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  • Usage of repository between EF model and code consumer

    - by jim
    I have binary data in my database that I'll have to convert to bitmap at some point. I was thinking whether or not it's appropriate to use a repository and do it there. My consumer, which is a presentation layer, will use this repository. For example: // This is a class I created for modeling the item as is. public class RealItem { public string Name { get; set; } public Bitmap Image { get; set; } } public abstract class BaseRepository { //using Unity (http://unity.codeplex.com) to inject the dependancy of entity context. [Dependency] public Context { get; set; } } public calss ItemRepository : BaseRepository { public List<Items> Select() { IEnumerable<Items> items = from item in Context.Items select item; List<RealItem> lst = new List<RealItem>(); foreach(itm in items) { MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(itm.Image); Bitmap image = (Bitmap)Image.FromStream(stream); RealItem ritem = new RealItem{ Name=item.Name, Image=image }; lst.Add(ritem); } return lst; } } Is this a correct way to use the repository pattern? I'm learning this pattern and I've seen a lot of examples online that are using a repository but when I looked at their source code... for example: public IQueryable<object> Select { return from q in base.Context select q; } as you can see no behavior is added to the system by their approach, so I was confused that maybe repository is something else and I got it all wrong. At the end there should be extra benifits of using them right?

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  • How to determine the end of list has been reached?

    - by Sweta Dwivedi
    I'm trying to animate my object according to a set of recorded values from kinect skeleton stream by saving the (x,y,z) stream from the skeletal data into a list and then set my objects x and y position from the x,y of the list. However, once the list end has been reached it starts to animate again from the start. I don't want that - I just want the model position to keep going in the positive X direction. Is there any way I can check if end of the list has been reached and to just update the model position in x direction? Or is there any other way to continue moving my sprite once the points in the list are over... i dont want it to start animating all the way again.. protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { //position += spriteSpeed * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; //// TODO: Add your update logic here using (StreamReader r = new StreamReader(f)) { string line; Viewport view = graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport; int maxWidth = view.Width; int maxHeight = view.Height; while((line = r.ReadLine()) != null) { string[] temp = line.Split(','); int x = (int) Math.Floor(((float.Parse(temp[0]) * 0.5f) + 0.5f) * maxWidth); int y = (int) Math.Floor(((float.Parse(temp[1]) * -0.5f) + 0.5f) * maxHeight); motion_2.Add(new Point(x, y)); } } position.X = motion_2[i].X; position.Y = motion_2[i].Y; i++; a_butterfly_up.Update(gameTime); a_butterfly_side.Update(gameTime); G_vidPlayer.Play(mossV); base.Update(gameTime); }

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  • Does LINQ require significantly more processing cycles and memory than lower-level data iteration techniques?

    - by Matthew Patrick Cashatt
    Background I am recently in the process of enduring grueling tech interviews for positions that use the .NET stack, some of which include silly questions like this one, and some questions that are more valid. I recently came across an issue that may be valid but I want to check with the community here to be sure. When asked by an interviewer how I would count the frequency of words in a text document and rank the results, I answered that I would Use a stream object put the text file in memory as a string. Split the string into an array on spaces while ignoring punctuation. Use LINQ against the array to .GroupBy() and .Count(), then OrderBy() said count. I got this answer wrong for two reasons: Streaming an entire text file into memory could be disasterous. What if it was an entire encyclopedia? Instead I should stream one block at a time and begin building a hash table. LINQ is too expensive and requires too many processing cycles. I should have built a hash table instead and, for each iteration, only added a word to the hash table if it didn't otherwise exist and then increment it's count. The first reason seems, well, reasonable. But the second gives me more pause. I thought that one of the selling points of LINQ is that it simply abstracts away lower-level operations like hash tables but that, under the veil, it is still the same implementation. Question Aside from a few additional processing cycles to call any abstracted methods, does LINQ require significantly more processing cycles to accomplish a given data iteration task than a lower-level task (such as building a hash table) would?

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  • Web application interacts bi-directional with server program?

    - by Roelof Berkepeis
    I want to write a web application to play chess against the engine Crafty. I'm not new to PHP and javascript, but must learn how to interact with a server process : how can a web application and/or (jQuery) ajax interact bi-directionally with a (linux) program running on the server? At this moment i am developing on (Apache) local host. Crafty is installed on my Ubuntu PC. This well-known chess engine has no GUI, it runs in terminal by the command $ /usr/games/crafty and so you can play chess against it and even see it's calculations. I can make Crafty run by PHP, using the functions proc_open() or exec(), and most documentation i found states that the output stream should be a file .. But i think i don't want such setup, because then the webpage should be constanty polling that file (eg. by ajax) to see if some new data was appended, right? How can Crafty talk to the web page directly, saying "i have calculated another variation" or "i have decided a move" etc, then display this info on the web page and let the user give some counter move, just like in terminal. Isn't it possible to use some session / stream / listener? I have no clue at all, can anybody point me in a right direction?

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  • Getting Error whileInitializing entities [closed]

    - by R76
    I am new'b as WPF Dev. I am developing Window application in WPF using mvvmlight framework. I have created database in Sqlserver compact 4.0. I have made a Ado.net Entity Data Model. When I trying to initialize the Entity object in service it throws the error like: Error 'The invocation of the constructor on type 'PointOfSale.ViewModels.ProductsViewModel' that matches the specified binding constraints threw an exception.' Line number '7' and line position '10'. stack Trace at System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader.RewrapException(Exception e, IXamlLineInfo lineInfo, Uri baseUri) at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.Load(XamlReader xamlReader, IXamlObjectWriterFactory writerFactory, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlObjectWriterSettings settings, Uri baseUri) at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.LoadBaml(XamlReader xamlReader, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlAccessLevel accessLevel, Uri baseUri) at System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader.LoadBaml(Stream stream, ParserContext parserContext, Object parent, Boolean closeStream) at System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(Object component, Uri resourceLocator) at PointOfSale.MainWindow.InitializeComponent() in e:\VarniApplication\PointOfSale\PointOfSale\MainWindow.xaml:line 1 at PointOfSale.MainWindow..ctor() in E:\VarniApplication\PointOfSale\PointOfSale\MainWindow.xaml.cs:line 27 Inner Exception {"Unable to load the specified metadata resource."} My code: xyzEntities entites; public ctor() { entites = new xyzEntities(); //This line throws an error } I have installed sql server compact 4.0 from web installer 3.0. and added the sql server compact toolbox from the extension manager. Tell me if I am missing something to install or missing something to write code.

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  • Using the West Wind Web Toolkit to set up AJAX and REST Services

    - by Rick Strahl
    I frequently get questions about which option to use for creating AJAX and REST backends for ASP.NET applications. There are many solutions out there to do this actually, but when I have a choice - not surprisingly - I fall back to my own tools in the West Wind West Wind Web Toolkit. I've talked a bunch about the 'in-the-box' solutions in the past so for a change in this post I'll talk about the tools that I use in my own and customer applications to handle AJAX and REST based access to service resources using the West Wind West Wind Web Toolkit. Let me preface this by saying that I like things to be easy. Yes flexible is very important as well but not at the expense of over-complexity. The goal I've had with my tools is make it drop dead easy, with good performance while providing the core features that I'm after, which are: Easy AJAX/JSON Callbacks Ability to return any kind of non JSON content (string, stream, byte[], images) Ability to work with both XML and JSON interchangeably for input/output Access endpoints via POST data, RPC JSON calls, GET QueryString values or Routing interface Easy to use generic JavaScript client to make RPC calls (same syntax, just what you need) Ability to create clean URLS with Routing Ability to use standard ASP.NET HTTP Stack for HTTP semantics It's all about options! In this post I'll demonstrate most of these features (except XML) in a few simple and short samples which you can download. So let's take a look and see how you can build an AJAX callback solution with the West Wind Web Toolkit. Installing the Toolkit Assemblies The easiest and leanest way of using the Toolkit in your Web project is to grab it via NuGet: West Wind Web and AJAX Utilities (Westwind.Web) and drop it into the project by right clicking in your Project and choosing Manage NuGet Packages from anywhere in the Project.   When done you end up with your project looking like this: What just happened? Nuget added two assemblies - Westwind.Web and Westwind.Utilities and the client ww.jquery.js library. It also added a couple of references into web.config: The default namespaces so they can be accessed in pages/views and a ScriptCompressionModule that the toolkit optionally uses to compress script resources served from within the assembly (namely ww.jquery.js and optionally jquery.js). Creating a new Service The West Wind Web Toolkit supports several ways of creating and accessing AJAX services, but for this post I'll stick to the lower level approach that works from any plain HTML page or of course MVC, WebForms, WebPages. There's also a WebForms specific control that makes this even easier but I'll leave that for another post. So, to create a new standalone AJAX/REST service we can create a new HttpHandler in the new project either as a pure class based handler or as a generic .ASHX handler. Both work equally well, but generic handlers don't require any web.config configuration so I'll use that here. In the root of the project add a Generic Handler. I'm going to call this one StockService.ashx. Once the handler has been created, edit the code and remove all of the handler body code. Then change the base class to CallbackHandler and add methods that have a [CallbackMethod] attribute. Here's the modified base handler implementation now looks like with an added HelloWorld method: using System; using Westwind.Web; namespace WestWindWebAjax { /// <summary> /// Handler implements CallbackHandler to provide REST/AJAX services /// </summary> public class SampleService : CallbackHandler { [CallbackMethod] public string HelloWorld(string name) { return "Hello " + name + ". Time is: " + DateTime.Now.ToString(); } } } Notice that the class inherits from CallbackHandler and that the HelloWorld service method is marked up with [CallbackMethod]. We're done here. Services Urlbased Syntax Once you compile, the 'service' is live can respond to requests. All CallbackHandlers support input in GET and POST formats, and can return results as JSON or XML. To check our fancy HelloWorld method we can now access the service like this: http://localhost/WestWindWebAjax/StockService.ashx?Method=HelloWorld&name=Rick which produces a default JSON response - in this case a string (wrapped in quotes as it's JSON): (note by default JSON will be downloaded by most browsers not displayed - various options are available to view JSON right in the browser) If I want to return the same data as XML I can tack on a &format=xml at the end of the querystring which produces: <string>Hello Rick. Time is: 11/1/2011 12:11:13 PM</string> Cleaner URLs with Routing Syntax If you want cleaner URLs for each operation you can also configure custom routes on a per URL basis similar to the way that WCF REST does. To do this you need to add a new RouteHandler to your application's startup code in global.asax.cs one for each CallbackHandler based service you create: protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) { CallbackHandlerRouteHandler.RegisterRoutes<StockService>(RouteTable.Routes); } With this code in place you can now add RouteUrl properties to any of your service methods. For the HelloWorld method that doesn't make a ton of sense but here is what a routed clean URL might look like in definition: [CallbackMethod(RouteUrl="stocks/HelloWorld/{name}")] public string HelloWorld(string name) { return "Hello " + name + ". Time is: " + DateTime.Now.ToString(); } The same URL I previously used now becomes a bit shorter and more readable with: http://localhost/WestWindWebAjax/HelloWorld/Rick It's an easy way to create cleaner URLs and still get the same functionality. Calling the Service with $.getJSON() Since the result produced is JSON you can now easily consume this data using jQuery's getJSON method. First we need a couple of scripts - jquery.js and ww.jquery.js in the page: <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <link href="Css/Westwind.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <script src="scripts/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="scripts/ww.jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </head> <body> Next let's add a small HelloWorld example form (what else) that has a single textbox to type a name, a button and a div tag to receive the result: <fieldset> <legend>Hello World</legend> Please enter a name: <input type="text" name="txtHello" id="txtHello" value="" /> <input type="button" id="btnSayHello" value="Say Hello (POST)" /> <input type="button" id="btnSayHelloGet" value="Say Hello (GET)" /> <div id="divHelloMessage" class="errordisplay" style="display:none;width: 450px;" > </div> </fieldset> Then to call the HelloWorld method a little jQuery is used to hook the document startup and the button click followed by the $.getJSON call to retrieve the data from the server. <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function () { $("#btnSayHelloGet").click(function () { $.getJSON("SampleService.ashx", { Method: "HelloWorld", name: $("#txtHello").val() }, function (result) { $("#divHelloMessage") .text(result) .fadeIn(1000); }); });</script> .getJSON() expects a full URL to the endpoint of our service, which is the ASHX file. We can either provide a full URL (SampleService.ashx?Method=HelloWorld&name=Rick) or we can just provide the base URL and an object that encodes the query string parameters for us using an object map that has a property that matches each parameter for the server method. We can also use the clean URL routing syntax, but using the object parameter encoding actually is safer as the parameters will get properly encoded by jQuery. The result returned is whatever the result on the server method is - in this case a string. The string is applied to the divHelloMessage element and we're done. Obviously this is a trivial example, but it demonstrates the basics of getting a JSON response back to the browser. AJAX Post Syntax - using ajaxCallMethod() The previous example allows you basic control over the data that you send to the server via querystring parameters. This works OK for simple values like short strings, numbers and boolean values, but doesn't really work if you need to pass something more complex like an object or an array back up to the server. To handle traditional RPC type messaging where the idea is to map server side functions and results to a client side invokation, POST operations can be used. The easiest way to use this functionality is to use ww.jquery.js and the ajaxCallMethod() function. ww.jquery wraps jQuery's AJAX functions and knows implicitly how to call a CallbackServer method with parameters and parse the result. Let's look at another simple example that posts a simple value but returns something more interesting. Let's start with the service method: [CallbackMethod(RouteUrl="stocks/{symbol}")] public StockQuote GetStockQuote(string symbol) { Response.Cache.SetExpires(DateTime.UtcNow.Add(new TimeSpan(0, 2, 0))); StockServer server = new StockServer(); var quote = server.GetStockQuote(symbol); if (quote == null) throw new ApplicationException("Invalid Symbol passed."); return quote; } This sample utilizes a small StockServer helper class (included in the sample) that downloads a stock quote from Yahoo's financial site via plain HTTP GET requests and formats it into a StockQuote object. Lets create a small HTML block that lets us query for the quote and display it: <fieldset> <legend>Single Stock Quote</legend> Please enter a stock symbol: <input type="text" name="txtSymbol" id="txtSymbol" value="msft" /> <input type="button" id="btnStockQuote" value="Get Quote" /> <div id="divStockDisplay" class="errordisplay" style="display:none; width: 450px;"> <div class="label-left">Company:</div> <div id="stockCompany"></div> <div class="label-left">Last Price:</div> <div id="stockLastPrice"></div> <div class="label-left">Quote Time:</div> <div id="stockQuoteTime"></div> </div> </fieldset> The final result looks something like this:   Let's hook up the button handler to fire the request and fill in the data as shown: $("#btnStockQuote").click(function () { ajaxCallMethod("SampleService.ashx", "GetStockQuote", [$("#txtSymbol").val()], function (quote) { $("#divStockDisplay").show().fadeIn(1000); $("#stockCompany").text(quote.Company + " (" + quote.Symbol + ")"); $("#stockLastPrice").text(quote.LastPrice); $("#stockQuoteTime").text(quote.LastQuoteTime.formatDate("MMM dd, HH:mm EST")); }, onPageError); }); So we point at SampleService.ashx and the GetStockQuote method, passing a single parameter of the input symbol value. Then there are two handlers for success and failure callbacks.  The success handler is the interesting part - it receives the stock quote as a result and assigns its values to various 'holes' in the stock display elements. The data that comes back over the wire is JSON and it looks like this: { "Symbol":"MSFT", "Company":"Microsoft Corpora", "OpenPrice":26.11, "LastPrice":26.01, "NetChange":0.02, "LastQuoteTime":"2011-11-03T02:00:00Z", "LastQuoteTimeString":"Nov. 11, 2011 4:20pm" } which is an object representation of the data. JavaScript can evaluate this JSON string back into an object easily and that's the reslut that gets passed to the success function. The quote data is then applied to existing page content by manually selecting items and applying them. There are other ways to do this more elegantly like using templates, but here we're only interested in seeing how the data is returned. The data in the object is typed - LastPrice is a number and QuoteTime is a date. Note about the date value: JavaScript doesn't have a date literal although the JSON embedded ISO string format used above  ("2011-11-03T02:00:00Z") is becoming fairly standard for JSON serializers. However, JSON parsers don't deserialize dates by default and return them by string. This is why the StockQuote actually returns a string value of LastQuoteTimeString for the same date. ajaxMethodCallback always converts dates properly into 'real' dates and the example above uses the real date value along with a .formatDate() data extension (also in ww.jquery.js) to display the raw date properly. Errors and Exceptions So what happens if your code fails? For example if I pass an invalid stock symbol to the GetStockQuote() method you notice that the code does this: if (quote == null) throw new ApplicationException("Invalid Symbol passed."); CallbackHandler automatically pushes the exception message back to the client so it's easy to pick up the error message. Regardless of what kind of error occurs: Server side, client side, protocol errors - any error will fire the failure handler with an error object parameter. The error is returned to the client via a JSON response in the error callback. In the previous examples I called onPageError which is a generic routine in ww.jquery that displays a status message on the bottom of the screen. But of course you can also take over the error handling yourself: $("#btnStockQuote").click(function () { ajaxCallMethod("SampleService.ashx", "GetStockQuote", [$("#txtSymbol").val()], function (quote) { $("#divStockDisplay").fadeIn(1000); $("#stockCompany").text(quote.Company + " (" + quote.Symbol + ")"); $("#stockLastPrice").text(quote.LastPrice); $("#stockQuoteTime").text(quote.LastQuoteTime.formatDate("MMM dd, hh:mmt")); }, function (error, xhr) { $("#divErrorDisplay").text(error.message).fadeIn(1000); }); }); The error object has a isCallbackError, message and  stackTrace properties, the latter of which is only populated when running in Debug mode, and this object is returned for all errors: Client side, transport and server side errors. Regardless of which type of error you get the same object passed (as well as the XHR instance optionally) which makes for a consistent error retrieval mechanism. Specifying HttpVerbs You can also specify HTTP Verbs that are allowed using the AllowedHttpVerbs option on the CallbackMethod attribute: [CallbackMethod(AllowedHttpVerbs=HttpVerbs.GET | HttpVerbs.POST)] public string HelloWorld(string name) { … } If you're building REST style API's this might be useful to force certain request semantics onto the client calling. For the above if call with a non-allowed HttpVerb the request returns a 405 error response along with a JSON (or XML) error object result. The default behavior is to allow all verbs access (HttpVerbs.All). Passing in object Parameters Up to now the parameters I passed were very simple. But what if you need to send something more complex like an object or an array? Let's look at another example now that passes an object from the client to the server. Keeping with the Stock theme here lets add a method called BuyOrder that lets us buy some shares for a stock. Consider the following service method that receives an StockBuyOrder object as a parameter: [CallbackMethod] public string BuyStock(StockBuyOrder buyOrder) { var server = new StockServer(); var quote = server.GetStockQuote(buyOrder.Symbol); if (quote == null) throw new ApplicationException("Invalid or missing stock symbol."); return string.Format("You're buying {0} shares of {1} ({2}) stock at {3} for a total of {4} on {5}.", buyOrder.Quantity, quote.Company, quote.Symbol, quote.LastPrice.ToString("c"), (quote.LastPrice * buyOrder.Quantity).ToString("c"), buyOrder.BuyOn.ToString("MMM d")); } public class StockBuyOrder { public string Symbol { get; set; } public int Quantity { get; set; } public DateTime BuyOn { get; set; } public StockBuyOrder() { BuyOn = DateTime.Now; } } This is a contrived do-nothing example that simply echoes back what was passed in, but it demonstrates how you can pass complex data to a callback method. On the client side we now have a very simple form that captures the three values on a form: <fieldset> <legend>Post a Stock Buy Order</legend> Enter a symbol: <input type="text" name="txtBuySymbol" id="txtBuySymbol" value="GLD" />&nbsp;&nbsp; Qty: <input type="text" name="txtBuyQty" id="txtBuyQty" value="10" style="width: 50px" />&nbsp;&nbsp; Buy on: <input type="text" name="txtBuyOn" id="txtBuyOn" value="<%= DateTime.Now.ToString("d") %>" style="width: 70px;" /> <input type="button" id="btnBuyStock" value="Buy Stock" /> <div id="divStockBuyMessage" class="errordisplay" style="display:none"></div> </fieldset> The completed form and demo then looks something like this:   The client side code that picks up the input values and assigns them to object properties and sends the AJAX request looks like this: $("#btnBuyStock").click(function () { // create an object map that matches StockBuyOrder signature var buyOrder = { Symbol: $("#txtBuySymbol").val(), Quantity: $("#txtBuyQty").val() * 1, // number Entered: new Date() } ajaxCallMethod("SampleService.ashx", "BuyStock", [buyOrder], function (result) { $("#divStockBuyMessage").text(result).fadeIn(1000); }, onPageError); }); The code creates an object and attaches the properties that match the server side object passed to the BuyStock method. Each property that you want to update needs to be included and the type must match (ie. string, number, date in this case). Any missing properties will not be set but also not cause any errors. Pass POST data instead of Objects In the last example I collected a bunch of values from form variables and stuffed them into object variables in JavaScript code. While that works, often times this isn't really helping - I end up converting my types on the client and then doing another conversion on the server. If lots of input controls are on a page and you just want to pick up the values on the server via plain POST variables - that can be done too - and it makes sense especially if you're creating and filling the client side object only to push data to the server. Let's add another method to the server that once again lets us buy a stock. But this time let's not accept a parameter but rather send POST data to the server. Here's the server method receiving POST data: [CallbackMethod] public string BuyStockPost() { StockBuyOrder buyOrder = new StockBuyOrder(); buyOrder.Symbol = Request.Form["txtBuySymbol"]; ; int qty; int.TryParse(Request.Form["txtBuyQuantity"], out qty); buyOrder.Quantity = qty; DateTime time; DateTime.TryParse(Request.Form["txtBuyBuyOn"], out time); buyOrder.BuyOn = time; // Or easier way yet //FormVariableBinder.Unbind(buyOrder,null,"txtBuy"); var server = new StockServer(); var quote = server.GetStockQuote(buyOrder.Symbol); if (quote == null) throw new ApplicationException("Invalid or missing stock symbol."); return string.Format("You're buying {0} shares of {1} ({2}) stock at {3} for a total of {4} on {5}.", buyOrder.Quantity, quote.Company, quote.Symbol, quote.LastPrice.ToString("c"), (quote.LastPrice * buyOrder.Quantity).ToString("c"), buyOrder.BuyOn.ToString("MMM d")); } Clearly we've made this server method take more code than it did with the object parameter. We've basically moved the parameter assignment logic from the client to the server. As a result the client code to call this method is now a bit shorter since there's no client side shuffling of values from the controls to an object. $("#btnBuyStockPost").click(function () { ajaxCallMethod("SampleService.ashx", "BuyStockPost", [], // Note: No parameters - function (result) { $("#divStockBuyMessage").text(result).fadeIn(1000); }, onPageError, // Force all page Form Variables to be posted { postbackMode: "Post" }); }); The client simply calls the BuyStockQuote method and pushes all the form variables from the page up to the server which parses them instead. The feature that makes this work is one of the options you can pass to the ajaxCallMethod() function: { postbackMode: "Post" }); which directs the function to include form variable POST data when making the service call. Other options include PostNoViewState (for WebForms to strip out WebForms crap vars), PostParametersOnly (default), None. If you pass parameters those are always posted to the server except when None is set. The above code can be simplified a bit by using the FormVariableBinder helper, which can unbind form variables directly into an object: FormVariableBinder.Unbind(buyOrder,null,"txtBuy"); which replaces the manual Request.Form[] reading code. It receives the object to unbind into, a string of properties to skip, and an optional prefix which is stripped off form variables to match property names. The component is similar to the MVC model binder but it's independent of MVC. Returning non-JSON Data CallbackHandler also supports returning non-JSON/XML data via special return types. You can return raw non-JSON encoded strings like this: [CallbackMethod(ReturnAsRawString=true,ContentType="text/plain")] public string HelloWorldNoJSON(string name) { return "Hello " + name + ". Time is: " + DateTime.Now.ToString(); } Calling this method results in just a plain string - no JSON encoding with quotes around the result. This can be useful if your server handling code needs to return a string or HTML result that doesn't fit well for a page or other UI component. Any string output can be returned. You can also return binary data. Stream, byte[] and Bitmap/Image results are automatically streamed back to the client. Notice that you should set the ContentType of the request either on the CallbackMethod attribute or using Response.ContentType. This ensures the Web Server knows how to display your binary response. Using a stream response makes it possible to return any of data. Streamed data can be pretty handy to return bitmap data from a method. The following is a method that returns a stock history graph for a particular stock over a provided number of years: [CallbackMethod(ContentType="image/png",RouteUrl="stocks/history/graph/{symbol}/{years}")] public Stream GetStockHistoryGraph(string symbol, int years = 2,int width = 500, int height=350) { if (width == 0) width = 500; if (height == 0) height = 350; StockServer server = new StockServer(); return server.GetStockHistoryGraph(symbol,"Stock History for " + symbol,width,height,years); } I can now hook this up into the JavaScript code when I get a stock quote. At the end of the process I can assign the URL to the service that returns the image into the src property and so force the image to display. Here's the changed code: $("#btnStockQuote").click(function () { var symbol = $("#txtSymbol").val(); ajaxCallMethod("SampleService.ashx", "GetStockQuote", [symbol], function (quote) { $("#divStockDisplay").fadeIn(1000); $("#stockCompany").text(quote.Company + " (" + quote.Symbol + ")"); $("#stockLastPrice").text(quote.LastPrice); $("#stockQuoteTime").text(quote.LastQuoteTime.formatDate("MMM dd, hh:mmt")); // display a stock chart $("#imgStockHistory").attr("src", "stocks/history/graph/" + symbol + "/2"); },onPageError); }); The resulting output then looks like this: The charting code uses the new ASP.NET 4.0 Chart components via code to display a bar chart of the 2 year stock data as part of the StockServer class which you can find in the sample download. The ability to return arbitrary data from a service is useful as you can see - in this case the chart is clearly associated with the service and it's nice that the graph generation can happen off a handler rather than through a page. Images are common resources, but output can also be PDF reports, zip files for downloads etc. which is becoming increasingly more common to be returned from REST endpoints and other applications. Why reinvent? Obviously the examples I've shown here are pretty basic in terms of functionality. But I hope they demonstrate the core features of AJAX callbacks that you need to work through in most applications which is simple: return data, send back data and potentially retrieve data in various formats. While there are other solutions when it comes down to making AJAX callbacks and servicing REST like requests, I like the flexibility my home grown solution provides. Simply put it's still the easiest solution that I've found that addresses my common use cases: AJAX JSON RPC style callbacks Url based access XML and JSON Output from single method endpoint XML and JSON POST support, querystring input, routing parameter mapping UrlEncoded POST data support on callbacks Ability to return stream/raw string data Essentially ability to return ANYTHING from Service and pass anything All these features are available in various solutions but not together in one place. I've been using this code base for over 4 years now in a number of projects both for myself and commercial work and it's served me extremely well. Besides the AJAX functionality CallbackHandler provides, it's also an easy way to create any kind of output endpoint I need to create. Need to create a few simple routines that spit back some data, but don't want to create a Page or View or full blown handler for it? Create a CallbackHandler and add a method or multiple methods and you have your generic endpoints.  It's a quick and easy way to add small code pieces that are pretty efficient as they're running through a pretty small handler implementation. I can have this up and running in a couple of minutes literally without any setup and returning just about any kind of data. Resources Download the Sample NuGet: Westwind Web and AJAX Utilities (Westwind.Web) ajaxCallMethod() Documentation Using the AjaxMethodCallback WebForms Control West Wind Web Toolkit Home Page West Wind Web Toolkit Source Code © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011Posted in ASP.NET  jQuery  AJAX   Tweet (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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  • Upload File to Windows Azure Blob in Chunks through ASP.NET MVC, JavaScript and HTML5

    - by Shaun
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/shaunxu/archive/2013/07/01/upload-file-to-windows-azure-blob-in-chunks-through-asp.net.aspxMany people are using Windows Azure Blob Storage to store their data in the cloud. Blob storage provides 99.9% availability with easy-to-use API through .NET SDK and HTTP REST. For example, we can store JavaScript files, images, documents in blob storage when we are building an ASP.NET web application on a Web Role in Windows Azure. Or we can store our VHD files in blob and mount it as a hard drive in our cloud service. If you are familiar with Windows Azure, you should know that there are two kinds of blob: page blob and block blob. The page blob is optimized for random read and write, which is very useful when you need to store VHD files. The block blob is optimized for sequential/chunk read and write, which has more common usage. Since we can upload block blob in blocks through BlockBlob.PutBlock, and them commit them as a whole blob with invoking the BlockBlob.PutBlockList, it is very powerful to upload large files, as we can upload blocks in parallel, and provide pause-resume feature. There are many documents, articles and blog posts described on how to upload a block blob. Most of them are focus on the server side, which means when you had received a big file, stream or binaries, how to upload them into blob storage in blocks through .NET SDK.  But the problem is, how can we upload these large files from client side, for example, a browser. This questioned to me when I was working with a Chinese customer to help them build a network disk production on top of azure. The end users upload their files from the web portal, and then the files will be stored in blob storage from the Web Role. My goal is to find the best way to transform the file from client (end user’s machine) to the server (Web Role) through browser. In this post I will demonstrate and describe what I had done, to upload large file in chunks with high speed, and save them as blocks into Windows Azure Blob Storage.   Traditional Upload, Works with Limitation The simplest way to implement this requirement is to create a web page with a form that contains a file input element and a submit button. 1: @using (Html.BeginForm("About", "Index", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" })) 2: { 3: <input type="file" name="file" /> 4: <input type="submit" value="upload" /> 5: } And then in the backend controller, we retrieve the whole content of this file and upload it in to the blob storage through .NET SDK. We can split the file in blocks and upload them in parallel and commit. The code had been well blogged in the community. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public ActionResult About(HttpPostedFileBase file) 3: { 4: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 5: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 6: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(file.FileName); 7: var blockDataList = new Dictionary<string, byte[]>(); 8: using (var stream = file.InputStream) 9: { 10: var blockSizeInKB = 1024; 11: var offset = 0; 12: var index = 0; 13: while (offset < stream.Length) 14: { 15: var readLength = Math.Min(1024 * blockSizeInKB, (int)stream.Length - offset); 16: var blockData = new byte[readLength]; 17: offset += stream.Read(blockData, 0, readLength); 18: blockDataList.Add(Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(index)), blockData); 19:  20: index++; 21: } 22: } 23:  24: Parallel.ForEach(blockDataList, (bi) => 25: { 26: blob.PutBlock(bi.Key, new MemoryStream(bi.Value), null); 27: }); 28: blob.PutBlockList(blockDataList.Select(b => b.Key).ToArray()); 29:  30: return RedirectToAction("About"); 31: } This works perfect if we selected an image, a music or a small video to upload. But if I selected a large file, let’s say a 6GB HD-movie, after upload for about few minutes the page will be shown as below and the upload will be terminated. In ASP.NET there is a limitation of request length and the maximized request length is defined in the web.config file. It’s a number which less than about 4GB. So if we want to upload a really big file, we cannot simply implement in this way. Also, in Windows Azure, a cloud service network load balancer will terminate the connection if exceed the timeout period. From my test the timeout looks like 2 - 3 minutes. Hence, when we need to upload a large file we cannot just use the basic HTML elements. Besides the limitation mentioned above, the simple HTML file upload cannot provide rich upload experience such as chunk upload, pause and pause-resume. So we need to find a better way to upload large file from the client to the server.   Upload in Chunks through HTML5 and JavaScript In order to break those limitation mentioned above we will try to upload the large file in chunks. This takes some benefit to us such as - No request size limitation: Since we upload in chunks, we can define the request size for each chunks regardless how big the entire file is. - No timeout problem: The size of chunks are controlled by us, which means we should be able to make sure request for each chunk upload will not exceed the timeout period of both ASP.NET and Windows Azure load balancer. It was a big challenge to upload big file in chunks until we have HTML5. There are some new features and improvements introduced in HTML5 and we will use them to implement our solution.   In HTML5, the File interface had been improved with a new method called “slice”. It can be used to read part of the file by specifying the start byte index and the end byte index. For example if the entire file was 1024 bytes, file.slice(512, 768) will read the part of this file from the 512nd byte to 768th byte, and return a new object of interface called "Blob”, which you can treat as an array of bytes. In fact,  a Blob object represents a file-like object of immutable, raw data. The File interface is based on Blob, inheriting blob functionality and expanding it to support files on the user's system. For more information about the Blob please refer here. File and Blob is very useful to implement the chunk upload. We will use File interface to represent the file the user selected from the browser and then use File.slice to read the file in chunks in the size we wanted. For example, if we wanted to upload a 10MB file with 512KB chunks, then we can read it in 512KB blobs by using File.slice in a loop.   Assuming we have a web page as below. User can select a file, an input box to specify the block size in KB and a button to start upload. 1: <div> 2: <input type="file" id="upload_files" name="files[]" /><br /> 3: Block Size: <input type="number" id="block_size" value="512" name="block_size" />KB<br /> 4: <input type="button" id="upload_button_blob" name="upload" value="upload (blob)" /> 5: </div> Then we can have the JavaScript function to upload the file in chunks when user clicked the button. 1: <script type="text/javascript"> 1: 2: $(function () { 3: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 4: }); 5: });</script> Firstly we need to ensure the client browser supports the interfaces we are going to use. Just try to invoke the File, Blob and FormData from the “window” object. If any of them is “undefined” the condition result will be “false” which means your browser doesn’t support these premium feature and it’s time for you to get your browser updated. FormData is another new feature we are going to use in the future. It could generate a temporary form for us. We will use this interface to create a form with chunk and associated metadata when invoked the service through ajax. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: if (window.File && window.Blob && window.FormData) { 4: alert("Your brwoser is awesome, let's rock!"); 5: } 6: else { 7: alert("Oh man plz update to a modern browser before try is cool stuff out."); 8: return; 9: } 10: }); Each browser supports these interfaces by their own implementation and currently the Blob, File and File.slice are supported by Chrome 21, FireFox 13, IE 10, Opera 12 and Safari 5.1 or higher. After that we worked on the files the user selected one by one since in HTML5, user can select multiple files in one file input box. 1: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 2: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 3: var file = files[i]; 4: var fileSize = file.size; 5: var fileName = file.name; 6: } Next, we calculated the start index and end index for each chunks based on the size the user specified from the browser. We put them into an array with the file name and the index, which will be used when we upload chunks into Windows Azure Blob Storage as blocks since we need to specify the target blob name and the block index. At the same time we will store the list of all indexes into another variant which will be used to commit blocks into blob in Azure Storage once all chunks had been uploaded successfully. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10:  11: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 12: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 13: var blockSizeInKB = $("#block_size").val(); 14: var blockSize = blockSizeInKB * 1024; 15: var blocks = []; 16: var offset = 0; 17: var index = 0; 18: var list = ""; 19: while (offset < fileSize) { 20: var start = offset; 21: var end = Math.min(offset + blockSize, fileSize); 22:  23: blocks.push({ 24: name: fileName, 25: index: index, 26: start: start, 27: end: end 28: }); 29: list += index + ","; 30:  31: offset = end; 32: index++; 33: } 34: } 35: }); Now we have all chunks’ information ready. The next step should be upload them one by one to the server side, and at the server side when received a chunk it will upload as a block into Blob Storage, and finally commit them with the index list through BlockBlobClient.PutBlockList. But since all these invokes are ajax calling, which means not synchronized call. So we need to introduce a new JavaScript library to help us coordinate the asynchronize operation, which named “async.js”. You can download this JavaScript library here, and you can find the document here. I will not explain this library too much in this post. We will put all procedures we want to execute as a function array, and pass into the proper function defined in async.js to let it help us to control the execution sequence, in series or in parallel. Hence we will define an array and put the function for chunk upload into this array. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4:  5: // start to upload each files in chunks 6: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 7: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 8: var file = files[i]; 9: var fileSize = file.size; 10: var fileName = file.name; 11: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 12: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 13: ... ... 14:  15: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 16: blocks.forEach(function (block) { 17: putBlocks.push(function (callback) { 18: }); 19: }); 20: } 21: }); 22: }); As you can see, I used File.slice method to read each chunks based on the start and end byte index we calculated previously, and constructed a temporary HTML form with the file name, chunk index and chunk data through another new feature in HTML5 named FormData. Then post this form to the backend server through jQuery.ajax. This is the key part of our solution. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: blocks.forEach(function (block) { 15: putBlocks.push(function (callback) { 16: // load blob based on the start and end index for each chunks 17: var blob = file.slice(block.start, block.end); 18: // put the file name, index and blob into a temporary from 19: var fd = new FormData(); 20: fd.append("name", block.name); 21: fd.append("index", block.index); 22: fd.append("file", blob); 23: // post the form to backend service (asp.net mvc controller action) 24: $.ajax({ 25: url: "/Home/UploadInFormData", 26: data: fd, 27: processData: false, 28: contentType: "multipart/form-data", 29: type: "POST", 30: success: function (result) { 31: if (!result.success) { 32: alert(result.error); 33: } 34: callback(null, block.index); 35: } 36: }); 37: }); 38: }); 39: } 40: }); Then we will invoke these functions one by one by using the async.js. And once all functions had been executed successfully I invoked another ajax call to the backend service to commit all these chunks (blocks) as the blob in Windows Azure Storage. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: ... ... 15: // invoke the functions one by one 16: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 17: async.series(putBlocks, function (error, result) { 18: var data = { 19: name: fileName, 20: list: list 21: }; 22: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 23: if (!result.success) { 24: alert(result.error); 25: } 26: else { 27: alert("done!"); 28: } 29: }); 30: }); 31: } 32: }); That’s all in the client side. The outline of our logic would be - Calculate the start and end byte index for each chunks based on the block size. - Defined the functions of reading the chunk form file and upload the content to the backend service through ajax. - Execute the functions defined in previous step with “async.js”. - Commit the chunks by invoking the backend service in Windows Azure Storage finally.   Save Chunks as Blocks into Blob Storage In above we finished the client size JavaScript code. It uploaded the file in chunks to the backend service which we are going to implement in this step. We will use ASP.NET MVC as our backend service, and it will receive the chunks, upload into Windows Azure Bob Storage in blocks, then finally commit as one blob. As in the client side we uploaded chunks by invoking the ajax call to the URL "/Home/UploadInFormData", I created a new action under the Index controller and it only accepts HTTP POST request. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public JsonResult UploadInFormData() 3: { 4: var error = string.Empty; 5: try 6: { 7: } 8: catch (Exception e) 9: { 10: error = e.ToString(); 11: } 12:  13: return new JsonResult() 14: { 15: Data = new 16: { 17: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 18: error = error 19: } 20: }; 21: } Then I retrieved the file name, index and the chunk content from the Request.Form object, which was passed from our client side. And then, used the Windows Azure SDK to create a blob container (in this case we will use the container named “test”.) and create a blob reference with the blob name (same as the file name). Then uploaded the chunk as a block of this blob with the index, since in Blob Storage each block must have an index (ID) associated with so that finally we can put all blocks as one blob by specifying their block ID list. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public JsonResult UploadInFormData() 3: { 4: var error = string.Empty; 5: try 6: { 7: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 8: var index = int.Parse(Request.Form["index"]); 9: var file = Request.Files[0]; 10: var id = Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(index)); 11:  12: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 13: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 14: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 15: blob.PutBlock(id, file.InputStream, null); 16: } 17: catch (Exception e) 18: { 19: error = e.ToString(); 20: } 21:  22: return new JsonResult() 23: { 24: Data = new 25: { 26: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 27: error = error 28: } 29: }; 30: } Next, I created another action to commit the blocks into blob once all chunks had been uploaded. Similarly, I retrieved the blob name from the Request.Form. I also retrieved the chunks ID list, which is the block ID list from the Request.Form in a string format, split them as a list, then invoked the BlockBlob.PutBlockList method. After that our blob will be shown in the container and ready to be download. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public JsonResult Commit() 3: { 4: var error = string.Empty; 5: try 6: { 7: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 8: var list = Request.Form["list"]; 9: var ids = list 10: .Split(',') 11: .Where(id => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(id)) 12: .Select(id => Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(int.Parse(id)))) 13: .ToArray(); 14:  15: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 16: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 17: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 18: blob.PutBlockList(ids); 19: } 20: catch (Exception e) 21: { 22: error = e.ToString(); 23: } 24:  25: return new JsonResult() 26: { 27: Data = new 28: { 29: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 30: error = error 31: } 32: }; 33: } Now we finished all code we need. The whole process of uploading would be like this below. Below is the full client side JavaScript code. 1: <script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/async.js"></script> 2: <script type="text/javascript"> 3: $(function () { 4: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 5: // assert the browser support html5 6: if (window.File && window.Blob && window.FormData) { 7: alert("Your brwoser is awesome, let's rock!"); 8: } 9: else { 10: alert("Oh man plz update to a modern browser before try is cool stuff out."); 11: return; 12: } 13:  14: // start to upload each files in chunks 15: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 16: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 17: var file = files[i]; 18: var fileSize = file.size; 19: var fileName = file.name; 20:  21: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 22: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 23: var blockSizeInKB = $("#block_size").val(); 24: var blockSize = blockSizeInKB * 1024; 25: var blocks = []; 26: var offset = 0; 27: var index = 0; 28: var list = ""; 29: while (offset < fileSize) { 30: var start = offset; 31: var end = Math.min(offset + blockSize, fileSize); 32:  33: blocks.push({ 34: name: fileName, 35: index: index, 36: start: start, 37: end: end 38: }); 39: list += index + ","; 40:  41: offset = end; 42: index++; 43: } 44:  45: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 46: var putBlocks = []; 47: blocks.forEach(function (block) { 48: putBlocks.push(function (callback) { 49: // load blob based on the start and end index for each chunks 50: var blob = file.slice(block.start, block.end); 51: // put the file name, index and blob into a temporary from 52: var fd = new FormData(); 53: fd.append("name", block.name); 54: fd.append("index", block.index); 55: fd.append("file", blob); 56: // post the form to backend service (asp.net mvc controller action) 57: $.ajax({ 58: url: "/Home/UploadInFormData", 59: data: fd, 60: processData: false, 61: contentType: "multipart/form-data", 62: type: "POST", 63: success: function (result) { 64: if (!result.success) { 65: alert(result.error); 66: } 67: callback(null, block.index); 68: } 69: }); 70: }); 71: }); 72:  73: // invoke the functions one by one 74: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 75: async.series(putBlocks, function (error, result) { 76: var data = { 77: name: fileName, 78: list: list 79: }; 80: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 81: if (!result.success) { 82: alert(result.error); 83: } 84: else { 85: alert("done!"); 86: } 87: }); 88: }); 89: } 90: }); 91: }); 92: </script> And below is the full ASP.NET MVC controller code. 1: public class HomeController : Controller 2: { 3: private CloudStorageAccount _account; 4: private CloudBlobClient _client; 5:  6: public HomeController() 7: : base() 8: { 9: _account = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("DataConnectionString")); 10: _client = _account.CreateCloudBlobClient(); 11: } 12:  13: public ActionResult Index() 14: { 15: ViewBag.Message = "Modify this template to jump-start your ASP.NET MVC application."; 16:  17: return View(); 18: } 19:  20: [HttpPost] 21: public JsonResult UploadInFormData() 22: { 23: var error = string.Empty; 24: try 25: { 26: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 27: var index = int.Parse(Request.Form["index"]); 28: var file = Request.Files[0]; 29: var id = Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(index)); 30:  31: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 32: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 33: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 34: blob.PutBlock(id, file.InputStream, null); 35: } 36: catch (Exception e) 37: { 38: error = e.ToString(); 39: } 40:  41: return new JsonResult() 42: { 43: Data = new 44: { 45: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 46: error = error 47: } 48: }; 49: } 50:  51: [HttpPost] 52: public JsonResult Commit() 53: { 54: var error = string.Empty; 55: try 56: { 57: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 58: var list = Request.Form["list"]; 59: var ids = list 60: .Split(',') 61: .Where(id => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(id)) 62: .Select(id => Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(int.Parse(id)))) 63: .ToArray(); 64:  65: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 66: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 67: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 68: blob.PutBlockList(ids); 69: } 70: catch (Exception e) 71: { 72: error = e.ToString(); 73: } 74:  75: return new JsonResult() 76: { 77: Data = new 78: { 79: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 80: error = error 81: } 82: }; 83: } 84: } And if we selected a file from the browser we will see our application will upload chunks in the size we specified to the server through ajax call in background, and then commit all chunks in one blob. Then we can find the blob in our Windows Azure Blob Storage.   Optimized by Parallel Upload In previous example we just uploaded our file in chunks. This solved the problem that ASP.NET MVC request content size limitation as well as the Windows Azure load balancer timeout. But it might introduce the performance problem since we uploaded chunks in sequence. In order to improve the upload performance we could modify our client side code a bit to make the upload operation invoked in parallel. The good news is that, “async.js” library provides the parallel execution function. If you remembered the code we invoke the service to upload chunks, it utilized “async.series” which means all functions will be executed in sequence. Now we will change this code to “async.parallel”. This will invoke all functions in parallel. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: ... ... 15: // invoke the functions one by one 16: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 17: async.parallel(putBlocks, function (error, result) { 18: var data = { 19: name: fileName, 20: list: list 21: }; 22: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 23: if (!result.success) { 24: alert(result.error); 25: } 26: else { 27: alert("done!"); 28: } 29: }); 30: }); 31: } 32: }); In this way all chunks will be uploaded to the server side at the same time to maximize the bandwidth usage. This should work if the file was not very large and the chunk size was not very small. But for large file this might introduce another problem that too many ajax calls are sent to the server at the same time. So the best solution should be, upload the chunks in parallel with maximum concurrency limitation. The code below specified the concurrency limitation to 4, which means at the most only 4 ajax calls could be invoked at the same time. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: ... ... 15: // invoke the functions one by one 16: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 17: async.parallelLimit(putBlocks, 4, function (error, result) { 18: var data = { 19: name: fileName, 20: list: list 21: }; 22: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 23: if (!result.success) { 24: alert(result.error); 25: } 26: else { 27: alert("done!"); 28: } 29: }); 30: }); 31: } 32: });   Summary In this post we discussed how to upload files in chunks to the backend service and then upload them into Windows Azure Blob Storage in blocks. We focused on the frontend side and leverage three new feature introduced in HTML 5 which are - File.slice: Read part of the file by specifying the start and end byte index. - Blob: File-like interface which contains the part of the file content. - FormData: Temporary form element that we can pass the chunk alone with some metadata to the backend service. Then we discussed the performance consideration of chunk uploading. Sequence upload cannot provide maximized upload speed, but the unlimited parallel upload might crash the browser and server if too many chunks. So we finally came up with the solution to upload chunks in parallel with the concurrency limitation. We also demonstrated how to utilize “async.js” JavaScript library to help us control the asynchronize call and the parallel limitation.   Regarding the chunk size and the parallel limitation value there is no “best” value. You need to test vary composition and find out the best one for your particular scenario. It depends on the local bandwidth, client machine cores and the server side (Windows Azure Cloud Service Virtual Machine) cores, memory and bandwidth. Below is one of my performance test result. The client machine was Windows 8 IE 10 with 4 cores. I was using Microsoft Cooperation Network. The web site was hosted on Windows Azure China North data center (in Beijing) with one small web role (1.7GB 1 core CPU, 1.75GB memory with 100Mbps bandwidth). The test cases were - Chunk size: 512KB, 1MB, 2MB, 4MB. - Upload Mode: Sequence, parallel (unlimited), parallel with limit (4 threads, 8 threads). - Chunk Format: base64 string, binaries. - Target file: 100MB. - Each case was tested 3 times. Below is the test result chart. Some thoughts, but not guidance or best practice: - Parallel gets better performance than series. - No significant performance improvement between parallel 4 threads and 8 threads. - Transform with binaries provides better performance than base64. - In all cases, chunk size in 1MB - 2MB gets better performance.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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  • Streamed mp3 only plays for 1 second

    - by angel6
    Hi, I'm using the plaympeg.c (modified) code of smpeg as a media player. I've got ffserver running as a streaming server. I'm a streaming an mp3 file over http. But when I run plaympeg.c, it plays the streamed file only for a second. When I run plaympeg again, it starts off from where it left and plays for 1 second. Does anyone know why this happens an how to fix it? I've tested it out on WMP and it plays the entire file in one go. So, i guess it's not a problem with the streaming or ffserver.conf include include include include /* #ifdef unix */ include include include include include include include define NET_SUPPORT /* General network support */ define HTTP_SUPPORT /* HTTP support */ ifdef NET_SUPPORT include include include include endif include "smpeg.h" ifdef NET_SUPPORT int tcp_open(char * address, int port) { struct sockaddr_in stAddr; struct hostent * host; int sock; struct linger l; memset(&stAddr,0,sizeof(stAddr)); stAddr.sin_family = AF_INET ; stAddr.sin_port = htons(port); if((host = gethostbyname(address)) == NULL) return(0); stAddr.sin_addr = *((struct in_addr *) host-h_addr_list[0]) ; if((sock = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP)) < 0) return(0); l.l_onoff = 1; l.l_linger = 5; if(setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_LINGER, (char*) &l, sizeof(l)) < 0) return(0); if(connect(sock, (struct sockaddr *) &stAddr, sizeof(stAddr)) < 0) return(0); return(sock); } ifdef HTTP_SUPPORT int http_open(char * arg) { char * host; int port; char * request; int tcp_sock; char http_request[1024]; char c; printf("\nin http_open passed parameter = %s\n",arg); /* Check for URL syntax */ if(strncmp(arg, "http://", strlen("http://"))) return(0); /* Parse URL */ port = 80; host = arg + strlen("http://"); if((request = strchr(host, '/')) == NULL) return(0); request++ = 0; if(strchr(host, ':') != NULL) / port is specified */ { port = atoi(strchr(host, ':') + 1); *strchr(host, ':') = 0; } /* Open a TCP socket */ if(!(tcp_sock = tcp_open(host, port))) { perror("http_open"); return(0); } /* Send HTTP GET request */ sprintf(http_request, "GET /%s HTTP/1.0\r\n" "User-Agent: Mozilla/2.0 (Win95; I)\r\n" "Pragma: no-cache\r\n" "Host: %s\r\n" "Accept: /\r\n" "\r\n", request, host); send(tcp_sock, http_request, strlen(http_request), 0); /* Parse server reply */ do read(tcp_sock, &c, sizeof(char)); while(c != ' '); read(tcp_sock, http_request, 4*sizeof(char)); http_request[4] = 0; if(strcmp(http_request, "200 ")) { fprintf(stderr, "http_open: "); do { read(tcp_sock, &c, sizeof(char)); fprintf(stderr, "%c", c); } while(c != '\r'); fprintf(stderr, "\n"); return(0); } return(tcp_sock); } endif endif void update(SDL_Surface *screen, Sint32 x, Sint32 y, Uint32 w, Uint32 h) { if ( screen-flags & SDL_DOUBLEBUF ) { SDL_Flip(screen); } } /* Flag telling the UI that the movie or song should be skipped */ int done; void next_movie(int sig) { done = 1; } int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int use_audio, use_video; int fullscreen; int scalesize; int scale_width, scale_height; int loop_play; int i, pause; int volume; Uint32 seek; float skip; int bilinear_filtering; SDL_Surface *screen; SMPEG *mpeg; SMPEG_Info info; char *basefile; SDL_version sdlver; SMPEG_version smpegver; int fd; char buf[32]; int status; printf("\nchecking command line options "); /* Get the command line options */ use_audio = 1; use_video = 1; fullscreen = 0; scalesize = 1; scale_width = 0; scale_height = 0; loop_play = 0; volume = 100; seek = 0; skip = 0; bilinear_filtering = 0; fd = 0; for ( i=1; argv[i] && (argv[i][0] == '-') && (argv[i][1] != 0); ++i ) { if ( strcmp(argv[i], "--fullscreen") == 0 ) { fullscreen = 1; } else if ((strcmp(argv[i], "--seek") == 0)||(strcmp(argv[i], "-S") == 0)) { ++i; if ( argv[i] ) { seek = atol(argv[i]); } } else if ((strcmp(argv[i], "--volume") == 0)||(strcmp(argv[i], "-v") == 0)) { ++i; if (i >= argc) { fprintf(stderr, "Please specify volume when using --volume or -v\n"); return(1); } if ( argv[i] ) { volume = atoi(argv[i]); } if ( ( volume < 0 ) || ( volume 100 ) ) { fprintf(stderr, "Volume must be between 0 and 100\n"); volume = 100; } } else { fprintf(stderr, "Warning: Unknown option: %s\n", argv[i]); } } printf("\nuse video = %d, use audio = %d\n",use_video, use_audio); printf("\ngoing to check input parameters\n"); if defined(linux) || defined(FreeBSD) /* Plaympeg doesn't need a mouse */ putenv("SDL_NOMOUSE=1"); endif /* Play the mpeg files! */ status = 0; for ( ; argv[i]; ++i ) { /* Initialize SDL */ if ( use_video ) { if ((SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO) < 0) || !SDL_VideoDriverName(buf, 1)) { fprintf(stderr, "Warning: Couldn't init SDL video: %s\n", SDL_GetError()); fprintf(stderr, "Will ignore video stream\n"); use_video = 0; } printf("\ninitialised video\n"); } if ( use_audio ) { if ((SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_AUDIO) < 0) || !SDL_AudioDriverName(buf, 1)) { fprintf(stderr, "Warning: Couldn't init SDL audio: %s\n", SDL_GetError()); fprintf(stderr, "Will ignore audio stream\n"); use_audio = 0; } } /* Allow Ctrl-C when there's no video output */ signal(SIGINT, next_movie); printf("\nchecking defined supports\n"); /* Create the MPEG stream */ ifdef NET_SUPPORT printf("\ndefined NET_SUPPORT\n"); ifdef HTTP_SUPPORT printf("\ndefined HTTP_SUPPORT\n"); /* Check if source is an http URL */ printf("\nabout to call http_open\n"); printf("\nhere we go\n"); if((fd = http_open(argv[i])) != 0) mpeg = SMPEG_new_descr(fd, &info, use_audio); else endif endif { if(strcmp(argv[i], "-") == 0) /* Use stdin for input */ mpeg = SMPEG_new_descr(0, &info, use_audio); else mpeg = SMPEG_new(argv[i], &info, use_audio); } if ( SMPEG_error(mpeg) ) { fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s\n", argv[i], SMPEG_error(mpeg)); SMPEG_delete(mpeg); status = -1; continue; } SMPEG_enableaudio(mpeg, use_audio); SMPEG_enablevideo(mpeg, use_video); SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); /* Print information about the video */ basefile = strrchr(argv[i], '/'); if ( basefile ) { ++basefile; } else { basefile = argv[i]; } if ( info.has_audio && info.has_video ) { printf("%s: MPEG system stream (audio/video)\n", basefile); } else if ( info.has_audio ) { printf("%s: MPEG audio stream\n", basefile); } else if ( info.has_video ) { printf("%s: MPEG video stream\n", basefile); } if ( info.has_video ) { printf("\tVideo %dx%d resolution\n", info.width, info.height); } if ( info.has_audio ) { printf("\tAudio %s\n", info.audio_string); } if ( info.total_size ) { printf("\tSize: %d\n", info.total_size); } if ( info.total_time ) { printf("\tTotal time: %f\n", info.total_time); } /* Set up video display if needed */ if ( info.has_video && use_video ) { const SDL_VideoInfo *video_info; Uint32 video_flags; int video_bpp; int width, height; /* Get the "native" video mode */ video_info = SDL_GetVideoInfo(); switch (video_info->vfmt->BitsPerPixel) { case 16: case 24: case 32: video_bpp = video_info->vfmt->BitsPerPixel; break; default: video_bpp = 16; break; } if ( scale_width ) { width = scale_width; } else { width = info.width; } width *= scalesize; if ( scale_height ) { height = scale_height; } else { height = info.height; } height *= scalesize; video_flags = SDL_SWSURFACE; if ( fullscreen ) { video_flags = SDL_FULLSCREEN|SDL_DOUBLEBUF|SDL_HWSURFACE; } video_flags |= SDL_ASYNCBLIT; video_flags |= SDL_RESIZABLE; screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(width, height, video_bpp, video_flags); if ( screen == NULL ) { fprintf(stderr, "Unable to set %dx%d video mode: %s\n", width, height, SDL_GetError()); continue; } SDL_WM_SetCaption(argv[i], "plaympeg"); if ( screen->flags & SDL_FULLSCREEN ) { SDL_ShowCursor(0); } SMPEG_setdisplay(mpeg, screen, NULL, update); SMPEG_scaleXY(mpeg, screen->w, screen->h); } else { SDL_QuitSubSystem(SDL_INIT_VIDEO); } /* Set any special playback parameters */ if ( loop_play ) { SMPEG_loop(mpeg, 1); } /* Seek starting position */ if(seek) SMPEG_seek(mpeg, seek); /* Skip seconds to starting position */ if(skip) SMPEG_skip(mpeg, skip); /* Play it, and wait for playback to complete */ SMPEG_play(mpeg); done = 0; pause = 0; while ( ! done && ( pause || (SMPEG_status(mpeg) == SMPEG_PLAYING) ) ) { SDL_Event event; while ( use_video && SDL_PollEvent(&event) ) { switch (event.type) { case SDL_VIDEORESIZE: { SDL_Surface *old_screen = screen; SMPEG_pause(mpeg); screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(event.resize.w, event.resize.h, screen->format->BitsPerPixel, screen->flags); if ( old_screen != screen ) { SMPEG_setdisplay(mpeg, screen, NULL, update); } SMPEG_scaleXY(mpeg, screen-w, screen-h); SMPEG_pause(mpeg); } break; case SDL_KEYDOWN: if ( (event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_ESCAPE) || (event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_q) ) { // Quit done = 1; } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_RETURN ) { // toggle fullscreen if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_ALT ) { SDL_WM_ToggleFullScreen(screen); fullscreen = (screen-flags & SDL_FULLSCREEN); SDL_ShowCursor(!fullscreen); } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_UP ) { // Volume up if ( volume < 100 ) { if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_SHIFT ) { // 10+ volume += 10; } else if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_CTRL ) { // 100+ volume = 100; } else { // 1+ volume++; } if ( volume 100 ) volume = 100; SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_DOWN ) { // Volume down if ( volume 0 ) { if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_SHIFT ) { volume -= 10; } else if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_CTRL ) { volume = 0; } else { volume--; } if ( volume < 0 ) volume = 0; SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_PAGEUP ) { // Full volume volume = 100; SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_PAGEDOWN ) { // Volume off volume = 0; SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_SPACE ) { // Toggle play / pause if ( SMPEG_status(mpeg) == SMPEG_PLAYING ) { SMPEG_pause(mpeg); pause = 1; } else { SMPEG_play(mpeg); pause = 0; } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_RIGHT ) { // Forward if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_SHIFT ) { SMPEG_skip(mpeg, 100); } else if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_CTRL ) { SMPEG_skip(mpeg, 50); } else { SMPEG_skip(mpeg, 5); } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_LEFT ) { // Reverse if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_SHIFT ) { } else if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_CTRL ) { } else { } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_KP_MINUS ) { // Scale minus if ( scalesize > 1 ) { scalesize--; } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_KP_PLUS ) { // Scale plus scalesize++; } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_f ) { // Toggle filtering on/off if ( bilinear_filtering ) { SMPEG_Filter *filter = SMPEGfilter_null(); filter = SMPEG_filter( mpeg, filter ); filter-destroy(filter); bilinear_filtering = 0; } else { SMPEG_Filter *filter = SMPEGfilter_bilinear(); filter = SMPEG_filter( mpeg, filter ); filter-destroy(filter); bilinear_filtering = 1; } } break; case SDL_QUIT: done = 1; break; default: break; } } SDL_Delay(1000/2); } SMPEG_delete(mpeg); } SDL_Quit(); if defined(HTTP_SUPPORT) if(fd) close(fd); endif return(status); }

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  • Example WLST Script to Obtain JDBC and JTA MBean Values

    - by Daniel Mortimer
    Introduction Following on from the blog entry "Get an Offline or Online WebLogic Domain Summary Using WLST!", I have had a request to create a smaller example which only collects a selection of JDBC (System Resource) and JTA configuration and runtime MBeans values. So, here it is. Download Sample Script You can grab the sample script by clicking here. Instructions to Run: 1. After download, extract the zip to the machine hosting the WebLogic environment. You should have three directories along with a readme.txt output Sample_Output scripts 2. In the scripts directory, find the start wrapper script startWLSTJDBCSummarizer.sh (Unix) or startWLSTJDBCSummarizer.cmd (MS Windows). Open the appropriate file in an editor and change the environment variable settings to suit your system. Example - startWLSTDomainSummarizer.cmd set WL_HOME=D:\product\FMW11g\wlserver_10.3 set DOMAIN_HOME=D:\product\FMW11g\user_projects\domains\MyDomain set WLST_OUTPUT_PATH=D:\WLSTDomainSummarizer\output\ set WLST_OUTPUT_FILE=WLST_JDBC_Summary_Via_MBeans.html call "%WL_HOME%\common\bin\wlst.cmd" WLS_JDBC_Summary_Online.py Note: The WLST_OUTPUT_PATH directory value must have a trailing slash. If there is no trailing slash, the script will error and not continue.  3. Run the shell / command line wrapper script. It should launch WLST and kick off "WLS_JDBC_Summary_Online.py". This will hit you with some prompts e.g. Is your domain Admin Server up and running and do you have the connection details? (Y /N ): Y Enter connection URL to Admin Server e.g t3://mymachine.acme.com:7001 : t3://localhost:7001 Enter weblogic username: weblogic Enter weblogic username password (function prompt 1): welcome1 (Note: the value typed in for password will not be echoed back to the console). 4. If the scripts run successfully, you should get a HTML summary in the specified output directory. See example screenshots below: Screenshot 1 - JDBC System Resource Tab Page  Screenshot 2 - JTA Tab Page 5. For the HTML to render correctly, ensure the .js and .css files provided (review the output directory created by the zip file extraction) are accessible. For example, to view the HTML locally (without using a web server), place the HTML output, jquery-ui.js, spry.js and wlstsummarizer.css in the same directory. Disclaimer This is a sample script. I have tested it against WebLogic Server 10.3.6 domains on MS Windows and Unix.  I cannot guarantee that the script will run error free or produce the expected output on your system. If you have any feedback add a comment to the blog. I will endeavour to fix any problems with my WLST code. Credits JQuery: http://jquery.com/ Spry (Adobe) : https://github.com/adobe/Spryhttp://www.red-team-design.com/cool-headings-with-pseudo-elements

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  • Windows Phone 7 development: Using isolated storage

    - by DigiMortal
    In my previous posting about Windows Phone 7 development I showed how to use WebBrowser control in Windows Phone 7. In this posting I make some other improvements to my blog reader application and I will show you how to use isolated storage to store information to phone. Why isolated storage? Isolated storage is place where your application can save its data and settings. The image on right (that I stole from MSDN library) shows you how application data store is organized. You have no other options to keep your files besides isolated storage because Windows Phone 7 does not allow you to save data directly to other file system locations. From MSDN: “Isolated storage enables managed applications to create and maintain local storage. The mobile architecture is similar to the Silverlight-based applications on Windows. All I/O operations are restricted to isolated storage and do not have direct access to the underlying operating system file system. Ultimately, this helps to provide security and prevents unauthorized access and data corruption.” Saving files from web to isolated storage I updated my RSS-reader so it reads RSS from web only if there in no local file with RSS. User can update RSS-file by clicking a button. Also file is created when application starts and there is no RSS-file. Why I am doing this? I want my application to be able to work also offline. As my code needs some more refactoring I provide it with some next postings about Windows Phone 7. If you want it sooner then please leave me a comment here. Here is the code for my RSS-downloader that downloads RSS-feed and saves it to isolated storage file calles rss.xml. public class RssDownloader {     private string _url;     private string _fileName;       public delegate void DownloadCompleteDelegate();     public event DownloadCompleteDelegate DownloadComplete;       public RssDownloader(string url, string fileName)     {         _url = url;         _fileName = fileName;     }       public void Download()     {         var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(_url);         var result = (IAsyncResult)request.BeginGetResponse(ResponseCallback, request);            }       private void ResponseCallback(IAsyncResult result)     {         var request = (HttpWebRequest)result.AsyncState;         var response = request.EndGetResponse(result);           using(var stream = response.GetResponseStream())         using(var reader = new StreamReader(stream))         using(var appStorage = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())         using(var file = appStorage.OpenFile("rss.xml", FileMode.OpenOrCreate))         using(var writer = new StreamWriter(file))         {             writer.Write(reader.ReadToEnd());         }           if (DownloadComplete != null)             DownloadComplete();     } } Of course I modified RSS-source for my application to use rss.xml file from isolated storage. As isolated storage files also base on streams we can use them everywhere where streams are expected. Reading isolated storage files As isolated storage files are opened as streams you can read them like usual files in your usual applications. The next code fragment shows you how to open file from isolated storage and how to read it using XmlReader. Previously I used response stream in same place. using(var appStorage = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication()) using(var file = appStorage.OpenFile("rss.xml", FileMode.Open)) {     var reader = XmlReader.Create(file);                      // more code } As you can see there is nothing complex. If you have worked with System.IO namespace objects then you will find isolated storage classes and methods to be very similar to these. Also mention that application storage and isolated storage files must be disposed after you are not using them anymore.

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  • Writing the tests for FluentPath

    - by Latest Microsoft Blogs
    Writing the tests for FluentPath is a challenge. The library is a wrapper around a legacy API (System.IO) that wasn’t designed to be easily testable. If it were more testable, the sensible testing methodology would be to tell System.IO to act against Read More......(read more)

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  • Visual Dumpbin - A C# Visual GUI for Dumpbin

    Visual Dumpbin provides a visual GUI for dumpbin, the Microsoft utility for dumping PE files. The right-click menu lets you copy the output, and you can optionally undecorate C++ function names found in DLLs, and generate a C# wrapper class.

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  • Visual Studio 2010, Entity Framework, and Oracle

    - by Tobias Gunn
    While I was working on a SilverLight 4 demo I found out that Entity Framework is not supported directly through the .NET provider or ODP tools. In order to make them work you need to either write a wrapper of your own (wouldn't chance it) or else use a provider like DataDirect or Quest's upcoming tool. So far, I've been very happy with the DataDirect tool (found here http://www.datadirect.com/products/net/index.ssp). As I get a little farther along I'll post more on SL4, RIA, and EF.

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  • const vs. readonly for a singleton

    - by GlenH7
    First off, I understand there are folk who oppose the use of singletons. I think it's an appropriate use in this case as it's constant state information, but I'm open to differing opinions / solutions. (See The singleton pattern and When should the singleton pattern not be used?) Second, for a broader audience: C++/CLI has a similar keyword to readonly with initonly, so this isn't strictly a C# type question. (Literal field versus constant variable in C++/CLI) Sidenote: A discussion of some of the nuances on using const or readonly. My Question: I have a singleton that anchors together some different data structures. Part of what I expose through that singleton are some lists and other objects, which represent the necessary keys or columns in order to connect the linked data structures. I doubt that anyone would try to change these objects through a different module, but I want to explicitly protect them from that risk. So I'm currently using a "readonly" modifier on those objects*. I'm using readonly instead of const with the lists as I read that using const will embed those items in the referencing assemblies and will therefore trigger a rebuild of those referencing assemblies if / when the list(s) is/are modified. This seems like a tighter coupling than I would want between the modules, but I wonder if I'm obsessing over a moot point. (This is question #2 below) The alternative I see to using "readonly" is to make the variables private and then wrap them with a public get. I'm struggling to see the advantage of this approach as it seems like wrapper code that doesn't provide much additional benefit. (This is question #1 below) It's highly unlikely that we'll change the contents or format of the lists - they're a compilation of things to avoid using magic strings all over the place. Unfortunately, not all the code has converted over to using this singleton's presentation of those strings. Likewise, I don't know that we'd change the containers / classes for the lists. So while I normally argue for the encapsulations advantages a get wrapper provides, I'm just not feeling it in this case. A representative sample of my singleton public sealed class mySingl { private static volatile mySingl sngl; private static object lockObject = new Object(); public readonly Dictionary<string, string> myDict = new Dictionary<string, string>() { {"I", "index"}, {"D", "display"}, }; public enum parms { ABC = 10, DEF = 20, FGH = 30 }; public readonly List<parms> specParms = new List<parms>() { parms.ABC, parms.FGH }; public static mySingl Instance { get { if(sngl == null) { lock(lockObject) { if(sngl == null) sngl = new mySingl(); } } return sngl; } } private mySingl() { doSomething(); } } Questions: Am I taking the most reasonable approach in this case? Should I be worrying about const vs. readonly? is there a better way of providing this information?

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  • What are the alternatives to "overriding a method" when using composition instead of inheritance?

    - by Sebastien Diot
    If we should favor composition over inheritance, the data part of it is clear, at least for me. What I don't have a clear solution to is how overwriting methods, or simply implementing them if they are defined in a pure virtual form, should be implemented. An obvious way is to wrap the instance representing the base-class into the instance representing the sub-class. But the major downsides of this are that if you have say 10 methods, and you want to override a single one, you still have to delegate every other methods anyway. And if there were several layers of inheritance, you have now several layers of wrapping, which becomes less and less efficient. Also, this only solve the problem of the object "client"; when another object calls the top wrapper, things happen like in inheritance. But when a method of the deepest instance, the base class, calls it's own methods that have been wrapped and modified, the wrapping has no effect: the call is performed by it's own method, instead of by the highest wrapper. One extreme alternative that would solve those problems would be to have one instance per method. You only wrap methods that you want to overwrite, so there is no pointless delegation. But now you end up with an incredible amount of classes and object instance, which will have a negative effect on memory usage, and this will require a lot more coding too. So, are there alternatives (preferably alternatives that can be used in Java), that: Do not result in many levels of pointless delegation without any changes. Make sure that not only the client of an object, but also all the code of the object itself, is aware of which implementation of method should be called. Does not result in an explosion of classes and instances. Ideally puts the extra memory overhead that is required at the "class"/"particular composition" level (static if you will), rather than having every object pay the memory overhead of composition. My feeling tells me that the instance representing the base class should be at the "top" of the stack/layers so it receives calls directly, and can process them directly too if they are not overwritten. But I don't know how to do it that way.

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  • Docky have stopped working since update

    - by Fraekkert
    I'm running Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit. I'm using the Docky ppa, and since the latest update It won't start. If i run it from the terminal, this is what i get: [Info 09:21:19.005] Docky version: 2.1.0 bzr docky r1761 ppa [Info 09:21:19.024] Kernel version: 2.6.35.24 [Info 09:21:19.026] CLR version: 2.0.50727.1433 [Debug 09:21:19.493] [UserArgs] BufferTime = 0 [Debug 09:21:19.494] [UserArgs] MaxSize = 2147483647 [Debug 09:21:19.494] [UserArgs] NetbookMode = False [Debug 09:21:19.494] [UserArgs] NoPollCursor = False [Debug 09:21:19.528] [SystemService] Using org.freedesktop.UPower for battery information [Info 09:21:19.564] [ThemeService] Setting theme: Transparent [Debug 09:21:19.587] [DesktopItemService] Loading remap file '/usr/share/docky/remaps.ini'. [Debug 09:21:19.599] [DesktopItemService] Remapping 'Picasa3.exe' to 'picasa'. [Debug 09:21:19.599] [DesktopItemService] Remapping 'nbexec' to 'netbeans'. [Debug 09:21:19.599] [DesktopItemService] Remapping 'deja-dup-preferences' to 'deja-dup'. [Debug 09:21:19.599] [DesktopItemService] Remapping 'VirtualBox' to 'virtualbox'. [Warn 09:21:19.600] [DesktopItemService] Could not find remap file '/home/lasse/.local/share/docky/remaps.ini'! [Debug 09:21:19.602] [DesktopItemService] Loading desktop item cache '/home/lasse/.cache/docky/docky.desktop.en_DK.utf8.cache'. [Info 09:21:20.101] [DockServices] Dock services initialized. [Debug 09:21:20.134] [DBusManager] DBus Registered: org.gnome.Docky [Debug 09:21:20.142] [DBusManager] DBus Registered: net.launchpad.DockManager Stacktrace: at (wrapper managed-to-native) System.IO.MonoIO.Read (intptr,byte[],int,int,System.IO.MonoIOError&) <IL 0x00012, 0x00062> at (wrapper managed-to-native) System.IO.MonoIO.Read (intptr,byte[],int,int,System.IO.MonoIOError&) <IL 0x00012, 0x00062> at System.IO.FileStream.ReadData (intptr,byte[],int,int) <IL 0x00009, 0x00047> at System.IO.FileStream.RefillBuffer () <IL 0x0001c, 0x0002b> at System.IO.FileStream.ReadByte () <IL 0x00079, 0x000c7> at Mono.Addins.Serialization.BinaryXmlReader.ReadNext () <IL 0x0000b, 0x00031> at Mono.Addins.Serialization.BinaryXmlReader.Skip () <IL 0x0003c, 0x00053> at Mono.Addins.Serialization.BinaryXmlReader.Skip () <IL 0x00047, 0x0005f> at Mono.Addins.Serialization.BinaryXmlReader.Skip () <IL 0x00047, 0x0005f> And this .Skip () continues infinitely, and very fast. I've tried cleaning the cache and reinstalling docky, but without luck.

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  • openfeint or gamecenter?

    - by Gajet
    which one has more potential customers, easier API, and wider feature list? i'm going to develop implement one of those two for highscore recording in my game which ones gives more advantages? and by the way I might be going to port my game to android, so if you know any thing that can help me not to rewrite my code (for example a C++ wrapper for both of them) that would mean a greate plus for openfeint in my point of veiw.

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  • GoogleChartSharp

    - by csharp-source.net
    GoogleChartSharp is a C# wrapper for the Google Charts API. GoogleChartSharp supports all API charts and features. The Google Chart API returns a PNG-format image in response to a URL. Several types of image can be generated: line, bar, and pie charts for example. For each image type you can specify attributes such as size, colors, and labels. You can include a Chart API image in a webpage by embedding a URL.

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  • Custom Team Build Template for Microsoft Dynamics NAV in TFS 2010

    - by ssmantha
    To cook this recipe you need the following ingredients: 1) An installation of TFS 2010 Team Build Service on a server 2) Visual Studio 2010 for cooking 3) Use the following Hints on the web: a)  http://www.codeproject.com/KB/library/AutoupateNAV.aspx – use this wrapper to perform the basic tasks b) http://www.richard-banks.org/2010/11/how-to-build-linux-code-with-tfs-2010.html – for ideas on how to customize the build templates   And finally lot of patience and luck, took me about 120 failed builds to get the first one right!!   Please feel free to ask questions, I would be happy to help!!

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  • Attaching a Command to the WP7 Application Bar.

    - by mbcrump
    One of the biggest problems that I’ve seen with people creating WP7 applications is how do you bind the application bar to a Relay Command. If your using MVVM then this is particular important. Let’s examine the code that one might add to start with.  <phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar> <shell:ApplicationBar IsVisible="True" IsMenuEnabled="True"> <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton x:Name="appbar_button1" IconUri="/icons/appbar.questionmark.rest.png" Text="About"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="Click"> <GalaSoft_MvvmLight_Command:EventToCommand Command="{Binding DisplayAbout, Mode=OneWay}" /> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </shell:ApplicationBarIconButton> <shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems> <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem x:Name="menuItem1" Text="MenuItem 1"></shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem> <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem x:Name="menuItem2" Text="MenuItem 2"></shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem> </shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems> </shell:ApplicationBar> </phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar> Everything looks right. But we quickly notice that we have a squiggly line under our Interaction.Triggers. The problem is that the object is not a FrameworkObject. This same code would have worked perfect if this were a normal button. OK. Point has been proved. Let’s make the ApplicationBar support Commands. So, go ahead and create a new project using MVVM Light. If you want to check out the source and work along side this tutorial then click here.  7 Easy Steps to have binding on the Application Bar using MVVM Light (I might add that you don’t have to use MVVM Light to get this functionality, I just prefer it.) 1) Download MVVM Light if you don’t already have it and install the project templates. It is available at http://mvvmlight.codeplex.com/. 2) Click File-New Project and navigate to Silverlight for Windows Phone. Make sure you use the MVVM Light (WP7) Template. 3) Now that we have our project setup and ready to go let’s download a wrapper created by Nicolas Humann here, it is called Phone7.Fx. After you download it then extract it somewhere that you can find it. This wrapper will make our application bar/menu item bindable. 4) Right click References inside your WP7 project and add the .dll file to your project. 5) In your MainPage.xaml you will need to add the proper namespace to it. Don’t forget to build your project afterwards. xmlns:Preview="clr-namespace:Phone7.Fx.Preview;assembly=Phone7.Fx.Preview" 6) Now you can add the BindableAppBar to your MainPage.xaml with a few lines of code.  <Preview:BindableApplicationBar x:Name="AppBar" BarOpacity="1.0" > <Preview:BindableApplicationBarIconButton Command="{Binding DisplayAbout}" IconUri="/icons/appbar.questionmark.rest.png" Text="About" /> <Preview:BindableApplicationBar.MenuItems> <Preview:BindableApplicationBarMenuItem Text="Settings" Command="{Binding InputBox}" /> </Preview:BindableApplicationBar.MenuItems> </Preview:BindableApplicationBar> So your final MainPage.xaml will look similar to this: NOTE: The AppBar will be located inside of the Grid using this wrapper.   <!--LayoutRoot contains the root grid where all other page content is placed--> <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> <RowDefinition Height="*" /> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <!--TitlePanel contains the name of the application and page title--> <StackPanel x:Name="TitlePanel" Grid.Row="0" Margin="24,24,0,12"> <TextBlock x:Name="ApplicationTitle" Text="{Binding ApplicationTitle}" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" /> <TextBlock x:Name="PageTitle" Text="{Binding PageName}" Margin="-3,-8,0,0" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}" /> </StackPanel> <!--ContentPanel - place additional content here--> <Grid x:Name="ContentGrid" Grid.Row="1"> <TextBlock Text="{Binding Welcome}" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" FontSize="40" /> </Grid> <Preview:BindableApplicationBar x:Name="AppBar" BarOpacity="1.0" > <Preview:BindableApplicationBarIconButton Command="{Binding DisplayAbout}" IconUri="/icons/appbar.questionmark.rest.png" Text="About" /> <Preview:BindableApplicationBar.MenuItems> <Preview:BindableApplicationBarMenuItem Text="Settings" Command="{Binding InputBox}" /> </Preview:BindableApplicationBar.MenuItems> </Preview:BindableApplicationBar> </Grid> 7) Let’s go ahead and create the RelayCommands and write them up to a MessageBox by editing our MainViewModel.cs file. public class MainViewModel : ViewModelBase { public string ApplicationTitle { get { return "MVVM LIGHT"; } } public string PageName { get { return "My page:"; } } public string Welcome { get { return "Welcome to MVVM Light"; } } public RelayCommand DisplayAbout { get; private set; } public RelayCommand InputBox { get; private set; } /// <summary> /// Initializes a new instance of the MainViewModel class. /// </summary> public MainViewModel() { if (IsInDesignMode) { // Code runs in Blend --> create design time data. } else { DisplayAbout = new RelayCommand(() => { MessageBox.Show("About box called!"); }); InputBox = new RelayCommand(() => { MessageBox.Show("settings button called"); }); } } If you run the project now you should get something similar to this (notice the AppBar at the bottom):  Now if you hit the question mark then you will get the following MessageBox: The MenuItem works as well so for Settings: As you can see, its pretty easy to add a Command to the ApplicationBar/MenuItem. If you want to look through the full source code then click here.   Subscribe to my feed

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  • How can I easily retab html files according to some sane default?

    - by James
    I have some html files that I'd like to retab that look like this: <header> <div class="wrapper"> <img src="images/logo.png"> <div class="userbox"> <div class="welcome">Welcome Andy!</div> <div class="blackbox"> <ul> <li><a href="#">Invite Friends</a></li> <li><a href="#">My Account</a></li> <li><a href="#">Cart</a></li> <li><a href="#">Sign Out</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </header> And I want them to look something like this: <header> <div class="wrapper"> <img src="images/logo.png"> <div class="userbox"> <div class="welcome">Welcome Andy!</div> <div class="blackbox"> <ul> <li><a href="#">Invite Friends</a></li> <li><a href="#">My Account</a></li> <li><a href="#">Cart</a></li> <li><a href="#">Sign Out</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </header> Or some sane default. What's the easiest way to go about doing this from the terminal in ubuntu for all of the html files in the current directory?

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  • Debugging HLSL for Windows 8 application [migrated]

    - by Shervanator
    i'm currently in the process of creating a Windows 8 applicaiton using SharpDX (the managed c# directx wrapper). However I have ran into problems with one of my shaders and I want to know if its possible to debug such applications. PIX doesn't seem to work of directX apps as the executable does not like opening directly, and the new visual studio graphics debugging toolkit in VS2012 always states "unable to start the experiment" when I try to capture any information about my session. Thanks!

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  • Why enumerator structs are a really bad idea (redux)

    - by Simon Cooper
    My previous blog post went into some detail as to why calling MoveNext on a BCL generic collection enumerator didn't quite do what you thought it would. This post covers the Reset method. To recap, here's the simple wrapper around a linked list enumerator struct from my previous post (minus the readonly on the enumerator variable): sealed class EnumeratorWrapper : IEnumerator<int> { private LinkedList<int>.Enumerator m_Enumerator; public EnumeratorWrapper(LinkedList<int> linkedList) { m_Enumerator = linkedList.GetEnumerator(); } public int Current { get { return m_Enumerator.Current; } } object System.Collections.IEnumerator.Current { get { return Current; } } public bool MoveNext() { return m_Enumerator.MoveNext(); } public void Reset() { ((System.Collections.IEnumerator)m_Enumerator).Reset(); } public void Dispose() { m_Enumerator.Dispose(); } } If you have a look at the Reset method, you'll notice I'm having to cast to IEnumerator to be able to call Reset on m_Enumerator. This is because the implementation of LinkedList<int>.Enumerator.Reset, and indeed of all the other Reset methods on the BCL generic collection enumerators, is an explicit interface implementation. However, IEnumerator is a reference type. LinkedList<int>.Enumerator is a value type. That means, in order to call the reset method at all, the enumerator has to be boxed. And the IL confirms this: .method public hidebysig newslot virtual final instance void Reset() cil managed { .maxstack 8 L_0000: nop L_0001: ldarg.0 L_0002: ldfld valuetype [System]System.Collections.Generic.LinkedList`1/Enumerator<int32> EnumeratorWrapper::m_Enumerator L_0007: box [System]System.Collections.Generic.LinkedList`1/Enumerator<int32> L_000c: callvirt instance void [mscorlib]System.Collections.IEnumerator::Reset() L_0011: nop L_0012: ret } On line 0007, we're doing a box operation, which copies the enumerator to a reference object on the heap, then on line 000c calling Reset on this boxed object. So m_Enumerator in the wrapper class is not modified by the call the Reset. And this is the only way to call the Reset method on this variable (without using reflection). Therefore, the only way that the collection enumerator struct can be used safely is to store them as a boxed IEnumerator<T>, and not use them as value types at all.

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  • 4 Ways Your Brand Can Jump From the Edge of Space

    - by Mike Stiles
    Can your brand’s social media content captivate the world and make it hold its collective breath? Can you put something on the screen that’s so compelling that your audience can’t look away? Will they want to make sure their friends see it so they can talk about it? If not, you’re probably not with Red Bull. I was impressed with Red Bull’s approach to social content even before Felix Baumgartner’s stunning skydive from the edge of space. And then they did this. According to Visible Measures, videos of the jump scored 50 million views in 4 days. 1,700 clips were generated from both official and organic sources. The live stream was the most watched YouTube Stream of all time (8 million concurrent viewers). The 2nd most watched live stream was…Felix’ first attempt Oct. 9. Are you ready to compete with that? I ask that question because some brands are still out there tying themselves up in knots about whether or not they should tweet. The public’s time and attention are scarce commodities, commodities they value greatly. The competition amongst brands for that time and attention is intense and going up like Felix’s capsule. If you still view your press releases as “content,” you won’t even be counted as being among the competition. Here are 5 lessons learned from Red Bull’s big leap: 1. They have a total understanding of their target market and audience. Not only do they have an understanding of it, they do something about it. They act on it. They fill the majority of their thoughts with what the audience wants. They hunger for wild applause from that audience. They want to do things that embrace the audience’s lifestyle and immerse in it so the target will identify the brand as “one of them.” Takeaway: BE your target market. 2. They deliver content that strikes the audience right where they emotionally live. If you want your content to have impact, you have to make your audience’s heart race, or make them tear up, or make them laugh. Label them “data points” all you want, but humans are emotional creatures. No message connects that’s not carried in on an emotion. Takeaway: You’re on the inside. If your content doesn’t make you say “wow,” it’s unlikely it will register with fans. 3. They put aside old school marketing and don’t let their content be degraded into a commercial. Their execs seem to understand the value in keeping a lid on the hard sell. So many brands just can’t bring themselves to disconnect advertising and social content. The result is, otherwise decent content gets contaminated with a desperation the viewer can smell a mile away. Think the Baumgartner skydive didn’t do Red Bull any good since he wasn’t drinking one on the way down while singing a jingle? Analysis company Taykey discovered that at the peak of the skydive buzz, about 1% of all online conversation was about the jump. Mentions of Red Bull constituted 1/3 of 1% of all Internet activity. Views of other Red Bull videos also shot up. Takeaway: Chill out with the ads. Your brand will get full credit for entertaining/informing fans in a relevant way, provided you do it. 4. They don’t hesitate to ask, “What can we do next”? Most corporate cultures are a virtual training facility for “we can’t do that.” Few are encouraged to innovate or think big, if think at all. Thinking big involves faith, and work. It means freedom and letting employees run a little wild with their ideas. There will always be the opportunity to let fear of everything that moves creep in and kill grand visions dead in their tracks. Experimenting must be allowed. Failure must be allowed. Red Bull didn’t think big. They thought mega. They tried to outdo themselves. Felix could have gone ahead and jumped halfway up, thinking, “This is still relatively high up. Good enough.” But that wouldn’t have left us breathless. Takeaway: Go for it. Jump. In putting up social properties and gathering fans of your brand, you’ve basically invited people to a party. A good host doesn’t just set out warm beer and stale chips because that’s inexpensive and easy. Be on the lookout for ways to make your guests walk away saying, “That was epic.”

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