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  • AJAX XML reply node value iteration

    - by XpiritO
    Hi there, guys. I would really appreciate to get your help on this, as I can't seem to detect and solve the problem I'm having with an AJAX functionality on a site that I'm currently developing. I have a webform that makes an asynchronous call to a handler (.ashx) that delivers a XML response that is later processed by a Javascript client-side function that places it's contents into the user-interface. I'm attaching an example of the response generated by my handler, and what I would like to know is how can I get all the <body> element innerHTML (with the text and child nodes) contents to append it to a <span> element on the user-interface. Can anyone help me out with this? XML Response returned by the handler (checked via Firebug): <message> <content> <messageId>2</messageId> <from>Barack Obama</from> <fromMail>[email protected]</fromMail> <subject>Yes, we can... get World Peace</subject> <body>Hello, dear citizen. I'm sending you this message to invite you to join us! <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov">Test link</a> Thank you for your time.</body> </content> </message> Client-side Javascript function to affect the user-interface innerHTML property with the data returned via AJAX: function GetMessageContentsCallback(args, resp) { //XML Parser try { //Internet Explorer xmlDoc = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM"); xmlDoc.async = "false"; xmlDoc.loadXML(resp); } catch (e) { parser = new DOMParser(); xmlDoc = parser.parseFromString(resp, "text/xml"); } var msgReply = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName('message')[0]; var ajaxRespondeBodyInnerHTML = msgReply.getElementsByTagName(body)[0].firstChild.nodeValue; //this currently only delivers inner text content, without the <a href... bit and subsequent text document.getElementById("bodySpan").innerHTML = ajaxRespondeBodyInnerHTML; }

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  • Multi-tenant ASP.NET MVC – Introduction

    - by zowens
    I’ve read a few different blogs that talk about multi-tenancy and how to resolve some of the issues surrounding multi-tenancy. What I’ve come to realize is that these implementations overcomplicate the issues and give only a muddy implementation! I’ve seen some really illogical code out there. I have recently been building a multi-tenancy framework for internal use at eagleenvision.net. Through this process, I’ve realized a few different techniques to make building multi-tenant applications actually quite easy. I will be posting a few different entries over the issue and my personal implementation. In this first post, I will discuss what multi-tenancy means and how my implementation will be structured.   So what’s the problem? Here’s the deal. Multi-tenancy is basically a technique of code-reuse of web application code. A multi-tenant application is an application that runs a single instance for multiple clients. Here the “client” is different URL bindings on IIS using ASP.NET MVC. The problem with different instances of the, essentially, same application is that you have to spin up different instances of ASP.NET. As the number of running instances of ASP.NET grows, so does the memory footprint of IIS. Stack Exchange shifted its architecture to multi-tenancy March. As the blog post explains, multi-tenancy saves cost in terms of memory utilization and physical disc storage. If you use the same code base for many applications, multi-tenancy just makes sense. You’ll reduce the amount of work it takes to synchronize the site implementations and you’ll thank your lucky stars later for choosing to use one application for multiple sites. Multi-tenancy allows the freedom of extensibility while relying on some pre-built code.   You’d think this would be simple. I have actually seen a real lack of reference material on the subject in terms of ASP.NET MVC. This is somewhat surprising given the number of users of ASP.NET MVC. However, I will certainly fill the void ;). Implementing a multi-tenant application takes a little thinking. It’s not straight-forward because the possibilities of implementation are endless. I have yet to see a great implementation of a multi-tenant MVC application. The only one that comes close to what I have in mind is Rob Ashton’s implementation (all the entries are listed on this page). There’s some really nasty code in there… something I’d really like to avoid. He has also written a library (MvcEx) that attempts to aid multi-tenant development. This code is even worse, in my honest opinion. Once I start seeing Reflection.Emit, I have to assume the worst :) In all seriousness, if his implementation makes sense to you, use it! It’s a fine implementation that should be given a look. At least look at the code. I will reference MvcEx going forward as a comparison to my implementation. I will explain why my approach differs from MvcEx and how it is better or worse (hopefully better).   Core Goals of my Multi-Tenant Implementation The first, and foremost, goal is to use Inversion of Control containers to my advantage. As you will see throughout this series, I pass around containers quite frequently and rely on their use heavily. I will be using StructureMap in my implementation. However, you could probably use your favorite IoC tool instead. <RANT> However, please don’t be stupid and abstract your IoC tool. Each IoC is powerful and by abstracting the capabilities, you’re doing yourself a real disservice. Who in the world swaps out IoC tools…? No one!</RANT> (It had to be said.) I will outline some of the goodness of StructureMap as we go along. This is really an invaluable tool in my tool belt and simple to use in my multi-tenant implementation. The second core goal is to represent a tenant as easily as possible. Just as a dependency container will be a first-class citizen, so will a tenant. This allows us to easily extend and use tenants. This will also allow different ways of “plugging in” tenants into your application. In my implementation, there will be a single dependency container for a single tenant. This will enable isolation of the dependencies of the tenant. The third goal is to use composition as a means to delegate “core” functions out to the tenant. More on this later.   Features In MvcExt, “Modules” are a code element of the infrastructure. I have simplified this concept and have named this “Features”. A feature is a simple element of an application. Controllers can be specified to have a feature and actions can have “sub features”. Each tenant can select features it needs and the other features will be hidden to the tenant’s users. My implementation doesn’t require something to be a feature. A controller can be common to all tenants. For example, (as you will see) I have a “Content” controller that will return the CSS, Javascript and Images for a tenant. This is common logic to all tenants and shouldn’t be hidden or considered a “feature”; Content is a core component.   Up next My next post will be all about the code. I will reveal some of the foundation to the way I do multi-tenancy. I will have posts dedicated to Foundation, Controllers, Views, Caching, Content and how to setup the tenants. Each post will be in-depth about the issues and implementation details, while adhering to my core goals outlined in this post. As always, comment with questions of DM me on twitter or send me an email.

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  • Solaris 11 Launch Blog Carnival Roundup

    - by constant
    Solaris 11 is here! And together with the official launch activities, a lot of Oracle and non-Oracle bloggers contributed helpful and informative blog articles to help your datacenter go to eleven. Here are some notable blog postings, sorted by category for your Solaris 11 blog-reading pleasure: Getting Started/Overview A lot of people speculated that the official launch of Solaris 11 would be on 11/11 (whatever way you want to turn it), but it actually happened two days earlier. Larry Wake himself offers 11 Reasons Why Oracle Solaris 11 11/11 Isn't Being Released on 11/11/11. Then, Larry goes on with a summary: Oracle Solaris 11: The First Cloud OS gives you a short and sweet rundown of what the major new features of Solaris 11 are. Jeff Victor has his own list of What's New in Oracle Solaris 11. A popular Solaris 11 meme is to write a blog post about 11 favourite features: Jim Laurent's 11 Reasons to Love Solaris 11, Darren Moffat's 11 Favourite Solaris 11 Features, Mike Gerdt's 11 of My Favourite Things! are just three examples of "11 Favourite Things..." type blog posts, I'm sure many more will follow... More official overview content for Solaris 11 is available from the Oracle Tech Network Solaris 11 Portal. Also, check out Rick Ramsey's blog post Solaris 11 Resources for System Administrators on the OTN Blog and his secret 5 Commands That Make Solaris Administration Easier post from the OTN Garage. (Automatic) Installation and the Image Packaging System (IPS) The brand new Image Packaging System (IPS) and the Automatic Installer (IPS), together with numerous other install/packaging/boot/patching features are among the most significant improvements in Solaris 11. But before installing, you may wonder whether Solaris 11 will support your particular set of hardware devices. Again, the OTN Garage comes to the rescue with Rick Ramsey's post How to Find Out Which Devices Are Supported By Solaris 11. Included is a useful guide to all the first steps to get your Solaris 11 system up and running. Tim Foster had a whole handful of blog posts lined up for the launch, teaching you everything you need to know about IPS but didn't dare to ask: The IPS System Repository, IPS Self-assembly - Part 1: Overlays and Part 2: Multiple Packages Delivering Configuration. Watch out for more IPS posts from Tim! If installing packages or upgrading your system from the net makes you uneasy, then you're not alone: Jim Laurent will tech you how Building a Solaris 11 Repository Without Network Connection will make your life easier. Many of you have already peeked into the future by installing Solaris 11 Express. If you're now wondering whether you can upgrade or whether a fresh install is necessary, then check out Alan Hargreaves's post Upgrading Solaris 11 Express b151a with support to Solaris 11. The trick is in upgrading your pkg(1M) first. Networking One of the first things to do after installing Solaris 11 (or any operating system for that matter), is to set it up for networking. Solaris 11 comes with the brand new "Network Auto-Magic" feature which can figure out everything by itself. For those cases where you want to exercise a little more control, Solaris 11 left a few people scratching their heads. Fortunately, Tschokko wrote up this cool blog post: Solaris 11 manual IPv4 & IPv6 configuration right after the launch ceremony. Thanks, Tschokko! And Milek points out a long awaited networking feature in Solaris 11 called Solaris 11 - hostmodel, which I know for a fact that many customers have looked forward to: How to "bind" a Solaris 11 system to a specific gateway for specific IP address it is using. Steffen Weiberle teaches us how to tune the Solaris 11 networking stack the proper way: ipadm(1M). No more fiddling with ndd(1M)! Check out his tutorial on Solaris 11 Network Tunables. And if you want to get even deeper into the networking stack, there's nothing better than DTrace. Alan Maguire teaches you in: DTracing TCP Congestion Control how to probe deeply into the Solaris 11 TCP/IP stack, the TCP congestion control part in particular. Don't miss his other DTrace and TCP related blog posts! DTrace And there we are: DTrace, the king of all observability tools. Long time DTrace veteran and co-author of The DTrace book*, Brendan Gregg blogged about Solaris 11 DTrace syscall provider changes. BTW, after you install Solaris 11, check out the DTrace toolkit which is installed by default in /usr/dtrace/DTT. It is chock full of handy DTrace scripts, many of which contributed by Brendan himself! Security Another big theme in Solaris 11, and one that is crucial for the success of any operating system in the Cloud is Security. Here are some notable posts in this category: Darren Moffat starts by showing us how to completely get rid of root: Completely Disabling Root Logins on Solaris 11. With no root user, there's one major entry point less to worry about. But that's only the start. In Immutable Zones on Encrypted ZFS, Darren shows us how to double the security of your services: First by locking them into the new Immutable Zones feature, then by encrypting their data using the new ZFS encryption feature. And if you're still missing sudo from your Linux days, Darren again has a solution: Password (PAM) caching for Solaris su - "a la sudo". If you're wondering how much compute power all this encryption will cost you, you're in luck: The Solaris X86 AESNI OpenSSL Engine will make sure you'll use your Intel's embedded crypto support to its fullest. And if you own a brand new SPARC T4 machine you're even luckier: It comes with its own SPARC T4 OpenSSL Engine. Dan Anderson's posts show how there really is now excuse not to encrypt any more... Developers Solaris 11 has a lot to offer to developers as well. Ali Bahrami has a series of blog posts that cover diverse developer topics: elffile: ELF Specific File Identification Utility, Using Stub Objects and The Stub Proto: Not Just For Stub Objects Anymore to name a few. BTW, if you're a developer and want to shape the future of Solaris 11, then Vijay Tatkar has a hint for you: Oracle (Sun Systems Group) is hiring! Desktop and Graphics Yes, Solaris 11 is a 100% server OS, but it can also offer a decent desktop environment, especially if you are a developer. Alan Coopersmith starts by discussing S11 X11: ye olde window system in today's new operating system, then Calum Benson shows us around What's new on the Solaris 11 Desktop. Even accessibility is a first-class citizen in the Solaris 11 user interface. Peter Korn celebrates: Accessible Oracle Solaris 11 - released! Performance Gone are the days of "Slowaris", when Solaris was among the few OSes that "did the right thing" while others cut corners just to win benchmarks. Today, Solaris continues doing the right thing, and it delivers the right performance at the same time. Need proof? Check out Brian's BestPerf blog with continuous updates from the benchmarking lab, including Recent Benchmarks Using Oracle Solaris 11! Send Me More Solaris 11 Launch Articles! These are just a few of the more interesting blog articles that came out around the Solaris 11 launch, I'm sure there are many more! Feel free to post a comment below if you find a particularly interesting blog post that hasn't been listed so far and share your enthusiasm for Solaris 11! *Affiliate link: Buy cool stuff and support this blog at no extra cost. We both win! var flattr_uid = '26528'; var flattr_tle = 'Solaris 11 Launch Blog Carnival Roundup'; var flattr_dsc = '<strong>Solaris 11 is here!</strong>And together with the official launch activities, a lot of Oracle and non-Oracle bloggers contributed helpful and informative blog articles to help your datacenter <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven">go to eleven</a>.Here are some notable blog postings, sorted by category for your Solaris 11 blog-reading pleasure:'; var flattr_tag = 'blogging,digest,Oracle,Solaris,solaris,solaris 11'; var flattr_cat = 'text'; var flattr_url = 'http://constantin.glez.de/blog/2011/11/solaris-11-launch-blog-carnival-roundup'; var flattr_lng = 'en_GB'

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  • Networking in VirtualBox

    - by Fat Bloke
    Networking in VirtualBox is extremely powerful, but can also be a bit daunting, so here's a quick overview of the different ways you can setup networking in VirtualBox, with a few pointers as to which configurations should be used and when. VirtualBox allows you to configure up to 8 virtual NICs (Network Interface Controllers) for each guest vm (although only 4 are exposed in the GUI) and for each of these NICs you can configure: Which virtualized NIC-type is exposed to the Guest. Examples include: Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM),  AMD PCNet FAST III (Am79C973, the default) or  a Paravirtualized network adapter (virtio-net). How the NIC operates with respect to your Host's physical networking. The main modes are: Network Address Translation (NAT) Bridged networking Internal networking Host-only networking NAT with Port-forwarding The choice of NIC-type comes down to whether the guest has drivers for that NIC.  VirtualBox, suggests a NIC based on the guest OS-type that you specify during creation of the vm, and you rarely need to modify this. But the choice of networking mode depends on how you want to use your vm (client or server) and whether you want other machines on your network to see it. So let's look at each mode in a bit more detail... Network Address Translation (NAT) This is the default mode for new vm's and works great in most situations when the Guest is a "client" type of vm. (i.e. most network connections are outbound). Here's how it works: When the guest OS boots,  it typically uses DHCP to get an IP address. VirtualBox will field this DHCP request and tell the guest OS its assigned IP address and the gateway address for routing outbound connections. In this mode, every vm is assigned the same IP address (10.0.2.15) because each vm thinks they are on their own isolated network. And when they send their traffic via the gateway (10.0.2.2) VirtualBox rewrites the packets to make them appear as though they originated from the Host, rather than the Guest (running inside the Host). This means that the Guest will work even as the Host moves from network to network (e.g. laptop moving between locations), and from wireless to wired connections too. However, how does another computer initiate a connection into a Guest?  e.g. connecting to a web server running in the Guest. This is not (normally) possible using NAT mode as there is no route into the Guest OS. So for vm's running servers we need a different networking mode.... Bridged Networking Bridged Networking is used when you want your vm to be a full network citizen, i.e. to be an equal to your host machine on the network. In this mode, a virtual NIC is "bridged" to a physical NIC on your host, like this: The effect of this is that each VM has access to the physical network in the same way as your host. It can access any service on the network such as external DHCP services, name lookup services, and routing information just as the host does. Logically, the network looks like this: The downside of this mode is that if you run many vm's you can quickly run out of IP addresses or your network administrator gets fed up with you asking for statically assigned IP addresses. Secondly, if your host has multiple physical NICs (e.g. Wireless and Wired) you must reconfigure the bridge when your host jumps networks.  Hmm, so what if you want to run servers in vm's but don't want to involve your network administrator? Maybe one of the next 2 modes is for you... Internal Networking When you configure one or more vm's to sit on an Internal network, VirtualBox ensures that all traffic on that network stays within the host and is only visible to vm's on that virtual network. Configuration looks like this: The internal network ( in this example "intnet" ) is a totally isolated network and so is very "quiet". This is good for testing when you need a separate, clean network, and you can create sophisticated internal networks with vm's that provide their own services to the internal network. (e.g. Active Directory, DHCP, etc). Note that not even the Host is a member of the internal network, but this mode allows vm's to function even when the Host is not connected to a network (e.g. on a plane). Note that in this mode, VirtualBox provides no "convenience" services such as DHCP, so your machines must be statically configured or one of the vm's needs to provide a DHCP/Name service. Multiple internal networks are possible and you can configure vm's to have multiple NICs to sit across internal and other network modes and thereby provide routes if needed. But all this sounds tricky. What if you want an Internal Network that the host participates on with VirtualBox providing IP addresses to the Guests? Ah, then for this, you might want to consider Host-only Networking... Host-only Networking Host-only Networking is like Internal Networking in that you indicate which network the Guest sits on, in this case, "vboxnet0": All vm's sitting on this "vboxnet0" network will see each other, and additionally, the host can see these vm's too. However, other external machines cannot see Guests on this network, hence the name "Host-only". Logically, the network looks like this: This looks very similar to Internal Networking but the host is now on "vboxnet0" and can provide DHCP services. To configure how a Host-only network behaves, look in the VirtualBox Manager...Preferences...Network dialog: Port-Forwarding with NAT Networking Now you may think that we've provided enough modes here to handle every eventuality but here's just one more... What if you cart around a mobile-demo or dev environment on, say, a laptop and you have one or more vm's that you need other machines to connect into? And you are continually hopping onto different (customer?) networks. In this scenario: NAT - won't work because external machines need to connect in. Bridged - possibly an option, but does your customer want you eating IP addresses and can your software cope with changing networks? Internal - we need the vm(s) to be visible on the network, so this is no good. Host-only - same problem as above, we want external machines to connect in to the vm's. Enter Port-forwarding to save the day! Configure your vm's to use NAT networking; Add Port Forwarding rules; External machines connect to "host":"port number" and connections are forwarded by VirtualBox to the guest:port number specified. For example, if your vm runs a web server on port 80, you could set up rules like this:  ...which reads: "any connections on port 8080 on the Host will be forwarded onto this vm's port 80".  This provides a mobile demo system which won't need re-configuring every time you open your laptop lid. Summary VirtualBox has a very powerful set of options allowing you to set up almost any configuration your heart desires. For more information, check out the VirtualBox User Manual on Virtual Networking. -FB 

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  • CEN/CENELEC Lacks Perspective

    - by trond-arne.undheim
    Over the last few months, two of the European Standardization Organizations (ESOs), CEN and CENELEC have circulated an unfortunate position statement distorting the facts around fora and consortia. For the benefit of outsiders to this debate, let's just say that this debate regards whether and how the EU should recognize standards and specifications from certain fora and consortia based on a process evaluating the openness and transparency of such deliverables. The topic is complex, and somewhat confusing even to insiders, but nevertheless crucial to the European economy. As far as I can judge, their positions are not based on facts. This is unfortunate. For the benefit of clarity, here are some of the observations they make: a)"Most consortia are in essence driven by technology companies making hardware and software solutions, by definition very few of the largest ones are European-based". b) "Most consortia lack a European presence, relevant Committees, even those that are often cited as having stronger links with Europe, seem to lack an overall, inclusive set of participants". c) "Recognising specific consortia specifications will not resolve any concrete problems of interoperability for public authorities; interoperability depends on stringing together a range of specifications (from formal global bodies or consortia alike)". d) "Consortia already have the option to have their specifications adopted by the international formal standards bodies and many more exercise this than the two that seem to be campaigning for European recognition. Such specifications can then also be adopted as European standards." e) "Consortium specifications completely lack any process to take due and balanced account of requirements at national level - this is not important for technologies but can be a critical issue when discussing cross-border issues within the EU such as eGovernment, eHealth and so on". f) "The proposed recognition will not lead to standstill on national or European activities, nor to the adoption of the specifications as national standards in the CEN and CENELEC members (usually in their official national languages), nor to withdrawal of conflicting national standards. A big asset of the European standardization system is its coherence and lack of fragmentation." g) "We always miss concrete and specific examples of where consortia referencing are supposed to be helpful." First of all, note that ETSI, the third ESO, did not join the position. The reason is, of course, that ETSI beyond being an ESO, also has a global perspective and, moreover, does consider reality. Secondly, having produced arguments a) to g), CEN/CENELEC has the audacity to call a meeting on Friday 25 February entitled "ICT standardization - improving collaboration in Europe". This sounds very nice, but they have not set the stage for constructive debate. Rather, they demonstrate a striking lack of vision and lack of perspective. I will back this up by three facts, and leave it there. 1. Since the 1980s, global industry fora and consortia, such as IETF, W3C and OASIS have emerged as world-leading ICT standards development organizations with excellent procedures for openness and transparency in all phases of standards development, ex post and ex ante. - Practically no ICT system can be built without using fora and consortia standards (FCS). - Without using FCS, neither the Internet, upon which the EU economy depends, nor EU institutions would operate. - FCS are of high relevance for achieving and promoting interoperability and driving innovation. 2. FCS are complementary to the formally recognized standards organizations including the ESOs. - No work will be taken away from the ESOs should the EU recognize certain FCS. - Each FCS would be evaluated on its merit and on the openness of the process that produced it. ESOs would, with other stakeholders, have a say. - ESOs could potentially educate and assist European stakeholders to engage more actively and constructively with FCS. - ETSI, also an ESO, seems to clearly recognize these facts. 3. Europe and its Member States have a strong voice in several of the most relevant global industry fora and consortia. - W3C: W3C was founded in 1994 by an Englishman, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in collaboration with CERN, the European research lab. In April 1995, INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique) in France became the first European W3C host and in 2003, ERCIM (European Research Consortium in Informatics and Mathematics), also based in France, took over the role of European W3C host from INRIA. Today, W3C has 326 Members, 40% of which are European. Government participation is also strong, and it could be increased - a development that is very much desired by W3C. Current members of the W3C Advisory Board includes Ora Lassila (Nokia) and Charles McCathie Nevile (Opera). Nokia is Finnish company, Opera is a Norwegian company. SAP's Claus von Riegen is an alumni of the same Advisory Board. - OASIS: its membership - 30% of which is European - represents the marketplace, reflecting a balance of providers, user companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. In particular, about 15% of OASIS members are governments or universities. Frederick Hirsch from Nokia, Claus von Riegen from SAP AG and Charles-H. Schulz from Ars Aperta are on the Board of Directors. Nokia is a Finnish company, SAP is a German company and Ars Aperta is a French company. The Chairman of the Board is Peter Brown, who is an Independent Consultant, an Austrian citizen AND an official of the European Parliament currently on long-term leave. - IETF: The oversight of its activities is by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), since 2007 chaired by Olaf Kolkman, a Dutch national who lives in Uithoorn, NL. Kolkman is director of NLnet Labs, a foundation chartered to develop open source software and open source standards for the Internet. Other IAB members include Marcelo Bagnulo whose affiliation is the University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain as well as Hannes Tschofenig from Nokia Siemens Networks. Nokia is a Finnish company. Siemens is a German company. Nokia Siemens is a European joint venture. - Member States: At least 17 European Member States have developed Interoperability Frameworks that include FCS, according to the EU-funded National Interoperability Framework Observatory (see list and NIFO web site on IDABC). This also means they actively procure solutions using FCS, reference FCS in their policies and even in laws. Member State reps are free to engage in FCS, and many do. It would be nice if the EU adjusted to this reality. - A huge number of European nationals work in the global IT industry, on European soil or elsewhere, whether in EU registered companies or not. CEN/CENELEC lacks perspective and has engaged in an effort to twist facts that is quite striking from a publicly funded organization. I wish them all possible success with Friday's meeting but I fear all of the most important stakeholders will not be at the table. Not because they do not wish to collaborate, but because they just have been insulted. If they do show up, it would be a gracious move, almost beyond comprehension. While I do not expect CEN/CENELEC to line up perfectly in favor of fora and consortia, I think it would be to their benefit to stick to more palatable observations. Actually, I would suggest an apology, straightening out the facts. This works among friends and it works in an organizational context. Then, we can all move on. Standardization is important. Too important to ignore. Too important to distort. The European economy depends on it. We need CEN/CENELEC. It is an important organization. But CEN/CENELEC needs fora and consortia, too.

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  • Emtel Knowledge Series - Q2/2014

    From Cyber Island to Smart Mauritius Cyber Island? Smart Mauritius? - What is Emtel talking about? "With the majority of the population living in urban environments today, the concept of "Smart Cities" has become an urgent necessity. "Smart Cities" refer to an urban transformation which, by using latest ICT technologies makes cities more efficient. Many Governments are setting out ambitious plans to build the cities of the future based on massive connectivity, high bandwidth communications, intelligent sensors and analysis of huge volumes of data. Various researches have shown four key enablers for smart city success - Government leadership, suitable technology infrastructure, solid public-private partnerships and engaged citizens. It is around these enabling factors that telecoms companies can play a vital role in assisting governments to deliver on the smart city vision." The Emtel Knowledge Series goes in compliance with Emtel's 25th anniversary celebrations throughout the year and the master of ceremony, Kim Andersen, mentioned that there will be more upcoming events on a quarterly base. As a representative of the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community (MSCC) there was absolutely no hesitation to join in again. Following my visit to the first Emtel Knowledge Series workshop back in February this year, it was great to have another opportunity to meet and exchange with technology experts. But quite frankly what is it with those buzz words... As far as I remember and how it was mentioned "Cyber Island" is an old initiative from around 2005/2006 which has been refreshed in 2010. It implies the empowerment of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) as an essential factor of growth by the government here in Mauritius. Actually, the first promotional period of Cyber Island brought me here but that's another story. The venue and its own problems Like last time the event was organised and held at the Conference Hall at Cyber Tower I in Ebene. As I've been working there for some years, I know about the frustrating situation of finding a proper parking. So, does Smart Island include better solutions for the search of parking spaces? Maybe, let's see whether I will be able to answer that question at the end of the article. Anyway, after circling around the tower almost two times, I finally got a decent space to put the car, without risking to get a ticket or damage actually. International speakers and their experience Once again, Emtel did a great job to get international expertise onto the stage to share their experience and vision on this kind of embarkment. Personally, I really appreciated the fact they were speakers of global reach and could provide own-experience knowledge. Johan Gott spoke about the fundamental change that the Swedish government ignited in order to move their society and workers' environment away from heavy industry towards a knowledge-based approach. Additionally, we spoke about the effort and transformation of New York City into a greener and more efficient Smart City. Given modern technology he also advised that any kind of available Big Data should be opened to the general public - this openness would provide a playground for anyone to garner new ideas and most probably solid solutions of which no one else thought about before. Emtel Knowledge Series on moving from Cyber Island to Smart Mauritus Later during the afternoon that exact statement regarding openness to and transparency of government-owned Big Data has been emphasised again by the Danish speaker Kim Andersen and his former colleague Mika Jantunen from Finland. Mika continued to underline the important role of the government to provide a solid foundation for a knowledge-based society and mentioned that Finnish citizens have a constitutional right to broadband connectivity. Next to free higher (tertiary) education Finland already produced a good number of innovations, among them are: First country to grant voting rights to women Free higher education Constitutional right to broadband connectivity Nokia Linux Angry Birds Sauna and others...  General access to internet via broadband and/or mobile connectivity is surely a key factor towards Smart Cities, or better said Smart Mauritius given the area dimensions and size of population. CTO Paul Valette gave the audience a brief overview of the essential role that Emtel will have to move Mauritius forward towards a knowledge-based and innovation-driven environment for its citizen. What I have seen looks really promising and with recently published information that Mauritians have 127% of mobile capacity - meaning more than 1 mobile, smartphone or tablet per person - it will be crucial to have the right infrastructure for these connected devices. How would it be possible to achieve a knowledge-based society? YouTube to the rescue!Seriously, gaining more knowledge will require to have fast access to educational course material as explained by Dr Kaviraj Sukon, General Director of the Open University of Mauritius. According to him a good number of high-profile universities in the world have opened their course libraries to the general public, among them EDX, Coursera and Open University. Nowadays, you're actually able and enabled to learn for and earn a BSc or even MSc certification on your own pace - no need to attend classed on campus. It was really impressive to see the number of available hours - more than enough for a life-long learning experience! {loadposition content_adsense} Networking in the name of MSCC As briefly mentioned above I was about to combine two approaches for this workshop. Of course, getting latest information and updates on Emtel services available, especially for my business here on the west coast of the island, but also to meet and greet new people for the MSCC. And I think it was very positive on both sides. Let me quickly describe some of the key aspects that happened during the day: Met with Arnaud Meslier and Kellie, both Microsoft to swap latest information on IT events. Hereby, I got an invite to Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1 Dev Camp. Got in touch with Arvin Lockee, Emtel to check our options to meet with the data team, and seizing the opportunity to have a visiting tour at the Emtel Data Centre. Had a great chat with Avinash Meetoo, Knowledge 7, Kim Andersen and Mika Jantunen about the situation of teaching and learning in general and specifically in the private sector here in Mauritius. Additionally, a number of various other interesting chats... Once again, I'm catching up on a couple of business cards in order to provide more background information about the MSCC, and to create a better awareness of MSCC within the local IT businesses. There is more to come soon!  Resume of the day The number of attendees during this event has been doubled or even tripled this time. The whole organisation has been improved massively and the combination of presentation and summarizing panel discussions was better than during the previous workshop back in February. Overall, once again a well-organised workshop and I'm already looking forward to join the next workshop in Q3. Update End of July we finally managed to visit the Emtel Data Centre in Arsenal. It was an interesting opportunity for some of our MSCC members.

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  • Are you reporting Visual Studio 2012 issues to Microsoft correctly?

    - by Tarun Arora
    Issues you may run into while using Visual Studio need to be reported to the Microsoft Product Team via the Microsoft connect site. The Microsoft team then tries to reproduce the issue using the details provided by you. If the information you provide isn’t sufficient to reproduce the issue the team tries to contact you for specifics, this not only increases the cycle time to resolution but the lack of communication also results in issues not being resolved. So, when I report an issue one part of me tells me to include as much detail about the issue as I can clubbing screen shots, repo steps, system information, visual studio version information,… the other half tells me this is so time consuming, leave it for now and come back to fill all these details later. Reporting a bug but not including the supporting information is an invitation to excuses like …     Microsoft has absolutely changed this experience for VS 2012. The Microsoft Visual Studio Feedback tool is designed to simplify the process of providing feedback and reporting issues to Microsoft that you may encounter while using Microsoft Visual Studio 2012. Note – The Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Feedback client currently only works for VS 2012 and not any other versions of Visual Studio. Setting up the Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Feedback client Open Visual Studio, from the Tools menu select Extension and Updates. In the Extension and Updates window, click Online from the left pane and search using the text ‘feedback’, download and Install Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Feedback Tool by following the instructions from the wizard. Note - Restarting Visual Studio after the install is a must! How to report a bug for Visual Studio 2012? Click on the Help menu and choose Report a Bug You should see an icon Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Feedback Tool come up in the system tray icon area You’ll need to accept the Privacy statement. You have the option of reporting the feedback as private or public. Microsoft works with several Partners, MVP’s and Vendors who get access to early bits of Microsoft products for valuation. This is where it becomes essential to report the feedback privately. I would choose the Public option otherwise. After all if it’s out there in the public, others can discover and add to it easily. You now have the option to report a new issue or add to an existing issue. Should you choose to add to an existing issue you should have the feedback ID of the issue available. This can be obtained from the Microsoft Connect site. For now I am going to focus on reporting a new feedback privately. Filling out the feedback details You will notice that VsInfo.xml and DxDiagOutput.txt are automatically attached as you enter this screen (more on that later).  Feedback Type Choose the feedback type from (Performance, Hang, Crash, Other) Note – The record button will only be enabled once you have enabled once you have chosen the feedback type, Bug-repro recording is not available for Windows Server 2008.     Effective Title and Description Enter a title that helps us differentiate the bug when it appears in a list, so that we can group it with any related bugs, assign it to a developer more effectively, and resolve it more quickly. Example: Imagine that you are submitting a bug because you tried to install Service Pack 1 and got a message that Visual Studio is not installed even though it is. Helpful:  Installed Visual Studio version not detected during Service Pack 1 setup. Not helpful:  Service Pack 1 problem. Tip: Write the problem description first, and then distil it to create a title. Example Description: Helpful: When I run Service Pack 1 Setup, I get the message "No Visual Studio version is detected" even though I have Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and Visual C++ 2010 Express installed on my machine. Even though I uninstalled both editions, and then first reinstalled Ultimate and then Express, I still get the message. Record: Becoming a first class citizen Often a repro report is invaluable to describe and decipher the issue. Please use this feature to send actionable feedback. The record repro feature works differently depending on the feedback type you selected. Please find below details for each recording option. You can start recording simply by selecting a feedback type, and clicking on the “Record” button. When "Performance" is the bug type: When the Microsoft Visual Studio trace recorder starts, perform the actions that show the performance problem you want to report and then click on the "Stop Recording" button as soon as you experience the performance problem. Because the tool optimizes trace collection, you can run it for as long as it takes to show the problem, up to two hours. Note that, you need to stop recording as soon as the performance issue occurs, because the tool captures only the last couple minutes of your actions to optimize the trace collection. After you stop the recording, the tool takes up to two minutes to assemble the data and attach an ETLTrace.zip file to your bug report. The data includes information about Windows events and the Visual Studio code path. Note that, running the Microsoft Visual Studio trace recorder requires elevated user privilege. When "Crash" is the bug type: When the dialog box appears, select the running Visual Studio instance for which you want to show the steps that cause a crash. When the crash occurs, click on the "Stop Record" button. After you do this, two files are attached to your bug report - an AutomaticCrashDump.zip file that contains information about the crash and a ReproSteps.zip file that shows the repro steps. Repro steps are captured by Windows Problem Steps Recorder. Note that, you can pause the recording, and resume later, or for a specific step, you can add additional comments. When "Hang" is the bug type: The process for recording the steps that cause a hang resembles the one for crashes. The difference is, you can even collect a dump file after the VS hangs; start the VSFT either from the system tray or by starting a new instance of VS, select "Hang" as feedback type and click on the "Record" button. You will be prompted which VS to collect dump about, select the VS instance that hanged. VSFT collects a dump file regarding the hang, called MiniDump.zip, and attaches to your bug report. When "Other" is the bug type: When the problem step recorder starts, perform the actions that show the issue you want to report and then choose the "Stop” button. You can pause the recording, and resume later, or for a specific step, you can add additional comments. Once you’re done, ReproSteps.zip is added to your bug report. Pre-attached files It is essential for Microsoft to know what version of the the product are you currently using and what is the current configuration of your system. Note – The total size of all attachments in a bug report cannot exceed 2 GB, and every uncompressed attachment must be smaller than 512 MB. We recommend that you assemble all of your attachments, compress them together into a .zip file, and then attach the .zip file. Taking a screenshot Associate a screen shot by clicking the Take screenshot button, choose either the entire desktop, the specific monitor (useful if you are working in a multi monitor configuration) or the specific window in question. And finally … click Submit If you need further help, more details can be found here. You can view your feedback online by using the following URL “">https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/SearchResults.aspx?SearchQuery=<feedbackId>” Happy bug logging

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  • How can I get my Web API app to run again after upgrading to MVC 5 and Web API 2?

    - by Clay Shannon
    I upgraded my Web API app to the funkelnagelneu versions using this guidance: http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/mvc-5/how-to-upgrade-an-aspnet-mvc-4-and-web-api-project-to-aspnet-mvc-5-and-web-api-2 However, after going through the steps (it seems all this should be automated, anyway), I tried to run it and got, "A project with an Output Type of Class Library cannot be started directly" What in Sam Hills Brothers Coffee is going on here? Who said this was a class library? So I opened Project Properties, and changed it (it was marked as "Class Library" for some reason - it either wasn't yesterday, or was and worked fine) to an Output Type of "Windows Application" ("Console Application" and "Class Library" being the only other options). Now it won't compile, complaining: "*Program 'c:\Platypus_Server_WebAPI\PlatypusServerWebAPI\PlatypusServerWebAPI\obj\Debug\PlatypusServerWebAPI.exe' does not contain a static 'Main' method suitable for an entry point...*" How can I get my Web API app back up and running in view of this quandary? UPDATE Looking in packages.config, two entries seem chin-scratch-worthy: <package id="Microsoft.AspNet.Providers" version="1.2" targetFramework="net40" /> <package id="Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure" version="1.0.0.0" targetFramework="net40" /> All the others target net451. Could this be the problem? Should I remove these packages? UPDATE 2 I tried to uninstall the Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure package (its description leads me to believe I don't need it; also, it has no dependencies) via the NuGet package manager, but it tells me, "NuGet failed to install or uninstall the selected package in the following project(s). [mine]" UPDATE 3 I went through the steps in again, and found that I had missed one step. I had to change this entry in the Application web.config File : <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" /> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-5.0.0.0" newVersion="5.0.0.0" /> </dependentAssembly> (from "4.0.0.0" to "5.0.0.0") ...but I still get the same result - it rebuilds/compiles, but won't run, with "A project with an Output Type of Class Library cannot be started directly" UPDATE 4 Thinking about the err msg, that it can't directly open a class library, I thought, "Sure you can't/won't -- this is a web app, not a project. So I followed a hunch, closed the project, and reopened it as a website (instead of reopening a project). That has gotten me further, at least; now I see a YSOD: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. UPDATE 5 Note: The project is now (after being opened as a web site) named "localhost_48614" And...there is no longer a "References" folder...?!?!? As to that YSOD I'm getting, the official instructions (http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/mvc-5/how-to-upgrade-an-aspnet-mvc-4-and-web-api-project-to-aspnet-mvc-5-and-web-api-2) said to do this, and I quote: "Update all elements that contain “System.Web.WebPages.Razor” from version “2.0.0.0” to version“3.0.0.0”." UPDATE 6 When I select Tools Library Package Manager Manage NuGet Packages for Solution now, I get, "Operation failed. Unable to locate the solution directory. Please ensure that the solution has been saved." So I save it, and it saves it with this funky new name (C:\Users\clay\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\localhost_48614\localhost_48614.sln) I get the Yellow Strip of Enlightenment across the top of the NuGet Package Manager telling me, "Some NuGet packages are missing from this solution. Click to restore from your online package sources." I do (click the "Restore" button, that is), and it downloads the missing packages ... I end up with the 30 packages. I try to run the app/site again, and ... the erstwhile YSOD becomes a compilation error: The pre-application start initialization method Start on type System.Web.Mvc.PreApplicationStartCode threw an exception with the following error message: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.. Argghhhh!!! (and it's not even talk-like-a-pirate day).

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  • Surface RT: To Be Or Not To Be (Part 1)

    - by smehaffie
    So the Surface RT has been out for 9 months and Microsoft just declared a $900 million dollar write-down. So how did this happen and what does it mean for Microsoft’s efforts to break into the tablet market? I have been thinking a lot about most of the information below since the Surface product line was released. If you are looking for a “Microsoft Is Dead” story, then don’t read any further. But if you want an honest look at what I think led Microsoft to this point and what I think can be done to make Surface RT devices better, then please continue reading. What Led Microsoft To The $900 Million Write-Down Surface Unveiling:Microsoft totally missed the boat when they unveiled the Surface product line on June 18th, 2012. Microsoft should’ve been ready to post the specifications of both devices that night. Microsoft should’ve had a site up and running right after the event so people could pre-order the devices. This would have given them a good idea what the interest was in each device.  They could also have used this data to make a better estimate for the number of units to to have available for the launch and beyond.  They also lost out on taking advantage of the excitement generated by the Surface RT and Surface Pro announcement. They could have thrown in a free touch keyboard to anyone who pre-ordered. The advertising should have started right after the announcement and gotten bigger as launch day approached. Push for as many pre-order as possible and build excitement for the launch. Actual Launch (Surface RT): By this time all excitement was gone from the initial announcement, except for the Micorsoft faithful. Microsoft should have been ready to sell the Surface in as many markets as possible at launch. The limited market release was a real letdown for a lot of people.  A limited release right after the initial announce is understandable, but not at the official launch of the product. Microsoft overpriced the device and now they are lowering it to what it should have been to start with. The $349 price is within the range I suggested it should be at before pricing was announced. (Surface Tablets: The Price Must Be Right). Limited ordering options online was also a killer. User should have been able to buy the base unit of each device and then add on whatever keyboard they wanted to (this applies more to the Surface Pro).  There should have also been a place where users could order any additional add-ins that they wanted to buy (covers, extra power supplies, etc.) Marketing was better and the dancing “Click In” commercial was cool, but the ads comparing the iPad with Siri should have been on the air from day one of the announcement (or at least the launch).  Consumers want to know why you tablet is better, not just that is has a clickable keyboard and built-in kickstand. They could have also compared it to some of the other mid-range tablets if they had not overprices it to begin with. Stock Applications (Mail, People, Calendar, Music, Video, Reader and IE): This is where Microsoft really blew it. They had all the time in the world to make these applications the best of breed and instead we got applications that seemed thrown together.  Some updates have made these application better, but they are all still lacking in features that should have been there from day one. This did not help to enhance a new users experience any. ** I will admit that the applications that were data driven were first class citizen’s and that makes it even more perplexing why MS could knock it out of the park with the Weather, Travel, Finance, Bing, etc.) and fail so miserably on the core applications users would use the most on a tablet. Desktop on Tablet: The desktop just is so out of place on the tablet  I understand it was needed for Office but think it would have been better to not have the desktop in Windows RT, but instead open up the Office applications in full screen mode, in a desktop shell (same goes for  IE11).That way the user wouldn’t realize they are leaving Metro and going to the desktop. The other option would have been to just not include Office on Windows RT devices. Instead they could have made awesome Widows Store Apps for Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint. In addition, they could have made the stock Mail, People, and Calendar applications contain all the functions that Outlook gives desktop users. Having some of the settings in desktop mode and others under “Change PC Settings” made Windows RT seemed unfinished and rushed to market. What Can Be Done To Make Windows RT Based Tablets Better (At least in my opinion) Either eliminate the desktop all together from Windows RT or at least make the user experience better by hiding the fact the user is running Office/IE in the desktop. Personally I ‘d like them to totally get rid of it and just make awesome Windows Store Application version of Word, Excel PowerPoint & OneNote.  This might also make the OS smaller and give the user more available disk space. I doubt there will ever be a Windows Store App versions of Office, but I still think it is a good idea. Make is so users can easily direct their documents, picture, videos and music to their extra storage and can access these files from the standard libraries.  A user should not have to create a VM on their microSD card or create symbolic links to get this to work properly. Most consumers would not be able to do this. Then users get frustrated when they run out or room on their main storage because nothing is automatically save to their microSD card when saved to libraries.  This is a major bug that needs to be fixed, otherwise Microsoft’s selling point of having a microSD slot is worthless. Allows users to uninstall and re-install any of the Office product that come with the Surface. That way people can free up storage space by uninstalling the Office applications they do not need. Everyone’s needs are different, so make the options flexible. Don’t take up storage space for applications the user will not use. Make the Core applications the “Cream of the Crop” Windows App Store applications. The should set the bar for all other Store applications. Improve performance as much as possible, if it seems to be sluggish on a tablet consumer will not buy it. They need to price the next line of Surface product very aggressive to undercut not only iPad but also Android low end tablets (Nook, Kindle Fire, and Nexus, etc.) Give developers incentives to write quality applications for the devices. Don’t reward developers for cranking out cookie cutter, low quality applications. I’d even suggest Microsoft consider implementing some new store certification guideline to stop these type of applications being published. Allow users to easily move the recover disk “partition between their microSD card and main storage. My Predictions for the Surface RT and Windows RT I honestly think even with all the missteps MS has made since the announcement  about the Surface product line, that they are on the right path. I was excited the Surface tablets when they were announced, and I still am. The truth be told, Windows 8 on a tablet (aka: Windows RT) is better than both iOS and Android. My nephew who is an Apple fan boy told me after he saw and used Windows 8 (he got the beta running on his iPad), that Windows 8 kicked Apples butt as a tablet OS. So there is hope for all Windows RT based tablets. I agree with my nephew and that is why whenever anyone asks me about my Surface, I love showing it off and recommend it. The 6 keys to gaining market share in the tablet market are; Aggressive pricing by both Microsoft and their OEM’s Good quality devices put out by Microsoft and their OEM’s (there are some out there, but not enough) Marketing, Marketing, Marketing from both Microsoft and their OEM’s (Need more ads showing why windows based tablets are better than iPads and Android tablets) Getting Widows tablets in retails stores all over, and giving sales people incentive to sell them. Consumers like to try electronics out before they buy them, and most will listen to what the sales person suggest. Microsoft needs sales people in retail stores directing people to buy windows based tablets over iPads and Android tablets. I think the Microsoft Stores within Best Buy is a good start, but they also need to get prominent displays in Walmart, Target, etc.. Release a smaller form factor Surface, Hopefully the 8”-10” next generation Surface is not a rumor. Make “Surface” the brand name for all Microsoft tablets and hybrid devices that they come out with. They cannot change the name with each new release.  Make Surface synonymous with quality, the same way that iPad  is for Apple. Well, that is my 2 cents on the subject. Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Soon to follow will be my thought on the Surface Pro, so keep an eye out for it. var addthis_pub="smehaffie"; var addthis_options="email, print, digg, slashdot, delicious, twitter, live, myspace, facebook, google, stumbleupon, newsvine";

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  • Navigation in Win8 Metro Style applications

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    In Windows 8, Touch is, as they say, a first class citizen. Now, to be honest: they also said that in Windows 7. However in Win8 this is actually true. Applications are meant to be used by touch. Yes, you can still use mouse, keyboard and pen and your apps should take that into account but touch is where you should focus on initially. Will all users have touch enabled devices? No, not in the first place. I don’t think touchscreens will be on every device sold next year. But in 5 years? Who knows? Don’t forget: if your app is successful it will be around for a long time and by that time touchscreens will be everywhere. Another reason to embrace touch is that it’s easier to develop a touch-oriented app and then to make sure that keyboard, nouse and pen work as doing it the other way around. Porting a mouse-based application to a touch based application almost never works. The reverse gives you much more chances for success. That being said, there are some things that you need to think about. Most people have more than one finger, while most users only use one mouse at the time. Still, most touch-developers translate their mouse-knowledge to the touch and think they did a good job. Martin Tirion from Microsoft said that since Touch is a new language people face the same challenges they do when learning a new real spoken language. The first thing people try when learning a new language is simply replace the words in their native language to the newly learned words. At first they don’t care about grammar. To a native speaker of that other language this sounds all wrong but they still will be able to understand what the intention was. If you don’t believe me: try Google translate to translate something for you from your language to another and then back and see what happens. The same thing happens with Touch. Most developers translate a mouse-click into a tap-event and think they’re done. Well matey, you’re not done. Not by far. There are things you can do with a mouse that you cannot do with touch. Think hover. A mouse has the ability to ‘slide’ over UI elements. Touch doesn’t (I know: with Pen you can do this but I’m talking about actual fingers here). A touch is either there or it isn’t. And right-click? Forget about it. A click is a click.  Yes, you have more than one finger but the machine doesn’t know which finger you use… The other way around is also true. Like I said: most users only have one mouse but they are likely to have more than one finger. So how do we take that into account? Thinking about this is really worth the time: you might come up with some surprisingly good ideas! Still: don’t forget that not every user has touch-enabled hardware so make sure your app is useable for both groups. Keep this in mind: we’re going to need it later on! Now. Apps should be easy to use. You don’t want your user to read through pages and pages of documentation before they can use the app. Imagine that spotter next to an airfield suddenly seeing a prototype of a Concorde 2 landing on the nearby runway. He probably wants to enter that information in our app NOW and not after he’s taken a 3 day course. Even if he still has to download the app, install it for the first time and then run it he should be on his way immediately. At least, fast enough to note down the details of that unique, rare and possibly exciting sighting he just did. So.. How do we do this? Well, I am not talking about games here. Games are in a league of their own. They fall outside the scope of the apps I am describing. But all the others can roughly be characterized as being one of two flavors: the navigation is either flat or hierarchical. That’s it. And if it’s hierarchical it’s no more than three levels deep. Not more. Your users will get lost otherwise and we don’t want that. Flat is simple. Just imagine we have one screen that is as high as our physical screen is and as wide as you need it to be. Don’t worry if it doesn’t fit on the screen: people can scroll to the right and left. Don’t combine up/down and left/right scrolling: it’s confusing. Next to that, since most users will hold their device in landscape mode it’s very natural to scroll horizontal. So let’s use that when we have a flat model. The same applies to the hierarchical model. Try to have at most three levels. If you need more space, find a way to group the items in such a way that you can fit it in three, very wide lanes. At the highest level we have the so called hub level. This is the entry point of the app and as such it should give the user an immediate feeling of what the app is all about. If your app has categories if items then you might show these categories here. And while you’re at it: also show 2 or 3 of the items itself here to give the user a taste of what lies beneath. If the user selects a category you go to the section part. Here you show several sections (again, go as wide as you need) with again some detail examples. After that: the details layer shows each item. By giving some samples of the underlaying layer you achieve several things: you make the layer attractive by showing several different things, you show some highlights so the user sees actual content and you provide a shortcut to the layers underneath. The image below is borrowed from the http://design.windows.com website which has tons and tons of examples: For our app we’ll use this layout. So what will we show? Well, let’s see what sorts of features our app has to offer. I’ll repeat them here: Note planes Add pictures of that plane Notify friends of new spots Share new spots on social media Write down arrival times Write down departure times Write down the runway they take I am sure you can think of some more items but for now we'll use these. In the hub we’ll show something that represents “Spots”, “Friends”, “Social”. Apparently we have an inner list of spotter-friends that are in the app, while we also have to whole world in social. In the layer below we show something else, depending on what the user choose. When they choose “Spots” we’ll display the last spots, last spots by our friends (so we can actually jump from this category to the one next to it) and so on. When they choose a “spot” (or press the + icon in the App bar, which I’ll talk about next time) they go to the lowest and final level that shows details about that spot, including a picture, date and time and the notes belonging to that entry. You’d be amazed at how easy it is to organize your app this way. If you don’t have enough room in these three layers you probably could easily get away with grouping items. Take a look at our hub: we have three completely different things in one place. If you still can’t fit it all in in a logical and consistent way, chances are you are trying to do too much in this app. Go back to your mission statement, determine if it is specific enough and if your feature list helps that statement or makes it unclear. Go ahead. Give it a go! Next time we’ll talk about the look and feel, the charms and the app-bar….

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  • How to upgrade your Solaris 11 with the latest available SRUs ?

    - by jim
    1 ) Follow the instructions (*) in the document "Updating the Software on Your Oracle Solaris 11 System" * see and apply "How to Configure the Oracle Solaris support Repository" then run: # pkg update --accept Reboot if necessary (see "why" in STEP 3) Note: it is possible that your "pkg" package is not up to date # pkg update WARNING: pkg(5) appears to be out of date, and should be updated before running update.  Please update pkg(5) using 'pfexec pkg install pkg:/package/pkg' and then retry the update. -> So just upgrade it: # pkg install pkg:/package/pkg Reboot if necessary (see "why" in STEP 3) By the way, note that I am using the DEV tree: # pkg publisher -PPUBLISHER                             TYPE     STATUS   URIsolaris                               origin   online   https://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/dev/ 2 ) Now our system is ready to jump to the latest SRUs so check what is available: # pkg list -af entire NAME (PUBLISHER)                     VERSION                    IFO entire                                            0.5-DOT-11-0.175.1.0.0.24-DOT-2    ---   --> Latest version available in the repository ! entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.24.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.23.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.22.1    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.21.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.20.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.19.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.18.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.17.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.16.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.15.1    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.14.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.13.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.12.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.11.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.10.0    --- entire                                            0.5.11-0.175.0.11.0.4.1    i--   --> this is at what level your OS is ! 3 ) Apply the latest SRU: (don´t forget the --accept parameter) # pkg update --accept entire-AT-0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.24.2------------------------------------------------------------Package: pkg://solaris/consolidation/osnet/osnet-incorporation-AT-0.5.11,5.11-0.175.1.0.0.24.2:20120919T184141ZLicense: usr/src/pkg/license_files/lic_OTNOracle Technology Network Developer License AgreementOracle Solaris, Oracle Solaris Cluster and Oracle Solaris ExpressEXPORT CONTROLSSelecting the "Accept License Agreement" button is a confirmationof your agreement that you comply, now and during the trial term(if applicable), with each of the following statements:-You are not a citizen, national, or resident of, and are not undercontrol of, the government of Cuba, Iran, Sudan, North Korea, Syria,or any country to which the United States has prohibited export. <....> Packages to remove:  10 Packages to install:  38 Packages to update: 443 Mediators to change:   2 Create boot environment: Yes   --> a reboot is required and a new BE will be created for you !! Create backup boot environment:  No DOWNLOAD                               PKGS       FILES    XFER (MB)Completed                                491/491 23113/23113  504.2/504.2PHASE                                        ACTIONSRemoval Phase                           10359/10359 Install Phase                               15530/15530 Update Phase                              15543/15543 PHASE                                          ITEMSPackage State Update Phase         932/932 Package Cache Update Phase       452/452 Image State Update Phase                    2/2 A clone of solaris-1 exists and has been updated and activated.On the next boot the Boot Environment solaris-2 will bemounted on '/'.  Reboot when ready to switch to this updated BE. 4 ) Reboot your system # reboot  5 ) Resources Solaris 11 Express and Solaris 11 Support Repositories Explained [ID 1021281.1] Oracle Solaris 11 Release Notes Updating the Software on Your Oracle Solaris 11 System

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  • Array help Index out of range exeption was unhandled

    - by Michael Quiles
    I am trying to populate combo boxes from a text file using comma as a delimiter everything was working fine, but now when I debug I get the "Index out of range exeption was unhandled" warning. I guess I need a fresh pair of eyes to see where I went wrong, I commented on the line that gets the error //Fname = fields[1]; using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.Drawing.Printing; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.IO; namespace Sullivan_Payroll { public partial class xEmpForm : Form { bool complete = false; public xEmpForm() { InitializeComponent(); } private void xEmpForm_Resize(object sender, EventArgs e) { this.xCenterPanel.Left = Convert.ToInt16((this.Width - this.xCenterPanel.Width) / 2); this.xCenterPanel.Top = Convert.ToInt16((this.Height - this.xCenterPanel.Height) / 2); Refresh(); } private void exitToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { //Exits the application this.Close(); } private void xEmpForm_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e) //use this on xtrip calculator { DialogResult Response; if (complete == true) { Application.Exit(); } else { Response = MessageBox.Show("Are you sure you want to Exit?", "Exit", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Question, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button2); if (Response == DialogResult.No) { complete = false; e.Cancel = true; } else { complete = true; Application.Exit(); } } } private void xEmpForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { //file sources string fileDept = "source\\Department.txt"; string fileSex = "source\\Sex.txt"; string fileStatus = "source\\Status.txt"; if (File.Exists(fileDept)) { using (System.IO.StreamReader sr = System.IO.File.OpenText(fileDept)) { string dept = ""; while ((dept = sr.ReadLine()) != null) { this.xDeptComboBox.Items.Add(dept); } } } else { MessageBox.Show("The Department file can not be found.", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error); } if (File.Exists(fileSex)) { using (System.IO.StreamReader sr = System.IO.File.OpenText(fileSex)) { string sex = ""; while ((sex = sr.ReadLine()) != null) { this.xSexComboBox.Items.Add(sex); } } } else { MessageBox.Show("The Sex file can not be found.", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error); } if (File.Exists(fileStatus)) { using (System.IO.StreamReader sr = System.IO.File.OpenText(fileStatus)) { string status = ""; while ((status = sr.ReadLine()) != null) { this.xStatusComboBox.Items.Add(status); } } } else { MessageBox.Show("The Status file can not be found.", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error); } } private void xFileSaveMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { { const string fileNew = "source\\New Staff.txt"; string recordIn; FileStream outFile = new FileStream(fileNew, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write); StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(outFile); for (int count = 0; count <= this.xEmployeeListBox.Items.Count - 1; count++) { this.xEmployeeListBox.SelectedIndex = count; recordIn = this.xEmployeeListBox.SelectedItem.ToString(); writer.WriteLine(recordIn); } writer.Close(); outFile.Close(); this.xDeptComboBox.SelectedIndex = -1; this.xStatusComboBox.SelectedIndex = -1; this.xSexComboBox.SelectedIndex = -1; MessageBox.Show("your file is saved"); } } private void xViewFacultyMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { const string fileStaff = "source\\Staff.txt"; const char DELIM = ','; string Lname, Fname, Depart, Stat, Sex, Salary, cDept, cStat, cSex; double Gtotal; string recordIn; string[] fields; cDept = this.xDeptComboBox.SelectedItem.ToString(); cStat = this.xStatusComboBox.SelectedItem.ToString(); cSex = this.xSexComboBox.SelectedItem.ToString(); FileStream inFile = new FileStream(fileStaff, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(inFile); recordIn = reader.ReadLine(); while (recordIn != null) { fields = recordIn.Split(DELIM); Lname = fields[0]; Fname = fields[1]; // this is where the error appears Depart = fields[2]; Stat = fields[3]; Sex = fields[4]; Salary = fields[5]; Fname = fields[1].TrimStart(null); Depart = fields[2].TrimStart(null); Stat = fields[3].TrimStart(null); Sex = fields[4].TrimStart(null); Salary = fields[5].TrimStart(null); Gtotal = double.Parse(Salary); if (Depart == cDept && cStat == Stat && cSex == Sex) { this.xEmployeeListBox.Items.Add(recordIn); } recordIn = reader.ReadLine(); } reader.Close(); inFile.Close(); if (this.xEmployeeListBox.Items.Count >= 1) { this.xFileSaveMenuItem.Enabled = true; this.xFilePrintMenuItem.Enabled = true; this.xEditClearMenuItem.Enabled = true; } else { this.xFileSaveMenuItem.Enabled = false; this.xFilePrintMenuItem.Enabled = false; this.xEditClearMenuItem.Enabled = false; MessageBox.Show("Records not found"); } } private void xEditClearMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { this.xEmployeeListBox.Items.Clear(); this.xDeptComboBox.SelectedIndex = -1; this.xStatusComboBox.SelectedIndex = -1; this.xSexComboBox.SelectedIndex = -1; this.xFileSaveMenuItem.Enabled = false; this.xFilePrintMenuItem.Enabled = false; this.xEditClearMenuItem.Enabled = false; } } } Source file -- Anderson, Kristen, Accounting, Assistant, Female, 43155 Ball, Robin, Accounting, Instructor, Female, 42723 Chin, Roger, Accounting, Full, Male,59281 Coats, William, Accounting, Assistant, Male, 45371 Doepke, Cheryl, Accounting, Full, Female, 52105 Downs, Clifton, Accounting, Associate, Male, 46887 Garafano, Karen, Finance, Associate, Female, 49000 Hill, Trevor, Management, Instructor, Male, 38590 Jackson, Carole, Accounting, Instructor, Female, 38781 Jacobson, Andrew, Management, Full, Male, 56281 Lewis, Karl, Management, Associate, Male, 48387 Mack, Kevin, Management, Assistant, Male, 45000 McKaye, Susan, Management, Instructor, Female, 43979 Nelsen, Beth, Finance, Full, Female, 52339 Nelson, Dale, Accounting, Full, Male, 54578 Palermo, Sheryl, Accounting, Associate, Female, 45617 Rais, Mary, Finance, Instructor, Female, 27000 Scheib, Earl, Management, Instructor, Male, 37389 Smith, Tom, Finance, Full, Male, 57167 Smythe, Janice, Management, Associate, Female, 46887 True, David, Accounting, Full, Male, 53181 Young, Jeff, Management, Assistant, Male, 43513

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  • trying to validate user input in php

    - by user225269
    I'm trying to validate user input in php. This code will check if the values are null or not. If it is null, this will require the user to input the values that are null. When all the text boxes in the html form that came before this. This code will show the submit button, and that submit button will save the inputted data into the mysql database. But the problem is that the value that is saved is zero zero and zero, what might be the cause of this? <html> <head> <title>Admission Information Sheet</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; Western (ISO-8859-1)"> <meta name="author" content=" "> <title> <style> input { font-size: 16px;} </style> <?php include('header.php'); ?> <div id="main_content"> </div> <?php include('footer.php'); ?> <table border="1" width="900" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> <tr> <form name="form1.1" method="POST" action="aisaction.php"> <?php $NURSE = $_POST[nurse]; $TELNUM = $_POST[telnum]; $HOSPNUM = $_POST[hnum]; $ROOMNUM = $_POST[rnum]; $LASTNAME = $_POST[lname]; $FIRSTNAME = $_POST[fname]; $MIDNAME = $_POST[mname]; $AD = $_POST[ad]; $ADATE = $_POST[adate]; $ADTIME = $_POST[adtime]; $CSTAT = $_POST[cs]; $AGE = $_POST[age]; $BDAY = $_POST[bday]; $SEX = $_POST[sex]; ?> <td> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <tr> <td colspan="12" style="background:#9ACD32; color:white; border:white 1px solid; text-align: center"><strong><font size="3">ADMISSION INFORMATION SHEET</strong></td> </tr> <tr> </td><br> <td width="54"><font size="3">Hospital #</td> <td width="3">:</td> <td width="168"><input type="display" name="hnum" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$HOSPNUM";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($HOSPNUM)) print "* Hospital Number required!<br>"; ?> </td> <td width="41"><font size="3">Room #</td> <td width="3">:</td> <td width="168"><input type="display" name="rnum" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$ROOMNUM";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($ROOMNUM)) print "* Room Number required!<br>"; ?> </td> <td width="67"><font size="3">Admission Date</td> <td width="3">:</td> <td width="168"><input type="display" name="adate" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$ADATE";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($ADATE)) print "* Admission Date required!<br>"; ?> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><font size="3">Last Name</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="lname" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$LASTNAME";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($LASTNAME)) print "* Last Name required!<br>"; ?> </td> <td><font size="3">First Name</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="fname" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$FIRSTNAME";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($FIRSTNAME)) print "* First Name required!<br>"; ?> </td> <td><font size="3">Middle Name</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="mname" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$MIDNAME";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($MIDNAME)) print "* Middle Name required!<br>"; ?> </td> <td><font size="3">Admit time</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="mname" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$ADTIME";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($ADTIME)) print "* Adtime required!<br>"; ?> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><font size="3">Civil Status</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="cs" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$CSTAT";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($CSTAT)) print "* Civil Status required!<br>"; ?> </td> <td><font size="3">Age</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="age" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$AGE";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($AGE)) print "* Age required!<br>"; ?> </td> <td><font size="3">Birthday</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="bday" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$BDAY";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($BDAY)) print "* Birthday required!<br>"; ?> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><font size="3">Address</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="address" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$AD";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($AD)) print "* Address required!<br>"; ?> </td> <td><font size="3">Telephone #</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="telnum" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$TELNUM";?>"></td> <td width="23"><font size="3">Sex</td> <td width="3">:</td> <td width="174"><input type="display" name="sex" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$SEX";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($SEX)) print "* Gender required!<br>"; ?> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><font size="3">Pls. Check</td> <td>:</td> <td><input name="stats1" type="checkbox" id="SSS" value="SSS">SSS</td> <td><font size="3"></td> <td>:</td> <td><input name="stats1" type="checkbox" id="nonmed" value="NonMedicare">Non Medicare</td> <td><font size="3"></td> <td>:</td> <td><input name="stats1" type="checkbox" id="sh" value="stockholder">Stockholder</td> </tr> <tr> <td><font size="3"></td> <td></td> <td><input name="stats1" type="checkbox" id="gsis" value="GSIS">GSIS</td> <td><font size="3"></td> <td></td> <td><input name="stats1" type="checkbox" id="senior" value="seniorcitizen">Senior-Citizen</td> <tr> <td><font size="3"></td> <td></td> <td><input name="stats1" type="checkbox" id="dep" value="dependent">Dependent</td> <td><font size="3"></td> <td></td> <td><input name="stats1" type="checkbox" id="emp" value="employee">Employee</td> </tr> <tr> <td><font size="3">Attending Nurse</td> <td>:</td> <td><input type="display" name="nurse" disabled="true" value= "<?php print "$NURSE";?>"><br> <font color="red"> <?php if(empty($NURSE)) print "* Admitting/Attending Nurse required!<br>"; ?> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td><input type="button" value="Back" onClick="history.go(-1);return true;"> <?php $val1 = $_POST['NURSE']; if($_POST['NURSE'] !="") { ?> <form action="aisaction.php" method="POST" target="_window"> <input type="hidden" name="submit" value="yes"> <input type="submit" value="submit"> </form> <?php } ?> </td> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </form> </tr> </table> </head> </html>

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