   This is just an example but it proves that web sites can connect to storage, table, blob and queue as well. So the answer to Stacy should be “yes”. The web site can use queue storage to work with worker role.   Summary In this post I demonstrated how to integrate with TFS from Windows Azure Web Sites. You can see our website can be built, uploaded and deployed automatically by TFS service. All we need to do is to provide the TFS name and select the project. Not only the Windows Azure Web Site, in this upgrade the Windows Azure Cloud Services (hosted service) can be published through TFS as well. Very similar as what we have shown below. But currently, only Microsoft TFS Service Preview can be integrated with Windows Azure. But I think in the future we can link the TFS in our enterprise and some 3rd party TFS such as CodePlex to Windows Azure.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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• The future for Microsoft

  - by Scott Dorman

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/sdorman/archive/2013/10/16/the-future-for-microsoft.aspxMicrosoft is in the process of reinventing itself. While some may argue that it’s “too little, too late” or that their growing consumer-focused strategy is wrong, the truth of the situation is that Microsoft is reinventing itself into a new company. While Microsoft is now calling themselves a “devices and services” company, that’s not entirely accurate. Let’s look at some facts: Microsoft will always (for the long-term foreseeable future) be financially split into the following divisions: Windows/Operating Systems, which for FY13 made up approximately 24% of overall revenue. Server and Tools, which for FY13 made up approximately 26% of overall revenue. Enterprise/Business Products, which for FY13 made up approximately 32% of overall revenue. Entertainment and Devices, which for FY13 made up approximately 13% of overall revenue. Online Services, which for FY13 made up approximately 4% of overall revenue. It is important to realize that hardware products like the Surface fall under the Windows/Operating Systems division while products like the Xbox 360 fall under the Entertainment and Devices division. (Presumably other hardware, such as mice, keyboards, and cameras, also fall under the Entertainment and Devices division.) It’s also unclear where Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Nokia’s handset division will fall, but let’s assume that it will be under Entertainment and Devices as well. Now, for the sake of argument, let’s assume a slightly different structure that I think is more in line with how Microsoft presents itself and how the general public sees it: Consumer Products and Devices, which would probably make up approximately 9% of overall revenue. Developer Tools, which would probably make up approximately 13% of overall revenue. Enterprise Products and Devices, which would probably make up approximately 47% of overall revenue. Entertainment, which would probably make up approximately 13% of overall revenue. Online Services, which would probably make up approximately 17% of overall revenue. (Just so we’re clear, in this structure hardware products like the Surface, a portion of Windows sales, and other hardware fall under the Consumer Products and Devices division. I’m assuming that more of the income for the Windows division is coming from enterprise/volume licenses so 15% of that income went to the Enterprise Products and Devices division. Most of the enterprise services, like Azure, fall under the Online Services division so half of the Server and Tools income went there as well.) No matter how you look at it, the bulk of Microsoft’s income still comes from not just the enterprise but also software sales, and this really shouldn’t surprise anyone. So, now that the stage is set…what’s the future for Microsoft? The future I see for Microsoft (again, this is just my prediction based on my own instinct, gut-feel and publicly available information) is this: Microsoft is becoming a consumer-focused enterprise company. Let’s look at it a different way. Microsoft is an enterprise-focused company trying to create a larger consumer presence.  To a large extent, this is the exact opposite of Apple, who is really a consumer-focused company trying to create a larger enterprise presence. The major reason consumer-focused companies (like Apple) have started making in-roads into the enterprise is the “bring your own device” phenomenon. Yes, Apple has created some “game-changing” products but their enterprise influence is still relatively small. Unfortunately (for this blog post at least), Apple provides revenue in terms of hardware products rather than business divisions, so it’s not possible to do a direct comparison. However, in the interest of transparency, from Apple’s Quarterly Report (filed 24 July 2013), their revenue breakdown is: iPhone, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 51% of revenue. iPad, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 18% of revenue. Mac, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 14% of revenue. iPod, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 2% of revenue. iTunes, Software, and Services, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 11% of revenue. Accessories, which for the 3 months ending 29 July 2013 made up approximately 3% of revenue. From this, it’s pretty clear that Apple is a consumer-and-hardware-focused company. At this point, you may be asking yourself “Where is all of this going?” The answer to that lies in Microsoft’s shift in company focus. They are becoming more consumer focused, but what exactly does that mean? The biggest change (at least that’s been in the news lately) is the pending purchase of Nokia’s handset division. This, in combination with their Surface line of tablets and the Xbox, will put Microsoft squarely in the realm of a hardware-focused company in addition to being a software-focused company. That can (and most likely will) shift the revenue split to looking at revenue based on software sales (both consumer and enterprise) and also hardware sales (mostly on the consumer side). If we look at things strictly from a Windows perspective, Microsoft clearly has a lot of irons in the fire at the moment. Discounting the various product SKUs available and painting the picture with broader strokes, there are currently 5 different Windows-based operating systems: Windows Phone Windows Phone 7.x, which runs on top of the Windows CE kernel Windows Phone 8.x+, which runs on top of the Windows 8 kernel Windows RT The ARM-based version of Windows 8, which runs on top of the Windows 8 kernel Windows (Pro) The Intel-based version of Windows 8, which runs on top of the Windows 8 kernel Xbox The Xbox 360, which runs it’s own proprietary OS. The Xbox One, which runs it’s own proprietary OS, a version of Windows running on top of the Windows 8 kernel and a proprietary “manager” OS which manages the other two. Over time, Windows Phone 7.x devices will fade so that really leaves 4 different versions. Looking at Windows RT and Windows Phone 8.x paints an interesting story. Right now, all mobile phone devices run on some sort of ARM chip and that doesn’t look like it will change any time soon. That means Microsoft has two different Windows based operating systems for the ARM platform. Long term, it doesn’t make sense for Microsoft to continue supporting that arrangement. I have long suspected (since the Surface was first announced) that Microsoft will unify these two variants of Windows and recent speculation from some of the leading Microsoft watchers lends credence to this suspicion. It is rumored that upcoming Windows Phone releases will include support for larger screen sizes, relax the requirement to have a hardware-based back button and will continue to improve API parity between Windows Phone and Windows RT. At the same time, Windows RT will include support for smaller screen sizes. Since both of these operating systems are based on the same core Windows kernel, it makes sense (both from a financial and development resource perspective) for Microsoft to unify them. The user interfaces are already very similar. So similar in fact, that visually it’s difficult to tell them apart. To illustrate this, here are two screen captures: Other than a few variations (the Bing News app, the picture shown in the Pictures tile and the spacing between the tiles) these are identical. The one on the left is from my Windows 8.1 laptop (which looks the same as on my Surface RT) and the one on the right is from my Windows Phone 8 Lumia 925. This pretty clearly shows that from a consumer perspective, there really is no practical difference between how these two operating systems look and how you interact with them. For the consumer, your entertainment device (Xbox One), phone (Windows Phone) and mobile computing device (Surface [or some other vendors tablet], laptop, netbook or ultrabook) and your desktop computing device (desktop) will all look and feel the same. While many people will denounce this consistency of user experience, I think this will be a good thing in the long term, especially for the upcoming generations. For example, my 5-year old son knows how to use my tablet, phone and Xbox because they all feature nearly identical user experiences. When Windows 8 was released, Microsoft allowed a Windows Store app to be purchased once and installed on as many as 5 devices. With Windows 8.1, this limit has been increased to over 50. Why is that important? If you consider that your phone, computing devices, and entertainment device will be running the same operating system (with minor differences related to physical hardware chipset), that means that I could potentially purchase my sons favorite Angry Birds game once and be able to install it on all of the devices I own. (And for those of you wondering, it’s only 7 [at the moment].) From an app developer perspective, the story becomes even more compelling. Right now there are differences between the different operating systems, but those differences are shrinking. The user interface technology for both is XAML but there are different controls available and different user experience concepts. Some of the APIs available are the same while some are not. You can’t develop a Windows Phone app that can also run on Windows (either Windows Pro or RT). With each release of Windows Phone and Windows RT, those difference become smaller and smaller. Add to this mix the Xbox One, which will also feature a Windows-based operating system and the same “modern” (tile-based) user interface and the visible distinctions between the operating systems will become even smaller. Unifying the operating systems means one set of APIs and one code base to maintain for an app that can run on multiple devices. One code base means it’s easier to add features and fix bugs and that those changes become available on all devices at the same time. It also means a single app store, which will increase the discoverability and reach of your app and consolidate revenue and app profile management. Now, the choice of what devices an app is available on becomes a simple checkbox decision rather than a technical limitation. Ultimately, this means more apps available to consumers, which is always good for the app ecosystem. Is all of this just rumor, speculation and conjecture? Of course, but it’s not unfounded. As I mentioned earlier, some of the prominent Microsoft watchers are also reporting similar rumors. However, Microsoft itself has even hinted at this future with their recent organizational changes and by telling developers “if you want to develop for Xbox One, start developing for Windows 8 now.” I think this pretty clearly paints the following picture: Microsoft is committed to the “modern” user interface paradigm. Microsoft is changing their release cadence (for all products, not just operating systems) to be faster and more modular. Microsoft is going to continue to unify their OS platforms both from a consumer perspective and a developer perspective. While this direction will certainly concern some people it will excite many others. Microsoft’s biggest failing has always been following through with a strong and sustained marketing strategy that presents a consistent view point and highlights what this unified and connected experience looks like and how it benefits consumers and enterprises. We’ve started to see some of this over the last few years, but it needs to continue and become more aggressive and consistent. In the long run, I think Microsoft will be able to pull all of these technologies and devices together into one seamless ecosystem. It isn’t going to happen overnight, but my prediction is that we will be there by the end of 2016. As both a consumer and a developer, I, for one, am excited about the future of Microsoft.

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• C#/.NET &ndash; Finding an Item&rsquo;s Index in IEnumerable&lt;T&gt;

  - by James Michael Hare

  Sorry for the long blogging hiatus.  First it was, of course, the holidays hustle and bustle, then my brother and his wife gave birth to their son, so I’ve been away from my blogging for two weeks. Background: Finding an item’s index in List<T> is easy… Many times in our day to day programming activities, we want to find the index of an item in a collection.  Now, if we have a List<T> and we’re looking for the item itself this is trivial: 1: // assume have a list of ints: 2: var list = new List<int> { 1, 13, 42, 64, 121, 77, 5, 99, 132 }; 3:  4: // can find the exact item using IndexOf() 5: var pos = list.IndexOf(64); This will return the position of the item if it’s found, or –1 if not.  It’s easy to see how this works for primitive types where equality is well defined.  For complex types, however, it will attempt to compare them using EqualityComparer<T>.Default which, in a nutshell, relies on the object’s Equals() method. So what if we want to search for a condition instead of equality?  That’s also easy in a List<T> with the FindIndex() method: 1: // assume have a list of ints: 2: var list = new List<int> { 1, 13, 42, 64, 121, 77, 5, 99, 132 }; 3:  4: // finds index of first even number or -1 if not found. 5: var pos = list.FindIndex(i => i % 2 == 0);   Problem: Finding an item’s index in IEnumerable<T> is not so easy... This is all well and good for lists, but what if we want to do the same thing for IEnumerable<T>?  A collection of IEnumerable<T> has no indexing, so there’s no direct method to find an item’s index.  LINQ, as powerful as it is, gives us many tools to get us this information, but not in one step.  As with almost any problem involving collections, there are several ways to accomplish the same goal.  And once again as with almost any problem involving collections, the choice of the solution somewhat depends on the situation. So let’s look at a few possible alternatives.  I’m going to express each of these as extension methods for simplicity and consistency. Solution: The TakeWhile() and Count() combo One of the things you can do is to perform a TakeWhile() on the list as long as your find condition is not true, and then do a Count() of the items it took.  The only downside to this method is that if the item is not in the list, the index will be the full Count() of items, and not –1.  So if you don’t know the size of the list beforehand, this can be confusing. 1: // a collection of extra extension methods off IEnumerable<T> 2: public static class EnumerableExtensions 3: { 4: // Finds an item in the collection, similar to List<T>.FindIndex() 5: public static int FindIndex<T>(this IEnumerable<T> list, Predicate<T> finder) 6: { 7: // note if item not found, result is length and not -1! 8: return list.TakeWhile(i => !finder(i)).Count(); 9: } 10: } Personally, I don’t like switching the paradigm of not found away from –1, so this is one of my least favorites.  Solution: Select with index Many people don’t realize that there is an alternative form of the LINQ Select() method that will provide you an index of the item being selected: 1: list.Select( (item,index) => do something here with the item and/or index... ) This can come in handy, but must be treated with care.  This is because the index provided is only as pertains to the result of previous operations (if any).  For example: 1: // assume have a list of ints: 2: var list = new List<int> { 1, 13, 42, 64, 121, 77, 5, 99, 132 }; 3:  4: // you'd hope this would give you the indexes of the even numbers 5: // which would be 2, 3, 8, but in reality it gives you 0, 1, 2 6: list.Where(item => item % 2 == 0).Select((item,index) => index); The reason the example gives you the collection { 0, 1, 2 } is because the where clause passes over any items that are odd, and therefore only the even items are given to the select and only they are given indexes. Conversely, we can’t select the index and then test the item in a Where() clause, because then the Where() clause would be operating on the index and not the item! So, what we have to do is to select the item and index and put them together in an anonymous type.  It looks ugly, but it works: 1: // extensions defined on IEnumerable<T> 2: public static class EnumerableExtensions 3: { 4: // finds an item in a collection, similar to List<T>.FindIndex() 5: public static int FindIndex<T>(this IEnumerable<T> list, Predicate<T> finder) 6: { 7: // if you don't name the anonymous properties they are the variable names 8: return list.Select((item, index) => new { item, index }) 9: .Where(p => finder(p.item)) 10: .Select(p => p.index + 1) 11: .FirstOrDefault() - 1; 12: } 13: }     So let’s look at this, because i know it’s convoluted: First Select() joins the items and their indexes into an anonymous type. Where() filters that list to only the ones matching the predicate. Second Select() picks the index of the matches and adds 1 – this is to distinguish between not found and first item. FirstOrDefault() returns the first item found from the previous clauses or default (zero) if not found. Subtract one so that not found (zero) will be –1, and first item (one) will be zero. The bad thing is, this is ugly as hell and creates anonymous objects for each item tested until it finds the match.  This concerns me a bit but we’ll defer judgment until compare the relative performances below. Solution: Convert ToList() and use FindIndex() This solution is easy enough.  We know any IEnumerable<T> can be converted to List<T> using the LINQ extension method ToList(), so we can easily convert the collection to a list and then just use the FindIndex() method baked into List<T>. 1: // a collection of extension methods for IEnumerable<T> 2: public static class EnumerableExtensions 3: { 4: // find the index of an item in the collection similar to List<T>.FindIndex() 5: public static int FindIndex<T>(this IEnumerable<T> list, Predicate<T> finder) 6: { 7: return list.ToList().FindIndex(finder); 8: } 9: } This solution is simplicity itself!  It is very concise and elegant and you need not worry about anyone misinterpreting what it’s trying to do (as opposed to the more convoluted LINQ methods above). But the main thing I’m concerned about here is the performance hit to allocate the List<T> in the ToList() call, but once again we’ll explore that in a second. Solution: Roll your own FindIndex() for IEnumerable<T> Of course, you can always roll your own FindIndex() method for IEnumerable<T>.  It would be a very simple for loop which scans for the item and counts as it goes.  There’s many ways to do this, but one such way might look like: 1: // extension methods for IEnumerable<T> 2: public static class EnumerableExtensions 3: { 4: // Finds an item matching a predicate in the enumeration, much like List<T>.FindIndex() 5: public static int FindIndex<T>(this IEnumerable<T> list, Predicate<T> finder) 6: { 7: int index = 0; 8: foreach (var item in list) 9: { 10: if (finder(item)) 11: { 12: return index; 13: } 14:  15: index++; 16: } 17:  18: return -1; 19: } 20: } Well, it’s not quite simplicity, and those less familiar with LINQ may prefer it since it doesn’t include all of the lambdas and behind the scenes iterators that come with deferred execution.  But does having this long, blown out method really gain us much in performance? Comparison of Proposed Solutions So we’ve now seen four solutions, let’s analyze their collective performance.  I took each of the four methods described above and run them over 100,000 iterations of lists of size 10, 100, 1000, and 10000 and here’s the performance results.  Then I looked for targets at the begining of the list (best case), middle of the list (the average case) and not in the list (worst case as must scan all of the list). Each of the times below is the average time in milliseconds for one execution as computer over the 100,000 iterations: Searches Matching First Item (Best Case)   10 100 1000 10000 TakeWhile 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 Select 0.0005 0.0005 0.0005 0.0005 ToList 0.0002 0.0003 0.0013 0.0121 Manual 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001   Searches Matching Middle Item (Average Case)   10 100 1000 10000 TakeWhile 0.0004 0.0020 0.0191 0.1889 Select 0.0008 0.0042 0.0387 0.3802 ToList 0.0002 0.0007 0.0057 0.0562 Manual 0.0002 0.0013 0.0129 0.1255   Searches Where Not Found (Worst Case)   10 100 1000 10000 TakeWhile 0.0006 0.0039 0.0381 0.3770 Select 0.0012 0.0081 0.0758 0.7583 ToList 0.0002 0.0012 0.0100 0.0996 Manual 0.0003 0.0026 0.0253 0.2514   Notice something interesting here, you’d think the “roll your own” loop would be the most efficient, but it only wins when the item is first (or very close to it) regardless of list size.  In almost all other cases though and in particular the average case and worst case, the ToList()/FindIndex() combo wins for performance, even though it is creating some temporary memory to hold the List<T>.  If you examine the algorithm, the reason why is most likely because once it’s in a ToList() form, internally FindIndex() scans the internal array which is much more efficient to iterate over.  Thus, it takes a one time performance hit (not including any GC impact) to create the List<T> but after that the performance is much better. Summary If you’re concerned about too many throw-away objects, you can always roll your own FindIndex() method, but for sheer simplicity and overall performance, using the ToList()/FindIndex() combo performs best on nearly all list sizes in the average and worst cases.    Technorati Tags: C#,.NET,Litte Wonders,BlackRabbitCoder,Software,LINQ,List

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• Customize Your WordPress Blog & Build an Audience

  - by Matthew Guay

  Want to quickly give your blog a fresh coat of paint and make it stand out from the pack?  Here’s how you can customize your WordPress blog and make it uniquely yours. WordPress offers many features that help you make your blog the best it can be.  Although it doesn’t offer as many customization features as full WordPress running on your own server, it still makes it easy to make your free blog as professional or cute as you like.  Here we’ll look at how you can customize features in your blog and build an audience. Personalize Your Blog WordPress make it easy to personalize your blog.  Most of the personalization options are available under the Appearance menu on the left.  Here we’ll look at how you can use most of these. Add New Theme WordPress is popular for the wide range of themes available for it.  While you cannot upload your own theme to your blog, you can choose from over 90 free themes currently available with more added all the time.  To change your theme, select the Themes page under Appearance. The Themes page will show random themes, but you can choose to view them in alphabetical order, by popularity, or how recently they were added.  Or, you can search for a theme by name or features. One neat way to find a theme that suites your needs is the Feature Filter.  Click the link on the right of the search button, and then select the options you want to make sure your theme has.  Click Apply Filters and WordPress will streamline your choices to themes that contain these features. Once you find a theme you like, click Preview under its name to see how your blog will look. This will open a popup that shows your blog with the new theme.  Click the Activate link in the top right corner of the popup if you want to keep this theme; otherwise, click the x in the top left corner to close the preview and continue your search for one you want.   Edit Current Theme Many of the themes on WordPress have customization options so you can make your blog stand out from others using the same theme.  The default theme Twenty Ten lets you customize both the header and background image, and many themes have similar options. To choose a new header image, select the Header page under Appearance.  Select one of the pre-installed images and click Save Changes, or upload your own image. If you upload an image larger than the size for the header, WordPress will let you crop it directly in the web interface.  Click Crop Header when you’ve selected the portion you want for the header of your blog. You can also customize your blog’s background from the Background page under Appearance.  You can upload an image for the background, or can enter a hex value of a color for a solid background.  If you’d rather visually choose a color, click Select a Color to open a color wheel that makes it easy to choose a nice color.  Click Save Changes when you’re done. Note: that all themes may not contain these customization options, but many are flexible.  You cannot edit the actual CSS of your theme on free WordPress blogs, but you you can purchase the Custom CSS Upgrade for $14.97/year to add this ability. Add Widgets With Extra Content Widgets are small addons for your blog, similar to Desktop Gadgets in Windows 7 or Dashboard widgets in Mac OS X.  You can add widgets to your blog to show recent Tweets, favorite Flickr pictures, popular articles, and more.  To add widgets to your blog, open the Widgets page under Appearance. You’ll see a variety of widgets available in the main white box.  Select one you want to add, and drag it to the widget area of your choice.  Different themes may offer different areas to place Widgets, such as the sidebar or footer. Most of the widgets offer configuration options.  Click the down arrow beside its name to edit it.  Set them up as you wish, and click Save on the bottom of the widget. Now we’ve got some nice dynamic content on our blog that’s automatically updated from the net. Choose Blog Extras By default, WordPress shows previews of websites when visitors hover over links on your blog, uses a special mobile theme when people visit from a mobile device, and shows related links to other blogs on the WordPress network at the end of your posts.  If you don’t like these features, you can disable them on the Extras page under Appearance. Build Your Audience Now that your blog is looking nice, we can make sure others will discover it.  WordPress makes it easy for you to make your site discoverable on search engines or social network, and even gives you the option to keep your site private if you’d prefer.  Open the Privacy page under Tools to change your site’s visibility.  By default, it will be indexed by search engines and be viewable to everyone.  You can also choose to leave your blog public but block search engines, or you can make it fully private. If you choose to make your blog private, you can enter up to 35 usernames of people you want to be able to see it.  Each private visitor must have a WordPress.com account so they can login.  If you need more than 35 private members, you can upgrade to allow unlimited private members for $29.97/year. Then, if you do want your site visible from search engines, one of the best ways to make sure your content is discovered by search engines is to register with their webmaster tools.  Once registered, you need to add your key to your site so the search engine will find and index it.  On the bottom of the Tools page, WordPress lets you enter your key from Google, Bing, and Yahoo! to make sure your site is discovered.  If you haven’t signed up with these tools yet, you can signup via the links on this page as well. Post Blog Updates to Social Networks Many people discover the sites they visit from friends and others via social networks.  WordPress makes it easy to automatically share links to your content on popular social networks.  To activate this feature, open the My Blogs page under Dashboard. Now, select the services you want to activate under the Publicize section.  This will automatically update Yahoo!, Twitter, and/or Facebook every time you publish a new post. You’ll have to authorize your connection with the social network.  With Twitter and Yahoo!, you can authorize them with only two clicks, but integrating with Facebook will take several steps.   If you’d rather share links yourself on social networks, you can get shortened URLs to your posts.  When you write a new post or edit an existing one, click the Get Shortlink button located underneath the post’s title. This will give you a small URL, usually 20 characters or less, that you can use to post on social networks such as Twitter.   This should help build your traffic, and if you want to see how many people are checking out your site, check out the stats on your Dashboard.  This shows a graph of how many people are visiting, and popular posts.  Click View All if you’d like more detailed stats including search engine terms that lead people to your blog. Conclusion Whether you’re looking to make a private blog for your group or publish a blog that’s read by millions around the world, WordPress is a great way to do it for free.  And with all of the personalization options, you can make your it memorable and exciting for your visitors. If you don’t have a blog, you can always signup for a free one from WordPress.com.  Also make sure to check out our article on how to Start Your Own Blog with WordPress. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Manage Your WordPress Blog Comments from Your Windows DesktopAdd Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress BlogHow-To Geek SoftwareMake a Backup Copy of your Production Wordpress Blog on UbuntuOops! Sorry About the Feed Errors TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – How To Guides Sculptris 1.0, 3D Drawing app AceStock, a Tiny Desktop Quote Monitor Gmail Button Addon (Firefox) Hyperwords addon (Firefox) Backup Outlook 2010

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• Big GRC: Turning Data into Actionable GRC Intelligence

  - by Jenna Danko

  While it’s no longer headline news that Governments have carried out large scale data-mining programmes aimed at terrorism detection and identifying other patterns of interest across a wide range of digital data sources, the debate over the ethics and justification over this action, will clearly continue for some time to come. What is becoming clear is that these programmes are a framework for the collation and aggregation of massive amounts of unstructured data and from this, the creation of actionable intelligence from analyses that allowed the analysts to explore and extract a variety of patterns and then direct resources. This data included audio and video chats, phone calls, photographs, e-mails, documents, internet searches, social media posts and mobile phone logs and connections. Although Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) professionals are not looking at the implementation of such programmes, there are many similar GRC “Big data” challenges to be faced and potential lessons to be learned from these high profile government programmes that can be applied a lot closer to home. For example, how can GRC professionals collect, manage and analyze an enormous and disparate volume of data to create and manage their own actionable intelligence covering hidden signs and patterns of criminal activity, the early or retrospective, violation of regulations/laws/corporate policies and procedures, emerging risks and weakening controls etc. Not exactly the stuff of James Bond to be sure, but it is certainly more applicable to most GRC professional’s day to day challenges. So what is Big Data and how can it benefit the GRC process? Although it often varies, the definition of Big Data largely refers to the following types of data: Traditional Enterprise Data – includes customer information from CRM systems, transactional ERP data, web store transactions, and general ledger data. Machine-Generated /Sensor Data – includes Call Detail Records (“CDR”), weblogs and trading systems data. Social Data – includes customer feedback streams, micro-blogging sites like Twitter, and social media platforms like Facebook. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that data volume is growing 40% per year, and will grow 44x between 2009 and 2020. But while it’s often the most visible parameter, volume of data is not the only characteristic that matters. In fact, according to sources such as Forrester there are four key characteristics that define big data: Volume. Machine-generated data is produced in much larger quantities than non-traditional data. This is all the data generated by IT systems that power the enterprise. This includes live data from packaged and custom applications – for example, app servers, Web servers, databases, networks, virtual machines, telecom equipment, and much more. Velocity. Social media data streams – while not as massive as machine-generated data – produce a large influx of opinions and relationships valuable to customer relationship management as well as offering early insight into potential reputational risk issues. Even at 140 characters per tweet, the high velocity (or frequency) of Twitter data ensures large volumes (over 8 TB per day) need to be managed. Variety. Traditional data formats tend to be relatively well defined by a data schema and change slowly. In contrast, non-traditional data formats exhibit a dizzying rate of change. Without question, all GRC professionals work in a dynamic environment and as new services, new products, new business lines are added or new marketing campaigns executed for example, new data types are needed to capture the resultant information.  Value. The economic value of data varies significantly. Typically, there is good information hidden amongst a larger body of non-traditional data that GRC professionals can use to add real value to the organisation; the greater challenge is identifying what is valuable and then transforming and extracting that data for analysis and action. For example, customer service calls and emails have millions of useful data points and have long been a source of information to GRC professionals. Those calls and emails are critical in helping GRC professionals better identify hidden patterns and implement new policies that can reduce the amount of customer complaints.   Now on a scale and depth far beyond those in place today, all that unstructured call and email data can be captured, stored and analyzed to reveal the reasons for the contact, perhaps with the aggregated customer results cross referenced against what is being said about the organization or a similar peer organization on social media. The organization can then take positive actions, communicating to the market in advance of issues reaching the press, strengthening controls, adjusting risk profiles, changing policy and procedures and completely minimizing, if not eliminating, complaints and compensation for that specific reason in the future. In this one example of many similar ones, the GRC team(s) has demonstrated real and tangible business value. Big Challenges - Big Opportunities As pointed out by recent Forrester research, high performing companies (those that are growing 15% or more year-on-year compared to their peers) are taking a selective approach to investing in Big Data.  "Tomorrow's winners understand this, and they are making selective investments aimed at specific opportunities with tangible benefits where big data offers a more economical solution to meet a need." (Forrsights Strategy Spotlight: Business Intelligence and Big Data, Q4 2012) As pointed out earlier, with the ever increasing volume of regulatory demands and fines for getting it wrong, limited resource availability and out of date or inadequate GRC systems all contributing to a higher cost of compliance and/or higher risk profile than desired – a big data investment in GRC clearly falls into this category. However, to make the most of big data organizations must evolve both their business and IT procedures, processes, people and infrastructures to handle these new high-volume, high-velocity, high-variety sources of data and be able integrate them with the pre-existing company data to be analyzed. GRC big data clearly allows the organization access to and management over a huge amount of often very sensitive information that although can help create a more risk intelligent organization, also presents numerous data governance challenges, including regulatory compliance and information security. In addition to client and regulatory demands over better information security and data protection the sheer amount of information organizations deal with the need to quickly access, classify, protect and manage that information can quickly become a key issue  from a legal, as well as technical or operational standpoint. However, by making information governance processes a bigger part of everyday operations, organizations can make sure data remains readily available and protected. The Right GRC & Big Data Partnership Becomes Key  The "getting it right first time" mantra used in so many companies remains essential for any GRC team that is sponsoring, helping kick start, or even overseeing a big data project. To make a big data GRC initiative work and get the desired value, partnerships with companies, who have a long history of success in delivering successful GRC solutions as well as being at the very forefront of technology innovation, becomes key. Clearly solutions can be built in-house more cheaply than through vendor, but as has been proven time and time again, when it comes to self built solutions covering AML and Fraud for example, few have able to scale or adapt appropriately to meet the changing regulations or challenges that the GRC teams face on a daily basis. This has led to the creation of GRC silo’s that are causing so many headaches today. The solutions that stand out and should be explored are the ones that can seamlessly merge the traditional world of well-known data, analytics and visualization with the new world of seemingly innumerable data sources, utilizing Big Data technologies to generate new GRC insights right across the enterprise.Ultimately, Big Data is here to stay, and organizations that embrace its potential and outline a viable strategy, as well as understand and build a solid analytical foundation, will be the ones that are well positioned to make the most of it. A Blueprint and Roadmap Service for Big Data Big data adoption is first and foremost a business decision. As such it is essential that your partner can align your strategies, goals, and objectives with an architecture vision and roadmap to accelerate adoption of big data for your environment, as well as establish practical, effective governance that will maintain a well managed environment going forward. Key Activities: While your initiatives will clearly vary, there are some generic starting points the team and organization will need to complete: Clearly define your drivers, strategies, goals, objectives and requirements as it relates to big data Conduct a big data readiness and Information Architecture maturity assessment Develop future state big data architecture, including views across all relevant architecture domains; business, applications, information, and technology Provide initial guidance on big data candidate selection for migrations or implementation Develop a strategic roadmap and implementation plan that reflects a prioritization of initiatives based on business impact and technology dependency, and an incremental integration approach for evolving your current state to the target future state in a manner that represents the least amount of risk and impact of change on the business Provide recommendations for practical, effective Data Governance, Data Quality Management, and Information Lifecycle Management to maintain a well-managed environment Conduct an executive workshop with recommendations and next steps There is little debate that managing risk and data are the two biggest obstacles encountered by financial institutions.  Big data is here to stay and risk management certainly is not going anywhere, and ultimately financial services industry organizations that embrace its potential and outline a viable strategy, as well as understand and build a solid analytical foundation, will be best positioned to make the most of it. Matthew Long is a Financial Crime Specialist for Oracle Financial Services. He can be reached at matthew.long AT oracle.com.

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• Most secure way to access my home Linux server while I am on the road? Specialized solution wanted

  - by Ace Paus

  I think many people may be in my situation. I travel on business with a laptop. And I need secure access to files from the office (which in my case is my home). The short version of my question: How can I make SSH/SFTP really secure when only one person needs to connect to the server from one laptop? In this situation, what special steps would make it almost impossible for anyone else to get online access to the server? A lot more details: I use Ubuntu Linux on both my laptop (KDE) and my home/office server. Connectivity is not a problem. I can tether to my phone's connection if needed. I need access to a large number of files (around 300 GB). I don't need all of them at once, but I don't know in advance which files I might need. These files contain confidential client info and personal info such as credit card numbers, so they must be secure. Given this, I don't want store all these files on Dropbox or Amazon AWS, or similar. I couldn't justify that cost anyway (Dropbox don't even publish prices for plans above 100 GB, and security is a concern). However, I am willing to spend some money on a proper solution. A VPN service, for example, might be part of the solution? Or other commercial services? I've heard about PogoPlug, but I don't know if there is a similar service that might address my security concerns? I could copy all my files to my laptop because it has the space. But then I have to sync between my home computer and my laptop and I found in the past that I'm not very good about doing this. And if my laptop is lost or stolen, my data would be on it. The laptop drive is an SSD and encryption solutions for SSD drives are not good. Therefore, it seems best to keep all my data on my Linux file server (which is safe at home). Is that a reasonable conclusion, or is anything connected to the Internet such a risk that I should just copy the data to the laptop (and maybe replace the SSD with an HDD, which reduces battery life and performance)? I view the risks of losing a laptop to be higher. I am not an obvious hacking target online. My home broadband is cable Internet, and it seems very reliable. So I want to know the best (reasonable) way to securely access my data (from my laptop) while on the road. I only need to access it from this one computer, although I may connect from either my phone's 3G/4G or via WiFi or some client's broadband, etc. So I won't know in advance which IP address I'll have. I am leaning toward a solution based on SSH and SFTP (or similar). SSH/SFTP would provided about all the functionality I anticipate needing. I would like to use SFTP and Dolphin to browse and download files. I'll use SSH and the terminal for anything else. My Linux file server is set up with OpenSSH. I think I have SSH relatively secured. I'm using Denyhosts too. But I want to go several steps further. I want to get the chances that anyone can get into my server as close to zero as possible while still allowing me to get access from the road. I'm not a sysadmin or programmer or real "superuser". I have to spend most of my time doing other things. I've heard about "port knocking" but I have never used it and I don't know how to implement it (although I'm willing to learn). I have already read a number of articles with titles such as: Top 20 OpenSSH Server Best Security Practices 20 Linux Server Hardening Security Tips Debian Linux Stop SSH User Hacking / Cracking Attacks with DenyHosts Software more... I have not implemented every single thing I've read about. I probably can't do that. But maybe there is something even better I can do in my situation because I only need access from a single laptop. I'm just one user. My server does not need to be accessible to the general public. Given all these facts, I'm hoping I can get some suggestions here that are within my capability to implement and that leverage these facts to create a great deal better security than general purpose suggestions in the articles above.

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• ADO.NET (WCF) Data Services Query Interceptor Hangs IIS

  - by PreMagination

  I have an ADO.NET Data Service that's supposed to provide read-only access to a somewhat complex database. Logically I have table-per-type (TPT) inheritance in my data model but the EDM doesn't implement inheritance. (Limitation of EF and navigation properties on derived types. STILL not fixed in EF4!) I can query my EDM directly (using a separate project) using a copy of the query I'm trying to run against the web service, results are returned within 10 seconds. Disabling the query interceptors I'm able to make the same query against the web service, results are returned similarly quickly. I can enable some of the query interceptors and the results are returned slowly, up to a minute or so later. Alternatively, I can enable all the query interceptors, expand less of the properties on the main object I'm querying, and results are returned in a similar period of time. (I've increased some of the timeout periods) Up til this point Sql Profiler indicates the slow-down is the database. (That's a post for a different day) But when I enable all my query interceptors and expand all the properties I'd like to have the IIS worker process pegs the CPU for 20 minutes and a query is never even made against the database. This implies to me that yes, my implementation probably sucks but regardless the Data Services "tier" is having an issue it shouldn't. WCF tracing didn't reveal anything interesting to my untrained eye. Details: Data model: Agent-Person-Student Student has a collection of referrals Students and referrals are private, queries against the web service should only return "your" students and referrals. This means Person and Agent need to be filtered too. Other entities (Agent-Organization-School) can be accessed by anyone who has authenticated. The existing security model is poorly suited to perform this type of filtering for this type of data access, the query interceptors are complicated and cause EF to generate some entertaining sql queries. Sample Interceptor [QueryInterceptor("Agents")] public Expression<Func<Agent, Boolean>> OnQueryAgents() { //Agent is a Person(1), Educator(2), Student(3), or Other Person(13); allow if scope permissions exist return ag => (ag.AgentType.AgentTypeId == 1 || ag.AgentType.AgentTypeId == 2 || ag.AgentType.AgentTypeId == 3 || ag.AgentType.AgentTypeId == 13) && ag.Person.OrganizationPersons.Count<OrganizationPerson>(op => op.Organization.ScopePermissions.Any<ScopePermission> (p => p.ApplicationRoleAccount.Account.UserName == HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name && p.ApplicationRoleAccount.Application.ApplicationId == 124) || op.Organization.HierarchyDescendents.Any<OrganizationsHierarchy>(oh => oh.AncestorOrganization.ScopePermissions.Any<ScopePermission> (p => p.ApplicationRoleAccount.Account.UserName == HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name && p.ApplicationRoleAccount.Application.ApplicationId == 124))) > 0; } The query interceptors for Person, Student, Referral are all very similar, ie they traverse multiple same/similar tables to look for ScopePermissions as above. Sample Query var referrals = (from r in service.Referrals .Expand("Organization/ParentOrganization") .Expand("Educator/Person/Agent") .Expand("Student/Person/Agent") .Expand("Student") .Expand("Grade") .Expand("ProblemBehavior") .Expand("Location") .Expand("Motivation") .Expand("AdminDecision") .Expand("OthersInvolved") where r.DateCreated >= coupledays && r.DateDeleted == null select r); Any suggestions or tips would be greatly associated, for fixing my current implementation or in developing a new one, with the caveat that the database can't be changed and that ultimately I need to expose a large portion of the database via a web service that limits data access to the data authorized for, for the purpose of data integration with multiple outside parties. THANK YOU!!!

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• Custom Online Backup Solution Advice

  - by Martín Marconcini

  I have to implement a way so our customers can backup their SQL 2000/5/8 databasase online. The application they use is a C#/.NET35 Winforms application that connects to a SQL Server (can be 2000/2005/2008, sometimes express editions). The SQL Server is on the same LAN. Our application has a very specific UI and we must code each form following those guidelines. There’s lots of GDI+ to give it the look and feel we want. For that reason, using a 3rd party application is not a very good idea. We need to charge the customer on a monthly/annual basis for the service. Preferably, the customer doesn’t need to care about bandwidth and storage space. It must be transparent. Given the above reqs., my first thoughts are: Solution 1: Code some sort of FTP basic functionality with behind the scenes SQL Backup mechanism, then hire a Hosting service and compress-transfer the .BAK to the Hosting. Maintain a series of Folders (for each customer). They won’t see what’s happening. They will just see a list of their files and a big “Backup now” button that will perform the SQL backup, compress it and upload it (and update the file list) ;) Pros: Not very complicated to implement, simple to use, fairly simple to configure (could have a dedicated ftp user/pass) Cons: Finding a “ftp” only hosting plan is not probably going to be easy, they usually come with a bunch of stuff. FTP is not always the best protocol. more? Solution 2: Similar to 1, but instead of FTP, find a cloud computing service like Amazon S3, Mosso or similar. Pros: Cloud Storage is fast, reliable, etc. It’s kind of easy to implement (specially if there are APIs like AWS or Mosso). Cons: I have been unable to come up with a service optimized for resellers where I can give multiple sub-accounts (one for each customer). Billing is going to be a nightmare cuz these services bill per/GB and with One account it’s impossible to differentiate each customer. Solution 3: Similar to 2, but letting the user create their own account on Amazon S3 (for example). Pros: You forget about billing and such. Cons: A mess for the customer who has to open the Amazon (or whatever) account, will be charged for that and not from you. You can’t really charge the customer (since you’re just not doing anything). Solution 4: Use one of the many backup online solutions that use the tech in cloud storage. Pros: many of these include SQL Server backup, and a lot of features that we’d have to implement. Plus web access and stuff like that will come included. Cons: Still have the billing problem described in number 2. Little of these companies (if any) offers “reseller” accounts. You have to eventually use their software (some offer certain branding). Any better approach? Summary: You have a software (.NET Winapp). You want your users to be able to backup their SQL Server databases online (and be able to retrieve the backups if needed). You ideally would like to charge the customer for this service (i.e. XX € a year).

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• Create / build / generate a web form that can be on my server and has modern looks and could be impl

  - by Luay

  I have a small web site and would like to add a 'contact us' form and a 'feedback' form. i would like the forms to satisfy the following: 1- be modern looking (with beautiful css effects) 2- the form fields are validated properly and 'inline'. What I mean is once a user skips a required field or enters an email address incorrectly some kind of tooltip or icon is displayed to ask him to cerrect the error (as opposed to a message box that appears after the user clicks 'submit') 3- once the submit button is clicked the form contents are emailed to me. 4- the whole thing can be setup by a noob like myself. 5- no ads on the form I have been searching for at least 5 days for a solution but I can't seem to find anything the would satisfy the above 5 conditions. I don't mind paying for a solution as long as it is hosted on my site and it is a one off payment and not a monthly payment. So far my search has lead me to the following: 1 wufoo. The good: the generated forms seem to look okay but not the best there is. The bad: the free service is limited to 100 submissions. ads on the form. it is not hosted on my server. Paid service requires monthly payments 2- emailmeform: almost same as above except the generated form looks old. They do have an offer where you pay only $4 to get the form and set it up on your own site but that doesn't solve the fact that the forms look old. 3- formAssembly: same as above with minor variations (the generated form looks better) 4- formchamp, formthis, kontaktr,... And other similar online services: the same problem. either the form generated looks outdated or require monthly payments or they put ads...they don't satisfy my conditions. 5- coffeecup form builder. a desktop software. The problem is the generated forms look too old and use flash. 6- simfatic. Another software. Much better than coffeecup. almost satisfies my conditions but the forms not as good as I like. 7- many, many php scripts or html templates that look so outdated or fail when tested (probably because they are too old). Seriously guys, how hard is this. At least 90%+ of website contain at least a 'contact us' form. Why aren't there better solutions? if there is I can't seem to find them. In terms of looks I want something similar to this: http://web-kreation.com/articles/lightform-free-ajaxphp-contact-form/ It is called lightform. And this is a perfect example of what I mean by 'inline' validation. the only problem: there is no script to handle sending the mail. Even if I find one, I don't know how to modify it for my needs. So could you please help me out. I really can't search anymore. I reached rock bottom with this issue. I need a complete solution. If nothing exists then at least a: 1- form template (html) that looks nice and can easily be modified 2- a validation script that does 'inline' validation like the example above (or similar to it) and can be easily implemented by a noob like me to work with the html form. 3- a php script that will handle sending the email and can be easily implemented (all three working in harmony). I hope there is a complete solution but am I asking for too much? Pretty please...help...

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• Scripting with the Sun ZFS Storage 7000 Appliance

  - by Geoff Ongley

  The Sun ZFS Storage 7000 appliance has a user friendly and easy to understand graphical web based interface we call the "BUI" or "Browser User Interface".This interface is very useful for many tasks, but in some cases a script (or workflow) may be more appropriate, such as:Repetitive tasksTasks which work on (or obtain information about) a large number of shares or usersTasks which are triggered by an alert threshold (workflows)Tasks where you want a only very basic input, but a consistent output (workflows)The appliance scripting language is based on ECMAscript 3 (close to javascript). I'm not going to cover ECMAscript 3 in great depth (I'm far from an expert here), but I would like to show you some neat things you can do with the appliance, to get you started based on what I have found from my own playing around.I'm making the assumption you have some sort of programming background, and understand variables, arrays, functions to some extent - but of course if something is not clear, please let me know so I can fix it up or clarify it.Variable Declarations and ArraysVariablesECMAScript is a dynamically and weakly typed language. If you don't know what that means, google is your friend - but at a high level it means we can just declare variables with no specific type and on the fly.For example, I can declare a variable and use it straight away in the middle of my code, for example:projects=list();Which makes projects an array of values that are returned from the list(); function (which is usable in most contexts). With this kind of variable, I can do things like:projects.length (this property on array tells you how many objects are in it, good for for loops etc). Alternatively, I could say:projects=3;and now projects is just a simple number.Should we declare variables like this so loosely? In my opinion, the answer is no - I feel it is a better practice to declare variables you are going to use, before you use them - and given them an initial value. You can do so as follows:var myVariable=0;To demonstrate the ability to just randomly assign and change the type of variables, you can create a simple script at the cli as follows (bold for input):fishy10:> script("." to run)> run("cd /");("." to run)> run ("shares");("." to run)> var projects;("." to run)> projects=list();("." to run)> printf("Number of projects is: %d\n",projects.length);("." to run)> projects=152;("." to run)> printf("Value of the projects variable as an integer is now: %d\n",projects);("." to run)> .Number of projects is: 7Value of the projects variable as an integer is now: 152You can also confirm this behaviour by checking the typeof variable we are dealing with:fishy10:> script("." to run)> run("cd /");("." to run)> run ("shares");("." to run)> var projects;("." to run)> projects=list();("." to run)> printf("var projects is of type %s\n",typeof(projects));("." to run)> projects=152;("." to run)> printf("var projects is of type %s\n",typeof(projects));("." to run)> .var projects is of type objectvar projects is of type numberArraysSo you likely noticed that we have already touched on arrays, as the list(); (in the shares context) stored an array into the 'projects' variable.But what if you want to declare your own array? Easy! This is very similar to Java and other languages, we just instantiate a brand new "Array" object using the keyword new:var myArray = new Array();will create an array called "myArray".A quick example:fishy10:> script("." to run)> testArray = new Array();("." to run)> testArray[0]="This";("." to run)> testArray[1]="is";("." to run)> testArray[2]="just";("." to run)> testArray[3]="a";("." to run)> testArray[4]="test";("." to run)> for (i=0; i < testArray.length; i++)("." to run)> {("." to run)>    printf("Array element %d is %s\n",i,testArray[i]);("." to run)> }("." to run)> .Array element 0 is ThisArray element 1 is isArray element 2 is justArray element 3 is aArray element 4 is testWorking With LoopsFor LoopFor loops are very similar to those you will see in C, java and several other languages. One of the key differences here is, as you were made aware earlier, we can be a bit more sloppy with our variable declarations.The general way you would likely use a for loop is as follows:for (variable; test-case; modifier for variable){}For example, you may wish to declare a variable i as 0; and a MAX_ITERATIONS variable to determine how many times this loop should repeat:var i=0;var MAX_ITERATIONS=10;And then, use this variable to be tested against some case existing (has i reached MAX_ITERATIONS? - if not, increment i using i++);for (i=0; i < MAX_ITERATIONS; i++){ // some work to do}So lets run something like this on the appliance:fishy10:> script("." to run)> var i=0;("." to run)> var MAX_ITERATIONS=10;("." to run)> for (i=0; i < MAX_ITERATIONS; i++)("." to run)> {("." to run)>    printf("The number is %d\n",i);("." to run)> }("." to run)> .The number is 0The number is 1The number is 2The number is 3The number is 4The number is 5The number is 6The number is 7The number is 8The number is 9While LoopWhile loops again are very similar to other languages, we loop "while" a condition is met. For example:fishy10:> script("." to run)> var isTen=false;("." to run)> var counter=0;("." to run)> while(isTen==false)("." to run)> {("." to run)>    if (counter==10) ("." to run)>    { ("." to run)>            isTen=true;   ("." to run)>    } ("." to run)>    printf("Counter is %d\n",counter);("." to run)>    counter++;    ("." to run)> }("." to run)> printf("Loop has ended and Counter is %d\n",counter);("." to run)> .Counter is 0Counter is 1Counter is 2Counter is 3Counter is 4Counter is 5Counter is 6Counter is 7Counter is 8Counter is 9Counter is 10Loop has ended and Counter is 11So what do we notice here? Something has actually gone wrong - counter will technically be 11 once the loop completes... Why is this?Well, if we have a loop like this, where the 'while' condition that will end the loop may be set based on some other condition(s) existing (such as the counter has reached 10) - we must ensure that we  terminate this iteration of the loop when the condition is met - otherwise the rest of the code will be followed which may not be desirable. In other words, like in other languages, we will only ever check the loop condition once we are ready to perform the next iteration, so any other code after we set "isTen" to be true, will still be executed as we can see it was above.We can avoid this by adding a break into our loop once we know we have set the condition - this will stop the rest of the logic being processed in this iteration (and as such, counter will not be incremented). So lets try that again:fishy10:> script("." to run)> var isTen=false;("." to run)> var counter=0;("." to run)> while(isTen==false)("." to run)> {("." to run)>    if (counter==10) ("." to run)>    { ("." to run)>            isTen=true;   ("." to run)>            break;("." to run)>    } ("." to run)>    printf("Counter is %d\n",counter);("." to run)>    counter++;    ("." to run)> }("." to run)> printf("Loop has ended and Counter is %d\n", counter);("." to run)> .Counter is 0Counter is 1Counter is 2Counter is 3Counter is 4Counter is 5Counter is 6Counter is 7Counter is 8Counter is 9Loop has ended and Counter is 10Much better!Methods to Obtain and Manipulate DataGet MethodThe get method allows you to get simple properties from an object, for example a quota from a user. The syntax is fairly simple:var myVariable=get('property');An example of where you may wish to use this, is when you are getting a bunch of information about a user (such as quota information when in a shares context):var users=list();for(k=0; k < users.length; k++){     user=users[k];     run('select ' + user);     var username=get('name');     var usage=get('usage');     var quota=get('quota');...Which you can then use to your advantage - to print or manipulate infomation (you could change a user's information with a set method, based on the information returned from the get method). The set method is explained next.Set MethodThe set method can be used in a simple manner, similar to get. The syntax for set is:set('property','value'); // where value is a string, if it was a number, you don't need quotesFor example, we could set the quota on a share as follows (first observing the initial value):fishy10:shares default/test-geoff> script("." to run)> var currentQuota=get('quota');("." to run)> printf("Current Quota is: %s\n",currentQuota);("." to run)> set('quota','30G');("." to run)> run('commit');("." to run)> currentQuota=get('quota');("." to run)> printf("Current Quota is: %s\n",currentQuota);("." to run)> .Current Quota is: 0Current Quota is: 32212254720This shows us using both the get and set methods as can be used in scripts, of course when only setting an individual share, the above is overkill - it would be much easier to set it manually at the cli using 'set quota=3G' and then 'commit'.List MethodThe list method can be very powerful, especially in more complex scripts which iterate over large amounts of data and manipulate it if so desired. The general way you will use list is as follows:var myVar=list();Which will make "myVar" an array, containing all the objects in the relevant context (this could be a list of users, shares, projects, etc). You can then gather or manipulate data very easily.We could list all the shares and mountpoints in a given project for example:fishy10:shares another-project> script("." to run)> var shares=list();("." to run)> for (i=0; i < shares.length; i++)("." to run)> {("." to run)>    run('select ' + shares[i]);("." to run)>    var mountpoint=get('mountpoint');("." to run)>    printf("Share %s discovered, has mountpoint %s\n",shares[i],mountpoint);("." to run)>    run('done');("." to run)> }("." to run)> .Share and-another discovered, has mountpoint /export/another-project/and-anotherShare another-share discovered, has mountpoint /export/another-project/another-shareShare bob discovered, has mountpoint /export/another-projectShare more-shares-for-all discovered, has mountpoint /export/another-project/more-shares-for-allShare yep discovered, has mountpoint /export/another-project/yepWriting More Complex and Re-Usable CodeFunctionsThe best way to be able to write more complex code is to use functions to split up repeatable or reusable sections of your code. This also makes your more complex code easier to read and understand for other programmers.We write functions as follows:function functionName(variable1,variable2,...,variableN){}For example, we could have a function that takes a project name as input, and lists shares for that project (assuming we're already in the 'project' context - context is important!):function getShares(proj){        run('select ' + proj);        shares=list();        printf("Project: %s\n", proj);        for(j=0; j < shares.length; j++)        {                printf("Discovered share: %s\n",shares[i]);        }        run('done'); // exit selected project}Commenting your CodeLike any other language, a large part of making it readable and understandable is to comment it. You can use the same comment style as in C and Java amongst other languages.In other words, sngle line comments use://at the beginning of the comment.Multi line comments use:/*at the beginning, and:*/ at the end.For example, here we will use both:fishy10:> script("." to run)> // This is a test comment("." to run)> printf("doing some work...\n");("." to run)> /* This is a multi-line("." to run)> comment which I will span across("." to run)> three lines in total */("." to run)> printf("doing some more work...\n");("." to run)> .doing some work...doing some more work...Your comments do not have to be on their own, they can begin (particularly with single line comments this is handy) at the end of a statement, for examplevar projects=list(); // The variable projects is an array containing all projects on the system.Try and Catch StatementsYou may be used to using try and catch statements in other languages, and they can (and should) be utilised in your code to catch expected or unexpected error conditions, that you do NOT wish to stop your code from executing (if you do not catch these errors, your script will exit!):try{  // do some work}catch(err) // Catch any error that could occur{ // do something here under the error condition}For example, you may wish to only execute some code if a context can be reached. If you can't perform certain actions under certain circumstances, that may be perfectly acceptable.For example if you want to test a condition that only makes sense when looking at a SMB/NFS share, but does not make sense when you hit an iscsi or FC LUN, you don't want to stop all processing of other shares you may not have covered yet.For example we may wish to obtain quota information on all shares for all users on a share (but this makes no sense for a LUN):function getShareQuota(shar) // Get quota for each user of this share{        run('select ' + shar);        printf("  SHARE: %s\n", shar);        try        {                run('users');                printf("    %20s        %11s    %11s    %3s\n","Username","Usage(G)","Quota(G)","Quota(%)");                printf("    %20s        %11s    %11s    %4s\n","--------","--------","--------","----");                                users=list();                for(k=0; k < users.length; k++)                {                        user=users[k];                        getUserQuota(user);                }                run('done'); // exit user context        }        catch(err)        {                printf("    SKIPPING %s - This is NOT a NFS or CIFs share, not looking for users\n", shar);        }        run('done'); // done with this share}Running Scripts Remotely over SSHAs you have likely noticed, writing and running scripts for all but the simplest jobs directly on the appliance is not going to be a lot of fun.There's a couple of choices on what you can do here:Create scripts on a remote system and run them over sshCreate scripts, wrapping them in workflow code, so they are stored on the appliance and can be triggered under certain circumstances (like a threshold being reached)We'll cover the first one here, and then cover workflows later on (as these are for the most part just scripts with some wrapper information around them).Creating a SSH Public/Private SSH Key PairLog on to your handy Solaris box (You wouldn't be using any other OS, right? :P) and use ssh-keygen to create a pair of ssh keys. I'm storing this separate to my normal key:[geoff@lightning ~] ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 1024Generating public/private rsa key pair.Enter file in which to save the key (/export/home/geoff/.ssh/id_rsa): /export/home/geoff/.ssh/nas_key_rsaEnter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): Enter same passphrase again: Your identification has been saved in /export/home/geoff/.ssh/nas_key_rsa.Your public key has been saved in /export/home/geoff/.ssh/nas_key_rsa.pub.The key fingerprint is:7f:3d:53:f0:2a:5e:8b:2d:94:2a:55:77:66:5c:9b:14 geoff@lightningInstalling the Public Key on the ApplianceOn your Solaris host, observe the public key:[geoff@lightning ~] cat .ssh/nas_key_rsa.pub ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAIEAvYfK3RIaAYmMHBOvyhKM41NaSmcgUMC3igPN5gUKJQvSnYmjuWG6CBr1CkF5UcDji7v19jG3qAD5lAMFn+L0CxgRr8TNaAU+hA4/tpAGkjm+dKYSyJgEdMIURweyyfUFXoerweR8AWW5xlovGKEWZTAfvJX9Zqvh8oMQ5UJLUUc= geoff@lightningNow, copy and paste everything after "ssh-rsa" and before "user@hostname" - in this case, geoff@lightning. That is, this bit:AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAIEAvYfK3RIaAYmMHBOvyhKM41NaSmcgUMC3igPN5gUKJQvSnYmjuWG6CBr1CkF5UcDji7v19jG3qAD5lAMFn+L0CxgRr8TNaAU+hA4/tpAGkjm+dKYSyJgEdMIURweyyfUFXoerweR8AWW5xlovGKEWZTAfvJX9Zqvh8oMQ5UJLUUc=Logon to your appliance and get into the preferences -> keys area for this user (root):[geoff@lightning ~] ssh [email protected]: Last login: Mon Dec  6 17:13:28 2010 from 192.168.0.2fishy10:> configuration usersfishy10:configuration users> select rootfishy10:configuration users root> preferences fishy10:configuration users root preferences> keysOR do it all in one hit:fishy10:> configuration users select root preferences keysNow, we create a new public key that will be accepted for this user and set the type to RSA:fishy10:configuration users root preferences keys> createfishy10:configuration users root preferences key (uncommitted)> set type=RSASet the key itself using the string copied previously (between ssh-rsa and user@host), and set the key ensuring you put double quotes around it (eg. set key="<key>"):fishy10:configuration users root preferences key (uncommitted)> set key="AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAIEAvYfK3RIaAYmMHBOvyhKM41NaSmcgUMC3igPN5gUKJQvSnYmjuWG6CBr1CkF5UcDji7v19jG3qAD5lAMFn+L0CxgRr8TNaAU+hA4/tpAGkjm+dKYSyJgEdMIURweyyfUFXoerweR8AWW5xlovGKEWZTAfvJX9Zqvh8oMQ5UJLUUc="Now set the comment for this key (do not use spaces):fishy10:configuration users root preferences key (uncommitted)> set comment="LightningRSAKey" Commit the new key:fishy10:configuration users root preferences key (uncommitted)> commitVerify the key is there:fishy10:configuration users root preferences keys> lsKeys:NAME     MODIFIED              TYPE   COMMENT                                  key-000  2010-10-25 20:56:42   RSA    cycloneRSAKey                           key-001  2010-12-6 17:44:53    RSA    LightningRSAKey                         As you can see, we now have my new key, and a previous key I have created on this appliance.Running your Script over SSH from a Remote SystemHere I have created a basic test script, and saved it as test.ecma3:[geoff@lightning ~] cat test.ecma3 script// This is a test script, By Geoff Ongley 2010.printf("Testing script remotely over ssh\n");.Now, we can run this script remotely with our keyless login:[geoff@lightning ~] ssh -i .ssh/nas_key_rsa root@fishy10 < test.ecma3Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated because stdin is not a terminal.Testing script remotely over sshPutting it Together - An Example Completed Quota Gathering ScriptSo now we have a lot of the basics to creating a script, let us do something useful, like, find out how much every user is using, on every share on the system (you will recognise some of the code from my previous examples): script/************************************** Quick and Dirty Quota Check script ** Written By Geoff Ongley            ** 25 October 2010                    **************************************/function getUserQuota(usr){        run('select ' + usr);        var username=get('name');        var usage=get('usage');        var quota=get('quota');        var usage_g=usage / 1073741824; // convert bytes to gigabytes        var quota_g=quota / 1073741824; // as above        var quota_percent=0        if (quota > 0)        {                quota_percent=(usage / quota)*(100/1);        }        printf("    %20s        %8.2f           %8.2f           %d%%\n",username,usage_g,quota_g,quota_percent);        run('done'); // done with this selected user}function getShareQuota(shar){        //printf("DEBUG: selecting share %s\n", shar);        run('select ' + shar);        printf("  SHARE: %s\n", shar);        try        {                run('users');                printf("    %20s        %11s    %11s    %3s\n","Username","Usage(G)","Quota(G)","Quota(%)");                printf("    %20s        %11s    %11s    %4s\n","--------","--------","--------","--------");                                users=list();                for(k=0; k < users.length; k++)                {                        user=users[k];                        getUserQuota(user);                }                run('done'); // exit user context        }        catch(err)        {                printf("    SKIPPING %s - This is NOT a NFS or CIFs share, not looking for users\n", shar);        }        run('done'); // done with this share}function getShares(proj){        //printf("DEBUG: selecting project %s\n",proj);        run('select ' + proj);        shares=list();        printf("Project: %s\n", proj);        for(j=0; j < shares.length; j++)        {                share=shares[j];                getShareQuota(share);        }        run('done'); // exit selected project}function getProjects(){        run('cd /');        run('shares');        projects=list();                for (i=0; i < projects.length; i++)        {                var project=projects[i];                getShares(project);        }        run('done'); // exit context for all projects}getProjects();.Which can be run as follows, and will print information like this:[geoff@lightning ~/FISHWORKS_SCRIPTS] ssh -i ~/.ssh/nas_key_rsa root@fishy10 < get_quota_utilisation.ecma3Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated because stdin is not a terminal.Project: another-project  SHARE: and-another                Username           Usage(G)       Quota(G)    Quota(%)                --------           --------       --------    --------                  nobody            0.00            0.00        0%                 geoffro            0.05            0.00        0%                   Billy            0.10            0.00        0%                    root            0.00            0.00        0%            testing-user            0.05            0.00        0%  SHARE: another-share                Username           Usage(G)       Quota(G)    Quota(%)                --------           --------       --------    --------                    root            0.00            0.00        0%                  nobody            0.00            0.00        0%                 geoffro            0.05            0.49        9%            testing-user            0.05            0.02        249%                   Billy            0.10            0.29        33%  SHARE: bob                Username           Usage(G)       Quota(G)    Quota(%)                --------           --------       --------    --------                  nobody            0.00            0.00        0%                    root            0.00            0.00        0%  SHARE: more-shares-for-all                Username           Usage(G)       Quota(G)    Quota(%)                --------           --------       --------    --------                   Billy            0.10            0.00        0%            testing-user            0.05            0.00        0%                  nobody            0.00            0.00        0%                    root            0.00            0.00        0%                 geoffro            0.05            0.00        0%  SHARE: yep                Username           Usage(G)       Quota(G)    Quota(%)                --------           --------       --------    --------                    root            0.00            0.00        0%                  nobody            0.00            0.00        0%                   Billy            0.10            0.01        999%            testing-user            0.05            0.49        9%                 geoffro            0.05            0.00        0%Project: default  SHARE: Test-LUN    SKIPPING Test-LUN - This is NOT a NFS or CIFs share, not looking for users  SHARE: test-geoff                Username           Usage(G)       Quota(G)    Quota(%)                --------           --------       --------    --------                 geoffro            0.05            0.00        0%                    root            3.18           10.00        31%                    uucp            0.00            0.00        0%                  nobody            0.59            0.49        119%^CKilled by signal 2.Creating a WorkflowWorkflows are scripts that we store on the appliance, and can have the script execute either on request (even from the BUI), or on an event such as a threshold being met.Workflow BasicsA workflow allows you to create a simple process that can be executed either via the BUI interface interactively, or by an alert being raised (for some threshold being reached, for example).The basics parameters you will have to set for your "workflow object" (notice you're creating a variable, that embodies ECMAScript) are as follows (parameters is optional):name: A name for this workflowdescription: A Description for the workflowparameters: A set of input parameters (useful when you need user input to execute the workflow)execute: The code, the script itself to execute, which will be function (parameters)With parameters, you can specify things like this (slightly modified sample taken from the System Administration Guide):          ...parameters:        variableParam1:         {                             label: 'Name of Share',                             type: 'String'                  },                  variableParam2                  {                             label: 'Share Size',                             type: 'size'                  },execute: ....};  Note the commas separating the sections of name, parameters, execute, and so on. This is important!Also - there is plenty of properties you can set on the parameters for your workflow, these are described in the Sun ZFS Storage System Administration Guide.Creating a Basic Workflow from a Basic ScriptTo make a basic script into a basic workflow, you need to wrap the following around your script to create a 'workflow' object:var workflow = {name: 'Get User Quotas',description: 'Displays Quota Utilisation for each user on each share',execute: function() {// (basic script goes here, minus the "script" at the beginning, and "." at the end)}};However, it appears (at least in my experience to date) that the workflow object may only be happy with one function in the execute parameter - either that or I'm doing something wrong. As far as I can tell, after execute: you should only have a basic one function context like so:execute: function(){}To deal with this, and to give an example similar to our script earlier, I have created another simple quota check, to show the same basic functionality, but in a workflow format:var workflow = {name: 'Get User Quotas',description: 'Displays Quota Utilisation for each user on each share',execute: function () {        run('cd /');        run('shares');        projects=list();                for (i=0; i < projects.length; i++)        {                run('select ' + projects[i]);                shares=list('filesystem');                printf("Project: %s\n", projects[i]);                for(j=0; j < shares.length; j++)                {                        run('select ' +shares[j]);                        try                        {                                run('users');                                printf("  SHARE: %s\n", shares[j]);                                printf("    %20s        %11s    %11s    %3s\n","Username","Usage(G)","Quota(G)","Quota(%)");                                printf("    %20s        %11s    %11s    %4s\n","--------","--------","--------","-------");                                users=list();                                for(k=0; k < users.length; k++)                                {                                        run('select ' + users[k]);                                        username=get('name');                                        usage=get('usage');                                        quota=get('quota');                                        usage_g=usage / 1073741824; // convert bytes to gigabytes                                        quota_g=quota / 1073741824; // as above                                        quota_percent=0                                        if (quota > 0)                                        {                                                quota_percent=(usage / quota)*(100/1);                                        }                                        printf("    %20s        %8.2f   %8.2f   %d%%\n",username,usage_g,quota_g,quota_percent);                                        run('done');                                }                                run('done'); // exit user context                        }                        catch(err)                        {                        //      printf("    %s is a LUN, Not looking for users\n", shares[j]);                        }                        run('done'); // exit selected share context                }                run('done'); // exit project context        }        }};SummaryThe Sun ZFS Storage 7000 Appliance offers lots of different and interesting features to Sun/Oracle customers, including the world renowned Analytics. Hopefully the above will help you to think of new creative things you could be doing by taking advantage of one of the other neat features, the internal scripting engine!Some references are below to help you continue learning more, I'll update this post as I do the same! Enjoy...More information on ECMAScript 3A complete reference to ECMAScript 3 which will help you learn more of the details you may be interested in, can be found here:http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST-ARCH/ECMA-262,%203rd%20edition,%20December%201999.pdfMore Information on Administering the Sun ZFS Storage 7000The Sun ZFS Storage 7000 System Administration guide can be a useful reference point, and can be found here:http://wikis.sun.com/download/attachments/186238602/2010_Q3_2_ADMIN.pdf

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• How to retrieve value from DropDownListFor html helper in ASP>NET MVC2?

  - by Eedoh

  Hello I know there was few similar questions here about DropDownListFor, but neither helped me... I use Entity Framework as ORM in my project. There's EF model called "Stete". Stete has Foreign on EF model called "Drustva" Now I'm trying to make a form for editing the data, for Stete model. I managed to display everything, including Stete.Drustva.Naziv property, but I can't get this last property in my handler method [HttpPost]. It always return 0, no matter what I select in drop down list. Here's the code: DrustvaController: public static IEnumerable<SelectListItem> DrustvaToSelectListItemsById(this KnjigaStetnikaEntities pEntities, int Id) { IEnumerable<Drustva> drustva = (from d in pEntities.Drustva select d).ToList(); return drustva.OrderBy(drustvo => drustvo.Naziv).Select(drustvo => new SelectListItem { Text = drustvo.Naziv, Value = drustvo.Id.ToString(), Selected = (drustvo.Id == Id)? true : false }); } SteteController: private IEnumerable<SelectListItem> privremenaListaDrustava(int Id) { using (var ctx = new KnjigaStetnikaEntities()) { return ctx.DrustvaToSelectListItemsById(Id); } } public ActionResult IzmijeniPodatkeStete(Int32 pBrojStete) { PretragaStetaModel psm = new PretragaStetaModel(); ViewData["drustva"] = privremenaListaDrustava(psm.VratiStetuPoBrojuStete(pBrojStete).Drustva.Id); ViewData.Model = new Models.Stete(); return View("EditView", (Stete.Models.Stete)psm.GetSteta(pBrojStete)); } EditView: <div class="editor-label"> <%: Html.Label("Društvo") %> </div> <div class="editor-field"> <%: Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Drustva.Naziv, ViewData["drustva"] as IEnumerable<SelectListItem>) %> <%: Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FKDrustvo) %> </div> I am sorry for not translating names of the objects into english, but they hardly have appropriate translation. If necessary, I can try creating similar example...

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• xcode linker error on iPhone app (Only on simulator)

  - by RexOnRoids

  Im getting this linker error that won't let me compile. It only happens on the simulator. KEY POINTS: - Happens only in simulator - Similar to THIS question, but found no FRAMEWORK_SEARCH_PATHS in my .pbxproj file - Though my OS is 10.6.2, I had to build target 1.5 to avoid other linker errors - libxml2.dylib IS required and is in my Frameworks group - The other cited libraries I have never heard of. - Tried bringing in those other Libs under frameworks, didn't solve. Build SpaceTweet of project SpaceTweet with configuration Debug Ld build/Debug-iphonesimulator/SpaceTweet.app/SpaceTweet normal i386 cd "/Users/Scott/Desktop/iPhone Dev/SpaceTweet(Experimental)" setenv MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET 10.5 setenv PATH "/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/usr/bin:/Developer/usr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin" /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/usr/bin/gcc-4.2 -arch i386 -isysroot /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneSimulator3.1.3.sdk "-L/Users/Scott/Desktop/iPhone Dev/SpaceTweet(Experimental)/build/Debug-iphonesimulator" -L/Users/Scott/Desktop "-L/Users/Scott/Desktop/iPhone Dev/SpaceTweet(Experimental)/../../libYAJLIPhone-0" -L/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS3.0.sdk/usr/lib -L/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneSimulator3.1.3.sdk/usr/lib -L/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneSimulator3.0.sdk/usr/lib "-F/Users/Scott/Desktop/iPhone Dev/SpaceTweet(Experimental)/build/Debug-iphonesimulator" -filelist "/Users/Scott/Desktop/iPhone Dev/SpaceTweet(Experimental)/build/SpaceTweet.build/Debug-iphonesimulator/SpaceTweet.build/Objects-normal/i386/SpaceTweet.LinkFileList" -mmacosx-version-min=10.5 -framework Foundation -framework UIKit -framework CoreGraphics -framework AVFoundation -framework MessageUI -lYAJLIPhone -lxml2 -o "/Users/Scott/Desktop/iPhone Dev/SpaceTweet(Experimental)/build/Debug-iphonesimulator/SpaceTweet.app/SpaceTweet" ld: warning: in /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS3.0.sdk/usr/lib/libxml2.dylib, missing required architecture i386 in file ld: warning: in /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS3.0.sdk/usr/lib/libSystem.dylib, missing required architecture i386 in file ld: in /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS3.0.sdk/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib, missing required architecture i386 in file collect2: ld returned 1 exit status Command /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/usr/bin/gcc-4.2 failed with exit code 1 CLUE: Again, MY question is very similar to THIS SOLVED QUESTION except that in my case I did NOT find a FRAMEWORK_SEARCH_PATHS entry in the .pbxproj file in my project bundle and thus could not solve in the manner in which that question was solved.

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• jQuery UI dialog on ASP.NET page (inside user control)

  - by marc_s

  I have a really odd behavior here: I created a little popup dialog in jQuery UI, and in my test HTML page, it works flawlessly. When I click on the button, the popup comes up, covers the background, and remains on screen until I click on one of the two buttons (OK or Cancel) provided. So now I wanted to add this into my ASP.NET 3.5 app. I wanted to add it to a GridView inside a user controls (ASCX), which is on a page (ASPX) contained inside a master page. The jQuery 1.4.2 and jQuery UI 1.8.1 scripts are referenced on the master page: <body> <form id="XXXXXX" runat="server"> <Ajax:ScriptManager ID="masterScriptManager" runat="server" ScriptMode="Auto"> <Scripts> <asp:ScriptReference Path="~/Scripts/jquery-1.4.2.min.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Path="~/Scripts/jquery-ui-1.8.1.custom.min.js" /> </Scripts> </Ajax:ScriptManager> I had to change this to use the Ajax script manager, since adding them to the as never worked. So in my gridview, I have a column with image buttons, and when the user clicks on those, I am calling a little javascript function to show the jQuery UI dialog: function showDialog() { $("#dlg-discount").dialog('open'); $("#txtAmount").focus(); } When I run this page in MS IE 8, I get a separate page, and at the top of the page, I get the contents of my , with proper background color and all. In Firefox 3.5.6, I do get the dialog as a popup. In both cases, the dialog page/popup disappears again after a second or less - without me clicking anything! It seems similar to this question but the solution provided there doesn't work in my case. This one here also seems similar but again: the solution presented doesn't seem to work in my case... Any ideas / hints / tips on what the h** is going on here?? Thanks!

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• How to retrieve value from DropDownListFor html helper in ASP.NET MVC2?

  - by Eedoh

  Hello I know there was few similar questions here about DropDownListFor, but neither helped me... I use Entity Framework as ORM in my project. There's EF model called "Stete". Stete has Foreign on EF model called "Drustva" Now I'm trying to make a form for editing the data, for Stete model. I managed to display everything, including Stete.Drustva.Naziv property, but I can't get this last property in my handler method [HttpPost]. It always return 0, no matter what I select in drop down list. Here's the code: DrustvaController: public static IEnumerable<SelectListItem> DrustvaToSelectListItemsById(this KnjigaStetnikaEntities pEntities, int Id) { IEnumerable<Drustva> drustva = (from d in pEntities.Drustva select d).ToList(); return drustva.OrderBy(drustvo => drustvo.Naziv).Select(drustvo => new SelectListItem { Text = drustvo.Naziv, Value = drustvo.Id.ToString(), Selected = (drustvo.Id == Id)? true : false }); } SteteController: private IEnumerable<SelectListItem> privremenaListaDrustava(int Id) { using (var ctx = new KnjigaStetnikaEntities()) { return ctx.DrustvaToSelectListItemsById(Id); } } public ActionResult IzmijeniPodatkeStete(Int32 pBrojStete) { PretragaStetaModel psm = new PretragaStetaModel(); ViewData["drustva"] = privremenaListaDrustava(psm.VratiStetuPoBrojuStete(pBrojStete).Drustva.Id); ViewData.Model = new Models.Stete(); return View("EditView", (Stete.Models.Stete)psm.GetSteta(pBrojStete)); } EditView: <div class="editor-label"> <%: Html.Label("Društvo") %> </div> <div class="editor-field"> <%: Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Drustva.Naziv, ViewData["drustva"] as IEnumerable<SelectListItem>) %> <%: Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FKDrustvo) %> </div> I am sorry for not translating names of the objects into english, but they hardly have appropriate translation. If necessary, I can try creating similar example...

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• Personal projects competing with employers projects?

  - by jamesorwood123

  Recently at my place of employment it was discovered that I was developing an outside personal project (personal project being a project I have been working on, in my spare time, for my own purposes, using my personal equipment). My employer has an idea which is very similar to my outside project but has not been started, created, put out to market yet. When I originally started working for the company I signed a non-compete contract. My employer is now saying that because my outside/personal project is similar to theirs that I am now a competitor and breaching my original non-compete agreement. What I would like to know is where do I stand in this situation? Also my personal project has not been fully developed, nor is available to anyone other than myself. So if we both don’t have full/released products (full meaning put out to the public) are we actually competitors? There is going to be a meeting in the coming weeks to discuss this issue and would like to have a proper argument in place. I know some of this conversation is best held with a lawyer but I don’t have the money to do that yet. I’m not looking for full legal advice just anyone who has maybe experienced this or can give any advice. Thanks in advance!

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• Recursion in an ASP.NET MVC view

  - by Dennis Palmer

  I have a nested data object for a set of items within categories. Each category can contain sub categories and there is no set limit to the depth of sub categories. (A file system would have a similar structure.) It looks something like this: class category { public int id; public string name; public IQueryable<category> categories; public IQueryable<item> items; } class item { public int id; public string name; } I am passing a list of categories to my view as IQueryable<category>. I want to output the categories as a set of nested unordered list (<ul>) blocks. I could nest foreach loops, but then the depth of sub categories would be limited by the number of nested foreach blocks. In WinForms, I have done similar processing using recursion to populate a TreeView, but I haven't seen any examples of using recursion within an ASPX MVC view. Can recursion be done within an ASPX view? Are there other view engines that include recursion for view output?

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• django error ,about django-sphinx

  - by zjm1126

  from django.db import models from djangosphinx.models import SphinxSearch class MyModel(models.Model): search = SphinxSearch() # optional: defaults to db_table # If your index name does not match MyModel._meta.db_table # Note: You can only generate automatic configurations from the ./manage.py script # if your index name matches. search = SphinxSearch('index_name') # Or maybe we want to be more.. specific searchdelta = SphinxSearch( index='index_name delta_name', weights={ 'name': 100, 'description': 10, 'tags': 80, }, mode='SPH_MATCH_ALL', rankmode='SPH_RANK_NONE', ) queryset = MyModel.search.query('query') results1 = queryset.order_by('@weight', '@id', 'my_attribute') results2 = queryset.filter(my_attribute=5) results3 = queryset.filter(my_other_attribute=[5, 3,4]) results4 = queryset.exclude(my_attribute=5)[0:10] results5 = queryset.count() # as of 2.0 you can now access an attribute to get the weight and similar arguments for result in results1: print result, result._sphinx # you can also access a similar set of meta data on the queryset itself (once it's been sliced or executed in any way) print results1._sphinx and Traceback (most recent call last): File "D:\zjm_code\sphinx_test\models.py", line 1, in <module> from django.db import models File "D:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\__init__.py", line 10, in <module> if not settings.DATABASE_ENGINE: File "D:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\utils\functional.py", line 269, in __getattr__ self._setup() File "D:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\conf\__init__.py", line 38, in _setup raise ImportError("Settings cannot be imported, because environment variable %s is undefined." % ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE) ImportError: Settings cannot be imported, because environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is undefined.

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• Creating a multi-step process with mysql and php

  - by Paul Atkins

  Hi, I am working on a script which allows users to create a stepped process. The steps will consist of sending visitors to urls where they will fill out a form then be directed to the next step the user has created. Each user can create as many steps as they wish and the url for each step will be unique. I am not sure if I am doing this in the correct/most efficient way so I have a few questions about this. Before I begin here is a simple version of my table structure: step_id user_id step_url step_order 1 1 example.com?step=1 1 2 2 test.com?step=1 1 3 1 example.com?step=3 2 A visitor will be directed to step_url: example.com?step=1 by user_id: 1 On this page there will be a form which contains a hidden field with the value of the step_id like this: <input type="hidden" name="step_id" value="1"> Once the visitor has filled out this form it will be processed by my script at a url similar to: http://mysite.com/form-process.php Once the form has been submitted I then need to direct the visitor to the next step my user has created. I would currently do this using code similar to this: SELECT step_url FROM table WHERE step_order='$current_step_order'+1 Here are my questions about this: Is this the best most efficient way to accomplish this? Or is there a better way? As the step_id column is auto increment...how would I increment the order column by 1 each time a user inserts a new step? Thanks for taking the time to read this. Paul

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• Accurate least-squares fit algorithm needed

  - by ggkmath

  I've experimented with the two ways of implementing a least-squares fit (LSF) algorithm shown here. The first code is simply the textbook approach, as described by Wolfram's page on LSF. The second code re-arranges the equation to minimize machine errors. Both codes produce similar results for my data. I compared these results with Matlab's p=polyfit(x,y,1) function, using correlation coefficients to measure the "goodness" of fit and compare each of the 3 routines. I observed that while all 3 methods produced good results, at least for my data, Matlab's routine had the best fit (the other 2 routines had similar results to each other). Matlab's p=polyfit(x,y,1) function uses a Vandermonde matrix, V (n x 2 matrix) and QR factorization to solve the least-squares problem. In Matlab code, it looks like: V = [x1,1; x2,1; x3,1; ... xn,1] % this line is pseudo-code [Q,R] = qr(V,0); p = R\(Q'*y); % performs same as p = V\y I'm not a mathematician, so I don't understand why it would be more accurate. Although the difference is slight, in my case I need to obtain the slope from the LSF and multiply it by a large number, so any improvement in accuracy shows up in my results. For reasons I can't get into, I cannot use Matlab's routine in my work. So, I'm wondering if anyone has a more accurate equation-based approach recommendation I could use that is an improvement over the above two approaches, in terms of rounding errors/machine accuracy/etc. Any comments appreciated! thanks in advance.

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• Unable to fetch initial output of "defrag" commad in Windows Server 2008 R2 in WOW64 environment.

  - by Ganesh

  Hi All, [Application & code back ground] I have an MFC application which is executing on Windows Server 2008 R2 in WOW64 environment. In which on user input it defragments the selected drive on the disk. I initiated the process(.i.e. cmd /c defrag –v c:) of defragmentation using the CreateProcess() API, along with this to display output of the process on the main screen I created the pipe using CreatePipe() API. I used PeekNamedPipe() & ReadFile() API to get the output and display. [Problem Area] When the process is launched I am not getting the initial output as below: Microsoft Disk fragmenter Copyright © 2007 Microsoft Crop. Invoking defragmentation on (C:)…. I constantly monitor the output of the process while it is under progress but not able to get any thing as output in the pipe. It seem the process is not doing any thing and appears as if the application is not responding. But after certain period of time, once the process is about to completed I get result along with the initial data. [Sample code] //Pipe created if(0 == ::CreatePipe(&l_hStdOutRead, &l_hStdOutWrite, &l_SecurityAttribute, (DWORD)NULL)) { //Error code } //Process created/launched if (0 == ::CreateProcess(NULL, (LPTSTR)f_csProcessName, &l_stSecurityAttributes, NULL, TRUE, CREATE_NO_WINDOW, NULL,NULL, &l_StartupInfo, &l_CmdPI)) { //Error code } //Read output if (0 == ::PeekNamedPipe(m_hStdOutRead, l_cArrPeekBuffer, (DWORD)NULL, (LPDWORD)NULL, &l_dwAvailable, (LPDWORD)NULL)) { //Return to read again } if (MPLUSFALSE == ::ReadFile(m_hStdOutRead, l_cArrOutput, min(BUFFER_SIZE - 2, l_dwAvailable), &l_dwRead, NULL) || !l_dwRead) { //error code } //Display data. If any one is aware of similar problem or worked on the similar issue please let me know the solution. Thanks in Advance, Ganesh

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• ServerIdentity memory leak with IHttpAsyncHandler

  - by Anton

  I have a .NET web application that consists of a single HTTP handler class that implements IHttpAsyncHandler. All requests to this handler are handled asynchronously, though some requests are short-lived and some are long-lived (nothing over a few seconds). The problem is that memory consumption grows over time as requests are handled. All profiling results point to an unbounded growth of String objects held by instances of System.Runtime.Remoting.ServerIdentity. Every String value is different, but they all look similar to: /dd41c00e_1566_4702_b660_c81cdea18a43/vigefresi5pfv8n0ekddg57z_1154.rem There is nothing in my application that uses ServerIdentity directly, and unless I am mistaken, the ServerIdentity instances are proportional to the number of incoming requests. If this is an internal .NET structure, it looks like the CLR is not cleaning up after itself. What could be causing the leak? UPDATE A little less than half of the String objects are being held by System.Runtime.Remoting. The remaining String objects are being held by System.Runtime.Serialization and look similar to: +1sgess5rjcrgbmp3kqr6bmv_3474.rem Also, the problem only seems to occur when lots of simultaneous HTTP web requests arrive.

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• Programmatically creating vector arrows in KML

  - by mettadore

  Does anyone have any practical examples of programmatically drawing icons as vectors in KML? Specifically, I have data with a magnitude and an azimuth at given coordinates, and I would like to have icons (or another graphical element) generated based on these values. Some thoughts on how I might approach it: Image directory (a brute force way): Make an image director of 360 different image files (probably batch rotate a single image) each pointing in a cooresponding azimuth. I've seen things like "Excel to KML," but am looking for code that I can use within a program, rather than a web utility. Issue: Arrow does not contain magnitude context, so that would have to be a label. I'd rather dynamically lengthen the arrow. Line creation in KML: Perhaps create a formula that creates a line with the origin at the coordinate points, with the length of the line proportional to the magnitute, and angled according to azimuth. There would then be two more lines, perhaps 30 degrees or so extending from the end of the previous line to make the arrow head. Issues: Not a separate image icon, so not sure how it would work in KML. Also not sure how easy it would be to generate this algorithm. Separate image generation: Perhaps create a PHP file that uses imagemagick or something similar to dynamically generate a .png file in a similar method to the above, and then link to the icon using the URI "domain.tld/imagegen.php?magnitude=magvalue&azimuth=azmvalue". Issue: Still have the problem of actually writing the algorithm for image generation. So, the question: has anyone else come up with solutions for programmatic vector (rather than merely arrow) generation?

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• Database structure and source control - best practice

  - by Paddy

  Background I came from several years working in a company where all the database objects were stored in source control, one file per object. We had a list of all the objects that was maintained when new items were added (to allow us to have scripts run in order and handle dependencies) and a VB script that ran to create one big script for running against the database. All the tables were 'create if not exists' and all the SP's etc. were drop and recreate. Up to the present and I am now working in a place where the database is the master and there is no source control for DB objects, but we do use redgate's tools for updating our production database (SQL compare), which is very handy, and requires little work. Question How do you handle your DB objects? I like to have them under source control (and, as we're using GIT, I'd like to be able to handle merge conflicts in the scripts, rather than the DB), but I'm going to be pressed to get past the ease of using SQL compare to update the database. I don't really want to have us updating scripts in GIT and then using SQL compare to update the production database from our DEV DB, as I'd rather have 'one version of the truth', but I don't really want to get into re-writing a custom bit of software to bundle the whole lot of scripts together. I think that visual studio database edition may do something similar to this, but I'm not sure if we will have the budget for it. I'm sure that this has been asked to death, but I can't find anything that seems to quite have the answer I'm looking for. Similar to this, but not quite the same: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/340614/what-are-the-best-practices-for-database-scripts-under-code-control

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• Django: Using 2 different AdminSite instances with different models registered

  - by omat

  Apart from the usual admin, I want to create a limited admin for non-staff users. This admin site will have different registered ModelAdmins. I created a folder /useradmin/ in my project directory and similar to contrib/admin/_init_.py I added an autodiscover() which will register models defined in useradmin.py modules instead of admin.py: # useradmin/__init__.py def autodiscover(): # Same as admin.autodiscover() but registers useradmin.py modules ... for app in settings.INSTALLED_APPS: mod = import_module(app) try: before_import_registry = copy.copy(site._registry) import_module('%s.useradmin' % app) except: site._registry = before_import_registry if module_has_submodule(mod, 'useradmin'): raise I also cretated sites.py under useradmin/ to override AdminSite similar to contrib/admin/sites: # useradmin/sites.py class UserAdminSite(AdminSite): def has_permission(self, request): # Don't care if the user is staff return request.user.is_active def login(self, request): # Do the login stuff but don't care if the user is staff if request.user.is_authenticated(): ... else: ... site = UserAdminSite(name='useradmin') In the project's URLs: # urls.py from django.contrib import admin import useradmin admin.autodiscover() useradmin.autodiscover() urlpatterns = patterns('', (r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)), (r'^useradmin/', include(useradmin.site.urls)), ) And I try to register different models in admin.py and useradmin.py modules under app directories: # products/useradmin.py import useradmin class ProductAdmin(useradmin.ModelAdmin): pass useradmin.site.register(Product, ProductAdmin) But when registering models in useradmin.py like useradmin.site.register(Product, ProductAdmin), I get 'module' object has no attribute 'ModelAdmin' exception. Though when I try this via shell; import useradmin from useradmin import ModelAdmin does not raise any exception. Any ideas what might be wrong? Edit: I tried going the @Luke way and arranged the code as follows as minimal as possible: (file paths are relative to the project root) # admin.py from django.contrib.admin import autodiscover from django.contrib.admin.sites import AdminSite user_site = AdminSite(name='useradmin') # urls.py (does not even have url patterns; just calls autodiscover()) import admin admin.autodiscover() # products/admin.py import admin from products.models import Product admin.user_site.register(Product) As a result I get an AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'user_site' when admin.user_site.register(Product) in products/admin.py is called. Any ideas? Solution: I don't know if there are better ways but, renaming the admin.py in the project root to useradmin.py and updating the imports accordingly resolved the last case, which was a naming and import conflict.

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• fast similarity detection

  - by reinierpost

  I have a large collection of objects and I need to figure out the similarities between them. To be exact: given two objects I can compute their dissimilarity as a number, a metric - higher values mean less similarity and 0 means the objects have identical contents. The cost of computing this number is proportional to the size of the smaller object (each object has a given size). I need the ability to quickly find, given an object, the set of objects similar to it. To be exact: I need to produce a data structure that maps any object o to the set of objects no more dissimilar to o than d, for some dissimilarity value d, such that listing the objects in the set takes no more time than if they were in an array or linked list (and perhaps they actually are). Typically, the set will be very much smaller than the total number of objects, so it is really worthwhile to perform this computation. It's good enough if the data structure assumes a fixed d, but if it works for an arbitrary d, even better. Have you seen this problem before, or something similar to it? What is a good solution? To be exact: a straightforward solution involves computing the dissimilarities between all pairs of objects, but this is slow - O(n2) where n is the number of objects. Is there a general solution with lower complexity?

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