Search Results

Search found 1744 results on 70 pages for 'expert'.

Page 68/70 | < Previous Page | 64 65 66 67 68 69 70  | Next Page >

• More outlook VSTO help...

  - by Jerry

  I posted an article here (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1095195/how-do-i-set-permissions-on-my-vsto-outlook-add-in) and I was able to build my installer. I thought that once the installer built itself, everything would work fine. I was wrong. It works on about half of the PC's I've run the installer on. My problem is that the other half doesn't work. I'm trying to install an add-in to Outlook Office 2003. I've even gone so far as to create the steps manually by using a batch file. Nothing seems to work on these PCs and I can't find a common denominator that I can rule out or in that will make the VSTO Addin work. Here is the batch file I am using. What am I doing/not-doing wrong with this? I could really use a VSTO expert's help. Thanks!!!! EDIT I've changed the batch file and registry settings to reflect recent updates to them. I've also attached the error text that comes from the PCs that don't work. @echo off echo Installing Visual Studio for Office Runtime (SE 2005)... ..\VSTO\vstor.exe echo Creating Directories... mkdir "c:\program files\Project Archiver" echo Installying Add-In... echo Copying files... xcopy /Y *.dll "c:\program files\Project Archiver" xcopy /Y *.manifest "c:\program files\Project Archiver" echo Setting Security... "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\caspol.exe" -polchgprompt off "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\caspol.exe" -u -ag All_Code -url "c:\program files\Project Archiver\ProjectArchiver.dll" FullTrust -n "Project Archiver" -d "Outlook plugin for archiving" "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\caspol.exe" -u -ag All_Code -url "c:\program files\Project Archiver\Microsoft.Office.Interop.SmartTags.dll" FullTrust -n "Project Archiver" -d "Outlook plugin for archiving" "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\caspol.exe" -polchgprompt on echo Loading Registry Values... "c:\program files\Project Archiver\VSTO_settings.reg" echo "That should do it." pause I took the Registry settings (mentioned in the batch file above) straight from a PC that this application worked on. The VSTO Registry settings I am using are : Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ProjectArchiver\CLSID] @="{27830B8D-F7A1-4945-AC4A-47661B9ED36D}" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{27830B8D-F7A1-4945-AC4A-47661B9ED36D}] @="ProjectArchiver -- an addin created with VSTO technology" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{27830B8D-F7A1-4945-AC4A-47661B9ED36D}\InprocServer32] @=hex(2):25,00,43,00,6f,00,6d,00,6d,00,6f,00,6e,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,\ 00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,69,00,63,00,\ 72,00,6f,00,73,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,20,00,53,00,68,00,61,00,72,00,65,00,64,\ 00,5c,00,56,00,53,00,54,00,4f,00,5c,00,38,00,2e,00,30,00,5c,00,41,00,64,00,\ 64,00,69,00,6e,00,4c,00,6f,00,61,00,64,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\ 00,00,00 "ManifestName"="ProjectArchiver.dll.manifest" "ThreadingModel"="Both" "ManifestLocation"="C:\\Program Files\\Project Archiver\\" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{27830B8D-F7A1-4945-AC4A-47661B9ED36D}\ProgID] @="ProjectArchiver" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{27830B8D-F7A1-4945-AC4A-47661B9ED36D}\Programmable] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{27830B8D-F7A1-4945-AC4A-47661B9ED36D}\VersionIndependentProgID] @="ProjectArchiver" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ProjectArchiver] @="" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{27830B8D-F7A1-4945-AC4A-47661B9ED36D}] @="ProjectArchiver -- an addin created with VSTO technology" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\CLSID\{27830B8D-F7A1-4945-AC4A-47661B9ED36D}\InprocServer32] @=hex(2):25,00,43,00,6f,00,6d,00,6d,00,6f,00,6e,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,\ 00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,69,00,

  Read the article

• Strategy and AI for the game 'Proximity'

  - by smci

  'Proximity' is a strategy game of territorial domination similar to Othello, Go and Risk. Two players, uses a 10x12 hex grid. Game invented by Brian Cable in 2007. Seems to be a worthy game for discussing a) optimal strategy then b) how to build an AI Strategies are going to be probabilistic or heuristic-based, due to the randomness factor, and the high branching factor (starts out at 120). So it will be kind of hard to compare objectively. A compute time limit of 5s per turn seems reasonable. Game: Flash version here and many copies elsewhere on the web Rules: here Object: to have control of the most armies after all tiles have been placed. Each turn you received a randomly numbered tile (value between 1 and 20 armies) to place on any vacant board space. If this tile is adjacent to any ally tiles, it will strengthen each tile's defenses +1 (up to a max value of 20). If it is adjacent to any enemy tiles, it will take control over them if its number is higher than the number on the enemy tile. Thoughts on strategy: Here are some initial thoughts; setting the computer AI to Expert will probably teach a lot: minimizing your perimeter seems to be a good strategy, to prevent flips and minimize worst-case damage like in Go, leaving holes inside your formation is lethal, only more so with the hex grid because you can lose armies on up to 6 squares in one move low-numbered tiles are a liability, so place them away from your main territory, near the board edges and scattered. You can also use low-numbered tiles to plug holes in your formation, or make small gains along the perimeter which the opponent will not tend to bother attacking. a triangle formation of three pieces is strong since they mutually reinforce, and also reduce the perimeter Each tile can be flipped at most 6 times, i.e. when its neighbor tiles are occupied. Control of a formation can flow back and forth. Sometimes you lose part of a formation and plug any holes to render that part of the board 'dead' and lock in your territory/ prevent further losses. Low-numbered tiles are obvious-but-low-valued liabilities, but high-numbered tiles can be bigger liabilities if they get flipped (which is harder). One lucky play with a 20-army tile can cause a swing of 200 (from +100 to -100 armies). So tile placement will have both offensive and defensive considerations. Comment 1,2,4 seem to resemble a minimax strategy where we minimize the maximum expected possible loss (modified by some probabilistic consideration of the value ß the opponent can get from 1..20 i.e. a structure which can only be flipped by a ß=20 tile is 'nearly impregnable'.) I'm not clear what the implications of comments 3,5,6 are for optimal strategy. Interested in comments from Go, Chess or Othello players. (The sequel ProximityHD for XBox Live, allows 4-player -cooperative or -competitive local multiplayer increases the branching factor since you now have 5 tiles in your hand at any given time, of which you can only play one. Reinforcement of ally tiles is increased to +2 per ally.)

  Read the article

• Find optimal strategy and AI for the game 'Proximity'?

  - by smci

  'Proximity' is a strategy game of territorial domination similar to Othello, Go and Risk. Two players, uses a 10x12 hex grid. Game invented by Brian Cable in 2007. Seems to be a worthy game for discussing a) optimal algorithm then b) how to build an AI. Strategies are going to be probabilistic or heuristic-based, due to the randomness factor, and the insane branching factor (20^120). So it will be kind of hard to compare objectively. A compute time limit of 5s per turn seems reasonable. Game: Flash version here and many copies elsewhere on the web Rules: here Object: to have control of the most armies after all tiles have been placed. Each turn you received a randomly numbered tile (value between 1 and 20 armies) to place on any vacant board space. If this tile is adjacent to any ally tiles, it will strengthen each tile's defenses +1 (up to a max value of 20). If it is adjacent to any enemy tiles, it will take control over them if its number is higher than the number on the enemy tile. Thoughts on strategy: Here are some initial thoughts; setting the computer AI to Expert will probably teach a lot: minimizing your perimeter seems to be a good strategy, to prevent flips and minimize worst-case damage like in Go, leaving holes inside your formation is lethal, only more so with the hex grid because you can lose armies on up to 6 squares in one move low-numbered tiles are a liability, so place them away from your main territory, near the board edges and scattered. You can also use low-numbered tiles to plug holes in your formation, or make small gains along the perimeter which the opponent will not tend to bother attacking. a triangle formation of three pieces is strong since they mutually reinforce, and also reduce the perimeter Each tile can be flipped at most 6 times, i.e. when its neighbor tiles are occupied. Control of a formation can flow back and forth. Sometimes you lose part of a formation and plug any holes to render that part of the board 'dead' and lock in your territory/ prevent further losses. Low-numbered tiles are obvious-but-low-valued liabilities, but high-numbered tiles can be bigger liabilities if they get flipped (which is harder). One lucky play with a 20-army tile can cause a swing of 200 (from +100 to -100 armies). So tile placement will have both offensive and defensive considerations. Comment 1,2,4 seem to resemble a minimax strategy where we minimize the maximum expected possible loss (modified by some probabilistic consideration of the value ß the opponent can get from 1..20 i.e. a structure which can only be flipped by a ß=20 tile is 'nearly impregnable'.) I'm not clear what the implications of comments 3,5,6 are for optimal strategy. Interested in comments from Go, Chess or Othello players. (The sequel ProximityHD for XBox Live, allows 4-player -cooperative or -competitive local multiplayer increases the branching factor since you now have 5 tiles in your hand at any given time, of which you can only play one. Reinforcement of ally tiles is increased to +2 per ally.)

  Read the article

• Find optimal/good-enough strategy and AI for the game 'Proximity'?

  - by smci

  'Proximity' is a strategy game of territorial domination similar to Othello, Go and Risk. Two players, uses a 10x12 hex grid. Game invented by Brian Cable in 2007. Seems to be a worthy game for discussing a) optimal algorithm then b) how to build an AI. Strategies are going to be probabilistic or heuristic-based, due to the randomness factor, and the insane branching factor (20^120). So it will be kind of hard to compare objectively. A compute time limit of 5s per turn seems reasonable. Game: Flash version here and many copies elsewhere on the web Rules: here Object: to have control of the most armies after all tiles have been placed. Each turn you received a randomly numbered tile (value between 1 and 20 armies) to place on any vacant board space. If this tile is adjacent to any ally tiles, it will strengthen each tile's defenses +1 (up to a max value of 20). If it is adjacent to any enemy tiles, it will take control over them if its number is higher than the number on the enemy tile. Thoughts on strategy: Here are some initial thoughts; setting the computer AI to Expert will probably teach a lot: minimizing your perimeter seems to be a good strategy, to prevent flips and minimize worst-case damage like in Go, leaving holes inside your formation is lethal, only more so with the hex grid because you can lose armies on up to 6 squares in one move low-numbered tiles are a liability, so place them away from your main territory, near the board edges and scattered. You can also use low-numbered tiles to plug holes in your formation, or make small gains along the perimeter which the opponent will not tend to bother attacking. a triangle formation of three pieces is strong since they mutually reinforce, and also reduce the perimeter Each tile can be flipped at most 6 times, i.e. when its neighbor tiles are occupied. Control of a formation can flow back and forth. Sometimes you lose part of a formation and plug any holes to render that part of the board 'dead' and lock in your territory/ prevent further losses. Low-numbered tiles are obvious-but-low-valued liabilities, but high-numbered tiles can be bigger liabilities if they get flipped (which is harder). One lucky play with a 20-army tile can cause a swing of 200 (from +100 to -100 armies). So tile placement will have both offensive and defensive considerations. Comment 1,2,4 seem to resemble a minimax strategy where we minimize the maximum expected possible loss (modified by some probabilistic consideration of the value ß the opponent can get from 1..20 i.e. a structure which can only be flipped by a ß=20 tile is 'nearly impregnable'.) I'm not clear what the implications of comments 3,5,6 are for optimal strategy. Interested in comments from Go, Chess or Othello players. (The sequel ProximityHD for XBox Live, allows 4-player -cooperative or -competitive local multiplayer increases the branching factor since you now have 5 tiles in your hand at any given time, of which you can only play one. Reinforcement of ally tiles is increased to +2 per ally.)

  Read the article

• PHP Dynamic Count & Limit Menu items

  - by Adrian M.

  Hello, I want to modify this code which works pretty good but (or I don't know because I'm new with php) I can't limit the number of li's displayed for the main elements in the menu. The actual code will echo all elements it finds, I want to limit the times <li><a href='{$sLink}' {$sOnclick} target='_parent'>{$sPictureRep}{$sText}</a> this line is echoed.. let's say to echo just the first 15 elements + a "MORE" button under which to display the rest of the elements as sub-menus.. (this is a 2 level horizontal menu). Can someone please help me? I really tried a lot but I'm not an expert in PHP.. Thanks! <?php require_once( '../../../inc/header.inc.php' ); require_once( DIRECTORY_PATH_INC . 'membership_levels.inc.php' ); require_once( DIRECTORY_PATH_ROOT . "templates/tmpl_{$tmpl}/scripts/TemplMenu.php" ); class SimpleMenu extends TemplMenu { function getCode() { $this->iElementsCntInLine = 100; $this->getMenuInfo(); $this->genTopItems(); return $this->sCode; } function genTopItem($sText, $sLink, $sTarget, $sOnclick, $bActive, $iItemID, $isBold = false, $sPicture = '') { $sActiveStyle = ($bActive) ? ' id="tm_active"' : ''; if (!$bActive) { $sAlt= $sOnclick ? ( ' alt="' . $sOnclick . '"' ) : ''; $sTarget = $sTarget ? ( ' target="_parent"' ) : ''; } $sLink = (strpos($sLink, 'http://') === false && !strlen($sOnclick)) ? $this->sSiteUrl . $sLink : $sLink; $sSubMenu = $this->getAllSubMenus($iItemID); $sImgTabStyle = $sPictureRep = ''; if ($isBold && $sPicture != '') { $sPicturePath = getTemplateIcon($sPicture); $sPictureRep = "<img src='{$sPicturePath}' style='vertical-align:middle;width:16px;height:16px;' />"; $sText = '&nbsp;'; $sImgTabStyle = 'style="width:38px;"'; } $sMainSubs = ($sSubMenu=='') ? '' : " {$sSubMenu} </a>"; $this->sCode .= " <li><a href='{$sLink}' {$sOnclick} target='_parent'>{$sPictureRep}{$sText}</a> <div id='submenu'> <ul> <li>{$sMainSubs}</li> </ul> </div> </li> "; } } $objMenu = new SimpleMenu(); echo "<ul id='ddmenu'>"; echo $objMenu->getCode(); echo "</ul>"; ?>

  Read the article

• Architecture for Qt SIGNAL with subclass-specific, templated argument type

  - by Barry Wark

  I am developing a scientific data acquisition application using Qt. Since I'm not a deep expert in Qt, I'd like some architecture advise from the community on the following problem: The application supports several hardware acquisition interfaces but I would like to provide an common API on top of those interfaces. Each interface has a sample data type and a units for its data. So I'm representing a vector of samples from each device as a std::vector of Boost.Units quantities (i.e. std::vector<boost::units::quantity<unit,sample_type> >). I'd like to use a multi-cast style architecture, where each data source broadcasts newly received data to 1 or more interested parties. Qt's Signal/Slot mechanism is an obvious fit for this style. So, I'd like each data source to emit a signal like typedef std::vector<boost::units::quantity<unit,sample_type> > SampleVector signals: void samplesAcquired(SampleVector sampleVector); for the unit and sample_type appropriate for that device. Since tempalted QObject subclasses aren't supported by the meta-object compiler, there doesn't seem to be a way to have a (tempalted) base class for all data sources which defines the samplesAcquired Signal. In other words, the following won't work: template<T,U> //sample type and units class DataSource : public QObject { Q_OBJECT ... public: typedef std::vector<boost::units::quantity<U,T> > SampleVector signals: void samplesAcquired(SampleVector sampleVector); }; The best option I've been able to come up with is a two-layered approach: template<T,U> //sample type and units class IAcquiredSamples { public: typedef std::vector<boost::units::quantity<U,T> > SampleVector virtual shared_ptr<SampleVector> acquiredData(TimeStamp ts, unsigned long nsamples); }; class DataSource : public QObject { ... signals: void samplesAcquired(TimeStamp ts, unsigned long nsamples); }; The samplesAcquired signal now gives a timestamp and number of samples for the acquisition and clients must use the IAcquiredSamples API to retrieve those samples. Obviously data sources must subclass both DataSource and IAcquiredSamples. The disadvantage of this approach appears to be a loss of simplicity in the API... it would be much nicer if clients could get the acquired samples in the Slot connected. Being able to use Qt's queued connections would also make threading issues easier instead of having to manage them in the acquiredData method within each subclass. One other possibility, is to use a QVariant argument. This necessarily puts the onus on subclass to register their particular sample vector type with Q_REGISTER_METATYPE/qRegisterMetaType. Not really a big deal. Clients of the base class however, will have no way of knowing what type the QVariant value type is, unless a tag struct is also passed with the signal. I consider this solution at least as convoluted as the one above, as it forces clients of the abstract base class API to deal with some of the gnarlier aspects of type system. So, is there a way to achieve the templated signal parameter? Is there a better architecture than the one I've proposed?

  Read the article

• Telerik RadGrid doesn't seem to export Grouped data

  - by SlackGadget

  Hi I've got a DNN application using Telerik RadGrid. We're exporting some data from the Grid but when we drill down on the grid control and export the data we only see the initial top level data, never the updated Grid. Here's my table tag and supporting code. I'm not an expert in ASPX/C#so please forgive my newbie-ness. <mastertableview autogeneratecolumns="False" datakeynames="AccountId" datasourceid="SqlDataSource1" groupsdefaultexpanded="False"> <DetailTables> <telerik:GridTableView runat="server" DataKeyNames="StatementId" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource2" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" > <DetailTables> <telerik:GridTableView runat="server" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource3" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" GroupsDefaultExpanded="False" ShowFooter="True" ShowGroupFooter="True" AllowMultiColumnSorting="True" GridLines="None"> <ParentTableRelation> <telerik:GridRelationFields DetailKeyField="StatementId" MasterKeyField="StatementId" /> </ParentTableRelation> <AlternatingItemStyle BackColor="White" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" Wrap="True" /> <HeaderStyle Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" Wrap="True" /> <FooterStyle BackColor="Yellow" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" Wrap="True" /> </telerik:GridTableView> </DetailTables> <ParentTableRelation> <telerik:GridRelationFields DetailKeyField="AccountId" MasterKeyField="AccountId" /> </ParentTableRelation> <CommandItemSettings ExportToPdfText="Export to Pdf" /> <ExpandCollapseColumn Visible="True"> </ExpandCollapseColumn> </telerik:GridTableView> </DetailTables> <ParentTableRelation> <telerik:GridRelationFields DetailKeyField="AccountId" MasterKeyField="AccountId" /> </ParentTableRelation> <ExpandCollapseColumn Visible="True"> </ExpandCollapseColumn> <Columns> <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="ACCOUNTID" DataType="System.Int32" HeaderText="ACCOUNTID" SortExpression="ACCOUNTID" UniqueName="ACCOUNTID"> </telerik:GridBoundColumn> <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="ACCOUNTREF" HeaderText="ACCOUNTREF" SortExpression="ACCOUNTREF" UniqueName="ACCOUNTREF"> </telerik:GridBoundColumn> <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="CUSTOMERID" DataType="System.Int32" HeaderText="CUSTOMERID" SortExpression="CUSTOMERID" UniqueName="CUSTOMERID"> </telerik:GridBoundColumn> </Columns> </mastertableview> The exports are registered with the script manager on load : protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { Button2.Enabled = Session[UserSelection.SelectedValue] != null ? true : false; ScriptManager.GetCurrent(Page).RegisterPostBackControl(Button3); ScriptManager.GetCurrent(Page).RegisterPostBackControl(Button4); } and I' calling the Export with the following : protected void Button3_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { //ConfigureExport(); RadGrid1.Rebind(); RadGrid1.ExportSettings.FileName = "RadGridExportToExcel"; RadGrid1.ExportSettings.ExportOnlyData = true; RadGrid1.ExportSettings.OpenInNewWindow = true; RadGrid1.MasterTableView.ExportToExcel(); } Can anyone see what I'm missing, apart from DNN/ASPX experience and the will to live :)

  Read the article

• Flatten XML using XSLT but based on nesting level

  - by user2532750

  I'm new to XSLT and I'm trying to write some XSLT that will flatten any given XML such that a new line occurs whenever the nesting level changes. My input can be any XML document, with any number of nested levels so the structure isn't known to the XSLT. Due to the tools available to me, my solution has to use XSLT version 1.0. For example. <?xml version="1.0"?> <ROWSET> <ROW> <CUSTOMER_ID>0</CUSTOMER_ID> <NAME>Default Company</NAME> <BONUSES> <BONUSES_ROW> <BONUS_ID>21</BONUS_ID> <DESCRIPTION>Performance Bonus</DESCRIPTION> </BONUSES_ROW> <BONUSES_ROW> <BONUS_ID>26</BONUS_ID> <DESCRIPTION>Special Bonus</DESCRIPTION> </BONUSES_ROW> </BONUSES> </ROW> <ROW> <CUSTOMER_ID>1</CUSTOMER_ID> <NAME>Dealer 1</NAME> <BONUSES> <BONUSES_ROW> <BONUS_ID>27</BONUS_ID> <DESCRIPTION>June Bonus</DESCRIPTION> <BONUS_VALUES> <BONUS_VALUES_ROW> <VALUE>10</VALUE> <PERCENT>N</PERCENT> </BONUS_VALUES_ROW> <BONUS_VALUES_ROW> <VALUE>11</VALUE> <PERCENT>Y</PERCENT> </BONUS_VALUES_ROW> </BONUS_VALUES> </BONUSES_ROW> </BONUSES> </ROW> <ROWSET> needs to becomes.... 0, Default Company 21, Performance Bonus 26, Special Bonus 1, Dealer 1 27, June Bonus 10, N 11, Y The XSLT I've written so far is... <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:output method="text" encoding="iso-8859-1"/> <xsl:strip-space elements="*" /> <xsl:template match="/*/child::*"> <xsl:apply-templates select="*"/> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="*"> <xsl:value-of select="text()" /> <xsl:if test="position()!= last()"><xsl:text>,</xsl:text></xsl:if> <xsl:if test="position()= last()"><xsl:text>&#xD;</xsl:text></xsl:if> <xsl:apply-templates select="./child::*"/> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> but my output just isn't correct, with gaps and unnecessary data. 0,Default Company, ,21,Performance Bonus 26,Special Bonus 1,Dealer 1, 27,June Bonus, ,10,N 11,Y It seems there needs to be a check as whether or not a node can contain text, but I'm stuck and could do with an XSLT expert's help.

  Read the article

• Help with specific Regex: need to match multiple instances of multiple formats in a single string.

  - by KevenK

  I apologize for the terrible title...it can be hard to try to summarize an entire situation into a single sentence. Let me start by saying that I'm asking because I'm just not a Regex expert. I've used it a bit here and there, but I just come up short with the correct way to meet the following requirements. The Regex that I'm attempting to write is for use in an XML schema for input validation, and used elsewhere in Javascript for the same purpose. There are two different possible formats that are supported. There is a literal string, which must be surrounded by quotation marks, and a Hex-value string which must be surrounded by braces. Some test cases: "this is a literal string" <-- Valid string, enclosed properly in "s "this should " still be correct" <-- Valid string, "s are allowed within (if possible, this requirement could be forgiven if necessary) "{00 11 22}" <-- Valid string, {}'s allow in strings. Another one that can be forgiven if necessary I am bad output <-- Invalid string, no "s "Some more problemss"you know <-- Invalid string, must be fully contained in "s {0A 68 4F 89 AC D2} <-- Valid string, hex characters enclosed in {}s {DDFF1234} <-- Valid string, spaces are ignored for Hex strings DEADBEEF <-- Invalid string, must be contained in either "s or {}s {0A 12 ZZ} <-- Invalid string, 'Z' is not a valid Hex character To satisfy these general requirements, I had come up with the following Regex that seems to work well enough. I'm still fairly new to Regex, so there could be a huge hole here that I'm missing.: &quot;.+&quot;|\{([0-9]|[a-f]|[A-F]| )+\} If I recall correctly, the XML Schema regex automatically assumes beginning and end of line (^ and $ respectively). So, essentially, this regex accepts any string that starts and ends with a ", or starts and ends with {}s and contains only valid Hexidecimal characters. This has worked well for me so far except that I had forgotten about another (although less common, and thus forgotten) input option that completely breaks my regex. Where I made my mistake: Valid input should also allow a user to separate valid strings (of either type, literal/hex) by a comma. This means that a single string should be able to contain more than one of the above valid strings, separated by commas. Luckily, however, a comma is not a supported character within a literal string (although I see that my existing regex does not care about commas). Example test cases: "some string",{0A F1} <-- Valid {1122},{face},"peanut butter" <-- Valid {0D 0A FF FE},"string",{FF FFAC19 85} <-- Valid (Spaces don't matter in Hex values) "Validation is allowed to break, if a comma is found not separating values",{0d 0a} <-- Invalid, comma is a delimiter, but "Validation is allowed to break" and "if a comma..." are not marked as separate strings with "s hi mom,"hello" <-- Invalid, String1 was not enclosed properly in "s or {}s My thoughts are that it is possible to use commas as a delimiter to check each "section" of the string to match a regex similar to the original, but I just am not that advanced in regex yet to come up with a solution on my own. Any help would be appreciated, but ultimately a final solution with an explanation would just stellar. Thanks for reading this huge wall of text!

  Read the article

• Modern alternatives to Java

  - by Ralph

  I have been a Java developer for 14 years and have written an enterprise-level (~500 kloc) Swing application that uses most of the standard library APIs. Recently, I have become disappointed with the progress that the language has made to "modernize" itself, and am looking for an alternative for ongoing development. I have considered moving to the .NET platform, but I have issues with using something the only runs well in Windows (I know about Mono, but that is still far behind Microsoft). I also plan on buying a new Macbook Pro as soon as Apple releases their new rumored Arrandale-based machines and want to develop in an environment that will feel "at home" in Unix/Linux. I have considered using Python or Ruby, but the standard Java library is arguably the largest of any modern language. In JVM-based languages, I looked at Groovy, but am disappointed with its performance. Rumor has it that with the soon-to-be released JDK7, with its InvokeDynamic instruction, this will improve, but I don't know how much. Groovy is also not truly a functional language, although it provides closures and some of the "functional" features on collections. It does not embrace immutability. I have narrowed my search down to two JVM-based alternatives: Scala and Clojure. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. I am looking for opinions. I am not an expert at either of these languages; I have read 2 1/2 books on Scala and am currently reading Stu Halloway's book on Clojure. Scala is strongly statically typed. I know the dynamic language folks claim that static typing is a crutch for not doing unit testing, but it does provide a mechanism for compile-time location of a whole class of errors. Scala is more concise than Java, but not as much as Clojure. Scala's inter-operation with Java seems to be better than Clojure's, in that most Java operations are easier to do in Scala than in Clojure. For example, I can find no way in Clojure to create a non-static initialization block in a class derived from a Java superclass. For example, I like the Apache commons CLI library for command line argument parsing. In Java and Scala, I can create a new Options object and add Option items to it in an initialization block as follows (Java code): final Options options = new Options() { { addOption(new Option("?", "help", false, "Show this usage information"); // other options } }; I can't figure out how to the same thing in Clojure (except by using (doit...)), although that may reflect my lack of knowledge of the language. Clojure's collections are optimized for immutability. They rarely require copy-on-write semantics. I don't know if Scala's immutable collections are implemented using similar algorithms, but Rich Hickey (Clojure's inventor) goes out of his way to explain how that language's data structures are efficient. Clojure was designed from the beginning for concurrency (as was Scala) and with modern multi-core processors, concurrency takes on more importance, but I occasionally need to write simple non-concurrent utilities, and Scala code probably runs a little faster for these applications since it discourages, but does not prohibit, "simple" mutability. One could argue that one-off utilities do not have to be super-fast, but sometimes they do tasks that take hours or days to complete. I know that there is no right answer to this "question", but I thought I would open it up for discussion. Are there other JVM-based languages that can be used for enterprise level development?

  Read the article

• auth.getSession not working

  - by dC

  hi all, i am having troubles with calling auth.getSession in my proxy. It is being called from a iPhone connect client. When the proxy URL is invocated from the iphone, FB returns a 100 invalid parameter error to the proxy. However the 2nd attempt from iPhone yields success. Both times the proxy is doing the same code, only the auth_token is different. Doing a good search, shows that this is a problematic method. I have tried everything in code and even called in a iPhone expert to see if the problem is on the iPhone client. I have concentrated my efforts on the java api being the problem, however i believe the problem lies else where. I have done the following checked and tested java code checked and test iphone code checked FB application settings. any help is most appreciated. ------Here is my java code.--------- String api_secret = FacebookProperty.getString(FacebookConstants.PROPERTY_API_SECRET); String api_key = FacebookProperty.getString(FacebookConstants.PROPERTY_API_KEY); String call_back_url = FacebookProperty.getString(FacebookConstants.PROPERTY_CALLBACK_URL); int connectTimeout = 200000; //use the xml helper // Make sure the user is logged in to Facebook String authToken = request.getParameter("auth_token"); log.info( "FACEBOOK: auth_token?: " + authToken ); Map<String, Object> model = new HashMap<String, Object>(); model.put(FacebookConstants.MODEL_WELCOME_SELECTED, true); FacebookXmlRestClient facebookRestClient = new FacebookXmlRestClient(api_key, api_secret); boolean generateSessionSecret = true; //always true of connect client try{ facebookRestClient.setConnectTimeout(connectTimeout ); String authSessionKey = facebookRestClient.auth_getSession(authToken, true); } catch (Exception e) { log.log( Level.SEVERE, e.toString()); log.log( Level.SEVERE, e.getMessage()); } String rawResponse = facebookRestClient.getRawResponse(); log.info( rawResponse ); -------the iphone code is ----------- session = [FBSession sessionForApplication:myApiKey getSessionProxy:myURL delegate:self]; -----------the error is -------------- <error_response xmlns="http://api.facebook.com/1.0/" xmlns:xsi="http:// www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http:// api.facebook.com/1.0/ http://api.facebook.com/1.0/facebook.xsd"> <error_code>100</error_code> <error_msg>Invalid parameter</error_msg> <request_args list="true"> <arg> <key>api_key</key> <value>bf22a0512c8558a1656d73160507460b</value> </arg> <arg> <key>auth_token</key> <value>fcd1e597aca5c9ba43875cdd01221be5</value> </arg> <arg> <key>call_id</key> <value>1269066988055</value> </arg> <arg> <key>format</key> <value>xml</value> </arg> <arg> <key>generate_session_secret</key> <value>true</value> </arg> <arg> <key>method</key> <value>facebook.auth.getSession</value> </arg> <arg> <key>sig</key> <value>e9f477fd72adf74cd2de72528fd9aa72</value> </arg> <arg> <key>v</key> <value>1.0</value> </arg> </request_args> </error_response>

  Read the article

• CSS Horizontal sub menu - IE 6,7 both dont working, tried with whatever hover.

  - by SHAKTI

  I'm not expert about css menus. But I know basic system to make css menu. I used this system before and works, but this time it is not working. The site is http://www.uniethos.com. Please check this site This menu works with all other latest Browsers. But not with IE 6 & 7. I know IE6 don't support hover except anchor. So before I was using Whatever Hover. But this time it is not working and even with IE7. I don't know why its happening. May be there could be some problem with my css. Please check the css. If you don't have IE 6 or 7 installed you can run one from http://spoon.net/browsers/. Require to install one plugin. The CSS I'm using for the menu is .glossymenu{ background: #B4B3B3; height: 30px; width: 100%; padding: 0; margin: 0; display:inline-block; position:relative; } .glossymenu ul { list-style: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0; padding-left: 0px; } .glossymenu li ul { display:none; position:absolute; width: 80%; top:30px; left:0px; background-color:#5B0C10; border:0px; z-index: 99; } .glossymenu li li a { padding: 0px 10px 0px 10px; } .glossymenu li li a:hover { background : #871016; } .glossymenu li{ float:left; padding: 0; } .glossymenu li a{ float: left; display:block; position:relative; color:#FFF; text-decoration: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; padding:0 0 0 16px; /*Padding to accomodate left tab image. Do not change*/ height: 30px; line-height: 30px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; } .glossymenu li a b{ float: left; display: block; padding: 0 24px 0 8px; /*Padding of menu items*/ } .glossymenu li.current a, .glossymenu li a:hover{ color: #FFF; background: #5B0C10; background-position: left; text-decoration: none; } .glossymenu li a:visited{ text-decoration: none; } .glossymenu ul li:hover ul { display: block; }

  Read the article

• is Boost Library's weighted median broken?

  - by user624188

  I confess that I am no expert in C++. I am looking for a fast way to compute weighted median, which Boost seemed to have. But it seems I am not able to make it work. #include <iostream> #include <boost/accumulators/accumulators.hpp> #include <boost/accumulators/statistics/stats.hpp> #include <boost/accumulators/statistics/median.hpp> #include <boost/accumulators/statistics/weighted_median.hpp> using namespace boost::accumulators; int main() { // Define an accumulator set accumulator_set<double, stats<tag::median > > acc1; accumulator_set<double, stats<tag::median >, float> acc2; // push in some data ... acc1(0.1); acc1(0.2); acc1(0.3); acc1(0.4); acc1(0.5); acc1(0.6); acc2(0.1, weight=0.); acc2(0.2, weight=0.); acc2(0.3, weight=0.); acc2(0.4, weight=1.); acc2(0.5, weight=1.); acc2(0.6, weight=1.); // Display the results ... std::cout << " Median: " << median(acc1) << std::endl; std::cout << "Weighted Median: " << median(acc2) << std::endl; return 0; } produces the following output, which is clearly wrong. Median: 0.3 Weighted Median: 0.3 Am I doing something wrong? Any help will be greatly appreciated. * however, the weighted sum works correctly * @glowcoder: The weighted sum works perfectly fine like this. #include <iostream> #include <boost/accumulators/accumulators.hpp> #include <boost/accumulators/statistics/stats.hpp> #include <boost/accumulators/statistics/sum.hpp> #include <boost/accumulators/statistics/weighted_sum.hpp> using namespace boost::accumulators; int main() { // Define an accumulator set accumulator_set<double, stats<tag::sum > > acc1; accumulator_set<double, stats<tag::sum >, float> acc2; // accumulator_set<double, stats<tag::median >, float> acc2; // push in some data ... acc1(0.1); acc1(0.2); acc1(0.3); acc1(0.4); acc1(0.5); acc1(0.6); acc2(0.1, weight=0.); acc2(0.2, weight=0.); acc2(0.3, weight=0.); acc2(0.4, weight=1.); acc2(0.5, weight=1.); acc2(0.6, weight=1.); // Display the results ... std::cout << " Median: " << sum(acc1) << std::endl; std::cout << "Weighted Median: " << sum(acc2) << std::endl; return 0; } and the result is Sum: 2.1 Weighted Sum: 1.5

  Read the article

• C++ Serial Port Question

  - by Pfeffer

  Problem: I have a hand held device that scans those graphic color barcodes on all packaging. There is a track device that I can use that will slide the device automatically. This track device functions by taking ascii code through a serial port. I need to get this thing to work in FileMaker on a Mac. So no terminal programs, etc... What I've got so far: I bought a Keyspan USB/Serial adapter. Using a program called ZTerm I was successful in sending commands to the device. Example: "C,7^M^J" I was also able to do the same thing in Terminal using this command: screen /dev/tty.KeySerial1 57600 and then type in the same command above(but when I typed in I just hit Control-M and Control-J for the carriage return and line feed) Now I'm writing a plug-in for FileMaker(in C++ of course). I want to get what I did above happen in C++ so when I install that plug-in in FileMaker I can just call one of those functions and have the whole process take place right there. I'm able to connect to the device, but I can't talk to it. It is not responding to anything. I've tried connecting to the device(successfully) using these: FILE *comport; if ((comport = fopen("/dev/tty.KeySerial1", "w")) == NULL){...} and int fd; fd = open("/dev/tty.KeySerial1", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NDELAY); This is what I've tried so far in way of talking to the device: fputs ("C,7^M^J",comport); or fprintf(comport,"C,7^M^J"); or char buffer[] = { 'C' , ',' , '7' , '^' , 'M' , '^' , 'J' }; fwrite (buffer , 1 , sizeof(buffer) , comport ); or fwrite('C,7^M^J', 1, 1, comport); Questions: When I connected to the device from Terminal and using ZTerm, I was able to set my baud rate of 57600. I think that may be why it isn't responding here. But I don't know how to do it here.... Does any one know how to do that? I tried this, but it didn't work: comport->BaudRate = 57600; There are a lot of class solutions out there but they all call these include files like termios.h and stdio.h. I don't have these and, for whatever reason, I can't find them to download. I've downloaded a few examples but there are like 20 files in them and they're all calling other files I can't find(like the ones listed above). Do I need to find these and if so where? I just don't know enough about C++ Is there a website where I can download libraries?? Another solution might be to put those terminal commands in C++. Is there a way to do that? So this has been driving me crazy. I'm not a C++ guy, I only know basic programming concepts. Is anyone out there a C++ expert? I ideally I'd like this to just work using functions I already have, like those fwrite, fputs stuff. Thanks!

  Read the article

• gtk+ g++ error: invalid use of member

  - by Darragh

  #include <glib.h> #include <gtk/gtk.h> #include <iostream> using namespace std; #ifndef CONNECT4MENU_H #define CONNECT4MENU_H static gboolean deleteEvent( GtkWidget *widget, GdkEvent *event, gpointer data); static int startGame(GtkWidget *widget, GdkEvent *event, gpointer data); static int gui(); GtkWidget *window; GtkWidget *button; GtkWidget *button2; GtkWidget *button3; GtkWidget *button4; GtkWidget *button5; GtkWidget *button6; GtkWidget *box1; GtkWidget *box2; GtkWidget *box3; GtkWidget *box4; GtkWidget *box5; GtkWidget *box6; GSList *group; GSList *group2; int gamet = 0; static int gui() { window = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL); g_signal_connect(G_OBJECT(window), "delete_event", G_CALLBACK(deleteEvent), NULL); box3 = gtk_vbox_new(FALSE, 0); gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(window), box3); gtk_widget_show(box3); box1 = gtk_hbox_new(FALSE, 0); gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(box3), box1); gtk_widget_show(box1); button = gtk_radio_button_new_with_label(NULL, "1 Player"); gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(box1), button, TRUE, TRUE, 0); gtk_widget_show(button); group = gtk_radio_button_get_group(GTK_RADIO_BUTTON(button)); button2 = gtk_radio_button_new_with_label(group, "2 Player"); gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(box1), button2, TRUE, TRUE, 0); gtk_widget_show(button2); box4 = gtk_vbox_new(FALSE, 0); gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(box3), box4); gtk_widget_show(box4); box2 = gtk_hbox_new(FALSE, 0); gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(box4), box2); gtk_widget_show(box2); button3 = gtk_radio_button_new_with_label(NULL, "Easy"); gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(box2), button3, TRUE, TRUE, 0); gtk_widget_show(button3); group2 = gtk_radio_button_get_group(GTK_RADIO_BUTTON(button3)); button4 = gtk_radio_button_new_with_label(group2, "Medium"); gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(box2), button4, TRUE, TRUE, 0); gtk_widget_show(button4); group2 = gtk_radio_button_get_group(GTK_RADIO_BUTTON(button4)); button5 = gtk_radio_button_new_with_label(group2, "Expert"); gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(box2), button5, TRUE, TRUE, 0); gtk_widget_show(button5); box5 = gtk_vbox_new(FALSE, 0); gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(box4), box5); gtk_widget_show(box5); button6 = gtk_button_new_with_label ("Start Game"); g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (button6), "clicked", G_CALLBACK (startGame), NULL); gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX (box5), button6, TRUE, TRUE, 0); gtk_widget_show(button6); gtk_widget_show(window); gtk_main(); } static gboolean deleteEvent(GtkWidget *widget, GdkEvent *event, gpointer data) { gtk_main_quit(); return FALSE; } static int startGame(GtkWidget *widget, GdkEvent *event, gpointer data) { if(gtk_toggle_button_get_active(GTK_TOGGLE_BUTTON(button))) { if(gtk_toggle_button_get_active(GTK_TOGGLE_BUTTON(button3))) { gamet = 1; gtk_main_quit(); } if(gtk_toggle_button_get_active(GTK_TOGGLE_BUTTON(button4))) { gamet = 2; gtk_main_quit(); } if(gtk_toggle_button_get_active(GTK_TOGGLE_BUTTON(button5))) { gamet = 3; gtk_main_quit(); } } if(gtk_toggle_button_get_active(GTK_TOGGLE_BUTTON(button2))) { gamet = 4; gtk_main_quit(); } } #endif The error I get when I try to compile this is: connect4menu2.h: In member function 'void menu::gui()': connect4menu2.h:46: error: invalid use of member (did you forget the '&' ?) connect4menu2.h:96: error: invalid use of member (did you forget the '&' ?) I cannot understand why I can't call startGame and deleteEvent from gui. Does anybody know why I am getting this error

  Read the article

• Normalizing a table

  - by Alex

  I have a legacy table, which I can't change. The values in it can be modified from legacy application (application also can't be changed). Due to a lot of access to the table from new application (new requirement), I'd like to create a temporary table, which would hopefully speed up the queries. The actual requirement, is to calculate number of business days from X to Y. For example, give me all business days from Jan 1'st 2001 until Dec 24'th 2004. The table is used to mark which days are off, as different companies may have different days off - it isn't just Saturday + Sunday) The temporary table would be created from a .NET program, each time user enters the screen for this query (user may run query multiple times, with different values, table is created once), so I'd like it to be as fast as possible. Approach below runs in under a second, but I only tested it with a small dataset, and still it takes probably close to half a second, which isn't great for UI - even though it's just the overhead for first query. The legacy table looks like this: CREATE TABLE [business_days]( [country_code] [char](3) , [state_code] [varchar](4) , [calendar_year] [int] , [calendar_month] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month2] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month3] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month4] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month5] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month6] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month7] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month8] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month9] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month10] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month11] [varchar](31) , [calendar_month12] [varchar](31) , misc. ) Each month has 31 characters, and any day off (Saturday + Sunday + holiday) is marked with X. Each half day is marked with an 'H'. For example, if a month starts on a Thursday, than it will look like (Thursday+Friday workdays, Saturday+Sunday marked with X): ' XX XX ..' I'd like the new table to look like so: create table #Temp (country varchar(3), state varchar(4), date datetime, hours int) And I'd like to only have rows for days which are off (marked with X or H from previous query) What I ended up doing, so far is this: Create a temporary-intermediate table, that looks like this: create table #Temp_2 (country_code varchar(3), state_code varchar(4), calendar_year int, calendar_month varchar(31), month_code int) To populate it, I have a union which basically unions calendar_month, calendar_month2, calendar_month3, etc. Than I have a loop which loops through all the rows in #Temp_2, after each row is processed, it is removed from #Temp_2. To process the row there is a loop from 1 to 31, and substring(calendar_month, counter, 1) is checked for either X or H, in which case there is an insert into #Temp table. [edit added code] Declare @country_code char(3) Declare @state_code varchar(4) Declare @calendar_year int Declare @calendar_month varchar(31) Declare @month_code int Declare @calendar_date datetime Declare @day_code int WHILE EXISTS(SELECT * From #Temp_2) -- where processed = 0) BEGIN Select Top 1 @country_code = t2.country_code, @state_code = t2.state_code, @calendar_year = t2.calendar_year, @calendar_month = t2.calendar_month, @month_code = t2.month_code From #Temp_2 t2 -- where processed = 0 set @day_code = 1 while @day_code <= 31 begin if substring(@calendar_month, @day_code, 1) = 'X' begin set @calendar_date = convert(datetime, (cast(@month_code as varchar) + '/' + cast(@day_code as varchar) + '/' + cast(@calendar_year as varchar))) insert into #Temp (country, state, date, hours) values (@country_code, @state_code, @calendar_date, 8) end if substring(@calendar_month, @day_code, 1) = 'H' begin set @calendar_date = convert(datetime, (cast(@month_code as varchar) + '/' + cast(@day_code as varchar) + '/' + cast(@calendar_year as varchar))) insert into #Temp (country, state, date, hours) values (@country_code, @state_code, @calendar_date, 4) end set @day_code = @day_code + 1 end delete from #Temp_2 where @country_code = country_code AND @state_code = state_code AND @calendar_year = calendar_year AND @calendar_month = calendar_month AND @month_code = month_code --update #Temp_2 set processed = 1 where @country_code = country_code AND @state_code = state_code AND @calendar_year = calendar_year AND @calendar_month = calendar_month AND @month_code = month_code END I am not an expert in SQL, so I'd like to get some input on my approach, and maybe even a much better approach suggestion. After having the temp table, I'm planning to do (dates would be coming from a table): select cast(convert(datetime, ('01/31/2012'), 101) -convert(datetime, ('01/17/2012'), 101) as int) - ((select sum(hours) from #Temp where date between convert(datetime, ('01/17/2012'), 101) and convert(datetime, ('01/31/2012'), 101)) / 8) Besides the solution of normalizing the table, the other solution I implemented for now, is a function which does all this logic of getting the business days by scanning the current table. It runs pretty fast, but I'm hesitant to call a function, if I can instead add a simpler query to get result. (I'm currently trying this on MSSQL, but I would need to do same for Sybase ASE and Oracle)

  Read the article

• Making CSS Render in a simialr way on FireFox 3.0.15/IE 6.0 & 7.0

  - by R.R

  Following css renders differently depends on the browser (mainly with Firefox) Firefox: the border-left-style:dashed does not seem to take effect as desired and black lines are shown instead. Also font seems to be another issue using em as they respond relatively better in cross browser. When i used pixel its a mess but not sure em is better or not. I am not a CSS expert and working with CSS makes me feel worse than dealing with a second hand car dealer. .Main { font-family: Arial, "Trebuchet MS", Sans-Serif; font-size: 0.8em; border:0px; } .Header { font-family: Arial, "Trebuchet MS", Sans-Serif; font-size: 1.2em; color:#666; background : url("../images/header.jpg") repeat-x top left; padding-left: 10px; padding:4px; text-transform:uppercase; border:1px; border-left-style:dashed; border-bottom-width:thin; border-collapse:collapse } .Footer { color:#666; font-family: Arial, "Trebuchet MS", Sans-Serif; font-size: 0.7em; } .Footer td { border-style:none; text-align:center; } .Footer span { color:#666; font-family: Arial, "Trebuchet MS", Sans-Serif; font-size: 0.7em; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline; border-style:none; } .Footer a { font-family: Arial, "Trebuchet MS", Sans-Serif; font-size: 0.7em; color:#666; } .Results-Item td { margin-left: 10px; vertical-align:middle; color:#666; background-color: white; font-size: 1.2em; padding:4px; font-family: Arial, "Trebuchet MS", Sans-Serif; padding-left: 10px; line-height: 20px; border:1px; border-left-style:dashed; border-bottom-width:thin; border-collapse:collapse; } .Results-AltItem td { margin-left: 10px; vertical-align:middle; color:#666; font-size: 1.2em; /* _font-size: 1.2em; /* IE6 hack */ padding:4px; font-family: Arial, "Trebuchet MS", Sans-Serif; background-color: #ccc; padding-left: 10px; line-height: 20px; border:1px; border:1px; border-left-style:dashed; border-bottom-width:thin; border-collapse:collapse; } Amount { text-align:right; }

  Read the article

• SQL SERVER – Shrinking NDF and MDF Files – Readers’ Opinion

  - by pinaldave

  Previously, I had written a blog post about SQL SERVER – Shrinking NDF and MDF Files – A Safe Operation. After that, I have written the following blog post that talks about the advantage and disadvantage of Shrinking and why one should not be Shrinking a file SQL SERVER – SHRINKFILE and TRUNCATE Log File in SQL Server 2008. On this subject, SQL Server Expert Imran Mohammed left an excellent comment. I just feel that his comment is worth a big article itself. For everybody to read his wonderful explanation, I am posting this blog post here. Thanks Imran! Shrinking Database always creates performance degradation and increases fragmentation in the database. I suggest that you keep that in mind before you start reading the following comment. If you are going to say Shrinking Database is bad and evil, here I am saying it first and loud. Now, the comment of Imran is written while keeping in mind only the process showing how the Shrinking Database Operation works. Imran has already explained his understanding and requests further explanation. I have removed the Best Practices section from Imran’s comments, as there are a few corrections. Comments from Imran - Before I explain to you the concept of Shrink Database, let us understand the concept of Database Files. When we create a new database inside the SQL Server, it is typical that SQl Server creates two physical files in the Operating System: one with .MDF Extension, and another with .LDF Extension. .MDF is called as Primary Data File. .LDF is called as Transactional Log file. If you add one or more data files to a database, the physical file that will be created in the Operating System will have an extension of .NDF, which is called as Secondary Data File; whereas, when you add one or more log files to a database, the physical file that will be created in the Operating System will have the same extension as .LDF. The questions now are, “Why does a new data file have a different extension (.NDF)?”, “Why is it called as a secondary data file?” and, “Why is .MDF file called as a primary data file?” Answers: Note: The following explanation is based on my limited knowledge of SQL Server, so experts please do comment. A data file with a .MDF extension is called a Primary Data File, and the reason behind it is that it contains Database Catalogs. Catalogs mean Meta Data. Meta Data is “Data about Data”. An example for Meta Data includes system objects that store information about other objects, except the data stored by the users. sysobjects stores information about all objects in that database. sysindexes stores information about all indexes and rows of every table in that database. syscolumns stores information about all columns that each table has in that database. sysusers stores how many users that database has. Although Meta Data stores information about other objects, it is not the transactional data that a user enters; rather, it’s a system data about the data. Because Primary Data File (.MDF) contains important information about the database, it is treated as a special file. It is given the name Primary Data file because it contains the Database Catalogs. This file is present in the Primary File Group. You can always create additional objects (Tables, indexes etc.) in the Primary data file (This file is present in the Primary File group), by mentioning that you want to create this object under the Primary File Group. Any additional data file that you add to the database will have only transactional data but no Meta Data, so that’s why it is called as the Secondary Data File. It is given the extension name .NDF so that the user can easily identify whether a specific data file is a Primary Data File or a Secondary Data File(s). There are many advantages of storing data in different files that are under different file groups. You can put your read only in the tables in one file (file group) and read-write tables in another file (file group) and take a backup of only the file group that has read the write data, so that you can avoid taking the backup of a read-only data that cannot be altered. Creating additional files in different physical hard disks also improves I/O performance. A real-time scenario where we use Files could be this one: Let’s say you have created a database called MYDB in the D-Drive which has a 50 GB space. You also have 1 Database File (.MDF) and 1 Log File on D-Drive and suppose that all of that 50 GB space has been used up and you do not have any free space left but you still want to add an additional space to the database. One easy option would be to add one more physical hard disk to the server, add new data file to MYDB database and create this new data file in a new hard disk then move some of the objects from one file to another, and put the file group under which you added new file as default File group, so that any new object that is created gets into the new files, unless specified. Now that we got a basic idea of what data files are, what type of data they store and why they are named the way they are, let’s move on to the next topic, Shrinking. First of all, I disagree with the Microsoft terminology for naming this feature as “Shrinking”. Shrinking, in regular terms, means to reduce the size of a file by means of compressing it. BUT in SQL Server, Shrinking DOES NOT mean compressing. Shrinking in SQL Server means to remove an empty space from database files and release the empty space either to the Operating System or to SQL Server. Let’s examine this through an example. Let’s say you have a database “MYDB” with a size of 50 GB that has a free space of about 20 GB, which means 30GB in the database is filled with data and the 20 GB of space is free in the database because it is not currently utilized by the SQL Server (Database); it is reserved and not yet in use. If you choose to shrink the database and to release an empty space to Operating System, and MIND YOU, you can only shrink the database size to 30 GB (in our example). You cannot shrink the database to a size less than what is filled with data. So, if you have a database that is full and has no empty space in the data file and log file (you don’t have an extra disk space to set Auto growth option ON), YOU CANNOT issue the SHRINK Database/File command, because of two reasons: There is no empty space to be released because the Shrink command does not compress the database; it only removes the empty space from the database files and there is no empty space. Remember, the Shrink command is a logged operation. When we perform the Shrink operation, this information is logged in the log file. If there is no empty space in the log file, SQL Server cannot write to the log file and you cannot shrink a database. Now answering your questions: (1) Q: What are the USEDPAGES & ESTIMATEDPAGES that appear on the Results Pane after using the DBCC SHRINKDATABASE (NorthWind, 10) ? A: According to Books Online (For SQL Server 2000): UsedPages: the number of 8-KB pages currently used by the file. EstimatedPages: the number of 8-KB pages that SQL Server estimates the file could be shrunk down to. Important Note: Before asking any question, make sure you go through Books Online or search on the Google once. The reasons for doing so have many advantages: 1. If someone else already has had this question before, chances that it is already answered are more than 50 %. 2. This reduces your waiting time for the answer. (2) Q: What is the difference between Shrinking the Database using DBCC command like the one above & shrinking it from the Enterprise Manager Console by Right-Clicking the database, going to TASKS & then selecting SHRINK Option, on a SQL Server 2000 environment? A: As far as my knowledge goes, there is no difference, both will work the same way, one advantage of using this command from query analyzer is, your console won’t be freezed. You can do perform your regular activities using Enterprise Manager. (3) Q: What is this .NDF file that is discussed above? I have never heard of it. What is it used for? Is it used by end-users, DBAs or the SERVER/SYSTEM itself? A: .NDF File is a secondary data file. You never heard of it because when database is created, SQL Server creates database by default with only 1 data file (.MDF) and 1 log file (.LDF) or however your model database has been setup, because a model database is a template used every time you create a new database using the CREATE DATABASE Command. Unless you have added an extra data file, you will not see it. This file is used by the SQL Server to store data which are saved by the users. Hope this information helps. I would like to as the experts to please comment if what I understand is not what the Microsoft guys meant. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

  Read the article

• Node.js Adventure - Node.js on Windows

  - by Shaun

  Two weeks ago I had had a talk with Wang Tao, a C# MVP in China who is currently running his startup company and product named worktile. He asked me to figure out a synchronization solution which helps his product in the future. And he preferred me implementing the service in Node.js, since his worktile is written in Node.js. Even though I have some experience in ASP.NET MVC, HTML, CSS and JavaScript, I don’t think I’m an expert of JavaScript. In fact I’m very new to it. So it scared me a bit when he asked me to use Node.js. But after about one week investigate I have to say Node.js is very easy to learn, use and deploy, even if you have very limited JavaScript skill. And I think I became love Node.js. Hence I decided to have a series named “Node.js Adventure”, where I will demonstrate my story of learning and using Node.js in Windows and Windows Azure. And this is the first one.   (Brief) Introduction of Node.js I don’t want to have a fully detailed introduction of Node.js. There are many resource on the internet we can find. But the best one is its homepage. Node.js was created by Ryan Dahl, sponsored by Joyent. It’s consist of about 80% C/C++ for core and 20% JavaScript for API. It utilizes CommonJS as the module system which we will explain later. The official definition of Node.js is Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices. First of all, Node.js utilizes JavaScript as its development language and runs on top of V8 engine, which is being used by Chrome. It brings JavaScript, a client-side language into the backend service world. So many people said, even though not that actually, “Node.js is a server side JavaScript”. Additionally, Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking IO model. This means in Node.js there’s no way to block currently working thread. Every operation in Node.js executed asynchronously. This is a huge benefit especially if our code needs IO operations such as reading disks, connect to database, consuming web service, etc.. Unlike IIS or Apache, Node.js doesn’t utilize the multi-thread model. In Node.js there’s only one working thread serves all users requests and resources response, as the ST star in the figure below. And there is a POSIX async threads pool in Node.js which contains many async threads (AT stars) for IO operations. When a user have an IO request, the ST serves it but it will not do the IO operation. Instead the ST will go to the POSIX async threads pool to pick up an AT, pass this operation to it, and then back to serve any other requests. The AT will actually do the IO operation asynchronously. Assuming before the AT complete the IO operation there is another user comes. The ST will serve this new user request, pick up another AT from the POSIX and then back. If the previous AT finished the IO operation it will take the result back and wait for the ST to serve. ST will take the response and return the AT to POSIX, and then response to the user. And if the second AT finished its job, the ST will response back to the second user in the same way. As you can see, in Node.js there’s only one thread serve clients’ requests and POSIX results. This thread looping between the users and POSIX and pass the data back and forth. The async jobs will be handled by POSIX. This is the event-driven non-blocking IO model. The performance of is model is much better than the multi-threaded blocking model. For example, Apache is built in multi-threaded blocking model while Nginx is in event-driven non-blocking mode. Below is the performance comparison between them. And below is the memory usage comparison between them. These charts are captured from the video NodeJS Basics: An Introductory Training, which presented at Cloud Foundry Developer Advocate.   Node.js on Windows To execute Node.js application on windows is very simple. First of you we need to download the latest Node.js platform from its website. After installed, it will register its folder into system path variant so that we can execute Node.js at anywhere. To confirm the Node.js installation, just open up a command windows and type “node”, then it will show the Node.js console. As you can see this is a JavaScript interactive console. We can type some simple JavaScript code and command here. To run a Node.js JavaScript application, just specify the source code file name as the argument of the “node” command. For example, let’s create a Node.js source code file named “helloworld.js”. Then copy a sample code from Node.js website. 1: var http = require("http"); 2:  3: http.createServer(function (req, res) { 4: res.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"}); 5: res.end("Hello World\n"); 6: }).listen(1337, "127.0.0.1"); 7:  8: console.log("Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/"); This code will create a web server, listening on 1337 port and return “Hello World” when any requests come. Run it in the command windows. Then open a browser and navigate to http://localhost:1337/. As you can see, when using Node.js we are not creating a web application. In fact we are likely creating a web server. We need to deal with request, response and the related headers, status code, etc.. And this is one of the benefit of using Node.js, lightweight and straightforward. But creating a website from scratch again and again is not acceptable. The good news is that, Node.js utilizes CommonJS as its module system, so that we can leverage some modules to simplify our job. And furthermore, there are about ten thousand of modules available n the internet, which covers almost all areas in server side application development.   NPM and Node.js Modules Node.js utilizes CommonJS as its module system. A module is a set of JavaScript files. In Node.js if we have an entry file named “index.js”, then all modules it needs will be located at the “node_modules” folder. And in the “index.js” we can import modules by specifying the module name. For example, in the code we’ve just created, we imported a module named “http”, which is a build-in module installed alone with Node.js. So that we can use the code in this “http” module. Besides the build-in modules there are many modules available at the NPM website. Thousands of developers are contributing and downloading modules at this website. Hence this is another benefit of using Node.js. There are many modules we can use, and the numbers of modules increased very fast, and also we can publish our modules to the community. When I wrote this post, there are totally 14,608 modules at NPN and about 10 thousand downloads per day. Install a module is very simple. Let’s back to our command windows and input the command “npm install express”. This command will install a module named “express”, which is a MVC framework on top of Node.js. And let’s create another JavaScript file named “helloweb.js” and copy the code below in it. I imported the “express” module. And then when the user browse the home page it will response a text. If the incoming URL matches “/Echo/:value” which the “value” is what the user specified, it will pass it back with the current date time in JSON format. And finally my website was listening at 12345 port. 1: var express = require("express"); 2: var app = express(); 3:  4: app.get("/", function(req, res) { 5: res.send("Hello Node.js and Express."); 6: }); 7:  8: app.get("/Echo/:value", function(req, res) { 9: var value = req.params.value; 10: res.json({ 11: "Value" : value, 12: "Time" : new Date() 13: }); 14: }); 15:  16: console.log("Web application opened."); 17: app.listen(12345); For more information and API about the “express”, please have a look here. Start our application from the command window by command “node helloweb.js”, and then navigate to the home page we can see the response in the browser. And if we go to, for example http://localhost:12345/Echo/Hello Shaun, we can see the JSON result. The “express” module is very populate in NPM. It makes the job simple when we need to build a MVC website. There are many modules very useful in NPM. - underscore: A utility module covers many common functionalities such as for each, map, reduce, select, etc.. - request: A very simple HTT request client. - async: Library for coordinate async operations. - wind: Library which enable us to control flow with plain JavaScript for asynchronous programming (and more) without additional pre-compiling steps.   Node.js and IIS I demonstrated how to run the Node.js application from console. Since we are in Windows another common requirement would be, “can I host Node.js in IIS?” The answer is “Yes”. Tomasz Janczuk created a project IISNode at his GitHub space we can find here. And Scott Hanselman had published a blog post introduced about it.   Summary In this post I provided a very brief introduction of Node.js, includes it official definition, architecture and how it implement the event-driven non-blocking model. And then I described how to install and run a Node.js application on windows console. I also described the Node.js module system and NPM command. At the end I referred some links about IISNode, an IIS extension that allows Node.js application runs on IIS. Node.js became a very popular server side application platform especially in this year. By leveraging its non-blocking IO model and async feature it’s very useful for us to build a highly scalable, asynchronously service. I think Node.js will be used widely in the cloud application development in the near future.   In the next post I will explain how to use SQL Server from Node.js.   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.

  Read the article

• Getting WCF Services in a Silverlight solution to play nice on deployment

  - by brendonpage

  I have come across 2 issues with deploying WCF services in a Silverlight solution, admittedly the one is more of a hiccup, and only occurs if you take the easy way out and reference your services through visual studio. The First Issue This occurs when you deploy your WFC services to an IIS server. When browse to the services using your web browser, you are greeted with “This collection already contains an address with scheme http.  There can be at most one address per scheme in this collection.”. When you make a call to this service from your Silverlight application, you get the extremely helpful “NotFound” error, this error message can be found in the error property of the event arguments on the complete event handler for that call. As it did with me this will leave most people scratching their head, because the very same services work just fine on the ASP.NET Development Web Server and on my local IIS server. Now I’m no server/hosting/IIS expert so I did a bit of searching when I first encountered this issue. I found out this happens because IIS supports multiple address bindings per protocol (http/https/ftp … etc) per web site, but WCF only supports binding to one address per protocol. This causes a problem when the WCF service is hosted on a site with multiple address bindings, because IIS provides all of the bindings to the host factory when running the service. While this problem occurs mainly on shared hosting solutions, it is not limited to shared hosting, it just seems like all shared hosting providers setup sites on their servers with multiple address bindings. For interests sake I added functionality to the example project attached to this post to dump the addresses given to the WCF service by IIS into a log file. This was the output on the shared hosting solution I use: http://mydomain.co.za/Services/TestService.svc http://www.mydomain.co.za/Services/TestService.svc http://mydomain-co-za.win13.wadns.net/Services/TestService.svc http://win13/Services/TestService.svc As you can see all these addresses are for the http protocol, which is where it all goes wrong for WCF. Fixes for the First Issue There are a few ways to get around this. The first being the easiest, target .NET 4! Yes that's right in .NET 4 WCF services support multiple addresses per protocol. This functionality is enabled by an option, which is on by default if you create a new project, you will need to turn on if you are upgrading to .NET 4. To do this set the multipleSiteBindingsEnabled property of the serviceHostingEnviroment tag in the web.config file to true, as shown below: <system.serviceModel>     <serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" /> </system.serviceModel> Beware this ONLY works in .NET 4, so if you don’t have a server with .NET 4 installed on that you can deploy to, you will need to employ one of the other work a rounds. The second option will work for .NET 3.5 & 4. For this option all you need to do is modify the web.config file and add baseAddressPrefixFilters to the serviceHostingEnviroment tag as shown below: <system.serviceModel>     <serviceHostingEnvironment>         <baseAddressPrefixFilters>              <add prefix="http://www.mydomain.co.za"/>         </baseAddressPrefixFilters>     </serviceHostingEnvironment> </system.serviceModel> These will be used to filter the list of base addresses that IIS provides to the host factory. When specifying these prefix filters be sure to specify filters which will only allow 1 result through, otherwise the entire exercise will be pointless. There is however a problem with this work a round, you are only allowed to specify 1 prefix filter per protocol. Which means you can’t add filters for all your environments, this will therefore add to the list of things to do before deploying or switching dev machines. The third option is the one I currently employ, it will work for .NET 3, 3.5 & 4, although it is not needed for .NET 4. For this option you create a custom host factory which inherits from the ServiceHostFactory class. In the implementation of the ServiceHostFactory you employ logic to figure out which of the base addresses, that are give by IIS, to use when creating the service host. The logic you use to do this is completely up to you, I have seen quite a few solutions that simply statically reference an index from the list of base addresses, this works for most situations but falls short in others. For instance, if the order of the base addresses where to change, it might end up returning an address that only resolves on the servers local network, like the last one in the example I gave at the beginning. Another instance, if a request comes in on a different protocol, like https, you will be creating the service host using an address which is on the incorrect protocol, like http. To reliably find the correct address to use, I use the address that the service was requested on. To accomplish this I use the HttpContext, which requires the service to operate with AspNetCompatibilityRequirements set on. If for some reason running you services with AspNetCompatibilityRequirements on isn’t an option, you can still use this method, you will just have to come up with your own logic for selecting the correct address. First you will need to enable AspNetCompatibilityRequirements for your hosting environment, to do this you will need to set it to true in the web.config file as shown below: <system.serviceModel>     <serviceHostingEnvironment AspNetCompatibilityRequirements="true" /> </system.serviceModel> You will then need to mark any services that are going to use the custom host factory, to allow AspNetCompatibilityRequirements, as shown below: [AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)] public class TestService { } Now for the custom host factory, this is where the logic lives that selects the correct address to create service host with. The one i use is shown below: public class CustomHostFactory : ServiceHostFactory { protected override ServiceHost CreateServiceHost(Type serviceType, Uri[] baseAddresses) { // // Compose a prefix filter based on the requested uri // string prefixFilter = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.Scheme + "://" + HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.DnsSafeHost; if (!HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.IsDefaultPort) { prefixFilter += ":" + HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.Port.ToString() + "/"; } // // Find a base address that matches the prefix filter // foreach (Uri baseAddress in baseAddresses) { if (baseAddress.OriginalString.StartsWith(prefixFilter)) { return new ServiceHost(serviceType, baseAddress); } } // // Throw exception if no matching base address was found // throw new Exception("Custom Host Factory: No base address matching '" + prefixFilter + "' was found."); } } The most important line in the custom host factory is the one that returns a new service host. This has to return a service host that specifies only one base address per protocol. Since I filter by the address the request came on in, I only need to create the service host with one address, since this address will always be of the correct protocol. Now you have a custom host factory you have to tell your services to use it. To do this you view the markup of the service by right clicking on it in the solution explorer and choosing “View Markup”. Then you add/set the value of the Factory property to the full namespace path of you custom host factory, as shown below. And that is it done, the service will now use the specified custom host factory. The Second Issue As I mentioned earlier this issue is more of a hiccup, but I thought worthy of a mention so I included it. This issue only occurs when you add a service reference to a Silverlight project. Visual Studio will generate a lot of code for you, part of that generated code is the ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file. This file stores the endpoint configuration that is used when accessing your services using the generated proxy classes. Here is what that file looks like: <configuration>     <system.serviceModel>         <bindings>             <customBinding>                 <binding name="CustomBinding_TestService">                     <binaryMessageEncoding />                     <httpTransport maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647" maxBufferSize="2147483647" />                 </binding>                 <binding name="CustomBinding_BrokenService">                     <binaryMessageEncoding />                     <httpTransport maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647" maxBufferSize="2147483647" />                 </binding>             </customBinding>         </bindings>         <client>             <endpoint address="http://localhost:49347/services/TestService.svc"                 binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="CustomBinding_TestService"                 contract="TestService.TestService" name="CustomBinding_TestService" />             <endpoint address="http://localhost:49347/Services/BrokenService.svc"                 binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="CustomBinding_BrokenService"                 contract="BrokenService.BrokenService" name="CustomBinding_BrokenService" />         </client>     </system.serviceModel> </configuration> As you will notice the addresses for the end points are set to the addresses of the services you added the service references from, so unless you are adding the service references from your live services, you will have to change these addresses before you deploy. This is little more than an annoyance really, but it adds to the list of things to do before you can deploy, and if left unchecked that list can get out of control. Fix for the Second Issue The way you would usually access a service added this way is to create an instance of the proxy class like so: BrokenServiceClient proxy = new BrokenServiceClient(); Closer inspection of these generated proxy classes reveals that there are a few overloaded constructors, one of which allows you to specify the end point address to use when creating the proxy. From here all you have to do is come up with some logic that will provide you with the relative path to your services. Since my WCF services are usually hosted in the same project as my Silverlight app I use the class shown below: public class ServiceProxyHelper { /// <summary> /// Create a broken service proxy /// </summary> /// <returns>A broken service proxy</returns> public static BrokenServiceClient CreateBrokenServiceProxy() { Uri address = new Uri(Application.Current.Host.Source, "../Services/BrokenService.svc"); return new BrokenServiceClient("CustomBinding_BrokenService", address.AbsoluteUri); } } Then I will create an instance of the proxy class using my service helper class like so: BrokenServiceClient proxy = ServiceProxyHelper.CreateBrokenServiceProxy(); The way this works is “Application.Current.Host.Source” will return the URL to the ClientBin folder the Silverlight app is hosted in, the “../Services/BrokenService.svc” is then used as the relative path to the service from the ClientBin folder, combined by the Uri object this gives me the URL to my service. The “CustomBinding_BrokenService” is a reference to the end point configuration in the ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file. Yes this means you still need the ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file. All this is doing is using a different end point address than the one specified in the ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file, all the other settings form the ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file are still used when creating the proxy. I have uploaded an example project which covers the custom host factory solution from the first issue and everything from the second issue. I included the code to write a list of base addresses to a log file in my implementation of the custom host factory, this is not need for the custom host factory to function and can safely be removed. Download (WCFServicesDeploymentExample.zip)

  Read the article

• top tweets WebLogic Partner Community – October 2012

  - by JuergenKress

  Send your tweets @wlscommunity #WebLogicCommunity and follow us at http://twitter.com/wlscommunity WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity Real World Java EE Patterns by Adam Bien http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mp Markus Eisele?@myfear #JavaOne Content Available for Free https://blogs.oracle.com/java/entry/javaone_content_available_for_free … /via @java Adam Bien?@AdamBien Thought that 1h screencast is way too long to be popular. I was wrong. Lightweight Java EE is doing very well: http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/entry/lightweight_java_ee_screencast … OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs COLLABORATE 13 Call for Papers http://ow.ly/2szPuZ Oracle WebLogic?@OracleWebLogic New Blog Post: Data Source Security Part 1 http://ow.ly/2szFbv Markus Eisele?@myfear My Three Days at #JavaOne 2012 http://yakovfain.com/2012/10/04/my-three-days-at-javaone-2012/ … < nice writeup ;) Adam Bien?@AdamBien JavaOne 2012 Announcements And Surprises: NetBeans 7.3+ comes with HTML 5, JavaScript, CSS 3 support. JavaScript... http://bit.ly/Uy14eD Andrejus Baranovskis?@andrejusb OOW'12: Oracle ADF Implementations Around the Globe: Best Practices http://fb.me/1IVg6gzU0 gschmutz?@gschmutz Just published a blog with a wrap-up of my presentations at OOW 2012. https://guidoschmutz.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/my-presentations-at-oracle-open-world-2012/ … #oow2012 #trivadis Andrejus Baranovskis?@andrejusb OOW'12: Oracle Business Process Management/Oracle ADF Integration Best Practices http://fb.me/1GY3nz1lb WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity ExaLogic 2.01 ppt & training & Installation check-list & tips & Web tier roadmap http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mh Adam Bien?@AdamBien JavaOne 2012, First Feedback and The Strange Thing: NetBeans day was surprising well attended. A big room was fu... http://bit.ly/PwWwx8 OracleSupport_WLS?@weblogicsupport Free registration for our next webcast on setting up and using a #weblogic #cluster http://pub.vitrue.com/xWV8 WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity UKOUG Application Server & Middleware SIG Meeting http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mC Ronald Luttikhuizen?@rluttikhuizen Discussing future plans for Oracle Middleware Infrastructure Group with @simon_haslam @Jphjulstad and Rene van Wijk #oow @wlscommunity JAX London?@jaxlondon Be part of #JAXLondon- only 11 days to go! Still need a ticket? http://buff.ly/TUPKmL WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity ExaLogic X3-2 launched at OOW 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mM WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity @OracleEvents Dear Oracle Team thanks for promoting the WebLogic bootcamp, new schedules are online https://blogs.oracle.com/emeapartnerweblogic/resource/weblogic12c.htm … #weblogiccommunity OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs Partner Webcast Introducing Oracle Business Activity Monitoring - 18 October 2012 http://ow.ly/2svzyz AMIS, Oracle & Java?@AMIS_Services Grant posted a nice little video on youtube about the #ADF EMG activities during Oracle Open World. http://youtu.be/qZhtBqnK-Zc GlassFish?@glassfish ADF Essentials - Available for free and certified on GlassFish!: If you are an Oracle customer, you are probably... http://bit.ly/UCtVwY OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs WebLogic 12 hands-on bootcamps for partnersnew dates & locations http://ow.ly/2smOfs Pieter Kranenburg?@pskranenburg I'm EXA and I know IT! How about you? Go to http://bit.ly/OnSlDd and find out! (you might win an #iphone5 ;-) #OOW please RT Andrejus Baranovskis?@andrejusb Enabling WebLogic Administrator Group Inside Custom ADF Application http://fb.me/2d5SCeJ2g Michel Schildmeijer?@MNEMONIC01 I'm EXA and I know IT! How about you? Go to http://bit.ly/OnSlDd (you might win an #iphone5 ;-) #oow OracleSupport_WLS?@weblogicsupport Step-by-step instructions on how to configure mail Alerts in #OEM 11g for #WebLogic Servers up/down status http://pub.vitrue.com/KpZq Jeff West?@jeffreyawest Answer: Deliver JMS message to a single node in a Weblogic Cluster with a Distributed Topic http://stackoverflow.com/a/12396492/697114?stw=2 … Java?@java Bucharest Java User Group: Launched and Growing! #JUG http://ow.ly/dDnbN OracleSupport_WLS?@weblogicsupport Don't shoot the messenger! #Java source code analyzer @ http://pub.vitrue.com/Cy2J JAX London?@jaxlondon .@BrianGoetz gives in depth session on the details of how #Lambda expressions are implemented in the #Java language at #JAXLondon" ADF Community DE?@ADFCommunityDE Webcast ADFNewsSession: ADF as a basis of Fusion Apps - the biggest ADF project ever. Sep 14, 8:30 AM CET. Dial in https://blogs.oracle.com/jdevotnharvest/entry/adf_partner_community_news_session … OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs WebLogic & Coherence & Cloud presentations for customer meetings http://ow.ly/1mqwrC Pieter Kranenburg?@pskranenburg Seminar: Oracle WebLogic 12c at Qualogy. You are invited! http://bit.ly/Ps9LDF Oracle WebLogic?@OracleWebLogic New Blog Post: Oracle OpenWorld Update -- General Session: Oracle Fusion Middleware Strategies Driving Business Inno... http://ow.ly/2stylf Oracle Cloud Zone?@OracleCloudZone New partner programs for Oracle Cloud Solutions http://bit.ly/PrVq5O #cloud #oow Lucas Jellema?@lucasjellema The strategy on Java - JEE, SE, ME, FX: http://technology.amis.nl/2012/10/02/javaone-2012-strategy-and-technical-keynote/ … #javaone #oow_amis WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity Send your #WebLogicCommunity #oow pictures and blog posts @wlscommunity or http://www.facebook.com/weblogiccommunity … Enjoy OOW ;-) WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity Become an WebLogic 12c expert, attend our partner bootcampshttps://blogs.oracle.com/emeapartnerweblogic/resource/weblogic12c.htm … #WebLogicCommunity #opn AMIS, Oracle & Java?@AMIS_Services Volgende #oracle #ADF training bij @AMIS_SERVICES is van 12 tot 16 november. Meer info of aanmelden? http://www.amis.nl/Trainingen/oracle-adf-11g-applicatieontwikkeling/ … Devoxx?@Devoxx ALL the Devoxx 2011 talks are now freely available on Parleys @ http://www.parleys.com/#st=4&id=102998 Pls RT! Adam Bien?@AdamBien Use the coupon code "PLUMA" and you will get 20% off for "Real World Java EE Patterns": http://realworldpatterns.com Lucas Jellema?@lucasjellema Very good summary of the #JavaOne Technical Keynote last night: http://java.dzone.com/articles/javaone-2012-javaone-technical … Arun Gupta?@arungupta Blogged: JavaOne 2012 Keynote and GlassFish Party Pictures: Some pictures from the keynote ... And som... http://bit.ly/ViH0ue Lucas Jellema?@lucasjellema Most recent promoted build for GassFish 4.0 (EE7) has WebSocket support: to play with: http://dlc.sun.com.edgesuite.net/glassfish/4.0/promoted/ … #javaone michael palmeter?@michaelpalmeter If you haven't seen the 5-minute Exalogic demo, you need to (do it now!) - http://lnkd.in/GRqy3x Lonneke Dikmans?@lonnekedikmans VENNSTER BLOG: Running EclipseLink DBWS 2.4.0 on GlassFish 3.1.2 http://blog.vennster.nl/2012/09/running-eclipselink-dbws-240-on.html?spref=tw … WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity WebLogic Partner Community Newsletter September 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mf WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity again again again&hellip;. it is Oracle Open World 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-m6 Markus Eisele?@myfear #WebLogic and #JavaEE Roadmap and Strategy Session at OOW http://ow.ly/2slZEY /via @OracleWebLogic Adam Bien?@AdamBien An Article About Java EE Connector Architectures 1.6 (JCA 1.6): The free Java Magazine article: Java EE Connect... http://bit.ly/St6sxq Lucas Jellema?@lucasjellema ADF Essentials - free to develop and to deploy (I said: free!) - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/adf/overview/adfessentials-1719844.html … AMIS, Oracle & Java?@AMIS_Services Blog by Lucas Jellema: "Develop and Deploy ADF applications – free of charge using the new ADF Essentials" http://bit.ly/StAhxY Andrejus Baranovskis?@andrejusb ADF Essentials - Quick Technical Review http://fb.me/2hKCXyF43 OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs GlassFish Extension for Oracle JDeveloper http://ow.ly/2slIO8 Retweetet von WebLogic Community Oracle Eclipse?@OEPE New Tutorial: Using ADF Faces and ADF Controller with Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse. #OEPE http://pub.vitrue.com/QoUg Simon Haslam?@simon_haslam As of the last day or two there's a new Java Products Media Pack on http://edelivery.oracle.com (rather than it being in FMW pack) WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity top tweets WebLogic Partner Community &ndash; September 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-m2 Adam Bien?@AdamBien I was interviewed by OTN: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/jaxawards-1843595.html …See you at JavaOne! Oracle WebLogic?@OracleWebLogic DevOps Basics for #WebLogic: Track Down High CPU Thread with ps, top and the new JDK7 jcmd tool. Great blog @frankmuz. http://ow.ly/dOBM4 Simon Haslam?@simon_haslam Looking for "oak style"(!) advanced content but you're a middleware specialist? See #ukoug2012 #middlewaresunday http://2012.ukoug.org/default.asp?p=9355 … Julien Ponge ?@jponge Just finished Java EE 6 + AngularJS samples for my upcoming middleware lectures. Code at https://github.com/jponge/todoapp-javaee6-angularjs … and https://github.com/jponge/todoapp-bosswatch … Markus Eisele?@myfear #Oracle #WebLogic is now totally #FREE for #Developer - more than just OTN license to develop the 1st prototype! http://bit.ly/SWltsR Markus Eisele?@myfear #WebSockets on #WebLogic Server http://ow.ly/1mv4QP by @wlsteve < need to give this a testdrive ;) OracleEnterpriseMgr?@oracle_em EM Blog : Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2 (12.1.0.2) is Available Now ! #em12c http://pub.vitrue.com/mk7o OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs ADF training material now on the iPad http://ow.ly/1mqz1Q GlassFish?@glassfish GlassFish grows by 50% in Software Stack Market Share Report for August 2012 by @Jelastic http://awe.sm/o4ZAp WebLogic Partner Community For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Wiki Technorati Tags: twitter,WebLogic,WebLogic Community,Oracle,OPN,Jürgen Kress

  Read the article

• Part 2: Career development as a Software Developer without becoming a manager.

  - by albertpascual

  Seems like my previous post inspired by the work of Michael “Doc” Norton was a great success for the amount of emails I have received. Yet amazed how many people didn’t want to discuss their questions in the comments  sections. I would encourage people to be more public, still I would like to reply to all of you on this public media. I still welcome those emails. What I found out is that many people feels like me, they want to be developers and still be compensated for their experience without wanting to take a job as a manager. Their perfect day is a full day of coding and learning. Many believe their companies will never pay a manager’s salary to a developer no matter what. Most of you ask how to get the ball rolling. And is the later that I’m addressing here, the previous group, will never try. What companies understand developers value and where can I find them? This is a very difficult question to ask, I don’t have a list of those companies or departments, I have seen in my past signs in companies bending backwards to compensate, in more ways the monetary, a developer that is a good resource to them. Allowing the person to move out of the state and still let them work for the company from home is a sign that company goes by individual cases. Allowing them to go to conference that will not benefit the company is another big sign. Simple signs like flexible hours and letting some people work from home. To see those signs you need to be working in that company for awhile and look at the departments where the manager is taking care of their employees in individual cases. Look for the department where people get quiet extra perks, where some people in the department work from home or remotely. In my experience, but not always true, medium to big companies, are prompt to recognize good developers. Then again, some companies just don’t get it and is when you see many technical people managing developers. For all the people that email me stating that developers can also be very good managers, I do not disagree, I just think that a good developers loves writing code, when you remove that part the better salary isn’t enough to keep a developer happy. Burned out developers appreciate being promoted to managers. How do I know I work in a bad company? In my experience I have been a consultant and seen many companies, a few signs I have learned about companies that will not recognize good developers are: When the turn over is pretty high, when developers are moving out in a big rate, no rocket scientist needs to tap you in the shoulder. When the company is looking always to outsource their development resources. The product is not that interesting nor the company cares too much for their final result and support. Code sweat shops. You’ll know when you start working in one of those. Run for the hills! Where do I start? Disclaimer: I have only based this post on Michael “Doc” Norton, this is just my interpretation and ideas. First thing is to look at Michael “Doc” Norton presentation Take Control of Your Development Career http://docondev.blogspot.com/ That should be the first thing any developer should look and follow like it was a pattern. I would personally recommend to find some language or pattern you are interested with and learn it, learn something that will make you happy. Second, join a User Group and get involve in the community. There are hundreds of user groups, and I’m sure you’ll find one in your city or near you town. Code Camps are Developers Meet Ups are also good resources. Third, I would join a open source project you are interested or better yet, create a new open source project with the new technology that you have learn and get coding. Fourth, create a Twitter account and follow the people that talks about the technology you are interested on. If you follow this 4 steps above I think you’ll be on your way, after they are complete, when you release your Open Source project you can say that you accomplished the first steps. Now, do not expect anything to change in your career life, you are changing and should not expect anything in return, besides borrowing some time from sleeping and your family. Creating a good schedule may help you, I find wasted time in many places that I use. Flying for work is actually one of those that allows me to do my best work on a airplane, don’t need to borrow time from anywhere else. Making sure you always have a light, charged laptop is so important. Next steps following the Michael “Doc” Norton Pattern or my interpretation of. First, help run a user group or better yet, start a new user group. I’ll add, as well, go to one conference a year and free development events around your city; Code Camps, Geek Dinners, etc. There are many free events sponsored by different companies for developers to get to know their products, I highly recommend those as the way to get connected. Second, chose a mentor, this is a very hard thing to do I experienced, find an expert in the technology you are learning that has the time for you, it is difficult, I wish you best of luck. Third, learn another technology or pattern, open your horizons a little bit more. Why not, if you had fun previously, keep doing it. Fourth, get involved in forums to answer and ask questions, getting notice in public forums is rewarding for your ego after such a long journey. Final steps following the Michael “Doc” Norton Pattern Teach what you know, become humble on your knowledge, find as many opportunities to teach and to get involved with the community, bring all that to your day job. Mr. Norton talks about getting naked, expose yourself to others in your knowledge and what you do not know. You are never too important for small opportunities, yet don’t  be afraid to take anything big and learn from the experience. Anytime you have the opportunity to talk to somebody that has reach the point the community knows his or her name, means that you should learn from it. Take opportunities that won’t make you money, yet will make you happy. Sometimes you need to spend money and time. Register talks in Code Camps and Dev Meet Ups, those are free, also go to Conference, Development Summits and Geek Diners for example. One day, people will pay you to attend. When will all these pay off? I don’t know. I’m still in the path, there are a few things that during your journey you may get little acknowledgements that you are in the correct path. In my case I think those are the little signs that tells you about your journey. I got awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for ASP.NET in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. I got selected to speak at the DevConnections in Las Vegas in 2010 and Orlando 2011. I do believe that I do have a long way to go, yet what I do makes me happy and I hope I can keep doing for years to come. Every year I can see an improvement on my code, and more frameworks and languages are under my belt, I learn to embrace them all as well as in my daily job, I have been able to work in a few projects beyond my department. I’m a learner and believer of the Michael “Doc” Norton pattern. Looking forward to learn more about it to be able to apply it better. In my short journey I now see my mistakes, I did a few things right, I have been listening the intelligent people and not being afraid to move along the technology changes. In my professional life, I have tried to avoid being placed in only one technology and product. I have always share my code and never confused anybody that wanted to take over any of my projects, I didn’t think anything I created as my own nor care too much when politics didn’t see my vision. I stayed flexible, ready and visible, yet humble. I keep my head just below the clouds, and avoided managers meetings. I credit my manager for my success, and I faulted publicly only myself for the failures. Hope this helps. Cheers, Al Follow me in Twitter  Read my previous post tweetmeme_url = 'http://weblogs.asp.net/albertpascual/archive/2010/12/09/part-2-career-development-as-a-software-developer-without-becoming-a-manager.aspx'; tweetmeme_source = 'alpascual';

  Read the article

• Move Files from a Failing PC with an Ubuntu Live CD

  - by Trevor Bekolay

  You’ve loaded the Ubuntu Live CD to salvage files from a failing system, but where do you store the recovered files? We’ll show you how to store them on external drives, drives on the same PC, a Windows home network, and other locations. We’ve shown you how to recover data like a forensics expert, but you can’t store recovered files back on your failed hard drive! There are lots of ways to transfer the files you access from an Ubuntu Live CD to a place that a stable Windows machine can access them. We’ll go through several methods, starting each section from the Ubuntu desktop – if you don’t yet have an Ubuntu Live CD, follow our guide to creating a bootable USB flash drive, and then our instructions for booting into Ubuntu. If your BIOS doesn’t let you boot using a USB flash drive, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Use a Healthy Hard Drive If your computer has more than one hard drive, or your hard drive is healthy and you’re in Ubuntu for non-recovery reasons, then accessing your hard drive is easy as pie, even if the hard drive is formatted for Windows. To access a hard drive, it must first be mounted. To mount a healthy hard drive, you just have to select it from the Places menu at the top-left of the screen. You will have to identify your hard drive by its size. Clicking on the appropriate hard drive mounts it, and opens it in a file browser. You can now move files to this hard drive by drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, both of which are done the same way they’re done in Windows. Once a hard drive, or other external storage device, is mounted, it will show up in the /media directory. To see a list of currently mounted storage devices, navigate to /media by clicking on File System in a File Browser window, and then double-clicking on the media folder. Right now, our media folder contains links to the hard drive, which Ubuntu has assigned a terribly uninformative label, and the PLoP Boot Manager CD that is currently in the CD-ROM drive. Connect a USB Hard Drive or Flash Drive An external USB hard drive gives you the advantage of portability, and is still large enough to store an entire hard disk dump, if need be. Flash drives are also very quick and easy to connect, though they are limited in how much they can store. When you plug a USB hard drive or flash drive in, Ubuntu should automatically detect it and mount it. It may even open it in a File Browser automatically. Since it’s been mounted, you will also see it show up on the desktop, and in the /media folder. Once it’s been mounted, you can access it and store files on it like you would any other folder in Ubuntu. If, for whatever reason, it doesn’t mount automatically, click on Places in the top-left of your screen and select your USB device. If it does not show up in the Places list, then you may need to format your USB drive. To properly remove the USB drive when you’re done moving files, right click on the desktop icon or the folder in /media and select Safely Remove Drive. If you’re not given that option, then Eject or Unmount will effectively do the same thing. Connect to a Windows PC on your Local Network If you have another PC or a laptop connected through the same router (wired or wireless) then you can transfer files over the network relatively quickly. To do this, we will share one or more folders from the machine booted up with the Ubuntu Live CD over the network, letting our Windows PC grab the files contained in that folder. As an example, we’re going to share a folder on the desktop called ToShare. Right-click on the folder you want to share, and click Sharing Options. A Folder Sharing window will pop up. Check the box labeled Share this folder. A window will pop up about the sharing service. Click the Install service button. Some files will be downloaded, and then installed. When they’re done installing, you’ll be appropriately notified. You will be prompted to restart your session. Don’t worry, this won’t actually log you out, so go ahead and press the Restart session button. The Folder Sharing window returns, with Share this folder now checked. Edit the Share name if you’d like, and add checkmarks in the two checkboxes below the text fields. Click Create Share. Nautilus will ask your permission to add some permissions to the folder you want to share. Allow it to Add the permissions automatically. The folder is now shared, as evidenced by the new arrows above the folder’s icon. At this point, you are done with the Ubuntu machine. Head to your Windows PC, and open up Windows Explorer. Click on Network in the list on the left, and you should see a machine called UBUNTU in the right pane. Note: This example is shown in Windows 7; the same steps should work for Windows XP and Vista, but we have not tested them. Double-click on UBUNTU, and you will see the folder you shared earlier! As well as any other folders you’ve shared from Ubuntu. Double click on the folder you want to access, and from there, you can move the files from the machine booted with Ubuntu to your Windows PC. Upload to an Online Service There are many services online that will allow you to upload files, either temporarily or permanently. As long as you aren’t transferring an entire hard drive, these services should allow you to transfer your important files from the Ubuntu environment to any other machine with Internet access. We recommend compressing the files that you want to move, both to save a little bit of bandwidth, and to save time clicking on files, as uploading a single file will be much less work than a ton of little files. To compress one or more files or folders, select them, and then right-click on one of the members of the group. Click Compress…. Give the compressed file a suitable name, and then select a compression format. We’re using .zip because we can open it anywhere, and the compression rate is acceptable. Click Create and the compressed file will show up in the location selected in the Compress window. Dropbox If you have a Dropbox account, then you can easily upload files from the Ubuntu environment to Dropbox. There is no explicit limit on the size of file that can be uploaded to Dropbox, though a free account begins with a total limit of 2 GB of files in total. Access your account through Firefox, which can be opened by clicking on the Firefox logo to the right of the System menu at the top of the screen. Once into your account, press the Upload button on top of the main file list. Because Flash is not installed in the Live CD environment, you will have to switch to the basic uploader. Click Browse…find your compressed file, and then click Upload file. Depending on the size of the file, this could take some time. However, once the file has been uploaded, it should show up on any computer connected through Dropbox in a matter of minutes. Google Docs Google Docs allows the upload of any type of file – making it an ideal place to upload files that we want to access from another computer. While your total allocation of space varies (mine is around 7.5 GB), there is a per-file maximum of 1 GB. Log into Google Docs, and click on the Upload button at the top left of the page. Click Select files to upload and select your compressed file. For safety’s sake, uncheck the checkbox concerning converting files to Google Docs format, and then click Start upload. Go Online – Through FTP If you have access to an FTP server – perhaps through your web hosting company, or you’ve set up an FTP server on a different machine – you can easily access the FTP server in Ubuntu and transfer files. Just make sure you don’t go over your quota if you have one. You will need to know the address of the FTP server, as well as the login information. Click on Places > Connect to Server… Choose the FTP (with login) Service type, and fill in your information. Adding a bookmark is optional, but recommended. You will be asked for your password. You can choose to remember it until you logout, or indefinitely. You can now browse your FTP server just like any other folder. Drop files into the FTP server and you can retrieve them from any computer with an Internet connection and an FTP client. Conclusion While at first the Ubuntu Live CD environment may seem claustrophobic, it has a wealth of options for connecting to peripheral devices, local computers, and machines on the Internet – and this article has only scratched the surface. Whatever the storage medium, Ubuntu’s got an interface for it! Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Backup Your Windows Live Writer SettingsMove a Window Without Clicking the Titlebar in UbuntuRecover Deleted Files on an NTFS Hard Drive from a Ubuntu Live CDCreate a Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive the Easy WayReset Your Ubuntu Password Easily from the Live CD 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 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Tech Fanboys Field Guide Check these Awesome Chrome Add-ons iFixit Offers Gadget Repair Manuals Online Vista style sidebar for Windows 7 Create Nice Charts With These Web Based Tools Track Daily Goals With 42Goals

  Read the article

• The Internet of Things & Commerce: Part 2 -- Interview with Brian Celenza, Commerce Innovation Strategist

  - by Katrina Gosek, Director | Commerce Product Strategy-Oracle

  Internet of Things & Commerce Series: Part 2 (of 3) Welcome back to the second installation of my three part series on the Internet of Things & Commerce. A few weeks ago, I wrote “The Next 7,000 Days” about how we’ve become embedded in a digital architecture in the last 7,000 days since the birth of the internet – an architecture that everyday ties the massive expanse of the internet evermore closely with our physical lives. This blog series explores how this new blend of virtual and material will change how we shop and how businesses sell. Now enjoy reading my interview with Brian Celenza, one of the chief strategists in our Oracle Commerce innovation group. He comments on the past, present, and future of the how the growing Internet of Things relates and will relate to the buying and selling of goods on and offline. -------------------------------------------- QUESTION: You probably have one of the coolest jobs on our team, Brian – and frankly, one of the coolest jobs in our industry. As part of the innovation team for Oracle Commerce, you’re regularly working on bold features and groundbreaking commerce-focused experiences for our vision demos. As you look back over the past couple of years, what is the biggest trend (or trends) you’ve seen in digital commerce that started to bring us closer to this idea of what people are calling an “Internet of Things”? Brian: Well as you look back over the last couple of years, the speed at which change in our industry has moved looks like one of those blurred movement photos – you know the ones where the landscape blurs because the observer is moving so quickly your eye focus can’t keep up. But one thing that is absolutely clear is that the biggest catalyst for that speed of change – especially over the last three years – has been mobile. Mobile technology changed everything. Over the last three years the entire thought process of how to sell on (and offline) has shifted because of mobile technology advances. Particularly for eCommerce professionals who have started to move past the notion of “channels” for selling goods to this notion of “Mobile First”… then the Web site. Or more accurately, that everything – smartphones, web, store, tablet – is just one channel or has to act like one singular access point to the same product catalog, information and content. The most innovative eCommerce professionals realized some time ago that it’s not ideal to build an eCommerce Web site and then build everything on top of or off of it. Rather, they want to build an eCommerce API and then integrate it will all other systems. To accomplish this, they are leveraging all the latest mobile technologies or possibilities mobile technology has opened up: 4G and LTE, GPS, bluetooth, touch screens, apps, html5… How has this all started to come together for shopping experiences on and offline? Well to give you a personal example, I remember visiting an Apple store a few years ago and being amazed that I didn’t have to wait in line because a store associate knew everything about me from my ID – right there on the sales floor – and could check me out anywhere. Then just a few months later (when like any good addict) I went back to get the latest and greatest new gadget, I felt like I was stealing it because I could check myself out with my smartphone. I didn’t even need to see a sales associate OR go to a cash register. Amazing. And since then, all sort sorts of companies across all different types of industries – from food service to apparel –  are starting to see mobile payments in the billions of dollars now thanks not only to the convenience factor but to smart loyalty rewards programs as well. These are just some really simple current examples that come to mind. So many different things have happened in the last couple of years, it’s hard to really absorb all of the quickly – because as soon as you do, everything changes again! Just like that blurry speed photo image. For eCommerce, however, this type of new environment underscores the importance of building an eCommerce API – a platform that has services you can tap in to and build on as the landscape changes at a fever pitch. It’s a mobile first perspective. A web service perspective – particularly if you are thinking of how to engage customers across digital and physical spaces. —— QUESTION: Thanks for bringing us into the present – some really great examples you gave there to put things into perspective. So what do you see as the biggest trend right now around the “Internet of Things” – and what’s coming next few years? Brian: Honestly, even sitting where I am in the innovation group – it’s hard to look out even 12 months because, well, I don’t even think we’ve fully caught up with what is possible now. But I can definitely say that in the last 12 months and in the coming 12 months, in the technology and eCommerce world it’s all about iBeacons. iBeacons are awesome tools we have right now to tie together physical and digital shopping experiences. They know exactly where you are as a shopper and can communicate that to businesses. Currently there seem to be two camps of thought around iBeacons. First, many people are thinking of them like an “indoor GPS”, which to be fair they literally are. The use case this first camp envisions for iBeacons is primarily for advertising and marketing. So they use iBeacons to push location-based promotions to customers if they are close to a store or in a store. You may have seen these types of mobile promotions start to pop up occasionally on your smart phone as you pass by a store you’ve bought from in the past. That’s the work of iBeacons. But in my humble opinion, these promotions probably come too early in the customer journey and although they may be well timed and work to “convert” in some cases, I imagine in most they are just eroding customer trust because they are kind of a “one-size-fits-all” solution rather than one that is taking into account what exactly the customer might be looking for in that particular moment. Maybe they just want more information and a promotion is way too soon for that type of customer. The second camp is more in line with where my thinking falls. In this case, businesses take a more sensitive approach with iBeacons to customers’ needs. Instead of throwing out a “one-size-fits-all” to any passer by with iBeacons, the use case is more around looking at the physical proximity of a customer as an opportunity to provide a service: show expert reviews on a product they may be looking at in a particular aisle of a store, offer the opportunity to compare prices (and then offer a promotion), signal an in-store associate if a customer has been in the store for more than 10 minutes in one place. These are all less intrusive more value-driven uses of iBeacons. And they are more about building customer trust through service. To take this example a bit further into the future realm of “Big Data” and “Internet of Things” businesses could actually use the Oracle Commerce Platform and iBeacons to “silently” track customer movement w/in the store to provide higher quality service. And this doesn’t have to be creepy or intrusive. Simply if a customer has been in a particular department or aisle for more than a 5 or 10 minutes, an in-store associate could come over an offer some assistance already knowing customer preferences from their online profile and maybe even seeing the items in a shopping cart they started at home. None of this has to be revealed to the customer, but it certainly could boost the level of service an in-store sales associate could provide. Or, in another futuristic example, stores could use the digital footprint of the physical store transmitted by iBeacons to generate heat maps of the store that could be tracked over time. Imagine how much you could find out about which parts of the store are more busy during certain parts of the day or seasons. This could completely revolutionize how physical merchandising is deployed or where certain high value / new items are placed. And / or this use of iBeacons could also help businesses figure out if customers are getting held up in certain parts of the store during busy days like Black Friday. If long lines are causing customers to bounce from a physical store and leave those holiday gifts behind, maybe having employees with mobile check as an option could remove the cash register bottleneck. But going to back to my original statement, it’s all still very early in the story for iBeacons. The hardware manufacturers are still very new and there is still not one clear standard.  Honestly, it all goes back to building and maintaining an extensible and flexible platform for anywhere engagement. What you’re building today should allow you to rapidly take advantage of whatever unimaginable use cases wait around the corner. ------------------------------------------------------ I hope you enjoyed the brief interview with Brian. It’s really awesome to have such smart and innovation-minded individuals on our Oracle Commerce innovation team. Please join me again in a few weeks for Part 3 of this series where I interview one of the product managers on our team about how the blending of digital and in-store selling in influencing our product development and vision.

  Read the article

• ODEE Green Field (Windows) Part 5 - Deployment and Validation

  - by AndyL-Oracle

  And here we are, almost finished with our installation of Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition ("ODEE") in a Windows green field environment. Let's recap what we've done so far: In part 1, I went over the basic process that I intended to show with installing an ODEE on a green field server. I walked you through the basic installation of Oracle 11g database In part 2, I covered the installation of WebLogic application server. In part 3, I showed you how to install SOA Suite for WebLogic. In part 4, we did the first part of the installation of ODEE itself. What remains after all of that, is the deployment of the ODEE components onto the database and application server - so let's get to it! DATABASE First, we'll deploy the schemas to the database. The schemas are created during the ODEE installation according to the responses provided during the install process. To deploy the schemas, you'll need to login to the database server in your green field environment. Open a command line and CD into ODEE_HOME\documaker\database\oracle11g.Run SQLPLUS as SYSDBA and execute dmkr_admin.sql:  sqlplus / as sysdba @dmkr_admin.sql Execute dmkr_asline.sql, dmkr_admin_correspondence_example.sql.  If you require additional languages, run the appropriate SQL scripts (e.g. dmkr_asline_es.sql for Spanish). APPLICATION SERVER Next, we'll deploy the WebLogic domain and it's components - Documaker web services, Documaker Interactive, Documaker dashboard, and more. To deploy the components, you'll need to login to the application server in your green field environment. 1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to ODEE_HOME\documaker\j2ee\weblogic\oracle11g\scripts.2. Using a text editor such as Notepad++, modify weblogic_installation_properties and set location of MIDDLEWARE_HOME and ODEE HOME. If you have used the defaults you’ll probably need to change the E: to C: and that’s it. Save the changes.3. Continuing in the same directory, use your text editor to modify set_middleware_env.cmd and set the drive and path to MIDDLEWARE_HOME. If you have used the defaults you’ll probably need to just change E: to C: and that’s it. Save the changes.4. In the same directory, execute wls_create_domain.cmd by double-clicking it. This should run to completion. If it does not, review any errors and correct them, and rerun the script.5. In the same directory, execute wls_add_correspondence.cmd by double-clicking it - again this should run to completion. 6. Next, we'll start the AdminServer - this is the main WebLogic domain server. To start it, use Windows Explorer and navigate to MIDDLEWARE_HOME\user_projects\domains\idocumaker_domain. Double-click startWebLogic.cmd and the server startup will begin. Once you see output that indicates that the server status changed to RUNNING you may proceed.  a. Note: if you saw database connection errors, you probably didn’t make sure your database name and connection type match. You can change this manually in the WebLogic Console. Open a browser and navigate to http://localhost:7001/console (replace localhost with the name of your application server host if you aren't opening the browser on the server), and login with the the weblogic credential you provided in the ODEE installation process. b. Once you're logged in, open Services?Data Sources. Select dmkr_admin and click Connection Pool.  c. The end of the URL should match the connection type you chose. If you chose ServiceName, the URL should be: jdbc:oracle:thin:@//<hostname>:1521/<serviceName> and if you chose SID, the URL should be: jdbc:oracle:thin:@//<hostname>:1521/<SIDname> d. An example serviceName is a fully qualified DNS-style name, e.g. "idmaker.us.oracle.com". (It does not need to actually resolve in DNS). An example SID is just a name, e.g. IDMAKER. e. Save the change and repeat for the data source dmkr_asline.  f. You will also need to make the same changes in the ODEE_HOME/documaker/docfactory/config/context/.bindings file - open the file in a text editor, locate the URL lines and make the appropriate change, then save the file.  7. Back in the ODEE_HOME\documaker\j2ee\weblogic\oracle11g\scripts directory, execute create_users_groups.cmd. 8. In the same directory, execute create_users_groups_correspondence_example.cmd. 9. Open a browser and navigate to http://localhost:7001/jpsquery. Replace localhost with the name of your application server host if you aren't running the browser on the application server. If you changed the default port for the AdminServer from 7001, use the port you changed it to. You should see output like this: 10. Start the WebLogic managed servers by opening a command prompt and navigating to MIDDLEWARE_HOME/user_projects/domains/idocumaker_domain/bin/. When you start the servers listed below, you will be prompted to enter the WebLogic credentials to start the server. You can prevent this by providing the credential in the startManagedwebLogic.cmd file for the WLS_USER and WLS_PASS values. Note that the credential will be stored in cleartext. To start the server, type in the command shown. a. Start the JMS Server: ./startManagedWebLogic.cmd jms_server b. Start Dashboard/Documaker Administrator: ./startManagedWebLogic.cmd dmkr_server c. Start Documaker Interactive for Correspondence: ./startManagedWebLogic.cmd idm_server SOA Composites  If you're planning on testing out the approval process components of BPEL that can be used with Documaker Interactive, then use the following steps to deploy the SOA composites. If you're not going to use BPEL, you can skip to the next section.1. Stop the servers listed in the previous section (Step 10) in the reverse order that they were started.2. Run the Domain configuration command: navigate to and execute MIDDLEWARE_HOME/wlserver_10.3/common/bin/config.cmd.3. Select Extend and click next. 4. Select the iDocumaker Domain and click Next. 5. Select the Oracle SOA Suite – 11.1.1.0 (this may automatically select other components which is OK). Click Next. 6. View the Configure JDBC resources screen. You should not make any changes. Click Next. 7. Check both connections and click Test Connections. After successful test, click Next. If the tests fail, something is broken. Go back to configure JDBC resources and check your service name/SID. 8. Check all schemas. Set a password (will be the same for all schemas). Enter the database information (service name, host name, port). Click Next. 9. Connections should test successfully. If not, go back and fix any errors. Click Next. 10. Click Next to pass through Optional Configuration. 11. Click Extend. 12. Click Done. 13. Open a terminal window and navigate to/execute: ODEE_HOME/documaker/j2ee/weblogic/oracle11g/bpel/antbuild.cmd14. Start the WebLogic Servers – AdminServer, jms_server, dmkr_server, idm_server. If you forgot how to do this, see the previous section Step 10. Note: if you previously changed the startManagedWebLogic.cmd script for WLS_USER and WLS_PASS you will need to make those changes again. 15. Start the WebLogic server soa_server1: MIDDLEWARE_HOME/user_projects/domains/idocumaker_domain/bin/startManagedWebLogic.cmd soa_server116. Open a browser to http://localhost:7001/console and login. 17. Navigate to Services?Data Sources and select DMKR_ASLINE. 18. Click the Targets tab. Check soa_server1, then click Save. Repeat for the DMKR_ADMIN data source. 19. Open a command prompt and navigate to ODEE_HOME/j2ee/weblogic/oracle11g/scripts, then execute deploy_soa.cmd. That's it! (As if that wasn't enough?) DOCUMAKER Deploy the sample MRL resources by navigating to/executing ODEE_HOME/documaker/mstrres/dmres/deploysamplemrl.bat. You should see approximately 500 resources deployed into the database. Start the Factory Services. Start?Run?services.msc. Locate the service named "ODDF xxxx" and right-click, select Start. Note that each Assembly Line has a separate Factory setup, including its own Factory service and Docupresentment service. The services are named for the assembly line and the machine on which they are installed (because you could have multiple machines servicing a single assembly line, so this allows for easy scripting to control all the services if you choose to do so. Repeat for the Docupresentment service. Note that each Assembly Line has a separate Docupresentment. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to ODEE_HOME/documaker/mstrres/dmres/input and select one of the XML files, and copy it into ODEE_HOME/documaker/hotdirectory. Note: if you chose a different hot directory during installation, copy the file there instead. Momentarily you should see the XML file disappear! Open browser and navigate to http://localhost:10001/DocumakerDashboard (previous versions 12.0-12.2 use http://localhost:10001/dashboard) and verify that job processed successfully. Note that some transactions may fail if you do not have a properly configured email server, and this is ok. You can set up a simple SMTP server (just search the internet for "SMTP developer" and you'll get several to choose from.  So... that's it? Where are we at this point? You now have a completely functional ODEE installation, from soup to nuts as they say. You can further expand your installation by doing some of the following activities: clustering WebLogic services configuring WebLogic for redundancy configuring Oracle 11g for RAC adding additional Factory servers for redundancy/processing capacity setting up a real MRL (instead of the sample resources) testing Documaker Web Services for job submission and more!  I certainly hope you've enjoyed this and find it useful. If you find yourself running into trouble, visit the Oracle Community for Documaker - there is plenty of activity there and you can ask questions. For more concentrated assistance, you can engage an Oracle consultant who is a subject matter expert to assist you. Feel free to email me [andy (dot) little (at) oracle (dot) com] and I can connect you with the appropriate resource to get started. Best of luck! -Andy 

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 64 65 66 67 68 69 70  | Next Page >