colin gillespie - Page 7

Last week I was presented with a Microsoft MVP award in Virtual Machines – time to thank all who hel

- by Liam Westley

MVP in Virtual Machines Last week, on 1st April, I received an e-mail from Microsoft letting me know that I had been presented with a 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award for outstanding contributions in Virtual Machine technical communities during the past year. It was an honour to be nominated, and is a great reflection on the vibrancy of the UK user group community which made this possible. Virtualisation for developers, not just IT Pros I consider it a special honour as my expertise in virtualisation is as a software developer utilising virtual machines to aid my software development, rather than an IT Pro who manages data centre and network infrastructure. I’ve been on a minor mission over the past few years to enthuse developers in a topic usually seen as only for network admins, but which can make their life a whole lot easier once understood properly. Continuous learning is fun In 1676, the scientist Isaac Newton, in a letter to Robert Hooke used the phrase (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/268025.html) ‘If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants’ I’m a nuclear physicist by education, so I am more than comfortable that any knowledge I have is based on the work of others. Although far from a science, software development and IT is equally built upon the work of others. It’s one of the reasons I despise software patents. So in that sense this MVP award is a result of all the great minds that have provided virtualisation solutions for me to talk about. I hope that I have always acknowledged those whose work I have used when blogging or giving presentations, and that I have executed my responsibility to share any knowledge gained as widely as possible. Thanks to all those who helped – a big thanks to the UK user group community I reckon this journey started in 2003 when I started attending a user group called the London .Net Users Group (http://www.dnug.org.uk) started by a nice chap called Ian Cooper. The great thing about Ian was that he always encouraged non professional speakers to take the stage at the user group, and my first ever presentation was on 30th September 2003; SQL Server CE 2.0 and the.NET Compact Framework. In 2005 Ian Cooper was on the committee for the first DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! day, the free community conference held at Microsoft’s UK HQ in Thames Valley park in Reading. He encouraged me to take part and so on 14th May 2005 I presented a talk previously given to the London .Net User Group on Simplifying access to multiple DB providers in .NET. From that point on I definitely had the bug; presenting at DDD2, DDD3, groking at DDD4 and SQLBits I and after a break, DDD7, DDD Scotland and DDD8. What definitely made me keen was the encouragement and infectious enthusiasm of some of the other DDD organisers; Craig Murphy, Barry Dorrans, Phil Winstanley and Colin Mackay. During the first few DDD events I met the Dave McMahon and Richard Costall from NxtGenUG who made it easy to start presenting at their user groups. Along the way I’ve met a load of great user group organisers; Guy Smith-Ferrier of the .Net Developer Network, Jimmy Skowronski of GL.Net and the double act of Ray Booysen and Gavin Osborn behind what was Vista Squad and is now Edge UG. Final thanks to those who suggested virtualisation as a topic ... Final thanks have to go the people who inspired me to create my Virtualisation for Developers talk. Toby Henderson (@holytshirt) ensured I took notice of Sun’s VirtualBox, Peter Ibbotson for being a fine sounding board at the Kew Railway over quite a few Adnam’s Broadside and to Guy Smith-Ferrier for allowing his user group to be the guinea pigs for the talk before it was seen at DDD7. Thanks to all of you I now know much more about virtualisation than I would have thought possible and it continues to be great fun. Conclusion If this was an academy award acceptance speech I would have been cut off after the first few paragraphs, so well done if you made it this far. I’ll be doing my best to do justice to the MVP award and the UK community. I’m fortunate in having a new employer who considers presenting at user groups as a good thing, so don’t expect me to stop any time soon. If you’ve never seen me in action, then you can view the original DDD7 Virtualisation for Developers presentation (filmed by the Microsoft Channel 9 team) as part of the full DDD7 video list here, http://www.craigmurphy.com/blog/?p=1591. Also thanks to Craig Murphy’s fine video work you can also view my latest DDD8 presentation on Commercial Software Development, here, http://vimeo.com/9216563 P.S. If I’ve missed anyone out, do feel free to lambast me in comments, it’s your duty.

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Dependency property does not work within a geometry in a controltemplate

- by Erik Bongers

I have a DepencencyProperty (a boolean) that works fine on an Ellipse, but not on an ArcSegment. Am I doing something that is not possible? Here's part of the xaml. Both the TemplateBindings of Origin and LargeArc do not work in the geometry. But the LargeArc DependencyProperty does work in the Ellipse, so my DependencyProperty seems to be set up correctly. <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type nodes:TestCircle}"> <Canvas Background="AliceBlue"> <Ellipse Height="10" Width="10" Fill="Yellow" Visibility="{TemplateBinding LargeArc, Converter={StaticResource BoolToVisConverter}}"/> <Path Canvas.Left="0" Canvas.Top="0" Stroke="Black" StrokeThickness="3"> <Path.Data> <GeometryGroup> <PathGeometry> <PathFigure IsClosed="True" StartPoint="{TemplateBinding Origin}"> <LineSegment Point="150,100" /> <ArcSegment Point="140,150" IsLargeArc="{TemplateBinding LargeArc}" Size="50,50" SweepDirection="Clockwise"/> </PathFigure> </PathGeometry> </GeometryGroup> </Path.Data> </Path> </Canvas> </ControlTemplate> What I'm trying to build is a (sort of) pie-shaped usercontrol where the shape of the Pie is defined by DependencyProperties and the actual graphics used are in a template, so they can be replaced or customized. In other words: I would like the code-behind to be visual-free (which, I assume, is good separation). SOLUTION--------------------------(I'm not allowed to answer my own questions yet) I found the answer myself, and this can be useful for others encountering the same issue. This is why the TemplateBinding on the Geometry failed: A TemplateBinding will only work when binding a DependencyProperty to another DependencyProperty. Following article set me on the right track: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/liviuc/archive/2009/12/14/wpf-templatebinding-vs-relativesource-templatedparent.aspx The ArcSegment properties are no DependencyProperties. Thus, the solution to the above problem is to replace <ArcSegment Point="140,150" IsLargeArc="{TemplateBinding LargeArc}" with <ArcSegment Point="140,150" IsLargeArc="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}, Path=LargeArc}" Colin, your working example where an 'ordinary' binding was used in the geometry set me on the right track. BTW, love the infographics and the construction of your UserControl in your blogpost. And, hey, that quick tip on code snippets, and especially on that DP attribute and the separation of those DPs into a partial class file is pure gold!

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SQL University: What and why of database refactoring

- by Mladen Prajdic

This is a post for a great idea called SQL University started by Jorge Segarra also famously known as SqlChicken on Twitter. It’s a collection of blog posts on different database related topics contributed by several smart people all over the world. So this week is mine and we’ll be talking about database testing and refactoring. In 3 posts we’ll cover: SQLU part 1 - What and why of database testing SQLU part 2 - What and why of database refactoring SQLU part 3 - Tools of the trade This is a second part of the series and in it we’ll take a look at what database refactoring is and why do it. Why refactor a database To know why refactor we first have to know what refactoring actually is. Code refactoring is a process where we change module internals in a way that does not change that module’s input/output behavior. For successful refactoring there is one crucial thing we absolutely must have: Tests. Automated unit tests are the only guarantee we have that we haven’t broken the input/output behavior before refactoring. If you haven’t go back ad read my post on the matter. Then start writing them. Next thing you need is a code module. Those are views, UDFs and stored procedures. By having direct table access we can kiss fast and sweet refactoring good bye. One more point to have a database abstraction layer. And no, ORM’s don’t fall into that category. But also know that refactoring is NOT adding new functionality to your code. Many have fallen into this trap. Don’t be one of them and resist the lure of the dark side. And it’s a strong lure. We developers in general love to add new stuff to our code, but hate fixing our own mistakes or changing existing code for no apparent reason. To be a good refactorer one needs discipline and focus. Now we know that refactoring is all about changing inner workings of existing code. This can be due to performance optimizations, changing internal code workflows or some other reason. This is a typical black box scenario to the outside world. If we upgrade the car engine it still has to drive on the road (preferably faster) and not fly (no matter how cool that would be). Also be aware that white box tests will break when we refactor. What to refactor in a database Refactoring databases doesn’t happen that often but when it does it can include a lot of stuff. Let us look at a few common cases. Adding or removing database schema objects Adding, removing or changing table columns in any way, adding constraints, keys, etc… All of these can be counted as internal changes not visible to the data consumer. But each of these carries a potential input/output behavior change. Dropping a column can result in views not working anymore or stored procedure logic crashing. Adding a unique constraint shows duplicated data that shouldn’t exist. Foreign keys break a truncate table command executed from an application that runs once a month. All these scenarios are very real and can happen. With the proper database abstraction layer fully covered with black box tests we can make sure something like that does not happen (hopefully at all). Changing physical structures Physical structures include heaps, indexes and partitions. We can pretty much add or remove those without changing the data returned by the database. But the performance can be affected. So here we use our performance tests. We do have them, right? Just by adding a single index we can achieve orders of magnitude performance improvement. Won’t that make users happy? But what if that index causes our write operations to crawl to a stop. again we have to test this. There are a lot of things to think about and have tests for. Without tests we can’t do successful refactoring! Fixing bad code We all have some bad code in our systems. We usually refer to that code as code smell as they violate good coding practices. Examples of such code smells are SQL injection, use of SELECT *, scalar UDFs or cursors, etc… Each of those is huge code smell and can result in major code changes. Take SELECT * from example. If we remove a column from a table the client using that SELECT * statement won’t have a clue about that until it runs. Then it will gracefully crash and burn. Not to mention the widely unknown SELECT * view refresh problem that Tomas LaRock (@SQLRockstar on Twitter) and Colin Stasiuk (@BenchmarkIT on Twitter) talk about in detail. Go read about it, it’s informative. Refactoring this includes replacing the * with column names and most likely change to application using the database. Breaking apart huge stored procedures Have you ever seen seen a stored procedure that was 2000 lines long? I have. It’s not pretty. It hurts the eyes and sucks the will to live the next 10 minutes. They are a maintenance nightmare and turn into things no one dares to touch. I’m willing to bet that 100% of time they don’t have a single test on them. Large stored procedures (and functions) are a clear sign that they contain business logic. General opinion on good database coding practices says that business logic has no business in the database. That’s the applications part. Refactoring such behemoths requires writing lots of edge case tests for the stored procedure input/output behavior and then start to refactor it. First we split the logic inside into smaller parts like new stored procedures and UDFs. Those then get called from the master stored procedure. Once we’ve successfully modularized the database code it’s best to transfer that logic into the applications consuming it. This only leaves the stored procedure with common data manipulation logic. Of course this isn’t always possible so having a plethora of performance and behavior unit tests is absolutely necessary to confirm we’ve actually improved the codebase in some way. Refactoring is not a popular chore amongst developers or managers. The former don’t like fixing old code, the latter can’t see the financial benefit. Remember how we talked about being lousy at estimating future costs in the previous post? But there comes a time when it must be done. Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas how to get started. In the last post of the series we’ll take a look at the tools to use and an example of testing and refactoring.

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How can i make a gallery with web images from my website?

- by ronhdoge

I currently have two codes that i am trying to figure out how to mix or write a new code to have a gallery with image doing fill_parent but i can slide sideways to see the other url linked images from my site. here are both parts of code i have: package com.mandarich.gallerygrid; import java.io.InputStream; import java.net.URL; import android.app.Activity; import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable; import android.os.Bundle; import android.widget.ImageView; public class Gallery extends Activity { /** Called when the activity is first created. */ public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); ImageView imgView =(ImageView)findViewById(R.id.ImageView01); Drawable drawable = LoadImageFromWebOperations("http://www.mandarichmodels.com/hot-pics/"); imgView.setImageDrawable(drawable); } private Drawable LoadImageFromWebOperations(String url) { try { InputStream is = (InputStream) new URL(url).getContent(); Drawable d = Drawable.createFromStream(is, "src name"); return d; }catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("Exc="+e); return null; } } } and here is my gallery code package com.mandarich.Grid; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.Context; import android.content.res.TypedArray; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.View; import android.view.ViewGroup; import android.widget.AdapterView; import android.widget.BaseAdapter; import android.widget.Gallery; import android.widget.ImageView; import android.widget.Toast; import android.widget.AdapterView.OnItemClickListener; public class gridfinal extends Activity { private Gallery gallery; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); gallery = (Gallery) findViewById(R.id.examplegallery); gallery.setAdapter(new AddImgAdp(this)); gallery.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() { @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") public void onItemClick(AdapterView parent, View v, int position, long id) { // Displaying the position when the gallery item in clicked Toast.makeText(gridfinal.this, "Position=" + position, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); } }); } public class AddImgAdp extends BaseAdapter { int GalItemBg; private Context cont; // Adding images. private Integer[] Imgid = { R.drawable.cindy, R.drawable.clinton, R.drawable.colin, R.drawable.cybil, R.drawable.david, R.drawable.demi, R.drawable.drew }; public AddImgAdp(Context c) { cont = c; TypedArray typArray = obtainStyledAttributes(R.styleable.GalleryTheme); GalItemBg = typArray.getResourceId(R.styleable.GalleryTheme_android_galleryItemBackground, 0); typArray.recycle(); } public int getCount() { return Imgid.length; } public Object getItem(int position) { return position; } public long getItemId(int position) { return position; } public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) { ImageView imgView = new ImageView(cont); imgView.setImageResource(Imgid[position]); // Fixing width & height for image to display imgView.setLayoutParams(new Gallery.LayoutParams(430, 370)); imgView.setScaleType(ImageView.ScaleType.FIT_XY); imgView.setBackgroundResource(GalItemBg); return imgView; } } }

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globals and locals in python exec()

- by hawkettc

Hi, I'm trying to run a piece of python code using exec. my_code = """ class A(object): pass print 'locals: %s' % locals() print 'A: %s' % A class B(object): a_ref = A """ global_env = {} local_env = {} my_code_AST = compile(my_code, "My Code", "exec") exec(my_code_AST, global_env, local_env) print local_env which results in the following output locals: {'A': <class 'A'>} A: <class 'A'> Traceback (most recent call last): File "python_test.py", line 16, in <module> exec(my_code_AST, global_env, local_env) File "My Code", line 8, in <module> File "My Code", line 9, in B NameError: name 'A' is not defined However, if I change the code to this - my_code = """ class A(object): pass print 'locals: %s' % locals() print 'A: %s' % A class B(A): pass """ global_env = {} local_env = {} my_code_AST = compile(my_code, "My Code", "exec") exec(my_code_AST, global_env, local_env) print local_env then it works fine - giving the following output - locals: {'A': <class 'A'>} A: <class 'A'> {'A': <class 'A'>, 'B': <class 'B'>} Clearly A is present and accessible - what's going wrong in the first piece of code? I'm using 2.6.5, cheers, Colin * UPDATE 1 * If I check the locals() inside the class - my_code = """ class A(object): pass print 'locals: %s' % locals() print 'A: %s' % A class B(object): print locals() a_ref = A """ global_env = {} local_env = {} my_code_AST = compile(my_code, "My Code", "exec") exec(my_code_AST, global_env, local_env) print local_env Then it becomes clear that locals() is not the same in both places - locals: {'A': <class 'A'>} A: <class 'A'> {'__module__': '__builtin__'} Traceback (most recent call last): File "python_test.py", line 16, in <module> exec(my_code_AST, global_env, local_env) File "My Code", line 8, in <module> File "My Code", line 10, in B NameError: name 'A' is not defined However, if I do this, there is no problem - def f(): class A(object): pass class B(object): a_ref = A f() print 'Finished OK' * UPDATE 2 * ok, so the docs here - http://docs.python.org/reference/executionmodel.html 'A class definition is an executable statement that may use and define names. These references follow the normal rules for name resolution. The namespace of the class definition becomes the attribute dictionary of the class. Names defined at the class scope are not visible in methods.' It seems to me that 'A' should be made available as a free variable within the executable statement that is the definition of B, and this happens when we call f(), but not when we use exec(). This can be more easily shown with the following - my_code = """ class A(object): pass print 'locals in body: %s' % locals() print 'A: %s' % A def f(): print 'A in f: %s' % A f() class B(object): a_ref = A """ which outputs locals in body: {'A': <class 'A'>} A: <class 'A'> Traceback (most recent call last): File "python_test.py", line 20, in <module> exec(my_code_AST, global_env, local_env) File "My Code", line 11, in <module> File "My Code", line 9, in f NameError: global name 'A' is not defined So I guess the new question is - why aren't those locals being exposed as free variables in functions and class definitions - it seems like a pretty standard closure scenario.

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Using RIA DomainServices with ASP.NET and MVC 2

- by Bobby Diaz

Recently, I started working on a new ASP.NET MVC 2 project and I wanted to reuse the data access (LINQ to SQL) and business logic methods (WCF RIA Services) that had been developed for a previous project that used Silverlight for the front-end. I figured that I would be able to instantiate the various DomainService classes from within my controller’s action methods, because after all, the code for those services didn’t look very complicated. WRONG! I didn’t realize at first that some of the functionality is handled automatically by the framework when the domain services are hosted as WCF services. After some initial searching, I came across an invaluable post by Joe McBride, which described how to get RIA Service .svc files to work in an MVC 2 Web Application, and another by Brad Abrams. Unfortunately, Brad’s solution was for an earlier preview release of RIA Services and no longer works with the version that I am running (PDC Preview). I have not tried the RC version of WCF RIA Services, so I am not sure if any of the issues I am having have been resolved, but I wanted to come up with a way to reuse the shared libraries so I wouldn’t have to write a non-RIA version that basically did the same thing. The classes I came up with work with the scenarios I have encountered so far, but I wanted to go ahead and post the code in case someone else is having the same trouble I had. Hopefully this will save you a few headaches! 1. Querying When I first tried to use a DomainService class to perform a query inside one of my controller’s action methods, I got an error stating that “This DomainService has not been initialized.” To solve this issue, I created an extension method for all DomainServices that creates the required DomainServiceContext and passes it to the service’s Initialize() method. Here is the code for the extension method; notice that I am creating a sort of mock HttpContext for those cases when the service is running outside of IIS, such as during unit testing! public static class ServiceExtensions { /// <summary> /// Initializes the domain service by creating a new <see cref="DomainServiceContext"/> /// and calling the base DomainService.Initialize(DomainServiceContext) method. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TService">The type of the service.</typeparam> /// <param name="service">The service.</param> /// <returns></returns> public static TService Initialize<TService>(this TService service) where TService : DomainService { var context = CreateDomainServiceContext(); service.Initialize(context); return service; } private static DomainServiceContext CreateDomainServiceContext() { var provider = new ServiceProvider(new HttpContextWrapper(GetHttpContext())); return new DomainServiceContext(provider, DomainOperationType.Query); } private static HttpContext GetHttpContext() { var context = HttpContext.Current; #if DEBUG // create a mock HttpContext to use during unit testing... if ( context == null ) { var writer = new StringWriter(); var request = new SimpleWorkerRequest("/", "/", String.Empty, String.Empty, writer); context = new HttpContext(request) { User = new GenericPrincipal(new GenericIdentity("debug"), null) }; } #endif return context; } } With that in place, I can use it almost as normally as my first attempt, except with a call to Initialize(): public ActionResult Index() { var service = new NorthwindService().Initialize(); var customers = service.GetCustomers(); return View(customers); } 2. Insert / Update / Delete Once I got the records showing up, I was trying to insert new records or update existing data when I ran into the next issue. I say issue because I wasn’t getting any kind of error, which made it a little difficult to track down. But once I realized that that the DataContext.SubmitChanges() method gets called automatically at the end of each domain service submit operation, I could start working on a way to mimic the behavior of a hosted domain service. What I came up with, was a base class called LinqToSqlRepository<T> that basically sits between your implementation and the default LinqToSqlDomainService<T> class. [EnableClientAccess()] public class NorthwindService : LinqToSqlRepository<NorthwindDataContext> { public IQueryable<Customer> GetCustomers() { return this.DataContext.Customers; } public void InsertCustomer(Customer customer) { this.DataContext.Customers.InsertOnSubmit(customer); } public void UpdateCustomer(Customer currentCustomer) { this.DataContext.Customers.TryAttach(currentCustomer, this.ChangeSet.GetOriginal(currentCustomer)); } public void DeleteCustomer(Customer customer) { this.DataContext.Customers.TryAttach(customer); this.DataContext.Customers.DeleteOnSubmit(customer); } } Notice the new base class name (just change LinqToSqlDomainService to LinqToSqlRepository). I also added a couple of DataContext (for Table<T>) extension methods called TryAttach that will check to see if the supplied entity is already attached before attempting to attach it, which would cause an error! 3. LinqToSqlRepository<T> Below is the code for the LinqToSqlRepository class. The comments are pretty self explanatory, but be aware of the [IgnoreOperation] attributes on the generic repository methods, which ensures that they will be ignored by the code generator and not available in the Silverlight client application. /// <summary> /// Provides generic repository methods on top of the standard /// <see cref="LinqToSqlDomainService<TContext>"/> functionality. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TContext">The type of the context.</typeparam> public abstract class LinqToSqlRepository<TContext> : LinqToSqlDomainService<TContext> where TContext : System.Data.Linq.DataContext, new() { /// <summary> /// Retrieves an instance of an entity using it's unique identifier. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="keyValues">The key values.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual TEntity GetById<TEntity>(params object[] keyValues) where TEntity : class { var table = this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); var mapping = this.DataContext.Mapping.GetTable(typeof(TEntity)); var keys = mapping.RowType.IdentityMembers .Select((m, i) => m.Name + " = @" + i) .ToArray(); return table.Where(String.Join(" && ", keys), keyValues).FirstOrDefault(); } /// <summary> /// Creates a new query that can be executed to retrieve a collection /// of entities from the <see cref="DataContext"/>. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual IQueryable<TEntity> GetEntityQuery<TEntity>() where TEntity : class { return this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); } /// <summary> /// Inserts the specified entity. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="entity">The entity.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual bool Insert<TEntity>(TEntity entity) where TEntity : class { //var table = this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); //table.InsertOnSubmit(entity); return this.Submit(entity, null, DomainOperation.Insert); } /// <summary> /// Updates the specified entity. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="entity">The entity.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual bool Update<TEntity>(TEntity entity) where TEntity : class { return this.Update(entity, null); } /// <summary> /// Updates the specified entity. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="entity">The entity.</param> /// <param name="original">The original.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual bool Update<TEntity>(TEntity entity, TEntity original) where TEntity : class { if ( original == null ) { original = GetOriginal(entity); } var table = this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); table.TryAttach(entity, original); return this.Submit(entity, original, DomainOperation.Update); } /// <summary> /// Deletes the specified entity. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="entity">The entity.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual bool Delete<TEntity>(TEntity entity) where TEntity : class { //var table = this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); //table.TryAttach(entity); //table.DeleteOnSubmit(entity); return this.Submit(entity, null, DomainOperation.Delete); } protected virtual bool Submit(Object entity, Object original, DomainOperation operation) { var entry = new ChangeSetEntry(0, entity, original, operation); var changes = new ChangeSet(new ChangeSetEntry[] { entry }); return base.Submit(changes); } private TEntity GetOriginal<TEntity>(TEntity entity) where TEntity : class { var context = CreateDataContext(); var table = context.GetTable<TEntity>(); return table.FirstOrDefault(e => e == entity); } } 4. Conclusion So there you have it, a fully functional Repository implementation for your RIA Domain Services that can be consumed by your ASP.NET and MVC applications. I have uploaded the source code along with unit tests and a sample web application that queries the Customers table from inside a Controller, as well as a Silverlight usage example. As always, I welcome any comments or suggestions on the approach I have taken. If there is enough interest, I plan on contacting Colin Blair or maybe even the man himself, Brad Abrams, to see if this is something worthy of inclusion in the WCF RIA Services Contrib project. What do you think? Enjoy!

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, June 20, 2011

CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, June 20, 2011Popular ReleasesBlogEngine.NET: BlogEngine.NET 2.5 RC: BlogEngine.NET Hosting - Click Here! 3 Months FREE – BlogEngine.NET Hosting – Click Here! This is a Release Candidate version for BlogEngine.NET 2.5. The most current, stable version of BlogEngine.NET is version 2.0. Find out more about the BlogEngine.NET 2.5 RC here. If you want to extend or modify BlogEngine.NET, you should download the source code. Also, please note at this time the Mercurial source code repository on the Source Code tab is having issues, but will be fixed shortly. I...Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework - a centralized code sample library: All-In-One Code Framework 2011-06-19: Alternatively, you can install Sample Browser or Sample Browser VS extension, and download the code samples from Sample Browser. Improved and Newly Added Examples:For an up-to-date code sample index, please refer to All-In-One Code Framework Sample Catalog. NEW Samples for Windows Azure Sample Description Owner CSAzureStartupTask The sample demonstrates using the startup tasks to install the prerequisites or to modify configuration settings for your environment in Windows Azure Rafe Wu ...Facebook C# SDK: 5.0.40: This is a RTW release which adds new features to v5.0.26 RTW. Support for multiple FacebookMediaObjects in one request. Allow FacebookMediaObjects in batch requests. Removes support for Cassini WebServer (visual studio inbuilt web server). Better support for unit testing and mocking. updated SimpleJson to v0.6 Refer to CHANGES.txt for details. For more information about this release see the following blog posts: Facebook C# SDK - Multiple file uploads in Batch Requests Faceb...Candescent NUI: Candescent NUI (7774): This is the binary version of the source code in change set 7774.Media Companion: MC 3.408b weekly: Some minor fixes..... Fixed messagebox coming up during batch scrape Added <originaltitle></originaltitle> to movie nfo's - when a new movie is scraped, the original title will be set as the returned title. The end user can of course change the title in MC, however the original title will not change. The original title can be seen by hovering over the movie title in the right pane of the main movie tab. To update all of your current nfo's to add the original title the same as your current ...NLog - Advanced .NET Logging: NLog 2.0 Release Candidate: Release notes for NLog 2.0 RC can be found at http://nlog-project.org/nlog-2-rc-release-notesGendering Add-In for Microsoft Office Word 2010: Gendering Add-In: This is the first stable Version of the Gendering Add-In. Unzip the package and start "setup.exe". The .reg file shows how to config an alternate path for suggestion table.TerrariViewer: TerrariViewer v3.1 [Terraria Inventory Editor]: This version adds tool tips. Almost every picture box you mouse over will tell you what item is in that box. I have also cleaned up the GUI a little more to make things easier on my end. There are various bug fixes including ones associated with opening different characters in the same instance of the program. As always, please bring any bugs you find to my attention.Kinect Paint: KinectPaint V1.0: This is version 1.0 of Kinect Paint. To run it, follow the steps: Install the Kinect SDK for Windows (available at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/download.aspx) Connect your Kinect device to the computer and to the power. Download the Zip file. Unblock the Zip file by right clicking on it, and pressing the Unblock button in the file properties (if available). Extract the content of the Zip file. 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How to model a relationship that NHibernate (or Hibernate) doesn’t easily support

- by MylesRip

I have a situation in which the ideal relationship, I believe, would involve Value Object Inheritance. This is unfortunately not supported in NHibernate so any solution I come up with will be less than perfect. Let’s say that: “Item” entities have a “Location” that can be in one of multiple different formats. These formats are completely different with no overlapping fields. We will deal with each Location in the format that is provided in the data with no attempt to convert from one format to another. Each Item has exactly one Location. “SpecialItem” is a subtype of Item, however, that is unique in that it has exactly two Locations. “Group” entities aggregate Items. “LocationGroup” is as subtype of Group. LocationGroup also has a single Location that can be in any of the formats as described above. Although I’m interested in Items by Group, I’m also interested in being able to find all items with the same Location, regardless of which group they are in. I apologize for the number of stipulations listed above, but I’m afraid that simplifying it any further wouldn’t really reflect the difficulties of the situation. Here is how the above could be diagrammed: Mapping Dilemma Diagram: (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/592ad48b1a.jpg) (I tried placing the diagram inline, but Stack Overflow won't allow that until I have accumulated more points. I understand the reasoning behind it, but it is a bit inconvenient for now.) Hmmm... Apparently I can't have multiple links either. :-( Analyzing the above, I make the following observations: I treat Locations polymorphically, referring to the supertype rather than the subtype. Logically, Locations should be “Value Objects” rather than entities since it is meaningless to differentiate between two Location objects that have all the same values. Thus equality between Locations should be based on field comparisons, not identifiers. Also, value objects should be immutable and shared references should not be allowed. Using NHibernate (or Hibernate) one would typically map value objects using the “component” keyword which would cause the fields of the class to be mapped directly into the database table that represents the containing class. Put another way, there would not be a separate “Locations” table in the database (and Locations would therefore have no identifiers). NHibernate (or Hibernate) do not currently support inheritance for value objects. My choices as I see them are: Ignore the fact that Locations should be value objects and map them as entities. This would take care of the inheritance mapping issues since NHibernate supports entity inheritance. The downside is that I then have to deal with aliasing issues. (Meaning that if multiple objects share a reference to the same Location, then changing values for one object’s Location would cause the location to change for other objects that share the reference the same Location record.) I want to avoid this if possible. Another downside is that entities are typically compared by their IDs. This would mean that two Location objects would be considered not equal even if the values of all their fields are the same. This would be invalid and unacceptable from the business perspective. Flatten Locations into a single class so that there are no longer inheritance relationships for Locations. This would allow Locations to be treated as value objects which could easily be handled by using “component” mapping in NHibernate. The downside in this case would be that the domain model becomes weaker, more fragile and less maintainable. Do some “creative” mapping in the hbm files in order to force Location fields to be mapped into the containing entities’ tables without using the “component” keyword. This approach is described by Colin Jack here. My situation is more complicated than the one he describes due to the fact that SpecialItem has a second Location and the fact that a different entity, LocatedGroup, also has Locations. I could probably get it to work, but the mappings would be non-intuitive and therefore hard to understand and maintain by other developers in the future. Also, I suspect that these tricky mappings would likely not be possible using Fluent NHibernate so I would use the advantages of using that tool, at least in that situation. Surely others out there have run into similar situations. I’m hoping someone who has “been there, done that” can share some wisdom. :-) So here’s the question… Which approach should be preferred in this situation? Why?

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Curious about IObservable? Here’s a quick example to get you started!

- by Roman Schindlauer

Have you heard about IObservable/IObserver support in Microsoft StreamInsight 1.1? Then you probably want to try it out. If this is your first incursion into the IObservable/IObserver pattern, this blog post is for you! StreamInsight 1.1 introduced the ability to use IEnumerable and IObservable objects as event sources and sinks. The IEnumerable case is pretty straightforward, since many data collections are already surfacing as this type. This was already covered by Colin in his blog. Creating your own IObservable event source is a little more involved but no less exciting – here is a primer: First, let’s look at a very simple Observable data source. All it does is publish an integer in regular time periods to its registered observers. (For more information on IObservable, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd990377.aspx ). sealed class RandomSubject : IObservable<int>, IDisposable { private bool _done; private readonly List<IObserver<int>> _observers; private readonly Random _random; private readonly object _sync; private readonly Timer _timer; private readonly int _timerPeriod; /// <summary> /// Random observable subject. It produces an integer in regular time periods. /// </summary> /// <param name="timerPeriod">Timer period (in milliseconds)</param> public RandomSubject(int timerPeriod) { _done = false; _observers = new List<IObserver<int>>(); _random = new Random(); _sync = new object(); _timer = new Timer(EmitRandomValue); _timerPeriod = timerPeriod; Schedule(); } public IDisposable Subscribe(IObserver<int> observer) { lock (_sync) { _observers.Add(observer); } return new Subscription(this, observer); } public void OnNext(int value) { lock (_sync) { if (!_done) { foreach (var observer in _observers) { observer.OnNext(value); } } } } public void OnError(Exception e) { lock (_sync) { foreach (var observer in _observers) { observer.OnError(e); } _done = true; } } public void OnCompleted() { lock (_sync) { foreach (var observer in _observers) { observer.OnCompleted(); } _done = true; } } void IDisposable.Dispose() { _timer.Dispose(); } private void Schedule() { lock (_sync) { if (!_done) { _timer.Change(_timerPeriod, Timeout.Infinite); } } } private void EmitRandomValue(object _) { var value = (int)(_random.NextDouble() * 100); Console.WriteLine("[Observable]\t" + value); OnNext(value); Schedule(); } private sealed class Subscription : IDisposable { private readonly RandomSubject _subject; private IObserver<int> _observer; public Subscription(RandomSubject subject, IObserver<int> observer) { _subject = subject; _observer = observer; } public void Dispose() { IObserver<int> observer = _observer; if (null != observer) { lock (_subject._sync) { _subject._observers.Remove(observer); } _observer = null; } } } } So far, so good. Now let’s write a program that consumes data emitted by the observable as a stream of point events in a Streaminsight query. First, let’s define our payload type: class Payload { public int Value { get; set; } public override string ToString() { return "[StreamInsight]\tValue: " + Value.ToString(); } } Now, let’s write the program. First, we will instantiate the observable subject. Then we’ll use the ToPointStream() method to consume it as a stream. We can now write any query over the source - here, a simple pass-through query. class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Console.WriteLine("Starting observable source..."); using (var source = new RandomSubject(500)) { Console.WriteLine("Started observable source."); using (var server = Server.Create("Default")) { var application = server.CreateApplication("My Application"); var stream = source.ToPointStream(application, e => PointEvent.CreateInsert(DateTime.Now, new Payload { Value = e }), AdvanceTimeSettings.StrictlyIncreasingStartTime, "Observable Stream"); var query = from e in stream select e; [...] We’re done with consuming input and querying it! But you probably want to see the output of the query. Did you know you can turn a query into an observable subject as well? Let’s do precisely that, and exploit the Reactive Extensions for .NET (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/ee794896.aspx) to quickly visualize the output. Notice we’re subscribing “Console.WriteLine()” to the query, a pattern you may find useful for quick debugging of your queries. Reminder: you’ll need to install the Reactive Extensions for .NET (Rx for .NET Framework 4.0), and reference System.CoreEx and System.Reactive in your project. [...] Console.ReadLine(); Console.WriteLine("Starting query..."); using (query.ToObservable().Subscribe(Console.WriteLine)) { Console.WriteLine("Started query."); Console.ReadLine(); Console.WriteLine("Stopping query..."); } Console.WriteLine("Stopped query."); } Console.ReadLine(); Console.WriteLine("Stopping observable source..."); source.OnCompleted(); } Console.WriteLine("Stopped observable source."); } } We hope this blog post gets you started. And for bonus points, you can go ahead and rewrite the observable source (the RandomSubject class) using the Reactive Extensions for .NET! The entire sample project is attached to this article. Happy querying! Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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Reading input from a text file, omits the first and adds a nonsense value to the end?

- by Greenhouse Gases

Hi there When I input locations from a txt file I am getting a peculiar error where it seems to miss off the first entry, yet add a garbage entry to the end of the link list (it is designed to take the name, latitude and longitude for each location you will notice). I imagine this to be an issue with where it starts collecting the inputs and where it stops but I cant find the error!! It reads the first line correctly but then skips to the next before adding it because during testing for the bug it had no record of the first location Lisbon though whilst stepping into the method call it was reading it. Very bizarre but hopefully someone knows the issue. Here is firstly my header file: #include <string> struct locationNode { char nodeCityName [35]; double nodeLati; double nodeLongi; locationNode* Next; void CorrectCase() // Correct upper and lower case letters of input { int MAX_SIZE = 35; int firstLetVal = this->nodeCityName[0], letVal; int n = 1; // variable for name index from second letter onwards if((this->nodeCityName[0] >90) && (this->nodeCityName[0] < 123)) // First letter is lower case { firstLetVal = firstLetVal - 32; // Capitalise first letter this->nodeCityName[0] = firstLetVal; } while(n <= MAX_SIZE - 1) { if((this->nodeCityName[n] >= 65) && (this->nodeCityName[n] <= 90)) { letVal = this->nodeCityName[n] + 32; this->nodeCityName[n] = letVal; } n++; } //cityNameInput = this->nodeCityName; } }; class Locations { private: int size; public: Locations(){ }; // constructor for the class locationNode* Head; //int Add(locationNode* Item); }; And here is the file containing main: // U08221.cpp : main project file. #include "stdafx.h" #include "Locations.h" #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <fstream> using namespace std; int n = 0,x, locationCount = 0, MAX_SIZE = 35; string cityNameInput; char targetCity[35]; bool acceptedInput = false, userInputReq = true, match = false, nodeExists = false;// note: addLocation(), set to true to enable user input as opposed to txt file locationNode *start_ptr = NULL; // pointer to first entry in the list locationNode *temp, *temp2; // Part is a pointer to a new locationNode we can assign changing value followed by a call to Add locationNode *seek, *bridge; void setElementsNull(char cityParam[]) { int y=0, count =0; while(cityParam[y] != NULL) { y++; } while(y < MAX_SIZE) { cityParam[y] = NULL; y++; } } void addLocation() { temp = new locationNode; // declare the space for a pointer item and assign a temporary pointer to it if(!userInputReq) // bool that determines whether user input is required in adding the node to the list { cout << endl << "Enter the name of the location: "; cin >> temp->nodeCityName; temp->CorrectCase(); setElementsNull(temp->nodeCityName); cout << endl << "Please enter the latitude value for this location: "; cin >> temp->nodeLati; cout << endl << "Please enter the longitude value for this location: "; cin >> temp->nodeLongi; cout << endl; } temp->Next = NULL; //set to NULL as when one is added it is currently the last in the list and so can not point to the next if(start_ptr == NULL){ // if list is currently empty, start_ptr will point to this node start_ptr = temp; } else { temp2 = start_ptr; // We know this is not NULL - list not empty! while (temp2->Next != NULL) { temp2 = temp2->Next; // Move to next link in chain until reach end of list } temp2->Next = temp; } ++locationCount; // increment counter for number of records in list if(!userInputReq){ cout << "Location sucessfully added to the database! There are " << locationCount << " location(s) stored" << endl; } } void populateList(){ ifstream inputFile; inputFile.open ("locations.txt", ios::in); userInputReq = true; temp = new locationNode; // declare the space for a pointer item and assign a temporary pointer to it do { inputFile.get(temp->nodeCityName, 35, ' '); setElementsNull(temp->nodeCityName); inputFile >> temp->nodeLati; inputFile >> temp->nodeLongi; setElementsNull(temp->nodeCityName); if(temp->nodeCityName[0] == 10) //remove linefeed from input { for(int i = 0; temp->nodeCityName[i] != NULL; i++) { temp->nodeCityName[i] = temp->nodeCityName[i + 1]; } } addLocation(); } while(!inputFile.eof()); userInputReq = false; cout << "Successful!" << endl << "List contains: " << locationCount << " entries" << endl; cout << endl; inputFile.close(); } bool nodeExistTest(char targetCity[]) // see if entry is present in the database { match = false; seek = start_ptr; int letters = 0, letters2 = 0, x = 0, y = 0; while(targetCity[y] != NULL) { letters2++; y++; } while(x <= locationCount) // locationCount is number of entries currently in list { y=0, letters = 0; while(seek->nodeCityName[y] != NULL) // count letters in the current name { letters++; y++; } if(letters == letters2) // same amount of letters in the name { y = 0; while(y <= letters) // compare each letter against one another { if(targetCity[y] == seek->nodeCityName[y]) { match = true; y++; } else { match = false; y = letters + 1; // no match, terminate comparison } } } if(match) { x = locationCount + 1; //found match so terminate loop } else{ if(seek->Next != NULL) { bridge = seek; seek = seek->Next; x++; } else { x = locationCount + 1; // end of list so terminate loop } } } return match; } void deleteRecord() // complete this { int junction = 0; locationNode *place; cout << "Enter the name of the city you wish to remove" << endl; cin >> targetCity; setElementsNull(targetCity); if(nodeExistTest(targetCity)) //if this node does exist { if(seek == start_ptr) // if it is the first in the list { junction = 1; } if(seek != start_ptr && seek->Next == NULL) // if it is last in the list { junction = 2; } switch(junction) // will alter list accordingly dependant on where the searched for link is { case 1: start_ptr = start_ptr->Next; delete seek; --locationCount; break; case 2: place = seek; seek = bridge; delete place; --locationCount; break; default: bridge->Next = seek->Next; delete seek; --locationCount; break; } } else { cout << targetCity << "That entry does not currently exist" << endl << endl << endl; } } void searchDatabase() { char choice; cout << "Enter search term..." << endl; cin >> targetCity; if(nodeExistTest(targetCity)) { cout << "Entry: " << endl << endl; } else { cout << "Sorry, that city is not currently present in the list." << endl << "Would you like to add this city now Y/N?" << endl; cin >> choice; /*while(choice != ('Y' || 'N')) { cout << "Please enter a valid choice..." << endl; cin >> choice; }*/ switch(choice) { case 'Y': addLocation(); break; case 'N': break; default : cout << "Invalid choice" << endl; break; } } } void printDatabase() { temp = start_ptr; // set temp to the start of the list do { if (temp == NULL) { cout << "You have reached the end of the database" << endl; } else { // Display details for what temp points to at that stage cout << "Location : " << temp->nodeCityName << endl; cout << "Latitude : " << temp->nodeLati << endl; cout << "Longitude : " << temp->nodeLongi << endl; cout << endl; // Move on to next locationNode if one exists temp = temp->Next; } } while (temp != NULL); } void nameValidation(string name) { n = 0; // start from first letter x = name.size(); while(!acceptedInput) { if((name[n] >= 65) && (name[n] <= 122)) // is in the range of letters { while(n <= x - 1) { while((name[n] >=91) && (name[n] <=97)) // ERROR!! { cout << "Please enter a valid city name" << endl; cin >> name; } n++; } } else { cout << "Please enter a valid city name" << endl; cin >> name; } if(n <= x - 1) { acceptedInput = true; } } cityNameInput = name; } int main(array<System::String ^> ^args) { //main contains test calls to functions at present cout << "Populating list..."; populateList(); printDatabase(); deleteRecord(); printDatabase(); cin >> cityNameInput; } The text file contains this (ignore the names, they are just for testing!!): Lisbon 45 47 Fattah 45 47 Darius 42 49 Peter 45 27 Sarah 85 97 Michelle 45 47 John 25 67 Colin 35 87 Shiron 40 57 George 34 45 Sean 22 33 The output omits Lisbon, but adds on a garbage entry with nonsense values. Any ideas why? Thank you in advance.

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