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• No persister for: <ClassName> issue with Fluent NHibernate

  - by Amit

  I have following code: //AutoMapConfig.cs using System; using FluentNHibernate.Automapping; namespace SimpleFNH.AutoMap { public class AutoMapConfig : DefaultAutomappingConfiguration { public override bool ShouldMap(Type type) { return type.Namespace == "Examples.FirstAutomappedProject.Entities"; } } } //CascadeConvention.cs using FluentNHibernate.Conventions; using FluentNHibernate.Conventions.Instances; namespace SimpleFNH.AutoMap { public class CascadeConvention : IReferenceConvention, IHasManyConvention, IHasManyToManyConvention { public void Apply(IManyToOneInstance instance) { instance.Cascade.All(); } public void Apply(IOneToManyCollectionInstance instance) { instance.Cascade.All(); } public void Apply(IManyToManyCollectionInstance instance) { instance.Cascade.All(); } } } //Item.cs namespace SimpleFNH.Entities { public class Item { public virtual long ID { get; set; } public virtual string ItemName { get; set; } public virtual string Description { get; set; } public virtual OrderItem OrderItem { get; set; } } } //OrderItem.cs namespace SimpleFNH.Entities { public class OrderItem { public virtual long ID { get; set; } public virtual int Quantity { get; set; } public virtual Item Item { get; set; } public virtual ProductOrder ProductOrder { get; set; } public virtual void AddItem(Item item) { item.OrderItem = this; } } } using System; using System.Collections.Generic; //ProductOrder.cs namespace SimpleFNH.Entities { public class ProductOrder { public virtual long ID { get; set; } public virtual DateTime OrderDate { get; set; } public virtual string CustomerName { get; set; } public virtual IList<OrderItem> OrderItems { get; set; } public ProductOrder() { OrderItems = new List<OrderItem>(); } public virtual void AddOrderItems(params OrderItem[] items) { foreach (var item in items) { OrderItems.Add(item); item.ProductOrder = this; } } } } //NHibernateRepo.cs using FluentNHibernate.Cfg; using FluentNHibernate.Cfg.Db; using NHibernate; using NHibernate.Criterion; using NHibernate.Tool.hbm2ddl; namespace SimpleFNH.Repository { public class NHibernateRepo { private static ISessionFactory _sessionFactory; private static ISessionFactory SessionFactory { get { if (_sessionFactory == null) InitializeSessionFactory(); return _sessionFactory; } } private static void InitializeSessionFactory() { _sessionFactory = Fluently.Configure().Database( MsSqlConfiguration.MsSql2008.ConnectionString( @"server=Amit-PC\SQLEXPRESS;database=SimpleFNH;Trusted_Connection=True;").ShowSql()). Mappings(m => m.FluentMappings.AddFromAssemblyOf<Order>()).ExposeConfiguration( cfg => new SchemaExport(cfg).Create(true, true)).BuildSessionFactory(); } public static ISession OpenSession() { return SessionFactory.OpenSession(); } } } //Program.cs using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using SimpleFNH.Entities; using SimpleFNH.Repository; namespace SimpleFNH { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { using (var session = NHibernateRepo.OpenSession()) { using (var transaction = session.BeginTransaction()) { var item1 = new Item { ItemName = "item 1", Description = "test 1" }; var item2 = new Item { ItemName = "item 2", Description = "test 2" }; var item3 = new Item { ItemName = "item 3", Description = "test 3" }; var orderItem1 = new OrderItem { Item = item1, Quantity = 2 }; var orderItem2 = new OrderItem { Item = item2, Quantity = 4 }; var orderItem3 = new OrderItem { Item = item3, Quantity = 5 }; var productOrder = new ProductOrder { CustomerName = "Amit", OrderDate = DateTime.Now, OrderItems = new List<OrderItem> { orderItem1, orderItem2, orderItem3 } }; productOrder.AddOrderItems(orderItem1, orderItem2, orderItem3); session.Save(productOrder); transaction.Commit(); } } using (var session = NHibernateRepo.OpenSession()) { // retreive all stores and display them using (session.BeginTransaction()) { var orders = session.CreateCriteria(typeof(ProductOrder)) .List<ProductOrder>(); foreach (var item in orders) { Console.WriteLine(item.OrderItems.First().Quantity); } } } } } } I tried many variations to get it working but i get an error saying No persister for: SimpleFNH.Entities.ProductOrder Can someone help me get it working? I wanted to create a simple program which will set a pattern for my bigger project but it is taking quite a lot of time than expected. It would be rally helpful if you can explain in simple terms on any template/pattern that i can use to get fluent nHibernate working. The above code uses auto mapping, which i tried after i tried with fluent mapping.

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• Animation issue caused by C# parameters passed by reference rather than value, but where?

  - by Jordan Roher

  I'm having trouble with sprite animation in XNA that appears to be caused by a struct passed as a reference value. But I'm not using the ref keyword anywhere. I am, admittedly, a C# noob, so there may be some shallow bonehead error in here, but I can't see it. I'm creating 10 ants or bees and animating them as they move across the screen. I have an array of animation structs, and each time I create an ant or bee, I send it the animation array value it requires (just [0] or [1] at this time). Deep inside the animation struct is a timer that is used to change frames. The ant/bee class stores the animation struct as a private variable. What I'm seeing is that each ant or bee uses the same animation struct, the one I thought I was passing in and copying by value. So during Update(), when I advance the animation timer for each ant/bee, the next ant/bee has its animation timer advanced by that small amount. If there's 1 ant on screen, it animates properly. 2 ants, it runs twice as fast, and so on. Obviously, not what I want. Here's an abridged version of the code. How is BerryPicking's ActorAnimationGroupData[] getting shared between the BerryCreatures? class BerryPicking { private ActorAnimationGroupData[] animations; private BerryCreature[] creatures; private Dictionary<string, Texture2D> creatureTextures; private const int maxCreatures = 5; public BerryPickingExample() { this.creatures = new BerryCreature[maxCreatures]; this.creatureTextures = new Dictionary<string, Texture2D>(); } public void LoadContent() { // Returns data from an XML file Reader reader = new Reader(); animations = reader.LoadAnimations(); CreateCreatures(); } // This is called from another function I'm not including because it's not relevant to the problem. // In it, I remove any creature that passes outside the viewport by setting its creatures[] spot to null. // Hence the if(creatures[i] == null) test is used to recreate "dead" creatures. Inelegant, I know. private void CreateCreatures() { for (int i = 0; i < creatures.Length; i++) { if (creatures[i] == null) { // In reality, the name selection is randomized creatures[i] = new BerryCreature("ant"); // Load content and texture (which I create elsewhere) creatures[i].LoadContent( FindAnimation(creatures[i].Name), creatureTextures[creatures[i].Name]); } } } private ActorAnimationGroupData FindAnimation(string animationName) { int yourAnimation = -1; for (int i = 0; i < animations.Length; i++) { if (animations[i].name == animationName) { yourAnimation = i; break; } } return animations[yourAnimation]; } public void Update(GameTime gameTime) { for (int i = 0; i < creatures.Length; i++) { creatures[i].Update(gameTime); } } } class Reader { public ActorAnimationGroupData[] LoadAnimations() { ActorAnimationGroupData[] animationGroup; XmlReader file = new XmlTextReader(filename); // Do loading... // Then later file.Close(); return animationGroup; } } class BerryCreature { private ActorAnimation animation; private string name; public BerryCreature(string name) { this.name = name; } public void LoadContent(ActorAnimationGroupData animationData, Texture2D sprite) { animation = new ActorAnimation(animationData); animation.LoadContent(sprite); } public void Update(GameTime gameTime) { animation.Update(gameTime); } } class ActorAnimation { private ActorAnimationGroupData animation; public ActorAnimation(ActorAnimationGroupData animation) { this.animation = animation; } public void LoadContent(Texture2D sprite) { this.sprite = sprite; } public void Update(GameTime gameTime) { animation.Update(gameTime); } } struct ActorAnimationGroupData { // There are lots of other members of this struct, but the timer is the only one I'm worried about. // TimerData is another struct private TimerData timer; public ActorAnimationGroupData() { timer = new TimerData(2); } public void Update(GameTime gameTime) { timer.Update(gameTime); } } struct TimerData { public float currentTime; public float maxTime; public TimerData(float maxTime) { this.currentTime = 0; this.maxTime = maxTime; } public void Update(GameTime gameTime) { currentTime += (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; if (currentTime >= maxTime) { currentTime = maxTime; } } }

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• PHP MVC Framework Structure

  - by bigstylee

  I am sorry about the amount of code here. I have tried to show enough for understanding while avoiding confusion (I hope). I have included a second copy of the code at Pastebin. (The code does execute without error/notice/warning.) I am currently creating a Content Management System while trying to implement the idea of Model View Controller. I have only recently come across the concept of MVC (within the last week) and trying to implement this into my current project. One of the features of the CMS is dynamic/customisable menu areas and each feature will be represented by a controller. Therefore there will be multiple versions of the Controller Class, each with specific extended functionality. I have looked at a number of tutorials and read some open source solutions to the MVC Framework. I am now trying to create a lightweight solution for my specific requirements. I am not interested in backwards compatibility, I am using PHP 5.3. An advantage of the Base class is not having to use global and can directly access any loaded class using $this->Obj['ClassName']->property/function();. Hoping to get some feedback using the basic structure outlined (with performance in mind). Specifically; a) Have I understood/implemented the concept of MVC correctly? b) Have I understood/implemented Object Orientated techniques with PHP 5 correctly? c) Should the class propertise of Base be static? d) Improvements? Thank you very much in advance! <?php /* A "Super Class" that creates/stores all object instances */ class Base { public static $Obj = array(); // Not sure this is the correct use of the "static" keyword? public static $var; static public function load_class($directory, $class) { echo count(self::$Obj)."\n"; // This does show the array is getting updated and not creating a new array :) if (!isset(self::$Obj[$class]) && !is_object(self::$Obj[$class])) //dont want to load it twice { /* Locate and include the class file based upon name ($class) */ return self::$Obj[$class] = new $class(); } return TRUE; } } /* Loads general configuration objects into the "Super Class" */ class Libraries extends Base { public function __construct(){ $this->load_class('library', 'Database'); $this->load_class('library', 'Session'); self::$var = 'Hello World!'; //testing visibility /* Other general funciton classes */ } } class Database extends Base { /* Connects to the the database and executes all queries */ public function query(){} } class Session extends Base { /* Implements Sessions in database (read/write) */ } /* General functionality of controllers */ abstract class Controller extends Base { protected function load_model($class, $method) { /* Locate and include the model file */ $this->load_class('model', $class); call_user_func(array(self::$Obj[$class], $method)); } protected function load_view($name) { /* Locate and include the view file */ #include('views/'.$name.'.php'); } } abstract class View extends Base { /* ... */ } abstract class Model extends Base { /* ... */ } class News extends Controller { public function index() { /* Displays the 5 most recent News articles and displays with Content Area */ $this->load_model('NewsModel', 'index'); $this->load_view('news', 'index'); echo $this->var; } public function menu() { /* Displays the News Title of the 5 most recent News articles and displays within the Menu Area */ $this->load_model('news/index'); $this->load_view('news/index'); } } class ChatBox extends Controller { /* ... */ } /* Lots of different features extending the controller/view/model class depending upon request and layout */ class NewsModel extends Model { public function index() { echo $this->var; self::$Obj['Database']->query(/*SELECT 5 most recent news articles*/); } public function menu() { /* ... */ } } $Libraries = new Libraries; $controller = 'News'; // Would be determined from Query String $method = 'index'; // Would be determined from Query String $Content = $Libraries->load_class('controller', $controller); //create the controller for the specific page if (in_array($method, get_class_methods($Content))) { call_user_func(array($Content, $method)); } else { die('Bad Request'. $method); } $Content::$var = 'Goodbye World'; echo $Libraries::$var . ' - ' . $Content::$var; ?> /* Ouput */ 0 1 2 3 Goodbye World! - Goodbye World

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• For Loop help In a Hash Cracker Homework.

  - by aaron burns

  On the homework I am working on we are making a hash cracker. I am implementing it so as to have my cracker. java call worker.java. Worker.java implements Runnable. Worker is to take the start and end of a list of char, the hash it is to crack, and the max length of the password that made the hash. I know I want to do a loop in run() BUT I cannot think of how I would do it so it would go to the given max pasword length. I have posted the code I have so far. Any directions or areas I should look into.... I thought there was a way to do this with a certain way to write the loop but I don't know or can't find the correct syntax. Oh.. also. In main I divide up so x amount of threads can be chosen and I know that as of write now it only works for an even number of the 40 possible char given. package HashCracker; import java.util.*; import java.security.MessageDigest; import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException; public class Cracker { // Array of chars used to produce strings public static final char[] CHARS = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789.,-!".toCharArray(); public static final int numOfChar=40; /* Given a byte[] array, produces a hex String, such as "234a6f". with 2 chars for each byte in the array. (provided code) */ public static String hexToString(byte[] bytes) { StringBuffer buff = new StringBuffer(); for (int i=0; i<bytes.length; i++) { int val = bytes[i]; val = val & 0xff; // remove higher bits, sign if (val<16) buff.append('0'); // leading 0 buff.append(Integer.toString(val, 16)); } return buff.toString(); } /* Given a string of hex byte values such as "24a26f", creates a byte[] array of those values, one byte value -128..127 for each 2 chars. (provided code) */ public static byte[] hexToArray(String hex) { byte[] result = new byte[hex.length()/2]; for (int i=0; i<hex.length(); i+=2) { result[i/2] = (byte) Integer.parseInt(hex.substring(i, i+2), 16); } return result; } public static void main(String args[]) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException { if(args.length==1)//Hash Maker { //create a byte array , meassage digestand put password into it //and get out a hash value printed to the screen using provided methods. byte[] myByteArray=args[0].getBytes(); MessageDigest hasher=MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-1"); hasher.update(myByteArray); byte[] digestedByte=hasher.digest(); String hashValue=Cracker.hexToString(digestedByte); System.out.println(hashValue); } else//Hash Cracker { ArrayList<Thread> myRunnables=new ArrayList<Thread>(); int numOfThreads = Integer.parseInt(args[2]); int charPerThread=Cracker.numOfChar/numOfThreads; int start=0; int end=charPerThread-1; for(int i=0; i<numOfThreads; i++) { //creates, stores and starts threads. Runnable tempWorker=new Worker(start, end, args[1], Integer.parseInt(args[1])); Thread temp=new Thread(tempWorker); myRunnables.add(temp); temp.start(); start=end+1; end=end+charPerThread; } } } import java.util.*; public class Worker implements Runnable{ private int charStart; private int charEnd; private String Hash2Crack; private int maxLength; public Worker(int start, int end, String hashValue, int maxPWlength) { charStart=start; charEnd=end; Hash2Crack=hashValue; maxLength=maxPWlength; } public void run() { byte[] myHash2Crack_=Cracker.hexToArray(Hash2Crack); for(int i=charStart; i<charEnd+1; i++) { Cracker.numOfChar[i]////// this is where I am stuck. } } }

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• Bandwidth Limit Php Not working

  - by Saxtor

  Hey How are you doing guys, i am trying to limit bandwidth per users not by ipaddress for some reason my code doesnt work i need some help, what i am trying to do is to limit the download of the user that they would only have 10Gb per day to download however it seems to me that my buffer is not working when i use multiple connections it doesnt work, but when i use one connect it works 80% here is my code can you debug the error for me thanks. /** * @author saxtor if you can improve this code email me [email protected] * @copyright 2010 */ /** * CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `max_traffic` ( `id` int(255) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `limit` int(255) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=0 ; */ //SQL Connection [this is hackable for testing] date_default_timezone_set("America/Guyana"); mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "") or die(mysql_error()); mysql_select_db("Quota") or die(mysql_error()); function quota($id) { $result = mysql_query("SELECT `limit` FROM max_traffic WHERE id='$id' ") or die(error_log(mysql_error()));; $row = mysql_fetch_array($result); return $row[0]; } function update_quota($id,$value) { $result = mysql_query("UPDATE `max_traffic` SET `limit`='$value' WHERE id='$id'") or die(mysql_error()); return $value; } if ( quota(1) != 0) $limit = quota(1); else $limit = 0; $multipart = false; //was a part of the file requested? (partial download) $range = $_SERVER["HTTP_RANGE"]; if ($range) { $cookie .= "\r\nRange: $range"; $multipart = true; header("X-UR-RANGE-Range: $range"); } $url = 'http://127.0.0.1/puppy.iso'; $filename = basename($url); //octet-stream + attachment => client always stores file header('Content-type: application/octet-stream'); header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$filename.'"'); //always included so clients know this script supports resuming header("Accept-Ranges: bytes"); $user_agent = ini_get("user_agent"); ini_set("user_agent", $user_agent . "\r\nCookie: enc=$cookie"); $httphandle = fopen($url, "r"); $headers = stream_get_meta_data($httphandle); $size = $headers["wrapper_data"][6]; $sizer = explode(' ',$size); $size = $sizer[1]; //let's check the return header of rapidshare for range / length indicators //we'll just pass these to the client foreach ($headers["wrapper_data"] as $header) { $header = trim($header); if (substr(strtolower($header), 0, strlen("content-range")) == "content-range") { // _insert($range); header($header); header("X-RS-RANGE-" . $header); $multipart = true; //content-range indicates partial download } elseif (substr(strtolower($header), 0, strlen("Content-Length")) == "content-length") { // _insert($range); header($header); header("X-RS-CL-" . $header); } } if ($multipart) header('HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content'); flush(); $speed = 4128; $packet = 1; //this is private dont touch. $bufsize = 128; //this is private dont touch/ $bandwidth = 0; //this is private dont touch. while (!(connection_aborted() || connection_status() == 1) && $size > 0) { while (!feof($httphandle) && $size > 0) { if ($limit <= 0 ) $size = 0; if ( $size < $bufsize && $size != 0 && $limit != 0) { echo fread($httphandle,$size); $bandwidth += $size; } else { if( $limit != 0) echo fread($httphandle,$bufsize); $bandwidth += $bufsize; } $size -= $bufsize; $limit -= $bufsize; flush(); if ($speed > 0 && ($bandwidth > $speed*$packet*103)) { usleep(100000); $packet++; //update_quota(1,$limit); } error_log(update_quota(1,$limit)); $limit = quota(1); //if( $size <= 0 ) // exit; } fclose($httphandle); } exit;

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• I asked this yesterday, after the input given I'm still having trouble implementing..

  - by Josh

  I'm not sure how to fix this or what I did wrong, but whenever I enter in a value it just closes out the run prompt. So, seems I do have a problem somewhere in my coding. Whenever I run the program and input a variable, it always returns the same answer.."The content at location 76 is 0." On that note, someone told me that "I don't know, but I suspect that Program A incorrectly has a fixed address being branched to on instructions 10 and 11." - mctylr but I'm not sure how to fix that.. I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate this idea from R Samuel Klatchko.. I'm still not sure what I'm missing but I can't get it to work.. const int OP_LOAD = 3; const int OP_STORE = 4; const int OP_ADD = 5; ... const int OP_LOCATION_MULTIPLIER = 100; mem[0] = OP_LOAD * OP_LOCATION_MULTIPLIER + ...; mem[1] = OP_ADD * OP_LOCATION_MULTIPLIER + ...; operand = memory[ j ] % OP_LOCATION_MULTIPLIER; operation = memory[ j ] / OP_LOCATION_MULTIPLIER; I'm new to programming, I'm not the best, so I'm going for simplicity. Also this is an SML program. Anyway, this IS a homework assignment and I'm wanting a good grade on this. So I was looking for input and making sure this program will do what I'm hoping they are looking for. Anyway, here are the instructions: Write SML (Simpletron Machine language) programs to accomplish each of the following task: A) Use a sentinel-controlled loop to read positive number s and compute and print their sum. Terminate input when a neg number is entered. B) Use a counter-controlled loop to read seven numbers, some positive and some negative, and compute + print the avg. C) Read a series of numbers, and determine and print the largest number. The first number read indicates how many numbers should be processed. Without further a due, here is my program. All together. int main() { const int READ = 10; const int WRITE = 11; const int LOAD = 20; const int STORE = 21; const int ADD = 30; const int SUBTRACT = 31; const int DIVIDE = 32; const int MULTIPLY = 33; const int BRANCH = 40; const int BRANCHNEG = 41; const int BRANCHZERO = 41; const int HALT = 43; int mem[100] = {0}; //Making it 100, since simpletron contains a 100 word mem. int operation; //taking the rest of these variables straight out of the book seeing as how they were italisized. int operand; int accum = 0; // the special register is starting at 0 int j; // This is for part a, it will take in positive variables in a sent-controlled loop and compute + print their sum. Variables from example in text. memory [0] = 1010; memory [01] = 2009; memory [02] = 3008; memory [03] = 2109; memory [04] = 1109; memory [05] = 4300; memory [06] = 1009; j = 0; //Makes the variable j start at 0. while ( true ) { operand = memory[ j ]%100; // Finds the op codes from the limit on the memory (100) operation = memory[ j ]/100; //using a switch loop to set up the loops for the cases switch ( operation ){ case 10: //reads a variable into a word from loc. Enter in -1 to exit cout <<"\n Input a positive variable: "; cin >> memory[ operand ]; break; case 11: // takes a word from location cout << "\n\nThe content at location " << operand << "is " << memory[operand]; break; case 20:// loads accum = memory[ operand ]; break; case 21: //stores memory[ operand ] = accum; break; case 30: //adds accum += mem[operand]; break; case 31: // subtracts accum-= memory[ operand ]; break; case 32: //divides accum /=(memory[ operand ]); break; case 33: // multiplies accum*= memory [ operand ]; break; case 40: // Branches to location j = -1; break; case 41: //branches if acc. is < 0 if (accum < 0) j = 5; break; case 42: //branches if acc = 0 if (accum == 0) j = 5; break; case 43: // Program ends exit(0); break; } j++; } return 0; }

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• Link List Implementation Help - Visual C++

  - by Greenhouse Gases

  Hi there I'm trying to implement a link list which stores the city name (though you will see this commented out as I need to resolve the issue of not being able to use string and needing to use a primitive data type instead during the declaration), longitude, latitude and of course a pointer to the next node in the chain. I am new to the Visual C++ environment and my brain is somewhat scrambled after coding for several straight hours today so I wondered if anyone could help resolve the 2 errors I am getting (ignore the #include syntax as I had to change them to avoid the browser interpreting html!): 1U08221.obj : error LNK2028: unresolved token (0A000298) "public: __thiscall Locations::Locations(void)" (??0Locations@@$$FQAE@XZ) referenced in function "int __clrcall main(cli::array^)" (?main@@$$HYMHP$01AP$AAVString@System@@@Z) 1U08221.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "public: __thiscall Locations::Locations(void)" (??0Locations@@$$FQAE@XZ) referenced in function "int __clrcall main(cli::array^)" (?main@@$$HYMHP$01AP$AAVString@System@@@Z) The code for my header file is here: include string struct locationNode { //char[10] nodeCityName; double nodeLati; double nodeLongi; locationNode* Next; }; class Locations { private: int size; public: Locations(); // constructor for the class locationNode* Head; int Add(locationNode* Item); }; and here is the code for the file containing the main method: // U08221.cpp : main project file. include "stdafx.h" include "Locations.h" include iostream include string using namespace std; int n = 0; int x; string cityNameInput; bool acceptedInput = false; int Locations::Add(locationNode *NewItem) { locationNode *Sample = new locationNode; Sample = NewItem; Sample-Next = Head; Head = Sample; return size++; } void CorrectCase(string name) // Correct upper and lower case letters of input { x = name.size(); int firstLetVal = name[0], letVal; n = 1; // variable for name index from second letter onwards if((name[0] 90) && (name[0] < 123)) // First letter is lower case { firstLetVal = firstLetVal - 32; // Capitalise first letter name[0] = firstLetVal; } while(n <= x - 1) { if((name[n] = 65) && (name[n] <= 90)) { letVal = name[n] + 32; name[n] = letVal; } n++; } cityNameInput = name; } void nameValidation(string name) { n = 0; // start from first letter x = name.size(); while(!acceptedInput) { if((name[n] = 65) && (name[n] <= 122)) // is in the range of letters { while(n <= x - 1) { while((name[n] =91) && (name[n] <=97)) // ERROR!! { cout << "Please enter a valid city name" << endl; cin name; } n++; } } else { cout << "Please enter a valid city name" << endl; cin name; } if(n <= x - 1) { acceptedInput = true; } } cityNameInput = name; } int main(array ^args) { cout << "Enter a city name" << endl; cin cityNameInput; nameValidation(cityNameInput); // check is made up of valid characters CorrectCase(cityNameInput); // corrects name to standard format of capitalised first letter, and lower case subsequent letters cout << cityNameInput; cin cityNameInput; Locations::Locations(); Locations *Parts = new Locations(); locationNode *Part; Part = new locationNode; //Part-nodeCityName = "London"; Part-nodeLati = 87; Part-nodeLongi = 80; Parts-Add(Part); } I am familiar with the concepts but somewhat inexperienced with OOP so am making some silly errors that you can never find when you've stared at something too long. Any help you can offer will be appreciated! Thanks

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• C++ SDL State Machine Segfault

  - by user1602079

  The code compiles and builds fine, but it immediately segfaults. I've looked at this for a while and have no idea why. Any help is appreciated. Thank you! Here's the code: main.cpp #include "SDL/SDL.h" #include "Globals.h" #include "Core.h" #include "GameStates.h" #include "Introduction.h" int main(int argc, char** args) { if(core.Initilize() == false) { SDL_Quit(); } while(core.desiredstate != core.Quit) { currentstate->EventHandling(); currentstate->Logic(); core.ChangeState(); currentstate->Render(); currentstate->Update(); } SDL_Quit(); } Core.h #ifndef CORE_H #define CORE_H #include "SDL/SDL.h" #include <string> class Core { public: SDL_Surface* Load(std::string filename); void ApplySurface(int X, int Y, SDL_Surface* source, SDL_Surface* destination); void SetState(int newstate); void ChangeState(); enum state { Intro, STATES_NULL, Quit }; int desiredstate, stateID; bool Initilize(); }; #endif Core.cpp #include "Core.h" #include "SDL/SDL.h" #include "Globals.h" #include "Introduction.h" #include <string> /* Initilizes SDL subsystems */ bool Core::Initilize() { //Inits subsystems, reutrns false upon error if(SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_EVERYTHING) == -1) { return false; } SDL_WM_SetCaption("Game", NULL); return true; } /* Loads surfaces and optimizes them */ SDL_Surface* Core::Load(std::string filename) { //The surface to be optimized SDL_Surface* original = SDL_LoadBMP(filename.c_str()); //The optimized surface SDL_Surface* optimized = NULL; //Optimizes the image if it loaded properly if(original != NULL) { optimized = SDL_DisplayFormat(original); SDL_FreeSurface(original); } else { //returns NULL upon error return NULL; } return optimized; } /* Blits surfaces */ void Core::ApplySurface(int X, int Y, SDL_Surface* source, SDL_Surface* destination) { //Stores the coordinates of the surface SDL_Rect offsets; offsets.x = X; offsets.y = Y; //Bits the surface if both surfaces are present if(source != NULL && destination != NULL) { SDL_BlitSurface(source, NULL, destination, &offsets); } } /* Sets desiredstate to newstate */ void Core::SetState(int newstate) { if(desiredstate != Quit) { desiredstate = newstate; } } /* Changes the game state */ void Core::ChangeState() { if(desiredstate != STATES_NULL && desiredstate != Quit) { delete currentstate; switch(desiredstate) { case Intro: currentstate = new Introduction(); break; } stateID = desiredstate; desiredstate = core.STATES_NULL; } } Globals.h #ifndef GLOBALS_H #define GLOBALS_H #include "SDL/SDL.h" #include "Core.h" #include "GameStates.h" extern SDL_Surface* screen; extern Core core; extern GameStates* currentstate; #endif Globals.cpp #include "Globals.h" #include "SDL/SDL.h" #include "GameStates.h" SDL_Surface* screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(640, 480, 32, SDL_SWSURFACE); Core core; GameStates* currentstate = NULL; GameStates.h #ifndef GAMESTATES_H #define GAMESTATES_H class GameStates { public: virtual void EventHandling() = 0; virtual void Logic() = 0; virtual void Render() = 0; virtual void Update() = 0; }; #endif Introduction.h #ifndef INTRODUCTION_H #define INTRODUCTION_H #include "GameStates.h" #include "Globals.h" class Introduction : public GameStates { public: Introduction(); private: void EventHandling(); void Logic(); void Render(); void Update(); ~Introduction(); SDL_Surface* test; }; #endif Introduction.cpp #include "SDL/SDL.h" #include "Core.h" #include "Globals.h" #include "Introduction.h" /* Loads all the assets */ Introduction::Introduction() { test = core.Load("test.bmp"); } void Introduction::EventHandling() { SDL_Event event; while(SDL_PollEvent(&event)) { switch(event.type) { case SDL_QUIT: core.SetState(core.Quit); break; } } } void Introduction::Logic() { //to be coded } void Introduction::Render() { core.ApplySurface(30, 30, test, screen); } void Introduction::Update() { SDL_Flip(screen); } Introduction::~Introduction() { SDL_FreeSurface(test); } Sorry if the formatting is a bit off... Having to put four spaces for it to be put into a code block offset it a bit. I ran it through gdb and this is what I got: Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. 0x0000000000400e46 in main () Which isn't incredibly useful... Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

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• C#: Searching through arrays

  - by Jonathan Oberhaus

  I have a dvd app that stores dvds and blu-rays, I want to search the arrays by director. Below is the code for the inventory class I have seen many different ways to do this. There seems to be some debate as the best/most efficient way to accomplish this, any suggestions? Blockquote namespace MovieInventoryApplication { class Inventory { public Bluray[] BlurayMovies; public DVD[] DVDMovies; private int blurayCount; private int dvdCount; public Inventory() { BlurayMovies = new Bluray[5]; DVDMovies = new DVD[5]; blurayCount = 0; dvdCount = 0; } public void AddBluray() { String strTitle; int intReleaseYear; int intRunningTimeMinutes; String strDirector; int intPrice; int intRegionCode; try { Console.Write("Enter a title: "); strTitle = Console.ReadLine(); Console.Write("Enter a release year: "); intReleaseYear = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()); Console.Write("Enter the running time in minutes: "); intRunningTimeMinutes = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()); Console.Write("Enter the directors name: "); strDirector = Console.ReadLine(); Console.Write("Enter a rental price: "); intPrice = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()); BlurayMovies[blurayCount] = new Bluray(strTitle, intReleaseYear, intRunningTimeMinutes, strDirector, intPrice); blurayCount++; Console.Write("Enter the DVD region code: "); intRegionCode = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()); DVDMovies[dvdCount] = new DVD(strTitle, intReleaseYear, intRunningTimeMinutes, strDirector, intPrice, intRegionCode); dvdCount++; } catch (FormatException FormatException) { Console.WriteLine(FormatException.Message); Console.WriteLine("Please enter a number in this field."); } } public void AddDVD() { String strTitle; int intReleaseYear; int intRunningTimeMinutes; String strDirector; int intPrice; int intRegionCode; try { Console.Write("Enter a title: "); strTitle = Console.ReadLine(); Console.Write("Enter a release year: "); intReleaseYear = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()); Console.Write("Enter the running time in minutes: "); intRunningTimeMinutes = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()); Console.Write("Enter the directors name: "); strDirector = Console.ReadLine(); Console.Write("Enter a rental price: "); intPrice = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()); Console.Write("Enter the region code: "); intRegionCode = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()); DVDMovies[dvdCount] = new DVD(strTitle, intReleaseYear, intRunningTimeMinutes, strDirector, intPrice, intRegionCode); dvdCount++; } catch (FormatException FormatException) { Console.WriteLine(FormatException.Message); Console.WriteLine("Please enter a number in this field."); } } public void ListAllBluray() { int position = 0; while (BlurayMovies[position] != null) { Console.WriteLine(position + " " + BlurayMovies[position].strTitle); position++; } } public void ListAllDVD() { int position = 0; while (DVDMovies[position] != null) { //position + 1 + " " + Console.WriteLine(position + " " + DVDMovies[position].strTitle); position++; } } public void BlurayInfo(int position) { Console.WriteLine("Title: {0}", DVDMovies[position].strTitle); Console.WriteLine("Release Year: {0}", DVDMovies[position].intReleaseYear); Console.WriteLine("Running Time (Minutes): {0}", DVDMovies[position].intRunningTimeMinutes); Console.WriteLine("Director: {0}", DVDMovies[position].strDirector); Console.WriteLine("Price: {0}", DVDMovies[position].intPrice); } public void DVDInfo(int position) { Console.WriteLine("Title: {0}", DVDMovies[position].strTitle); Console.WriteLine("Release Year: {0}", DVDMovies[position].intReleaseYear); Console.WriteLine("Running Time (Minutes): {0}", DVDMovies[position].intRunningTimeMinutes); Console.WriteLine("Director: {0}", DVDMovies[position].strDirector); Console.WriteLine("Price: {0}", DVDMovies[position].intPrice); Console.WriteLine("Region Code: {0}", DVDMovies[position].intRegionCode); } } }

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• Perl - Reading .txt files line-by-line and using compare function (printing non-matches only once)

  - by Kurt W

  I am really struggling and have spent about two full days on this banging my head against receiving the same result every time I run this perl script. I have a Perl script that connects to a vendor tool and stores data for ~26 different elements within @data. There is a foreach loop for @data that breaks the 26 elements into $e-{'element1'), $e-{'element2'), $e-{'element3'), $e-{'element4'), etc. etc. etc. I am also reading from the .txt files within a directory (line-by-line) and comparing the server names that exist within the text files with what exists in $e-{'element4'}. The Problem: Matches are working perfectly and only printing one line for each of the 26 elements when there is a match, however non-matches are producing one line for every entry within the .txt files (37 in all). So if there are 100 entries (each entry having 26 elements) stored within @data, then there are 100 x 37 entries being printed. So for every non-match in the: if ($e-{'element4'} eq '6' && $_ =~ /$e-{element7}/i) statement below, I am receiving a print out saying that there is not a match. 37 entries for the same identical 26 elements (because there are 37 total entries in all of the .txt files). The Goal: I need to print out only 1 line for each unique entry (a unique entry being $e-{element1} thru $e-{element26}). It is already printing one 1 line for matches, but it is printing out 37 entries when there is not a match. I need to treat matches and non-matches differently. Code: foreach my $e (@data) { # Open the .txt files stored within $basePath and use for comparison: opendir(DIRC, $basePath . "/") || die ("cannot open directory"); my @files=(readdir(DIRC)); my @MPG_assets = grep(/(.*?).txt/, @files); # Loop through each system name found and compare it with the data in SC for a match: foreach(@MPG_assets) { $filename = $_; open (MPGFILES, $basePath . "/" . $filename) || die "canot open the file"; while(<MPGFILES>) { if ($e->{'element4'} eq '6' && $_ =~ /$e->{'element7'}/i) { ## THIS SECTION WORKS PERFECTLY AND ONLY PRINTS MATCHES WHERE $_ ## (which contains the servernames (1 per line) in the .txt files) ## EQUALS $e->{'element7'}. print $e->{'element1'} . "\n"; print $e->{'element2'} . "\n"; print $e->{'element3'} . "\n"; print $e->{'element4'} . "\n"; print $e->{'element5'} . "\n"; # ... print $e->{'element26'} . "\n"; } else { ## **THIS SECTION DOES NOT WORK**. FOR EVERY NON-MATCH, THERE IS A ## LINE PRINTED WITH 26 IDENTICAL ELEMENTS BECAUSE ITS LOOPING THRU ## THE 37 LINES IN THE *.TXT FILES. print $e->{'element1'} . "\n"; print $e->{'element2'} . "\n"; print $e->{'element3'} . "\n"; print $e->{'element4'} . "\n"; print $e->{'element5'} . "\n"; # ... print $e->{'element26'} . "\n"; } # End of 'if ($e->{'element4'} eq..' statement } # End of while loop } # End of 'foreach(@MPG_assets)' } # End of 'foreach my $e (@data)' I think I need something to identical unique elements and define what fields make up a unique element but honestly I have tried everything I know. If you would be so kind to provide actual code fixes, that would be wonderful because I am headed to production with this script quite soon. Also. I am looking for code (ideally) that is very human-readable because I will need to document it so others can understand. Please let me know if you need additional information.

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• Backbone.js Model validation fails to prevent Model from saving

  - by Benjen

  I have defined a validate method for a Backbone.js Model. The problem is that even if validation fails (i.e. the Model.validate method returns a value) the post/put request is still sent to the server. This contradicts what is explained in the Backbone.js documentation. I cannot understand what I am doing wrong. The following is the Model definition: /** * Model - Contact */ var Contact = Backbone.Model.extend({ urlRoot: '/contacts.json', idAttribute: '_id', defaults: function() { return { surname: '', given_name: '', org: '', phone: new Array(), email: new Array(), address: new Array({ street: '', district: '', city: '', country: '', postcode: '' }) }; } validate: function(attributes) { if (typeof attributes.validationDisabled === 'undefined') { var errors = new Array(); // Validate surname. if (_.isEmpty(attributes.surname) === true) { errors.push({ type: 'form', attribute: 'surname', message: 'Please enter a surname.' }); } // Validate emails. if (_.isEmpty(attributes.email) === false) { var emailRegex = /^[a-z0-9._%+-]+@[a-z0-9.-]+\.[a-z]{2,6}$/i; // Stores indexes of email values which fail validation. var emailIndex = new Array(); _.each(attributes.email, function(email, index) { if (emailRegex.test(email.value) === false) { emailIndex.push(index); } }); // Create error message. if (emailIndex.length > 0) { errors.push({ type: 'form', attribute: 'email', index: emailIndex, message: 'Please enter valid email address.' }); } } if (errors.length > 0) { console.log('Form validation failed.'); return errors; } } } }); Here is the View which calls the Model.save() method (see: method saveContact() below). Note that other methods belonging to this View have not been included below for reasons of brevity. /** * View - Edit contact form */ var EditContactFormView = Backbone.View.extend({ initialize: function() { _.bindAll(this, 'createDialog', 'formError', 'render', 'saveContact', 'updateContact'); // Add templates. this._editFormTemplate = _.template($('#edit-contact-form-tpl').html()); this._emailFieldTemplate = _.template($('#email-field-tpl').html()); this._phoneFieldTemplate = _.template($('#phone-field-tpl').html()); // Get URI of current page. this.currentPageUri = this.options.currentPageUri; // Create array to hold references to all subviews. this.subViews = new Array(); // Set options for new or existing contact. this.model = this.options.model; // Bind with Model validation error event. this.model.on('error', this.formError); this.render(); } /** * Deals with form validation errors */ formError: function(model, error) { console.log(error); }, saveContact: function(event) { var self = this; // Prevent submit event trigger from firing. event.preventDefault(); // Trigger form submit event. eventAggregator.trigger('submit:contactEditForm'); // Update model with form values. this.updateContact(); // Enable validation for Model. Done by unsetting validationDisabled // attribute. This setting was formerly applied to prevent validation // on Model.fetch() events. See this.model.validate(). this.model.unset('validationDisabled'); // Save contact to database. this.model.save(this.model.attributes, { success: function(model, response) { if (typeof response.flash !== 'undefined') { Messenger.trigger('new:messages', response.flash); } }, error: function(model, response) { console.log(response); throw error = new Error('Error occured while trying to save contact.'); } }, { wait: true }); }, /** * Extract form values and update Contact. */ updateContact: function() { this.model.set('surname', this.$('#surname-field').val()); this.model.set('given_name', this.$('#given-name-field').val()); this.model.set('org', this.$('#org-field').val()); // Extract address form values. var address = new Array({ street: this.$('input[name="street"]').val(), district: this.$('input[name="district"]').val(), city: this.$('input[name="city"]').val(), country: this.$('input[name="country"]').val(), postcode: this.$('input[name="postcode"]').val() }); this.model.set('address', address); } });

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• Differences Between NHibernate and Entity Framework

  - by Ricardo Peres

  Introduction NHibernate and Entity Framework are two of the most popular O/RM frameworks on the .NET world. Although they share some functionality, there are some aspects on which they are quite different. This post will describe this differences and will hopefully help you get started with the one you know less. Mind you, this is a personal selection of features to compare, it is by no way an exhaustive list. History First, a bit of history. NHibernate is an open-source project that was first ported from Java’s venerable Hibernate framework, one of the first O/RM frameworks, but nowadays it is not tied to it, for example, it has .NET specific features, and has evolved in different ways from those of its Java counterpart. Current version is 3.3, with 3.4 on the horizon. It currently targets .NET 3.5, but can be used as well in .NET 4, it only makes no use of any of its specific functionality. You can find its home page at NHForge. Entity Framework 1 came out with .NET 3.5 and is now on its second major version, despite being version 4. Code First sits on top of it and but came separately and will also continue to be released out of line with major .NET distributions. It is currently on version 4.3.1 and version 5 will be released together with .NET Framework 4.5. All versions will target the current version of .NET, at the time of their release. Its home location is located at MSDN. Architecture In NHibernate, there is a separation between the Unit of Work and the configuration and model instances. You start off by creating a Configuration object, where you specify all global NHibernate settings such as the database and dialect to use, the batch sizes, the mappings, etc, then you build an ISessionFactory from it. The ISessionFactory holds model and metadata that is tied to a particular database and to the settings that came from the Configuration object, and, there will typically be only one instance of each in a process. Finally, you create instances of ISession from the ISessionFactory, which is the NHibernate representation of the Unit of Work and Identity Map. This is a lightweight object, it basically opens and closes a database connection as required and keeps track of the entities associated with it. ISession objects are cheap to create and dispose, because all of the model complexity is stored in the ISessionFactory and Configuration objects. As for Entity Framework, the ObjectContext/DbContext holds the configuration, model and acts as the Unit of Work, holding references to all of the known entity instances. This class is therefore not lightweight as its NHibernate counterpart and it is not uncommon to see examples where an instance is cached on a field. Mappings Both NHibernate and Entity Framework (Code First) support the use of POCOs to represent entities, no base classes are required (or even possible, in the case of NHibernate). As for mapping to and from the database, NHibernate supports three types of mappings: XML-based, which have the advantage of not tying the entity classes to a particular O/RM; the XML files can be deployed as files on the file system or as embedded resources in an assembly; Attribute-based, for keeping both the entities and database details on the same place at the expense of polluting the entity classes with NHibernate-specific attributes; Strongly-typed code-based, which allows dynamic creation of the model and strongly typing it, so that if, for example, a property name changes, the mapping will also be updated. Entity Framework can use: Attribute-based (although attributes cannot express all of the available possibilities – for example, cascading); Strongly-typed code mappings. Database Support With NHibernate you can use mostly any database you want, including: SQL Server; SQL Server Compact; SQL Server Azure; Oracle; DB2; PostgreSQL; MySQL; Sybase Adaptive Server/SQL Anywhere; Firebird; SQLLite; Informix; Any through OLE DB; Any through ODBC. Out of the box, Entity Framework only supports SQL Server, but a number of providers exist, both free and commercial, for some of the most used databases, such as Oracle and MySQL. See a list here. Inheritance Strategies Both NHibernate and Entity Framework support the three canonical inheritance strategies: Table Per Type Hierarchy (Single Table Inheritance), Table Per Type (Class Table Inheritance) and Table Per Concrete Type (Concrete Table Inheritance). Associations Regarding associations, both support one to one, one to many and many to many. However, NHibernate offers far more collection types: Bags of entities or values: unordered, possibly with duplicates; Lists of entities or values: ordered, indexed by a number column; Maps of entities or values: indexed by either an entity or any value; Sets of entities or values: unordered, no duplicates; Arrays of entities or values: indexed, immutable. Querying NHibernate exposes several querying APIs: LINQ is probably the most used nowadays, and really does not need to be introduced; Hibernate Query Language (HQL) is a database-agnostic, object-oriented SQL-alike language that exists since NHibernate’s creation and still offers the most advanced querying possibilities; well suited for dynamic queries, even if using string concatenation; Criteria API is an implementation of the Query Object pattern where you create a semi-abstract conceptual representation of the query you wish to execute by means of a class model; also a good choice for dynamic querying; Query Over offers a similar API to Criteria, but using strongly-typed LINQ expressions instead of strings; for this, although more refactor-friendlier that Criteria, it is also less suited for dynamic queries; SQL, including stored procedures, can also be used; Integration with Lucene.NET indexer is available. As for Entity Framework: LINQ to Entities is fully supported, and its implementation is considered very complete; it is the API of choice for most developers; Entity-SQL, HQL’s counterpart, is also an object-oriented, database-independent querying language that can be used for dynamic queries; SQL, of course, is also supported. Caching Both NHibernate and Entity Framework, of course, feature first-level cache. NHibernate also supports a second-level cache, that can be used among multiple ISessionFactorys, even in different processes/machines: Hashtable (in-memory); SysCache (uses ASP.NET as the cache provider); SysCache2 (same as above but with support for SQL Server SQL Dependencies); Prevalence; SharedCache; Memcached; Redis; NCache; Appfabric Caching. Out of the box, Entity Framework does not have any second-level cache mechanism, however, there are some public samples that show how we can add this. ID Generators NHibernate supports different ID generation strategies, coming from the database and otherwise: Identity (for SQL Server, MySQL, and databases who support identity columns); Sequence (for Oracle, PostgreSQL, and others who support sequences); Trigger-based; HiLo; Sequence HiLo (for databases that support sequences); Several GUID flavors, both in GUID as well as in string format; Increment (for single-user uses); Assigned (must know what you’re doing); Sequence-style (either uses an actual sequence or a single-column table); Table of ids; Pooled (similar to HiLo but stores high values in a table); Native (uses whatever mechanism the current database supports, identity or sequence). Entity Framework only supports: Identity generation; GUIDs; Assigned values. Properties NHibernate supports properties of entity types (one to one or many to one), collections (one to many or many to many) as well as scalars and enumerations. It offers a mechanism for having complex property types generated from the database, which even include support for querying. It also supports properties originated from SQL formulas. Entity Framework only supports scalars, entity types and collections. Enumerations support will come in the next version. Events and Interception NHibernate has a very rich event model, that exposes more than 20 events, either for synchronous pre-execution or asynchronous post-execution, including: Pre/Post-Load; Pre/Post-Delete; Pre/Post-Insert; Pre/Post-Update; Pre/Post-Flush. It also features interception of class instancing and SQL generation. As for Entity Framework, only two events exist: ObjectMaterialized (after loading an entity from the database); SavingChanges (before saving changes, which include deleting, inserting and updating). Tracking Changes For NHibernate as well as Entity Framework, all changes are tracked by their respective Unit of Work implementation. Entities can be attached and detached to it, Entity Framework does, however, also support self-tracking entities. Optimistic Concurrency Control NHibernate supports all of the imaginable scenarios: SQL Server’s ROWVERSION; Oracle’s ORA_ROWSCN; A column containing date and time; A column containing a version number; All/dirty columns comparison. Entity Framework is more focused on Entity Framework, so it only supports: SQL Server’s ROWVERSION; Comparing all/some columns. Batching NHibernate has full support for insertion batching, but only if the ID generator in use is not database-based (for example, it cannot be used with Identity), whereas Entity Framework has no batching at all. Cascading Both support cascading for collections and associations: when an entity is deleted, their conceptual children are also deleted. NHibernate also offers the possibility to set the foreign key column on children to NULL instead of removing them. Flushing Changes NHibernate’s ISession has a FlushMode property that can have the following values: Auto: changes are sent to the database when necessary, for example, if there are dirty instances of an entity type, and a query is performed against this entity type, or if the ISession is being disposed; Commit: changes are sent when committing the current transaction; Never: changes are only sent when explicitly calling Flush(). As for Entity Framework, changes have to be explicitly sent through a call to AcceptAllChanges()/SaveChanges(). Lazy Loading NHibernate supports lazy loading for Associated entities (one to one, many to one); Collections (one to many, many to many); Scalar properties (thing of BLOBs or CLOBs). Entity Framework only supports lazy loading for: Associated entities; Collections. Generating and Updating the Database Both NHibernate and Entity Framework Code First (with the Migrations API) allow creating the database model from the mapping and updating it if the mapping changes. Extensibility As you can guess, NHibernate is far more extensible than Entity Framework. Basically, everything can be extended, from ID generation, to LINQ to SQL transformation, HQL native SQL support, custom column types, custom association collections, SQL generation, supported databases, etc. With Entity Framework your options are more limited, at least, because practically no information exists as to what can be extended/changed. It features a provider model that can be extended to support any database. Integration With Other Microsoft APIs and Tools When it comes to integration with Microsoft technologies, it will come as no surprise that Entity Framework offers the best support. For example, the following technologies are fully supported: ASP.NET (through the EntityDataSource); ASP.NET Dynamic Data; WCF Data Services; WCF RIA Services; Visual Studio (through the integrated designer). Documentation This is another point where Entity Framework is superior: NHibernate lacks, for starters, an up to date API reference synchronized with its current version. It does have a community mailing list, blogs and wikis, although not much used. Entity Framework has a number of resources on MSDN and, of course, several forums and discussion groups exist. Conclusion Like I said, this is a personal list. I may come as a surprise to some that Entity Framework is so behind NHibernate in so many aspects, but it is true that NHibernate is much older and, due to its open-source nature, is not tied to product-specific timeframes and can thus evolve much more rapidly. I do like both, and I chose whichever is best for the job I have at hands. I am looking forward to the changes in EF5 which will add significant value to an already interesting product. So, what do you think? Did I forget anything important or is there anything else worth talking about? Looking forward for your comments!

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• Announcing the Release of Visual Studio 2013 and Great Improvements to ASP.NET and Entity Framework

  - by ScottGu

  Today we released VS 2013 and .NET 4.5.1. These releases include a ton of great improvements, and include some fantastic enhancements to ASP.NET and the Entity Framework.  You can download and start using them now. Below are details on a few of the great ASP.NET, Web Development, and Entity Framework improvements you can take advantage of with this release.  Please visit http://www.asp.net/vnext for additional release notes, documentation, and tutorials. One ASP.NET With the release of Visual Studio 2013, we have taken a step towards unifying the experience of using the different ASP.NET sub-frameworks (Web Forms, MVC, Web API, SignalR, etc), and you can now easily mix and match the different ASP.NET technologies you want to use within a single application. When you do a File-New Project with VS 2013 you’ll now see a single ASP.NET Project option: Selecting this project will bring up an additional dialog that allows you to start with a base project template, and then optionally add/remove the technologies you want to use in it.  For example, you could start with a Web Forms template and add Web API or Web Forms support for it, or create a MVC project and also enable Web Forms pages within it: This makes it easy for you to use any ASP.NET technology you want within your apps, and take advantage of any feature across the entire ASP.NET technology span. Richer Authentication Support The new “One ASP.NET” project dialog also includes a new Change Authentication button that, when pushed, enables you to easily change the authentication approach used by your applications – and makes it much easier to build secure applications that enable SSO from a variety of identity providers.  For example, when you start with the ASP.NET Web Forms or MVC templates you can easily add any of the following authentication options to the application: No Authentication Individual User Accounts (Single Sign-On support with FaceBook, Twitter, Google, and Microsoft ID – or Forms Auth with ASP.NET Membership) Organizational Accounts (Single Sign-On support with Windows Azure Active Directory ) Windows Authentication (Active Directory in an intranet application) The Windows Azure Active Directory support is particularly cool.  Last month we updated Windows Azure Active Directory so that developers can now easily create any number of Directories using it (for free and deployed within seconds).  It now takes only a few moments to enable single-sign-on support within your ASP.NET applications against these Windows Azure Active Directories.  Simply choose the “Organizational Accounts” radio button within the Change Authentication dialog and enter the name of your Windows Azure Active Directory to do this: This will automatically configure your ASP.NET application to use Windows Azure Active Directory and register the application with it.  Now when you run the app your users can easily and securely sign-in using their Active Directory credentials within it – regardless of where the application is hosted on the Internet. For more information about the new process for creating web projects, see Creating ASP.NET Web Projects in Visual Studio 2013. Responsive Project Templates with Bootstrap The new default project templates for ASP.NET Web Forms, MVC, Web API and SPA are built using Bootstrap. Bootstrap is an open source CSS framework that helps you build responsive websites which look great on different form factors such as mobile phones, tables and desktops. For example in a browser window the home page created by the MVC template looks like the following: When you resize the browser to a narrow window to see how it would like on a phone, you can notice how the contents gracefully wrap around and the horizontal top menu turns into an icon: When you click the menu-icon above it expands into a vertical menu – which enables a good navigation experience for small screen real-estate devices: We think Bootstrap will enable developers to build web applications that work even better on phones, tablets and other mobile devices – and enable you to easily build applications that can leverage the rich ecosystem of Bootstrap CSS templates already out there.  You can learn more about Bootstrap here. Visual Studio Web Tooling Improvements Visual Studio 2013 includes a new, much richer, HTML editor for Razor files and HTML files in web applications. The new HTML editor provides a single unified schema based on HTML5. It has automatic brace completion, jQuery UI and AngularJS attribute IntelliSense, attribute IntelliSense Grouping, and other great improvements. For example, typing “ng-“ on an HTML element will show the intellisense for AngularJS: This support for AngularJS, Knockout.js, Handlebars and other SPA technologies in this release of ASP.NET and VS 2013 makes it even easier to build rich client web applications: The screen shot below demonstrates how the HTML editor can also now inspect your page at design-time to determine all of the CSS classes that are available. In this case, the auto-completion list contains classes from Bootstrap’s CSS file. No more guessing at which Bootstrap element names you need to use: Visual Studio 2013 also comes with built-in support for both CoffeeScript and LESS editing support. The LESS editor comes with all the cool features from the CSS editor and has specific Intellisense for variables and mixins across all the LESS documents in the @import chain. Browser Link – SignalR channel between browser and Visual Studio The new Browser Link feature in VS 2013 lets you run your app within multiple browsers on your dev machine, connect them to Visual Studio, and simultaneously refresh all of them just by clicking a button in the toolbar. You can connect multiple browsers (including IE, FireFox, Chrome) to your development site, including mobile emulators, and click refresh to refresh all the browsers all at the same time.  This makes it much easier to easily develop/test against multiple browsers in parallel. Browser Link also exposes an API to enable developers to write Browser Link extensions.  By enabling developers to take advantage of the Browser Link API, it becomes possible to create very advanced scenarios that crosses boundaries between Visual Studio and any browser that’s connected to it. Web Essentials takes advantage of the API to create an integrated experience between Visual Studio and the browser’s developer tools, remote controlling mobile emulators and a lot more. You will see us take advantage of this support even more to enable really cool scenarios going forward. ASP.NET Scaffolding ASP.NET Scaffolding is a new code generation framework for ASP.NET Web applications. It makes it easy to add boilerplate code to your project that interacts with a data model. In previous versions of Visual Studio, scaffolding was limited to ASP.NET MVC projects. With Visual Studio 2013, you can now use scaffolding for any ASP.NET project, including Web Forms. When using scaffolding, we ensure that all required dependencies are automatically installed for you in the project. For example, if you start with an ASP.NET Web Forms project and then use scaffolding to add a Web API Controller, the required NuGet packages and references to enable Web API are added to your project automatically.  To do this, just choose the Add->New Scaffold Item context menu: Support for scaffolding async controllers uses the new async features from Entity Framework 6. ASP.NET Identity ASP.NET Identity is a new membership system for ASP.NET applications that we are introducing with this release. ASP.NET Identity makes it easy to integrate user-specific profile data with application data. ASP.NET Identity also allows you to choose the persistence model for user profiles in your application. You can store the data in a SQL Server database or another data store, including NoSQL data stores such as Windows Azure Storage Tables. ASP.NET Identity also supports Claims-based authentication, where the user’s identity is represented as a set of claims from a trusted issuer. Users can login by creating an account on the website using username and password, or they can login using social identity providers (such as Microsoft Account, Twitter, Facebook, Google) or using organizational accounts through Windows Azure Active Directory or Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS). To learn more about how to use ASP.NET Identity visit http://www.asp.net/identity.  ASP.NET Web API 2 ASP.NET Web API 2 has a bunch of great improvements including: Attribute routing ASP.NET Web API now supports attribute routing, thanks to a contribution by Tim McCall, the author of http://attributerouting.net. With attribute routing you can specify your Web API routes by annotating your actions and controllers like this: OAuth 2.0 support The Web API and Single Page Application project templates now support authorization using OAuth 2.0. OAuth 2.0 is a framework for authorizing client access to protected resources. It works for a variety of clients including browsers and mobile devices. OData Improvements ASP.NET Web API also now provides support for OData endpoints and enables support for both ATOM and JSON-light formats. With OData you get support for rich query semantics, paging, $metadata, CRUD operations, and custom actions over any data source. Below are some of the specific enhancements in ASP.NET Web API 2 OData. Support for $select, $expand, $batch, and $value Improved extensibility Type-less support Reuse an existing model OWIN Integration ASP.NET Web API now fully supports OWIN and can be run on any OWIN capable host. With OWIN integration, you can self-host Web API in your own process alongside other OWIN middleware, such as SignalR. For more information, see Use OWIN to Self-Host ASP.NET Web API. More Web API Improvements In addition to the features above there have been a host of other features in ASP.NET Web API, including CORS support Authentication Filters Filter Overrides Improved Unit Testability Portable ASP.NET Web API Client To learn more go to http://www.asp.net/web-api/ ASP.NET SignalR 2 ASP.NET SignalR is library for ASP.NET developers that dramatically simplifies the process of adding real-time web functionality to your applications. Real-time web functionality is the ability to have server-side code push content to connected clients instantly as it becomes available. SignalR 2.0 introduces a ton of great improvements. We’ve added support for Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) to SignalR 2.0. iOS and Android support for SignalR have also been added using the MonoTouch and MonoDroid components from the Xamarin library (for more information on how to use these additions, see the article Using Xamarin Components from the SignalR wiki). We’ve also added support for the Portable .NET Client in SignalR 2.0 and created a new self-hosting package. This change makes the setup process for SignalR much more consistent between web-hosted and self-hosted SignalR applications. To learn more go to http://www.asp.net/signalr. ASP.NET MVC 5 The ASP.NET MVC project templates integrate seamlessly with the new One ASP.NET experience and enable you to integrate all of the above ASP.NET Web API, SignalR and Identity improvements. You can also customize your MVC project and configure authentication using the One ASP.NET project creation wizard. The MVC templates have also been updated to use ASP.NET Identity and Bootstrap as well. An introductory tutorial to ASP.NET MVC 5 can be found at Getting Started with ASP.NET MVC 5. This release of ASP.NET MVC also supports several nice new MVC-specific features including: Authentication filters: These filters allow you to specify authentication logic per-action, per-controller or globally for all controllers. Attribute Routing: Attribute Routing allows you to define your routes on actions or controllers. To learn more go to http://www.asp.net/mvc Entity Framework 6 Improvements Visual Studio 2013 ships with Entity Framework 6, which bring a lot of great new features to the data access space: Async and Task<T> Support EF6’s new Async Query and Save support enables you to perform asynchronous data access and take advantage of the Task<T> support introduced in .NET 4.5 within data access scenarios.  This allows you to free up threads that might otherwise by blocked on data access requests, and enable them to be used to process other requests whilst you wait for the database engine to process operations. When the database server responds the thread will be re-queued within your ASP.NET application and execution will continue.  This enables you to easily write significantly more scalable server code. Here is an example ASP.NET WebAPI action that makes use of the new EF6 async query methods: Interception and Logging Interception and SQL logging allows you to view – or even change – every command that is sent to the database by Entity Framework. This includes a simple, human readable log – which is great for debugging – as well as some lower level building blocks that give you access to the command and results. Here is an example of wiring up the simple log to Debug in the constructor of an MVC controller: Custom Code-First Conventions The new Custom Code-First Conventions enable bulk configuration of a Code First model – reducing the amount of code you need to write and maintain. Conventions are great when your domain classes don’t match the Code First conventions. For example, the following convention configures all properties that are called ‘Key’ to be the primary key of the entity they belong to. This is different than the default Code First convention that expects Id or <type name>Id. Connection Resiliency The new Connection Resiliency feature in EF6 enables you to register an execution strategy to handle – and potentially retry – failed database operations. This is especially useful when deploying to cloud environments where dropped connections become more common as you traverse load balancers and distributed networks. EF6 includes a built-in execution strategy for SQL Azure that knows about retryable exception types and has some sensible – but overridable – defaults for the number of retries and time between retries when errors occur. Registering it is simple using the new Code-Based Configuration support: These are just some of the new features in EF6. You can visit the release notes section of the Entity Framework site for a complete list of new features. Microsoft OWIN Components Open Web Interface for .NET (OWIN) defines an open abstraction between .NET web servers and web applications, and the ASP.NET “Katana” project brings this abstraction to ASP.NET. OWIN decouples the web application from the server, making web applications host-agnostic. For example, you can host an OWIN-based web application in IIS or self-host it in a custom process. For more information about OWIN and Katana, see What's new in OWIN and Katana. Summary Today’s Visual Studio 2013, ASP.NET and Entity Framework release delivers some fantastic new features that streamline your web development lifecycle. These feature span from server framework to data access to tooling to client-side HTML development.  They also integrate some great open-source technology and contributions from our developer community. Download and start using them today! Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, February 19, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, February 19, 2011Popular ReleasesAdvanced Explorer for Wp7: Advanced Explorer for Wp7 Version 1.4 Test8: Added option to run under Lockscreen. Fixed a bug when you open a pdf/mobi file without starting adobe reader/amazon kindle first boost loading time for folders added \Windows directory (all devices) you can now interact with the filesystem while it is loading!Game Files Open - Map Editor: Game Files Open - Map Editor Beta 2 v1.0.0.0: The 2° beta release of the Map Editor, we have fixed a big bug of the files regen.Document.Editor: 2011.6: Whats new for Document.Editor 2011.6: New Left to Right and Left to Right support New Indent more/less support Improved Home tab Improved Tooltips/shortcut keys Minor Bug Fix's, improvements and speed upsCatel - WPF and Silverlight MVVM library: 1.2: Catel history ============= (+) Added (*) Changed (-) Removed (x) Error / bug (fix) For more information about issues or new feature requests, please visit: http://catel.codeplex.com =========== Version 1.2 =========== Release date: ============= 2011/02/17 Added/fixed: ============ (+) DataObjectBase now supports Isolated Storage out of the box: Person.Save(myStream) stores a whole object graph in Silverlight (+) DataObjectBase can now be converted to Json via Person.ToJson(); (+)...??????????: All-In-One Code Framework ??? 2011-02-18: ?????All-In-One Code Framework?2011??????????！！http://i3.codeplex.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=1code&DownloadId=128165 ?????，?????AzureBingMaps??????，??Azure，WCF, Silverlight, Window Phone????????，????????????????????????。 ???： Windows Azure SQL Azure Windows Azure AppFabric Windows Live Messenger Connect Bing Maps ?????： ??????HTML??? ??Windows PC?Mac?Silverlight??? ??Windows Phone?Silverlight??? ?????：http://blog.csdn.net/sjb5201/archive/2011...Image.Viewer: 2011: First version of 2011Silverlight Toolkit: Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit - Feb 2011: Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit OverviewSilverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit offers developers additional controls for Windows Phone application development, designed to match the rich user experience of the Windows Phone 7. Suggestions? Features? Questions? Ask questions in the Create.msdn.com forum. Add bugs or feature requests to the Issue Tracker. Help us shape the Silverlight Toolkit with your feedback! Please clearly indicate that the work items and issues are for the phone t...VsTortoise - a TortoiseSVN add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio: VsTortoise Build 29 Beta: Note: This release does not work with custom VsTortoise toolbars. These get removed every time when you shutdown Visual Studio. (#7940) Build 29 (beta)New: Added VsTortoise Solution Explorer integration for Web Project Folder, Web Folder and Web Item. Fix: TortoiseProc was called with invalid parameters, when using TSVN 1.4.x or older #7338 (thanks psifive) Fix: Add-in does not work, when "TortoiseSVN/bin" is not added to PATH environment variable #7357 Fix: Missing error message when ...Sense/Net CMS - Enterprise Content Management: SenseNet 6.0.3 Community Edition: Sense/Net 6.0.3 Community Edition We are happy to introduce you the latest version of Sense/Net with integrated ECM Workflow capabilities! In the past weeks we have been working hard to migrate the product to .Net 4 and include a workflow framework in Sense/Net built upon Windows Workflow Foundation 4. This brand new feature enables developers to define and develop workflows, and supports users when building and setting up complicated business processes involving content creation and response...thinktecture WSCF.blue: WSCF.blue V1 Update (1.0.11): Features Added a new option that allows properties on data contract types to be marked as virtual. Bug Fixes Fixed a bug caused by certain project properties not being available on Web Service Software Factory projects. Fixed a bug that could result in the WrapperName value of the MessageContractAttribute being incorrect when the Adjust Casing option is used. The menu item code now caters for CommandBar instances that are not available. For example the Web Item CommandBar does not exist ...Terminals: Version 2 - RC1: The "Clean Install" will overwrite your log4net configuration (if you have one). If you run in a Portable Environment, you can use the "Clean Install" and target your portable folder. Tested and it works fine. Changes for this release: Re-worked on the Toolstip settings are done, just to avoid the vs.net clash with auto-generating files for .settings files. renamed it to .settings.config Packged both log4net and ToolStripSettings files into the installer Upgraded the version inform...AllNewsManager.NET: AllNewsManager.NET 1.3: AllNewsManager.NET 1.3. This new version provide several new features, improvements and bug fixes. Some new features: Online Users. Avatars. Copy function (to create a new article from another one). SEO improvements (friendly urls). New admin buttons. And more...Facebook Graph Toolkit: Facebook Graph Toolkit 0.8: Version 0.8 (15 Feb 2011)moved to Beta stage publish photo feature "email" field of User object added new Graph Api object: Group, Event new Graph Api connection: likes, groups, eventsDJME - The jQuery extensions for ASP.NET MVC: DJME2 -The jQuery extensions for ASP.NET MVC beta2: The source code and runtime library for DJME2. For more product info you can goto http://www.dotnetage.com/djme.html What is new ?The Grid extension added The ModelBinder added which helping you create Bindable data Action. The DnaFor() control factory added that enabled Model bindable extensions. Enhance the ListBox , ComboBox data binding.Jint - Javascript Interpreter for .NET: Jint - 0.9.0: New CLR interoperability features Many bugfixesBuild Version Increment Add-In Visual Studio: Build Version Increment v2.4.11046.2045: v2.4.11046.2045 Fixes and/or Improvements:Major: Added complete support for VC projects including .vcxproj & .vcproj. All padding issues fixed. A project's assembly versions are only changed if the project has been modified. Minor Order of versioning style values is now according to their respective positions in the attributes i.e. Major, Minor, Build, Revision. Fixed issue with global variable storage with some projects. Fixed issue where if a project item's file does not exist, a ...Coding4Fun Tools: Coding4Fun.Phone.Toolkit v1.1: Coding4Fun.Phone.Toolkit v1.1 release. Bug fixes and minor feature requests addedTV4Home - The all-in-one TV solution!: 0.1.0.0 Preview: This is the beta preview release of the TV4Home software.Finestra Virtual Desktops: 1.2: Fixes a few minor issues with 1.1 including the broken per-desktop backgrounds Further improves the speed of switching desktops A few UI performance improvements Added donations linksNuGet: NuGet 1.1: NuGet is a free, open source developer focused package management system for the .NET platform intent on simplifying the process of incorporating third party libraries into a .NET application during development. This release is a Visual Studio 2010 extension and contains the the Package Manager Console and the Add Package Dialog. The URL to the package OData feed is: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=206669 To see the list of issues fixed in this release, visit this our issues list A...New ProjectsComplexityEvolution: Research projectCRM 2011 Metadata Browser: The CRM 2011 Metadata Browser is a Silverlight 4 application that is packaged as a Managed CRM Solution. This tool allows you to view metadata including Entities, Attributes and Relationships. The 2011 SOAP endpoint is used to connect to CRM using the Organization.svc/web serviceEFCFvsNH3: A sample project that shows the main differences between Entity Framework Code First and Nhibernate 3: -Mapping -Configuration -DB Initialization -Query API -Session & Transaction -ValidationE-Teacher for IELTS preparation: E-teacher helps IELTS students prepare for the IELTS Academic and General Training test. Qualified English Teachers can register to the e-community and helps candidates to understand what they really need to improve for the IELTS exam and how to reach for the maximum band score.FIM CM Extensions: Extensions for Forefront Identity Manager 2010 to enable integration between the FIM Service workflow and the FIM Certificate Management workflow. Game Files Open - Map Editor: This is a map editor for the metin2 clients, it's very simple edit or create a map with this tool.Garbage Collection Sample Code: Garbage collection sample code demonstrates the differences between the large and small object heaps. This code supports the blog post at http://www.deepcode.co.ukGardenersWorld: The aim of gardenersWorld community website is to provide a platform for budding gardenening enthusiasts, hobbyists and professionals to share information. Harvester - Debug Monitor for Log4Net and NLog: Harvester enables you to monitor all Win32 debug output from all applications running on your machine. Watch real time Log4Net and NLog output across multiple applications at the same time. Trace a call from client to server and back without having to look at multiple log files.Hjelp! Jeg skal ha farmakokinetikk-eksamen!: Sliter du med å pugge formler til farmakokinetikk-eksamenen? Da er redningen din her! :DMercury Business Framework: Mercury Business Framework is a project set up to define basic objects used by the vast majority of business and non business software. The idea is to define the low level objects required by most applications on the web and desktop.MyDistrictBuilder: MyDistrictBuilder allows anybody to build legislative districts and submit to the Florida House of Rep. It is built on Bing Maps, Silverlight and AZURE. Written in C#. It is written to allow anyone to adapt for any states census geography. www.floridaredistricting.cloudapp.netMySchoolApp: MySchoolApp is a customizable application written in Visual Basic and C# for the Windows Mobile Phone 7 platform using Visual Studio Professional 2010. The application combines links to RSS and Web sites about a school, and displays a map and local weather. Osm Parser Community Edition: Osm Parser parse highways in open street maps to generate routable roads network in spatialite.PRBox Cloud Website: This is the website base for PRBox.com SEO Reporter : open source search engine optimization software: SEO Reporter is an open source search engine optimization application for detecting HTML related SEO violations, gathering data about a Web page and analyzing its keywords strategy. It's a Windows navigation application developed in F#. Setting timeout for SharePoint 2010 Silverlight web part: This web part overwrites 5sec hard-coded timeout for SharePoint 2010 Silverlight web part.SharePoint 2010 Central Administration Automatic Resources Link Generator: This feature will automatically generate the resources links list (Quick Links) in your SharePoint 2010 Central Administration site making it easier for SharePoint Admins to navigate through the common Central Administration activities without populating it themselves - VS2010/c#SharePoint Holiday Loader: SharePoint Holiday Loader allows you to quickly import public holidays into a SharePoint calendar from the standard .HOL format.Sohu?????: ?????????WPF?????????????，????????????（??、??、???），??、??、???????，????????????，??????????????。 ??V1????????，V2?????????????????。SP2010 Form Manipulator: This project will hopefully make it easier to manipulate the list form in SharePoint 2010.SPRotator: A jQuery powered web part for SharePoint that cycles through any type of list.SQL Script to Create a Website Directory: Here you can download sql script to create a website directory using SQL Server. * This is only the easy directory sql script to develop your website. Directory software may publish in future.Sri Hits Zone: This is an online repository which used to share Sri Lankan music. This is to provide Sri Lankans who living abroad to being touches with Sri Lankan artist and their music. testz: testzTime domain dissipative acoustic problem: tddapWindows Azure Hosted Services VM Manager: Windows Azure Hosted Services VM Manager is a Windows Service that can manage the number of hosted services running in Azure by either a time based schedule or by CPU load. This allows your service to scale for either dynamic load or a known schedule. Z80TR: Z80TR

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• 10 Essential Tools for building ASP.NET Websites

  - by Stephen Walther

  I recently put together a simple public website created with ASP.NET for my company at Superexpert.com. I was surprised by the number of free tools that I ended up using to put together the website. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to create a list of essential tools for building ASP.NET websites. These tools work equally well with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. Performance Tools After reading Steve Souders two (very excellent) books on front-end website performance High Performance Web Sites and Even Faster Web Sites, I have been super sensitive to front-end website performance. According to Souders’ Performance Golden Rule: “Optimize front-end performance first, that's where 80% or more of the end-user response time is spent” You can use the tools below to reduce the size of the images, JavaScript files, and CSS files used by an ASP.NET application. 1. Sprite and Image Optimization Framework CSS sprites were first described in an article written for A List Apart entitled CSS sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death. When you use sprites, you combine multiple images used by a website into a single image. Next, you use CSS trickery to display particular sub-images from the combined image in a webpage. The primary advantage of sprites is that they reduce the number of requests required to display a webpage. Requesting a single large image is faster than requesting multiple small images. In general, the more resources – images, JavaScript files, CSS files – that must be moved across the wire, the slower your website. However, most people avoid using sprites because they require a lot of work. You need to combine all of the images and write just the right CSS rules to display the sub-images. The Microsoft Sprite and Image Optimization Framework enables you to avoid all of this work. The framework combines the images for you automatically. Furthermore, the framework includes an ASP.NET Web Forms control and an ASP.NET MVC helper that makes it easy to display the sub-images. You can download the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework from CodePlex at http://aspnet.codeplex.com/releases/view/50869. The Sprite and Image Optimization Framework was written by Morgan McClean who worked in the office next to mine at Microsoft. Morgan was a scary smart Intern from Canada and we discussed the Framework while he was building it (I was really excited to learn that he was working on it). Morgan added some great advanced features to this framework. For example, the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework supports something called image inlining. When you use image inlining, the actual image is stored in the CSS file. Here’s an example of what image inlining looks like: .Home_StephenWalther_small-jpg { width:75px; height:100px; background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAEsAAABkCAIAAABB1lpeAAAAB GdBTUEAALGOfPtRkwAAACBjSFJNAACHDwAAjA8AAP1SAACBQAAAfXkAAOmLAAA85QAAGcxzPIV3AAAKL s+zNfREAAAAASUVORK5CYII=) no-repeat 0% 0%; } The actual image (in this case a picture of me that is displayed on the home page of the Superexpert.com website) is stored in the CSS file. If you visit the Superexpert.com website then very few separate images are downloaded. For example, all of the images with a red border in the screenshot below take advantage of CSS sprites: Unfortunately, there are some significant Gotchas that you need to be aware of when using the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework. There are workarounds for these Gotchas. I plan to write about these Gotchas and workarounds in a future blog entry. 2. Microsoft Ajax Minifier Whenever possible you should combine, minify, compress, and cache with a far future header all of your JavaScript and CSS files. The Microsoft Ajax Minifier makes it easy to minify JavaScript and CSS files. Don’t confuse minification and compression. You need to do both. According to Souders, you can reduce the size of a JavaScript file by an additional 20% (on average) by minifying a JavaScript file after you compress the file. When you minify a JavaScript or CSS file, you use various tricks to reduce the size of the file before you compress the file. For example, you can minify a JavaScript file by replacing long JavaScript variables names with short variables names and removing unnecessary white space and comments. You can minify a CSS file by doing such things as replacing long color names such as #ffffff with shorter equivalents such as #fff. The Microsoft Ajax Minifier was created by Microsoft employee Ron Logan. Internally, this tool was being used by several large Microsoft websites. We also used the tool heavily on the ASP.NET team. I convinced Ron to publish the tool on CodePlex so that everyone in the world could take advantage of it. You can download the tool from the ASP.NET Ajax website and read documentation for the tool here. I created the installer for the Microsoft Ajax Minifier. When creating the installer, I also created a Visual Studio build task to make it easy to minify all of your JavaScript and CSS files whenever you do a build within Visual Studio automatically. Read the Ajax Minifier Quick Start to learn how to configure the build task. 3. ySlow The ySlow tool is a free add-on for Firefox created by Yahoo that enables you to test the front-end of your website. For example, here are the current test results for the Superexpert.com website: The Superexpert.com website has an overall score of B (not perfect but not bad). The ySlow tool is not perfect. For example, the Superexpert.com website received a failing grade of F for not using a Content Delivery Network even though the website using the Microsoft Ajax Content Delivery Network for JavaScript files such as jQuery. Uptime After publishing a website live to the world, you want to ensure that the website does not encounter any issues and that it stays live. I use the following tools to monitor the Superexpert.com website now that it is live. 4. ELMAH ELMAH stands for Error Logging Modules and Handlers for ASP.NET. ELMAH enables you to record any errors that happen at your website so you can review them in the future. You can download ELMAH for free from the ELMAH project website. ELMAH works great with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. You can configure ELMAH to store errors in a number of different stores including XML files, the Event Log, an Access database, a SQL database, an Oracle database, or in computer RAM. You also can configure ELMAH to email error messages to you when they happen. By default, you can access ELMAH by requesting the elmah.axd page from a website with ELMAH installed. Here’s what the elmah page looks like from the Superexpert.com website (this page is password-protected because secret information can be revealed in an error message): If you click on a particular error message, you can view the original Yellow Screen ASP.NET error message (even when the error message was never displayed to the actual user). I installed ELMAH by taking advantage of the new package manager for ASP.NET named NuGet (originally named NuPack). You can read the details about NuGet in the following blog entry by Scott Guthrie. You can download NuGet from CodePlex. 5. Pingdom I use Pingdom to verify that the Superexpert.com website is always up. You can sign up for Pingdom by visiting Pingdom.com. You can use Pingdom to monitor a single website for free. At the Pingdom website, you configure the frequency that your website gets pinged. I verify that the Superexpert.com website is up every 5 minutes. I have the Pingdom service verify that it can retrieve the string “Contact Us” from the website homepage. If your website goes down, you can configure Pingdom so that it sends an email, Twitter, SMS, or iPhone alert. I use the Pingdom iPhone app which looks like this: 6. Host Tracker If your website does go down then you need some way of determining whether it is a problem with your local network or if your website is down for everyone. I use a website named Host-Tracker.com to check how badly a website is down. Here’s what the Host-Tracker website displays for the Superexpert.com website when the website can be successfully pinged from everywhere in the world: Notice that Host-Tracker pinged the Superexpert.com website from 68 locations including Roubaix, France and Scranton, PA. Debugging I mean debugging in the broadest possible sense. I use the following tools when building a website to verify that I have not made a mistake. 7. HTML Spell Checker Why doesn’t Visual Studio have a built-in spell checker? Don’t know – I’ve always found this mysterious. Fortunately, however, a former member of the ASP.NET team wrote a free spell checker that you can use with your ASP.NET pages. I find a spell checker indispensible. It is easy to delude yourself that you are capable of perfect spelling. I’m always super embarrassed when I actually run the spell checking tool and discover all of my spelling mistakes. The fastest way to add the HTML Spell Checker extension to Visual Studio is to select the menu option Tools, Extension Manager within Visual Studio. Click on Online Gallery and search for HTML Spell Checker: 8. IIS SEO Toolkit If people cannot find your website through Google then you should not even bother to create it. Microsoft has a great extension for IIS named the IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit that you can use to identify issue with your website that would hurt its page rank. You also can use this tool to quickly create a sitemap for your website that you can submit to Google or Bing. You can even generate the sitemap for an ASP.NET MVC website. Here’s what the report overview for the Superexpert.com website looks like: Notice that the Sueprexpert.com website had plenty of violations. For example, there are 65 cases in which a page has a broken hyperlink. You can drill into these violations to identity the exact page and location where these violations occur. 9. LinqPad If your ASP.NET website accesses a database then you should be using LINQ to Entities with the Entity Framework. Using LINQ involves some magic. LINQ queries written in C# get converted into SQL queries for you. If you are not careful about how you write your LINQ queries, you could unintentionally build a really badly performing website. LinqPad is a free tool that enables you to experiment with your LINQ queries. It even works with Microsoft SQL CE 4 and Azure. You can use LinqPad to execute a LINQ to Entities query and see the results. You also can use it to see the resulting SQL that gets executed against the database: 10. .NET Reflector I use .NET Reflector daily. The .NET Reflector tool enables you to take any assembly and disassemble the assembly into C# or VB.NET code. You can use .NET Reflector to see the “Source Code” of an assembly even when you do not have the actual source code. You can download a free version of .NET Reflector from the Redgate website. I use .NET Reflector primarily to help me understand what code is doing internally. For example, I used .NET Reflector with the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework to better understand how the MVC Image helper works. Here’s part of the disassembled code from the Image helper class: Summary In this blog entry, I’ve discussed several of the tools that I used to create the Superexpert.com website. These are tools that I use to improve the performance, improve the SEO, verify the uptime, or debug the Superexpert.com website. All of the tools discussed in this blog entry are free. Furthermore, all of these tools work with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. Let me know if there are any tools that you use daily when building ASP.NET websites.

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• SQL Monitor’s data repository: Alerts

  - by Chris Lambrou

  In my previous post, I introduced the SQL Monitor data repository, and described how the monitored objects are stored in a hierarchy in the data schema, in a series of tables with a _Keys suffix. In this post I had planned to describe how the actual data for the monitored objects is stored in corresponding tables with _StableSamples and _UnstableSamples suffixes. However, I’m going to postpone that until my next post, as I’ve had a request from a SQL Monitor user to explain how alerts are stored. In the SQL Monitor data repository, alerts are stored in tables belonging to the alert schema, which contains the following five tables: alert.Alert alert.Alert_Cleared alert.Alert_Comment alert.Alert_Severity alert.Alert_Type In this post, I’m only going to cover the alert.Alert and alert.Alert_Type tables. I may cover the other three tables in a later post. The most important table in this schema is alert.Alert, as each row in this table corresponds to a single alert. So let’s have a look at it. SELECT TOP 100 AlertId, AlertType, TargetObject, [Read], SubType FROM alert.Alert ORDER BY AlertId DESC;  AlertIdAlertTypeTargetObjectReadSubType 165550397:Cluster,1,4:Name,s29:srp-mr03.testnet.red-gate.com,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,10 265549387:Cluster,1,4:Name,s29:srp-mr03.testnet.red-gate.com,7:Machine,1,4:Name,s0:,10 365548187:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s15:FavouriteThings,00 465547157:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s15:FavouriteThings,00 565546147:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s15:FavouriteThings,00 665545187:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s14:SqlMonitorData,00 765544157:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s14:SqlMonitorData,00 865543147:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s14:SqlMonitorData,00 965542187:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s4:msdb,00 1065541147:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s4:msdb,00 11…     So what are we seeing here, then? Well, AlertId is an auto-incrementing identity column, so ORDER BY AlertId DESC ensures that we see the most recent alerts first. AlertType indicates the type of each alert, such as Job failed (6), Backup overdue (14) or Long-running query (12). The TargetObject column indicates which monitored object the alert is associated with. The Read column acts as a flag to indicate whether or not the alert has been read. And finally the SubType column is used in the case of a Custom metric (40) alert, to indicate which custom metric the alert pertains to. Okay, now lets look at some of those columns in more detail. The AlertType column is an easy one to start with, and it brings use nicely to the next table, data.Alert_Type. Let’s have a look at what’s in this table: SELECT AlertType, Event, Monitoring, Name, Description FROM alert.Alert_Type ORDER BY AlertType;  AlertTypeEventMonitoringNameDescription 1100Processor utilizationProcessor utilization (CPU) on a host machine stays above a threshold percentage for longer than a specified duration 2210SQL Server error log entryAn error is written to the SQL Server error log with a severity level above a specified value. 3310Cluster failoverThe active cluster node fails, causing the SQL Server instance to switch nodes. 4410DeadlockSQL deadlock occurs. 5500Processor under-utilizationProcessor utilization (CPU) on a host machine remains below a threshold percentage for longer than a specified duration 6610Job failedA job does not complete successfully (the job returns an error code). 7700Machine unreachableHost machine (Windows server) cannot be contacted on the network. 8800SQL Server instance unreachableThe SQL Server instance is not running or cannot be contacted on the network. 9900Disk spaceDisk space used on a logical disk drive is above a defined threshold for longer than a specified duration. 101000Physical memoryPhysical memory (RAM) used on the host machine stays above a threshold percentage for longer than a specified duration. 111100Blocked processSQL process is blocked for longer than a specified duration. 121200Long-running queryA SQL query runs for longer than a specified duration. 131400Backup overdueNo full backup exists, or the last full backup is older than a specified time. 141500Log backup overdueNo log backup exists, or the last log backup is older than a specified time. 151600Database unavailableDatabase changes from Online to any other state. 161700Page verificationTorn Page Detection or Page Checksum is not enabled for a database. 171800Integrity check overdueNo entry for an integrity check (DBCC DBINFO returns no date for dbi_dbccLastKnownGood field), or the last check is older than a specified time. 181900Fragmented indexesFragmentation level of one or more indexes is above a threshold percentage. 192400Job duration unusualThe duration of a SQL job duration deviates from its baseline duration by more than a threshold percentage. 202501Clock skewSystem clock time on the Base Monitor computer differs from the system clock time on a monitored SQL Server host machine by a specified number of seconds. 212700SQL Server Agent Service statusThe SQL Server Agent Service status matches the status specified. 222800SQL Server Reporting Service statusThe SQL Server Reporting Service status matches the status specified. 232900SQL Server Full Text Search Service statusThe SQL Server Full Text Search Service status matches the status specified. 243000SQL Server Analysis Service statusThe SQL Server Analysis Service status matches the status specified. 253100SQL Server Integration Service statusThe SQL Server Integration Service status matches the status specified. 263300SQL Server Browser Service statusThe SQL Server Browser Service status matches the status specified. 273400SQL Server VSS Writer Service statusThe SQL Server VSS Writer status matches the status specified. 283501Deadlock trace flag disabledThe monitored SQL Server’s trace flag cannot be enabled. 293600Monitoring stopped (host machine credentials)SQL Monitor cannot contact the host machine because authentication failed. 303700Monitoring stopped (SQL Server credentials)SQL Monitor cannot contact the SQL Server instance because authentication failed. 313800Monitoring error (host machine data collection)SQL Monitor cannot collect data from the host machine. 323900Monitoring error (SQL Server data collection)SQL Monitor cannot collect data from the SQL Server instance. 334000Custom metricThe custom metric value has passed an alert threshold. 344100Custom metric collection errorSQL Monitor cannot collect custom metric data from the target object. Basically, alert.Alert_Type is just a big reference table containing information about the 34 different alert types supported by SQL Monitor (note that the largest id is 41, not 34 – some alert types have been retired since SQL Monitor was first developed). The Name and Description columns are self evident, and I’m going to skip over the Event and Monitoring columns as they’re not very interesting. The AlertId column is the primary key, and is referenced by AlertId in the alert.Alert table. As such, we can rewrite our earlier query to join these two tables, in order to provide a more readable view of the alerts: SELECT TOP 100 AlertId, Name, TargetObject, [Read], SubType FROM alert.Alert a JOIN alert.Alert_Type at ON a.AlertType = at.AlertType ORDER BY AlertId DESC;  AlertIdNameTargetObjectReadSubType 165550Monitoring error (SQL Server data collection)7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s29:srp-mr03.testnet.red-gate.com,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,00 265549Monitoring error (host machine data collection)7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s29:srp-mr03.testnet.red-gate.com,7:Machine,1,4:Name,s0:,00 365548Integrity check overdue7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s15:FavouriteThings,00 465547Log backup overdue7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s15:FavouriteThings,00 565546Backup overdue7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s15:FavouriteThings,00 665545Integrity check overdue7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s14:SqlMonitorData,00 765544Log backup overdue7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s14:SqlMonitorData,00 865543Backup overdue7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s14:SqlMonitorData,00 965542Integrity check overdue7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s4:msdb,00 1065541Backup overdue7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s4:msdb,00 Okay, the next column to discuss in the alert.Alert table is TargetObject. Oh boy, this one’s a bit tricky! The TargetObject of an alert is a serialized string representation of the position in the monitored object hierarchy of the object to which the alert pertains. The serialization format is somewhat convenient for parsing in the C# source code of SQL Monitor, and has some helpful characteristics, but it’s probably very awkward to manipulate in T-SQL. I could document the serialization format here, but it would be very dry reading, so perhaps it’s best to consider an example from the table above. Have a look at the alert with an AlertID of 65543. It’s a Backup overdue alert for the SqlMonitorData database running on the default instance of granger, my laptop. Each different alert type is associated with a specific type of monitored object in the object hierarchy (I described the hierarchy in my previous post). The Backup overdue alert is associated with databases, whose position in the object hierarchy is root → Cluster → SqlServer → Database. The TargetObject value identifies the target object by specifying the key properties at each level in the hierarchy, thus: Cluster: Name = "granger" SqlServer: Name = "" (an empty string, denoting the default instance) Database: Name = "SqlMonitorData" Well, look at the actual TargetObject value for this alert: "7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s14:SqlMonitorData,". It is indeed composed of three parts, one for each level in the hierarchy: Cluster: "7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger," SqlServer: "9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:," Database: "8:Database,1,4:Name,s14:SqlMonitorData," Each part is handled in exactly the same way, so let’s concentrate on the first part, "7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,". It comprises the following: "7:Cluster," – This identifies the level in the hierarchy. "1," – This indicates how many different key properties there are to uniquely identify a cluster (we saw in my last post that each cluster is identified by a single property, its Name). "4:Name,s14:SqlMonitorData," – This represents the Name property, and its corresponding value, SqlMonitorData. It’s split up like this: "4:Name," – Indicates the name of the key property. "s" – Indicates the type of the key property, in this case, it’s a string. "14:SqlMonitorData," – Indicates the value of the property. At this point, you might be wondering about the format of some of these strings. Why is the string "Cluster" stored as "7:Cluster,"? Well an encoding scheme is used, which consists of the following: "7" – This is the length of the string "Cluster" ":" – This is a delimiter between the length of the string and the actual string’s contents. "Cluster" – This is the string itself. 7 characters. "," – This is a final terminating character that indicates the end of the encoded string. You can see that "4:Name,", "8:Database," and "14:SqlMonitorData," also conform to the same encoding scheme. In the example above, the "s" character is used to indicate that the value of the Name property is a string. If you explore the TargetObject property of alerts in your own SQL Monitor data repository, you might find other characters used for other non-string key property values. The different value types you might possibly encounter are as follows: "I" – Denotes a bigint value. For example, "I65432,". "g" – Denotes a GUID value. For example, "g32116732-63ae-4ab5-bd34-7dfdfb084c18,". "d" – Denotes a datetime value. For example, "d634815384796832438,". The value is stored as a bigint, rather than a native SQL datetime value. I’ll describe how datetime values are handled in the SQL Monitor data repostory in a future post. I suggest you have a look at the alerts in your own SQL Monitor data repository for further examples, so you can see how the TargetObject values are composed for each of the different types of alert. Let me give one further example, though, that represents a Custom metric alert, as this will help in describing the final column of interest in the alert.Alert table, SubType. Let me show you the alert I’m interested in: SELECT AlertId, a.AlertType, Name, TargetObject, [Read], SubType FROM alert.Alert a JOIN alert.Alert_Type at ON a.AlertType = at.AlertType WHERE AlertId = 65769;  AlertIdAlertTypeNameTargetObjectReadSubType 16576940Custom metric7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s6:master,12:CustomMetric,1,8:MetricId,I2,02 An AlertType value of 40 corresponds to the Custom metric alert type. The Name taken from the alert.Alert_Type table is simply Custom metric, but this doesn’t tell us anything about the specific custom metric that this alert pertains to. That’s where the SubType value comes in. For custom metric alerts, this provides us with the Id of the specific custom alert definition that can be found in the settings.CustomAlertDefinitions table. I don’t really want to delve into custom alert definitions yet (maybe in a later post), but an extra join in the previous query shows us that this alert pertains to the CPU pressure (avg runnable task count) custom metric alert. SELECT AlertId, a.AlertType, at.Name, cad.Name AS CustomAlertName, TargetObject, [Read], SubType FROM alert.Alert a JOIN alert.Alert_Type at ON a.AlertType = at.AlertType JOIN settings.CustomAlertDefinitions cad ON a.SubType = cad.Id WHERE AlertId = 65769;  AlertIdAlertTypeNameCustomAlertNameTargetObjectReadSubType 16576940Custom metricCPU pressure (avg runnable task count)7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger,9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:,8:Database,1,4:Name,s6:master,12:CustomMetric,1,8:MetricId,I2,02 The TargetObject value in this case breaks down like this: "7:Cluster,1,4:Name,s7:granger," – Cluster named "granger". "9:SqlServer,1,4:Name,s0:," – SqlServer named "" (the default instance). "8:Database,1,4:Name,s6:master," – Database named "master". "12:CustomMetric,1,8:MetricId,I2," – Custom metric with an Id of 2. Note that the hierarchy for a custom metric is slightly different compared to the earlier Backup overdue alert. It’s root → Cluster → SqlServer → Database → CustomMetric. Also notice that, unlike Cluster, SqlServer and Database, the key property for CustomMetric is called MetricId (not Name), and the value is a bigint (not a string). Finally, delving into the custom metric tables is beyond the scope of this post, but for the sake of avoiding any future confusion, I’d like to point out that whilst the SubType references a custom alert definition, the MetricID value embedded in the TargetObject value references a custom metric definition. Although in this case both the custom metric definition and custom alert definition share the same Id value of 2, this is not generally the case. Okay, that’s enough for now, not least because as I’m typing this, it’s almost 2am, I have to go to work tomorrow, and my alarm is set for 6am – eek! In my next post, I’ll either cover the remaining three tables in the alert schema, or I’ll delve into the way SQL Monitor stores its monitoring data, as I’d originally planned to cover in this post.

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• The Windows Store... why did I sign up with this mess again?

  - by FransBouma

  Yesterday, Microsoft revealed that the Windows Store is now open to all developers in a wide range of countries and locations. For the people who think "wtf is the 'Windows Store'?", it's the central place where Windows 8 users will be able to find, download and purchase applications (or as we now have to say to not look like a computer illiterate: <accent style="Kentucky">aaaaappss</accent>) for Windows 8. As this is the store which is integrated into Windows 8, it's an interesting place for ISVs, as potential customers might very well look there first. This of course isn't true for all kinds of software, and developer tools in general aren't the kind of applications most users will download from the Windows store, but a presence there can't hurt. Now, this Windows Store hosts two kinds of applications: 'Metro-style' applications and 'Desktop' applications. The 'Metro-style' applications are applications created for the new 'Metro' UI which is present on Windows 8 desktop and Windows RT (the single color/big font fingerpaint-oriented UI). 'Desktop' applications are the applications we all run and use on Windows today. Our software are desktop applications. The Windows Store hosts all Metro-style applications locally in the store and handles the payment for these applications. This means you upload your application (sorry, 'app') to the store, jump through a lot of hoops, Microsoft verifies that your application is not violating a tremendous long list of rules and after everything is OK, it's published and hopefully you get customers and thus earn money. Money which Microsoft will pay you on a regular basis after customers buy your application. Desktop applications are not following this path however. Desktop applications aren't hosted by the Windows Store. Instead, the Windows Store more or less hosts a page with the application's information and where to get the goods. I.o.w.: it's nothing more than a product's Facebook page. Microsoft will simply redirect a visitor of the Windows Store to your website and the visitor will then use your site's system to purchase and download the application. This last bit of information is very important. So, this morning I started with fresh energy to register our company 'Solutions Design bv' at the Windows Store and our two applications, LLBLGen Pro and ORM Profiler. First I went to the Windows Store dashboard page. If you don't have an account, you have to log in or sign up if you don't have a live account. I signed in with my live account. After that, it greeted me with a page where I had to fill in a code which was mailed to me. My local mail server polls every several minutes for email so I had to kick it to get it immediately. I grabbed the code from the email and I was presented with a multi-step process to register myself as a company or as an individual. In red I was warned that this choice was permanent and not changeable. I chuckled: Microsoft apparently stores its data on paper, not in digital form. I chose 'company' and was presented with a lengthy form to fill out. On the form there were two strange remarks: Per company there can just be 1 (one, uno, not zero, not two or more) registered developer, and only that developer is able to upload stuff to the store. I have no idea how this works with large companies, oh the overhead nightmares... "Sorry, but John, our registered developer with the Windows Store is on holiday for 3 months, backpacking through Australia, no, he's not reachable at this point. M'yeah, sorry bud. Hey, did you fill in those TPS reports yesterday?" A separate Approver has to be specified, which has to be a different person than the registered developer. Apparently to Microsoft a company with just 1 person is not a company. Luckily we're with two people! *pfew*, dodged that one, otherwise I would be stuck forever: the choice I already made was not reversible! After I had filled out the form and it was all well and good and accepted by the Microsoft lackey who had to write it all down in some paper notebook ("Hey, be warned! It's a permanent choice! Written down in ink, can't be changed!"), I was presented with the question how I wanted to pay for all this. "Pay for what?" I wondered. Must be the paper they were scribbling the information on, I concluded. After all, there's a financial crisis going on! How could I forget! Silly me. "Ok fair enough". The price was 75 Euros, not the end of the world. I could only pay by credit card, so it was accepted quickly. Or so I thought. You see, Microsoft has a different idea about CC payments. In the normal world, you type in your CC number, some date, a name and a security code and that's it. But Microsoft wants to verify this even more. They want to make a verification purchase of a very small amount and are doing that with a special code in the description. You then have to type in that code in a special form in the Windows Store dashboard and after that you're verified. Of course they'll refund the small amount they pull from your card. Sounds simple, right? Well... no. The problem starts with the fact that I can't see the CC activity on some website: I have a bank issued CC card. I get the CC activity once a month on a piece of paper sent to me. The bank's online website doesn't show them. So it's possible I have to wait for this code till October 12th. One month. "So what, I'm not going to use it anyway, Desktop applications don't use the payment system", I thought. "Haha, you're so naive, dear developer!" Microsoft won't allow you to publish any applications till this verification is done. So no application publishing for a month. Wouldn't it be nice if things were, you know, digital, so things got done instantly? But of course, that lackey who scribbled everything in the Big Windows Store Registration Book isn't that quick. Can't blame him though. He's just doing his job. Now, after the payment was done, I was presented with a page which tells me Microsoft is going to use a third party company called 'Symantec', which will verify my identity again. The page explains to me that this could be done through email or phone and that they'll contact the Approver to verify my identity. "Phone?", I thought... that's a little drastic for a developer account to publish a single page of information about an external hosted software product, isn't it? On Facebook I just added a page, done. And paying you, Microsoft, took less information: you were happy to take my money before my identity was even 'verified' by this 3rd party's minions! "Double standards!", I roared. No-one cared. But it's the thought of getting it off your chest, you know. Luckily for me, everyone at Symantec was asleep when I was registering so they went for the fallback option in case phone calls were not possible: my Approver received an email. Imagine you have to explain the idiot web of security theater I was caught in to someone else who then has to reply a random person over the internet that I indeed was who I said I was. As she's a true sweetheart, she gave me the benefit of the doubt and assured that for now, I was who I said I was. Remember, this is for a desktop application, which is only a link to a website, some pictures and a piece of text. No file hosting, no payment processing, nothing, just a single page. Yeah, I also thought I was crazy. But we're not at the end of this quest yet. I clicked around in the confusing menus of the Windows Store dashboard and found the 'Desktop' section. I get a helpful screen with a warning in red that it can't find any certified 'apps'. True, I'm just getting started, buddy. I see a link: "Check the Windows apps you submitted for certification". Well, I haven't submitted anything, but let's see where it brings me. Oh the thrill of adventure! I click the link and I end up on this site: the hardware/desktop dashboard account registration. "Erm... but I just registered...", I mumbled to no-one in particular. Apparently for desktop registration / verification I have to register again, it tells me. But not only that, the desktop application has to be signed with a certificate. And not just some random el-cheapo certificate you can get at any mall's discount store. No, this certificate is special. It's precious. This certificate, the 'Microsoft Authenticode' Digital Certificate, is the only certificate that's acceptable, and jolly, it can be purchased from VeriSign for the price of only ... $99.-, but be quick, because this is a limited time offer! After that it's, I kid you not, $499.-. 500 dollars for a certificate to sign an executable. But, I do feel special, I got a special price. Only for me! I'm glowing. Not for long though. Here I started to wonder, what the benefit of it all was. I now again had to pay money for a shiny certificate which will add 'Solutions Design bv' to our installer as the publisher instead of 'unknown', while our customers download the file from our website. Not only that, but this was all about a Desktop application, which wasn't hosted by Microsoft. They only link to it. And make no mistake. These prices aren't single payments. Every year these have to be renewed. Like a membership of an exclusive club: you're special and privileged, but only if you cough up the dough. To give you an example how silly this all is: I added LLBLGen Pro and ORM Profiler to the Visual Studio Gallery some time ago. It's the same thing: it's a central place where one can find software which adds to / extends / works with Visual Studio. I could simply create the pages, add the information and they show up inside Visual Studio. No files are hosted at Microsoft, they're downloaded from our website. Exactly the same system. As I have to wait for the CC transcripts to arrive anyway, I can't proceed with publishing in this new shiny store. After the verification is complete I have to wait for verification of my software by Microsoft. Even Desktop applications need to be verified using a long list of rules which are mainly focused on Metro-style applications. Even while they're not hosted by Microsoft. I wonder what they'll find. "Your application wasn't approved. It violates rule 14 X sub D: it provides more value than our own competing framework". While I was writing this post, I tried to check something in the Windows Store Dashboard, to see whether I remembered it correctly. I was presented again with the question, after logging in with my live account, to enter the code that was just mailed to me. Not the previous code, a brand new one. Again I had to kick my mail server to pull the email to proceed. This was it. This 'experience' is so beyond miserable, I'm afraid I have to say goodbye for now to the 'Windows Store'. It's simply not worth my time. Now, about live accounts. You might know this: live accounts are tied to everything you do with Microsoft. So if you have an MSDN subscription, e.g. the one which costs over $5000.-, it's tied to this same live account. But the fun thing is, you can login with your live account to the MSDN subscriptions with just the account id and password. No additional code is mailed to you. While it gives you access to all Microsoft software available, including your licenses. Why the draconian security theater with this Windows Store, while all I want is to publish some desktop applications while on other Microsoft sites it's OK to simply sign in with your live account: no codes needed, no verification and no certificates? Microsoft, one thing you need with this store and that's: apps. Apps, apps, apps, apps, aaaaaaaaapps. Sorry, my bad, got carried away. I just can't stand the word 'app'. This store's shelves have to be filled to the brim with goods. But instead of being welcomed into the store with open arms, I have to fight an uphill battle with an endless list of rules and bullshit to earn the privilege to publish in this shiny store. As if I have to be thrilled to be one of the exclusive club called 'Windows Store Publishers'. As if Microsoft doesn't want it to succeed. Craig Stuntz sent me a link to an old blog post of his regarding code signing and uploading to Microsoft's old mobile store from back in the WinMo5 days: http://blogs.teamb.com/craigstuntz/2006/10/11/28357/. Good read and good background info about how little things changed over the years. I hope this helps Microsoft make things more clearer and smoother and also helps ISVs with their decision whether to go with the Windows Store scheme or ignore it. For now, I don't see the advantage of publishing there, especially not with the nonsense rules Microsoft cooked up. Perhaps it changes in the future, who knows.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, February 09, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, February 09, 2011Popular ReleasesWatchersNET.TagCloud: WatchersNET.TagCloud 01.09.03: Whats NewAdded New Skin TagTastic http://www.watchersnet.de/Portals/0/screenshots/dnn/TagCloud-TagTastic-Skin.jpg Added New Skin RoundedButton http://www.watchersnet.de/Portals/0/screenshots/dnn/TagCloud-RoundedButton-Skin.jpg changes Tag Count fixed on Tag Source Referrals Fixed Tag Count when multiple Tag Sources are usedFolder Space Quota: com_folderspacequotaV1.1: Correct Language String settingWinXound: WinXound 3.4.x (Windows - OsX - Linux): Release Notes (3.4.x) for all platforms: New: Added an internal audio player (it is automatically called when rendering to an audio file or called by the user with Ctrl+P); New: Reimplemented the orc/sco file editor (and of course also the ability to convert them to the csd format) - The default open action can be changed in the settings; New: The new untitled or imported files are now automatically saved into a temporary directory (no more need to save them before to compile); New: Add...ExtremeML: ExtremeML v1.0 Beta 3: VS solution source code updated for compatibility with VS2010 (accommodates VS2010 breaking changes in T4 template support).People's Note: People's Note 0.23: Sorry for the long pause between updates — I had my hands full. Version 0.23 makes fairly significant improvements: A bug with local note deletion has been fixed. Synchronization has been improved. A single failed note no longer stops the whole process. Unsynchronized notes are now highlighted. Added an option to display notebook title; thanks to Vovansky for the idea. Text colour has been fixed for people whose default is not black; thanks to JZerr for pointing this out. Incorrect ...Finestra Virtual Desktops: 1.1: This release adds a few more performance and graphical enhancements to 1.0. Switching desktops is now about as fast as you can blink. Desktop switching optimizations New welcome wizard for Vista/7 Fixed a few minor bugs Added a few more options to the options dialog (including ability to disable the taskbar switching)youtubeFisher: youtubeFisher 3.0 [beta]: What's new: Supports YouTube's new layout Complete internal refactoringNearforums - ASP.NET MVC forum engine: Nearforums v5.0: Version 5.0 of the ASP.NET MVC Forum Engine, containing the following improvements: .NET 4.0 as target framework using ASP.NET MVC 3. All views migrated to Razor for cleaner markup. Alternate template (Layout file) for mobile devices 4 Bug Fixes since Version 4.1 Visit the project Roadmap for more details.fuv: 1.0 release, codename Chopper Joe: features: search/replace :o to open file :s to save file :q to quitASP.NET MVC Project Awesome, jQuery Ajax helpers (controls): 1.7: A rich set of helpers (controls) that you can use to build highly responsive and interactive Ajax-enabled Web applications. These helpers include Autocomplete, AjaxDropdown, Lookup, Confirm Dialog, Popup Form, Popup and Pager html generation optimized new features for the lookup (add additional search data ) live demo went aeroEnhSim: EnhSim 2.3.6 BETA: 2.3.6 BETAThis release supports WoW patch 4.06 at level 85 To use this release, you must have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=A7B7A05E-6DE6-4D3A-A423-37BF0912DB84 To use the GUI you must have the .NET 4.0 Framework installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992 Changes since 2.3.0 ...TestApi - a library of Test APIs: TestApi v0.6: TestApi v0.6 comes with the following changes: TestApi code development has been moved to Codeplex: Moved TestApi soluton to VS 2010; Moved all source code to Codeplex. All development work is done there now. Fault Injection API: Integrated the unmanaged FaultInjectionEngine.dll COM component in the build; Cleaned up FaultInjectionEngine.dll to build at warning level 4; Implemented “FaultScope” which allows for in-process fault injection; Added automation scripts & sample program; ...AutoLoL: AutoLoL v1.5.5: AutoChat now allows up to 6 items. Items with nr. 7-0 will be removed! News page url's are now opened in the default browser Added a context menu to the system tray icon (thanks to Alex Banagos) AutoChat now allows configuring the Chat Keys and the Modifier Key The recent files list now supports compact and full mode Fix: Swapped mouse buttons are now properly detected Fix: Sometimes the Play button was pressed while still greyed out Champion: Karma Note: You can also run the u...mojoPortal: 2.3.6.2: see release notes on mojoportal.com http://www.mojoportal.com/mojoportal-2362-released.aspx Note that we have separate deployment packages for .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0 The deployment package downloads on this page are pre-compiled and ready for production deployment, they contain no C# source code. To download the source code see the Source Code Tab I recommend getting the latest source code using TortoiseHG, you can get the source code corresponding to this release here.Rawr: Rawr 4.0.19 Beta: Rawr is now web-based. The link to use Rawr4 is: http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.phpThis is the Cataclysm Beta Release. More details can be found at the following link http://rawr.codeplex.com/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=237262 As of the 4.0.16 release, you can now also begin using the new Downloadable WPF version of Rawr!This is a pre-alpha release of the WPF version, there are likely to be a lot of issues. If you have a problem, please follow the Posting Guidelines and put it into the Issue Trac...IronRuby: 1.1.2: IronRuby 1.1.2 is a servicing release that keeps on improving compatibility with Ruby 1.9.2 and includes IronRuby integration to Visual Studio 2010. We decided to drop 1.8.6 compatibility mode in all post-1.0 releases. We recommend using IronRuby 1.0 if you need 1.8.6 compatibility. In this release we fixed several major issues: - problems that blocked Gem installation in certain cases - regex syntax: the parser was replaced with a new one that is much more compatible with Ruby 1.9.2 - cras...MVVM Light Toolkit: MVVM Light Toolkit V3 SP1 (4): There was a small issue with the previous release that caused errors when installing the templates in VS10 Express. This release corrects the error. Only use this if you encountered issues when installing the previous release. No changes in the binaries.Facebook C# SDK: 5.0.2 (BETA): PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO GIVE US SOME FEEDBACK: Facebook C# SDK Survey This is third BETA release of the version 5 branch of the Facebook C# SDK. Remember this is a BETA build. Some things may change or not work exactly as planned. We are absolutely looking for feedback on this release to help us improve the final 5.X.X release. This release contains some breaking changes. Particularly with authentication. After spending time reviewing the trouble areas that people are having using th...ASP.NET MVC SiteMap provider: MvcSiteMapProvider 3.0.0 for MVC3: Using NuGet?MvcSiteMapProvider is also listed in the NuGet feed. Learn more... Like the project? Consider a donation!Donate via PayPal via PayPal. ChangelogTargeting ASP.NET MVC 3 and .NET 4.0 Additional UpdatePriority options for generating XML sitemaps Allow to specify target on SiteMapTitleAttribute One action with multiple routes and breadcrumbs Medium Trust optimizations Create SiteMapTitleAttribute for setting parent title IntelliSense for your sitemap with MvcSiteMapSchem...patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance: SharePoint Guidance 2010 Hands On Lab: SharePoint Guidance 2010 Hands On Lab consists of six labs: one for logging, one for service location, and four for application setting manager. Each lab takes about 20 minutes to walk through. Each lab consists of a PDF document. You can go through the steps in the doc to create solution and then build/deploy the solution and run the lab. For those of you who wants to save the time, we included the final solution so you can just build/deploy the solution and run the lab.New Projects.NET Proxy (netProxy): ASP.NET and Javascript proxies for accessing external content. The ASPX file can be used for returning external content over the current channel (HTTP/SSL). Used with the ASPX, the JS file can provide remote server access (no "same origin policy") with XMLHttpRequest syntax.CalCheck: CalCheck is a Calendar Checking Tool for Outlook. It opens the default Calendar and checks the items in the calendar for known problems, and for certain logic problems, etc.CBM11: CBM11 makes use of the Cosmos C# operating system project, and 6502 CPU emulation code, to provide an bootable 6502 CPU environment, complete with simulated RAM, and a built-in ML monitor.Ela, functional language: Ela is a modern functional programming language that runs on CLR and Mono. It's developed in C#.Framework for Image Processing: This is small framework of image processing tools.fuv: fuv is a programmer's editor that is an excellent replacement for vim. *All* editing is done by searching and replacing over the existing text, using regular expressions.HD44780-compatible Character LCD class: LCD class for .NET Micro Framework provides everything needed to work with HD44780-compatible Character LCD.Home Budget Planner: Home Budget PlannerMath training program: The math training program. Great for kids who started to learn addition and multiplication tables. Easy interface, friendly design. Features timer. Number of equations and a math sign are set up by user. It's developed in C#.Mefisto.NET CMS: Mefisto.NET CMS is a project of CMS, developped in ASP.NET MVC3, coupled with MEF and ENTITY FRAMEWORK. This project is respectful of good practice: - accessible - based on jquery - using css - expandable with mef Now you're interested, contact me !MongoMapper: A .NET Object Mapper for MongoDB over MongoDB C# DriverMoshpit: A companion WP7 app for Microsoft Student Partners and students interested in everything Microsoft has to offer in the Academic space.myproject_0023: test firstNonHealthServicePageSample: NonHealthServicePageSample shows how to create a HealthVault Online application without deriving from HealthServicePage. This is developed in C#.Pokemon Battle System: A battle system for a roleplaying forums. Putting Data in Cold Storage with Windows Azure Table: Historical records and blobs are two examples of data that aren't necessarily kept in relational storage forever. Use Windows Azure Table to put "completed" records into cold storage. See a detailed explanation of this C# project at: http://tinyurl.com/4ocy2aj.Python library to read/write ooxml document files: Python library to read/write ooxml document filesRemoteLogMonitor: A tool which can monitor logs in remote computer realtimeRetete: Aplicatia gestioneaza stocul unui restaurant pe baza de retete. Materia prima este introdusa in sistem prin receptii si inventar, iar la vanzare este consumata in functie de retetele configurate. Vanzarile pot fi inregistrate pe o casa de marcat folosind driver-ul DocPrint. SilverDiagram Extensions: Tutorials, utilities and samples for Silver Diagram, a fast and extendable client framework for diagrams.SoPrism: SoPrism is a Solution Visual Studio Template using best practices to build a Silverlight composite application. This template generate a full Silverlight application based on a solid architecture including the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern and PRISM framework.TempProject: Temp project hostingWCF Data Services Toolkit: The WCF Data Services Toolkit is a set of extensions to WCF Data Services (the .NET implementation of OData) that attempt to make it easier to create OData services on top of arbitrary data stores without having deep knowledge of LINQ.Web Browser BOT.NET: To automate to manipulate form using .NET codeZombie Blogger: Zombie Blog Engine

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, April 02, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, April 02, 2012Popular ReleasesDocument.Editor: 2012.2: Whats New for Document.Editor 2012.2: New Save Copy support New Page Setup support Minor Bug Fix's, improvements and speed upsVidCoder: 1.3.2: Added option for the minimum title length to scan. Added support to enable or disable LibDVDNav. Added option to prompt to delete source files after clearing successful completed items. Added option to disable remembering recent files and folders. Tweaked number box to only select all on a quick click.MJP's DirectX 11 Samples: Light Indexed Deferred Rendering: Implements light indexed deferred using per-tile light lists calculated in a compute shader, as well as a traditional deferred renderer that uses a compute shader for per-tile light culling and per-pixel shading.Pcap.Net: Pcap.Net 0.9.0 (66492): Pcap.Net - March 2012 Release Pcap.Net is a .NET wrapper for WinPcap written in C++/CLI and C#. It Features almost all WinPcap features and includes a packet interpretation framework. Version 0.9.0 (Change Set 66492)March 31, 2012 release of the Pcap.Net framework. Follow Pcap.Net on Google+Follow Pcap.Net on Google+ Files Pcap.Net.DevelopersPack.0.9.0.66492.zip - Includes all the tutorial example projects source files, the binaries in a 3rdParty directory and the documentation. It include...Extended WPF Toolkit: Extended WPF Toolkit - 1.6.0: Want an easier way to install the Extended WPF Toolkit?The Extended WPF Toolkit is available on Nuget. What's in the 1.6.0 Release?BusyIndicator ButtonSpinner Calculator CalculatorUpDown CheckListBox - Breaking Changes CheckComboBox - New Control ChildWindow CollectionEditor CollectionEditorDialog ColorCanvas ColorPicker DateTimePicker DateTimeUpDown DecimalUpDown DoubleUpDown DropDownButton IntegerUpDown Magnifier MaskedTextBox MessageBox MultiLineTex...ScriptIDE: Release 4.4: ...Media Companion: MC 3.434b Release: General This release should be the last beta for 3.4xx. If there are no major problems, by the end of the week it will upgraded to 3.500 Stable! The latest mc_com.exe should be included too! TV Bug fix - crash when using XBMC scraper for TV episodes. Bug fix - episode count update when adding new episodes. Bug fix - crash when actors name was missing. Enhanced TV scrape progress text. Enhancements made to missing episodes display. Movies Bug fix - hide "Play Trailer" when multisaev...Better Explorer: Better Explorer 2.0.0.831 Alpha: - A new release with: - many bugfixes - changed icon - added code for more failsafe registry usage on x64 systems - not needed regfix anymore - added ribbon shortcut keys - Other fixes Note: If you have problems opening system libraries, a suggestion was given to copy all of these libraries and then delete the originals. Thanks to Gaugamela for that! (see discussion here: 349015 ) Note2: I was upload again the setup due to missing file!MonoGame - Write Once, Play Everywhere: MonoGame 2.5: The MonoGame team are pleased to announce that MonoGame v2.5 has been released. This release contains important bug fixes, implements optimisations and adds key features. MonoGame now has the capability to use OpenGLES 2.0 on Android and iOS devices, meaning it now supports custom shaders across mobile and desktop platforms. Also included in this release are native orientation animations on iOS devices and better Orientation support for Android. There have also been a lot of bug fixes since t...Circuit Diagram: Circuit Diagram 2.0 Alpha 3: New in this release: Added components: Microcontroller Demultiplexer Flip & rotate components Open XML files from older versions of Circuit Diagram Text formatting for components New CDDX syntax Other fixesUmbraco CMS: Umbraco 5.1 CMS (Beta): Beta build for testing - please report issues at issues.umbraco.org (Latest uploaded: 5.1.0.123) What's new in 5.1? The full list of changes is on our http://progress.umbraco.org task tracking page. It shows items complete for 5.1, and 5.1 includes items for 5.0.1 and 5.0.2 listed there too. Here's two headline acts: Members5.1 adds support for backoffice editing of Members. We support the pairing up of our content type system in Hive with regular ASP.NET Membership providers (we ship a def...51Degrees.mobi - Mobile Device Detection and Redirection: 2.1.2.11: One Click Install from NuGet Changes to Version 2.1.2.11Code Changes 1. The project is now licenced under the Mozilla Public Licence 2. 2. User interface control and associated data access layer classes have been added to aid developers integrating 51Degrees.mobi into wider projects such as content management systems or web hosting management solutions. Use the following in a web form or user control to access these new UI components. <%@ Register Assembly="FiftyOne.Foundation" Namespace="...JSON Toolkit: JSON Toolkit 3.1: slight performance improvement (5% - 10%) new JsonException classPicturethrill: Version 2.3.28.0: Straightforward image selection. New clean UI look. Super stable. Simplified user experience.SQL Monitor - managing sql server performance: SQL Monitor 4.2 alpha 16: 1. finally fixed problem with logic fault checking for temporary table name... I really mean finally ...ScintillaNET: ScintillaNET 2.5: A slew of bug-fixes with a few new features sprinkled in. This release also upgrades the SciLexer and SciLexer64 DLLs to version 3.0.4. The official stuff: Issue # Title 32402 32402 27137 27137 31548 31548 30179 30179 24932 24932 29701 29701 31238 31238 26875 26875 30052 30052 Vodigi Open Source Interactive Digital Signage: Vodigi Release 5.0: Vodigi Release 5.0 The .ZIP file for this release contains everything you need to setup and install Vodigi 5.0. Setup and intallation documentation is included in the .ZIP file. Vodigi Release 5.0 consists of the following core components: Vodigi Administrator Web Site Vodigi Player Windows Application Vodigi Media Uploader Windows Application Vodigi Databases Refer to the documentation included in the .ZIP file to setup and configure your servers and player devices for this release.Harness: Harness 2.0.2: change to .NET Framework Client Profile bug fix the download dialog auto answer. bug fix setFocus command. add "SendKeys" command. remove "closeAll" command. minor bugs fixed.BugNET Issue Tracker: BugNET 0.9.161: Below is a list of fixes in this release. Bug BGN-2092 - Link in Email "visit your profile" not functional BGN-2083 - Manager of bugnet can not edit project when it is not public BGN-2080 - clicking on a link in the project summary causes error (0.9.152.0) BGN-2070 - Missing Functionality On Feed.aspx BGN-2069 - Calendar View does not work BGN-2068 - Time tracking totals not ok BGN-2067 - Issues List Page Size Bug: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the si...YAF.NET (aka Yet Another Forum.NET): v1.9.6.1 RTW: v1.9.6.1 FINAL is .NET v4.0 ONLY v1.9.6.1 has: Performance Improvements .NET v4.0 improvements Improved FaceBook Integration KNOWN ISSUES WITH THIS RELEASE: ON INSTALL PLEASE DON'T CHECK "Upgrade BBCode Extensions...". More complete change list and discussion here: http://forum.yetanotherforum.net/yaf_postst14201_v1-9-6-1-RTW-Dated--3-26-2012.aspxNew ProjectsAdvanced JavaScript outlining for Visual Studio 11: This is extension for Visual Studio 11 that adds additional outlining for JavaScript Editorakrypt2: qt-based GUI for libaxel http://axelkenzo.ru/index.php?section=libaxel.downloadaluminium: aluminium calculationAuditDbContext - Entity Framework Auditing Context: AuditDbContext provides entity change auditing for Entity Framework POCO entities.AutoBox: Creates a fresh .Net developer environment from a bare OS utilizing powershell, chocolatey and webpi.Bookregator: Bookregator is a C# application written to aggregate data using Amazon's Advertising API, WorldCat, and GoodReads.Bootstrap.ConfirmModal: There is a situation that we need user to confirm before they proceed their action. You don’t want to accidently delete very important information. So I come up the idea to extend the bootstrap modal popup to create a confirm modal before calling the function to delete some stuffColour Lovers .NET: A .NET library for the Colour Lovers API.Cursos y Causas: Cursos y Causas desarrollado en asp.net MVCDataModels: DataModels is a project which aims to allow for easy reuse of specific data models using a very simple API. easy framework is used to fast work: codingEGM Engine: The engine for the Express Game Maker editor.E-Junkey: Project personalExpress Game Maker: You can use Express Game Maker to makes games without the need to write a single line of code! EGM's source is shared and is constantly improved by developers around the world. Learn Express Game Maker in no time with tutorials, videos and templates. Share what you learn with the community and ask the community for help. Express Game Maker is free, if you paid for it anywhere, we suggest you ask for a refund.Extending Razor Engine: Extending Razor Engine. Nice and clean solution for CMS system, such as Kentico, red dot, etc.FloodWarn: A series of server and client apps for monitoring flood levels on the Snoqualmie River in King County, Washington.GetThatList: With GetThatList people will find an easy way to copy a music playlist and its songs to another location, being another folder or a remote computer. It is designed so that it can be exposed to the final user as an standalone application or a Shell extension for playlist files.HashMapper - Object-Hash Mapper for Redis: Object-Hash Mapper for Redis and BookSleeve.hostedit: small utility to quickly change the host file. toggles a single clickI-Control: SecretIIS Hosts File Manager: Here's an IIS 7.5 and 8.0 module to add host headers to the Hosts file without having to edit it with notepad. Very useful if you create a lot of web sites for testing or demo purposes. Interval Trainer: Inspired by new research* on interval training this application will help you easily transition into interval based workouts. Current Features Two interval cycles that can be individually customized in time length Preloaded ideal workout for aerobic exercise based on suggested research* (high intensity sprints during workout interval, light jogs during rest) Coming Soon Custom interval workouts with as many intervals in a cycle as necessary Persistent workout settings *Links to t...MicroRuntime: The MicroRuntime project is a .NET utility library.MS Office Word Navigation: Navigate forward/backward inside a Word document MvcFlow: Integration between Workflow Foundation 4.5 and ASP.NET MVC 4NewLineReplacer: Replace letter fast and easy in great textfilesObject-Oriented CAML: Using CAML objectsOpenCover: A code coverage tool for .NET 2 and above, support for 32 and 64 processes (including Silverlight) with both branch and sequence points; now supporting coverage by test feature. This is a mirror of the original github repository to allow codeplex users to contribute. The latest downloads can be found here https://github.com/sawilde/opencover/downloads and is also available using nuget. Pavings.NET: Library for applied interval analysis including intervals, boxes and sub-pavings. Interval analysis is a method of approximating sets with any degree of precision and it has applications from optimization to robotics. Inspired by book "Applied Interval Analysis" by Luc Jaulin et al.proyectoIntegrador3: Proyecto Integrador 3QPAPrintLib: Print every document by its recommended programmsChord: Typing text on the consoles doesn’t have to mean another trauma. Having to navigate to each letter with arrows and analog sticks is really inefficient & lame. In fact you can easily encode each character as a combination of positions of two analog sticksServer DateTime: Server DateTime renders the date and time from the server and make it active using javascript. It is in Military Time Format.SjclHelpers: Helpers for using the Stanford Javascript Crypto Library with .NET.SSAS AMO DB: SSAS AMO DB is a database version of AMO which helps to view the metadata stored in the SSAS cube. The Metadata will be loaded from the SSAS cube using AMO into a SQL Server database using SSIS package. From that database user can generate reports for the SSAS metadata. This database stores the below SSAS objects and their properties Server Databases DataSource DataSourceView DataSourceViewTablecolumns Cube CubeDimension DimensionAttribute AttributeKeyColumns AttributeKeyColum...Stump: A really small BDD framework built on top of nunitSvnbox.org svn sync project (dropbox like): Sync your folder on svn repository work as a teamTextShadowWrapper: TextShadowWrapper is a custom server control for ASP.NET web pages. It inherits from System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label and supports CSS3 text shadows.tjnetSite: Web Site for the Tijuana .Net User groupTönnenKlapps: XNA game where you try to smash a 3D spinning barrel using the correct coloured buttons and the right timing.WP7 Selected Pivot: an example showing how to navigate from one page to desired pivot on another pageXAML Metro Application Isolated Storage Helper: XAMLMetroAppIsolatedStorageHelper helps to Save, Retrieve and Delete structured data in the Isolated Storage. This helper class helps in XAML based Metro application. xsockets: XSockets Test

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• Minecraft Style Chunk building problem

  - by David Torrey

  I'm having some problems with speed in my chunk engine. I timed it out, and in its current state it takes a total ~5 seconds per chunk to fill each face's list. I have a check to see if each face of a block is visible and if it is not visible, it skips it and moves on. I'm using a dictionary (unordered map) because it makes sense memorywise to just not have an entry if there is no block. I've tracked my problem down to testing if there is an entry, and accessing an entry if it does exist. If I remove the tests to see if there is an entry in the dictionary for an adjacent block, or if the block type itself is seethrough, it runs within about 2-4 milliseconds. so here's my question: Is there a faster way to check for an entry in a dictionary than .ContainsKey()? As an aside, I tried TryGetValue() and it doesn't really help with the speed that much. If I remove the ContainsKey() and keep the test where it does the IsSeeThrough for each block, it halves the time, but it's still about 2-3 seconds. It only drops to 2-4ms if I remove BOTH checks. Here is my code: using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Threading.Tasks; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; using OpenTK; using OpenTK.Graphics.OpenGL; using System.Drawing; namespace Anabelle_Lee { public enum BlockEnum { air = 0, dirt = 1, } [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential,Pack=1)] public struct Coordinates<T1> { public T1 x; public T1 y; public T1 z; public override string ToString() { return "(" + x + "," + y + "," + z + ") : " + typeof(T1); } } public struct Sides<T1> { public T1 left; public T1 right; public T1 top; public T1 bottom; public T1 front; public T1 back; } public class Block { public int blockType; public bool SeeThrough() { switch (blockType) { case 0: return true; } return false ; } public override string ToString() { return ((BlockEnum)(blockType)).ToString(); } } class Chunk { private Dictionary<Coordinates<byte>, Block> mChunkData; //stores the block data private Sides<List<Coordinates<byte>>> mVBOVertexBuffer; private Sides<int> mVBOHandle; //private bool mIsChanged; private const byte mCHUNKSIZE = 16; public Chunk() { } public void InitializeChunk() { //create VBO references #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine ("Initializing Chunk"); #endif mChunkData = new Dictionary<Coordinates<byte> , Block>(); //mIsChanged = true; GL.GenBuffers(1, out mVBOHandle.left); GL.GenBuffers(1, out mVBOHandle.right); GL.GenBuffers(1, out mVBOHandle.top); GL.GenBuffers(1, out mVBOHandle.bottom); GL.GenBuffers(1, out mVBOHandle.front); GL.GenBuffers(1, out mVBOHandle.back); //make new list of vertexes for each face mVBOVertexBuffer.top = new List<Coordinates<byte>>(); mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom = new List<Coordinates<byte>>(); mVBOVertexBuffer.left = new List<Coordinates<byte>>(); mVBOVertexBuffer.right = new List<Coordinates<byte>>(); mVBOVertexBuffer.front = new List<Coordinates<byte>>(); mVBOVertexBuffer.back = new List<Coordinates<byte>>(); #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Chunk Initialized"); #endif } public void GenerateChunk() { #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Generating Chunk"); #endif for (byte i = 0; i < mCHUNKSIZE; i++) { for (byte j = 0; j < mCHUNKSIZE; j++) { for (byte k = 0; k < mCHUNKSIZE; k++) { Random blockLoc = new Random(); Coordinates<byte> randChunk = new Coordinates<byte> { x = i, y = j, z = k }; mChunkData.Add(randChunk, new Block()); mChunkData[randChunk].blockType = blockLoc.Next(0, 1); } } } #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Chunk Generated"); #endif } public void DeleteChunk() { //delete VBO references #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Deleting Chunk"); #endif GL.DeleteBuffers(1, ref mVBOHandle.left); GL.DeleteBuffers(1, ref mVBOHandle.right); GL.DeleteBuffers(1, ref mVBOHandle.top); GL.DeleteBuffers(1, ref mVBOHandle.bottom); GL.DeleteBuffers(1, ref mVBOHandle.front); GL.DeleteBuffers(1, ref mVBOHandle.back); //clear all vertex buffers ClearPolyLists(); #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Chunk Deleted"); #endif } public void UpdateChunk() { #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Updating Chunk"); #endif ClearPolyLists(); //prepare buffers //for every entry in mChunkData map foreach(KeyValuePair<Coordinates<byte>,Block> feBlockData in mChunkData) { Coordinates<byte> checkBlock = new Coordinates<byte> { x = feBlockData.Key.x, y = feBlockData.Key.y, z = feBlockData.Key.z }; //check for polygonson the left side of the cube if (checkBlock.x > 0) { //check to see if there is a key for current x - 1. if not, add the vector if (!IsVisible(checkBlock.x - 1, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z)) { //add polygon AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.left); } } else { //polygon is far left and should be added AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.left); } //check for polygons on the right side of the cube if (checkBlock.x < mCHUNKSIZE - 1) { if (!IsVisible(checkBlock.x + 1, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z)) { //add poly AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.right); } } else { //poly for right add AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.right); } if (checkBlock.y > 0) { //check to see if there is a key for current x - 1. if not, add the vector if (!IsVisible(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y - 1, checkBlock.z)) { //add polygon AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.bottom); } } else { //polygon is far left and should be added AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.bottom); } //check for polygons on the right side of the cube if (checkBlock.y < mCHUNKSIZE - 1) { if (!IsVisible(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y + 1, checkBlock.z)) { //add poly AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.top); } } else { //poly for right add AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.top); } if (checkBlock.z > 0) { //check to see if there is a key for current x - 1. if not, add the vector if (!IsVisible(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z - 1)) { //add polygon AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.back); } } else { //polygon is far left and should be added AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.back); } //check for polygons on the right side of the cube if (checkBlock.z < mCHUNKSIZE - 1) { if (!IsVisible(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z + 1)) { //add poly AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.front); } } else { //poly for right add AddPoly(checkBlock.x, checkBlock.y, checkBlock.z, mVBOHandle.front); } } BuildBuffers(); #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Chunk Updated"); #endif } public void RenderChunk() { } public void LoadChunk() { #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Loading Chunk"); #endif #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Chunk Deleted"); #endif } public void SaveChunk() { #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Saving Chunk"); #endif #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Chunk Saved"); #endif } private bool IsVisible(int pX,int pY,int pZ) { Block testBlock; Coordinates<byte> checkBlock = new Coordinates<byte> { x = Convert.ToByte(pX), y = Convert.ToByte(pY), z = Convert.ToByte(pZ) }; if (mChunkData.TryGetValue(checkBlock,out testBlock )) //if data exists { if (testBlock.SeeThrough() == true) //if existing data is not seethrough { return true; } } return true; } private void AddPoly(byte pX, byte pY, byte pZ, int BufferSide) { //create temp array GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, BufferSide); if (BufferSide == mVBOHandle.front) { //front face mVBOVertexBuffer.front.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.front.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.front.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.front.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.front.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.front.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); } else if (BufferSide == mVBOHandle.right) { //back face mVBOVertexBuffer.back.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.back.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.back.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.back.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.back.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.back.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ) }); } else if (BufferSide == mVBOHandle.top) { //left face mVBOVertexBuffer.left.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.left.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX), y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.left.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX), y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.left.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX), y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.left.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.left.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ) }); } else if (BufferSide == mVBOHandle.bottom) { //right face mVBOVertexBuffer.right.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.right.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.right.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.right.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY) , z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.right.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.right.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); } else if (BufferSide == mVBOHandle.front) { //top face mVBOVertexBuffer.top.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.top.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.top.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.top.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.top.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.top.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY + 1), z = (byte)(pZ) }); } else if (BufferSide == mVBOHandle.back) { //bottom face mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY), z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY), z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY), z = (byte)(pZ) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX + 1), y = (byte)(pY), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom.Add(new Coordinates<byte> { x = (byte)(pX) , y = (byte)(pY), z = (byte)(pZ + 1) }); } } private void BuildBuffers() { #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Building Chunk Buffers"); #endif GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, mVBOHandle.front); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(Marshal.SizeOf(new Coordinates<byte>()) * mVBOVertexBuffer.front.Count), mVBOVertexBuffer.front.ToArray(), BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, mVBOHandle.back); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(Marshal.SizeOf(new Coordinates<byte>()) * mVBOVertexBuffer.back.Count), mVBOVertexBuffer.back.ToArray(), BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, mVBOHandle.left); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(Marshal.SizeOf(new Coordinates<byte>()) * mVBOVertexBuffer.left.Count), mVBOVertexBuffer.left.ToArray(), BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, mVBOHandle.right); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(Marshal.SizeOf(new Coordinates<byte>()) * mVBOVertexBuffer.right.Count), mVBOVertexBuffer.right.ToArray(), BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, mVBOHandle.top); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(Marshal.SizeOf(new Coordinates<byte>()) * mVBOVertexBuffer.top.Count), mVBOVertexBuffer.top.ToArray(), BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, mVBOHandle.bottom); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(Marshal.SizeOf(new Coordinates<byte>()) * mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom.Count), mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom.ToArray(), BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer,0); #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Chunk Buffers Built"); #endif } private void ClearPolyLists() { #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Clearing Polygon Lists"); #endif mVBOVertexBuffer.top.Clear(); mVBOVertexBuffer.bottom.Clear(); mVBOVertexBuffer.left.Clear(); mVBOVertexBuffer.right.Clear(); mVBOVertexBuffer.front.Clear(); mVBOVertexBuffer.back.Clear(); #if DEBUG Console.WriteLine("Polygon Lists Cleared"); #endif } }//END CLASS }//END NAMESPACE

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• Oracle Data Integrator 11.1.1.5 Complex Files as Sources and Targets

  - by Alex Kotopoulis

  Overview ODI 11.1.1.5 adds the new Complex File technology for use with file sources and targets. The goal is to read or write file structures that are too complex to be parsed using the existing ODI File technology. This includes: Different record types in one list that use different parsing rules Hierarchical lists, for example customers with nested orders Parsing instructions in the file data, such as delimiter types, field lengths, type identifiers Complex headers such as multiple header lines or parseable information in header Skipping of lines  Conditional or choice fields Similar to the ODI File and XML File technologies, the complex file parsing is done through a JDBC driver that exposes the flat file as relational table structures. Complex files are mapped to one or more table structures, as opposed to the (simple) file technology, which always has a one-to-one relationship between file and table. The resulting set of tables follows the same concept as the ODI XML driver, table rows have additional PK-FK relationships to express hierarchy as well as order values to maintain the file order in the resulting table.   The parsing instruction format used for complex files is the nXSD (native XSD) format that is already in use with Oracle BPEL. This format extends the XML Schema standard by adding additional parsing instructions to each element. Using nXSD parsing technology, the native file is converted into an internal XML format. It is important to understand that the XML is streamed to improve performance; there is no size limitation of the native file based on memory size, the XML data is never fully materialized.  The internal XML is then converted to relational schema using the same mapping rules as the ODI XML driver. How to Create an nXSD file Complex file models depend on the nXSD schema for the given file. This nXSD file has to be created using a text editor or the Native Format Builder Wizard that is part of Oracle BPEL. BPEL is included in the ODI Suite, but not in standalone ODI Enterprise Edition. The nXSD format extends the standard XSD format through nxsd attributes. NXSD is a valid XML Schema, since the XSD standard allows extra attributes with their own namespaces. The following is a sample NXSD schema: <?xml version="1.0"?> <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:nxsd="http://xmlns.oracle.com/pcbpel/nxsd" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:tns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/pcbpel/demoSchema/csv" targetNamespace="http://xmlns.oracle.com/pcbpel/demoSchema/csv" attributeFormDefault="unqualified" nxsd:encoding="US-ASCII" nxsd:stream="chars" nxsd:version="NXSD"> <xsd:element name="Root">         <xsd:complexType><xsd:sequence>       <xsd:element name="Header">                 <xsd:complexType><xsd:sequence>                         <xsd:element name="Branch" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy=","/>                         <xsd:element name="ListDate" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="${eol}"/>                         </xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType>                         </xsd:element>                 </xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType>         <xsd:element name="Customer" maxOccurs="unbounded">                 <xsd:complexType><xsd:sequence>                 <xsd:element name="Name" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy=","/>                         <xsd:element name="Street" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="," />                         <xsd:element name="City" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="${eol}" />                         </xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType>                         </xsd:element>                 </xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType> </xsd:element> </xsd:schema> The nXSD schema annotates elements to describe their position and delimiters within the flat text file. The schema above uses almost exclusively the nxsd:terminatedBy instruction to look for the next terminator chars. There are various constructs in nXSD to parse fixed length fields, look ahead in the document for string occurences, perform conditional logic, use variables to remember state, and many more. nXSD files can either be written manually using an XML Schema Editor or created using the Native Format Builder Wizard. Both Native Format Builder Wizard as well as the nXSD language are described in the Application Server Adapter Users Guide. The way to start the Native Format Builder in BPEL is to create a new File Adapter; in step 8 of the Adapter Configuration Wizard a new Schema for Native Format can be created:   The Native Format Builder guides through a number of steps to generate the nXSD based on a sample native file. If the format is complex, it is often a good idea to “approximate” it with a similar simple format and then add the complex components manually.  The resulting *.xsd file can be copied and used as the format for ODI, other BPEL constructs such as the file adapter definition are not relevant for ODI. Using this technique it is also possible to parse the same file format in SOA Suite and ODI, for example using SOA for small real-time messages, and ODI for large batches. This nXSD schema in this example describes a file with a header row containing data and 3 string fields per row delimited by commas, for example: Redwood City Downtown Branch, 06/01/2011 Ebeneezer Scrooge, Sandy Lane, Atherton Tiny Tim, Winton Terrace, Menlo Park The ODI Complex File JDBC driver exposes the file structure through a set of relational tables with PK-FK relationships. The tables for this example are: Table ROOT (1 row): ROOTPK Primary Key for root element SNPSFILENAME Name of the file SNPSFILEPATH Path of the file SNPSLOADDATE Date of load Table HEADER (1 row): ROOTFK Foreign Key to ROOT record ROWORDER Order of row in native document BRANCH Data BRANCHORDER Order of Branch within row LISTDATE Data LISTDATEORDER Order of ListDate within row Table ADDRESS (2 rows): ROOTFK Foreign Key to ROOT record ROWORDER Order of row in native document NAME Data NAMEORDER Oder of Name within row STREET Data STREETORDER Order of Street within row CITY Data CITYORDER Order of City within row Every table has PK and/or FK fields to reflect the document hierarchy through relationships. In this example this is trivial since the HEADER and all CUSTOMER records point back to the PK of ROOT. Deeper nested documents require this to identify parent elements. All tables also have a ROWORDER field to define the order of rows, as well as order fields for each column, in case the order of columns varies in the original document and needs to be maintained. If order is not relevant, these fields can be ignored. How to Create an Complex File Data Server in ODI After creating the nXSD file and a test data file, and storing it on the local file system accessible to ODI, you can go to the ODI Topology Navigator to create a Data Server and Physical Schema under the Complex File technology. This technology follows the conventions of other ODI technologies and is very similar to the XML technology. The parsing settings such as the source native file, the nXSD schema file, the root element, as well as the external database can be set in the JDBC URL: The use of an external database defined by dbprops is optional, but is strongly recommended for production use. Ideally, the staging database should be used for this. Also, when using a complex file exclusively for read purposes, it is recommended to use the ro=true property to ensure the file is not unnecessarily synchronized back from the database when the connection is closed. A data file is always required to be present  at the filename path during design-time. Without this file, operations like testing the connection, reading the model data, or reverse engineering the model will fail.  All properties of the Complex File JDBC Driver are documented in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Connectivity and Knowledge Modules Guide for Oracle Data Integrator in Appendix C: Oracle Data Integrator Driver for Complex Files Reference. David Allan has created a great viewlet Complex File Processing - 0 to 60 which shows the creation of a Complex File data server as well as a model based on this server. How to Create Models based on an Complex File Schema Once physical schema and logical schema have been created, the Complex File can be used to create a Model as if it were based on a database. When reverse-engineering the Model, data stores(tables) for each XSD element of complex type will be created. Use of complex files as sources is straightforward; when using them as targets it has to be made sure that all dependent tables have matching PK-FK pairs; the same applies to the XML driver as well. Debugging and Error Handling There are different ways to test an nXSD file. The Native Format Builder Wizard can be used even if the nXSD wasn’t created in it; it will show issues related to the schema and/or test data. In ODI, the nXSD  will be parsed and run against the existing test XML file when testing a connection in the Dataserver. If either the nXSD has an error or the data is non-compliant to the schema, an error will be displayed. Sample error message: Error while reading native data. [Line=1, Col=5] Not enough data available in the input, when trying to read data of length "19" for "element with name D1" from the specified position, using "style" as "fixedLength" and "length" as "". Ensure that there is enough data from the specified position in the input. Complex File FAQ Is the size of the native file limited by available memory? No, since the native data is streamed through the driver, only the available space in the staging database limits the size of the data. There are limits on individual field sizes, though; a single large object field needs to fit in memory. Should I always use the complex file driver instead of the file driver in ODI now? No, use the file technology for all simple file parsing tasks, for example any fixed-length or delimited files that just have one row format and can be mapped into a simple table. Because of its narrow assumptions the ODI file driver is easy to configure within ODI and can stream file data without writing it into a database. The complex file driver should be used whenever the use case cannot be handled through the file driver. Are we generating XML out of flat files before we write it into a database? We don’t materialize any XML as part of parsing a flat file, either in memory or on disk. The data produced by the XML parser is streamed in Java objects that just use XSD-derived nXSD schema as its type system. We use the nXSD schema because is the standard for describing complex flat file metadata in Oracle Fusion Middleware, and enables users to share schemas across products. Is the nXSD file interchangeable with SOA Suite? Yes, ODI can use the same nXSD files as SOA Suite, allowing mixed use cases with the same data format. Can I start the Native Format Builder from the ODI Studio? No, the Native Format Builder has to be started from a JDeveloper with BPEL instance. You can get BPEL as part of the SOA Suite bundle. Users without SOA Suite can manually develop nXSD files using XSD editors. When is the database data written back to the native file? Data is synchronized using the SYNCHRONIZE and CREATE FILE commands, and when the JDBC connection is closed. It is recommended to set the ro or read_only property to true when a file is exclusively used for reading so that no unnecessary write-backs occur. Is the nXSD metadata part of the ODI Master or Work Repository? No, the data server definition in the master repository only contains the JDBC URL with file paths; the nXSD files have to be accessible on the file systems where the JDBC driver is executed during production, either by copying or by using a network file system. Where can I find sample nXSD files? The Application Server Adapter Users Guide contains nXSD samples for various different use cases.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, March 01, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, March 01, 2011Popular ReleasesDirectQ: Release 1.8.7 (Beta 3): Fixes some problems and adds some more enhancements.Sandcastle Help File Builder: SHFB v1.9.2.0 Release: NOTE TO 32-BIT WINDOWS XP USERS: There is a problem with a type converter that fails on 32-bit Windows XP due to how it searches for the framework versions. I'll issue an update later today that fixes the issue. This release supports the Sandcastle June 2010 Release (v2.6.10621.1). It includes full support for generating, installing, and removing MS Help Viewer files. This new release is compiled under .NET 4.0, supports Visual Studio 2010 solutions and projects as documentation sources, ...Network Monitor Open Source Parsers: Microsoft Network Monitor Parsers 3.4.2554: The Network Monitor Parsers packages contain parsers for more than 400 network protocols, including RFC based public protocols and protocols for Microsoft products defined in the Microsoft Open Specifications for Windows and SQL Server. NetworkMonitor_Parsers.msi is the base parser package which defines parsers for commonly used public protocols and protocols for Microsoft Windows. In this release, we have added 4 new protocol parsers and updated 79 existing parsers in the NetworkMonitor_Pa...Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.13: New features: switches and settings for turning off Conditional Compilation comment processing; for adding variable and/or function names that should not be renamed automatically; for adding manual renaming of variables/functions/properties; for automatic evaluation of certain literal expressions (but not all).Image Resizer for Windows: Image Resizer 3 Preview 1: Prepare to have your minds blown. This is the first preview of what will eventually become 39613. There are still a lot of rough edges and plenty of areas still under construction, but for your basic needs, it should be relativly stable. Note: You will need the .NET Framework 4 installed to use this version. Below is a status report of where this release is in terms of the overall goal for version 3. If you're feeling a bit technically ambitious and want to check out some of the features th...JSON Toolkit: JSON Toolkit 1.1: updated GetAllJsonObjects() method and GetAllProperties() methods to JsonObject and Properties propertiesFacebook Graph Toolkit: Facebook Graph Toolkit 1.0: Refer to http://computerbeacon.net for Documentation and Tutorial New features:added FQL support added Expires property to Api object added support for publishing to a user's friend / Facebook Page added support for posting and removing comments on posts added support for adding and removing likes on posts and comments added static methods for Page class added support for Iframe Application Tab of Facebook Page added support for obtaining the user's country, locale and age in If...ASP.NET MVC Project Awesome, jQuery Ajax helpers (controls): 1.7.1: A rich set of helpers (controls) that you can use to build highly responsive and interactive Ajax-enabled Web applications. These helpers include Autocomplete, AjaxDropdown, Lookup, Confirm Dialog, Popup Form, Popup and Pager small improvements for some helpers and AjaxDropdown has Data like the Lookup except it's value gets reset and list refilled if any element from data gets changedManaged Extensibility Framework: MEF 2 Preview 3: This release aims .net 4.0 and Silverlight 4.0. Accordingly, there are two solutions files. The assemblies are named System.ComponentModel.Composition.Codeplex.dll as a way to avoid clashing with the version shipped with the 4th version of the framework. Introduced CompositionOptions to container instantiation CompositionOptions.DisableSilentRejection makes MEF throw an exception on composition errors. Useful for diagnostics Support for open generics Support for attribute-less registr...PHPExcel: PHPExcel 1.7.6 Production: DonationsDonate via PayPal via PayPal. If you want to, we can also add your name / company on our Donation Acknowledgements page. PEAR channelWe now also have a full PEAR channel! Here's how to use it: New installation: pear channel-discover pear.pearplex.net pear install pearplex/PHPExcel Or if you've already installed PHPExcel before: pear upgrade pearplex/PHPExcel The official page can be found at http://pearplex.net. Want to contribute?Please refer the Contribute page.WPF Application Framework (WAF): WPF Application Framework (WAF) 2.0.0.4: Version: 2.0.0.4 (Milestone 4): This release contains the source code of the WPF Application Framework (WAF) and the sample applications. Requirements .NET Framework 4.0 (The package contains a solution file for Visual Studio 2010) The unit test projects require Visual Studio 2010 Professional Remark The sample applications are using Microsoft’s IoC container MEF. However, the WPF Application Framework (WAF) doesn’t force you to use the same IoC container in your application. You can use ...VidCoder: 0.8.2: Updated auto-naming to handle seconds and frames ranges as well. Deprecated the {chapters} token for auto-naming in favor of {range}. Allowing file drag to preview window and enabling main window shortcut keys to work no matter what window is focused. Added option in config to enable giving custom names to audio tracks. (Note that these names will only show up certain players like iTunes or on the iPod. Players that support custom track names normally may not show them.) Added tooltips ...SQL Server Compact Toolbox: Standalone version 2.0 for SQL Server Compact 4.0: Download the Visual Studio add-in for SQL Server Compact 4.0 and 3.5 from here Standalone version of (most of) the same functionality as the add-in, for SQL Server Compact 4.0. Useful for anyone not having Visual Studio Professional or higher installed. Requires .NET 4.0. Any feedback much appreciated.Claims Based Identity & Access Control Guide: Drop 1 - Claims Identity Guide V2: Highlights of drop #1 This is the first drop of the new "Claims Identity Guide" edition. In this release you will find: All previous samples updated and enhanced. All code upgraded to .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010. Extensive cleanup. Refactored Simulated Issuers: each solution now gets its own issuers. This results in much cleaner and simpler to understand code. Added Single Sign Out support. Added first sample using ACS ("ACS as a Federation Provider"). This sample extends the ori...Simple Notify: Simple Notify Beta 2011-02-25: Feature: host the service with a single click in console Feature: host the service as a windows service Feature: notification cient application Feature: push client application Feature: push notifications from your powershell script Feature: C# wrapper libraries for your applicationspatterns & practices: Project Silk: Project Silk Community Drop 3 - 25 Feb 2011: IntroductionWelcome to the third community drop of Project Silk. For this drop we are requesting feedback on overall application architecture, code review of the JavaScript Conductor and Widgets, and general direction of the application. Project Silk provides guidance and sample implementations that describe and illustrate recommended practices for building modern web applications using technologies such as HTML5, jQuery, CSS3 and Internet Explorer 9. This guidance is intended for experien...Minemapper: Minemapper v0.1.5: Now supports new Minecraft beta v1.3 map format, thanks to updated mcmap. Disabled biomes, until Minecraft Biome Extractor supports new format.HERB.IQ: HERB.IQ.NEW.INSTALL.0.6.0.zip: HERB.IQ.NEW.INSTALL.0.6.0.zipCoding4Fun Tools: Coding4Fun.Phone.Toolkit v1.2: New control, Toast Prompt! Removed progress bar since Silverlight Toolkit Feb 2010 has it.HubbleDotNet - Open source full-text search engine: V1.1.0.0: Add Sqlite3 DBAdapter Add App Report when Query Cache is Collecting. Improve the performance of index through Synchronize. Add top 0 feature so that we can only get count of the result. Improve the score calculating algorithm of match. Let the score of the record that match all items large then others. Add MySql DBAdapter Improve performance for multi-fields sort . Using hash table to access the Payload data. The version before used bin search. Using heap sort instead of qui...New ProjectsAssembly Explorer: Assembly Explorer is a developer utility that displays the namespaces, types, and members in an assembly. It also displays the MSIL or translated .NET language code.automated reporting system: ???????? ??????????? ?????????????? ???????????????? ????????? ?????? ?????????? ????????? Custom XSLT with Group by in Biztalk 2009: Custom XSLT with Group by in Biztalk 2009DotNet Repository: A simple to use, generic repository using Linq to SQL or Linq to Objects. euler 28: euler 28euler29: euler 29 problemFreeType for AirplaySDK: FreeType adoptation for Airplay SDK.Icicle Framework: An in-the-works component based game framework for XNA.Jogo dos Palitinhos: Jogo desenvolvido por alunos do 4º Ciclo Noturno de Programação do Curso de Análise de Sistemas e Tecnologia da Informação da Faculdade de Tecnologia de Carapicuíba. Este é o jogo dos palitinhos: uma mistura de lógica, advinhação e sorte. Será desenvolvido na plataforma Java.karmencita: Karmencita is a high level object query language for .NET . Its purpose is to allow easy querying from in memory structured data.Libero Site 011: libero sit 011MaLoRTLib: raytracer library used in the MaLoRT.MetroEdit: A WPF Text Editor based on the Metro UI Design Guidelines. Features: - Clean and simple UI based on Metro - 32bit and 64bit support - Tabbing - Syntax highlighting NOTE: Based on .NET Framework 4.0 and uses the following libraries: - MVVM Light Toolkit - AvalonEditMiaSocks: A .NET SOCKS Server Implementation base on SuperSocketmicroruntime: The MicroRuntime project is a .NET utility library.MVC Forum: A bulletin board system (like phpBB) running on ASP.NET MVC.newshehuishijianzhongxin: newshehuishijianzhongxinPrism Extension: Contains extensions for prism to reinforce some functionsRInterfaces: An interface to pass data toward and back from R and executing R code from .NETSharePoint 2007 Wiki Export: A very simple wiki export utility for SharePoint 2007. You can export a wiki library to the file system with the specified file extension, and wrapped in the speciified markup. Written in C#. The List service url is set dynamically so there is a dummy url in the configurations.Simon Squared: Simon Squared is a Multi-player Puzzle game for Windows Phone 7. It uses the XNA framework on the Phone, and the WCF Http CTP on the server side to handle communication between phones. It's written in C#.Sitefinity Toolkit: The Sitefinity Toolkit is a collection of enhancements to the Sitefinity Content Management System by Telerik. It currently supports Sitefinity version 3.7 (through SP4), and includes a number of tools to automate and simplify a number of actions and features.Slog: Slog is blog engine like Wordpress in Silverlight 4 that will have same fonctionality to bigin with and the same extensiblity thanks to MEF. Server side will be WCF DataServices, Entity Framework 4 and SQL Server Compact 4.SnagL: Social Network Analysis Graph Live (SnagL) is a light-weight, pluggable application that operates from a web browser and works with existing applications and back-end data stores to provide a visual way to understand information and enhance analysis.SocialShare Starter Kit: SocialShare Starter Kit is a web application that illustrate a wide range of features that needed to build a social site.This web application framework written in C# ASP.NET 4.0.Split Large XML file into small XML files: Split Large XML file into group of smaller XML files in sequential order. As posted to http://codeproject.com <a href='http://www.codeproject.com/KB/XML/SplitLargeXMLintoSmallFil.aspx'>Link</a>SSIS SSH Components: SSIS control flow tasks for SFTP and executing shell commands along with an SSH connection manager.StudioShell: StudioShell is a deeply integrated PowerShell module for Visual Studio 2010 and 2008. It will change the way you interact with your IDE and code by exposing the IDE extensibility features to PowerShell. What once took a binary can now be done in a one-liner.TBS: TBS TEZ BILGI SISTEMI tez bilgi sistemiuTestingService: uTestingService is a webservice with wrappers around Node and Document to allow for end-end testing of UmbracoWebsite Panel: Website Panel is a Windows application to help you manage multiple Dotnetnuke applications. Easy installations, backups & upgrades of DNN websites are just a few features of this application. Zinc: Zinc is a utility library for ASP.NET web forms development. It has support for: - utility methods for working easier with controls - CSV exports - HttpModules for dealing with caching and path based rights. - custom controls This library runs on .NET 2.0 and i would like to kee

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• Overview of SOA Diagnostics in 11.1.1.6

  - by ShawnBailey

  What tools are available for diagnosing SOA Suite issues? There are a variety of tools available to help you and Support diagnose SOA Suite issues in 11g but it can be confusing as to which tool is appropriate for a particular situation and what their relationships are. This blog post will introduce the various tools and attempt to clarify what each is for and how they are related. Let's first list the tools we'll be addressing: RDA: Remote Diagnostic Agent DFW: Diagnostic Framework Selective Tracing DMS: Dynamic Monitoring Service ODL: Oracle Diagnostic Logging ADR: Automatic Diagnostics Repository ADRCI: Automatic Diagnostics Repository Command Interpreter WLDF: WebLogic Diagnostic Framework This overview is not mean to be a comprehensive guide on using all of these tools, however, extensive reference materials are included that will provide many more details on their execution. Another point to note is that all of these tools are applicable for Fusion Middleware as a whole but specific products may or may not have implemented features to leverage them. A couple of the tools have a WebLogic Scripting Tool or 'WLST' interface. WLST is a command interface for executing pre-built functions and custom scripts against a domain. A detailed WLST tutorial is beyond the scope of this post but you can find general information here. There are more specific resources in the below sections. In this post when we refer to 'Enterprise Manager' or 'EM' we are referring to Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control. RDA (Remote Diagnostic Agent) RDA is a standalone tool that is used to collect both static configuration and dynamic runtime information from the SOA environment. RDA is generally run manually from the command line against a domain or single server. When opening a new Service Request, including an RDA collection can dramatically decrease the back and forth required to collect logs and configuration information for Support. After installing RDA you configure it to use the SOA Suite module as decribed in the referenced resources. The SOA module includes the Oracle WebLogic Server (WLS) module by default in order to include all of the relevant information for the environment. In addition to this basic configuration there is also an advanced mode where you can set the number of thread dumps for the collections, log files, Incidents, etc. When would you use it? When creating a Service Request or otherwise working with Oracle resources on an issue, capturing environment snapshots to baseline your configuration or to diagnose an issue on your own. How is it related to the other tools? RDA is related to DFW in that it collects the last 10 Incidents from the server by default. In a similar manner, RDA is related to ODL through its collection of the diagnostic logs and these may contain information from Selective Tracing sessions. Examples of what it currently collects: (for details please see the links in the Resources section) Diagnostic Logs (ODL) Diagnostic Framework Incidents (DFW) SOA MDS Deployment Descriptors SOA Repository Summary Statistics Thread Dumps Complete Domain Configuration RDA Resources: Webcast Recording: Using RDA with Oracle SOA Suite 11g Blog Post: Diagnose SOA Suite 11g Issues Using RDA Download RDA How to Collect Analysis Information Using RDA for Oracle SOA Suite 11g Products [ID 1350313.1] How to Collect Analysis Information Using RDA for Oracle SOA Suite and BPEL Process Manager 11g [ID 1352181.1] Getting Started With Remote Diagnostic Agent: Case Study - Oracle WebLogic Server (Video) [ID 1262157.1] top DFW (Diagnostic Framework) DFW provides the ability to collect specific information for a particular problem when that problem occurs. DFW is included with your SOA Suite installation and deployed to the domain. Let's define the components of DFW. Diagnostic Dumps: Specific diagnostic collections that are defined at either the 'system' or product level. Examples would be diagnostic logs or thread dumps. Incident: A collection of Diagnostic Dumps associated with a particular problem Log Conditions: An Oracle Diagnostic Logging event that DFW is configured to listen for. If the event is identified then an Incident will be created. WLDF Watch: The WebLogic Diagnostic Framework or 'WLDF' is not a component of DFW, however, it can be a source of DFW Incident creation through the use of a 'Watch'. WLDF Notification: A Notification is a component of WLDF and is the link between the Watch and DFW. You can configure multiple Notification types in WLDF and associate them with your Watches. 'FMWDFW-notification' is available to you out of the box to allow for DFW notification of Watch execution. Rule: Defines a WLDF Watch or Log Condition for which we want to associate a set of Diagnostic Dumps. When triggered the specified dumps will be collected and added to the Incident Rule Action: Defines the specific Diagnostic Dumps to collect for a particular rule ADR: Automatic Diagnostics Repository; Defined for every server in a domain. This is where Incidents are stored Now let's walk through a simple flow: Oracle Web Services error message OWS-04086 (SOAP Fault) is generated on managed server 1 DFW Log Condition for OWS-04086 evaluates to TRUE DFW creates a new Incident in the ADR for managed server 1 DFW executes the specified Diagnostic Dumps and adds the output to the Incident In this case we'll grab the diagnostic log and thread dump. We might also want to collect the WSDL binding information and SOA audit trail When would you use it? When you want to automatically collect Diagnostic Dumps at a particular time using a trigger or when you want to manually collect the information. In either case it can be readily uploaded to Oracle Support through the Service Request. How is it related to the other tools? DFW generates Incidents which are collections of Diagnostic Dumps. One of the system level Diagonstic Dumps collects the current server diagnostic log which is generated by ODL and can contain information from Selective Tracing sessions. Incidents are included in RDA collections by default and ADRCI is a tool that is used to package an Incident for upload to Oracle Support. In addition, both ODL and DMS can be used to trigger Incident creation through DFW. The conditions and rules for generating Incidents can become quite complicated and the below resources go into more detail. A simpler approach to leveraging at least the Diagnostic Dumps is through WLST (WebLogic Scripting Tool) where there are commands to do the following: Create an Incident Execute a single Diagnostic Dump Describe a Diagnostic Dump List the available Diagnostic Dumps The WLST option offers greater control in what is generated and when. It can be a great help when collecting information for Support. There are overlaps with RDA, however, DFW is geared towards collecting specific runtime information when an issue occurs while existing Incidents are collected by RDA. There are 3 WLDF Watches configured by default in a SOA Suite 11g domain: Stuck Threads, Unchecked Exception and Deadlock. These Watches are enabled by default and will generate Incidents in ADR. They are configured to reset automatically after 30 seconds so they have the potential to create multiple Incidents if these conditions are consistent. The Incidents generated by these Watches will only contain System level Diagnostic Dumps. These same System level Diagnostic Dumps will be included in any application scoped Incident as well. Starting in 11.1.1.6, SOA Suite is including its own set of application scoped Diagnostic Dumps that can be executed from WLST or through a WLDF Watch or Log Condition. These Diagnostic Dumps can be added to an Incident such as in the earlier example using the error code OWS-04086. soa.config: MDS configuration files and deployed-composites.xml soa.composite: All artifacts related to the deployed composite soa.wsdl: Summary of endpoints configured for the composite soa.edn: EDN configuration summary if applicable soa.db: Summary DB information for the SOA repository soa.env: Coherence cluster configuration summary soa.composite.trail: Partial audit trail information for the running composite The current release of RDA has the option to collect the soa.wsdl and soa.composite Diagnostic Dumps. More Diagnostic Dumps for SOA Suite products are planned for future releases along with enhancements to DFW itself. DFW Resources: Webcast Recording: SOA Diagnostics Sessions: Diagnostic Framework Diagnostic Framework Documentation DFW WLST Command Reference Documentation for SOA Diagnostic Dumps in 11.1.1.6 top Selective Tracing Selective Tracing is a facility available starting in version 11.1.1.4 that allows you to increase the logging level for specific loggers and for a specific context. What this means is that you have greater capability to collect needed diagnostic log information in a production environment with reduced overhead. For example, a Selective Tracing session can be executed that only increases the log level for one composite, only one logger, limited to one server in the cluster and for a preset period of time. In an environment where dozens of composites are deployed this can dramatically reduce the volume and overhead of the logging without sacrificing relevance. Selective Tracing can be administered either from Enterprise Manager or through WLST. WLST provides a bit more flexibility in terms of exactly where the tracing is run. When would you use it? When there is an issue in production or another environment that lends itself to filtering by an available context criteria and increasing the log level globally results in too much overhead or irrelevant information. The information is written to the server diagnostic log and is exportable from Enterprise Manager How is it related to the other tools? Selective Tracing output is written to the server diagnostic log. This log can be collected by a system level Diagnostic Dump using DFW or through a default RDA collection. Selective Tracing also heavily leverages ODL fields to determine what to trace and to tag information that is part of a particular tracing session. Available Context Criteria: Application Name Client Address Client Host Composite Name User Name Web Service Name Web Service Port Selective Tracing Resources: Webcast Recording: SOA Diagnostics Session: Using Selective Tracing to Diagnose SOA Suite Issues How to Use Selective Tracing for SOA [ID 1367174.1] Selective Tracing WLST Reference top DMS (Dynamic Monitoring Service) DMS exposes runtime information for monitoring. This information can be monitored in two ways: Through the DMS servlet As exposed MBeans The servlet is deployed by default and can be accessed through http://<host>:<port>/dms/Spy (use administrative credentials to access). The landing page of the servlet shows identical columns of what are known as Noun Types. If you select a Noun Type you will see a table in the right frame that shows the attributes (Sensors) for the Noun Type and the available instances. SOA Suite has several exposed Noun Types that are available for viewing through the Spy servlet. Screenshots of the Spy servlet are available in the Knowledge Base article How to Monitor Runtime SOA Performance With the Dynamic Monitoring Service (DMS). Every Noun instance in the runtime is exposed as an MBean instance. As such they are generally available through an MBean browser and available for monitoring through WLDF. You can configure a WLDF Watch to monitor a particular attribute and fire a notification when the threshold is exceeded. A WLDF Watch can use the out of the box DFW notification type to notify DFW to create an Incident. When would you use it? When you want to monitor a metric or set of metrics either manually or through an automated system. When you want to trigger a WLDF Watch based on a metric exposed through DMS. How is it related to the other tools? DMS metrics can be monitored with WLDF Watches which can in turn notify DFW to create an Incident. DMS Resources: How to Monitor Runtime SOA Performance With the Dynamic Monitoring Service (DMS) [ID 1368291.1] How to Reset a SOA 11g DMS Metric DMS Documentation top ODL (Oracle Diagnostic Logging) ODL is the primary facility for most Fusion Middleware applications to log what they are doing. Whenever you change a logging level through Enterprise Manager it is ultimately exposed through ODL and written to the server diagnostic log. A notable exception to this is WebLogic Server which uses its own log format / file. ODL logs entries in a consistent, structured way using predefined fields and name/value pairs. Here's an example of a SOA Suite entry: [2012-04-25T12:49:28.083-06:00] [AdminServer] [ERROR] [] [oracle.soa.bpel.engine] [tid: [ACTIVE].ExecuteThread: '1' for queue: 'weblogic.kernel.Default (self-tuning)'] [userId: ] [ecid: 0963fdde7e77631c:-31a6431d:136eaa46cda:-8000-00000000000000b4,0] [errid: 41] [WEBSERVICE_PORT.name: BPELProcess2_pt] [APP: soa-infra] [composite_name: TestProject2] [J2EE_MODULE.name: fabric] [WEBSERVICE.name: bpelprocess1_client_ep] [J2EE_APP.name: soa-infra] Error occured while handling a post operation[[ When would you use it? You'll use ODL almost every time you want to identify and diagnose a problem in the environment. The entries are written to the server diagnostic log. How is it related to the other tools? The server diagnostic logs are collected by DFW and RDA. Selective Tracing writes its information to the diagnostic log as well. Additionally, DFW log conditions are triggered by ODL log events. ODL Resources: ODL Documentation top ADR (Automatic Diagnostics Repository) ADR is not a tool in and of itself but is where DFW stores the Incidents it creates. Every server in the domain has an ADR location which can be found under <SERVER_HOME>/adr. This is referred to the as the ADR 'Base' location. ADR also has what are known as 'Home' locations. Example: You have a domain called 'myDomain' and an associated managed server called 'myServer'. Your admin server is called 'AdminServer'. Your domain home directory is called 'myDomain' and it contains a 'servers' directory. The 'servers' directory contains a directory for the managed server called 'myServer' and here is where you'll find the 'adr' directory which is the ADR 'Base' location for myServer. To get to the ADR 'Home' locations we drill through a few levels: diag/ofm/myDomain/ In an 11.1.1.6 SOA Suite domain you will see 2 directories here, 'myServer' and 'soa-infra'. These are the ADR 'Home' locations. 'myServer' is the 'system' ADR home and contains system level Incidents. 'soa-infra' is the name that SOA Suite used to register with DFW and this ADR home contains SOA Suite related Incidents Each ADR home location contains a series of directories, one of which is called 'incident'. This is where your Incidents are stored. When would you use it? It's a good idea to check on these locations from time to time to see whether a lot of Incidents are being generated. They can be cleaned out by deleting the Incident directories or through the ADRCI tool. If you know that an Incident is of particular interest for an issue you're working with Oracle you can simply zip it up and provide it. How does it relate to the other tools? ADR is obviously very important for DFW since it's where the Incidents are stored. Incidents contain Diagnostic Dumps that may relate to diagnostic logs (ODL) and DMS metrics. The most recent 10 Incident directories are collected by RDA by default and ADRCI relies on the ADR locations to help manage the contents. top ADRCI (Automatic Diagnostics Repository Command Interpreter) ADRCI is a command line tool for packaging and managing Incidents. When would you use it? When purging Incidents from an ADR Home location or when you want to package an Incident along with an offline RDA collection for upload to Oracle Support. How does it relate to the other tools? ADRCI contains a tool called the Incident Packaging System or IPS. This is used to package an Incident for upload to Oracle Support through a Service Request. Starting in 11.1.1.6 IPS will attempt to collect an offline RDA collection and include it with the Incident package. This will only work if Perl is available on the path, otherwise it will give a warning and package only the Incident files. ADRCI Resources: How to Use the Incident Packaging System (IPS) in SOA 11g [ID 1381259.1] ADRCI Documentation top WLDF (WebLogic Diagnostic Framework) WLDF is functionality available in WebLogic Server since version 9. Starting with FMw 11g a link has been added between WLDF and the pre-existing DFW, the WLDF Watch Notification. Let's take a closer look at the flow: There is a need to monitor the performance of your SOA Suite message processing A WLDF Watch is created in the WLS console that will trigger if the average message processing time exceeds 2 seconds. This metric is monitored through a DMS MBean instance. The out of the box DFW Notification (the Notification is called FMWDFW-notification) is added to the Watch. Under the covers this notification is of type JMX. The Watch is triggered when the threshold is exceeded and fires the Notification. DFW has a listener that picks up the Notification and evaluates it according to its rules, etc When it comes to automatic Incident creation, WLDF is a key component with capabilities that will grow over time. When would you use it? When you want to monitor the WLS server log or an MBean metric for some condition and fire a notification when the Watch is triggered. How does it relate to the other tools? WLDF is used to automatically trigger Incident creation through DFW using the DFW Notification. WLDF Resources: How to Monitor Runtime SOA Performance With the Dynamic Monitoring Service (DMS) [ID 1368291.1] How To Script the Creation of a SOA WLDF Watch in 11g [ID 1377986.1] WLDF Documentation top

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 12, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 12, 2011Popular ReleasesDynamic PagedCollection (Silverlight / WPF Pagination): PagedCollection: All classes which facilitate your dynamic pagination in Silverlight or WPF !Media Companion: MC 3.422b Weekly: Ensure .NET 4.0 Full Framework is installed. (Available from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718) Ensure the NFO ID fix is applied when transitioning from versions prior to 3.416b. (Details here) TV Show Resolutions... Made the TV Shows folder list sorted. Re-visibled 'Manually Add Path' in Root Folders. Sorted list to process during new tv episode search Rebuild Movies now processes thru folders alphabetically Fix for issue #208 - Display Missing Episodes is not popu...DotSpatial: DotSpatial Release Candidate 1 (1.0.823): Supports loading extensions using System.ComponentModel.Composition. DemoMap compiled as x86 so that GDAL runs on x64 machines. How to: Use an Assembly from the WebBe aware that your browser may add an identifier to downloaded files which results in "blocked" dll files. You can follow the following link to learn how to "Unblock" files. Right click on the zip file before unzipping, choose properties, go to the general tab and click the unblock button. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library...XPath Visualizer: XPathVisualizer v1.3 Latest: This is v1.3.0.6 of XpathVisualizer. This is an update release for v1.3. These workitems have been fixed since v1.3.0.5: 7429 7432 7427MSBuild Extension Pack: November 2011: Release Blog Post The MSBuild Extension Pack November 2011 release provides a collection of over 415 MSBuild tasks. A high level summary of what the tasks currently cover includes the following: System Items: Active Directory, Certificates, COM+, Console, Date and Time, Drives, Environment Variables, Event Logs, Files and Folders, FTP, GAC, Network, Performance Counters, Registry, Services, Sound Code: Assemblies, AsyncExec, CAB Files, Code Signing, DynamicExecute, File Detokenisation, GU...Quick Performance Monitor: Version 1.8.0: Now you can add multiple counters/instances at once! Yes, I know its overdue...CODE Framework: 4.0.11110.0: Various minor fixes and tweaks.Extensions for Reactive Extensions (Rxx): Rxx 1.2: What's NewRelated Work Items Please read the latest release notes for details about what's new. Content SummaryRxx provides the following features. See the Documentation for details. Many IObservable<T> extension methods and IEnumerable<T> extension methods. Many useful types such as ViewModel, CommandSubject, ListSubject, DictionarySubject, ObservableDynamicObject, Either<TLeft, TRight>, Maybe<T> and others. Various interactive labs that illustrate the runtime behavior of the extensio...Player Framework by Microsoft: HTML5 Player Framework 1.0: Additional DownloadsHTML5 Player Framework Examples - This is a set of examples showing how to setup and initialize the HTML5 Player Framework. This includes examples of how to use the Player Framework with both the HTML5 video tag and Silverlight player. Note: Be sure to unblock the zip file before using. Note: In order to test Silverlight fallback in the included sample app, you need to run the html and xap files over http (e.g. over localhost). Silverlight Players - Visit the Silverlig...MapWindow 4: MapWindow GIS v4.8.6 - Final release - 64Bit: What’s New in 4.8.6 (Final release)A few minor issues have been fixed What’s New in 4.8.5 (Beta release)Assign projection tool. (Sergei Leschinsky) Projection dialects. (Sergei Leschinsky) Projections database converted to SQLite format. (Sergei Leschinsky) Basic code for database support - will be developed further (ShapefileDataClient class, IDataProvider interface). (Sergei Leschinsky) 'Export shapefile to database' tool. (Sergei Leschinsky) Made the GEOS library static. geos.dl...NewLife XCode ??????: XCode v8.2.2011.1107、XCoder v4.5.2011.1108: v8.2.2011.1107 ?IEntityOperate.Create?Entity.CreateInstance??????forEdit，????????(FindByKeyForEdit)???，???false ??????Entity.CreateInstance，????forEdit，???????????????????? v8.2.2011.1103 ??MS????，??MaxMin??（????????）、NotIn??（????）、?Top??（??NotIn）、RowNumber??（?????） v8.2.2011.1101 SqlServer?????????DataPath，?????????????????????? Oracle?????????DllPath，????OCI??，???????????ORACLE_HOME?? Oracle?????XCode.Oracle.IsUseOwner，???????????Ow...Facebook C# SDK: v5.3.2: This is a RTW release which adds new features and bug fixes to v5.2.1. Query/QueryAsync methods uses graph api instead of legacy rest api. removed dependency from Code Contracts enabled Task Parallel Support in .NET 4.0+ (experimental) added support for early preview for .NET 4.5 (binaries not distributed in codeplex nor nuget.org, will need to manually build from Facebook-Net45.sln) added additional method overloads for .NET 4.5 to support IProgress<T> for upload progress added ne...Delete Inactive TS Ports: List and delete the Inactive TS Ports: UPDATEAdded support for windows 2003 servers and removed some null reference errors when the registry key was not present List and delete the Inactive TS Ports - The InactiveTSPortList.EXE accepts command line arguments The InactiveTSPortList.Standalone.WithoutPrompt.exe runs as a standalone exe without the need for any command line arguments.Ribbon Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Ribbon Editor (0.1.2207.267): BUG FIXES: - Cannot add multiple JavaScript and Url under Actions - Cannot add <Or> node under <OrGroup> - Adding a rule under <Or> node put the new rule node at the wrong placeWF Designer Express: WF Designer Express v0.6: ?????（???????????） Multi Language（Now, Japanese and English）ClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.60.0: Added almost full support for auto filters (missing custom date filters). See examples Filter Values, Custom Filters Fixed issues 7016, 7391, 7388, 7389, 7198, 7196, 7194, 7186, 7067, 7115, 7144Microsoft Research Boogie: Nightly builds: This download category contains automatically released nightly builds, reflecting the current state of Boogie's development. We try to make sure each nightly build passes the test suite. If you suspect that was not the case, please try the previous nightly build to see if that really is the problem. Also, please see the installation instructions.GoogleMap Control: GoogleMap Control 6.0: Major design changes to the control in order to achieve better scalability and extensibility for the new features comming with GoogleMaps API. GoogleMap control switched to GoogleMaps API v3 and .NET 4.0. GoogleMap control is 100% ScriptControl now, it requires ScriptManager to be registered on the pages where and before it is used. Markers, polylines, polygons and directions were implemented as ExtenderControl, instead of being inner properties of GoogleMap control. Better perfomance. Better...WDTVHubGen - Adds Metadata, thumbnails and subtitles to WDTV Live Hubs: V2.1: Version 2.1 (click on the right) this uses V4.0 of .net Version 2.1 adds the following features: (apologize if I forget some, added a lot of little things) Manual Lookup with TV or Movie (finally huh!), you can look up a movie or TV episode directly, you can right click on anythign, and choose manual lookup, then will allow you to type anything you want to look up and it will assign it to the file you right clicked. No Rename: a very popular request, this is an option you can set so that t...SubExtractor: Release 1020: Feature: added "baseline double quotes" character to selector box Feature: added option to save SRT files as ANSI (instead of previous UTF-8 only) Feature: made "Save Sup files to Source directory" apply to both Sup and Idx source files. Fix: removed SDH text (...) or [...] that is split over 2 lines Fix: better decision-making in when to prefix a line with a '-' because SDH was removedNew Projects- Gemini - code branch: the branch for all Hzj_jie's code(MPLF) MediaPortal LoveFilm Plugin: MediaPortal LoveFilm (Love Film) Plugin. Browse films, add/remove from lists, streams etc._: _Batalha Naval em C#: Jogo de batalha naval para a disciplina de C#BusyHoliday - Making Outlook's Calendar Busy for Holidays: When users add holidays to their Outlook calendar these are added as an all day event. However, these are added as free time. With users in other countries, if they were to invite a user in a country with a public holiday, they won't be able to see that the user is on a public holiday or busy. BusyHoliday will update existing holidays as busy time. This may improve users ability to collaborate efficiently across geographical boundries. C# and MCU: C# and MCU and webCampo Minado C Sharp: C sharp source code of the game minefield.CP2011test: CP2011 TestDynamic PagedCollection (Silverlight / WPF Pagination): PagedCollection helps a developer to easily control the pagination of their collection. This collection doesnt need all datas in memory, it can be attached to RIA/SQL/XML data ... and load needed data one after the other. The PagedCollection can be used with Silverlight or WPF.Fast MVVM: The faster way to build your MVVM (Model, View, ViewModel) applications. It's a basic and educational way to learn and work with MVVM. We have more than just a pack of classes or templates. We have a new concept that turn it a little easier.Habitat: Core game services, frameworks and templates for desktop, mobile and web game developers.Historical Data Repository: Repository stores serializable timestamped data items in compressed files structured in a way that allows to quickly find data by time, quickly read and write data items in chronological order. Key features: - all data is stored under a single root folder; like file system, repository can contain a tree of folders each of which contains its own data stream; when reading, multiple streams can be combined into a single output stream maintaining chronological order; the tree structure can b...Immunity Buster: This game is for HIV. We will be making a virus which will help to spread the knowledge about the virus and have Fun among the peers.JoeCo Blog Application: JoeCo Blog Application for ECE 574jweis sso user center: jweis is a user center,distination is to use in a contry ,ssoKinect Shape Game Connect with Windows Phone: The classic Shape Game for Microsoft Kinect extended to allow players to join in the game and deploy shapes from their windows phone. Uses TCP sockets. For educational purposes. Free to download and distribute.Liekhus Behavior Driven DevExpress XAF: Using the BDD (Behavior Driven Development) techniques of SpecFlow and the EasyTest scriptability of DevExpress XAF (eXpress Application Framework), you can leverage test first style of application development in a speed never though imaginable.Linq to BBYOpen: C# Linq Provider to access the REST based BBYOpen services from BestBuy.Mi clima: This is the source code for the application "Mi clima" published in the Windows Phone Marketplace. MySqlQueryToolkit: This project bundles all of the common performance tests into a single handy user interface. Simply drop your query in and use the tools to make your query faster. Includes index suggestion, column data type and length suggestion and common profiling options.OData Validation Framework: Project to show how to validate data using client and server side OData/WCF Data ServicesOMR Table Data Syncronizer - Only Data: This tools compare and syncronize table data. No schema syncronizing included on this project. Data comparition is fastest! 1,000,000 data compare time is: ~200 ms.OrchardPo: This is the po file management module that is used on http://orchardproject.netResistance Calculator: A calculator for parallel and/or series resistanceSMS Team 5: h? th?ng g?i SMS t? d?ngSportsStore: Prueba en tfs de sports storeUDP Transport: This is an attempt at implementation of WCF UDP transport compliant with soa.udp OASIS Standard WebUtils: Biblioteca com funções genéricas úteis para uso com ASP NET MVC??a??e?a - Greek Government Open Data Program - Windows Mobile Client: ? efa?µ??? Open Government sa? d??e? ?µes? p??sßas? ap? t? ????t? sa? se ????? t??? ??µ???, ??e? t?? ap?f?se?? ?a? ??e? t?? dap??e? t?? ????????? ???t??? ?a? ???? t?? ?p??es??? t?? ????????? ??µ?s??? µ?s? t?? ??ße???t???? p?????µµat?? ??a??e?a.

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• Pain Comes Instantly

  - by user701213

  When I look back at recent blog entries – many of which are not all that current (more on where my available writing time is going later) – I am struck by how many of them focus on public policy or legislative issues instead of, say, the latest nefarious cyberattack or exploit (or everyone’s favorite new pastime: coining terms for the Coming Cyberpocalypse: “digital Pearl Harbor” is so 1941). Speaking of which, I personally hope evil hackers from Malefactoria will someday hack into my bathroom scale – which in a future time will be connected to the Internet because, gosh, wouldn’t it be great to have absolutely everything in your life Internet-enabled? – and recalibrate it so I’m 10 pounds thinner. The horror. In part, my focus on public policy is due to an admitted limitation of my skill set. I enjoy reading technical articles about exploits and cybersecurity trends, but writing a blog entry on those topics would take more research than I have time for and, quite honestly, doesn’t play to my strengths. The first rule of writing is “write what you know.” The bigger contributing factor to my recent paucity of blog entries is that more and more of my waking hours are spent engaging in “thrust and parry” activity involving emerging regulations of some sort or other. I’ve opined in earlier blogs about what constitutes good and reasonable public policy so nobody can accuse me of being reflexively anti-regulation. That said, you have so many cycles in the day, and most of us would rather spend it slaying actual dragons than participating in focus groups on whether dragons are really a problem, whether lassoing them (with organic, sustainable and recyclable lassos) is preferable to slaying them – after all, dragons are people, too - and whether we need lasso compliance auditors to make sure lassos are being used correctly and humanely. (A point that seems to evade many rule makers: slaying dragons actually accomplishes something, whereas talking about “approved dragon slaying procedures and requirements” wastes the time of those who are competent to dispatch actual dragons and who were doing so very well without the input of “dragon-slaying theorists.”) Unfortunately for so many of us who would just get on with doing our day jobs, cybersecurity is rapidly devolving into the “focus groups on dragon dispatching” realm, which actual dragons slayers have little choice but to participate in. The general trend in cybersecurity is that powers-that-be – which encompasses groups other than just legislators – are often increasingly concerned and therefore feel they need to Do Something About Cybersecurity. Many seem to believe that if only we had the right amount of regulation and oversight, there would be no data breaches: a breach simply must mean Someone Is At Fault and Needs Supervision. (Leaving aside the fact that we have lots of home invasions despite a) guard dogs b) liberal carry permits c) alarm systems d) etc.) Also note that many well-managed and security-aware organizations, like the US Department of Defense, still get hacked. More specifically, many powers-that-be feel they must direct industry in a multiplicity of ways, up to and including how we actually build and deploy information technology systems. The more prescriptive the requirement, the more regulators or overseers a) can be seen to be doing something b) feel as if they are doing something regardless of whether they are actually doing something useful or cost effective. Note: an unfortunate concomitant of Doing Something is that often the cure is worse than the ailment. That is, doing what overseers want creates unfortunate byproducts that they either didn’t foresee or worse, don’t care about. After all, the logic goes, we Did Something. Prescriptive practice in the IT industry is problematic for a number of reasons. For a start, prescriptive guidance is really only appropriate if: • It is cost effective• It is “current” (meaning, the guidance doesn’t require the use of the technical equivalent of buggy whips long after horse-drawn transportation has become passé)*• It is practical (that is, pragmatic, proven and effective in the real world, not theoretical and unproven)• It solves the right problem With the above in mind, heading up the list of “you must be joking” regulations are recent disturbing developments in the Payment Card Industry (PCI) world. I’d like to give PCI kahunas the benefit of the doubt about their intentions, except that efforts by Oracle among others to make them aware of “unfortunate side effects of your requirements” – which is as tactful I can be for reasons that I believe will become obvious below - have gone, to-date, unanswered and more importantly, unchanged. A little background on PCI before I get too wound up. In 2008, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council (SSC) introduced the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS). That standard requires vendors of payment applications to ensure that their products implement specific requirements and undergo security assessment procedures. In order to have an application listed as a Validated Payment Application (VPA) and available for use by merchants, software vendors are required to execute the PCI Payment Application Vendor Release Agreement (VRA). (Are you still with me through all the acronyms?) Beginning in August 2010, the VRA imposed new obligations on vendors that are extraordinary and extraordinarily bad, short-sighted and unworkable. Specifically, PCI requires vendors to disclose (dare we say “tell all?”) to PCI any known security vulnerabilities and associated security breaches involving VPAs. ASAP. Think about the impact of that. PCI is asking a vendor to disclose to them: • Specific details of security vulnerabilities • Including exploit information or technical details of the vulnerability • Whether or not there is any mitigation available (as in a patch) PCI, in turn, has the right to blab about any and all of the above – specifically, to distribute all the gory details of what is disclosed - to the PCI SSC, qualified security assessors (QSAs), and any affiliate or agent or adviser of those entities, who are in turn permitted to share it with their respective affiliates, agents, employees, contractors, merchants, processors, service providers and other business partners. This assorted crew can’t be more than, oh, hundreds of thousands of entities. Does anybody believe that several hundred thousand people can keep a secret? Or that several hundred thousand people are all equally trustworthy? Or that not one of the people getting all that information would blab vulnerability details to a bad guy, even by accident? Or be a bad guy who uses the information to break into systems? (Wait, was that the Easter Bunny that just hopped by? Bringing world peace, no doubt.) Sarcasm aside, common sense tells us that telling lots of people a secret is guaranteed to “unsecret” the secret. Notably, being provided details of a vulnerability (without a patch) is of little or no use to companies running the affected application. Few users have the technological sophistication to create a workaround, and even if they do, most workarounds break some other functionality in the application or surrounding environment. Also, given the differences among corporate implementations of any application, it is highly unlikely that a single workaround is going to work for all corporate users. So until a patch is developed by the vendor, users remain at risk of exploit: even more so if the details of vulnerability have been widely shared. Sharing that information widely before a patch is available therefore does not help users, and instead helps only those wanting to exploit known security bugs. There’s a shocker for you. Furthermore, we already know that insider information about security vulnerabilities inevitably leaks, which is why most vendors closely hold such information and limit dissemination until a patch is available (and frequently limit dissemination of technical details even with the release of a patch). That’s the industry norm, not that PCI seems to realize or acknowledge that. Why would anybody release a bunch of highly technical exploit information to a cast of thousands, whose only “vetting” is that they are members of a PCI consortium? Oracle has had personal experience with this problem, which is one reason why information on security vulnerabilities at Oracle is “need to know” (we use our own row level access control to limit access to security bugs in our bug database, and thus less than 1% of development has access to this information), and we don’t provide some customers with more information than others or with vulnerability information and/or patches earlier than others. Failure to remember “insider information always leaks” creates problems in the general case, and has created problems for us specifically. A number of years ago, one of the UK intelligence agencies had information about a non-public security vulnerability in an Oracle product that they circulated among other UK and Commonwealth defense and intelligence entities. Nobody, it should be pointed out, bothered to report the problem to Oracle, even though only Oracle could produce a patch. The vulnerability was finally reported to Oracle by (drum roll) a US-based commercial company, to whom the information had leaked. (Note: every time I tell this story, the MI-whatever agency that created the problem gets a bit shirty with us. I know they meant well and have improved their vulnerability handling/sharing processes but, dudes, next time you find an Oracle vulnerability, try reporting it to us first before blabbing to lots of people who can’t actually fix the problem. Thank you!) Getting back to PCI: clearly, these new disclosure obligations increase the risk of exploitation of a vulnerability in a VPA and thus, of misappropriation of payment card data and customer information that a VPA processes, stores or transmits. It stands to reason that VRA’s current requirement for the widespread distribution of security vulnerability exploit details -- at any time, but particularly before a vendor can issue a patch or a workaround -- is very poor public policy. It effectively publicizes information of great value to potential attackers while not providing compensating benefits - actually, any benefits - to payment card merchants or consumers. In fact, it magnifies the risk to payment card merchants and consumers. The risk is most prominent in the time before a patch has been released, since customers often have little option but to continue using an application or system despite the risks. However, the risk is not limited to the time before a patch is issued: customers often need days, or weeks, to apply patches to systems, based upon the complexity of the issue and dependence on surrounding programs. Rather than decreasing the available window of exploit, this requirement increases the available window of exploit, both as to time available to exploit a vulnerability and the ease with which it can be exploited. Also, why would hackers focus on finding new vulnerabilities to exploit if they can get “EZHack” handed to them in such a manner: a) a vulnerability b) in a payment application c) with exploit code: the “Hacking Trifecta!“ It’s fair to say that this is probably the exact opposite of what PCI – or any of us – would want. Established industry practice concerning vulnerability handling avoids the risks created by the VRA’s vulnerability disclosure requirements. Specifically, the norm is not to release information about a security bug until the associated patch (or a pretty darn good workaround) has been issued. Once a patch is available, the notice to the user community is a high-level communication discussing the product at issue, the level of risk associated with the vulnerability, and how to apply the patch. The notices do not include either the specific customers affected by the vulnerability or forensic reports with maps of the exploit (both of which are required by the current VRA). In this way, customers have the tools they need to prioritize patching and to help prevent an attack, and the information released does not increase the risk of exploit. Furthermore, many vendors already use industry standards for vulnerability description: Common Vulnerability Enumeration (CVE) and Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). CVE helps ensure that customers know which particular issues a patch addresses and CVSS helps customers determine how severe a vulnerability is on a relative scale. Industry already provides the tools customers need to know what the patch contains and how bad the problem is that the patch remediates. So, what’s a poor vendor to do? Oracle is reaching out to other vendors subject to PCI and attempting to enlist then in a broad effort to engage PCI in rethinking (that is, eradicating) these requirements. I would therefore urge all who care about this issue, but especially those in the vendor community whose applications are subject to PCI and who may not have know they were being asked to tell-all to PCI and put their customers at risk, to do one of the following: • Contact PCI with your concerns• Contact Oracle (we are looking for vendors to sign our statement of concern)• And make sure you tell your customers that you have to rat them out to PCI if there is a breach involving the payment application I like to be charitable and say “PCI meant well” but in as important a public policy issue as what you disclose about vulnerabilities, to whom and when, meaning well isn’t enough. We need to do well. PCI, as regards this particular issue, has not done well, and has compounded the error by thus far being nonresponsive to those of us who have labored mightily to try to explain why they might want to rethink telling the entire planet about security problems with no solutions. By Way of Explanation… Non-related to PCI whatsoever, and the explanation for why I have not been blogging a lot recently, I have been working on Other Writing Venues with my sister Diane (who has also worked in the tech sector, inflicting upgrades on unsuspecting and largely ungrateful end users). I am pleased to note that we have recently (self-)published the first in the Miss Information Technology Murder Mystery series, Outsourcing Murder. The genre might best be described as “chick lit meets geek scene.” Our sisterly nom de plume is Maddi Davidson and (shameless plug follows): you can order the paper version of the book on Amazon, or the Kindle or Nook versions on www.amazon.com or www.bn.com, respectively. From our book jacket: Emma Jones, a 20-something IT consultant, is working on an outsourcing project at Tahiti Tacos, a restaurant chain offering Polynexican cuisine: refried poi, anyone? Emma despises her boss Padmanabh, a brilliant but arrogant partner in GD Consulting. When Emma discovers His-Royal-Padness’s body (verdict: death by cricket bat), she becomes a suspect.With her overprotective family and her best friend Stacey providing endless support and advice, Emma stumbles her way through an investigation of Padmanabh’s murder, bolstered by fusion food feeding frenzies, endless cups of frou-frou coffee and serious surfing sessions. While Stacey knows a PI who owes her a favor, landlady Magda urges Emma to tart up her underwear drawer before the next cute cop with a search warrant arrives. Emma’s mother offers to fix her up with a PhD student at Berkeley and showers her with self-defense gizmos while her old lover Keoni beckons from Hawai’i. And everyone, even Shaun the barista, knows a good lawyer. Book 2, Denial of Service, is coming out this summer. * Given the rate of change in technology, today’s “thou shalts” are easily next year’s “buggy whip guidance.”

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