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• Time with and without OpenMP

  - by was

  I have a question.. I tried to improve a well known program algorithm in C, FOX algorithm for matrix multiplication.. relative link without openMP: (http://web.mst.edu/~ercal/387/MPI/ppmpi_c/chap07/fox.c). The initial program had only MPI and I tried to insert openMP in the matrix multiplication method, in order to improve the time of computation: (This program runs in a cluster and computers have 2 cores, thus I created 2 threads.) The problem is that there is no difference of time, with and without openMP. I observed that using openMP sometimes, time is equivalent or greater than the time without openMP. I tried to multiply two 600x600 matrices. void Local_matrix_multiply( LOCAL_MATRIX_T* local_A /* in */, LOCAL_MATRIX_T* local_B /* in */, LOCAL_MATRIX_T* local_C /* out */) { int i, j, k; chunk = CHUNKSIZE; // 100 #pragma omp parallel shared(local_A, local_B, local_C, chunk, nthreads) private(i,j,k,tid) num_threads(2) { /* tid = omp_get_thread_num(); if(tid == 0){ nthreads = omp_get_num_threads(); printf("O Pollaplasiamos pinakwn ksekina me %d threads\n", nthreads); } printf("Thread %d use the matrix: \n", tid); */ #pragma omp for schedule(static, chunk) for (i = 0; i < Order(local_A); i++) for (j = 0; j < Order(local_A); j++) for (k = 0; k < Order(local_B); k++) Entry(local_C,i,j) = Entry(local_C,i,j) + Entry(local_A,i,k)*Entry(local_B,k,j); } //end pragma omp parallel } /* Local_matrix_multiply */

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• customer.name joining transactions.name vs. customer.id [serial] joining transactions.id [integer]

  - by Frank Computer

  INFORMIX-SQL 7.32 Pawnshop Application: one-to-many relationship where each customer (master) can have many transactions (detail). customer( id serial, pk_name char(30), {PATERNAL-NAME MATERNAL-NAME, FIRST-NAME MIDDLE-NAME} [...] ); unique index on id; unique cluster index on name; transaction( fk_name char(30), ticket_number serial, [...] ); dups cluster index on fk_name; unique index on ticket_number; Several people have told me this is not the correct way to join master to detail. They said I should always join customer.id[serial] to transactions.id[integer]. When a customer pawns merchandise, clerk queries the master using wildcards on name. The query usually returns several customers, clerk scrolls until locating the right name, enters a 'D' to change to detail transactions table, all transactions are automatically queried, then clerk enters an 'A' to add a new transaction. The problem with using customer.id joining transaction.id is that although the customer table is maintained in sorted name order, clustering the transaction table by fk_id groups the transactions by fk_id, but they are not in the same order as the customer name, so when clerk is scrolling through customer names in the master, the system has to jump allover the place to locate the clustered transactions belonging to each customer. As each new customer is added, the next id is assigned to that customer, but new customers dont show up in alphabetical order. I experimented using id joins and confirmed the decrease in performance. How can I use id joins instead of name joins and still preserve the clustered transaction order by name if transactions has no name column?

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• Delphi: Transporting Objects to remote computers

  - by pr0wl

  Hallo. I am writing a tier2 ordering software for network usage. So we have client and server. On the client I create Objects of TBest in which the Product ID, the amount and the user who orders it are saved. (So this is a item of an Order). An order can have multiple items and those are saved in an array to later send the created order to the server. The class that holds the array is called TBestellung. So i created both TBest.toString: string; and TBest.fromString(source: string): TBest; Now, I send the toString result to the server via socket and on the server I create the object using fromString (its parsing the attributes received). This works as intended. Question: Is there a better and more elegant way to do that? Serialisation is a keyword, yes, but isn't that awful / difficult when you serialize an object (TBestellung in this case) that contains an Array of other Objects (TBest in this case)? //Small amendment: Before it gets asked. Yes I should create an extra (static) class for toString and fromString because otherwise the server needs to create an "empty" TBest in order to be able to use fromString.

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• Strategies for dealing with Circular references caused by JPA relationships?

  - by ams

  I am trying to partition my application into modules by features packaged into separate jars such as feature-a.jar, feature-b.jar, ... etc. Individual feature jars such as feature-a.jar should contain all the code for a feature a including jpa entities, business logic, rest apis, unit tests, integration test ... etc. The problem I am running into is that bi-directional relationships between JPA entities cause circular references between the jar files. For example Customer entity should be in customer.jar and the Order should be in order.jar but Customer references order and order references customer making it hard to split them into separate jars / eclipse projects. Options I see for dealing with the circular dependencies in JPA entities: Option 1: Put all the entities into one jar / one project Option 2: Don't map certain bi-directianl relationships to avoid circular dependencies across projects. Questions: What rules / principles have you used to decide when to do bi-directional mapping vs. not? Have you been able to break jpa entities into their own projects / jar by features if so how did you avoid the circular dependencies issues?

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• MySQL National Stock Numbers (NSN) for identification of assets

  - by sammysmall

  In MySQL are there any restrictions (and/or) practical reasons against using a numbering system similiar to the National Stock Number format as follows 3728-01-234-5678 (this format includes the use of the hyphen between groups of characters within the structure) Would this require the use of a specific engine like InnoDB A newbie student

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• Drupal Ubercart: error in passing values back to the Content Type after checkout

  - by user512826

  I am trying to set up event registration in a drupal site using Ubercart + the UC Node Checkout Module. I have followed the instructions provided in http://drupaleasy.com/blogs/ultimike/2009/03/event-registration-ubercart. However I seem to be unable to pass the Order ID and Payment Status back to the node. I have created a conditional action that on node checkout executes the following PHP code: I am using the following code to update the node on checkout - but nothing happens: if (isset($order)) { foreach ($order->products as $product) { if (isset($product->data['node_checkout_nid'])) { $node = node_load($product->data['node_checkout_nid']); $node->field_status['0']['value'] = 1; $node->field_orderid['0']['value'] = $order->order_id; node_save($node); } } } I know the conditional action is working because it prints dsm('hello world') messages on node checkout - however when I include a dsm($node) or dsm($product) in the PHP code, they return blank. Also when I go back to my product and click the 'Devel' tab, the 'data' string contains the following characters: a:1:{s:13:"form_build_id";s:37:"form-3ccc03345f4832c69666a89c560de940";} In this link http://www.ubercart.org/forum/support/10951/node_checkout_issue I found someone else with the same issue, but I have been unable to replicate his solution. Can anybody please help? Thanks so much!

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• Efficiently select top row for each category in the set

  - by VladV

  I need to select a top row for each category from a known set (somewhat similar to this question). The problem is, how to make this query efficient on the large number of rows. For example, let's create a table that stores temperature recording in several places. CREATE TABLE #t ( placeId int, ts datetime, temp int, PRIMARY KEY (ts, placeId) ) -- insert some sample data SET NOCOUNT ON DECLARE @n int, @ts datetime SELECT @n = 1000, @ts = '2000-01-01' WHILE (@n>0) BEGIN INSERT INTO #t VALUES (@n % 10, @ts, @n % 37) IF (@n % 10 = 0) SET @ts = DATEADD(hour, 1, @ts) SET @n = @n - 1 END Now I need to get the latest recording for each of the places 1, 2, 3. This way is efficient, but doesn't scale well (and looks dirty). SELECT * FROM ( SELECT TOP 1 placeId, temp FROM #t WHERE placeId = 1 ORDER BY ts DESC ) t1 UNION ALL SELECT * FROM ( SELECT TOP 1 placeId, temp FROM #t WHERE placeId = 2 ORDER BY ts DESC ) t2 UNION ALL SELECT * FROM ( SELECT TOP 1 placeId, temp FROM #t WHERE placeId = 3 ORDER BY ts DESC ) t3 The following looks better but works much less efficiently (30% vs 70% according to the optimizer). SELECT placeId, ts, temp FROM ( SELECT placeId, ts, temp, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY placeId ORDER BY ts DESC) rownum FROM #t WHERE placeId IN (1, 2, 3) ) t WHERE rownum = 1 The problem is, during the latter query execution plan a clustered index scan is performed on #t and 300 rows are retrieved, sorted, numbered, and then filtered, leaving only 3 rows. For the former query three times one row is fetched. Is there a way to perform the query efficiently without lots of unions?

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• PHP: Manage roles with math?

  - by Mike

  I once saw an article about how to use a specific type of numbering system to manage roles. A user would be assigned a specific role number and depending on a calculation, the number could stand for multiple roles. Can anybody share this technique with me or share a link? Thanks!

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• LaTeX, Two columns, Listings and Numbers

  - by Valdor65

  Hi, I'm trying to get a report done and I have a small problem with the twocolums and the line numbering in listings. The text is on two columns, the listings can be on the two columns as well. If I put the number=left, the space between the columns is not sufficient and the text from the first column is written over. Is there any way to ask the listings to put the line numbers "outside" ? Thanks

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• ASP.Net Custom Paging (w/ C#)

  - by André Alçada Padez

  Cenario: I have a GridView bound to a DataSource, every column is sortable. my main query is something like: select a, b, c, d, e, f from table order by somedate desc i added a filter form where i can define values to each one of the fields and get the results of a where form. As a result from this, i had to do a custom sorting so that when i sort by a field, i am sorting the filtered query and not the main one. Now i have to do custom paging, for the same reason, but i don't understand the philosophy of it: I want to guarantee that i can: filter the results sort by a column when i click on page 2, i get page two of the filtered and sorted results I don't know what i have to do, so i can bind the GV with this. My sorting Method, that is working just fine looks something like: string condition = GetConditions(); //gets a string like " where a>1 and b>2" depending on the filter the user defines string query = "select a, b, c, d, e, f from table "; string direction = (e.SortDirection == SortDirection.Ascending)? "asc": "desc"; string order = " order by " + e.SortExpression + " " + direction; UtilizadoresDataSource.SelectCommand = query + condition + order; i've never done custom paging, i am trying: GetConditions() //no problem here How can i find out how the GridView is sorted (by what field and sortingorder)? thank you very much

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• Is it possible to load an entire SQL Server CE database into RAM?

  - by DanM

  I'm using LinqToSql to query a small SQL Server CE database. I've noticed that any operations involving sub-properties are disappointingly slow. For example, if I have a Customer table that is referenced by an Order table via a foreign key, LinqToSql will automatically create an EntitySet<Order> property. This is a nice convenience, allowing me to do things like Customer.Order.Where(o => o.ProductName = "Stopwatch"), but for some reason, SQL Server CE hangs up pretty bad when I try to do stuff like this. One of my queries, which isn't really that complicated takes 3-4 seconds to complete. I can get the speed up to acceptable, even fast, if I just grab the two tables individually and convert them to List<Customer> and List<Order>, then join then manually with my own query, but this is throwing out a lot of the appeal of LinqToSql. So, I'm wondering if I can somehow get the whole database into RAM and just query that way, then occasionally save it. Is this possible? How? If not, is there anything else I can do to boost the performance? Note: My database in its initial state is about 250K and I don't expect it to grow to more than 1-2Mb. So, loading the data into RAM certainly wouldn't be a problem from a memory point of view.

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• Index question: Select * with WHERE clause. Where and how to create index

  - by Mestika

  Hi, I’m working on optimizing some of my queries and I have a query that states: select * from SC where c_id ="+c_id” The schema of ** SC** looks like this: SC ( c_id int not null, date_start date not null, date_stop date not null, r_t_id int not null, nt int, t_p decimal, PRIMARY KEY (c_id, r_t_id, date_start, date_stop)); My immediate bid on how the index should be created is a covering index in this order: INDEX(c_id, date_start, date_stop, nt, r_t_id, t_p) The reason for this order I base on: The WHERE clause selects from c_id thus making it the first sorting order. Next, the date_start and date_stop to specify a sort of “range” to be defined in these parameters Next, nt because it will select the nt Next the r_t_id because it is a ID for a specific type of my r_t table And last the t_p because it is just a information. I don’t know if it is at all necessary to order it in a specific way when it is a SELECT ALL statement. I should say, that the SC is not the biggest table. I can say how many rows it contains but a estimate could be between <10 and 1000. The next thing to add is, that the SC, in different queries, inserts the data into the SC, and I know that indexes on tables which have insertions can be cost ineffective, but can I somehow create a golden middle way to effective this performance. Don't know if it makes a different but I'm using IBM DB2 version 9.7 database Sincerely Mestika

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• Sorting by some field and fetching whole tree from DB

  - by Niaxon

  Hello everyone, I am trying to do file browser in a tree form and have a problem to sort it somehow. I use PHP and MySQL for that. I've created mixed (nested set + adjacency) table 'element' with the following fields: element_id, left_key, right_key, level, parent_id, element_name, element_type (enum: 'folder','file'), element_size. Let's not discuss right now that it is better to move information about element (name, type, size) into other table. Function to scan specified directory and fill table work correctly. Noteworthy, i am adding elements to tree in specific order: folders first and only files. After that i can easily fetch and display whole table on the page using simple query: SELECT * FROM element WHERE 1=1 ORDER BY left_key With the result of that query and another function i can generate correct html code (<ul><li>... and so on). Now back to the question (finally, huh?). I am struggling to add sorting functionality. For example i want to order my result by size. Here i need to keep in my mind whole hierarchy of tree and rule: folders first, files later. I believe i can do that by generating in PHP recursive query: SELECT * FROM element WHERE parent_id = {$parentId} ORDER BY element_type (so folders would be first), size (or name for example) After that for each result which is folder i will send another query to get it's content. Also it's possible to fetch whole tree by left_key and after that sort it in PHP as array but i guess that would be worse :) I wonder if there is better and more efficient way to do such thing?

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• Why extremely occasionally will one of bof/eof be true for a new non-empty recordset

  - by jjb

  set recordsetname = databasename.openrecordset(SQLString) if recordsetname.bof <> true and recordsetname.eof <> true then 'do something end if 2 questions : the above test can evaluate to false incorrectly but only extremely rarely (I've had one lurking in my code and it failed today, I believe for the first time in 5 years of daily use-that's how I found it). Why very occasionally will one of bof/eof be true for a non-empty recordset. It seems so rare that I wonder why it occurs at all. Is this a foolproof replacement: if recordsetname.bof <> true or recordsetname.eof <> true then Edit to add details of code : Customers have orders, each order begins with a BeginOrder item and end with an EndOrder item and in between are the items in the order. The SQL is: ' ids are autoincrement long integers ' SQLString = "select * from Orders where type = OrderBegin or type = OrderEnd" Dim OrderOpen as Boolean OrderOpen = False Set rs = db.Openrecordset(SQLString) If rs.bof <> True And rs.eof <> True Then myrec.movelast If rs.fields("type").value = BeginOrder Then OrderOpen = True End If End If If OrderOpen F False Then 'code here to add new BeginOrder Item to Orders table ' End If ShowOrderHistory 'displays the customer's Order history ' In this case which looks this this BeginOrder Item a Item b ... Item n EndOrder BeginOrder Item a Item b ... Item n EndOrder BeginOrder Item a item b ... Item m BeginOrder <----should not be there as previous order still open

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• Assistance with CC Processing script

  - by JM4

  I am currently implementing a credit card processing script, most as provided by the merchant gateway. The code calls functions within a class and returns a string based on the response. The end php code I am using (details removed of course) with example information is: <?php $gw = new gwapi; $gw->setLogin("username", "password"); $gw->setBilling("John","Smith","Acme, Inc.","888","Suite 200", "Beverly Hills", "CA","77777","US","555-555-5555","555-555-5556","[email protected]", "www.example.com"); // "CA","90210","US","[email protected]"); $gw->setOrder("1234","Big Order",1, 2, "PO1234","65.192.14.10"); $r = $gw->doSale("1.00","4111111111111111","1010"); print $gw->responses['responsetext']; ?> where setlogin allows me to login, setbilling takes the sample consumer information, set order takes the order id and description, dosale takes the amount charged, cc number and exp date. when all the variables are sent validated then sent off for processing, a string is returned in the following format: response=1&responsetext=SUCCESS&authcode=123456&transactionid=23456&avsresponse=M&orderid=&type=sale&response_code=100 where: response = transaction approved or declined response text = textual response authcode = transaction authorization code transactionid = payment gateway tran id avsresponse = avs response code orderid = original order id passed in tran request response_code = numeric mapping of processor response I am trying to solve for the following: How do I take the data which is passed back and display it appropriately on the page - If the transaction failed or AVS code doesnt match my liking or something is wrong, an error is displayed to the consumer; if the transaction processed, they are taken to a completion page and the transaction id is sent in SESSION as output to the consumer If the response_code value matches a table of values, certain actions are taken, i.e. if code =100, take to success page, if code = 300 print specific error on original page to customer, etc.

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• Issue pushing object into an array JS

  - by Javacadabra

  I'm having an issue placing an object into my array in javascript. This is the code: $('.confirmBtn').click(function(){ //Get reference to the Value in the Text area var comment = $("#comments").val(); //Create Object var orderComment = { 'comment' : comment }; //Add Object to the Array productArray.push(orderComment); //update cookie $.cookie('order_cookie', JSON.stringify(productArray), { expires: 1, path: '/' }); }); However when I print the array this is the output: Array ( [0] => Array ( [stockCode] => CBL202659/A [quantity] => 8 ) [1] => Array ( [stockCode] => CBL201764 [quantity] => 6 ) [2] => TEST TEST ) I would like it to look like this: Array ( [0] => Array ( [stockCode] => CBL202659/A [quantity] => 8 ) [1] => Array ( [stockCode] => CBL201764 [quantity] => 6 ) [2] Array( [comment] => TEST TEST ) I added products to the array in a similar way and it worked fine: var productArray = []; // Will hold order Items $(".orderBtn").click(function(event){ //Check to ensure quantity > 0 if(quantity == 0){ console.log("Quantity must be greater than 0") }else{//It is so continue //Show the order Box $(".order-alert").show(); event.preventDefault(); //Get reference to the product clicked var stockCode = $(this).closest('li').find('.stock_code').html(); //Get reference to the quantity selected var quantity = $(this).closest('li').find('.order_amount').val(); //Order Item (contains stockCode and Quantity) - Can add whatever data I like here var orderItem = { 'stockCode' : stockCode, 'quantity' : quantity }; //Check if cookie exists if($.cookie('order_cookie') === undefined){ console.log("Creating new cookie"); //Add object to the Array productArray.push(orderItem);

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• Help needed for writing a Set Based query for finding the highest marks obtained by the students

  - by priyanka.sarkar_2

  I have the below table declare @t table (id int identity, name varchar(50),sub1 int,sub2 int,sub3 int,sub4 int) insert into @t select 'name1',20,30,40,50 union all select 'name2',10,30,40,50 union all select 'name3',40,60,100,50 union all select 'name4',80,30,40,80 union all select 'name5',80,70,40,50 union all select 'name6',10,30,40,80 The desired output should be Id Name Sub1 Sub2 Sub3 Sub4 3 Name3 100 4 Name4 80 80 5 Name5 80 70 6 Name6 80 What I have done so far is ;with cteSub1 as ( select rn1 = dense_rank() over(order by sub1 desc),t.id,t.name,t.sub1 from @t t ) ,cteSub2 as ( select rn2 = dense_rank() over(order by sub2 desc),t.id,t.name,t.sub2 from @t t ) ,cteSub3 as ( select rn3 = dense_rank() over(order by sub3 desc),t.id,t.name,t.sub3 from @t t ) ,cteSub4 as ( select rn4 = dense_rank() over(order by sub4 desc),t.id,t.name,t.sub4 from @t t ) select x1.id,x2.id,x3.id,x4.id ,x1.sub1,x2.sub2,x3.sub3,x4.sub4 from (select c1.id,c1.sub1 from cteSub1 c1 where rn1 =1) as x1 full join (select c2.id,c2.sub2 from cteSub2 c2 where rn2 =1)x2 on x1.id = x2.id full join (select c3.id,c3.sub3 from cteSub3 c3 where rn3 =1)x3 on x1.id = x3.id full join (select c4.id,c4.sub4 from cteSub4 c4 where rn4 =1)x4 on x1.id = x4.id which is giving me the output as id id id id sub1 sub2 sub3 sub4 5 5 NULL NULL 80 70 NULL NULL 4 NULL NULL 4 80 NULL NULL 80 NULL NULL 3 NULL NULL NULL 100 NULL NULL NULL NULL 6 NULL NULL NULL 80 Help needed. Also how can I reduce the number of CTE's?

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• task_current redundant field

  - by user341940

  Hi, I'm writing a kernel module that reads from a /proc file. When someone writes into the /proc file the reader will read it, but if it reads again while there is no "new" write, it should be blocked. In order to remember if we already read, i need to keep a map of the latest buffer that process read. To avoid that, I was told that there might be some redundant field inside the current- (task_struct struct) that i can use to my benefits in order to save some states on the current process. How can I find such fields ? and how can i avoid them being overwritten ? I read somewhere that i can use the offset field inside the struct in order to save my information there and i need to block lseek operations so that field will stay untouched. How can I do so ? and where is that offset field, i can't find it inside the task_Struct. Thanks and I need to save for each process some information in order to map it against other information. I can write a ma

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• Please explain this delete top 100 SQL syntax

  - by Patrick

  Basically I want to do this: delete top( 100 ) from table order by id asc but MS SQL doesn't allow order in this position The common solution seems to be this: DELETE table WHERE id IN(SELECT TOP (100) id FROM table ORDER BY id asc) But I also found this method here: delete table from (select top (100) * from table order by id asc) table which has a much better estimated execution plan (74:26). Unfortunately I don't really understand the syntax, please can some one explain it to me? Always interested in any other methods to achieve the same result as well. EDIT: I'm still not getting it I'm afraid, I want to be able to read the query as I read the first two which are practically English. The above queries to me are: delete the top 100 records from table, with the records ordered by id ascending delete the top 100 records from table where id is anyone of (this lot of ids) delete table from (this lot of records) table I can't change the third one into a logical English sentence... I guess what I'm trying to get at is how does this turn into "delete from table (this lot of records)". The 'from' seems to be in an illogical position and the second mention of 'table' is logically superfluous (to me).

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• Modifying an ObservableCollection using move() ?

  - by user1202434

  I have a question relating to modifying the individual items in an ObservableCollection that is bound to a ListBox in the UI. The user in the UI can multiselect items and then drop them at a particular index to re-order them. So, if I have items {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9} the user can choose items 2, 5, 7 (in that order) and choose to drop them at index 3, so that the collection now becomes, {0,1,3, 2, 5, 7, 4, 8,9} The way I have it working now, is like this inside of ondrop() method on my control, I do something like: foreach (Item item in draggedItems) { int oldIndex = collection.IndexOf(item.DataContext as MyItemType); int newIndex = toDropIndex; if (newIndex == collection.Count) { newIndex--; } if (oldIndex != newIndex) { collection.Move(oldIndex, newIndex); } } But the problem is, if I drop the items before the index where i start dragging my first item, the order becomes reversed...so the collection becomes, {0,1,3, 7, 5, 2, 4, 8,9} It works fine if I drop after index 3, but if i drop it before 3 then the order becomes reversed. Now, I can do a simple remove and then insert all items at the index I want to, but "move" for me has the advantage of keeping the selection in the ui (remove basically de-selects the items in the list..)....so I will need to make use of the move method, what is wrong with my method above and how to fix it? Thanks!

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• Fake ISAPI Handler to serve static files with extention that are rewritted by url rewriter

  - by developerit

  Introduction I often map html extention to the asp.net dll in order to use url rewritter with .html extentions. Recently, in the new version of www.nouvelair.ca, we renamed all urls to end with .html. This works great, but failed when we used FCK Editor. Static html files would not get serve because we mapped the html extension to the .NET Framework. We can we do to to use .html extension with our rewritter but still want to use IIS behavior with static html files. Analysis I thought that this could be resolve with a simple HTTP handler. We would map urls of static files in our rewriter to this handler that would read the static file and serve it, just as IIS would do. Implementation This is how I coded the class. Note that this may not be bullet proof. I only tested it once and I am sure that the logic behind IIS is more complicated that this. If you find errors or think of possible improvements, let me know. Imports System.Web Imports System.Web.Services ' Author: Nicolas Brassard ' For: Solutions Nitriques inc. http://www.nitriques.com ' Date Created: April 18, 2009 ' Last Modified: April 18, 2009 ' License: CPOL (http://www.codeproject.com/info/cpol10.aspx) ' Files: ISAPIDotNetHandler.ashx ' ISAPIDotNetHandler.ashx.vb ' Class: ISAPIDotNetHandler ' Description: Fake ISAPI handler to serve static files. ' Usefull when you want to serve static file that has a rewrited extention. ' Example: It often map html extention to the asp.net dll in order to use url rewritter with .html. ' If you want to still serve static html file, add a rewritter rule to redirect html files to this handler Public Class ISAPIDotNetHandler Implements System.Web.IHttpHandler Sub ProcessRequest(ByVal context As HttpContext) Implements IHttpHandler.ProcessRequest ' Since we are doing the job IIS normally does with html files, ' we set the content type to match html. ' You may want to customize this with your own logic, if you want to serve ' txt or xml or any other text file context.Response.ContentType = "text/html" ' We begin a try here. Any error that occurs will result in a 404 Page Not Found error. ' We replicate the behavior of IIS when it doesn't find the correspoding file. Try ' Declare a local variable containing the value of the query string Dim uri As String = context.Request("fileUri") ' If the value in the query string is null, ' throw an error to generate a 404 If String.IsNullOrEmpty(uri) Then Throw New ApplicationException("No fileUri") End If ' If the value in the query string doesn't end with .html, then block the acces ' This is a HUGE security hole since it could permit full read access to .aspx, .config, etc. If Not uri.ToLower.EndsWith(".html") Then ' throw an error to generate a 404 Throw New ApplicationException("Extention not allowed") End If ' Map the file on the server. ' If the file doesn't exists on the server, it will throw an exception and generate a 404. Dim fullPath As String = context.Server.MapPath(uri) ' Read the actual file Dim stream As IO.StreamReader = FileIO.FileSystem.OpenTextFileReader(fullPath) ' Write the file into the response context.Response.Output.Write(stream.ReadToEnd) ' Close and Dipose the stream stream.Close() stream.Dispose() stream = Nothing Catch ex As Exception ' Set the Status Code of the response context.Response.StatusCode = 404 'Page not found ' For testing and bebugging only ! This may cause a security leak ' context.Response.Output.Write(ex.Message) Finally ' In all cases, flush and end the response context.Response.Flush() context.Response.End() End Try End Sub ' Automaticly generated by Visual Studio ReadOnly Property IsReusable() As Boolean Implements IHttpHandler.IsReusable Get Return False End Get End Property End Class Conclusion As you see, with our static files map to this handler using query string (ex.: /ISAPIDotNetHandler.ashx?fileUri=index.html) you will have the same behavior as if you ask for the uri /index.html. Finally, test this only in IIS with the html extension map to aspnet_isapi.dll. Url rewritting will work in Casini (Internal Web Server shipped with Visual Studio) but it’s not the same as with IIS since EVERY request is handle by .NET. Versions First release

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• Week in Geek: US Govt E-card Scam Siphons Confidential Data Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to “back up photos to Flickr, automate repetitive tasks, & normalize MP3 volume”, enable “stereo mix” in Windows 7 to record audio, create custom papercraft toys, read up on three alternatives to Apple’s flaky iOS alarm clock, decorated our desktops & app docks with Google icon packs, and more. Photo by alexschlegel. Random Geek Links It has been a busy week on the security & malware fronts and we have a roundup of the latest news to help keep you updated. Photo by TopTechWriter.US. US govt e-card scam hits confidential data A fake U.S. government Christmas e-card has managed to siphon off gigabytes of sensitive data from a number of law enforcement and military staff who work on cybersecurity matters, many of whom are involved in computer crime investigations. Security tool uncovers multiple bugs in every browser Michal Zalewski reports that he discovered the vulnerability in Internet Explorer a while ago using his cross_fuzz fuzzing tool and reported it to Microsoft in July 2010. Zalewski also used cross_fuzz to discover bugs in other browsers, which he also reported to the relevant organisations. Microsoft to fix Windows holes, but not ones in IE Microsoft said that it will release two security bulletins next week fixing three holes in Windows, but it is still investigating or working on fixing holes in Internet Explorer that have been reportedly exploited in attacks. Microsoft warns of Windows flaw affecting image rendering Microsoft has warned of a Windows vulnerability that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer if the user is logged on with administrative rights. Windows 7 Not Affected by Critical 0-Day in the Windows Graphics Rendering Engine While confirming that details on a Critical zero-day vulnerability have made their way into the wild, Microsoft noted that customers running the latest iteration of Windows client and server platforms are not exposed to any risks. Microsoft warns of Office-related malware Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center issued a warning this week that it has spotted malicious code on the Internet that can take advantage of a flaw in Word and infect computers after a user does nothing more than read an e-mail. *Refers to a flaw that was addressed in the November security patch releases. Make sure you have all of the latest security updates installed. Unpatched hole in ImgBurn disk burning application According to security specialist Secunia, a highly critical vulnerability in ImgBurn, a lightweight disk burning application, can be used to remotely compromise a user’s system. Hole in VLC Media Player Virtual Security Research (VSR) has identified a vulnerability in VLC Media Player. In versions up to and including 1.1.5 of the VLC Media Player. Flash Player sandbox can be bypassed Flash applications run locally can read local files and send them to an online server – something which the sandbox is supposed to prevent. Chinese auction site touts hacked iTunes accounts Tens of thousands of reportedly hacked iTunes accounts have been found on Chinese auction site Taobao, but the company claims it is unable to take action unless there are direct complaints. What happened in the recent Hotmail outage Mike Schackwitz explains the cause of the recent Hotmail outage. DOJ sends order to Twitter for Wikileaks-related account info The U.S. Justice Department has obtained a court order directing Twitter to turn over information about the accounts of activists with ties to Wikileaks, including an Icelandic politician, a legendary Dutch hacker, and a U.S. computer programmer. Google gets court to block Microsoft Interior Department e-mail win The U.S. Federal Claims Court has temporarily blocked Microsoft from proceeding with the $49.3 million, five-year DOI contract that it won this past November. Google Apps customers get email lockdown Companies and organisations using Google Apps are now able to restrict the email access of selected users. LibreOffice Is the Default Office Suite for Ubuntu 11.04 Matthias Klose has announced some details regarding the replacement of the old OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 packages with the new LibreOffice 3.3 ones, starting with the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Alpha 2 release. Sysadmin Geek Tips Photo by Filomena Scalise. How to Setup Software RAID for a Simple File Server on Ubuntu Do you need a file server that is cheap and easy to setup, “rock solid” reliable, and has Email Alerting? This tutorial shows you how to use Ubuntu, software RAID, and SaMBa to accomplish just that. How to Control the Order of Startup Programs in Windows While you can specify the applications you want to launch when Windows starts, the ability to control the order in which they start is not available. However, there are a couple of ways you can easily overcome this limitation and control the startup order of applications. Random TinyHacker Links Using Opera Unite to Send Large Files A tutorial on using Opera Unite to easily send huge files from your computer. WorkFlowy is a Useful To-do List Tool A cool to-do list tool that lets you integrate multiple tasks in one single list easily. Playing Flash Videos on iOS Devices Yes, you can play flash videos on jailbroken iPhones. Here’s a tutorial. Clear Safari History and Cookies On iPhone A tutorial on clearing your browser history on iPhone and other iOS devices. Monitor Your Internet Usage Here’s a cool, cross-platform tool to monitor your internet bandwidth. Super User Questions See what the community had to say on these popular questions from Super User this week. Why is my upload speed much less than my download speed? Where should I find drivers for my laptop if it didn’t come with a driver disk? OEM Office 2010 without media – how to reinstall? Is there a point to using theft tracking software like Prey on my laptop, if you have login security? Moving an “all-in-one” PC when turned on/off How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Get caught up on your HTG reading with our hottest articles from this past week. How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? Did You Know Facebook Has Built-In Shortcut Keys? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics One Year Ago on How-To Geek Enjoy looking through our latest gathering of retro article goodness. Learning Windows 7: Create a Homegroup & Join a New Computer To It How To Disconnect a Machine from a Homegroup Use Remote Desktop To Access Other Computers On a Small Office or Home Network How To Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and Vista Allow Users To Run Only Specified Programs in Windows 7 The Geek Note That is all we have for you this week and we hope your first week back at work or school has gone very well now that the holidays are over. Know a great tip? Send it in to us at [email protected]. Photo by Pamela Machado. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 Arctic Theme for Windows 7 Gives Your Desktop an Icy Touch Install LibreOffice via PPA and Receive Auto-Updates in Ubuntu Creative Portraits Peek Inside the Guts of Modern Electronics Scenic Winter Lane Wallpaper to Create a Relaxing Mood Access Your Web Apps Directly Using the Context Menu in Chrome The Deep – Awesome Use of Metal Objects as Deep Sea Creatures [Video]

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• Securing an ASP.NET MVC 2 Application

  - by rajbk

  This post attempts to look at some of the methods that can be used to secure an ASP.NET MVC 2 Application called Northwind Traders Human Resources.  The sample code for the project is attached at the bottom of this post. We are going to use a slightly modified Northwind database. The screen capture from SQL server management studio shows the change. I added a new column called Salary, inserted some random salaries for the employees and then turned off AllowNulls.   The reporting relationship for Northwind Employees is shown below.   The requirements for our application are as follows: Employees can see their LastName, FirstName, Title, Address and Salary Employees are allowed to edit only their Address information Employees can see the LastName, FirstName, Title, Address and Salary of their immediate reports Employees cannot see records of non immediate reports.  Employees are allowed to edit only the Salary and Title information of their immediate reports. Employees are not allowed to edit the Address of an immediate report Employees should be authenticated into the system. Employees by default get the “Employee” role. If a user has direct reports, they will also get assigned a “Manager” role. We use a very basic empId/pwd scheme of EmployeeID (1-9) and password test$1. You should never do this in an actual application. The application should protect from Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF). For example, Michael could trick Steven, who is already logged on to the HR website, to load a page which contains a malicious request. where without Steven’s knowledge, a form on the site posts information back to the Northwind HR website using Steven’s credentials. Michael could use this technique to give himself a raise :-) UI Notes The layout of our app looks like so: When Nancy (EmpID 1) signs on, she sees the default page with her details and is allowed to edit her address. If Nancy attempts to view the record of employee Andrew who has an employeeID of 2 (Employees/Edit/2), she will get a “Not Authorized” error page. When Andrew (EmpID 2) signs on, he can edit the address field of his record and change the title and salary of employees that directly report to him. Implementation Notes All controllers inherit from a BaseController. The BaseController currently only has error handling code. When a user signs on, we check to see if they are in a Manager role. We then create a FormsAuthenticationTicket, encrypt it (including the roles that the employee belongs to) and add it to a cookie. private void SetAuthenticationCookie(int employeeID, List<string> roles) { HttpCookiesSection cookieSection = (HttpCookiesSection) ConfigurationManager.GetSection("system.web/httpCookies"); AuthenticationSection authenticationSection = (AuthenticationSection) ConfigurationManager.GetSection("system.web/authentication"); FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket = new FormsAuthenticationTicket( 1, employeeID.ToString(), DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(authenticationSection.Forms.Timeout.TotalMinutes), false, string.Join("|", roles.ToArray())); String encryptedTicket = FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(authTicket); HttpCookie authCookie = new HttpCookie(FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName, encryptedTicket); if (cookieSection.RequireSSL || authenticationSection.Forms.RequireSSL) { authCookie.Secure = true; } HttpContext.Current.Response.Cookies.Add(authCookie); } We read this cookie back in Global.asax and set the Context.User to be a new GenericPrincipal with the roles we assigned earlier. protected void Application_AuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e){ if (Context.User != null) { string cookieName = FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName; HttpCookie authCookie = Context.Request.Cookies[cookieName]; if (authCookie == null) return; FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket = FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(authCookie.Value); string[] roles = authTicket.UserData.Split(new char[] { '|' }); FormsIdentity fi = (FormsIdentity)(Context.User.Identity); Context.User = new System.Security.Principal.GenericPrincipal(fi, roles); }} We ensure that a user has permissions to view a record by creating a custom attribute AuthorizeToViewID that inherits from ActionFilterAttribute. public class AuthorizeToViewIDAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute{ IEmployeeRepository employeeRepository = new EmployeeRepository(); public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext) { if (filterContext.ActionParameters.ContainsKey("id") && filterContext.ActionParameters["id"] != null) { if (employeeRepository.IsAuthorizedToView((int)filterContext.ActionParameters["id"])) { return; } } throw new UnauthorizedAccessException("The record does not exist or you do not have permission to access it"); }} We add the AuthorizeToView attribute to any Action method that requires authorization. [HttpPost][Authorize(Order = 1)]//To prevent CSRF[ValidateAntiForgeryToken(Salt = Globals.EditSalt, Order = 2)]//See AuthorizeToViewIDAttribute class[AuthorizeToViewID(Order = 3)] [ActionName("Edit")]public ActionResult Update(int id){ var employeeToEdit = employeeRepository.GetEmployee(id); if (employeeToEdit != null) { //Employees can edit only their address //A manager can edit the title and salary of their subordinate string[] whiteList = (employeeToEdit.IsSubordinate) ? new string[] { "Title", "Salary" } : new string[] { "Address" }; if (TryUpdateModel(employeeToEdit, whiteList)) { employeeRepository.Save(employeeToEdit); return RedirectToAction("Details", new { id = id }); } else { ModelState.AddModelError("", "Please correct the following errors."); } } return View(employeeToEdit);} The Authorize attribute is added to ensure that only authorized users can execute that Action. We use the TryUpdateModel with a white list to ensure that (a) an employee is able to edit only their Address and (b) that a manager is able to edit only the Title and Salary of a subordinate. This works in conjunction with the AuthorizeToViewIDAttribute. The ValidateAntiForgeryToken attribute is added (with a salt) to avoid CSRF. The Order on the attributes specify the order in which the attributes are executed. The Edit View uses the AntiForgeryToken helper to render the hidden token: ......<% using (Html.BeginForm()) {%><%=Html.AntiForgeryToken(NorthwindHR.Models.Globals.EditSalt)%><%= Html.ValidationSummary(true, "Please correct the errors and try again.") %><div class="editor-label"> <%= Html.LabelFor(model => model.LastName) %></div><div class="editor-field">...... The application uses View specific models for ease of model binding. public class EmployeeViewModel{ public int EmployeeID; [Required] [DisplayName("Last Name")] public string LastName { get; set; } [Required] [DisplayName("First Name")] public string FirstName { get; set; } [Required] [DisplayName("Title")] public string Title { get; set; } [Required] [DisplayName("Address")] public string Address { get; set; } [Required] [DisplayName("Salary")] [Range(500, double.MaxValue)] public decimal Salary { get; set; } public bool IsSubordinate { get; set; }} To help with displaying readonly/editable fields, we use a helper method. //Simple extension method to display a TextboxFor or DisplayFor based on the isEditable variablepublic static MvcHtmlString TextBoxOrLabelFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, bool isEditable){ if (isEditable) { return htmlHelper.TextBoxFor(expression); } else { return htmlHelper.DisplayFor(expression); }} The helper method is used in the view like so: <%=Html.TextBoxOrLabelFor(model => model.Title, Model.IsSubordinate)%> As mentioned in this post, there is a much easier way to update properties on an object. Download Demo Project VS 2008, ASP.NET MVC 2 RTM Remember to change the connectionString to point to your Northwind DB NorthwindHR.zip Feedback and bugs are always welcome :-)

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• MvcExtensions – Bootstrapping

  - by kazimanzurrashid

  When you create a new ASP.NET MVC application you will find that the global.asax contains the following lines: namespace MvcApplication1 { // Note: For instructions on enabling IIS6 or IIS7 classic mode, // visit http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkId=9394801 public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication { public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes) { routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}"); routes.MapRoute( "Default", // Route name "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults ); } protected void Application_Start() { AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas(); RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes); } } } As the application grows, there are quite a lot of plumbing code gets into the global.asax which quickly becomes a design smell. Lets take a quick look at the code of one of the open source project that I recently visited: public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes) { routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}"); routes.MapRoute("Default","{controller}/{action}/{id}", new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = "" }); } protected override void OnApplicationStarted() { Error += OnError; EndRequest += OnEndRequest; var settings = new SparkSettings() .AddNamespace("System") .AddNamespace("System.Collections.Generic") .AddNamespace("System.Web.Mvc") .AddNamespace("System.Web.Mvc.Html") .AddNamespace("MvcContrib.FluentHtml") .AddNamespace("********") .AddNamespace("********.Web") .SetPageBaseType("ApplicationViewPage") .SetAutomaticEncoding(true); #if DEBUG settings.SetDebug(true); #endif var viewFactory = new SparkViewFactory(settings); ViewEngines.Engines.Add(viewFactory); #if !DEBUG PrecompileViews(viewFactory); #endif RegisterAllControllersIn("********.Web"); log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.Configure(); RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes); Factory.Load(new Components.WebDependencies()); ModelBinders.Binders.DefaultBinder = new Binders.GenericBinderResolver(Factory.TryGet<IModelBinder>); ValidatorConfiguration.Initialize("********"); HtmlValidationExtensions.Initialize(ValidatorConfiguration.Rules); } private void OnEndRequest(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { if (((HttpApplication)sender).Context.Handler is MvcHandler) { CreateKernel().Get<ISessionSource>().Close(); } } private void OnError(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { CreateKernel().Get<ISessionSource>().Close(); } protected override IKernel CreateKernel() { return Factory.Kernel; } private static void PrecompileViews(SparkViewFactory viewFactory) { var batch = new SparkBatchDescriptor(); batch.For<HomeController>().For<ManageController>(); viewFactory.Precompile(batch); } As you can see there are quite a few of things going on in the above code, Registering the ViewEngine, Compiling the Views, Registering the Routes/Controllers/Model Binders, Settings up Logger, Validations and as you can imagine the more it becomes complex the more things will get added in the application start. One of the goal of the MVCExtensions is to reduce the above design smell. Instead of writing all the plumbing code in the application start, it contains BootstrapperTask to register individual services. Out of the box, it contains BootstrapperTask to register Controllers, Controller Factory, Action Invoker, Action Filters, Model Binders, Model Metadata/Validation Providers, ValueProvideraFactory, ViewEngines etc and it is intelligent enough to automatically detect the above types and register into the ASP.NET MVC Framework. Other than the built-in tasks you can create your own custom task which will be automatically executed when the application starts. When the BootstrapperTasks are in action you will find the global.asax pretty much clean like the following: public class MvcApplication : UnityMvcApplication { public void ErrorLog_Filtering(object sender, ExceptionFilterEventArgs e) { Check.Argument.IsNotNull(e, "e"); HttpException exception = e.Exception.GetBaseException() as HttpException; if ((exception != null) && (exception.GetHttpCode() == (int)HttpStatusCode.NotFound)) { e.Dismiss(); } } } The above code is taken from my another open source project Shrinkr, as you can see the global.asax is longer cluttered with any plumbing code. One special thing you have noticed that it is inherited from the UnityMvcApplication rather than regular HttpApplication. There are separate version of this class for each IoC Container like NinjectMvcApplication, StructureMapMvcApplication etc. Other than executing the built-in tasks, the Shrinkr also has few custom tasks which gets executed when the application starts. For example, when the application starts, we want to ensure that the default users (which is specified in the web.config) are created. The following is the custom task that is used to create those default users: public class CreateDefaultUsers : BootstrapperTask { protected override TaskContinuation ExecuteCore(IServiceLocator serviceLocator) { IUserRepository userRepository = serviceLocator.GetInstance<IUserRepository>(); IUnitOfWork unitOfWork = serviceLocator.GetInstance<IUnitOfWork>(); IEnumerable<User> users = serviceLocator.GetInstance<Settings>().DefaultUsers; bool shouldCommit = false; foreach (User user in users) { if (userRepository.GetByName(user.Name) == null) { user.AllowApiAccess(ApiSetting.InfiniteLimit); userRepository.Add(user); shouldCommit = true; } } if (shouldCommit) { unitOfWork.Commit(); } return TaskContinuation.Continue; } } There are several other Tasks in the Shrinkr that we are also using which you will find in that project. To create a custom bootstrapping task you have create a new class which either implements the IBootstrapperTask interface or inherits from the abstract BootstrapperTask class, I would recommend to start with the BootstrapperTask as it already has the required code that you have to write in case if you choose the IBootstrapperTask interface. As you can see in the above code we are overriding the ExecuteCore to create the default users, the MVCExtensions is responsible for populating the  ServiceLocator prior calling this method and in this method we are using the service locator to get the dependencies that are required to create the users (I will cover the custom dependencies registration in the next post). Once the users are created, we are returning a special enum, TaskContinuation as the return value, the TaskContinuation can have three values Continue (default), Skip and Break. The reason behind of having this enum is, in some  special cases you might want to skip the next task in the chain or break the complete chain depending upon the currently running task, in those cases you will use the other two values instead of the Continue. The last thing I want to cover in the bootstrapping task is the Order. By default all the built-in tasks as well as newly created task order is set to the DefaultOrder(a static property), in some special cases you might want to execute it before/after all the other tasks, in those cases you will assign the Order in the Task constructor. For Example, in Shrinkr, we want to run few background services when the all the tasks are executed, so we assigned the order as DefaultOrder + 1. Here is the code of that Task: public class ConfigureBackgroundServices : BootstrapperTask { private IEnumerable<IBackgroundService> backgroundServices; public ConfigureBackgroundServices() { Order = DefaultOrder + 1; } protected override TaskContinuation ExecuteCore(IServiceLocator serviceLocator) { backgroundServices = serviceLocator.GetAllInstances<IBackgroundService>().ToList(); backgroundServices.Each(service => service.Start()); return TaskContinuation.Continue; } protected override void DisposeCore() { backgroundServices.Each(service => service.Stop()); } } That’s it for today, in the next post I will cover the custom service registration, so stay tuned.

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• B2B and B2C Commerce are alike… but a little different – Oracle Commerce named Leader in Forrester B2B Commerce Wave

  - by Katrina Gosek

  We weren’t surprised to see Oracle Commerce positioned as a Leader in Forrester’s first Commerce Wave focused on B2B, released earlier this month. The reports validates much of what we’ve heard from our largest customers – the world’s largest distribution, manufacturing and high-tech customers who sell billions of dollars of goods and services to other businesses through their Web channels. More importantly, the report confirms something very important: B2B and B2C Commerce are alike… but a little different. B2B and B2C Commerce are alike… Clearly, B2C experiences have set expectations for B2B. Every B2B buyer is a consumer at home and brings the same expectations to a website selling electronic components, aftermarket parts, or MRO products. Forrester calls these rich consumer-based capabilities that help B2B customers do their jobs “table stakes”: search & navigation, promotions, cross-channel commerce and mobile: “Whether they are just beginning to sell online or are in the late stages of launching a next-generation site, B2B eCommerce operations today must: offer a customer experience standard comparable to what leading b2c sites now offer; address the growing influence that mobile devices are having in the workplace; make a qualitative and quantitative business case that drives sustained investment.” Just five years ago, many of our B2B customers’ online business comprised only 5-10% of their total revenue. Today, when we speak to those same brands, we hear about double and triple digit growth in their online channels. Many have seen the percentage of the business they perform in their web channels cross the 30-50% threshold. You can hear first-hand from several Oracle Commerce B2B customers about the success they are seeing, and what they’re trying to accomplish (Carolina Biological, Premier Farnell, DeliXL, Elsevier). This momentum is likely the reason Forrester broke out the separate B2B Commerce Wave from the B2C Wave. In fact, B2B is becoming the larger force in commerce, expected to collect twice the online dollars of B2C this year ($559 billion). But a little different… Despite the similarities, there is a key and very important difference between B2C and B2B. Unlike a consumer shopping for shoes, a business shopper buying from a distributor or manufacturer is coming to the Web channel as a part of their job. So in addition to a rich, consumer-like experience this shopper expects, these B2B buyers need quoting tools and complex pricing capabilities, like eProcurement, bulk order entry, and other self-service tools such as account, contract and organization management.  Forrester also is emphasizing three additional “back-end” tools and capabilities their clients say they need to drive growth in their B2B online channels: i) product information management (PIM), which provides a single system of record for large part lists and product catalogs; ii) web content management (WCM), needed to manage large volumes of unstructured marketing information, and iii) order management systems (OMS), which manage and orchestrate the complex B2B order life cycle from quote through approval, submission to manufacturing, distribution and delivery.  We would like to expand on each of these 3 areas: As Forrester highlights, back-end PIM is definitely needed by B2B Commerce providers. Most B2B companies have made significant investments in enterprise-grade PIMs, given the importance of product data management for aggregation and syndication of content, product attribution, analytics, and handling of complex workflows. While in principle it may sound appealing to have a PIM as part of a commerce offering (especially for SMBs who have to do more with less), our customers have typically found that PIM in a commerce platform is largely redundant with what they already have in-place, and is not fully-featured or robust enough to handle the complexity of the product data sets that B2B distributors and manufacturers usually handle. To meet the PIM needs for commerce, Oracle offers enterprise PIM (Product Hub/Fusion PIM) and a robust enterprise data quality product (EDQP) integrated with the Oracle Commerce solution. These are key differentiators of our offering and these capabilities are becoming even more tightly integrated with Oracle Commerce over time. For Commerce, what customers really need is a robust product catalog and content management system for enabling business users to further enrich and ready catalog and content data to be presented and sold online.  This has been a significant area of investment in the Oracle Commerce platform , which continue to get stronger. We see this combination of capabilities as best meeting the needs of our customers for a commerce platform without adding a largely redundant, less functional PIM in the commerce front-end.   On the topic of web content management, we were pleased to see Forrester recognize Oracle’s unique functional capabilities in this area and the “unique opportunity in the market to lead the convergence of commerce and content management with the amalgamation of Oracle Commerce with WebCenter Sites (formally FatWire).” Strong content management capabilities are critical for distributors and manufacturers who are frequently serving an engineering audience coming to their websites to conduct product research in search of technical data sheets, drawings, videos and more. The convergence of content, commerce, and experience is critical for B2B brands selling online. Regarding order management, Forrester notes that many businesses use their existing back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to manage order life cycles.  We hear the same from most of our B2B customers, as they already have an ERP system—if not several of them—and are not interested in yet another one.  So what do we take away from the Wave results? Forrester notes that the Oracle Commerce Platform “has always had strong B2B commerce capabilities and Oracle has an exhaustive list of B2B customers using the solution.”  What makes us excited about developing leading B2B solutions are the close relationships with our customers and the clear opportunity in the market – which we’ll address in an exciting new release in the coming months. Oracle has one of the world’s largest B2B customer bases, providing leading solutions across key business-to-business functions – from marketing, sales automation, and service to master data management, and ERP.  To learn more about Oracle’s Commerce product vision and strategy, visit our website and check out these other B2B Commerce Resources: - 2013 B2B Commerce Trends Report - B2B Commerce Whitepaper: Consumerization, Complexity, Change - B2B Commerce Webcast: What Industry Trend Setters Do Right - Internet Retailer, Web Drives Sales for B2B Companies - Internet Retailer, The Web Means Business: B2B Companies Beef Up Their Websites, borrowing from b2c retailers and breaking new ground - Internet Retailer, B2B e-Commerce is poised for growth ----------THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE INCORPORATED INTO A CONTRACT OR AGREEMENT 

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