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• Outlook Plug-In for custom CRM

  - by Optimal Solutions

  I would like to write a plug-in that will allow a custom written CRM to read and write to their local Outlook client. I know that this poses a security concern. But, my clients are asking that their CRM "be connected" to Outlook. They would like to be able to do the following: A) When a contact sends them an email (reply or free standing email), they'd like the details of this email to go INTO the CRM. Yep. They would like me to save the body, time and date it was sent, etc. B) They want to be able to send new emails (or replies to existing emails) from within the CRM itself. Basically, "a form that looks like Outlook's send/reply email form". C) Want the ability to search for contacts and the related emails with a search for tags/keywords facility. (i.e. if a product name or code appears in an email then they want the email returned in the search). D) Having performed a search of many contacts, they will want to prepare a mailer and shoot out some sort of email announcement to their qualified leads. This could be 50, 100, or more persons. So its got to be able to allow bulk mailing. E) Given a list of new prospects, that arent currently contacts in the CRM, they will want to do the same and if they get replies from this mailer to the prospects, the will want the replies to be saved in the DB and contacts be inserted into the DB. F) They would like to be able to utilize the calendar and task list facilities of Outlook from the CRM, as well. More or less, they want this pretty basic (as it is today) CRM that I created to integrate with Outlook and have it do so seamlessly as if it was an add-on to the CRM. A plug-in is what I am thinking... But, I dont know where to begin. My environment is Windows XP/Vista and is going to be ASP.NET and I am going to use the VB.NET language to accomplish this. What do I need? Are there resources out there that can describe how to build a plug-in to Outlook as I have been asked to? This is not Exchange, none of the clients use exchange (not so far). They all run Outlook. Mostly 2003. Most clients are XP right now but some are upgrading to Vista. For some reason I cant seem to wrap my head around this. I think the whole security issue is thwarting my ability to see past what is probably a simple thing. The client doesnt want to be prompted by any security messages asking them if they are sure they want to send 382 emails to their contacts. Not once and certainly not 382 times. Where do I begin? I've searched the internet for similar but mainly what I found are already-written products and I've got to write this from scratch.

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• What are the Open Source alternatives to WPF/XAML?

  - by Evan Plaice

  If we've learned anything from HTML/CSS it's that, declarative languages (like XML) work best to describe User Interfaces because: It's easy to build code preprocessors that can template the code effectively. The code is in a well defined well structured (ideally) format so it's easy to parse. The technology to effectively parse or crawl an XML based source file already exists. The UIs scripted code becomes much simpler and easier to understand. It simple enough that designers are able to design the interface themselves. Programmers suck at creating UIs so it should be made easy enough for designers. I recently took a look at the meat of a WPF application (ie. the XAML) and it looks surprisingly familiar to the declarative language style used in HTML. It's apparent to me that the current state of desktop UI development is largely fractionalized, otherwise there wouldn't be so much duplicated effort in the domain of graphical user interface design (IE. GTK, XUL, Qt, Winforms, WPF, etc). There are 45 GUI platforms for Python alone It's seems reasonable to me that there should be a general purpose, open source, standardized, platform independent, markup language for designing desktop GUIs. Much like what the W3C made HTML/CSS into. WPF, or more specifically XAML seems like a pretty likely step in the right direction. Now that the 'browser wars' are over should we look forward to a future of 'desktop gui wars?' Note: This topic is relatively subjective in the attempt to be 'future-thinking.' I think that desktop GUI development in its current state sucks ((really)hard) and, even though WPF is still in it's infancy, it presents a likely solution to the problem. Update: Thanks a lot for the info, keep it comin'. Here's are the options I've gathered from the comments and answers. GladeXML Editor: Glade Interface Designer OS Platforms: All GUI Platform: GTK+ Languages: C (libglade), C++, C# (Glade#), Python, Ada, Pike, Perl, PHP, Eiffel, Ruby XRC (XML Resource) Editors: wxGlade, XRCed, wxDesigner, DialogBlocks (non-free) OS Platforms: All GUI Platform: wxWidgets Languages: C++, Python (wxPython), Perl (wxPerl), .NET (wx.NET) XML based formats that are either not free, not cross-platform, or language specific XUL Editor: Any basic text editor OS Platforms: Any OS running a browser that supports XUL GUI Platform: Gecko Engine? Languages: C++, Python, Ruby as plugin languages not base languages Note: I'm not sure if XUL deserves mentioning in this list because it's less of a desktop GUI language and more of a make-webapps-run-on-the-desktop language. Plus, it requires a browser to run. IE, it's 'DHTML for the desktop.' CookSwing Editor: Eclipse via WindowBuilder, NetBeans 5.0 (non-free) via Swing GUI Builder aka Matisse OS Platforms: All GUI Platform: Java Languages: Java only XAML (Moonlight) Editor: MonoDevelop OS Platforms: Linux and other Unix/X11 based OSes only GUI Platforms: GTK+ Languages: .NET Note: XAML is not a pure Open Source format because Microsoft controls its terms of use including the right to change the terms at any time. Moonlight can not legally be made to run on Windows or Mac. In addition, the only platform that is exempt from legal action is Novell. See this for a full description of what I mean.

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• Linq to SQL NullReferenceException's: A random needle in a haystack!

  - by Shane

  I'm getting NullReferenceExeceptions at seemly random times in my application and can't track down what could be causing the error. I'll do my best to describe the scenario and setup. Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated! C# .net 3.5 Forms Application, but I use the WebFormRouting library built by Phil Haack (http://haacked.com/archive/2008/03/11/using-routing-with-webforms.aspx) to leverage the Routing libraries of .net (usually used in conjunction with MVC) - intead of using url rewriting for my urls. My database has 60 tables. All Normalized. It's just a massive application. (SQL server 2008) All queries are built with Linq to SQL in code (no SP's). Each time a new instance of my data context is created. I use only one data context with all relationships defined in 4 relationship diagrams in SQL Server. the data context gets created a lot. I let the closing of the data context be handled automatically. I've heard arguments both sides about whether you should leave to be closed automatically or do it yourself. In this case I do it myself. It doesnt seem to matter if I'm creating a lot of instances of the data context or just one. For example, I've got a vote-up button. with the following code, and it errors probably 1 in 10-20 times. protected void VoteUpLinkButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { DatabaseDataContext db = new DatabaseDataContext(); StoryVote storyVote = new StoryVote(); storyVote.StoryId = storyId; storyVote.UserId = Utility.GetUserId(Context); storyVote.IPAddress = Utility.GetUserIPAddress(); storyVote.CreatedDate = DateTime.Now; storyVote.IsDeleted = false; db.StoryVotes.InsertOnSubmit(storyVote); db.SubmitChanges(); // If this story is not yet published, check to see if we should publish it. Make sure that // it is already approved. if (story.PublishedDate == null && story.ApprovedDate != null) { Utility.MakeUpcommingNewsPopular(storyId); } // Refresh our page. Response.Redirect("/news/" + category.UniqueName + "/" + RouteData.Values["year"].ToString() + "/" + RouteData.Values["month"].ToString() + "/" + RouteData.Values["day"].ToString() + "/" + RouteData.Values["uniquename"].ToString()); } The last thing I tried was the "Auto Close" flag setting on SQL Server. This was set to true and I changed to false. Doesnt seem to have done the trick although has had a good overall effect. Here's a detailed that wasnt caught. I also get slighly different errors when caught by my try/catch's. System.Web.HttpUnhandledException: Exception of type 'System.Web.HttpUnhandledException' was thrown. --- System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at System.Web.Util.StringUtil.GetStringHashCode(String s) at System.Web.UI.ClientScriptManager.EnsureEventValidationFieldLoaded() at System.Web.UI.ClientScriptManager.ValidateEvent(String uniqueId, String argument) at System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox.LoadPostData(String postDataKey, NameValueCollection postCollection) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessPostData(NameValueCollection postData, Boolean fBeforeLoad) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Web.UI.Page.HandleError(Exception e) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest() at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) at ASP.forms_news_detail_aspx.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) at System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) HELP!!!

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• Drawing a TextBox in an extended Glass Frame w/o WPF

  - by Lazlo

  I am trying to draw a TextBox on the extended glass frame of my form. I won't describe this technique, it's well-known. Here's an example for those who haven't heard of it: http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/Vista-Glass-In-C.aspx The thing is, it is complex to draw over this glass frame. Since black is considered to be the 0-alpha color, anything black disappears. There are apparently ways of countering this problem: drawing complex GDI+ shapes are not affected by this alpha-ness. For example, this code can be used to draw a Label on glass (note: GraphicsPath is used instead of DrawString in order to get around the horrible ClearType problem): public class GlassLabel : Control { public GlassLabel() { this.BackColor = Color.Black; } protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e) { GraphicsPath font = new GraphicsPath(); font.AddString( this.Text, this.Font.FontFamily, (int)this.Font.Style, this.Font.Size, Point.Empty, StringFormat.GenericDefault); e.Graphics.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.HighQuality; e.Graphics.FillPath(new SolidBrush(this.ForeColor), font); } } Similarly, such an approach can be used to create a container on the glass area. Note the use of the polygons instead of the rectangle - when using the rectangle, its black parts are considered as alpha. public class GlassPanel : Panel { public GlassPanel() { this.BackColor = Color.Black; } protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e) { Point[] area = new Point[] { new Point(0, 1), new Point(1, 0), new Point(this.Width - 2, 0), new Point(this.Width - 1, 1), new Point(this.Width -1, this.Height - 2), new Point(this.Width -2, this.Height-1), new Point(1, this.Height -1), new Point(0, this.Height - 2) }; Point[] inArea = new Point[] { new Point(1, 1), new Point(this.Width - 1, 1), new Point(this.Width - 1, this.Height - 1), new Point(this.Width - 1, this.Height - 1), new Point(1, this.Height - 1) }; e.Graphics.FillPolygon(new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(240, 240, 240)), inArea); e.Graphics.DrawPolygon(new Pen(Color.FromArgb(55, 0, 0, 0)), area); base.OnPaint(e); } } Now my problem is: How can I draw a TextBox? After lots of Googling, I came up with the following solutions: Subclassing the TextBox's OnPaint method. This is possible, although I could not get it to work properly. It should involve painting some magic things I don't know how to do yet. Making my own custom TextBox, perhaps on a TextBoxBase. If anyone has good, valid and working examples, and thinks this could be a good overall solution, please tell me. Using BufferedPaintSetAlpha. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms649805.aspx). The downsides of this method may be that the corners of the textbox might look odd, but I can live with that. If anyone knows how to implement that method properly from a Graphics object, please tell me. I personally don't, but this seems the best solution so far. To be honest, I found a great C++ article, but I am way too lazy to convert it. http://weblogs.asp.net/kennykerr/archive/2007/01/23/controls-and-the-desktop-window-manager.aspx Note: If I ever succeed with the BufferedPaint methods, I swear to s/o that I will make a simple DLL with all the common Windows Forms controls drawable on glass.

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• Can I constrain a template parameter class to implement the interfaces that are supported by other?

  - by K. Georgiev

  The name is a little blurry, so here's the situation: I'm writing code to use some 'trajectories'. The trajectories are an abstract thing, so I describe them with different interfaces. So I have a code as this: namespace Trajectories { public interface IInitial < Atom > { Atom Initial { get; set; } } public interface ICurrent < Atom > { Atom Current { get; set; } } public interface IPrevious < Atom > { Atom Previous { get; set; } } public interface ICount < Atom > { int Count { get; } } public interface IManualCount < Atom > : ICount < Atom > { int Count { get; set; } } ... } Every concrete implementation of a trajectory will implement some of the above interfaces. Here's a concrete implementation of a trajectory: public class SimpleTrajectory < Atom > : IInitial < Atom >, ICurrent < Atom >, ICount < Atom > { // ICount public int Count { get; private set; } // IInitial private Atom initial; public Atom Initial { get { return initial; } set { initial = current = value; Count = 1; } } // ICurrent private Atom current; public Atom Current { get { return current; } set { current = value; Count++; } } } Now, I want to be able to deduce things about the trajectories, so, for example I want to support predicates about different properties of some trajectory: namespace Conditions { public interface ICondition &lt Atom, Trajectory &gt { bool Test(ref Trajectory t); } public class CountLessThan &lt Atom, Trajectory &gt : ICondition &lt Atom, Trajectory &gt where Trajectory : Trajectories.ICount &lt Atom &gt { public int Value { get; set; } public CountLessThan() { } public bool Test(ref Trajectory t) { return t.Count &lt Value; } } public class CurrentNormLessThan &lt Trajectory &gt : ICondition &lt Complex, Trajectory &gt where Trajectory : Trajectories.ICurrent &lt Complex &gt { public double Value { get; set; } public CurrentNormLessThan() { } public bool Test(ref Trajectory t) { return t.Current.Norm() &lt Value; } } } Now, here's the question: What if I wanted to implement AND predicate? It would be something like this: public class And &lt Atom, CondA, TrajectoryA, CondB, TrajectoryB, Trajectory &gt : ICondition &lt Atom, Trajectory &gt where CondA : ICondition &lt Atom, TrajectoryA &gt where TrajectoryA : // Some interfaces where CondB : ICondition &lt Atom, TrajectoryB &gt where TrajectoryB : // Some interfaces where Trajectory : // MUST IMPLEMENT THE INTERFACES FOR TrajectoryA AND THE INTERFACES FOR TrajectoryB { public CondA A { get; set; } public CondB B { get; set; } public bool Test(ref Trajectory t){ return A.Test(t) && B.Test(t); } } How can I say: support only these trajectories, for which the arguments of AND are ok? So I can be able to write: var vand = new CountLessThan(32) & new CurrentNormLessThan(4.0); I think if I create an orevall interface for every subset of interfaces, I could be able to do it, but it will become quite ugly.

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• drupal_get_form is not passing along node array

  - by ElectronicBlacksmith

  I have not been able to get drupal_get_form to pass on the node data. Code snippets are below. The drupal_get_form documentation (api.drupal.org) states that it will pass on the extra parameters. I am basing the node data not being passed because (apparently) $node['language'] is not defined in hook_form which causes $form['qqq'] not to be created and thus the preview button shows up. My goal here is that the preview button show up using path "node/add/author" but doesn't show up for "milan/author/add". Any alternative methods for achieving this goal would be helpful but the question I want answered is in the preceding paragraph. Everything I've read indicates that it should work. This menu item $items['milan/author/add'] = array( 'title' = 'Add Author', 'page callback' = 'get_author_form', 'access arguments' = array('access content'), 'file' = 'author.pages.inc', ); calls this code function get_author_form() { //return node_form(NULL,NULL); //return drupal_get_form('author_form'); return author_ajax_form('author'); } function author_ajax_form($type) { global $user; module_load_include('inc', 'node', 'node.pages'); $types = node_get_types(); $type = isset($type) ? str_replace('-', '_', $type) : NULL; // If a node type has been specified, validate its existence. if (isset($types[$type]) && node_access('create', $type)) { // Initialize settings: $node = array('uid' = $user-uid, 'name' = (isset($user-name) ? $user-name : ''), 'type' = $type, 'language' = 'bbb','bbb' = 'TRUE'); $output = drupal_get_form($type .'_node_form', $node); } return $output; } And here is the hook_form and hook_form_alter code function author_form_author_node_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state) { $form['author']=NULL; $form['taxonomy']=NULL; $form['options']=NULL; $form['menu']=NULL; $form['comment_settings']=NULL; $form['files']=NULL; $form['revision_information']=NULL; $form['attachments']=NULL; if($form["qqq"]) { $form['buttons']['preview']=NULL; } } function author_form(&$node) { return make_author_form(&$node); } function make_author_form(&$node) { global $user; $type = node_get_types('type', $node); $node = author_make_title($node); drupal_set_breadcrumb(array(l(t('Home'), NULL), l(t($node-title), 'node/' . $node-nid))); $form['authorset'] = array( '#type' = 'fieldset', '#title' = t('Author'), '#weight' = -50, '#collapsible' = FALSE, '#collapsed' = FALSE, ); $form['author_id'] = array( '#access' = user_access('create pd_recluse entries'), '#type' = 'hidden', '#default_value' = $node-author_id, '#weight' = -20 ); $form['authorset']['last_name'] = array( '#type' = 'textfield', '#title' = t('Last Name'), '#maxlength' = 60, '#default_value' = $node-last_name ); $form['authorset']['first_name'] = array( '#type' = 'textfield', '#title' = t('First Name'), '#maxlength' = 60, '#default_value' = $node-first_name ); $form['authorset']['middle_name'] = array( '#type' = 'textfield', '#title' = t('Middle Name'), '#maxlength' = 60, '#default_value' = $node-middle_name ); $form['authorset']['suffix_name'] = array( '#type' = 'textfield', '#title' = t('Suffix Name'), '#maxlength' = 14, '#default_value' = $node-suffix_name ); $form['authorset']['body_filter']['body'] = array( '#access' = user_access('create pd_recluse entries'), '#type' = 'textarea', '#title' = 'Describe Author', '#default_value' = $node-body, '#required' = FALSE, '#weight' = -19 ); $form['status'] = array( '#type' = 'hidden', '#default_value' = '1' ); $form['promote'] = array( '#type' = 'hidden', '#default_value' = '1' ); $form['name'] = array( '#type' = 'hidden', '#default_value' = $user-name ); $form['format'] = array( '#type' = 'hidden', '#default_value' = '1' ); // NOTE in node_example there is some addition code here not needed for this simple node-type $thepath='milan/author'; if($_REQUEST["theletter"]) { $thepath .= "/" . $_REQUEST["theletter"]; } if($node['language']) { $thepath='milan/authorajaxclose'; $form['qqq'] = array( '#type' = 'hidden', '#default_value' = '1' ); } $form['#redirect'] = $thepath; return $form; } That menu path coincides with this theme (PHPTemplate)

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• Scrolling a canvas as a shape you're moving approaches its edges

  - by Steven Sproat

  Hi, I develop a Python-based drawing program, Whyteboard. I have tools that the user can create new shapes on the canvas, such as text/images/rectangles/circles/polygons. I also have a Select tool that allows the users to modify these shapes - for example, moving a shape's position, resizing, or editing polygon's points' positions. I'm adding in a new feature where moving or resizing a point near the canvas edge will automatically scroll the canvas. I think it's a good idea in terms of program usability, and annoys me when other program's don't have this feature. I've made some good progress on coding this; below is some Python code to demonstrate what I'm doing. These functions demonstrate how some shapes calculate their "edges": def find_edges(self): """A line.""" self.edges = {EDGE_TOP: min(self.y, self.y2), EDGE_RIGHT: max(self.x, self.x2), EDGE_BOTTOM: max(self.y, self.y2), EDGE_LEFT: min(self. x, self.x2)} def find_edges(self): """An image""" self.edges = {EDGE_TOP: self.y, EDGE_RIGHT: self.x + self.image.GetWidth(), EDGE_BOTTOM: self.y + self.image.GetWidth(), EDGE_LEFT: self.x} def find_edges(self): """Get the bounding rectangle for the polygon""" xmin = min(x for x, y in self.points) ymin = min(y for x, y in self.points) xmax = max(x for x, y in self.points) ymax = max(y for x, y in self.points) self.edges = {EDGE_TOP: ymin, EDGE_RIGHT: xmax, EDGE_BOTTOM: ymax, EDGE_LEFT: xmin} And here's the code I have so far to implement the scrolling when a shape nears the edge: def check_canvas_scroll(self, x, y, moving=False): """ We check that the x/y coords are within 50px from the edge of the canvas and scroll the canvas accordingly. If the shape is being moved, we need to check specific edges of the shape (e.g. left/right side of rectangle) """ size = self.board.GetClientSizeTuple() # visible area of the canvas if not self.board.area > size: # canvas is too small to need to scroll return start = self.board.GetViewStart() # user's starting "viewport" scroll = (-1, -1) # -1 means no change if moving: if self.shape.edges[EDGE_RIGHT] > start[0] + size[0] - 50: scroll = (start[0] + 5, -1) if self.shape.edges[EDGE_BOTTOM] > start[1] + size[1] - 50: scroll = (-1, start[1] + 5) # snip others else: if x > start[0] + size[0] - 50: scroll = (start[0] + 5, -1) if y > start[1] + size[1] - 50: scroll = (-1, start[1] + 5) # snip others self.board.Scroll(*scroll) This code actually works pretty well. If we're moving a shape, then we need to know its edges to calculate when they're coming close to the canvas edge. If we're resizing just a single point, then we just use the x/y coords of that point to see if it's close to the edge. The problem I'm having is a little tricky to describe - basically, if you move a shape to the left, and stop moving it, if you positioned the shape within the 50px from the canvas, then the next time you go to move the shape, the code that says "ok, is this shape close to the end?" gets triggered, and the canvas scrolls to the left, even if you're moving the shape to the right. Can anyone think on how to stop this? I created a youtube video to demonstrate the issue. At about 0:54, I move a polygon to the left of the canvas and position it there. The next time I move it, the canvas scrolls to the left even though I'm moving it right Another thing I'd like to add, but I'm stuck on is the scroll gaining momentum the longer a shape is scrolling? So, with a large canvas, you're not moving a shape for ages, moving 5px at a time, when you need to cover a 2000px distance. Any suggestions there? Thanks all - sorry for the super long question!

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• What is the best way to test using grails using IDEA?

  - by egervari

  I am seriously having a very non-pleasant time testing using Grails. I will describe my experience, and I'd like to know if there's a better way. The first problem I have with testing is that Grails doesn't give immediate feedback to the developer when .save() fails inside of an integration test. So let's say you have a domain class with 12 fields, and 1 of them is violating a constraint and you don't know it when you create the instance... it just doesn't save. Naturally, the test code afterward is going to fail. This is most troublesome because the thingy under test is probably fine... and the real risk and pain is the setup code for the test itself. So, I've tried to develop the habit of using .save(failOnError: true) to avoid this problem, but that's not something that can be easily enforced by everyone working on the project... and it's kind of bloaty. It'd be nice to turn this on for code that is running as part of a unit test automatically. Integration Tests run slow. I cannot understand how 1 integration test that saves 1 object takes 15-20 seconds to run. With some careful test planning, I've been able to get 1000 tests talking to an actual database and doing dbunit dumps after every test to happen in about the same time! This is dumb. It is hard to run all the unit tests and not integration tests in IDEA. Integration tests are a massive pain. Idea actually shows a GREEN BAR when integration tests fail. The output given by grails indicates that something failed, but it doesn't say what it was. It says to look in the test reports... which forces the developer to launch up their file system to hunt the stupid html file down. What a pain. Then once you got the html file and click to the failing test, it'll tell you a line number. Since these reports are not in the IDE, you can't just click the stack trace to go to that line of code... you gotta go back and find it yourself. ARGGH!@!@! Maybe people put up with this, but I refuse. Testing should not be this painful. It should be fast and painless, or people won't do it. Please help. What is the solution? Rails instead of Grails? Something else entirely? I love the Grails framework, but they never demo their testing for a reason. They have a snazzy framework, but the testing is painful. After having used Scala for the last 1.5 months, and being totally spoiled by ScalaTest... I can't go back to this.

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• Passing unknown amounts of variables using through a string string and eval and multiple functions a

  - by user300797

  I'm not sure how best to describe this problem... In short, I want to use object literal to allow me to pass a random amount of variables in any order to a function. Whilst this is not big deal in theory, in my code, this object literal is passed to a second function call on_change. on_change works comparing an element inner HTML to a string. if it is the same, it sets a time out of to call the function again (this is sort of/almost recursive, but the function dose actually get to end before it is called again). if the elements inner HTML is different from the string, then the third parameter is executed. this will either be a function or a string. either way it will execute. I have tested this function plenty and used it for a while now. how ever, it cannot seem to get the object literal to flow through the function calls... var params = { xpos:'false'}; on_change('window_3_cont_buffer','',' if(Window_manager.windows[3].window_cont_buffer.getElementsByTagName(\'content\')[0].getElementsByTagName(\'p\')[0].innerHTML == \'ERROR\'){ alert(Window_manager.windows[3].window_cont_buffer.getElementsByTagName(\'content\')[0].getElementsByTagName(\'p\')[1].innerHTML); return false; } else { Window_manager.windows[3].load_xml(\'location/view.php?location_ID=3\', \'\', ' + params + ' ); } '); I call this as part of the form submission. after this line, I then call a function to load some content via ajax, which works fine and will trigger the code from the on_change function. I have tested load_xml function it is able to call alert(param.xpos) and get the correct response. I can even added in a check for being undefined so that rest of the times I cam load_xml I don't get swamped with alerts. The load_xml function first set up the on_change function, then calls the function to load the content to a hidden div. Once the AJAX request has updated that DIV, the on_change function should now call the parse_xml function. This pulls out the information from the xml file. How ever... The idea of this object literal param is that it can tell this parse_xml function to ignore certain things. on_change("window_" + this.id + "_cont_buffer", "", "Window_manager.windows[" + this.id + "].parse_xml('" + param + "')"); this is part of load_xml. it works perfectly fine, even with the param bit in there. except, parse_xml dose not seem to be able to use that parameter. I have been able to get it to a point where parse_xml can alert(param) and give [object object] which I would of thought meant that the object litteral had been passed through, but when I try and call alert(param.xpos) I get undefined. I know this is a pig of a problem, and I could get around it by just having the function take a zillion boolean parameters, but its just not practical or elegant. I'm sure you will need to ask me plenty more questions before I can solve this. I will post more complete code, I just cut it down to what is actually going on. Thanks

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• Appropriate programming design questions.

  - by Edward

  I have a few questions on good programming design. I'm going to first describe the project I'm building so you are better equipped to help me out. I am coding a Remote Assistance Tool similar to TeamViewer, Microsoft Remote Desktop, CrossLoop. It will incorporate concepts like UDP networking (using Lidgren networking library), NAT traversal (since many computers are invisible behind routers nowadays), Mirror Drivers (using DFMirage's Mirror Driver (http://www.demoforge.com/dfmirage.htm) for realtime screen grabbing on the remote computer). That being said, this program has a concept of being a client-server architecture, but I made only one program with both the functionality of client and server. That way, when the user runs my program, they can switch between giving assistance and receiving assistance without having to download a separate client or server module. I have a Windows Form that allows the user to choose between giving assistance and receiving assistance. I have another Windows Form for a file explorer module. I have another Windows Form for a chat module. I have another Windows Form form for a registry editor module. I have another Windows Form for the live control module. So I've got a Form for each module, which raises the first question: 1. Should I process module-specific commands inside the code of the respective Windows Form? Meaning, let's say I get a command with some data that enumerates the remote user's files for a specific directory. Obviously, I would have to update this on the File Explorer Windows Form and add the entries to the ListView. Should I be processing this code inside the Windows Form though? Or should I be handling this in another class (although I have to eventually pass the data to the Form to draw, of course). Or is it like a hybrid in which I process most of the data in another class and pass the final result to the Form to draw? So I've got like 5-6 forms, one for each module. The user starts up my program, enters the remote machine's ID (not IP, ID, because we are registering with an intermediary server to enable NAT traversal), their password, and connects. Now let's suppose the connection is successful. Then the user is presented with a form with all the different modules. So he can open up a File Explorer, or he can mess with the Registry Editor, or he can choose to Chat with his buddy. So now the program is sort of idle, just waiting for the user to do something. If the user opens up Live Control, then the program will be spending most of it's time receiving packets from the remote machine and drawing them to the form to provide a 'live' view. 2. Second design question. A spin off question #1. How would I pass module-specific commands to their respective Windows Forms? What I mean is, I have a class like "NetworkHandler.cs" that checks for messages from the remote machine. NetworkHandler.cs is a static class globally accessible. So let's say I get a command that enumerates the remote user's files for a specific directory. How would I "give" that command to the File Explorer Form. I was thinking of making an OnCommandReceivedEvent inside NetworkHandler, and having each form register to that event. When the NetworkHandler received a command, it would raise the event, all forms would check it to see if it was relevant, and the appropriate form would take action. Is this an appropriate/the best solution available? 3. The networking library I'm using, Lidgren, provides two options for checking networking messages. One can either poll ReadMessage() to return null or a message, or one can use an AutoResetEvent OnMessageReceived (I'm guessing this is like an event). Which one is more appropriate?

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• [C#][Design] Appropriate programming design questions.

  - by Edward

  I have a few questions on good programming design. I'm going to first describe the project I'm building so you are better equipped to help me out. I am coding a Remote Assistance Tool similar to TeamViewer, Microsoft Remote Desktop, CrossLoop. It will incorporate concepts like UDP networking (using Lidgren networking library), NAT traversal (since many computers are invisible behind routers nowadays), Mirror Drivers (using DFMirage's Mirror Driver (http://www.demoforge.com/dfmirage.htm) for realtime screen grabbing on the remote computer). That being said, this program has a concept of being a client-server architecture, but I made only one program with both the functionality of client and server. That way, when the user runs my program, they can switch between giving assistance and receiving assistance without having to download a separate client or server module. I have a Windows Form that allows the user to choose between giving assistance and receiving assistance. I have another Windows Form for a file explorer module. I have another Windows Form for a chat module. I have another Windows Form form for a registry editor module. I have another Windows Form for the live control module. So I've got a Form for each module, which raises the first question: 1. Should I process module-specific commands inside the code of the respective Windows Form? Meaning, let's say I get a command with some data that enumerates the remote user's files for a specific directory. Obviously, I would have to update this on the File Explorer Windows Form and add the entries to the ListView. Should I be processing this code inside the Windows Form though? Or should I be handling this in another class (although I have to eventually pass the data to the Form to draw, of course). Or is it like a hybrid in which I process most of the data in another class and pass the final result to the Form to draw? So I've got like 5-6 forms, one for each module. The user starts up my program, enters the remote machine's ID (not IP, ID, because we are registering with an intermediary server to enable NAT traversal), their password, and connects. Now let's suppose the connection is successful. Then the user is presented with a form with all the different modules. So he can open up a File Explorer, or he can mess with the Registry Editor, or he can choose to Chat with his buddy. So now the program is sort of idle, just waiting for the user to do something. If the user opens up Live Control, then the program will be spending most of it's time receiving packets from the remote machine and drawing them to the form to provide a 'live' view. 2. Second design question. A spin off question #1. How would I pass module-specific commands to their respective Windows Forms? What I mean is, I have a class like "NetworkHandler.cs" that checks for messages from the remote machine. NetworkHandler.cs is a static class globally accessible. So let's say I get a command that enumerates the remote user's files for a specific directory. How would I "give" that command to the File Explorer Form. I was thinking of making an OnCommandReceivedEvent inside NetworkHandler, and having each form register to that event. When the NetworkHandler received a command, it would raise the event, all forms would check it to see if it was relevant, and the appropriate form would take action. Is this an appropriate/the best solution available? 3. The networking library I'm using, Lidgren, provides two options for checking networking messages. One can either poll ReadMessage() to return null or a message, or one can use an AutoResetEvent OnMessageReceived (I'm guessing this is like an event). Which one is more appropriate?

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• How to design a C / C++ library to be usable in many client languages?

  - by Brian Schimmel

  I'm planning to code a library that should be usable by a large number of people in on a wide spectrum of platforms. What do I have to consider to design it right? To make this questions more specific, there are four "subquestions" at the end. Choice of language Considering all the known requirements and details, I concluded that a library written in C or C++ was the way to go. I think the primary usage of my library will be in programs written in C, C++ and Java SE, but I can also think of reasons to use it from Java ME, PHP, .NET, Objective C, Python, Ruby, bash scrips, etc... Maybe I cannot target all of them, but if it's possible, I'll do it. Requirements It would be to much to describe the full purpose of my library here, but there are some aspects that might be important to this question: The library itself will start out small, but definitely will grow to enormous complexity, so it is not an option to maintain several versions in parallel. Most of the complexity will be hidden inside the library, though The library will construct an object graph that is used heavily inside. Some clients of the library will only be interested in specific attributes of specific objects, while other clients must traverse the object graph in some way Clients may change the objects, and the library must be notified thereof The library may change the objects, and the client must be notified thereof, if it already has a handle to that object The library must be multi-threaded, because it will maintain network connections to several other hosts While some requests to the library may be handled synchronously, many of them will take too long and must be processed in the background, and notify the client on success (or failure) Of course, answers are welcome no matter if they address my specific requirements, or if they answer the question in a general way that matters to a wider audience! My assumptions, so far So here are some of my assumptions and conclusions, which I gathered in the past months: Internally I can use whatever I want, e.g. C++ with operator overloading, multiple inheritance, template meta programming... as long as there is a portable compiler which handles it (think of gcc / g++) But my interface has to be a clean C interface that does not involve name mangling Also, I think my interface should only consist of functions, with basic/primitive data types (and maybe pointers) passed as parameters and return values If I use pointers, I think I should only use them to pass them back to the library, not to operate directly on the referenced memory For usage in a C++ application, I might also offer an object oriented interface (Which is also prone to name mangling, so the App must either use the same compiler, or include the library in source form) Is this also true for usage in C# ? For usage in Java SE / Java EE, the Java native interface (JNI) applies. I have some basic knowledge about it, but I should definitely double check it. Not all client languages handle multithreading well, so there should be a single thread talking to the client For usage on Java ME, there is no such thing as JNI, but I might go with Nested VM For usage in Bash scripts, there must be an executable with a command line interface For the other client languages, I have no idea For most client languages, it would be nice to have kind of an adapter interface written in that language. I think there are tools to automatically generate this for Java and some others For object oriented languages, it might be possible to create an object oriented adapter which hides the fact that the interface to the library is function based - but I don't know if its worth the effort Possible subquestions is this possible with manageable effort, or is it just too much portability? are there any good books / websites about this kind of design criteria? are any of my assumptions wrong? which open source libraries are worth studying to learn from their design / interface / souce? meta: This question is rather long, do you see any way to split it into several smaller ones? (If you reply to this, do it as a comment, not as an answer)

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• Entity Framework RC1 DbContext query issue

  - by Steve

  I'm trying to implement the repository pattern using entity framework code first rc 1. The problem I am running into is with creating the DbContext. I have an ioc container resolving the IRepository and it has a contextprovider which just news up a new DbContext with a connection string in a windsor.config file. With linq2sql this part was no problem but EF seems to be choking. I'll describe the problem below with an example. I've pulled out the code to simplify things a bit so that is why you don't see any repository pattern stuff here. just sorta what is happening without all the extra code and classes. using (var context = new PlssContext()) { var x = context.Set<User>(); var y = x.Where(u => u.UserName == LogOnModel.UserName).FirstOrDefault(); } using (var context2 = new DbContext(@"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=PLSS.Models.PlssContext;Integrated Security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=True")) { var x = context2.Set<User>(); var y = x.Where(u => u.UserName == LogOnModel.UserName).FirstOrDefault(); } PlssContext is where I am creating my DbContext class. The repository pattern doesn't know anything about PlssContext. The best I thought I could do was create a DbContext with the connection string to the sqlexpress database and query the data that way. The connection string in the var context2 was grabbed from the context after newing up the PlssContext object. So they are pointing at the same sqlexpress database. The first query works. The second query fails miserably with this error: The model backing the 'DbContext' context has changed since the database was created. Either manually delete/update the database, or call Database.SetInitializer with an IDatabaseInitializer instance. For example, the DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges strategy will automatically delete and recreate the database, and optionally seed it with new data. on this line var y = x.Where(u => u.UserName == LogOnModel.UserName).FirstOrDefault(); Here is my DbContext namespace PLSS.Models { public class PlssContext : DbContext { public DbSet<User> Users { get; set; } public DbSet<Corner> Corners { get; set; } public DbSet<Lookup_County> Lookup_County { get; set; } public DbSet<Lookup_Accuracy> Lookup_Accuracy { get; set; } public DbSet<Lookup_MonumentStatus> Lookup_MonumentStatus { get; set; } public DbSet<Lookup_CoordinateSystem> Lookup_CoordinateSystem { get; set; } public class Initializer : DropCreateDatabaseAlways<PlssContext> { protected override void Seed(PlssContext context) { I've tried all of the Initializer strategies with the same errors. I don't think the database is changing. If I remove the modelBuilder.Conventions.Remove<IncludeMetadataConvention>(); Then the error returns is The entity type User is not part of the model for the current context. Which sort of makes sense. But how do you bring this all together?

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• Clearcase - selective merge.

  - by Keshav

  Hi, I have a peculiar Clearcase doubt. I cannot fully describe why I'm doing such a confusing architecture, but I need to do it (thanks to the mistake done by someone long back). Ok, here's a bit of detail: B1 is a contaminated branch where both my group's changes and another group's changes got mixed together so badly that there is no way of finding which code is whose). So the solution proposed is to create a new branch called B2 (at the same level as B1) and put all the unmodified code of the other group on it (The way to do that would be to merge B1 with B2 and then go about removing all changes from it till it becomes original). Then create a CR branch on B1 and keep only my group's newly added files or modified files on that branch. Finally create an integration branch out of B2 and merge the changes from CR branch of B1 to integration branch of B2. So here is what I did: (The use case is where I have dir D where file a, b and c are there. My group ended up modifying file a while b and c are not modified at all). There is a branch B1 on which there are files a, b and c. There is another branch B2. A merge is done from B1 to B2. Now B2 also has a, b and c. At this point both branch B1 and B2 are same. Now I delete file a from branch B2 (rmname). Now B2 has b and c only. I put a label to this branch called Label1. This makes the code with label Label1 as the unmodified code from other group. Now I create a sub branch called CR1 from B1 and delete all the files that are there in B2 branch (i.e b and c) such that it contains only the modified code from original code on it. In my case it is file a. At this point branch B2 with label Label1 has files b and c (those are unmodified code) and branch CR1 coming off B1 has only a (that is modified by us). Now I create another branch called integration branch that comes off B2 Label1. And then I do a merge of CR branch on to that expecting that it will have all three files a, b and c for me. All I'd need to do is to do a version tree view and see who modified what. But the problem I face is that since I had done a rmname of file a on branch B2 earlier to putting Label. The merge does not really take the file a from CR branch. How to I get around that problem. I want to selectively merge. Is it possible? sorry if it is a bad design. I'm not really conversant with Clear case and have limited options and time to clear some one else's mess.

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• What are the principles of developing web-applications with action-based java frameworks?

  - by Roman

  Background I'm going to develop a new web-application with java. It's not very big or very complex and I have enough time until it'll "officially" start. I have some JSF/Facelets development background (about half a year). And I also have some expirience with JSP+JSTL. In self-educational purpose (and also in order to find the best solution) I want to prototype the new project with one of action-based frameworks. Actually, I will choose between Spring MVC and Stripes. Problem In order to get correct impression about action-based frameworks (in comparison with JSF) I want to be sure that I use them correctly (in bigger or lesser extent). So, here I list some most-frequent tasks (at least for me) and describe how I solve them with JSF. I want to know how they should be solved with action-based framework (or separately with Spring MVC and Stripes if there is any difference for concrete task). Rendering content: I can apply ready-to-use component from standard jsf libraries (core and html) or from 3rd-party libs (like RichFaces). I can combine simple components and I can easily create my own components which are based on standard components. Rendering data (primitive or reference types) in the correct format: Each component allow to specify a converter for transforming data in both ways (to render and to send to the server). Converter is, as usual, a simple class with 2 small methods. Site navigation: I specify a set of navigation-cases in faces-config.xml. Then I specify action-attribute of a link (or a button) which should match one or more of navigation cases. The best match is choosen by JSF. Implementing flow (multiform wizards for example): I'm using JSF 1.2 so I use Apache Orchestra for the flow (conversation) scope. Form processing: I have a pretty standard java-bean (backing bean in JSF terms) with some scope. I 'map' form fields on this bean properties. If everything goes well (no exceptions and validation is passed) then all these properties are set with values from the form fields. Then I can call one method (specified in button's action attribute) to execute some logic and return string which should much one of my navigation cases to go to the next screen. Forms validation: I can create custom validator (or choose from existing) and add it to almost each component. 3rd-party libraries have sets of custom ajax-validators. Standard validators work only after page is submitted. Actually, I don't like how validation in JSF works. Too much magic there. Many standard components (or maybe all of them) have predefined validation and it's impossible to disable it (Maybe not always, but I met many problems with it). Ajax support: many 3rd-party libraries (MyFaces, IceFaces, OpenFaces, AnotherPrefixFaces...) have strong ajax support and it works pretty well. Until you meet a problem. Too much magic there as well. It's very difficult to make it work if it doesn't work but you've done right as it's described in the manual. User-friendly URLs: people say that there are some libraries for that exist. And it can be done with filters as well. But I've never tried. It seems too complex for the first look. Thanks in advance for explaning how these items (or some of them) can be done with action-based framework.

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• What's the best-practice way to update an Adapter's underlying data?

  - by skyler

  I'm running into an IllegalStateException updating an underlying List to an Adapter (might be an ArrayAdapter or an extension of BaseAdapter, I don't remember). I do not have or remember the text of the exception at the moment, but it says something to the effect of the List's content changing without the Adapter having been notified of the change. This List /may/ be updated from another thread other than the UI thread (main). After I update this list (adding an item), I call notifyDataSetChanged. The issue seems to be that the Adapter, or ListView attached to the Adapter attempts to update itself before this method is invoked. When this happens, the IllegalStateException is thrown. If I set the ListView's visibility to GONE before the update, then VISIBLE again, no error occurs. But this isn't always practical. I read somewhere that you cannot modify the underlying this from another thread--this would seem to limit an MVC pattern, as with this particular List, I want to add items from different threads. I assumed that as long as I called notifyDataSetChanged() I'd be safe--that the Adapter didn't revisit the underlying List until this method was invoked but this doesn't seem to be the case. I suppose what I'm asking is, can it be safe to update the underlying List from threads other than the UI? Additionally, if I want to modify the data within an Adapter, do I modify the underlying List or the Adapter itself (via its add(), etc. methods). Modifying the data through the Adapter seems wrong. I came across a thread on another site from someone who seems to be having a similar problem to mine: http://osdir.com/ml/Android-Developers/2010-04/msg01199.html (this is from where I grabbed the Visibility.GONE and .VISIBLE idea). To give you a better idea of my particular problem, I'll describe a bit of how my List, Adapter, etc. are set up. I've an object named Queue that contains a LinkedList. Queue extends Observable, and when things are added to its internal list through its methods, I call setChanged() and notifyListeners(). This Queue object can have items added or removed from any number of threads. I have a single "queue view" Activity that contains an Adapter. This Activity, in its onCreate() method, registers an Observer listener to my Queue object. In the Observer's update() method I call notifyDataSetChanged() on the Adapter. I added a lot of log output and determined that when this IllegalStateExcption occurs that my Observer callback was never invoked. So it's as if the Adapter noticed the List's change before the Observer had a chance to notify its Observers, and call my method to notify the Adapter that the contents had changed. So I suppose what I'm asking is, is this a good way to rig-up an Adapter? Is this a problem because I'm updating the Adapter's contents from a thread other than the UI thread? If this is the case, I may have a solution in mind (give the Queue object a Handler to the UI thread when it's created, and make all List modifications using that Handler, but this seems improper). I realize that this is a very open-ended post, but I'm a bit lost on this and would appreciate any comments on what I've written.

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• What version-control system is most trivial to set up and use for toy projects?

  - by Norman Ramsey

  I teach the third required intro course in a CS department. One of my homework assignments asks students to speed up code they have written for a previous assignment. Factor-of-ten speedups are routine; factors of 100 or 1000 are not unheard of. (For a factor of 1000 speedup you have to have made rookie mistakes with malloc().) Programs are improved by a sequence is small changes. I ask students to record and describe each change and the resulting improvement. While you're improving a program it is also possible to break it. Wouldn't it be nice to back out? You can see where I'm going with this: my students would benefit enormously from version control. But there are some caveats: Our computing environment is locked down. Anything that depends on a central repository is suspect. Our students are incredibly overloaded. Not just classes but jobs, sports, music, you name it. For them to use a new tool it has to be incredibly easy and have obvious benefits. Our students do most work in pairs. Getting bits back and forth between accounts is problematic. Could this problem also be solved by distributed version control? Complexity is the enemy. I know setting up a CVS repository is too baffling---I myself still have trouble because I only do it once a year. I'm told SVN is even harder. Here are my comments on existing systems: I think central version control (CVS or SVN) is ruled out because our students don't have the administrative privileges needed to make a repository that they can share with one other student. (We are stuck with Unix file permissions.) Also, setup on CVS or SVN is too hard. darcs is way easy to set up, but it's not obvious how you share things. darcs send (to send patches by email) seems promising but it's not clear how to set it up. The introductory documentation for git is not for beginners. Like CVS setup, it's something I myself have trouble with. I'm soliciting suggestions for what source-control to use with beginning students. I suspect we can find resources to put a thin veneer over an existing system and to simplify existing documentation. We probably don't have resources to write new documentation. So, what's really easy to setup, commit, revert, and share changes with a partner but does not have to be easy to merge or to work at scale? A key constraint is that programming pairs have to be able to share work with each other and only each other, and pairs change every week. Our infrastructure is Linux, Solaris, and Windows with a netapp filer. I doubt my IT staff wants to create a Unix group for each pair of students. Is there an easier solution I've overlooked? (Thanks for the accepted answer, which beats the others on account of its excellent reference to Git Magic as well as the helpful comments.)

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• CFStrings and storing them into models, related topics

  - by Jasconius

  I have a very frustrating issue that I believe involves CFStringRef and passing them along to custom model properties. The code is pretty messy right now as I am in a debug state, but I will try to describe the problem in words as best as I can. I have a custom model, User, which for irrelevant reasons, I am storing CF types derived from the Address Book API into. Examples include: Name, email as NSStrings. I am simply retrieving the CFStringRef value from the AddressBook API and casting as a string, whereupon I assign to the custom model instance and then CFRelease the string. These NSString properties are set as (nonatomic, retain). I then store this model into an NSArray, and I use this Array as a datasource for a UITableView When accessing the object in the cellForRowAtIndexPath, I get a memory access error. When I do a Debug, I see that the value for this datasource array appears at first glance to be corrupted. I've seen strange values assigned to it, including just plain strings, such as one that I fed to an NSLog function in earlier in the method. So, the thing that leads me to believe that this is Core Foundation related is that I am executing this exact same code, in the same class even, on non-Address Book data, in fact, just good old JSON parsed strings, which produce true Cocoa NSStrings, that I follow the same exact steps to create the datasource array. This code works fine. I have a feeling that my (retain) property declaration and/or my [stringVar release] in my custom model dealloc method may be causing memory problems (since it is my understanding that you shouldn't call a Cocoa retain or release on a CF object). Here is the code. I know some of this is super-roundabout but I was trying to make things as explicit as possible for the sake of debugging. NSMutableArray *friendUsers = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; int numberOfPeople = CFArrayGetCount(people); for (int i = 0; i < numberOfPeople; i++) { ABMutableMultiValueRef emails = ABRecordCopyValue(CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(people, i), kABPersonEmailProperty); if (ABMultiValueGetCount(emails) > 0) { User *addressContact = [[User alloc] init]; NSString *firstName = (NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(people, i), kABPersonFirstNameProperty); NSString *lastName = (NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(people, i), kABPersonLastNameProperty); NSLog(@"%@ and %@", firstName, lastName); NSString *fullName = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ %@", firstName, lastName]; NSString *email = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", (NSString *)ABMultiValueCopyValueAtIndex(emails, 0)]; NSLog(@"the email: %@", email); [addressContact setName:fullName]; [addressContact setEmail:email]; [friendUsers addObject:addressContact]; [firstName release]; [lastName release]; [email release]; [addressContact release]; } CFRelease(emails); } NSLog(@"friend count: %d", [friendUsers count]); abFriends = [NSArray arrayWithArray:friendUsers]; [friendUsers release]; All of that works, every logging statement returns as expected. But when I use abFriends as a datasource, poof. Dead. Is my approach all wrong? Any advice?

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• iOS: Interpreted code - where do they draw the line?

  - by d7samurai

  Apple's iOS developer guidelines state: 3.3.2 — An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded or used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Documented APIs and built-in interpreter(s). Assuming that downloading data - like XML and images (or a game level description), for example - at run-time is allowed (as is my impression), I am wondering where they draw the line between "data" and "code". Picture the scenario of an app that delivers interactive "presentations" to users (like a survey, for instance). Presentations are added continuously to the server and different presentations are made available to different users, so they cannot be part of the initial app download (this is the whole point). They are described in XML format, but being interactive, they might contain conditional branching of this sort (shown in pseudo form to exemplify): <options id="Gender"> <option value="1">Male</option> <option value="2">Female</option> </options> <branches id="Gender"> <branch value="1"> <image src="Man" /> </branch> <branch value="2"> <image src="Woman" /> </branch> </branches> When the presentation is "played" within the app, the above would be presented in two steps. First a selection screen where the user can click on either of the two choices presented ("Male" or "Female"). Next, an image will be [downloaded dynamically] and displayed based on the choice made in the previous step. Now, it's easy to imagine additional tags describing further logic still. For example, a containing tag could be added: <loop count="3"> <options... /> <branches... /> </loop> The result here being that the selection screen / image screen pair would be sequentially presented three times over, of course. Or imagine some description of a level in a game. It's easy to view that as passive "data", but if it includes, say, several doorways that the user can go through and with various triggers, traps and points attached to them etc - isn't that the same as using a script - or, indeed, interpreted code - to describe options and their conditional responses? Assuming that the interpretation engine for this XML data is already present in the app and that such presentations can only be consumed (not created or edited) in the app, how would this fare against Apple's iOS guidelines? Doesn't XML basically constitute a scripting language (couldn't any interpreted programming language simply be described by XML) in this sense? Would it be OK if the proprietary scripting language (ref the XML used above) was strictly sandboxed (how can they tell?) and not given access to the operating system in any way (but able to download content dynamically - and upload results to the authoring server)? Where does the line go?

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• Why does jQuery's $().each() function seem to be losing track of the DOM?

  - by Nate Wagar

  I've recently started encountering a very strange problem. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how to describe it other than to just show it. Here's the relevant HTML: <div class="component container w100 noEdit" id="contentWrapper"> <div class="component container w50" id="container1"> <div class="component text w50" id="text1"> Text1 </div> </div> <div class="component container w25" id="container2"> Container2 </div> <div class="component container w25" id="container3"> Container3 </div> <div class="component container w25" id="container4"> Container4 </div> </div> And the relevant JavaScript: $(document).ready(function () { //Add the Grab Bar to container components on the page. $('.component').each(wrapComponentForEdit); $('#contentWrapper').sortable(); $('#contentWrapper').disableSelection(); }); var wrapComponentForEdit = function() { if (!$(this).hasClass('noEdit')) { $(this).html('<div class="componentBorder">' + $(this).html() + '</div>'); $(this).prepend('<div class="grabBar_l"><div class="grabBar_r"><div class="grabBar"></div></div></div>'); alert($(this).attr('id')); } } The end result of this is that I see an alert pop up for container1, text1, container2, container3, container 4. And yet only the containers (not the text) end up with the visual changes that the $().each() is supposed to make. Anyone have any idea what the heck is going on? Thanks! EDIT - A different way to do it, that still fails I tried this, with the same result: $(document).ready(function () { //Add the Grab Bar to container components on the page. var matched = $('.component'); var componentCount = $(matched).size(); for (i = 0; i < componentCount; i++) { wrapComponentForEdit($(matched).eq(i)); } $('#contentWrapper').sortable({ handle: '.grabBarBit', tolerance: 'pointer'}); $('#contentWrapper').disableSelection(); }); var wrapComponentForEdit = function(component) { if (!$(component).hasClass('noEdit')) { $(component).html('<div class="grabBar_l grabBarBit"><div class="grabBar_r grabBarBit"><div class="grabBar grabBarBit"></div></div></div><div class="componentBorder">' + $(component).html() + '</div>'); alert($(component).attr('id')); } } EDIT 2: Another alternate method, but this one works I tried another way of doing things, and this way it works. However, the initial question still stands. Judging by how this new way works, it seems to me that the DOM is being updated, but jQuery isn't updating with it, so it loses track of the child element. $(document).ready(function () { //Add the Grab Bar to container components on the page. var componentCount = $('.component').size(); for (i = 0; i < componentCount; i++) { wrapComponentForEdit($('.component').eq(i)); } $('#contentWrapper').sortable({ handle: '.grabBarBit', tolerance: 'pointer'}); $('#contentWrapper').disableSelection(); }); var wrapComponentForEdit = function(component) { if (!$(component).hasClass('noEdit')) { $(component).html('<div class="grabBar_l grabBarBit"><div class="grabBar_r grabBarBit"><div class="grabBar grabBarBit"></div></div></div><div class="componentBorder">' + $(component).html() + '</div>'); alert($(component).attr('id')); } }

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• LINQ-like or SQL-like DSL for end-users to run queries to select (not modify) data?

  - by Mark Rushakoff

  For a utility I'm working on, the client would like to be able to generate graphic reports on the data that has been collected. I can already generate a couple canned graphs (using ZedGraph, which is a very nice library); however, the utility would be much more flexible if the graphs were more programmable or configurable by the end-user. TLDR version I want users to be able to use something like SQL to safely extract and select data from a List of objects that I provide and can describe. What free tools or libraries will help me accomplish this? Full version I've given thought to using IronPython, IronRuby, and LuaInterface, but frankly they're all a bit overpowered for what I want to do. My classes are fairly simple, along the lines of: class Person: string Name; int HeightInCm; DateTime BirthDate; Weight[] WeighIns; class Weight: int WeightInKg; DateTime Date; Person Owner; (exact classes have been changed to protect the innocent). To come up with the data for the graph, the user will choose whether it's a bar graph, scatter plot, etc., and then to actually obtain the data, I would like to obtain some kind of List from the user simply entering something SQL-ish along the lines of SELECT Name, AVG(WeighIns) FROM People SELECT WeightInKg, Owner.HeightInCm FROM Weights And as a bonus, it would be nice if you could actually do operations as well: SELECT WeightInKg, (Date - Owner.BirthDate) AS Age FROM Weights The DSL doesn't have to be compliant SQL in any way; it doesn't even have to resemble SQL, but I can't think of a more efficient descriptive language for the task. I'm fine filling in blanks; I don't expect a library to do everything for me. What I would expect to exist (but haven't been able to find in any way, shape, or form) is something like Fluent NHibernate (which I am already using in the project) where I can declare a mapping, something like var personRequest = Request<Person>(); personRequest.Item("Name", (p => p.Name)); personRequest.Item("HeightInCm", (p => p.HeightInCm)); personRequest.Item("HeightInInches", (p => p.HeightInCm * CM_TO_INCHES)); // ... var weightRequest = Request<Weight>(); weightRequest.Item("Owner", (w => w.Owner), personRequest); // Indicate a chain to personRequest // ... var people = Table<Person>("People", GetPeopleFromDatabase()); var weights = Table<Weight>("Weights", GetWeightsFromDatabase()); // ... TryRunQuery(userInputQuery); LINQ is so close to what I want to do, but AFAIK there's no way to sandbox it. I don't want to expose any unnecessary functionality to the end user; meaning I don't want the user to be able to send in and process: from p in people select (p => { System.IO.File.Delete("C:\\something\\important"); return p.Name }) So does anyone know of any free .NET libraries that allow something like what I've described above? Or is there some way to sandbox LINQ? cs-script is close too, but it doesn't seem to offer sandboxing yet either. I'd be hesitant to expose the NHibernate interface either, as the user should have a read-only view of the data at this point in the usage. I'm using C# 3.5, and pure .NET solutions would be preferred. The bottom line is that I'm really trying to avoid writing my own parser for a subset of SQL that would only apply to this single project.

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• Data Warehouse ETL slow - change primary key in dimension?

  - by Jubbles

  I have a working MySQL data warehouse that is organized as a star schema and I am using Talend Open Studio for Data Integration 5.1 to create the ETL process. I would like this process to run once per day. I have estimated that one of the dimension tables (dimUser) will have approximately 2 million records and 23 columns. I created a small test ETL process in Talend that worked, but given the amount of data that may need to be updated daily, the current performance will not cut it. It takes the ETL process four minutes to UPDATE or INSERT 100 records to dimUser. If I assumed a linear relationship between the count of records and the amount of time to UPDATE or INSERT, then there is no way the ETL can finish in 3-4 hours (my hope), let alone one day. Since I'm unfamiliar with Java, I wrote the ETL as a Python script and ran into the same problem. Although, I did discover that if I did only INSERT, the process went much faster. I am pretty sure that the bottleneck is caused by the UPDATE statements. The primary key in dimUser is an auto-increment integer. My friend suggested that I scrap this primary key and replace it with a multi-field primary key (in my case, 2-3 fields). Before I rip the test data out of my warehouse and change the schema, can anyone provide suggestions or guidelines related to the design of the data warehouse the ETL process how realistic it is to have an ETL process INSERT or UPDATE a few million records each day will my friend's suggestion significantly help If you need any further information, just let me know and I'll post it. UPDATE - additional information: mysql> describe dimUser; Field Type Null Key Default Extra user_key int(10) unsigned NO PRI NULL auto_increment id_A int(10) unsigned NO NULL id_B int(10) unsigned NO NULL field_4 tinyint(4) unsigned NO 0 field_5 varchar(50) YES NULL city varchar(50) YES NULL state varchar(2) YES NULL country varchar(50) YES NULL zip_code varchar(10) NO 99999 field_10 tinyint(1) NO 0 field_11 tinyint(1) NO 0 field_12 tinyint(1) NO 0 field_13 tinyint(1) NO 1 field_14 tinyint(1) NO 0 field_15 tinyint(1) NO 0 field_16 tinyint(1) NO 0 field_17 tinyint(1) NO 1 field_18 tinyint(1) NO 0 field_19 tinyint(1) NO 0 field_20 tinyint(1) NO 0 create_date datetime NO 2012-01-01 00:00:00 last_update datetime NO 2012-01-01 00:00:00 run_id int(10) unsigned NO 999 I used a surrogate key because I had read that it was good practice. Since, from a business perspective, I want to keep aware of potential fraudulent activity (say for 200 days a user is associated with state X and then the next day they are associated with state Y - they could have moved or their account could have been compromised), so that is why geographic data is kept. The field id_B may have a few distinct values of id_A associated with it, but I am interested in knowing distinct (id_A, id_B) tuples. In the context of this information, my friend suggested that something like (id_A, id_B, zip_code) be the primary key. For the large majority of daily ETL processes (80%), I only expect the following fields to be updated for existing records: field_10 - field_14, last_update, and run_id (this field is a foreign key to my etlLog table and is used for ETL auditing purposes).

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• I never really understood: what is Application Binary Interface (ABI)?

  - by claws

  I never clearly understood what is an ABI. I'm sorry for such a lengthy question. I just want to clearly understand things. Please don't point me to wiki article, If could understand it, I wouldn't be here posting such a lengthy post. This is my mindset about different interfaces: TV remote is an interface between user and TV. It is an existing entity but useless (doesn't provide any functionality) by itself. All the functionality for each of those buttons on the remote is implemented in the Television set. Interface: It is a "existing entity" layer between the functionality and consumer of that functionality. An, interface by itself is doesn't do anything. It just invokes the functionality lying behind. Now depending on who the user is there are different type of interfaces. Command Line Interface(CLI) commands are the existing entities, consumer is the user and functionality lies behind. functionality: my software functionality which solves some purpose to which we are describing this interface. existing entities: commands consumer: user Graphical User Interface(GUI) window,buttons etc.. are the existing entities, again consumer is the user and functionality lies behind. functionality: my software functionality which solves some purpose to which we are describing this interface. existing entities: window,buttons etc.. consumer: user Application Programming Interface(API) functions or to be more correct, interfaces (in interfaced based programming) are the existing entities, consumer here is another program not a user. and again functionality lies behind this layer. functionality: my software functionality which solves some purpose to which we are describing this interface. existing entities: functions, Interfaces(array of functions). consumer: another program/application. Application Binary Interface (ABI) Here is my problem starts. functionality: ??? existing entities: ??? consumer: ??? I've wrote few softwares in different languages and provided different kind of interfaces (CLI, GUI, API) but I'm not sure, if I ever, provided any ABI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_binary_interface says: ABIs cover details such as data type, size, and alignment; the calling convention, which controls how functions' arguments are passed and return values retrieved; the system call numbers and how an application should make system calls to the operating system; Other ABIs standardize details such as the C++ name mangling,[2] . exception propagation,[3] and calling convention between compilers on the same platform, but do not require cross-platform compatibility. Who needs these details? Please don't say, OS. I know assembly programming. I know how linking & loading works. I know what exactly happens inside. Where did C++ name mangling come in between? I thought we are talking at the binary level. Where did languages come in between? anyway, I've downloaded the [PDF] System V Application Binary Interface Edition 4.1 (1997-03-18) to see what exactly it contains. Well, most of it didn't make any sense. Why does it contain 2 chapters (4th & 5th) which describe the ELF file format.Infact, these are the only 2 significant chapters that specification. Rest of all the chapters "Processor Specific". Anyway, I thought that it is completely different topic. Please don't say that ELF file format specs are the ABI. It doesn't qualify to be Interface according to the definition. I know, since we are talking at such low level it must be very specific. But I'm not sure how is it "Instruction Set Architecture(ISA)" specific? Where can I find MS Window's ABI? So, these are the major queries that are bugging me.

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• Tool or library for end-users to run queries to select (not modify) data?

  - by Mark Rushakoff

  For a utility I'm working on, the client would like to be able to generate graphic reports on the data that has been collected. I can already generate a couple canned graphs (using ZedGraph, which is a very nice library); however, the utility would be much more flexible if the graphs were more programmable or configurable by the end-user. TLDR version I want users to be able to use something like SQL to safely extract and select data from a List of objects that I provide and can describe. What free tools or libraries will help me accomplish this? Full version I've given thought to using IronPython, IronRuby, and LuaInterface, but frankly they're all a bit overpowered for what I want to do. My classes are fairly simple, along the lines of: class Person: string Name; int HeightInCm; DateTime BirthDate; Weight[] WeighIns; class Weight: int WeightInKg; DateTime Date; Person Owner; (exact classes have been changed to protect the innocent). To come up with the data for the graph, the user will choose whether it's a bar graph, scatter plot, etc., and then to actually obtain the data, I would like to obtain some kind of List from the user simply entering something SQL-ish along the lines of SELECT Name, AVG(WeighIns) FROM People SELECT WeightInKg, Owner.HeightInCm FROM Weights And as a bonus, it would be nice if you could actually do operations as well: SELECT WeightInKg, (Date - Owner.BirthDate) AS Age FROM Weights The DSL doesn't have to be compliant SQL in any way; it doesn't even have to resemble SQL, but I can't think of a more efficient descriptive language for the task. I'm fine filling in blanks; I don't expect a library to do everything for me. What I would expect to exist (but haven't been able to find in any way, shape, or form) is something like Fluent NHibernate (which I am already using in the project) where I can declare a mapping, something like var personRequest = Request<Person>(); personRequest.Item("Name", (p => p.Name)); personRequest.Item("HeightInCm", (p => p.HeightInCm)); personRequest.Item("HeightInInches", (p => p.HeightInCm * CM_TO_INCHES)); // ... var weightRequest = Request<Weight>(); weightRequest.Item("Owner", (w => w.Owner), personRequest); // Indicate a chain to personRequest // ... var people = Table<Person>("People", GetPeopleFromDatabase()); var weights = Table<Weight>("Weights", GetWeightsFromDatabase()); // ... TryRunQuery(userInputQuery); LINQ is so close to what I want to do, but AFAIK there's no way to sandbox it. I don't want to expose any unnecessary functionality to the end user; meaning I don't want the user to be able to send in and process: from p in people select (p => { System.IO.File.Delete("C:\\something\\important"); return p.Name }) So does anyone know of any free .NET libraries that allow something like what I've described above? Or is there some way to sandbox LINQ? cs-script is close too, but it doesn't seem to offer sandboxing yet either. I'd be hesitant to expose the NHibernate interface either, as the user should have a read-only view of the data at this point in the usage. I'm using C# 3.5, and pure .NET solutions would be preferred. The bottom line is that I'm really trying to avoid writing my own parser for a subset of SQL that would only apply to this single project.

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• Templates, interfaces (multiple inheritance) and static functions (named constructors)

  - by fledgling Cxx user

  Setup I have a graph library where I am trying to decompose things as much as possible, and the cleanest way to describe it that I found is the following: there is a vanilla type node implementing only a list of edges: class node { public: int* edges; int edge_count; }; Then, I would like to be able to add interfaces to this whole mix, like so: template <class T> class node_weight { public: T weight; }; template <class T> class node_position { public: T x; T y; }; and so on. Then, the actual graph class comes in, which is templated on the actual type of node: template <class node_T> class graph { protected: node_T* nodes; public: static graph cartesian(int n, int m) { graph r; r.nodes = new node_T[n * m]; return r; } }; The twist is that it has named constructors which construct some special graphs, like a Cartesian lattice. In this case, I would like to be able to add some extra information into the graph, depending on what interfaces are implemented by node_T. What would be the best way to accomplish this? Possible solution I thought of the following humble solution, through dynamic_cast<>: template <class node_T, class weight_T, class position_T> class graph { protected: node_T* nodes; public: static graph cartesian(int n, int m) { graph r; r.nodes = new node_T[n * m]; if (dynamic_cast<node_weight<weight_T>>(r.nodes[0]) != nullptr) { // do stuff knowing you can add weights } if (dynamic_cast<node_position<positionT>>(r.nodes[0]) != nullptr) { // do stuff knowing you can set position } return r; } }; which would operate on node_T being the following: template <class weight_T, class position_T> class node_weight_position : public node, public node_weight<weight_T>, public node_position<position_T> { // ... }; Questions Is this -- philosophically -- the right way to go? I know people don't look nicely at multiple inheritance, though with "interfaces" like these it should all be fine. There are unfortunately problems with this. From what I know at least, dynamic_cast<> involves quite a bit of run-time overhead. Hence, I run into a problem with what I had solved earlier: writing graph algorithms that require weights independently of whether the actual node_T class has weights or not. The solution with this 'interface' approach would be to write a function: template <class node_T, class weight_T> inline weight_T get_weight(node_T const & n) { if (dynamic_cast<node_weight<weight_T>>(n) != nullptr) { return dynamic_cast<node_weight<weight_T>>(n).weight; } return T(1); } but the issue with it is that it works using run-time information (dynamic_cast), yet in principle I would like to decide it at compile-time and thus make the code more efficient. If there is a different solution that would solve both problems, especially a cleaner and better one than what I have, I would love to hear about it!

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