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  • geb StaleElementReferenceException

    - by Brian Mortenson
    I have just started using geb with webdriver for automating testing. As I understand it, when I define content on a page, the page element should be looked up each time I invoke a content definition. //In the content block of SomeModule, which is part of a moduleList on the page: itemLoaded { waitFor{ !loading.displayed } } loading { $('.loading') } //in the page definition moduleItems {index -> moduleList SomeModule, $("#module-list > .item"), index} //in a test on this page def item = moduleItems(someIndex) assert item.itemLoaded So in this code, I think $('.loading') should be called repeatedly, to find the element on the page by its selector, within the context of the module's base element. Yet I sometimes get a StaleElementReference exception at this point. As far as I can tell, the element does not get removed from the page, but even if it does, that should not produce this exception unless $ is doing some caching behind the scenes, but if that were the case it would cause all sorts of other problems. Can someone help me understand what's happening here? Why is it possible to get a StaleElementReferenceException while looking up an element? A pointer to relevant documentation or geb source code would be useful as well.

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  • Rails 4 testing bug?

    - by Jamato
    Situation: if we add two identic line items into a cart, we update line item quantity instead of adding a duplicate.In browser everything works fine but in unit testing section something fails because of an empty cycle in code. Which I wanted to use to update all prices. Why? Is that a unit test engine bug? LineItem.all and cart.line_items in process of testing produce two DIFFERENT structures. #<LineItem id: 980190964, product_id: 1, cart_id: 999, created_at: "2014-06-01 00:21:28", updated_at: "2014-06-01 00:21:28", quantity: 2, price: #<BigDecimal:ba0fb544,'0.4E1',9(27)>> #<LineItem id: 980190964, product_id: 1, cart_id: 999, created_at: "2014-06-01 00:21:28", updated_at: "2014-06-01 00:21:28", quantity: 1, price: #<BigDecimal:ba0d1b04,'0.4E1',9(27)>> cart.line_items guy did not update quantity Code itself (produces LineItem which is then saved in line_item_controller which calls this method) class Cart < ActiveRecord::Base has_many :line_items, dependent: :destroy def add_product(product_id) # LOOK THIS CYCLE BREAKS UNIT TEST, SRSLY, I MEAN IT line_items.each do |item| end current_item = line_items.find_by(product_id: product_id) fresh_price = Product.find_by(id: product_id).price if current_item current_item.quantity += 1 else current_item = line_items.build(product_id: product_id, price: fresh_price) end return current_item end ... Unit test code test "non-unique item added" do cart = Cart.new(:id => 999) line_item0 = cart.add_product(2) line_item0.save line_item1 = cart.add_product(1) line_item1.save assert_equal 2, cart.line_items.size #success line_item2 = cart.add_product(1) line_item2.save assert_equal 2, cart.line_items.size, "what?" assert cart.total_price > 15 #fail, prices are not enough, quantity of product1 = 1 #we get total price from quantity, it's a simple method in model end And once again: IT DOES WORK in browser as it should. Even with cycle. I feel so dumb right now...

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  • What encoding does c32rtomb convert to?

    - by R. Martinho Fernandes
    The functions c32rtomb and mbrtoc32 from <cuchar>/<uchar.h> are described in the C Unicode TR (draft) as performing conversions between UTF-321 and "multibyte characters". (...) If s is not a null pointer, the c32rtomb function determines the number of bytes needed to represent the multibyte character that corresponds to the wide character given by c32 (including any shift sequences), and stores the multibyte character representation in the array whose first element is pointed to by s. (...) What is this "multibyte character representation"? I'm actually interested in the behaviour of the following program: #include <cassert> #include <cuchar> #include <string> int main() { std::u32string u32 = U"this is a wide string"; std::string narrow = "this is a wide string"; std::string converted(1000, '\0'); char* ptr = &converted[0]; std::mbstate_t state {}; for(auto u : u32) { ptr += std::c32rtomb(ptr, u, &state); } converted.resize(ptr - &converted[0]); assert(converted == narrow); } Is the assertion in it guaranteed to hold1? 1 Working under the assumption that __STDC_UTF_32__ is defined.

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  • Wrong class type in objective C

    - by Max Hui
    I have a parent class and a child class. GameObjectBase (parent) GameObjectPlayer(child). When I override a method in Child class and call it using [myPlayerClass showNextFrame] It is calling the parent class one. It turns out in the debugger, I see the myPlayerClass was indeed class type GameObjectBase (which is the parent class) How come? GameObjectBase.h #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> #import "cocos2d.h" @class GameLayer; @interface GameObjectBase : NSObject { /* CCSprite *gameObjectSprite; // Sprite representing this game object GameLayer *parentGameLayer; */ // Reference of the game layer this object // belongs to } @property (nonatomic, assign) CCSprite *gameObjectSprite; @property (nonatomic, assign) GameLayer *parentGameLayer; // Class method. Autorelease + (id) initWithGameLayer:(GameLayer *) gamelayer imageFileName:(NSString *) fileName; // "Virtual methods" that the derived class should implement. // If not implemented, this method will be called and Assert game - (void) update: (ccTime) dt; - (void) showNextFrame; @end GameObjectPlayer.h #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> #import "GameObjectBase.h" @interface GameObjectPlayer : GameObjectBase { int direction; } @property (nonatomic) int direction; @end GameLayer.h #import "cocos2d.h" #import "GameObjectPlayer.h" @interface GameLayer : CCLayer { } // returns a CCScene that contains the GameLayer as the only child +(CCScene *) scene; @property (nonatomic, strong) GameObjectPlayer *player; @end When I call examine in debugger what type "temp" is in this function inside GameLayer class, it's giving parent class GameObjectBase instead of subclass GameObjectPlayer - (void) update:(ccTime) dt { GameObjectPlayer *temp = _player; [temp showNextFrame]; }

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  • Integrating Flickr with ASP.Net application

    - by sreejukg
    Flickr is the popular photo management and sharing application offered by yahoo. The services from flicker allow you to store and share photos and videos online. Flicker offers strong API support for almost all services they provide. Using this API, developers can integrate photos to their public website. Since 2005, developers have collaborated on top of Flickr's APIs to build fun, creative, and gorgeous experiences around photos that extend beyond Flickr. In this article I am going to demonstrate how easily you can bring the photos stored on flicker to your website. Let me explain the scenario this article is trying to address. I have a flicker account where I upload photos and share in many ways offered by Flickr. Now I have a public website, instead of re-upload the photos again to public website, I want to show this from Flickr. Also I need complete control over what photo to display. So I went and referred the Flickr documentation and there is API support ready to address my scenario (and more… ). FlickerAPI for ASP.Net To Integrate Flicker with ASP.Net applications, there is a library available in CodePlex. You can find it here http://flickrnet.codeplex.com/ Visit the URL and download the latest version. The download includes a Zip file, when you unzip you will get a number of dlls. Since I am going to use ASP.Net application, I need FlickrNet.dll. See the screenshot of all the dlls, and there is a help file available in the download (.chm) for your reference. Once you have the dll, you need to use Flickr API from your website. I assume you have a flicker account and you are familiar with Flicker services. Arrange your photos using Sets in Flickr In flicker, you can define sets and add your uploaded photos to sets. You can compare set to photo album. A set is a logical collection of photos, which is an excellent option for you to categorize your photos. Typically you will have a number of sets each set having few photos. You can write application that brings photos from sets to your website. For the purpose of this article I already created a set Flickr and added some photos to it. Once you logged in to Flickr, you can see the Sets under the Menu. In the Sets page, you will see all the sets you have created. As you notice, you can see certain sample images I have uploaded just to test the functionality. Though I wish I couldn’t create good photos so please bear with me. I have created 2 photo sets named Blue Album and Red Album. Click on the image for the set, will take you to the corresponding set page. In the set “Red Album” there are 4 photos and the set has a unique ID (highlighted in the URL). You can simply retrieve the photos with the set id from your application. In this article I am going to retrieve the images from Red album in my ASP.Net page. For that First I need to setup FlickrAPI for my usage. Configure Flickr API Key As I mentioned, we are going to use Flickr API to retrieve the photos stored in Flickr. In order to get access to Flickr API, you need an API key. To create an API key, navigate to the URL http://www.flickr.com/services/apps/create/ Click on Request an API key link, now you need to tell Flickr whether your application in commercial or non-commercial. I have selected a non-commercial key. Now you need to enter certain information about your application. Once you enter the details, Click on the submit button. Now Flickr will create the API key for your application. Generating non-commercial API key is very easy, in couple of steps the key will be generated and you can use the key in your application immediately. ASP.Net application for retrieving photos Now we need write an ASP.Net application that display pictures from Flickr. Create an empty web application (I named this as FlickerIntegration) and add a reference to FlickerNet.dll. Add a web form page to the application where you will retrieve and display photos(I have named this as Gallery.aspx). After doing all these, the solution explorer will look similar to following. I have used the below code in the Gallery.aspx page. The output for the above code is as follows. I am going to explain the code line by line here. First it is adding a reference to the FlickrNet namespace. using FlickrNet; Then create a Flickr object by using your API key. Flickr f = new Flickr("<yourAPIKey>"); Now when you retrieve photos, you can decide what all fields you need to retrieve from Flickr. Every photo in Flickr contains lots of information. Retrieving all will affect the performance. For the demonstration purpose, I have retrieved all the available fields as follows. PhotoSearchExtras.All But if you want to specify the fields you can use logical OR operator(|). For e.g. the following statement will retrieve owner name and date taken. PhotoSearchExtras extraInfo = PhotoSearchExtras.OwnerName | PhotoSearchExtras.DateTaken; Then retrieve all the photos from a photo set using PhotoSetsGetPhotos method. I have passed the PhotoSearchExtras object created earlier. PhotosetPhotoCollection photos = f.PhotosetsGetPhotos("72157629872940852", extraInfo); The PhotoSetsGetPhotos method will return a collection of Photo objects. You can just navigate through the collection using a foreach statement. foreach (Photo p in photos) {     //access each photo properties } Photo class have lot of properties that map with the properties from Flickr. The chm documentation comes along with the CodePlex download is a great asset for you to understand the fields. In the above code I just used the following p.LargeUrl – retrieves the large image url for the photo. p.ThumbnailUrl – retrieves the thumbnail url for the photo p.Title – retrieves the Title of the photo p.DateUploaded – retrieves the date of upload Visual Studio intellisense will give you all properties, so it is easy, you can just try with Visual Studio intellisense to find the right properties you are looking for. Most of hem are self-explanatory. So you can try retrieving the required properties. In the above code, I just pushed the photos to the page. In real time you can use the retrieved photos along with JQuery libraries to create animated photo galleries, slideshows etc. Configuration and Troubleshooting If you get access denied error while executing the code, you need to disable the caching in Flickr API. FlickrNet cache the photos to your local disk when retrieved. You can specify a cache folder where the application need write permission. You can specify the Cache folder in the code as follows. Flickr.CacheLocation = Server.MapPath("./FlickerCache/"); If the application doesn’t have have write permission to the cache folder, the application will throw access denied error. If you cannot give write permission to the cache folder, then you must disable the caching. You can do this from code as follows. Flickr.CacheDisabled = true; Disabling cache will have an impact on the performance. Take care! Also you can define the Flickr settings in web.config file.You can find the documentation here. http://flickrnet.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=ExampleConfigFile&ProjectName=flickrnet Flickr is a great place for storing and sharing photos. The API access allows developers to do seamless integration with the photos uploaded on Flickr.

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  • PeopleSoft Upgrades, Fusion, & BI for Leading European PeopleSoft Applications Customers

    - by Mark Rosenberg
    With so many industry-leading services firms around the globe managing their businesses with PeopleSoft, it’s always an adventure setting up times and meetings for us to keep in touch with them, especially those outside of North America who often do not get to join us at Oracle OpenWorld. Fortunately, during the first two weeks of May, Nigel Woodland (Oracle’s Service Industries Director for the EMEA region) and I successfully blocked off our calendars to visit seven different customers spanning four countries in Western Europe. We met executives and leaders at four Staffing industry firms, two Professional Services firms that engage in consulting and auditing, and a Financial Services firm. As we shared the latest information regarding product capabilities and plans, we also gained valuable insight into the hot technology topics facing these businesses. What we heard was both informative and inspiring, and I suspect other Oracle PeopleSoft applications customers can benefit from one or more of the following observations from our trip. Great IT Plans Get Executed When You Respect the Users Each of our visits followed roughly the same pattern. After introductions, Nigel outlined Oracle’s product and technology strategy, including a discussion of how we at Oracle invest in each layer of the “technology stack” to provide customers with unprecedented business management capabilities and choice. Then, I provided the specifics of the PeopleSoft product line’s investment strategy, detailing the dramatic number of rich usability and functionality enhancements added to release 9.1 since its general availability in 2009 and the game-changing capabilities slated for 9.2. What was most exciting about each of these discussions was that shortly after my talking about what customers can do with release 9.1 right now to drive up user productivity and satisfaction, I saw the wheels turning in the minds of our audiences. Business analyst and end user-configurable tools and technologies, such as WorkCenters and the Related Action Framework, that provide the ability to tailor a “central command center” to the exact needs of each recruiter, biller, and every other role in the organization were exactly what each of our customers had been looking for. Every one of our audiences agreed that these tools which demonstrate a respect for the user would finally help IT pole vault over the wall of resistance that users had often raised in the past. With these new user-focused capabilities, IT is positioned to definitively partner with the business, instead of drag the business along, to unlock the value of their investment in PeopleSoft. This topic of respecting the user emerged during our very first visit, which was at Vital Services Group at their Head Office “The Mill” in Manchester, England. (If you are a student of architecture and are ever in Manchester, you should stop in to see this amazingly renovated old mill building.) I had just finished explaining our PeopleSoft 9.2 roadmap, and Mike Code, PeopleSoft Systems Manager for this innovative staffing company, said, “Mark, the new features you’ve shown us in 9.1/9.2 are very relevant to our business. As we forge ahead with the 9.1 upgrade, the ability to configure a targeted user interface with WorkCenters, Related Actions, Pivot Grids, and Alerts will enable us to satisfy the business that this upgrade is for them and will deliver tangible benefits. In fact, you’ve highlighted that we need to start talking to the business to keep up the momentum to start reviewing the 9.2 upgrade after we get to 9.1, because as much as 9.1 and PeopleTools 8.52 offers, what you’ve shown us for 9.2 is what we’ve envisioned was ultimately possible with our investment in PeopleSoft applications.” We also received valuable feedback about our investment for the Staffing industry when we visited with Hans Wanders, CIO of Randstad (the second largest Staffing company in the world) in the Netherlands. After our visit, Hans noted, “It was very interesting to see how the PeopleSoft applications have developed. I was truly impressed by many of the new developments.” Hans and Mike, sincere thanks for the validation that our team’s hard work and dedication to “respecting the users” is worth the effort! Co-existence of PeopleSoft and Fusion Applications Just Makes Sense As a “product person,” one of the most rewarding things about visiting customers is that they actually want to talk to me. Sometimes, they want to discuss a product area that we need to enhance; other times, they are interested in learning how to extract more value from their applications; and still others, they want to tell me how they are using the applications to drive real value for the business. During this trip, I was very pleased to hear that several of our customers not only thought the co-existence of Fusion applications alongside PeopleSoft applications made sense in theory, but also that they were aggressively looking at how to deploy one or more Fusion applications alongside their PeopleSoft HCM and FSCM applications. The most common deployment plan in the works by three of the organizations is to upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.1 or 9.2, and then adopt one of the new Fusion HCM applications, such as Fusion Performance Management or the full suite of  Fusion Talent Management. For example, during an applications upgrade planning discussion with the staffing company Hays plc., Mark Thomas, who is Hays’ UK IT Director, commented, “We are very excited about where we can go with the latest versions of the PeopleSoft applications in conjunction with Fusion Talent Management.” Needless to say, this news was very encouraging, because it reiterated that our applications investment strategy makes good business sense for our customers. Next Generation Business Intelligence Is the Key to the Future The third, and perhaps most exciting, lesson I learned during this journey is that our audiences already know that the latest generation of Business Intelligence technologies will be the “secret sauce” for organizations to transform business in radical ways. While a number of the organizations we visited on the trip have deployed or are deploying Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and the associated analytics applications to provide dashboards of easy-to-understand, user-configurable metrics that help optimize business performance according to current operating procedures, what’s most exciting to them is being able to use Business Intelligence to change the way an organization does business, grows revenue, and makes a profit. In particular, several executives we met asked whether we can help them minimize the need to have perfectly structured data and at the same time generate analytics that improve order fulfillment decision-making. To them, the path to future growth lies in having the ability to analyze unstructured data rapidly and intuitively and leveraging technology’s ability to detect patterns that a human cannot reasonably be expected to see. For illustrative purposes, here is a good example of a business problem where analyzing a combination of structured and unstructured data can produce better results. If you have a resource manager trying to decide which person would be the best fit for an assignment in terms of ensuring (a) client satisfaction, (b) the individual’s satisfaction with the work, (c) least travel distance, and (d) highest margin, you traditionally compare resource qualifications to assignment needs, calculate margins on past work with the client, and measure distances. To perform these comparisons, you are likely to need the organization to have profiles setup, people ranked against profiles, margin targets setup, margins measured, distances setup, distances measured, and more. As you can imagine, this requires organizations to plan and implement data setup, capture, and quality management initiatives to ensure that dependable information is available to support resourcing analysis and decisions. In the fast-paced, tight-budget world in which most organizations operate today, the effort and discipline required to maintain high-quality, structured data like those described in the above example are certainly not desirable and in some cases are not feasible. You can imagine how intrigued our audiences were when I informed them that we are ready to help them analyze volumes of unstructured data, detect trends, and produce recommendations. Our discussions delved into examples of how the firms could leverage Oracle’s Secure Enterprise Search and Endeca technologies to keyword search against, compare, and learn from unstructured resource and assignment data. We also considered examples of how they could employ Oracle Real-Time Decisions to generate statistically significant recommendations based on similar resourcing scenarios that have produced the desired satisfaction and profit margin results. --- Although I had almost no time for sight-seeing during this trip to Europe, I have to say that it may have been one of the most energizing and engaging trips of my career. Showing these dedicated customers how they can give every user a uniquely tailored set of tools and address business problems in ways that have to date been impossible made the journey across the Atlantic more than worth it. If any of these three topics intrigue you, I’d recommend you contact your Oracle applications representative to arrange for more detailed discussions with the appropriate members of our organization.

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  • Visiting the Emtel Data Centre

    Back in February at the first event of the Emtel Knowledge Series (EKS) I spoke to various people at Emtel about their data centre here on the island. I was trying to see whether it would be possible to arrange a meeting over there for a selected group of our community members. Well, let's say it like this... My first approach wasn't that promising and far from successful but during the following months there were more and more occasions to get in touch with the "right" contact persons at Emtel to make it happen... Setting up an appointment and pre-requisites The major improvement came during a Boot Camp for Windows Phone 8.1 App development organised by Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands in cooperation with Emtel at the Emtel World, Ebene. Apart from learning bits and pieces regarding Universal Apps I took the opportunity to get in touch with Arvin Lockee, Sales Executive - Data, during our lunch break. And this really kicked off the whole procedure. Prior to get access to the Emtel data centre it is requested that you provide full name and National ID of anyone going to visit. Also, it should be noted that there was only a limited amount of seats available. Anyways, packed with this information I posted through the usual social media channels. Responses came in very quickly and based on First-come, first-serve (FCFS) principle I noted down the details and forwarded them to Emtel in order to fix a date and time for the visit. In preparation on our side, all attendees exchanged contact details and we organised transport options to go to the data centre in Arsenal. The day before and on the day of our meeting, Arvin send me a reminder to check whether everything is still confirmed and ready to go... Of course, it was! Arriving at the Emtel Data Centre As I'm coming from Flic En Flac towards the North, we agreed that I'm going to pick up a couple of young fellows near the old post office in Port Louis. All went well, except that Sean eventually might be living in another time zone compared to the rest of us. Anyway, after some extended stop we were complete and arrived just in time in Arsenal to meet and greet with Ish and Veer. Again, Emtel is taking access procedures to their data centre very serious and the gate stayed close until all our IDs had been noted and compared to the list of registered attendees. Despite having a good laugh at the mixture of old and new ID cards it was a straight-forward processing. The ward was very helpful and guided us to the waiting area at the entrance section of the building. Shortly after we were welcomed by Kamlesh Bokhoree, the Data Centre Officer. He gave us brief introduction into the rules and regulations during our visit, like no photography allowed, not touching the buttons, and following his instructions through the whole visit. Of course! Inside the data centre Next, he explained us the multi-factor authentication system using a combination of bio-metric data, like finger print reader, and "classic" pin panel. The Emtel data centre provides multiple services and next to co-location for your own hardware they also offer storage options for your backup and archive data in their massive, fire-resistant vault. Very impressive to get to know about the considerations that have been done in choosing the right location and how to set up the whole premises. It should also be noted that there is 24/7 CCTV surveillance inside and outside the buildings. Strengths of the Emtel TIER 3 Data Centre, Mauritius Finally, we were guided into the first server room. And wow, the whole setup is cleverly planned and outlined in the architecture. From the false floor and ceilings in order to provide optimum air flow, over to the separation of cold and hot aisles between the full-size server racks, and of course the monitored air conditions in order to analyse and watch changes in temperature, smoke detection and other parameters. And not surprisingly everything has been implemented in two independent circuits. There is a standardised classification for the construction and operation of data centres world-wide, and the Emtel's one has been designed to be a TIER 4 building but due to the lack of an alternative power supplier on the island it is officially registered as a TIER 3 compliant data centre. Maybe in the long run there might be a second supplier of energy next to CEB... time will tell. Luckily, the data centre is integrated into the National Fibre Optic Gigabit Ring and Emtel already connects internationally through diverse undersea cable routes like SAFE & LION/LION2 out of Mauritius and through several other providers for onwards connectivity. The data centre is part of the National Fibre Optic Gigabit Ring and has redundant internet connectivity onwards. Meanwhile, Arvin managed to join our little group of geeks and he supported Kamlesh in answering our technical questions regarding the capacities and general operation of the data centre. Visiting the NOC and its dedicated team of IT professionals was surely one of the visual highlights. Seeing their wall of screens to monitor any kind of activities on the data lines, the managed servers and the activity in and around the building was great. Even though I'm using a multi-head setup since years I cannot keep it up with that setup... ;-) But I got a couple of ideas on how to improve my work spaces here at the office. Clear advantages of hosting your e-commerce and mobile backends locally After the completely isolated NOC area we continued our Q&A session with Kamlesh and Arvin in the second server room which is dedictated to shared environments. On first thought it should be well-noted that there is lots of space for full-sized racks and therefore co-location of your own hardware. Actually, given the feedback that there will be upcoming changes in prices the facilities at the Emtel data centre are getting more and more competitive and interesting for local companies, especially small and medium enterprises. After seeing this world-class infrastructure available on the island, I'm already considering of moving one of my root servers abroad to be co-located here on the island. This would provide an improved user experience in terms of site performance and latency. This would be a good improvement, especially for upcoming e-commerce solutions for two of my local clients. Later on, we actually started the conversation of additional services that could be a catalyst for the local market in order to attract more small and medium companies to take the data centre into their evaluations regarding online activities. Until today Emtel does not provide virtualised server environments but there might be ongoing plans in the future to cover this field as well. Emtel is a mobile operator and internet connectivity provider in the first place, entering a market of managed and virtualised server infrastructures including capacities in terms of cloud storage and computing are rather new and there is a continuous learning curve at Emtel, too. You cannot just jump into a new market and see how it works out... And I appreciate Emtel's approach towards a solid fundament and then building new services on top of that. Emtel as a future one-stop-shop service provider for all your internet and telecommunications needs. Emtel's promotional video about their TIER 3 data centre in Arsenal, Mauritius More details are thoroughly described in Emtel's brochure of their data centre. Check out their PDF document here. Thanks for this opportunity Visiting and walking through the Emtel data centre for more than 2 hours was a great experience. As representative of the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community (MSCC) I would like to thank anyone at Emtel involved in the process of making it happen, and especially to Arvin Lockee and Kamlesh Bokhoree for their time and patience in explaining the infrastructure and answering all the endless questions from our members. Thank You!

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  • Build an Organization Chart In Visio 2010

    - by Mysticgeek
    With trying to manage a business these days, it’s very important to have an Organization Chart to keep everything manageable. Here we’ll show you how to build one in Visio 2010. This Guest Article was written by our friends over at Office 2010 Club. Need for Organization Charts The need of creating Organization Charts are becoming indispensable these days, as companies start focusing on extensive hiring for far reach availability, increase in productivity and targeting diverse markets. Considering this rigorous change, creating an organization chart can help stakeholders in comprehending the ever growing organization structure & hierarchy with an ease. It shows the basic structure of organization along with defining the relationships between employees working in different departments. Opportunely, Microsoft Visio 2010 offers an easy way to create Organization chart. As before now, orthodox ways of listing organization hierarchy have been used for defining the structure of departments along with communication possible including; horizontal and vertical communications. To transform these lists which defines organizational structure, into a detailed chart, Visio 2010 includes an add-in for importing Excel spreadsheet, which comes in handy for pulling out data from spreadsheet to create an organization chart. Importantly, you don’t need to indulge yourself in maze of defining organizational hierarchies and chalking-out structure, as you just need to specify the column & row headers, along with data you need to import and it will automatically create out chart defining; organizational hierarchies with specified credentials of each employee, categorized in their corresponding departments. Creating Organization Charts in Visio 2010 To start off with, we have created an Excel spreadsheet having fields, Name, Supervisor, Designation, Department and Phone. The Name field contains name of all the employees working in different departments, whereas Supervisor field contains name of supervisors or team leads. This field is vital for creating Organization Chart, as it defines the basic structure & hierarchy in chart. Now launch Visio 2010, head over to View tab, under Add-Ons menu, from Business options, click Organization Chart Wizard. This will start Organization Chart Wizard, in the first step, enable Information that’s already stored in a file or database option, and click Next. As we are importing Excel sheet, select the second option for importing Excel spreadsheet. Specify the Excel file path and click Next to continue. In this step, you need to specify the fields which actually defines the structure of an organization. In our case, these are Name & Supervisor fields. After specifying fields, click Next to Proceed further. As organization chart is primarily for showing the hierarchy of departments/employees working in organization along with how they are linked together, and who supervises whom. Considering this, in this step we will leave out Supervisor field, because it’s inclusion wouldn’t be necessary as Visio automatically chalks-out the basic structure defined in Excel sheet. Add the rest of the fields under Displayed fields category, and click Next. Now choose the fields which you want to include in Organization Chart’s shapes and click Next. This step is about breaking the chart into multiple pages, if you are dealing with 100+ employees, you may want to specify numbers of pages on which Organization Chart will be displayed. But in our case, we are dealing with much less amount of data, so we will enable I want the wizard to automatically break my organization chart across pages option. Specify the name you need to show on the top of the page. If you are having less than 20 hierarchies, enter the name of the highest ranked employee in organization and click Finish to end the wizard. It will instantly create an Organization chart out of specified Excel spreadsheet. Highest ranked employee will be shown on top of the organization chart, supervising various employees from different departments. As shown below, his immediate subordinates further manages other employees and so on. For advance customizations, head over to Org Chart tab, here you will find different groups for setting up the Org Chart’s hierarchy and manage other employees’ positions. Under Arrange group, shapes’ arrangements can be changed and it provides easy navigation through the chart. You can also change the type of the position and hide subordinates of selected employee. From Picture group, you can insert a picture of the employees, departments, etc. From synchronization group, you have the option of creating a synced copy and expanding subordinates of selected employee. Under Organization Data group, you can change whole layout of Organization chart from Display Options including; shape display, show divider, enable/disable imported fields, change block position, and fill colors, etc. If at any point of time, you need to insert new position or announce vacancy, Organization Chart stencil is always available on the left sidebar. Drag the desired Organization Chart shape into main diagram page, to maintain the structure integrity, i.e, for inserting subordinates for a specific employee, drag the position shape over the existing employee shape box. For instance, We have added a consultant in organization, who is directly under CEO, for maintaining this, we have dragged the Consultant box and just dropped it over the CEO box to make the immediate subordinate position. Adding details to new position is a cinch, just right-click new position box and click Properties. This will open up Shape Data dialog, start filling in all the relevant information and click OK. Here you can see the newly created position is easily populated with all the specified information. Now expanding an Organization Chart doesn’t require maintenance of long lists any more. Under Design tab, you can also try out different designs & layouts over organization chart to make it look more flamboyant and professional.  Conclusion An Organization Chart is a great way of showing detailed organizational hierarchies; with defined credentials of employees, departments structure, new vacancies, newly hired employees, recently added departments, and importantly shows most convenient way of interaction between different departments & employees, etc. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Geek Reviews: Using Dia as a Free Replacement for Microsoft VisioMysticgeek Blog: Create Appealing Charts In Excel 2007Create Charts in Excel 2007 the Easy Way with Chart AdvisorCreate a Hyperlink in a Word 2007 Flow Chart and Hide Annoying ScreenTipsCreate A Flow Chart In Word 2007 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Know if Someone Accessed Your Facebook Account Shop for Music with Windows Media Player 12 Access Free Documentaries at BBC Documentaries Rent Cameras In Bulk At CameraRenter Download Songs From MySpace Steve Jobs’ iPhone 4 Keynote Video

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  • Lessons from rewriting POP Forums for MVC, open source-like

    - by Jeff
    It has been a ton of work, interrupted over the last two years by unemployment, moving, a baby, failing to sell houses and other life events, but it's really exciting to see POP Forums v9 coming together. I'm not even sure when I decided to really commit to it as an open source project, but working on the same team as the CodePlex folks probably had something to do with it. Moving along the roadmap I set for myself, the app is now running on a quasi-production site... we launched MouseZoom last weekend. (That's a post-beta 1 build of the forum. There's also some nifty Silverlight DeepZoom goodness on that site.)I have to make a point to illustrate just how important starting over was for me. I started this forum thing for my sites in old ASP more than ten years ago. What a mess that stuff was, including SQL injection vulnerabilities and all kinds of crap. It went to ASP.NET in 2002, but even then, it felt a little too much like script. More than a year later, in 2003, I did an honest to goodness rewrite. If you've been in this business of writing code for any amount of time, you know how much you hate what you wrote a month ago, so just imagine that with seven years in between. The subsequent versions still carried a fair amount of crap, and that's why I had to start over, to make a clean break. Mind you, much of that crap is still running on some of my production sites in a stable manner, but it's a pain in the ass to maintain.So with that clean break, there is much that I have learned. These are a few of those lessons, in no particular order...Avoid shiny object syndromeOver the years, I've embraced new things without bothering to ask myself why. I remember spending the better part of a year trying to adapt this app to use the membership and profile API's in ASP.NET, just because they were there. They didn't solve any known problem. Early on in this version, I dabbled in exotic ORM's, even though I already had the fundamental SQL that I knew worked. I bloated up the client side code with all kinds of jQuery UI and plugins just because, and it got in the way. All the new shiny can be distracting, and I've come to realize that I've allowed it to be a distraction most of my professional life.Just query what you needI've spent a lot of time over-thinking how to query data. In the SQL world, this means exotic joins, special caches, the read-update-commit loop of ORM's, etc. There are times when you have to remind yourself that you aren't Facebook, you'll never be Facebook, and that databases are in fact intended to serve data. In a lot of projects, back in the day, I used to have these big, rich data objects and pass them all over the place, through various application tiers, when in reality, all I needed was some ID from the entity. I try to be mindful of how many queries hit the database on a given request, but I don't obsess over it. I just get what I need.Don't spend too much time worrying about your unit testsIf you've looked at any of the tests for POP Forums, you might offer an audible WTF. That's OK. There's a whole lot of mocking going on. In some cases, it points out where you're doing too much, and that's good for improving your design. In other cases it shows where your design sucks. But the biggest trap of unit testing is that you worry it should be prettier. That's a waste of time. When you write a test, in many cases before the production code, the important part is that you're testing the right thing. If you have to mock up a bunch of stuff to test the outcome, so be it, but it's not wasted time. You're still doing up the typical arrange-action-assert deal, and you'll be able to read that later if you need to.Get back to your HTTP rootsASP.NET Webforms did a reasonably decent job at abstracting us away from the stateless nature of the Web. A lot of people criticize it, but I think it all worked pretty well. These days, with MVC, jQuery, REST services, and what not, we've gone back to thinking about the wire. The nuts and bolts passing between our Web browser and server matters. This doesn't make things harder, in my opinion, it makes them easier. There is something incredibly freeing about how we approach development of Web apps now. HTTP is a really simple protocol, and the stuff we push through it, in particular HTML and JSON, are pretty simple too. The debugging points are really easy to trap and trace.Premature optimization is prematureI'll go back to the data thing for a moment. I've been known to look at a particular action or use case and stress about the number of calls that are made to the database. I'm not suggesting that it's a bad thing to keep these in mind, but if you worry about it outside of the context of the actual impact, you're wasting time. For example, I query the database for last read times in a forum separately of the user and the list of forums. The impact on performance barely exists. If I put it under load, exceeding the kind of load I expect, it still barely has an impact. Then consider it only counts for logged in users. The context of this "inefficient" action is that it doesn't matter. Did I mention I won't be Facebook?Solve your own problems firstThis is another trap I've fallen into. I've often thought about what other people might need for some feature or aspect of the app. In other words, I was willing to make design decisions based on non-existent data. How stupid is that? When I decided to truly open source this thing, building for myself first was a stated design goal. This app has to server the audiences of CoasterBuzz, MouseZoom and other sites first. In this development scenario, you don't have access to mountains of usability studies or user focus groups. You have to start with what you know.I'm sure there are other points I could make too. It has been a lot of fun to work on, and I look forward to evolving the UI as time goes on. That's where I hope to see more magic in the future.

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, July 01, 2013

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, July 01, 2013Popular ReleasesQuickMon: Version 2.10.3: Mainly just a service release - no major changes. Toolbar buttons on main and config window can now be re-arrange (using ALT key) Added property to disable corrective scriptsDotNetNuke® IFrame: IFrame 04.05.00: New DNN6/7 Manifest file and Azure Compatibility.VidCoder: 1.5.2 Beta: Fixed crash on presets with an invalid bitrate.Roadkill - .NET Wiki engine: Roadkill v1.7: New features in 1.7: New file manager: Multiple file uploads Drag and drop uploads Delete folders (admins only) Delete files (admins only) (Experimental) Syntaxhighlighting custom variable (using https://github.com/alexgorbatchev/SyntaxHighlighter) - use [[[code lang=c#|your code here]]] (Experimental) MathJax custom variable - use [[[Mathjax]]] and $$your tex$$ on the page. Improved black bar theme Site speed improvements for Javascript/CSS files - now just two files files ea...Download Sharepoint Solution package: Release 4: version updated for SP2013WinRT XAML Toolkit: WinRT XAML Toolkit - 1.5: WinRT XAML Toolkit based on the Windows 8.0 and 8.1 Preview SDKs. Do not download the source code from here if you are looking for latest updates! You can download the latest source from the SOURCE CODE page. For compiled version use NuGet. You can add it to your project in Visual Studio by going to View/Other Windows/Package Manager Console and entering: PM> Install-Package winrtxamltoolkit Features Attachable Behaviors AwaitableUI extensions Composition library for visual tree rende...Gardens Point LEX: Gardens Point LEX version 1.2.1: The main distribution is a zip file. This contains the binary executable, documentation, source code and the examples. ChangesVersion 1.2.1 has new facilities for defining and manipulating character classes. These changes make the construction of large Unicode character classes more convenient. The runtime code for performing automaton backup has been re-implemented, and is now faster for scanners that need backup. Source CodeThe distribution contains a complete VS2010 project for the appli...ZXMAK2: Version 2.7.5.7: - fix TZX emulation (Bruce Lee, Zynaps) - fix ATM 16 colors for border - add memory module PROFI 512K; add PROFI V03 rom image; fix PROFI 3.XX configTwitter image Downloader: Twitter Image Downloader 2 with Installer: Application file with Install shield and Dot Net 4.0 redistributableUltimate Music Tagger: Ultimate Music Tagger 1.0.0.0: First release of Ultimate Music TaggerBlackJumboDog: Ver5.9.2: 2013.06.28 Ver5.9.2 (1) ??????????(????SMTP?????)?????????? (2) HTTPS???????????Outlook 2013 Add-In: Configuration Form: This new version includes the following changes: - Refactored code a bit. - Removing configuration from main form to gain more space to display items. - Moved configuration to separate form. You can click the little "gear" icon to access the configuration form (still very simple). - Added option to show past day appointments from the selected day (previous in time, that is). - Added some tooltips. You will have to uninstall the previous version (add/remove programs) if you had installed it ...Terminals: Version 3.0 - Release: Changes since version 2.0:Choose 100% portable or installed version Removed connection warning when running RDP 8 (Windows 8) client Fixed Active directory search Extended Active directory search by LDAP filters Fixed single instance mode when running on Windows Terminal server Merged usage of Tags and Groups Added columns sorting option in tables No UAC prompts on Windows 7 Completely new file persistence data layer New MS SQL persistence layer (Store data in SQL database)...NuGet: NuGet 2.6: Released June 26, 2013. Release notes: http://docs.nuget.org/docs/release-notes/nuget-2.6Python Tools for Visual Studio: 2.0 Beta: We’re pleased to announce the release of Python Tools for Visual Studio 2.0 Beta. Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS) is an open-source plug-in for Visual Studio which supports programming with the Python language. PTVS supports a broad range of features including CPython/IronPython, Edit/Intellisense/Debug/Profile, Cloud, HPC, IPython, and cross platform debugging support. For a quick overview of the general IDE experience, please watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuewiStN...Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows 8 and WP8 (v1.3 beta): Preview: New MPEG DASH adaptive streaming plugin for Windows Azure Media Services Preview: New Ultraviolet CFF plugin. Preview: New WP7 version with WP8 compatibility. (source code only) Source code is now available via CodePlex Git Misc bug fixes and improvements: WP8 only: Added optional fullscreen and mute buttons to default xaml JS only: protecting currentTime from returning infinity. Some videos would cause currentTime to be infinity which could cause errors in plugins expectin...AssaultCube Reloaded: 2.5.8: SERVER OWNERS: note that the default maprot has changed once again. Linux has Ubuntu 11.10 32-bit precompiled binaries and Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit precompiled binaries, but you can compile your own as it also contains the source. If you are using Mac or other operating systems, please wait while we continue to try to package for those OSes. Or better yet, try to compile it. If it fails, download a virtual machine. The server pack is ready for both Windows and Linux, but you might need to compi...Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.95: update parser to allow for CSS3 calc( function to nest. add recognition of -pponly (Preprocess-Only) switch in AjaxMinManifestTask build task. Fix crashing bug in EXE when processing a manifest file using the -xml switch and an error message needs to be displayed (like a missing input file). Create separate Clean and Bundle build tasks for working with manifest files (AjaxMinManifestCleanTask and AjaxMinBundleTask). Removed the IsCleanOperation from AjaxMinManifestTask -- use AjaxMinMan...VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: VG-Ripper 2.9.44: changes NEW: Added Support for "ImgChili.net" links FIXED: Auto UpdaterDocument.Editor: 2013.25: What's new for Document.Editor 2013.25: Improved Spell Check support Improved User Interface Minor Bug Fix's, improvements and speed upsNew ProjectsAerCloud.net Client - Java, Linux & Windows: This project source code provides a step by step guide for using AerCloud.net Framework as a Service API. For more information please visit http://www.aercloudAmiClient – Asterisk Manager Interface (AMI) client based on the Rx Framework: Asterisk Manager Interface (AMI) client based on the Rx Frameworkbaidupan: cdcddddC#??????: C#??????ImageHelper: imagehelperIP switcher: IP switcher is a simple tool for switching settings, and store presets, on networkadapters.MastersProject: A MS project with a goal of creating a fully Code Contracts verified physics engine and a relatively simple game that uses it.Multiplatform card game: Example multipatform project.PhoneTools: A collection of tools designed to help developers create beautiful Windows Phone 8 apps.rodidexter: lllSharePoint 2013 List Item Encryption: This coding exercise project enables you to encrypt/decrypt list item text field in the browser using industry standard algorithms.tvaSoft: simulation, rotor dynamics, Finite Element Analisys, FEM, ODE, torsional vibration, flexural vibrationX3DML Project: X3DML is an xml-based markup language that defines rules for modeling 3D scenes from a tag-based document. It may be usefull in 3D web design and VR.zhuang-tfs: zhuang tfs

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  • Workshops, online content show how Oracle infuses simplicity, mobility, extensibility into user experience

    - by mvaughan
    By Kathy Miedema & Misha Vaughan, Oracle Applications User Experience Oracle has made a huge investment into the user experience of its many different software product families, and recent releases showcase big changes and features that aim to promote end user engagement and efficiency by streamlining navigation and simplifying the user interface. But making Oracle’s enterprise software great-looking and usable doesn’t stop when Oracle products go out the door. The Applications User Experience (UX) team recognizes that our customers may need to customize software to fit their work processes. And that’s why we provide tools such as user experience design patterns to help you maintain the Oracle user experience as you tailor your application to fit your business needs. Often, however, customers may need some context around user experience. How has the Oracle user experience been designed and constructed? Why is a good user experience important for users? How does understanding what goes into the user experience benefit the people who purchase the software for users? There’s a short answer to these questions, and you can read about it on Usable Apps. But truly understanding Oracle’s investment and seeing how it applies across product families occasionally requires a deeper dive into the Oracle user experience, especially if you’re an influencer or decision-maker about Oracle products. To help frame these decisions, the Communications & Outreach team has developed several targeted workshops that explore what Oracle means when it talks about user experience, and provides a roadmap into where the Oracle user experience is going. These workshops require non-disclosure agreements, and have been delivered to Oracle sales folks, Oracle partners, Oracle ACE Directors and ACEs, and a few customers. Some of these audience members have been developers or have a technical background; just as many did not. Here’s a breakdown of the kind of training you can get around the Oracle user experience from the OAUX Communications & Outreach team.For Partners: George Papazzian, Principal, Naviscent with Joyce Ohgi, Oracle Oracle Fusion Applications HCM Pre-Sales Seminar:  In concert with Worldwide Alliances  and  Channels under Applications Partner Enablement Director Jonathan Vinoskey’s guidance, the Applications User Experience team delivers a two-day workshop.  Day one focuses on Oracle Fusion Applications HCM and pre-sales strategy, and Day two focuses on positioning and leveraging Oracle’s investment in the Oracle Fusion Applications user experience.  The next workshops will occur on the following dates: December 4-5, 2013 @ Manchester, UK January 29-30, 2014 @ Reston, Virginia February 2014 @ Guadalajara, Mexico (email: Shannon Whiteman) March 11-12, 2014 @ Dubai, United Arab Emirates April 1-2, 2014 @ Chicago, Illinois Partner Advisory Board: A two-day board meeting in the U.S. and U.K. to discuss four main user experience areas for Oracle Fusion Applications: simplicity, visualization & analytics, mobility, & futures. This event is limited to Oracle Diamond Partners, UX bloggers, and key UX influencers and requires legal documentation.  We will be talking about the Oracle applications UX strategy and roadmap. Partner Implementation Training on User Interface: How to Build Great-Looking, Usable Apps:  In this two-day, hands-on workshop built around Oracle’s Application Development Framework, learn how to build desktop and mobile user interfaces and mobile user interfaces based on Oracle’s experience with Fusion Applications. This workshop is for partners with a technology background who are looking for ways to tailor Fusion Applications using ADF, or have built their own custom solutions using ADF. It includes an introduction to UX design patterns and provides tools to build usability-tested UX designs. Nov 5-6, 2013 @ Redwood Shores, CA, USA January 28-29th, 2014 @ Reston, Virginia, USA February 25-26, 2014 @ Guadalajara, Mexico March 9-10, 2014 @ Dubai, United Arab Emirates To register, contact [email protected] Simplified UI Customization & Extensibility:  Pilot workshop:  We will be reviewing the proposed content for communicating the user experience tool kit available with the next release of Oracle Fusion Applications.  Our core focus will be on what toolkit components our system implementors and independent software vendors will need to respond to customer demand, whether they are extending Fusion Applications, or building custom applications, that will need to leverage the simplified UI. Dec 11th, 2013 @ Reading, UK For information: contact [email protected] Private lab tour and demos: Interested in seeing what’s going on in the Apps UX Labs?  If you are headed to the San Francisco Bay Area, let us know. We can arrange a spin through our usability labs at headquarters. OAUX Expo: This open-house forum gives partners a look at what the UX team is working on, and showcases the next-generation user experiences in a demo environment where attendees can see and touch the applications. UX Direct: Use the same methods that Oracle uses to develop its own user experiences. We help you define your users and their needs, and then provide direction on how to tailor the best user experience you can for them. For CustomersAngela Johnston, Gozel Aamoth, Teena Singh, and Yen Chan, Oracle Lab tours: See demos of soon-to-be-released products, and take a spin on usability research equipment such as our eye-tracker. Watch this video to get an idea of what you’ll see. Get our newsletter: Learn about newly released products and see where you can meet us at user group conferences. Participate in a feedback session: Join a focus group or customer feedback session to get an early look at user experience designs for the next generation of software, and provide your thoughts on how well it will work. Join the OUAB: The Oracle Usability Advisory Board meets several times a year to discuss trends in the workforce and provide direction on user experience designs. UX Direct: Use the same methods that Oracle uses to develop its own user experiences. We help you define your users and their needs, and then provide direction on how to tailor the best user experience you can for them. For Developers (customers, partners, and consultants): Plinio Arbizu, SP Solutions, Richard Bingham, Oracle, Balaji Kamepalli, EiSTechnoogies, Praveen Pillalamarri, EiSTechnologies How to Build Great-Looking, Usable Apps: This workshop is for attendees with a strong technology background who are looking for ways to tailor customer software using ADF. It includes an introduction to UX design patterns and provides tools to build usability-tested UX designs.  See above for dates and times. UX design patterns web site: Cut the length of your project down by months. Use these patterns to build out the task flow you need to develop for your users. The patterns have already been usability-tested and represent the best practices that the Oracle UX research team has found in its studies. UX Direct: Use the same methods that Oracle uses to develop its own user experiences. We help you define your users and their needs, and then provide direction on how to tailor the best user experience you can for them. For Oracle Sales Mike Klein, Jeremy Ashley, Brent White, Oracle Contact your local sales person for more information about the Oracle user experience and the training available from the Applications User Experience Communications & Outreach team. See customer-friendly user experience collateral ranging from the new simplified UI in Oracle Fusion Applications Release 7, to E-Business Suite user experience highlights, to Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards user experience highlights.   Receive access to the same pre-sales and implementation training we provide to partners. For Oracle Sales only: Oracle-only training on the Oracle Fusion Applications UX Innovation Sales Kit.

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  • Thoughts on Build 2013

    - by D'Arcy Lussier
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/dlussier/archive/2013/06/30/153294.aspxAnd so another Build conference has come to an end. Below are my thoughts/perspectives on various aspects of the event. I’ll do a separate blog post on my thoughts of the Build message for developers. The Good Moscone center was a great venue for Build! Easy to get around, easy to get to, and well maintained, it was a very comfortable conference venue. Yeah, the free swag was nice. Build has built up an expectation that attendees will always get something; it’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft maintains this expectation over the next few Build events. I still maintain that free swag should never be the main reason one attends an event, and for me this was definitely just an added bonus. I’m planning on trying to use the Surface as a dedicated 2nd device at work for meetings, I’ll share my experiences over the next few months. The hackathon event was a great idea, although personally I couldn’t justify spending the money on a conference registration just to spend the entire conference coding. Still, the apps that were created were really great and there was a lot of passion and excitement around the hackathon. I wonder if they couldn’t have had the hackathon on the Monday/Tuesday for those that wanted to participate so they didn’t miss any of the actual conference over Wed/Thurs. San Francisco was a great city to host Build. Getting from hotels to the conference center was very easy (well especially for me, I was only 3 blocks away) and the city itself felt very safe. However, if I never have to fly into SFO again I’ll be alright with that! Delays going into and out of SFO and both apparently were due to the airport itself. The Bad Build is one of those oddities on the conference landscape where people will pay to commit to attending an event without knowing anything about the sessions. We got our list of conference sessions when we registered on Tuesday, not before. And even then, we only got titles and not descriptions (those were eventually made available via the conference’s mobile application). I get it…they’re going to make announcements and they don’t want to give anything away through the session titles. But honestly, there wasn’t anything in the session titles that I would have considered a surprise. Breakfasts were brutal. High-carb pastries, donuts, and muffins with fruit and hard boiled eggs does not a conference breakfast make. I can’t believe that the difference between a continental breakfast per person and a hot breakfast buffet would have been a huge impact to a conference fee that was already around $2000. The vendor area was anemic. I don’t know why Microsoft forces the vendors into cookie-cutter booth areas (this year they were all made of plywood material). WPC, TechEd – booth areas there allow the vendors to be creative with their displays. Not so much for Build. Really odd was the lack of Microsoft’s own representation around Bing. In the day 1 keynote Microsoft made a big deal about Bing as an API. Yet there was nobody in the vendor area set up to provide more information or have discussions with about the Bing API. The Ugly Our name badges were NFC enabled. The purpose of this, beyond the vendors being able to scan your info, wasn’t really made clear. An attendee I talked to showed how you could get a reader app on your phone so you can scan other members cards and collect their contact info – which is a kewl idea; business cards are so 1990’s. But I was *shocked* at the amount of information that was on our name badges! Here’s what’s displayed on our name badge: - Name - Company - Twitter Handle I’m ok with that. But here’s what actually gets read: - Name - Company - Address Used for Registration - Phone Number Used for Registration So sharing that info with another attendee, they get way more of my info than just how to find me on Twitter! Microsoft, you need to fix this for the future. If vendors want to collect information on attendees, they should be able to collect an ID from the badge, then get a report with corresponding records afterwards. My personal information should not be so readily available, and without my knowledge! Final Verdict Maybe its my older age, maybe its where I’m at in life with family, maybe its where I’m at in my career, but when I consider whether a conference experience was valuable I get to the core reason I attend: opportunities to learn, opportunities to network, opportunities to engage with Microsoft. Opportunities to Learn:  Sessions I attended were generally OK, with some really stand out ones on Day 2. I would love to see Microsoft adopt the Dojo format for a portion of their sessions. Hands On Labs are dull, lecture style sessions are great for information sharing. But a guided hands-on coding session (Read: Dojo) provides the best of both worlds. Being that all content is publically available online to everyone (Build attendee or not), the value of attending the conference sessions is decreased. The value though is in the discussions that take part in person afterwards, which leads to… Opportunities to Network: I enjoyed getting together with old friends and connecting with Twitter friends in person for the first time. I also had an opportunity to meet total strangers. So from a networking perspective, Build was fantastic! I still think it would have been great to have an area for ad-hoc discussions – where speakers could announce they’d be available for more questions after their sessions, or attendees who wanted to discuss more in depth on a topic with other attendees could arrange space. Some people have no problems being outgoing and making these things happen, but others are not and a structured model is more attractive. Opportunities to Engage with Microsoft: Hit and miss on this one. Outside of the vendor area, unless you cornered or reached out to a speaker, there wasn’t any defined way to connect with blue badges. And as I mentioned above, Microsoft didn’t have full representation in the vendor area (no Bing). All in all, Build was a fun party where I was informed about some new stuff and got some free swag. Was it worth the time away from home and the hit to my PD budget? I’d say Somewhat. Build is a great informational conference, but I wouldn’t call it a learning conference. Considering that TechEd seems to be moving to more of an IT Pro focus, independent developer conferences seem to be the best value for those looking to learn and not just be informed. With the rapid development cycle Microsoft is embracing, we’re already seeing Build happening twice within a 12 month period. If that continues, the value of attending Build in person starts to diminish – especially with so much content available online. If Microsoft wants Build to be a must-attend event in the future, they need to start incorporating aspects of Tech Ed, past PDCs, and other conferences so those that want to leave with more than free swag have something to attract them.

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  • Thou shalt not put code on a piedestal - Code is a tool, no more, no less

    - by Ralf Westphal
    “Write great code and everything else becomes easier” is what Paul Pagel believes in. That´s his version of an adage by Brian Marick he cites: “treat code as an end, not just a means.” And he concludes: “My post-Agile world is software craftsmanship.” I wonder, if that´s really the way to go. Will “simply” writing great code lead the software industry into the light? He´s alluding to the philosopher Kant who proposed, a human beings should never be treated as a means, but always as an end. But should we transfer this ethical statement into the world of software? I doubt it.   Reason #1: Human beings are categorially different from code. They are autonomous entities who need to find a way of living happily together. To Kant it seemed this goal could only be reached if nobody (ab)used a human being for his/her purposes. Because using a human being, i.e. treating it as a means, would contradict the fundamental autonomy and freedom of human beings. People should hold up a symmetric view of their relationships: Since nobody wants to be (ab)used, nobody should (ab)use anybody else. If you want to be treated decently, with respect, in accordance with your own free will - which means as an end - then do the same to other people. Code is dead, it´s a product, it´s a tool for people to reach their goals. No company spends any money on code other than to save money or earn money in the long run. Code is not a puppy. Enterprises do not commission software development to just feel good in its company. Code is not a buddy. Code is a slave, if you will. A mechanical slave, a non-tangible robot. Code is a tool, is a tool. And if we start to treat it differently, if we elevate its status unduely… I guess that will contort our relationship in a contraproductive way. Please get me right: Just because something is “just a tool”, “just a product” does not mean we should not be careful while designing, building, using it. Right to the contrary. We should be very careful when writing code – but not for the code´s sake! We should be careful because we respect our customers who are fellow human beings who should be treated as an end. If we are careless, neglectful, ignorant when producing code on their behalf, then we´re using them. Being sloppy means you´re caring more for yourself that for your customer. You´re then treating the customer as a means to fulfill some of your own needs. That´s plain unethical behavior.   Reason #2: The focus should always be on your purpose, not on any tool. But if code is treated as an end, then the focus is on the code. That might sound right, because where else should be your focus as a software developer? But, well, I´d say, your focus should be on delivering value to your customer. Because in the end your customer does not care if you write a single line of code. She just wants her problem to be solved. Solving problems is the purpose of any contractor. Code must be treated just as a means, a tool we know how to handle very well. But if we´re really trying to be craftsmen then we should be conscious about exactly that and act ethically. That means we must never be so focused on our tool as to be unable to suggest better solutions to the problems of our customers than code.   I´m all with Paul when he urges us to “Write great code”. Sure, if you need to write code, then by all means do so. Write the best code you can think of – and then try to improve it. Paul has all the best intentions when he signs Brians “treat code as an end” - but as we all know: “The road to hell is paved with best intentions” ;-) Yes, I can imagine a “hell of code focus”. In fact, I don´t need to imagine it, I´m seeing it quite often. Because code hell is whereever two developers stand together and are so immersed in talking about all sorts of coding tricks, design patterns, code smells, technologies, platforms, tools that they lose sight of the big picture. Talking about TDD or SOLID or refactoring is a sign of consciousness – relative to the “cowboy coders” view of the world. But from yet another point of view TDD, SOLID, and refactoring are just cures for ailments within a system. And I fear, if “Writing great code” is the only focus or the main focus of software development, then we as an industry lose the ability to see that. Focus draws a line around something, it defines a horizon for perceptions and thinking. So if we focus on code our horizon ends where “the land of code” ends. I don´t think that should be our professional attitude.   So what about Software Craftsmanship as the next big thing after Agility? I think Software Craftsmanship has an important message for all software developers and beyond. But to make it the successor of the Agility movement seems to miss a point. Agility never claimed to solve all software development problems, I´d say. So to blame it for having missed out on certain aspects of it is wrong. If I had to summarize Agility in one word I´d say “Value”. Agility put value for the customer back in software development. Focus on delivering value early and often – that´s Agility´s mantra. All else follows from that. And I ask you: Is that obsolete? Is delivering value not hip anymore? No, sure not. That´s our very purpose as software developers. So how can Agility become obsolete and need to be replaced? We need to do away with this “either/or”-thinking. It´s either Agility or Lean or Software Craftsmanship or whatnot. Instead we should start integrating concepts and movements. Think “both/and”. Think Agility plus Software Craftsmanship plus Lean plus whatnot. We don´t neet to tear down anything from a piedestal and replace it with a new idol. Instead we should do away with piedestals and arrange whatever is helpful is a circle. Then we can turn to concepts, movements for whatever they are best. After 10 years of Agility we should be able to identify what it was good at – and keep that. Keep Agility around and add whatever Agility was lacking or never concerned with. Add whatever is at the core of Software Craftsmanship. Add whatever is at the core of Lean etc. But don´t call out the age of Post-Agility. Because it better never will end. Because once we start to lose Agility´s core we´re losing focus of the customer.

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  • Strange Flash AS3 xml Socket behavior

    - by Rnd_d
    I have a problem which I can't understand. To understand it I wrote a socket client on AS3 and a server on python/twisted, you can see the code of both applications below. Let's launch two clients at the same time, arrange them so that you can see both windows and press connection button in both windows. Then press and hold any button. What I'm expecting: Client with pressed button sends a message "some data" to the server, then the server sends this message to all the clients(including the original sender) . Then each client moves right the button 'connectButton' and prints a message to the log with time in the following format: "min:secs:milliseconds". What is going wrong: The motion is smooth in the client that sends the message, but in all other clients the motion is jerky. This happens because messages to those clients arrive later than to the original sending client. And if we have three clients (let's name them A,B,C) and we send a message from A, the sending time log of B and C will be the same. Why other clients recieve this messages later than the original sender? By the way, on ubuntu 10.04/chrome all the motion is smooth. Two clients are launched in separated chromes. windows screenshot Can't post linux screenshot, need more than 10 reputation to post more hyperlinks. Listing of log, four clients simultaneously: [16:29:33.280858] 62.140.224.1 >> some data [16:29:33.280912] 87.249.9.98 << some data [16:29:33.280970] 87.249.9.98 << some data [16:29:33.281025] 87.249.9.98 << some data [16:29:33.281079] 62.140.224.1 << some data [16:29:33.323267] 62.140.224.1 >> some data [16:29:33.323326] 87.249.9.98 << some data [16:29:33.323386] 87.249.9.98 << some data [16:29:33.323440] 87.249.9.98 << some data [16:29:33.323493] 62.140.224.1 << some data [16:29:34.123435] 62.140.224.1 >> some data [16:29:34.123525] 87.249.9.98 << some data [16:29:34.123593] 87.249.9.98 << some data [16:29:34.123648] 87.249.9.98 << some data [16:29:34.123702] 62.140.224.1 << some data AS3 client code package { import adobe.utils.CustomActions; import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.DataEvent; import flash.events.Event; import flash.events.IOErrorEvent; import flash.events.KeyboardEvent; import flash.events.MouseEvent; import flash.events.SecurityErrorEvent; import flash.net.XMLSocket; import flash.system.Security; import flash.text.TextField; public class Main extends Sprite { private var socket :XMLSocket; private var textField :TextField = new TextField; private var connectButton :TextField = new TextField; public function Main():void { if (stage) init(); else addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init); } private function init(event:Event = null):void { socket = new XMLSocket(); socket.addEventListener(Event.CONNECT, connectHandler); socket.addEventListener(DataEvent.DATA, dataHandler); stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, keyDownHandler); addChild(textField); textField.y = 50; textField.width = 780; textField.height = 500; textField.border = true; connectButton.selectable = false; connectButton.border = true; connectButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, connectMouseDownHandler); connectButton.width = 105; connectButton.height = 20; connectButton.text = "click here to connect"; addChild(connectButton); } private function connectHandler(event:Event):void { textField.appendText("Connect\n"); textField.appendText("Press and hold any key\n"); } private function dataHandler(event:DataEvent):void { var now:Date = new Date(); textField.appendText(event.data + " time = " + now.getMinutes() + ":" + now.getSeconds() + ":" + now.getMilliseconds() + "\n"); connectButton.x += 2; } private function keyDownHandler(event:KeyboardEvent):void { socket.send("some data"); } private function connectMouseDownHandler(event:MouseEvent):void { var connectAddress:String = "ep1c.org"; var connectPort:Number = 13250; Security.loadPolicyFile("xmlsocket://" + connectAddress + ":" + String(connectPort)); socket.connect(connectAddress, connectPort); } } } Python server code from twisted.internet import reactor from twisted.internet.protocol import ServerFactory from twisted.protocols.basic import LineOnlyReceiver import datetime class EchoProtocol(LineOnlyReceiver): ##### name = "" id = 0 delimiter = chr(0) ##### def getName(self): return self.transport.getPeer().host def connectionMade(self): self.id = self.factory.getNextId() print "New connection from %s - id:%s" % (self.getName(), self.id) self.factory.clientProtocols[self.id] = self def connectionLost(self, reason): print "Lost connection from "+ self.getName() del self.factory.clientProtocols[self.id] self.factory.sendMessageToAllClients(self.getName() + " has disconnected.") def lineReceived(self, line): print "[%s] %s >> %s" % (datetime.datetime.now().time(), self, line) if line=="<policy-file-request/>": data = """<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM "http://www.adobe.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd"> <!-- Policy file for xmlsocket://ep1c.org --> <cross-domain-policy> <allow-access-from domain="*" to-ports="%s" /> </cross-domain-policy>""" % PORT self.send(data) else: self.factory.sendMessageToAllClients( line ) def send(self, line): print "[%s] %s << %s" % (datetime.datetime.now().time(), self, line) if line: self.transport.write( str(line) + chr(0)) else: print "Nothing to send" def __str__(self): return self.getName() class ChatProtocolFactory(ServerFactory): protocol = EchoProtocol def __init__(self): self.clientProtocols = {} self.nextId = 0 def getNextId(self): id = self.nextId self.nextId += 1 return id def sendMessageToAllClients(self, msg): for client in self.clientProtocols: self.clientProtocols[client].send(msg) def sendMessageToClient(self, id, msg): self.clientProtocols[id].send(msg) PORT = 13250 print "Starting Server" factory = ChatProtocolFactory() reactor.listenTCP(PORT, factory) reactor.run()

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  • Python script is exiting with no output and I have no idea why

    - by Adam Tuttle
    I'm attempting to debug a Subversion post-commit hook that calls some python scripts. What I've been able to determine so far is that when I run post-commit.bat manually (I've created a wrapper for it to make it easier) everything succeeds, but when SVN runs it one particular step doesn't work. We're using CollabNet SVNServe, which I know from the documentation removes all environment variables. This had caused some problems earlier, but shouldn't be an issue now. Before Subversion calls a hook script, it removes all variables - including $PATH on Unix, and %PATH% on Windows - from the environment. Therefore, your script can only run another program if you spell out that program's absolute name. The relevant portion of post-commit.bat is: echo -------------------------- >> c:\svn-repos\company\hooks\svn2ftp.out.log set SITENAME=staging set SVNPATH=branches/staging/wwwroot/ "C:\Python3\python.exe" C:\svn-repos\company\hooks\svn2ftp.py ^ --svnUser="svnusername" ^ --svnPass="svnpassword" ^ --ftp-user=ftpuser ^ --ftp-password=ftppassword ^ --ftp-remote-dir=/ ^ --access-url=svn://10.0.100.6/company ^ --status-file="C:\svn-repos\company\hooks\svn2ftp-%SITENAME%.dat" ^ --project-directory=%SVNPATH% "staging.company.com" %1 %2 >> c:\svn-repos\company\hooks\svn2ftp.out.log echo -------------------------- >> c:\svn-repos\company\hooks\svn2ftp.out.log When I run post-commit.bat manually, for example: post-commit c:\svn-repos\company 12345, I see output like the following in svn2ftp.out.log: -------------------------- args1: c:\svn-repos\company args0: staging.company.com abspath: c:\svn-repos\company project_dir: branches/staging/wwwroot/ local_repos_path: c:\svn-repos\company getting youngest revision... done, up-to-date -------------------------- However, when I commit something to the repo and it runs automatically, the output is: -------------------------- -------------------------- svn2ftp.py is a bit long, so I apologize but here goes. I'll have some notes/disclaimers about its contents below it. #!/usr/bin/env python """Usage: svn2ftp.py [OPTION...] FTP-HOST REPOS-PATH Upload to FTP-HOST changes committed to the Subversion repository at REPOS-PATH. Uses svn diff --summarize to only propagate the changed files Options: -?, --help Show this help message. -u, --ftp-user=USER The username for the FTP server. Default: 'anonymous' -p, --ftp-password=P The password for the FTP server. Default: '@' -P, --ftp-port=X Port number for the FTP server. Default: 21 -r, --ftp-remote-dir=DIR The remote directory that is expected to resemble the repository project directory -a, --access-url=URL This is the URL that should be used when trying to SVN export files so that they can be uploaded to the FTP server -s, --status-file=PATH Required. This script needs to store the last successful revision that was transferred to the server. PATH is the location of this file. -d, --project-directory=DIR If the project you are interested in sending to the FTP server is not under the root of the repository (/), set this parameter. Example: -d 'project1/trunk/' This should NOT start with a '/'. 2008.5.2 CKS Fixed possible Windows-related bug with tempfile, where the script didn't have permission to write to the tempfile. Replaced this with a open()-created file created in the CWD. 2008.5.13 CKS Added error logging. Added exception for file-not-found errors when deleting files. 2008.5.14 CKS Change file open to 'rb' mode, to prevent Python's universal newline support from stripping CR characters, causing later comparisons between FTP and SVN to report changes. """ try: import sys, os import logging logging.basicConfig( level=logging.DEBUG, format='%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(message)s', filename='svn2ftp.debug.log', filemode='a' ) console = logging.StreamHandler() console.setLevel(logging.ERROR) logging.getLogger('').addHandler(console) import getopt, tempfile, smtplib, traceback, subprocess from io import StringIO import pysvn import ftplib import inspect except Exception as e: logging.error(e) #capture the location of the error frame = inspect.currentframe() stack_trace = traceback.format_stack(frame) logging.debug(stack_trace) print(stack_trace) #end capture sys.exit(1) #defaults host = "" user = "anonymous" password = "@" port = 21 repo_path = "" local_repos_path = "" status_file = "" project_directory = "" remote_base_directory = "" toAddrs = "[email protected]" youngest_revision = "" def email(toAddrs, message, subject, fromAddr='[email protected]'): headers = "From: %s\r\nTo: %s\r\nSubject: %s\r\n\r\n" % (fromAddr, toAddrs, subject) message = headers + message logging.info('sending email to %s...' % toAddrs) server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.company.com') server.set_debuglevel(1) server.sendmail(fromAddr, toAddrs, message) server.quit() logging.info('email sent') def captureErrorMessage(e): sout = StringIO() traceback.print_exc(file=sout) errorMessage = '\n'+('*'*80)+('\n%s'%e)+('\n%s\n'%sout.getvalue())+('*'*80) return errorMessage def usage_and_exit(errmsg): """Print a usage message, plus an ERRMSG (if provided), then exit. If ERRMSG is provided, the usage message is printed to stderr and the script exits with a non-zero error code. Otherwise, the usage message goes to stdout, and the script exits with a zero errorcode.""" if errmsg is None: stream = sys.stdout else: stream = sys.stderr print(__doc__, file=stream) if errmsg: print("\nError: %s" % (errmsg), file=stream) sys.exit(2) sys.exit(0) def read_args(): global host global user global password global port global repo_path global local_repos_path global status_file global project_directory global remote_base_directory global youngest_revision try: opts, args = getopt.gnu_getopt(sys.argv[1:], "?u:p:P:r:a:s:d:SU:SP:", ["help", "ftp-user=", "ftp-password=", "ftp-port=", "ftp-remote-dir=", "access-url=", "status-file=", "project-directory=", "svnUser=", "svnPass=" ]) except getopt.GetoptError as msg: usage_and_exit(msg) for opt, arg in opts: if opt in ("-?", "--help"): usage_and_exit() elif opt in ("-u", "--ftp-user"): user = arg elif opt in ("-p", "--ftp-password"): password = arg elif opt in ("-SU", "--svnUser"): svnUser = arg elif opt in ("-SP", "--svnPass"): svnPass = arg elif opt in ("-P", "--ftp-port"): try: port = int(arg) except ValueError as msg: usage_and_exit("Invalid value '%s' for --ftp-port." % (arg)) if port < 1 or port > 65535: usage_and_exit("Value for --ftp-port must be a positive integer less than 65536.") elif opt in ("-r", "--ftp-remote-dir"): remote_base_directory = arg elif opt in ("-a", "--access-url"): repo_path = arg elif opt in ("-s", "--status-file"): status_file = os.path.abspath(arg) elif opt in ("-d", "--project-directory"): project_directory = arg if len(args) != 3: print(str(args)) usage_and_exit("host and/or local_repos_path not specified (" + len(args) + ")") host = args[0] print("args1: " + args[1]) print("args0: " + args[0]) print("abspath: " + os.path.abspath(args[1])) local_repos_path = os.path.abspath(args[1]) print('project_dir:',project_directory) youngest_revision = int(args[2]) if status_file == "" : usage_and_exit("No status file specified") def main(): global host global user global password global port global repo_path global local_repos_path global status_file global project_directory global remote_base_directory global youngest_revision read_args() #repository,fs_ptr #get youngest revision print("local_repos_path: " + local_repos_path) print('getting youngest revision...') #youngest_revision = fs.youngest_rev(fs_ptr) assert youngest_revision, "Unable to lookup youngest revision." last_sent_revision = get_last_revision() if youngest_revision == last_sent_revision: # no need to continue. we should be up to date. print('done, up-to-date') return if last_sent_revision or youngest_revision < 10: # Only compare revisions if the DAT file contains a valid # revision number. Otherwise we risk waiting forever while # we parse and uploading every revision in the repo in the case # where a repository is retroactively configured to sync with ftp. pysvn_client = pysvn.Client() pysvn_client.callback_get_login = get_login rev1 = pysvn.Revision(pysvn.opt_revision_kind.number, last_sent_revision) rev2 = pysvn.Revision(pysvn.opt_revision_kind.number, youngest_revision) summary = pysvn_client.diff_summarize(repo_path, rev1, repo_path, rev2, True, False) print('summary len:',len(summary)) if len(summary) > 0 : print('connecting to %s...' % host) ftp = FTPClient(host, user, password) print('connected to %s' % host) ftp.base_path = remote_base_directory print('set remote base directory to %s' % remote_base_directory) #iterate through all the differences between revisions for change in summary : #determine whether the path of the change is relevant to the path that is being sent, and modify the path as appropriate. print('change path:',change.path) ftp_relative_path = apply_basedir(change.path) print('ftp rel path:',ftp_relative_path) #only try to sync path if the path is in our project_directory if ftp_relative_path != "" : is_file = (change.node_kind == pysvn.node_kind.file) if str(change.summarize_kind) == "delete" : print("deleting: " + ftp_relative_path) try: ftp.delete_path("/" + ftp_relative_path, is_file) except ftplib.error_perm as e: if 'cannot find the' in str(e) or 'not found' in str(e): # Log, but otherwise ignore path-not-found errors # when deleting, since it's not a disaster if the file # we want to delete is already gone. logging.error(captureErrorMessage(e)) else: raise elif str(change.summarize_kind) == "added" or str(change.summarize_kind) == "modified" : local_file = "" if is_file : local_file = svn_export_temp(pysvn_client, repo_path, rev2, change.path) print("uploading file: " + ftp_relative_path) ftp.upload_path("/" + ftp_relative_path, is_file, local_file) if is_file : os.remove(local_file) elif str(change.summarize_kind) == "normal" : print("skipping 'normal' element: " + ftp_relative_path) else : raise str("Unknown change summarize kind: " + str(change.summarize_kind) + ", path: " + ftp_relative_path) ftp.close() #write back the last revision that was synced print("writing last revision: " + str(youngest_revision)) set_last_revision(youngest_revision) # todo: undo def get_login(a,b,c,d): #arguments don't matter, we're always going to return the same thing try: return True, "svnUsername", "svnPassword", True except Exception as e: logging.error(e) #capture the location of the error frame = inspect.currentframe() stack_trace = traceback.format_stack(frame) logging.debug(stack_trace) #end capture sys.exit(1) #functions for persisting the last successfully synced revision def get_last_revision(): if os.path.isfile(status_file) : f=open(status_file, 'r') line = f.readline() f.close() try: i = int(line) except ValueError: i = 0 else: i = 0 f = open(status_file, 'w') f.write(str(i)) f.close() return i def set_last_revision(rev) : f = open(status_file, 'w') f.write(str(rev)) f.close() #augmented ftp client class that can work off a base directory class FTPClient(ftplib.FTP) : def __init__(self, host, username, password) : self.base_path = "" self.current_path = "" ftplib.FTP.__init__(self, host, username, password) def cwd(self, path) : debug_path = path if self.current_path == "" : self.current_path = self.pwd() print("pwd: " + self.current_path) if not os.path.isabs(path) : debug_path = self.base_path + "<" + path path = os.path.join(self.current_path, path) elif self.base_path != "" : debug_path = self.base_path + ">" + path.lstrip("/") path = os.path.join(self.base_path, path.lstrip("/")) path = os.path.normpath(path) #by this point the path should be absolute. if path != self.current_path : print("change from " + self.current_path + " to " + debug_path) ftplib.FTP.cwd(self, path) self.current_path = path else : print("staying put : " + self.current_path) def cd_or_create(self, path) : assert os.path.isabs(path), "absolute path expected (" + path + ")" try: self.cwd(path) except ftplib.error_perm as e: for folder in path.split('/'): if folder == "" : self.cwd("/") continue try: self.cwd(folder) except: print("mkd: (" + path + "):" + folder) self.mkd(folder) self.cwd(folder) def upload_path(self, path, is_file, local_path) : if is_file: (path, filename) = os.path.split(path) self.cd_or_create(path) # Use read-binary to avoid universal newline support from stripping CR characters. f = open(local_path, 'rb') self.storbinary("STOR " + filename, f) f.close() else: self.cd_or_create(path) def delete_path(self, path, is_file) : (path, filename) = os.path.split(path) print("trying to delete: " + path + ", " + filename) self.cwd(path) try: if is_file : self.delete(filename) else: self.delete_path_recursive(filename) except ftplib.error_perm as e: if 'The system cannot find the' in str(e) or '550 File not found' in str(e): # Log, but otherwise ignore path-not-found errors # when deleting, since it's not a disaster if the file # we want to delete is already gone. logging.error(captureErrorMessage(e)) else: raise def delete_path_recursive(self, path): if path == "/" : raise "WARNING: trying to delete '/'!" for node in self.nlst(path) : if node == path : #it's a file. delete and return self.delete(path) return if node != "." and node != ".." : self.delete_path_recursive(os.path.join(path, node)) try: self.rmd(path) except ftplib.error_perm as msg : sys.stderr.write("Error deleting directory " + os.path.join(self.current_path, path) + " : " + str(msg)) # apply the project_directory setting def apply_basedir(path) : #remove any leading stuff (in this case, "trunk/") and decide whether file should be propagated if not path.startswith(project_directory) : return "" return path.replace(project_directory, "", 1) def svn_export_temp(pysvn_client, base_path, rev, path) : # Causes access denied error. Couldn't deduce Windows-perm issue. # It's possible Python isn't garbage-collecting the open file-handle in time for pysvn to re-open it. # Regardless, just generating a simple filename seems to work. #(fd, dest_path) = tempfile.mkstemp() dest_path = tmpName = '%s.tmp' % __file__ exportPath = os.path.join(base_path, path).replace('\\','/') print('exporting %s to %s' % (exportPath, dest_path)) pysvn_client.export( exportPath, dest_path, force=False, revision=rev, native_eol=None, ignore_externals=False, recurse=True, peg_revision=rev ) return dest_path if __name__ == "__main__": logging.info('svnftp.start') try: main() logging.info('svnftp.done') except Exception as e: # capture the location of the error for debug purposes frame = inspect.currentframe() stack_trace = traceback.format_stack(frame) logging.debug(stack_trace[:-1]) print(stack_trace) # end capture error_text = '\nFATAL EXCEPTION!!!\n'+captureErrorMessage(e) subject = "ALERT: SVN2FTP Error" message = """An Error occurred while trying to FTP an SVN commit. repo_path = %(repo_path)s\n local_repos_path = %(local_repos_path)s\n project_directory = %(project_directory)s\n remote_base_directory = %(remote_base_directory)s\n error_text = %(error_text)s """ % globals() email(toAddrs, message, subject) logging.error(e) Notes/Disclaimers: I have basically no python training so I'm learning as I go and spending lots of time reading docs to figure stuff out. The body of get_login is in a try block because I was getting strange errors saying there was an unhandled exception in callback_get_login. Never figured out why, but it seems fine now. Let sleeping dogs lie, right? The username and password for get_login are currently hard-coded (but correct) just to eliminate variables and try to change as little as possible at once. (I added the svnuser and svnpass arguments to the existing argument parsing.) So that's where I am. I can't figure out why on earth it's not printing anything into svn2ftp.out.log. If you're wondering, the output for one of these failed attempts in svn2ftp.debug.log is: 2012-09-06 15:18:12,496 INFO svnftp.start 2012-09-06 15:18:12,496 INFO svnftp.done And it's no different on a successful run. So there's nothing useful being logged. I'm lost. I've gone way down the rabbit hole on this one, and don't know where to go from here. Any ideas?

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  • file doesn't open, running outside of debugger results in seg fault (c++)

    - by misterich
    Hello (and thanks in advance) I'm in a bit of a quandry, I cant seem to figure out why I'm seg faulting. A couple of notes: It's for a course -- and sadly I am required to use use C-strings instead of std::string. Please dont fix my code (I wont learn that way and I will keep bugging you). please just point out the flaws in my logic and suggest a different function/way. platform: gcc version 4.4.1 on Suse Linux 11.2 (2.6.31 kernel) Here's the code main.cpp: // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // INCLUDES (C/C++ Std Library) #include <cstdlib> /// EXIT_SUCCESS, EXIT_FAILURE #include <iostream> /// cin, cout, ifstream #include <cassert> /// assert // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // DEPENDENCIES (custom header files) #include "dict.h" /// Header for the dictionary class // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // PRE-PROCESSOR CONSTANTS #define ENTER '\n' /// Used to accept new lines, quit program. #define SPACE ' ' /// One way to end the program // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // CUSTOM DATA TYPES /// File Namespace -- keep it local namespace { /// Possible program prompts to display for the user. enum FNS_Prompts { fileName_, /// prints out the name of the file noFile_, /// no file was passed to the program tooMany_, /// more than one file was passed to the program noMemory_, /// Not enough memory to use the program usage_, /// how to use the program word_, /// ask the user to define a word. notFound_, /// the word is not in the dictionary done_, /// the program is closing normally }; } // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // Namespace using namespace std; /// Nothing special in the way of namespaces // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // FUNCTIONS /** prompt() prompts the user to do something, uses enum Prompts for parameter. */ void prompt(FNS_Prompts msg /** determines the prompt to use*/) { switch(msg) { case fileName_ : { cout << ENTER << ENTER << "The file name is: "; break; } case noFile_ : { cout << ENTER << ENTER << "...Sorry, a dictionary file is needed. Try again." << endl; break; } case tooMany_ : { cout << ENTER << ENTER << "...Sorry, you can only specify one dictionary file. Try again." << endl; break; } case noMemory_ : { cout << ENTER << ENTER << "...Sorry, there isn't enough memory available to run this program." << endl; break; } case usage_ : { cout << "USAGE:" << endl << " lookup.exe [dictionary file name]" << endl << endl; break; } case done_ : { cout << ENTER << ENTER << "like Master P says, \"Word.\"" << ENTER << endl; break; } case word_ : { cout << ENTER << ENTER << "Enter a word in the dictionary to get it's definition." << ENTER << "Enter \"?\" to get a sorted list of all words in the dictionary." << ENTER << "... Press the Enter key to quit the program: "; break; } case notFound_ : { cout << ENTER << ENTER << "...Sorry, that word is not in the dictionary." << endl; break; } default : { cout << ENTER << ENTER << "something passed an invalid enum to prompt(). " << endl; assert(false); /// something passed in an invalid enum } } } /** useDictionary() uses the dictionary created by createDictionary * - prompts user to lookup a word * - ends when the user enters an empty word */ void useDictionary(Dictionary &d) { char *userEntry = new char; /// user's input on the command line if( !userEntry ) // check the pointer to the heap { cout << ENTER << MEM_ERR_MSG << endl; exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } do { prompt(word_); // test code cout << endl << "----------------------------------------" << endl << "Enter something: "; cin.getline(userEntry, INPUT_LINE_MAX_LEN, ENTER); cout << ENTER << userEntry << endl; }while ( userEntry[0] != NIL && userEntry[0] != SPACE ); // GARBAGE COLLECTION delete[] userEntry; } /** Program Entry * Reads in the required, single file from the command prompt. * - If there is no file, state such and error out. * - If there is more than one file, state such and error out. * - If there is a single file: * - Create the database object * - Populate the database object * - Prompt the user for entry * main() will return EXIT_SUCCESS upon termination. */ int main(int argc, /// the number of files being passed into the program char *argv[] /// pointer to the filename being passed into tthe program ) { // EXECUTE /* Testing code * / char tempFile[INPUT_LINE_MAX_LEN] = {NIL}; cout << "enter filename: "; cin.getline(tempFile, INPUT_LINE_MAX_LEN, '\n'); */ // uncomment after successful debugging if(argc <= 1) { prompt(noFile_); prompt(usage_); return EXIT_FAILURE; /// no file was passed to the program } else if(argc > 2) { prompt(tooMany_); prompt(usage_); return EXIT_FAILURE; /// more than one file was passed to the program } else { prompt(fileName_); cout << argv[1]; // print out name of dictionary file if( !argv[1] ) { prompt(noFile_); prompt(usage_); return EXIT_FAILURE; /// file does not exist } /* file.open( argv[1] ); // open file numEntries >> in.getline(file); // determine number of dictionary objects to create file.close(); // close file Dictionary[ numEntries ](argv[1]); // create the dictionary object */ // TEMPORARY FILE FOR TESTING!!!! //Dictionary scrabble(tempFile); Dictionary scrabble(argv[1]); // creaate the dicitonary object //*/ useDictionary(scrabble); // prompt the user, use the dictionary } // exit return EXIT_SUCCESS; /// terminate program. } Dict.h/.cpp #ifndef DICT_H #define DICT_H // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // DEPENDENCIES (Custom header files) #include "entry.h" /// class for dictionary entries // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // PRE-PROCESSOR MACROS #define INPUT_LINE_MAX_LEN 256 /// Maximum length of each line in the dictionary file class Dictionary { public : // // Do NOT modify the public section of this class // typedef void (*WordDefFunc)(const char *word, const char *definition); Dictionary( const char *filename ); ~Dictionary(); const char *lookupDefinition( const char *word ); void forEach( WordDefFunc func ); private : // // You get to provide the private members // // VARIABLES int m_numEntries; /// stores the number of entries in the dictionary Entry *m_DictEntry_ptr; /// points to an array of class Entry // Private Functions }; #endif ----------------------------------- // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // INCLUDES (C/C++ Std Library) #include <iostream> /// cout, getline #include <fstream> // ifstream #include <cstring> /// strchr // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // DEPENDENCIES (custom header files) #include "dict.h" /// Header file required by assignment //#include "entry.h" /// Dicitonary Entry Class // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // PRE-PROCESSOR MACROS #define COMMA ',' /// Delimiter for file #define ENTER '\n' /// Carriage return character #define FILE_ERR_MSG "The data file could not be opened. Program will now terminate." #pragma warning(disable : 4996) /// turn off MS compiler warning about strcpy() // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // Namespace reference using namespace std; // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // PRIVATE MEMBER FUNCTIONS /** * Sorts the dictionary entries. */ /* static void sortDictionary(?) { // sort through the words using qsort } */ /** NO LONGER NEEDED?? * parses out the length of the first cell in a delimited cell * / int getWordLength(char *str /// string of data to parse ) { return strcspn(str, COMMA); } */ // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // PUBLIC MEMBER FUNCTIONS /** constructor for the class * - opens/reads in file * - creates initializes the array of member vars * - creates pointers to entry objects * - stores pointers to entry objects in member var * - ? sort now or later? */ Dictionary::Dictionary( const char *filename ) { // Create a filestream, open the file to be read in ifstream dataFile(filename, ios::in ); /* if( dataFile.fail() ) { cout << FILE_ERR_MSG << endl; exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } */ if( dataFile.is_open() ) { // read first line of data // TEST CODE in.getline(dataFile, INPUT_LINE_MAX_LEN) >> m_numEntries; // TEST CODE char temp[INPUT_LINE_MAX_LEN] = {NIL}; // TEST CODE dataFile.getline(temp,INPUT_LINE_MAX_LEN,'\n'); dataFile >> m_numEntries; /** Number of terms in the dictionary file * \todo find out how many lines in the file, subtract one, ingore first line */ //create the array of entries m_DictEntry_ptr = new Entry[m_numEntries]; // check for valid memory allocation if( !m_DictEntry_ptr ) { cout << MEM_ERR_MSG << endl; exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } // loop thru each line of the file, parsing words/def's and populating entry objects for(int EntryIdx = 0; EntryIdx < m_numEntries; ++EntryIdx) { // VARIABLES char *tempW_ptr; /// points to a temporary word char *tempD_ptr; /// points to a temporary def char *w_ptr; /// points to the word in the Entry object char *d_ptr; /// points to the definition in the Entry int tempWLen; /// length of the temp word string int tempDLen; /// length of the temp def string char tempLine[INPUT_LINE_MAX_LEN] = {NIL}; /// stores a single line from the file // EXECUTE // getline(dataFile, tempLine) // get a "word,def" line from the file dataFile.getline(tempLine, INPUT_LINE_MAX_LEN); // get a "word,def" line from the file // Parse the string tempW_ptr = tempLine; // point the temp word pointer at the first char in the line tempD_ptr = strchr(tempLine, COMMA); // point the def pointer at the comma *tempD_ptr = NIL; // replace the comma with a NIL ++tempD_ptr; // increment the temp def pointer // find the string lengths... +1 to account for terminator tempWLen = strlen(tempW_ptr) + 1; tempDLen = strlen(tempD_ptr) + 1; // Allocate heap memory for the term and defnition w_ptr = new char[ tempWLen ]; d_ptr = new char[ tempDLen ]; // check memory allocation if( !w_ptr && !d_ptr ) { cout << MEM_ERR_MSG << endl; exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } // copy the temp word, def into the newly allocated memory and terminate the strings strcpy(w_ptr,tempW_ptr); w_ptr[tempWLen] = NIL; strcpy(d_ptr,tempD_ptr); d_ptr[tempDLen] = NIL; // set the pointers for the entry objects m_DictEntry_ptr[ EntryIdx ].setWordPtr(w_ptr); m_DictEntry_ptr[ EntryIdx ].setDefPtr(d_ptr); } // close the file dataFile.close(); } else { cout << ENTER << FILE_ERR_MSG << endl; exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } } /** * cleans up dynamic memory */ Dictionary::~Dictionary() { delete[] m_DictEntry_ptr; /// thou shalt not have memory leaks. } /** * Looks up definition */ /* const char *lookupDefinition( const char *word ) { // print out the word ---- definition } */ /** * prints out the entire dictionary in sorted order */ /* void forEach( WordDefFunc func ) { // to sort before or now.... that is the question } */ Entry.h/cpp #ifndef ENTRY_H #define ENTRY_H // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // INCLUDES (C++ Std lib) #include <cstdlib> /// EXIT_SUCCESS, NULL // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // PRE-PROCESSOR MACROS #define NIL '\0' /// C-String terminator #define MEM_ERR_MSG "Memory allocation has failed. Program will now terminate." // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // CLASS DEFINITION class Entry { public: Entry(void) : m_word_ptr(NULL), m_def_ptr(NULL) { /* default constructor */ }; void setWordPtr(char *w_ptr); /// sets the pointer to the word - only if the pointer is empty void setDefPtr(char *d_ptr); /// sets the ponter to the definition - only if the pointer is empty /// returns what is pointed to by the word pointer char getWord(void) const { return *m_word_ptr; } /// returns what is pointed to by the definition pointer char getDef(void) const { return *m_def_ptr; } private: char *m_word_ptr; /** points to a dictionary word */ char *m_def_ptr; /** points to a dictionary definition */ }; #endif -------------------------------------------------- // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // DEPENDENCIES (custom header files) #include "entry.h" /// class header file // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // PUBLIC FUNCTIONS /* * only change the word member var if it is in its initial state */ void Entry::setWordPtr(char *w_ptr) { if(m_word_ptr == NULL) { m_word_ptr = w_ptr; } } /* * only change the def member var if it is in its initial state */ void Entry::setDefPtr(char *d_ptr) { if(m_def_ptr == NULL) { m_word_ptr = d_ptr; } }

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  • DESIGNING FOR WIN PHONE 7

    Designing applications for the Win Phone 7 is very similar to designing for print. In my opinion, it feels like a cross between a tri-fold brochure and a poster. I based my prototype designs on Microsofts Metro style guide, with typography as the main focus and stunning imagery for support. Its nice to have fixed factors regulating the design, making it a fun and fresh design experience. Microsoft provides a UI Design Guidelines document that outlines layout sizes, background image size, recommended typefaces and spacing. You know what you are designing for and you know how it will look and act on the win phone 7 platform. Although applications are not required to strictly adhere to the Metro style guide I feel it makes the best use of the panorama view  and navigation. With strong examples of this UI concept in place like their Zune-like music + videos hub, I found it fairly easy to put together a few quick app mockups (see below). In addition to design guidelines, using a ready built design templates, or a win phone 7 specific panorama control like the one by Clarity Consulting will make the process of bringing your designs to life much more efficient. Likes, Dislikes, and Challenges I think the idea of the hub is completely intuitive. This concept clearly breaks down info into more manageable pieces, and greatly helps with organization when designing for the phone. I like the chromeless appearance, allowing the core functionality of the application to take precedence over gradients, textures, bevels, drop shadows, and the complicated animations you see on the web. Although I understand the Win Phone 7 guidelines are a work in progress, I found a few contradictions. I also noticed that certain design specifications did not translate well to the phone emulator . If you use their guidelines as suggested best practices and not as fixed definitions you will have more success. Multi-directional vs Linear The main challenge I had was stepping away from familiar navigational examples seen in other mobile phones. I had to keep reminding myself that the content to the right and to the left of what I was working on didnt necessarily have to have a direct link to one another. I started thinking multi-directional as opposed to linear. Win phone 7 vs IPhone The Metro styling of the Win Phone 7 is similar to the Zune HD and the Windows Media Center UI and offers a different interface paradigm than the IPhone. When navigating an application it feels like you are panning a long seamless page of information in contrast to the multiple panels of an IPhone. I think there is less of an opportunity to overdesign your application, which happens often with IPhone applications. While both interfaces are simple and sleek, win phone 7 really gets down to the basics. IPhone sets a high standard for designing for touch, designing for win phone 7 could improve on that user experience with a consistent and strategic use of white space and staying away from a menu and icon heavy UI. Design Examples for Win Phone 7 Applications Here are some concepts for both generic and brand specific applications for Win Phone 7: View Full Album Resources to get you going with your own Win Phone 7 design: Helpful design templates for Win Phone 7  http://www.shazaml.com/archives/windows-phone-7-ui-templates Here is the interaction design guide for Win Phone 7 http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713252 Windows has a project template for Blend 4 and Visual Studio 2010 RC1 http://developer.windowsphone.com/ Clarity Consulting developed a panorama control for Win Phone 7 http://blogs.claritycon.com/blogs/design/archive/2010/03/30/building-the-elusive-windows-phone-panorama-control.aspxDid you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • DESIGNING FOR WIN PHONE 7

    Designing applications for the Win Phone 7 is very similar to designing for print. In my opinion, it feels like a cross between a tri-fold brochure and a poster. I based my prototype designs on Microsofts Metro style guide, with typography as the main focus and stunning imagery for support. Its nice to have fixed factors regulating the design, making it a fun and fresh design experience. Microsoft provides a UI Design Guidelines document that outlines layout sizes, background image size, recommended typefaces and spacing. You know what you are designing for and you know how it will look and act on the win phone 7 platform. Although applications are not required to strictly adhere to the Metro style guide I feel it makes the best use of the panorama view  and navigation. With strong examples of this UI concept in place like their Zune-like music + videos hub, I found it fairly easy to put together a few quick app mockups (see below). In addition to design guidelines, using a ready built design templates, or a win phone 7 specific panorama control like the one by Clarity Consulting will make the process of bringing your designs to life much more efficient. Likes, Dislikes, and Challenges I think the idea of the hub is completely intuitive. This concept clearly breaks down info into more manageable pieces, and greatly helps with organization when designing for the phone. I like the chromeless appearance, allowing the core functionality of the application to take precedence over gradients, textures, bevels, drop shadows, and the complicated animations you see on the web. Although I understand the Win Phone 7 guidelines are a work in progress, I found a few contradictions. I also noticed that certain design specifications did not translate well to the phone emulator . If you use their guidelines as suggested best practices and not as fixed definitions you will have more success. Multi-directional vs Linear The main challenge I had was stepping away from familiar navigational examples seen in other mobile phones. I had to keep reminding myself that the content to the right and to the left of what I was working on didnt necessarily have to have a direct link to one another. I started thinking multi-directional as opposed to linear. Win phone 7 vs IPhone The Metro styling of the Win Phone 7 is similar to the Zune HD and the Windows Media Center UI and offers a different interface paradigm than the IPhone. When navigating an application it feels like you are panning a long seamless page of information in contrast to the multiple panels of an IPhone. I think there is less of an opportunity to overdesign your application, which happens often with IPhone applications. While both interfaces are simple and sleek, win phone 7 really gets down to the basics. IPhone sets a high standard for designing for touch, designing for win phone 7 could improve on that user experience with a consistent and strategic use of white space and staying away from a menu and icon heavy UI. Design Examples for Win Phone 7 Applications Here are some concepts for both generic and brand specific applications for Win Phone 7: View Full Album Resources to get you going with your own Win Phone 7 design: Helpful design templates for Win Phone 7  http://www.shazaml.com/archives/windows-phone-7-ui-templates Here is the interaction design guide for Win Phone 7 http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713252 Windows has a project template for Blend 4 and Visual Studio 2010 RC1 http://developer.windowsphone.com/ Clarity Consulting developed a panorama control for Win Phone 7 http://blogs.claritycon.com/blogs/design/archive/2010/03/30/building-the-elusive-windows-phone-panorama-control.aspxDid you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • FluentPath: a fluent wrapper around System.IO

    - by Bertrand Le Roy
    .NET is now more than eight years old, and some of its APIs got old with more grace than others. System.IO in particular has always been a little awkward. It’s mostly static method calls (Path.*, Directory.*, etc.) and some stateful classes (DirectoryInfo, FileInfo). In these APIs, paths are plain strings. Since .NET v1, lots of good things happened to C#: lambda expressions, extension methods, optional parameters to name just a few. Outside of .NET, other interesting things happened as well. For example, you might have heard about this JavaScript library that had some success introducing a fluent API to handle the hierarchical structure of the HTML DOM. You know? jQuery. Knowing all that, every time I need to use the stuff in System.IO, I cringe. So I thought I’d just build a more modern wrapper around it. I used a fluent API based on an essentially immutable Path type and an enumeration of such path objects. To achieve the fluent style, a healthy dose of lambda expressions is being used to act on the objects. Without further ado, here’s an example of what you can do with the new API. In that example, I’m using a Media Center extension that wants all video files to be in their own folder. For that, I need a small tool that creates directories for each video file and moves the files in there. Here’s the code for it: Path.Get(args[0]) .Select(p => p.Extension == ".avi" || p.Extension == ".m4v" || p.Extension == ".wmv" || p.Extension == ".mp4" || p.Extension == ".dvr-ms" || p.Extension == ".mpg" || p.Extension == ".mkv") .CreateDirectory(p => p.Parent .Combine(p.FileNameWithoutExtension)) .Previous() .Move(p => p.Parent .Combine(p.FileNameWithoutExtension) .Combine(p.FileName)); This code creates a Path object pointing at the path pointed to by the first command line argument of my executable. It then selects all video files. After that, it creates directories that have the same names as each of the files, but without their extension. The result of that operation is the set of created directories. We can now get back to the previous set using the Previous method, and finally we can move each of the files in the set to the corresponding freshly created directory, whose name is the combination of the parent directory and the filename without extension. The new fluent path library covers a fair part of what’s in System.IO in a single, convenient API. Check it out, I hope you’ll enjoy it. Suggestions are more than welcome. For example, should I make this its own project on CodePlex or is this informal style just OK? Anything missing that you’d like to see? Is there a specific example you’d like to see expressed with the new API? Bugs? The code can be downloaded from here (this is under a new BSD license): http://weblogs.asp.net/blogs/bleroy/Samples/FluentPath.zip

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  • My Mother Bought a Droid

    - by Ben Griswold
    I converted to iPhone two years ago when I left my former employer and my Blackberry behind. The truth is I half-heartedly purchased my iPhone. It was a great looking device, but as far as I was concerned, it was a mere toy compared to my Blackberry.  I remember hiding the toy in my briefcase when attending business meetings because I didn’t consider it to be professional enough.  I’ve since owned all three generations of the iPhone and, well, iPhone seems to have caught on. I still miss the click of the Blackberry keyboard and the blinking red light letting me know that someone/something requires my attention, but I’m officially an iPhone fanboy now.  My mom called last weekend and asked if she should buy an iPhone. I talked her ear off about everything I love about iPhone. I went on for about twenty minutes. I couldn’t help myself. I mentioned everything from my podcast subscriptions to the application which manages my workouts.  I went as far as to say that someday all smart phones will be referred to as iPhones just like all tissues are referred to as Kleenex and all sodas are referred to as Cokes.  I was really on a roll and then I stopped. I had to…the call dropped.  There I was, strategically standing in the far corner of my backyard where I get the most reliable AT&T reception and the call drops in middle of my iPhone pitch.  Folks, I don’t care how good a salesperson you are, it’s tough to recover from a situation like this.   I dialed my mom back and jokingly asked if she was planning to make calls with her new phone. I explained that AT&T is bound to provide better service eventually but I’m not sure she should wait. After all, I have troubles with the network in San Diego and I can only image how bad it would be for her in Western Massachusetts. Mom called back a few days later exclaiming, “I bought a Droid! I love this phone! I haven’t done anything with it but make phone calls, but I love it.”  I had to laugh.  My mom made the right call (pun intended.)  The iPhone is an amazing device, but owners are constantly reminded that its core function (it’s a phone, remember?) is subpar.  If you love gadgets, you’re probably enthralled by iPhone’s many bells and whistles and, relatively speaking, the terrible phone service might not amount to much.  (Maybe it amounts to a rant on your blog.) The overall iPhone offering is so attractive that consumers are willing to wait for AT&T to straighten up their act or wait until Apple grants a choice of carriers.  But I don’t see either of these remedies coming soon. In the interim, I’m willing to take my iPhone for what it is and just continue to enjoy my favorite features while pretending that poor coverage isn’t a big deal. With any luck, more and more reasonable folks will recognize that Android Phones are legitimate players in the smart phone space, they will buy loads of them and there will become plenty of functional phones to borrow when my “phone” is showing zero bars.  Heck, I’m already covered when I visit my mom.

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  • SQL Server – SafePeak “Logon Trigger” Feature for Managing Data Access

    - by pinaldave
    Lately I received an interesting question about the abilities of SafePeak for SQL Server acceleration software: Q: “I would like to use SafePeak to make my CRM application faster. It is an application we bought from some vendor, after a while it became slow and we can’t reprogram it. SafePeak automated caching sounds like an easy and good solution for us. But, in my application there are many servers and different other applications services that address its main database, and some even change data, and I feel that there is a chance that some servers that during the connection process we may miss some. Is there a way to ensure that SafePeak will be aware of all connections to the SQL Server, so its cache will remain intact?” Interesting question, as I remember that SafePeak (http://www.safepeak.com/Product/SafePeak-Overview) likes that all traffic to the database will go thru it. I decided to check out the features of SafePeak latest version (2.1) and seek for an answer there. A: Indeed I found SafePeak has a feature they call “Logon Trigger” and is designed for that purpose. It is located in the user interface, under: Settings -> SQL instances management  ->  [your instance]  ->  [Logon Trigger] tab. From here you activate / deactivate it and control a white-list of enabled server IPs and Login names that SafePeak will ignore them. Click to Enlarge After activation of the “logon trigger” Safepeak server is notified by the SQL Server itself on each new opened connection. Safepeak monitors those connections and decides if there is something to do with them or not. On a typical installation SafePeak likes all application and users connections to go via SafePeak – this way it knows about data and schema updates immediately (real time). With activation of the safepeak “logon trigger”  a special CLR trigger is deployed on the SQL server and notifies Safepeak on any connection that has not arrived via SafePeak. In such cases Safepeak can act to clear and lock the cache or to ignore it. This feature enables to make sure SafePeak will be aware of all connections so SafePeak cache will maintain exactly correct all times. So even if a user, like a DBA will connect to the SQL Server not via SafePeak, SafePeak will know about it and take actions. The notification does not impact the work of that connection, the user or application still continue to do whatever they planned to do. Note: I found that activation of logon trigger in SafePeak requires that SafePeak SQL login will have the next permissions: 1) CONTROL SERVER; 2) VIEW SERVER STATE; 3) And the SQL Server instance is CLR enabled; Seeing SafePeak in action, I can say SafePeak brings fantastic resource for those who seek to get performance for SQL Server critical apps. SafePeak promises to accelerate SQL Server applications in just several hours of installation, automatic learning and some optimization configuration (no code changes!!!). If better application and database performance means better business to you – I suggest you to download and try SafePeak. The solution of SafePeak is indeed unique, and the questions I receive are very interesting. Have any more questions on SafePeak? Please leave your question as a comment and I will try to get an answer for you. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • Make Your Mouse Pointers Left-hand Friendly

    - by Matthew Guay
    It’s a right-centric world, with everything from pencils to computer mice expecting you to be right-handed.  Here’s how you can train your mouse and cursors in Windows 7 and Vista to respect your left-handedness. Using your Left Hand the Right Way It’s easy to switch your mouse to left-handed mode.  Enter “mouse” in your Start menu search, and select the first entry. Check the “Switch primary and secondary buttons” box to make your mouse more left-hand friendly.  Now your primary select button is your right button, and the secondary button (commonly referred to as right-click) is the left button. But, it can still be awkward to select items on screen with your left hand using the default cursors.  MSDN has a free set of cursors designed for left-handed users, that can fix this problem for you.  These cursors are exactly like the default Aero cursors in Windows 7 and Vista, except they are reversed to make them better for left-handed use. The cursors are available in 3 sizes: normal, large, and extra large.  The normal ones are the same size as the default ones in Windows 7; feel free to choose the other sizes if you prefer them.  Click each link to download all 6 cursors for your size (link below). Click “I Agree” after selecting the cursors to accept the license agreement and download them. Once you have all 6 cursors downloaded, select the Pointers tab in the Mouse Properties dialog.  Click the cursor to change, and then click Browse to select the new cursor. Browse to the folder you downloaded your new cursors to, select the correct cursor, and click Open. Do this for each of the 6 cursors to be changed.  Strangely, the Busy cursor (the spinning blue orb) is a static cursor, so you may not wish to change it.  All the other ones look and act like their standard counterparts. Here’s the cursors to be changed, and their equivalents in the default cursors: Normal Select: aero_arrow_left.cur Help Select: aero_helpsel_left.cur Working in Background: aero_working_left.ani Busy: aero_busy_left.cur Handwriting: aero_pen_left.cur Link Select: aero_link_left.cur After changing all the cursors, click Save As… to save this mouse scheme so you can easily select it in the future.  Finally click Ok to close the Mouse Properties dialog and accept the changes. Now your pointers will be easier to use left-handed! Conclusion Whether you’re right-handed or left-handed, you can enjoy the Aero cursors in Windows 7 or Vista in the way that works best for you.  Unfortunately, many mice are still designed for right-handed people, but this trick will help you make the best out of your mouse. We included all of the 6 cursors for you in a zip file you can download Here. This will make it easier for you to get them all together without having to download them individually. Link Download Left-Handed Mouse Pointers from MSDN Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Prevent Themes From Modifying Icons and Cursors in Windows 7How To Personalize Windows 7 StarterShow Two Time Zones in Your Outlook 2007 CalendarMake Mouse Navigation Faster in WindowsWhy Doesn’t Tab Work for Drop-down Controls in Firefox on OS X? TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff

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  • Dynamic Class Inheritance For PHP

    - by VirtuosiMedia
    I have a situation where I think I might need dynamic class inheritance in PHP 5.3, but the idea doesn't sit well and I'm looking for a different design pattern to solve my problem if it's possible. Use Case I have a set of DB abstraction layer classes that dynamically compiles SQL queries, with one DAL class for each DB type (MySQL, MsSQL, Oracle, etc.). Each table in the database has its own class that extends the appropriate DAL class. The idea is that you interact with the table classes, but never directly use the DAL class. If you want to support a different DB type for your app, you don't need to rewrite any queries or even any code, you simply change a setting that swaps one DAL class out for another...and that's it. To give you a better idea of how this is used, you can take a look at the DAL class, the table classes, and how they are used on this StackExchange Code Review page. To really understand what I'm trying to do, please take a look at my implementation first before suggesting a solution. Issues The strategy that I had used previously was to have all of the DAL classes share the same class name. This eliminated autoloading, so I had to manually load the appropriate DAL class in a switch statement. However, this approach presents some problems for testing and documentation purposes, so I'd like to find a different way to solve the problem of loading the correct DAL class more elegantly. Update to clarify the issue The problem basically boils down to inconsistencies in the class name (pre-PHP 5.3) or class namespace (PHP 5.3) and its location in the directory structure. At this point, all of my DAL classes have the same name, DBObject, but reside in different folders, MySQL, Oracle, etc. My table classes all extend DBObject, but which DBObject they extend varies depending on which one has been loaded. Basically, I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too. The table classes act as a stable API and extend a dynamic backend, the DAL (DBObject) classes. It works great, but I outsmarted myself and because of the inconsistencies with the class names and their locations, I can't autoload the DBObject, which makes running unit tests and generating API docs impossible for the DBObject classes because the tests and docs rely on auto-loading. Just loading the appropriate DBObject into memory using a factory method won't work because there will be times when I need to load multiple DBObjects for testing. Because the classes currently share a name, this causes a class is already defined error. I can make exceptions for the DBObjects in my test code, obviously, but I'm looking for something a little less hacky as there may future instances where something similar would need to be done. Solutions? Worst case scenario, I can continue my current strategy, but I don't like it very much, especially as I'll soon be converting my code to PHP 5.3. I suspect that I can use some sort of dynamic inheritance via either namespaces (preferred) or a dynamic class extension, but I haven't been able to find good examples of this implemented in the wild. In your answers, please suggest either an alternate pattern that would work for this use case or an example of dynamic inheritance done right. Please assume PHP 5.3 with namespaced code. Any code examples are greatly encouraged. The preferred constraints for the solution are: DAL class can be autoloaded. DAL classes don't share the same exact same namespace, but share the same class name. As an example, I would prefer to use classes named DbObject that use namespaces like Vm\Db\MySql and Vm\Db\Oracle. Table classes don't have to be rewritten with a change in DB type. The appropriate DB type is determined via a single setting only. That setting is the only thing that should need to change to interchange DB types. Ideally, the setting check should occur only once per page load, but I'm flexible on that.

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  • TDD and WCF behavior

    - by Frederic Hautecoeur
    Some weeks ago I wanted to develop a WCF behavior using TDD. I have lost some time trying to use mocks. After a while i decided to just use a host and a client. I don’t like this approach but so far I haven’t found a good and fast solution to use Unit Test for testing a WCF behavior. To Implement my solution I had to : Create a Dummy Service Definition; Create the Dummy Service Implementation; Create a host; Create a client in my test; Create and Add the behavior; Dummy Service Definition This is just a simple service, composed of an Interface and a simple implementation. The structure is aimed to be easily customizable for my future needs.   Using Clauses : 1: using System.Runtime.Serialization; 2: using System.ServiceModel; 3: using System.ServiceModel.Channels; The DataContract: 1: [DataContract()] 2: public class MyMessage 3: { 4: [DataMember()] 5: public string MessageString; 6: } The request MessageContract: 1: [MessageContract()] 2: public class RequestMessage 3: { 4: [MessageHeader(Name = "MyHeader", Namespace = "http://dummyservice/header", Relay = true)] 5: public string myHeader; 6:  7: [MessageBodyMember()] 8: public MyMessage myRequest; 9: } The response MessageContract: 1: [MessageContract()] 2: public class ResponseMessage 3: { 4: [MessageHeader(Name = "MyHeader", Namespace = "http://dummyservice/header", Relay = true)] 5: public string myHeader; 6:  7: [MessageBodyMember()] 8: public MyMessage myResponse; 9: } The ServiceContract: 1: [ServiceContract(Name="DummyService", Namespace="http://dummyservice",SessionMode=SessionMode.Allowed )] 2: interface IDummyService 3: { 4: [OperationContract(Action="Perform", IsOneWay=false, ProtectionLevel=System.Net.Security.ProtectionLevel.None )] 5: ResponseMessage DoThis(RequestMessage request); 6: } Dummy Service Implementation 1: public class DummyService:IDummyService 2: { 3: #region IDummyService Members 4: public ResponseMessage DoThis(RequestMessage request) 5: { 6: ResponseMessage response = new ResponseMessage(); 7: response.myHeader = "Response"; 8: response.myResponse = new MyMessage(); 9: response.myResponse.MessageString = 10: string.Format("Header:<{0}> and Request was <{1}>", 11: request.myHeader, request.myRequest.MessageString); 12: return response; 13: } 14: #endregion 15: } Host Creation The most simple host implementation using a Named Pipe binding. The GetBinding method will create a binding for the host and can be used to create the same binding for the client. 1: public static class TestHost 2: { 3: 4: internal static string hostUri = "net.pipe://localhost/dummy"; 5:  6: // Create Host method. 7: internal static ServiceHost CreateHost() 8: { 9: ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(typeof(DummyService)); 10:  11: // Creating Endpoint 12: Uri namedPipeAddress = new Uri(hostUri); 13: host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(IDummyService), GetBinding(), namedPipeAddress); 14:  15: return host; 16: } 17:  18: // Binding Creation method. 19: internal static Binding GetBinding() 20: { 21: NamedPipeTransportBindingElement namedPipeTransport = new NamedPipeTransportBindingElement(); 22: TextMessageEncodingBindingElement textEncoding = new TextMessageEncodingBindingElement(); 23:  24: return new CustomBinding(textEncoding, namedPipeTransport); 25: } 26:  27: // Close Method. 28: internal static void Close(ServiceHost host) 29: { 30: if (null != host) 31: { 32: host.Close(); 33: host = null; 34: } 35: } 36: } Checking the service A simple test tool check the plumbing. 1: [TestMethod] 2: public void TestService() 3: { 4: using (ServiceHost host = TestHost.CreateHost()) 5: { 6: host.Open(); 7:  8: using (ChannelFactory<IDummyService> channel = 9: new ChannelFactory<IDummyService>(TestHost.GetBinding() 10: , new EndpointAddress(TestHost.hostUri))) 11: { 12: IDummyService svc = channel.CreateChannel(); 13: try 14: { 15: RequestMessage request = new RequestMessage(); 16: request.myHeader = Guid.NewGuid().ToString(); 17: request.myRequest = new MyMessage(); 18: request.myRequest.MessageString = "I want some beer."; 19:  20: ResponseMessage response = svc.DoThis(request); 21: } 22: catch (Exception ex) 23: { 24: Assert.Fail(ex.Message); 25: } 26: } 27: host.Close(); 28: } 29: } Running the service should show that the client and the host are running fine. So far so good. Adding the Behavior Add a reference to the Behavior project and add the using entry in the test class. We just need to add the behavior to the service host : 1: [TestMethod] 2: public void TestService() 3: { 4: using (ServiceHost host = TestHost.CreateHost()) 5: { 6: host.Description.Behaviors.Add(new MyBehavior()); 7: host.Open();¨ 8: …  If you set a breakpoint in your behavior and run the test in debug mode, you will hit the breakpoint. In this case I used a ServiceBehavior. To add an Endpoint behavior you have to add it to the endpoints. 1: host.Description.Endpoints[0].Behaviors.Add(new MyEndpointBehavior()) To add a contract or an operation behavior a custom attribute should work on the service contract definition. I haven’t tried that yet.   All the code provided in this blog and in the following files are for sample use. Improvements I don’t like to instantiate a client and a service to test my behaviors. But so far I have' not found an easy way to do it. Today I am passing a type of endpoint to the host creator and it creates the right binding type. This allows me to easily switch between bindings at will. I have used the same approach to test Mex Endpoints, another post should come later for this. Enjoy !

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  • Add the Vista Style Sidebar Back to Windows 7

    - by Mysticgeek
    If you are moving from Vista to Windows 7, you might miss the Sidebar which was introduced in Vista. Today we take a look at a couple options for getting a Sidebar back in Windows 7. Copy Files from Vista Note: In this example we are using 32-bit versions of Vista and Windows 7. Make sure you are logged in with Administrator credentials. If you have a Vista machine running, we can copy the Windows Sidebar files over to the Windows 7 machine. On the Vista machine navigate to C:\Program Files and copy the Windows Sidebar folder and all of its contents over to a flash drive or network location. On the Windows 7 machine go to C:\Program Files and rename the Windows Sidebar folder to something like Windows Sidebar_old. Now copy the Vista Windows Sidebar folder into C:\Program Files… Now you will have both folders…Windows Sidebar and Windows Sidebar_old in your C:\Program Files folder. Right-click on the desktop and select Gadgets. There you are…the Original Vista Sidebar is back and will act as it did in Vista. Move Sidebar Gadgets Another work around if you don’t have a copy of Vista, you can simply move the Desktop Gadgets you want over to the right side of the screen and they will stay there…no dock needed. Type gadgets into the Search box in the Windows Start Menu and click on Desktop Gadgets. Then drag the included Gadgets you want over to the right side of the screen. Or click on the link to Get more gadgets online to find more. Once you have them where you want, each time you reboot they will still be in the same location. This holds true no matter where you place them on your desktop as well. Install Desktop Sidebar If you want an enhanced sidebar that includes a lot of different features, and don’t have a copy of Vista, you might want to check out Desktop Sidebar Beta (link below). This is a freeware application that works with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. After installation you can access it from the Start Menu… Here is how it will look after you launch it… It includes several pre-installed panels including a clock, Media Player, Search Bar, Slideshow, Messenger, Outlook inbox, Tasks, Quick Launch, Performance…and a lot more. It is highly customizable and allows you to change skins, add various levels of transparency, and a lot more. One caveat with going with Desktop Sidebar is we didn’t find a way to add Windows Gadgets to it (though there might be a plugin for it that we’re not aware of). But there are so many options, you may not mind. However, you can still use the desktop gadgets as you normally would in Windows 7. Believe it or not, some people actually prefer the Vista style Sidebar and would like it back in Windows 7. With these options you can get the Vista Sidebar back if you have a copy of Vista, place the Gadgets on the desktop, or go the freeware route. Download Desktop Sidebar (freeware) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Disable Windows Sidebar in VistaHow To Repair Your Crashed or Hanging Vista SidebarApplying Themes To Your Windows Vista SidebarDisable Sidebar / Desktop Gadgets on Windows 7Put AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) In your Windows Sidebar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup Ultimate Boot CD can help when disaster strikes Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – How To Guides Sculptris 1.0, 3D Drawing app AceStock, a Tiny Desktop Quote Monitor Gmail Button Addon (Firefox) Hyperwords addon (Firefox)

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