Search Results

Search found 33 results on 2 pages for 'phew'.

Page 1/2 | 1 2  | Next Page >

• Postfix "warning: cannot get RSA private key from file"

  - by phew

  I just followed this tutorial to set up a postfix mailserver with dovecot and mysql as backend for virtual users. Now I got the most parts working, I can connect to pop3 pop3s imap and imaps. Using echo TEST-MAIL | mail [email protected] works fine, when I log into my hotmail account it shows the email. It also works in reverse hence my MX entry for mydomain.com finally has been propagated, so I am being able to receive emails sent from [email protected] to [email protected] and view them in Thunderbird using STARTTLS via IMAP. Doing a bit more research after I got the error message "5.7.1 : Relay access denied" when trying to send mails to [email protected] using Thunderbird being logged into [email protected], I figured out that my server was acting as an "Open Mail Relay", which - ofcourse - is a bad thing. Digging more into the optional parts of the tutorial like shown workaround.org/comment/2536 and workaround.org/ispmail/squeeze/postfix-smtp-auth I decided to complete these steps aswell to be able to send mails via [email protected] through Mozilla Thunderbird, not getting the error message "5.7.1 : Relay access denied" anymore (as common mailservers reject open relayed emails). But now I ran into an error trying to get postfix working with SMTPS, in /var/log/mail.log it reads Sep 28 17:29:34 domain postfix/smtpd[20251]: warning: cannot get RSA private key from file /etc/ssl/certs/postfix.pem: disabling TLS support Sep 28 17:29:34 domain postfix/smtpd[20251]: warning: TLS library problem: 20251:error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:650:Expecting: ANY PRIVATE KEY: Sep 28 17:29:34 domain postfix/smtpd[20251]: warning: TLS library problem: 20251:error:140B0009:SSL routines:SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file:PEM lib:ssl_rsa.c:669: That error is logged right after I try to send a mail from my newly installed mailserver using SMTP SSL/TLS via port 465 in Thunderbird. Thunderbird then tells me a timeout occured. Google has a few results concerning that problem, yet I couldn't get it working with any of those. I would link some of them here but as a new user I am only allowed to use two hyperlinks. My /etc/postfix/master.cf looks like smtp inet n - - - - smtpd smtps inet n - - - - smtpd -o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes and nmap tells me PORT STATE SERVICE [...] 465/tcp open smtps [...] my /etc/postfix/main.cf looks like smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Debian/GNU) biff = no append_dot_mydomain = no readme_directory = no #smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/postfix.pem #default postfix generated #smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key #default postfix generated smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/postfix.pem smptd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/postfix.pem smtpd_use_tls = yes smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot smtpd_sasl_path = private/auth smptd_sasl_auth_enable = yes smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_unauth_destination myhostname = mydomain.com alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases myorigin = /etc/mailname mydestination = localhost.com, localhost relayhost = mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128 mailbox_size_limit = 0 recipient_delimiter = + inet_interfaces = all virtual_mailbox_domains = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-mailbox-domains.cf virtual_mailbox_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-mailbox-maps.cf virtual_alias_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-alias-maps.cf virtual_transport = dovecot dovecot_destination_recipient_limit = 1 mailbox_command = /usr/lib/dovecot/deliver The *.pem files were created like described in the tutorial above, using Postfix To create a certificate to be used by Postfix use: openssl req -new -x509 -days 3650 -nodes -out /etc/ssl/certs/postfix.pem -keyout /etc/ssl/private/postfix.pem Do not forget to set the permissions on the private key so that no unauthorized people can read it: chmod o= /etc/ssl/private/postfix.pem You will have to tell Postfix where to find your certificate and private key because by default it will look for a dummy certificate file called "ssl-cert-snakeoil": postconf -e smtpd_tls_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certs/postfix.pem postconf -e smtpd_tls_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/postfix.pem I think I don't have to include /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf here, as login via imaps and pop3s works fine according to the logs. Only problem is making postfix properly use the self-generated, self-signed certificates. Any help appreciated! EDIT: I just tried this different tutorial on generating a self-signed certificate for postfix, still getting the same error. I really don't know what else to test. I also did check for the SSL libraries, but all seems to be fine: root@domain:~# ldd /usr/sbin/postfix linux-vdso.so.1 => (0x00007fff91b25000) libpostfix-global.so.1 => /usr/lib/libpostfix-global.so.1 (0x00007f6f8313d000) libpostfix-util.so.1 => /usr/lib/libpostfix-util.so.1 (0x00007f6f82f07000) libssl.so.0.9.8 => /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 (0x00007f6f82cb1000) libcrypto.so.0.9.8 => /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 (0x00007f6f82910000) libsasl2.so.2 => /usr/lib/libsasl2.so.2 (0x00007f6f826f7000) libdb-4.8.so => /usr/lib/libdb-4.8.so (0x00007f6f8237c000) libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x00007f6f82164000) libresolv.so.2 => /lib/libresolv.so.2 (0x00007f6f81f4e000) libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007f6f81beb000) libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f6f819e7000) libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x00007f6f817d0000) libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f6f815b3000) /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f6f83581000) After following Ansgar Wiechers instructions its finally working. postconf -n contained the lines as it should. The certificate/key check via openssl did show that both files are valid. So it indeed has been a permissions problem! Didn't know that chown'ing the /etc/ssl/*/postfix.pem files to postfix:postfix is not enough for postfix to read the files.

  Read the article

• Congratulations 2010 Microsoft MVP, woo hoo 5th time now

  - by ssqa.net

  Well, its April 01st again and a big day for me 2 important events to note (daughter's birthday and MVP renewal notification). After a long travel from London to Hyderabad after speaking at UK AIC 2010 conference, I was able to make it by half day here for my daughter's birthday, phew. Then next one awaiting official confirmation about MVP renewal (April - Mar cycle), woo hooo here is one.... Dear Satya Jayanty, Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award...(read more)

  Read the article

• 3d transformation of game world keeping gameplay 2d - COCOS2D 2.0

  - by samfisher

  Using: COCOS2D + iOS. I want to rotate the game world, may be loading another .tmx file for another dimensions when user want to switch dimension. the effect what I am looking for is something like this:CLICK HERE What I have thought of till now: rotating CCCamera will be mandatory. Question: How will I have the other part of the level in place while the camera rotates/rotating? I can load a CCSprite and rotate it accordingly to the 3rd dimension. phew..!! Question: When the camera and world is rotated, will the player controls work properly.. I think not...? I think a better option would be to checkout with COCOS3D... there I could implement 3d world... right?? Question: Not sure how well 2d dynamics will work there as I want to user Box2d as physics engine.. could anyone provide suggestions? Regards, Sam

  Read the article

• R2 and Idera Idera SQL Safe (Freeware Edition)

  - by DavidWimbush

  Good news: the Freeware edition of Idera SQL Safe works on R2. You might not care but I certainly do. Here's why:  In September last year I started using Idera SQL Safe (the Freeware Edition) to get backup compression on my SQL 2005 servers. It seemed like a good idea at the time - it was free and my backups ran much faster and took up much less disk space. I really thought I'd actually scored a free lunch. Until they discontinued the product. I was thinking about what to do when I heard that R2 Standard would include native backup compression so I've just been keeping my fingers crossed since then. So I installed R2 Developer on my laptop, installed SQL Safe and kicked off a restore with it. No problem. Phew! Now I won't have to do a special, non-compressed backup and restore when we migrate.

  Read the article

• Swing's KeyListener and multiple keys pressed at the same time.

  - by Negai

  Hi everyone, is there any conventional way in swing of tracking down the events, when two keyboard keys are pressed at the same time? I have a couple of ideas e.g. remembering the key and event generation time so that we could in a consecutive event handler invocation check the time difference between these two events and decide, whether it's a two-button event or not. Phew. But it looks like a kludge. Thanks in advance.

  Read the article

• Prevent Internet Explorer 8 from exiting when closing the last tab

  - by LongTTH

  Firefox doesn't exit when I close the last tab, just by doing some customization in about:config. But now, my company has to work with some website that only works well on Internet Explorer. I currently use Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP SP3. So, how do I prevent Internet Explorer 8 from exiting when closing the last tab? I've searched for such a feature for a while but found nothing helpful. FYI I gave up with my "customization habit", now I'm trying to live with IE world, ... phew...

  Read the article

• Geek Bike Ride Sao Paulo

  - by Tori Wieldt

  What do you do on sunny Saturday in Sao Paulo when you have several Java enthusiasts, street lanes closed off for bicyclists, new cool Duke jerseys, and some wonderful bike angels to provide a tour through the city? A GEEK BIKE RIDE, of course! The weekend before JavaOne Latin America, the Sao Paulo geek bike ride was held today. We had 20+ riders and a wonderful route that took us from the Bicycle Park to and through downtown. It was a 30Km ride, but our hosts were kind enough to give riders the option to take the subway for part of the trip. Thanks to our wonderful bike angels, the usual rental bike problems like rubbing brakes, dropped chains, and even a flat tire were handled with ease.  The geek bike ride wasn't just for out-of-towners. Loiane Groner, who lives in Sao Paulo said, "I love the Geek Bike Ride! The last time I was in these parts of the city, I think I was five years-old!" A good time was had by all. (My only crash of the day was riding up an escalator with my bike. Luckily, the bikers with me were so busy helping me that no pictures were taken. <phew>) Enjoy this video by Hugo Lavalle You can also view Hugo's pictures. More pictures to come on Stephen Chin's blog.  So, what city is up next?  

  Read the article

• Procedure or function has too many arguments specified

  - by bullpit

  This error took me a while to figure out. I was using SqlDataSource with stored procedures for SELECT and UPDATE commands. The SELECT worked fine. Then I added UPDATE command and while trying to update, I would get this error: "Procedure of function has too many arguments specified" Apparently, good guys at .NET decided it is necessary to send SELECT parameters with the UPDATE command as well. So when I was sending the required parameters to the UPDATE sp, in reality, it was also getting my SELECT parameters, and thus failing. I had to add the extra parameters in the UPDATE stored procedure and make them NULLABLE so that they are not required....phew... Here is piece of SP with unused parameters. ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[UpdateMaintenanceRecord]        @RecordID INT     ,@District VARCHAR(255)     ,@Location VARCHAR(255)         --UNUSED PARAMETERS     ,@MTBillTo VARCHAR(255) = NULL     ,@SerialNumber VARCHAR(255) = NULL     ,@PartNumber VARCHAR(255) = NULL Update: I was getting that error because unkowingly, I had bound the extra fields in my GridVeiw with Bind() call. I changed all the extra one's, which did not need to be in Update, to Eval() and everything works fine.

  Read the article

• Naming a class that processes orders

  - by p.campbell

  I'm in the midst of refactoring a project. I've recently read Clean Code, and want to heed some of the advice within, with particular interest in Single Responsibility Principle (SRP). Currently, there's a class called OrderProcessor in the context of a manufacturing product order system. This class is currently performs the following routine every n minutes: check database for newly submitted + unprocessed orders (via a Data Layer class already, phew!) gather all the details of the orders mark them as in-process iterate through each to: perform some integrity checking call a web service on a 3rd party system to place the order check status return value of the web service for success/fail email somebody if web service returns fail constantly log to a text file on each operation or possible fail point I've started by breaking out this class into new classes like: OrderService - poor name. This is the one that wakes up every n minutes OrderGatherer - calls the DL to get the order from the database OrderIterator (? seems too forced or poorly named) - OrderPlacer - calls web service to place the order EmailSender Logger I'm struggling to find good names for each class, and implementing SRP in a reasonable way. How could this class be separated into new class with discrete responsibilities?

  Read the article

• SIMPLE Bug Tracking Suggestions?

  - by mauriciopastrana

  Any suggestions for good, solid, bug tracking solutions that let me (and company members) document bugs in 1-or-2-click steps? Basically I grew tired of all the overhead Mantis brings in... All I need is a list (do away with assign/status/priority/notes, phew! we're a small company!). I'm tempted to write it up in CakePHP, but before I do so, i'd love to know if there's something out there. Points if its free or web2-"ish". Cheers, Thx. /mp

  Read the article

• Single HTML Table from multiple MySQL tables

  - by David Chouinard

  Hi! I've been struggling for a while with this one; I'll try to explain it here as simply as possible. Consider this MySQL table: +----------+-----------+---------+--------+ |status_id |session_id |pilot_id |present | +----------+-----------+---------+--------+ |1 |61 |901 |1 | |2 |63 |901 |1 | |3 |62 |901 |0 | |4 |62 |902 |1 | |5 |63 |903 |1 | +----------+-----------+---------+--------+ Both session_id and pilot_id are foreign keys making reference to a primary key in another table. The same pilot_id can be associated with different session_id, but every pilot_id-session_id combination is unique. I need to make an HTML table (in PHP) that would display the data like this: +----------+---------+---------+---------+ | |61 |62 |63 | +----------+---------+---------+---------+ |901 |X | |X | |902 | |X | | |903 | | |X | +----------+---------+---------+---------+ Hence, rows are pilot_id and columns are session_id. When a pilot_id-session_id combination has a present value of 1, the corresponding cell should be checked. (ie. when the row-combination is zero or the combination does not exist in the MySQL table, nothing should appear in the HTML table) Phew. Any ideas? Thanks!

  Read the article

• A New Home for E-Business Suite Customer Adoption Information

  - by linda.fishman.hoyle

  Phew! I made it! A new home with my name. Let's talk about E-Business Suite. So much is going on and more and more customers are upgrading and implementing the latest release. I think I will highlight in this blog entry the most recent press release we issued 2 weeks ago about our Applications Unlimited success but in the release, we name several customers who are live on E-Business Suite Release 12.1 and then have a fabulous quote from a customer who is doing great things with our product.   Here is a link to the press release To make it easy for you, I am pulling out just the E-Business Suite information Oracle E-Business Suite: Oracle® E-Business Suite Release 12.1 provides organizations of all sizes, across all industries and regions, with a global business foundation that helps them reduce costs and increase productivity through a portfolio of rapid value solutions, integrated business processes and industry-focused solutions. The latest version of the Oracle E-Business Suite was designed to help organizations make better decisions and be more competitive by providing a global or holistic view of their operations. Abu Dhabi Media Company, Agilysis, C3 Business Solutions, Chicago Public Schools, Datacard Group, Guidance Software, Leviton Manufacturing, McDonald's, MINOR International, Usana Health Sciences, Zamil Plastic Industries Ltd. and Zebra Technologies are just a few of the organizations that have deployed the latest release of the Oracle E-Business Suite to help them make better decisions and be more competitive, while lowering costs and increasing performance. Customer Speaks "Leviton Manufacturing makes a very diverse line of products including electrical devices and data center products that we sell globally. We upgraded to the latest version of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 to support our service business with change management, purchasing, accounts payable, and our internal IT help desk," said Bob MacTaggart, CIO of Leviton Manufacturing. "We consolidated seven Web sites that we used to host individually onto iStore. In addition, we run a site, using the Oracle E-Business Suite configurator, pricing and quoting for our sales agents to do configuration work. This site can now generate a complete sales proposal using Oracle functionality; we actually generate CAD drawings - the actual drawings themselves - based on configuration results. It used to take six to eight weeks to generate these drawings and now it's all done online in an hour to two hours by our sales agents themselves, totally self-service. It does everything they need. From our point of view that is a major business success. Not only is it a very cool, innovative application, but it also puts us about two years ahead of our competition."

  Read the article

• New user profile creation error - Windows cannot open *.exe

  - by Jake

  I have a windows 7 laptop with the user "mydomain\boy" that cannot log in to the laptop. the error message is something like "User profile service cannot log in the user boy". I then logged in with the domain admin account "mydomain\admin" and then went to delete the "mydomain\boy" from my computer system properties advance system settings user profiles settings. I also ensure that the user is deleted from control panel user accounts. I then also deleted the user folder c:\users\boy I also checked that the registry at this location HKLM\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion\profilelist\ and ensure that there is no entry for boy. I followed http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947215 using the method 3 "fix it for me" but does not seem to do anything. (or i don't know how to use it). AFTER EVERYTHING DONE ABOVE... Everytime i log in with a new user, be it boy, girl or anything other domain account (other than the admin account already created when I first logged in to begin the fix/break), it takes a long time, and when the "preparing desktop" goes away, it starts to exe cannot open error e.g. regsvr.exe etc.. file association problem with exe QUESTION (phew finally..): Please tell me how to fix it? Thanks!

  Read the article

• Subterranean IL: Pseudo custom attributes

  - by Simon Cooper

  Custom attributes were designed to make the .NET framework extensible; if a .NET language needs to store additional metadata on an item that isn't expressible in IL, then an attribute could be applied to the IL item to represent this metadata. For instance, the C# compiler uses DecimalConstantAttribute and DateTimeConstantAttribute to represent compile-time decimal or datetime constants, which aren't allowed in pure IL, and FixedBufferAttribute to represent fixed struct fields. How attributes are compiled Within a .NET assembly are a series of tables containing all the metadata for items within the assembly; for instance, the TypeDef table stores metadata on all the types in the assembly, and MethodDef does the same for all the methods and constructors. Custom attribute information is stored in the CustomAttribute table, which has references to the IL item the attribute is applied to, the constructor used (which implies the type of attribute applied), and a binary blob representing the arguments and name/value pairs used in the attribute application. For example, the following C# class: [Obsolete("Please use MyClass2", true)] public class MyClass { // ... } corresponds to the following IL class definition: .class public MyClass { .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.ObsoleteAttribute::.ctor(string, bool) = { string('Please use MyClass2' bool(true) } // ... } and results in the following entry in the CustomAttribute table: TypeDef(MyClass) MemberRef(ObsoleteAttribute::.ctor(string, bool)) blob -> {string('Please use MyClass2' bool(true)} However, there are some attributes that don't compile in this way. Pseudo custom attributes Just like there are some concepts in a language that can't be represented in IL, there are some concepts in IL that can't be represented in a language. This is where pseudo custom attributes come into play. The most obvious of these is SerializableAttribute. Although it looks like an attribute, it doesn't compile to a CustomAttribute table entry; it instead sets the serializable bit directly within the TypeDef entry for the type. This flag is fully expressible within IL; this C#: [Serializable] public class MySerializableClass {} compiles to this IL: .class public serializable MySerializableClass {} For those interested, a full list of pseudo custom attributes is available here. For the rest of this post, I'll be concentrating on the ones that deal with P/Invoke. P/Invoke attributes P/Invoke is built right into the CLR at quite a deep level; there are 2 metadata tables within an assembly dedicated solely to p/invoke interop, and many more that affect it. Furthermore, all the attributes used to specify p/invoke methods in C# or VB have their own keywords and syntax within IL. For example, the following C# method declaration: [DllImport("mscorsn.dll", SetLastError = true)] [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U1)] private static extern bool StrongNameSignatureVerificationEx( [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string wszFilePath, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U1)] bool fForceVerification, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U1)] ref bool pfWasVerified); compiles to the following IL definition: .method private static pinvokeimpl("mscorsn.dll" lasterr winapi) bool marshal(unsigned int8) StrongNameSignatureVerificationEx( string marshal(lpwstr) wszFilePath, bool marshal(unsigned int8) fForceVerification, bool& marshal(unsigned int8) pfWasVerified) cil managed preservesig {} As you can see, all the p/invoke and marshal properties are specified directly in IL, rather than using attributes. And, rather than creating entries in CustomAttribute, a whole bunch of metadata is emitted to represent this information. This single method declaration results in the following metadata being output to the assembly: A MethodDef entry containing basic information on the method Four ParamDef entries for the 3 method parameters and return type An entry in ModuleRef to mscorsn.dll An entry in ImplMap linking ModuleRef and MethodDef, along with the name of the function to import and the pinvoke options (lasterr winapi) Four FieldMarshal entries containing the marshal information for each parameter. Phew! Applying attributes Most of the time, when you apply an attribute to an element, an entry in the CustomAttribute table will be created to represent that application. However, some attributes represent concepts in IL that aren't expressible in the language you're coding in, and can instead result in a single bit change (SerializableAttribute and NonSerializedAttribute), or many extra metadata table entries (the p/invoke attributes) being emitted to the output assembly.

  Read the article

• Subterranean IL: Exception handling 2

  - by Simon Cooper

  Control flow in and around exception handlers is tightly controlled, due to the various ways the handler blocks can be executed. To start off with, I'll describe what SEH does when an exception is thrown. Handling exceptions When an exception is thrown, the CLR stops program execution at the throw statement and searches up the call stack looking for an appropriate handler; catch clauses are analyzed, and filter blocks are executed (I'll be looking at filter blocks in a later post). Then, when an appropriate catch or filter handler is found, the stack is unwound to that handler, executing successive finally and fault handlers in their own stack contexts along the way, and program execution continues at the start of the catch handler. Because catch, fault, finally and filter blocks can be executed essentially out of the blue by the SEH mechanism, without any reference to preceding instructions, you can't use arbitary branches in and out of exception handler blocks. Instead, you need to use specific instructions for control flow out of handler blocks: leave, endfinally/endfault, and endfilter. Exception handler control flow try blocks You cannot branch into or out of a try block or its handler using normal control flow instructions. The only way of entering a try block is by either falling through from preceding instructions, or by branching to the first instruction in the block. Once you are inside a try block, you can only leave it by throwing an exception or using the leave <label> instruction to jump to somewhere outside the block and its handler. The leave instructions signals the CLR to execute any finally handlers around the block. Most importantly, you cannot fall out of the block, and you cannot use a ret to return from the containing method (unlike in C#); you have to use leave to branch to a ret elsewhere in the method. As a side effect, leave empties the stack. catch blocks The only way of entering a catch block is if it is run by the SEH. At the start of the block execution, the thrown exception will be the only thing on the stack. The only way of leaving a catch block is to use throw, rethrow, or leave, in a similar way to try blocks. However, one thing you can do is use a leave to branch back to an arbitary place in the handler's try block! In other words, you can do this: .try { // ... newobj instance void [mscorlib]System.Exception::.ctor() throw MidTry: // ... leave.s RestOfMethod } catch [mscorlib]System.Exception { // ... leave.s MidTry } RestOfMethod: // ... As far as I know, this mechanism is not exposed in C# or VB. finally/fault blocks The only way of entering a finally or fault block is via the SEH, either as the result of a leave instruction in the corresponding try block, or as part of handling an exception. The only way to leave a finally or fault block is to use endfinally or endfault (both compile to the same binary representation), which continues execution after the finally/fault block, or, if the block was executed as part of handling an exception, signals that the SEH can continue walking the stack. filter blocks I'll be covering filters in a separate blog posts. They're quite different to the others, and have their own special semantics. Phew! Complicated stuff, but it's important to know if you're writing or outputting exception handlers in IL. Dealing with the C# compiler is probably best saved for the next post.

  Read the article

• Entity System with C++ templates

  - by tommaisey

  I've been getting interested in the Entity/Component style of game programming, and I've come up with a design in C++ which I'd like a critique of. I decided to go with a fairly pure Entity system, where entities are simply an ID number. Components are stored in a series of vectors - one for each Component type. However, I didn't want to have to add boilerplate code for every new Component type I added to the game. Nor did I want to use macros to do this, which frankly scare me. So I've come up with a system based on templates and type hinting. But there are some potential issues I'd like to check before I spend ages writing this (I'm a slow coder!) All Components derive from a Component base class. This base class has a protected constructor, that takes a string parameter. When you write a new derived Component class, you must initialise the base with the name of your new class in a string. When you first instantiate a new DerivedComponent, it adds the string to a static hashmap inside Component mapped to a unique integer id. When you subsequently instantiate more Components of the same type, no action is taken. The result (I think) should be a static hashmap with the name of each class derived from Component that you instantiate at least once, mapped to a unique id, which can by obtained with the static method Component::getTypeId ("DerivedComponent"). Phew. The next important part is TypedComponentList<typename PropertyType>. This is basically just a wrapper to an std::vector<typename PropertyType> with some useful methods. It also contains a hashmap of entity ID numbers to slots in the array so we can find Components by their entity owner. Crucially TypedComponentList<> is derived from the non-template class ComponentList. This allows me to maintain a list of pointers to ComponentList in my main ComponentManager, which actually point to TypedComponentLists with different template parameters (sneaky). The Component manager has template functions such as: template <typename ComponentType> void addProperty (ComponentType& component, int componentTypeId, int entityId) and: template <typename ComponentType> TypedComponentList<ComponentType>* getComponentList (int componentTypeId) which deal with casting from ComponentList to the correct TypedComponentList for you. So to get a list of a particular type of Component you call: TypedComponentList<MyComponent>* list = componentManager.getComponentList<MyComponent> (Component::getTypeId("MyComponent")); Which I'll admit looks pretty ugly. Bad points of the design: If a user of the code writes a new Component class but supplies the wrong string to the base constructor, the whole system will fail. Each time a new Component is instantiated, we must check a hashed string to see if that component type has bee instantiated before. Will probably generate a lot of assembly because of the extensive use of templates. I don't know how well the compiler will be able to minimise this. You could consider the whole system a bit complex - perhaps premature optimisation? But I want to use this code again and again, so I want it to be performant. Good points of the design: Components are stored in typed vectors but they can also be found by using their entity owner id as a hash. This means we can iterate them fast, and minimise cache misses, but also skip straight to the component we need if necessary. We can freely add Components of different types to the system without having to add and manage new Component vectors by hand. What do you think? Do the good points outweigh the bad?

  Read the article

• Dividing sections inside an omp parallel for : OpenMP

  - by Sayan Ghosh

  Hi, I have a situation like: #pragma omp parallel for private(i, j, k, val, p, l) for (i = 0; i < num1; i++) { for (j = 0; j < num2; j++) { for (k = 0; k < num3; k++) { val = m[i + j*somenum + k*2] if (val != 0) for (l = start; l <= end; l++) { someFunctionThatWritesIntoGlobalArray((i + l), j, k, (someFunctionThatGetsValueFromAnotherArray((i + l), j, k) * val)); } } } for (p = 0; p < num4; p++) { m[p] = 0; } } Thanks for reading, phew! Well I am noticing a very minor difference in the results (0.999967[omp] against 1[serial]), when I use the above (which is 3 times faster) against the serial implementation. Now I know I am doing a mistake here...especially the connection between loops is evident. Is it possible to parallelize this using omp sections? I tried some options like making shared(p) {doing this, I got correct values, as in the serial form}, but there was no speedup then. Any general advice on handling openmp pragmas over a slew of for loops would also be great for me!

  Read the article

• Why do I have to unserialize this serialized value twice?

  - by 55skidoo

  What am I doing wrong here? I'm serializing a value, storing it in a database (table bb_meta), retrieving it... OK so far... but then I have to unserialize it twice. Shouldn't I be able to just unserialize once? This seems to work, but I'm wondering what point about serialization I'm missing here. //check database to see if user has ever visited before. $querystring = $bbdb->prepare( "SELECT `meta_value` FROM `$bbdb->meta` WHERE `object_type` = %s AND `object_id` = %s AND `meta_key` = %s LIMIT 1", $bbtype, $bb_this_thread, $bbuser ); $bb_last_visits = $bbdb->get_row($querystring, OBJECT); //if $bb_last_visits is empty, add time() as the metavalue using bb_update_meta if (empty($bb_last_visits)) { $first_visit = time(); echo 'serialized first visit: ' . $bb_this_visit_time_serialized = serialize(array($bb_this_thread => $first_visit)); bb_update_meta( $bb_this_thread, $bbuser, $bb_this_visit_time_serialized, $bbtype ); //add to database, bb_meta table echo '$bb_last_visits was empty. Setting first visit time as ' . $bb_this_visit_time_serialized . '<br>'; } else { //else, test by unserializing the data for use. echo 'last visit time already set: '; echo $bb_last_visits->meta_value; echo '<br>'; //fatal error - echo 'unserialized: ' . $bb_last_visits_unserialized = unserialize($bb_last_visits[0]->meta_value); echo '<br>'; echo 'unserialize: ' . $unserialized_visits = unserialize($bb_last_visits->meta_value); echo '<br>'; echo 'hmm, need to unserialize again??: '; echo $unserialized_unserialized_visits = unserialize($unserialized_visits); echo '<br>'; echo 'hey look, it\'s an array value I can finally use now. phew: ' . $unserialized_unserialized_visits[$bb_this_thread]; }

  Read the article

• Why do I have to unserialize this serialized value twice? (wordpress/bbpress maybe_serialize)

  - by 55skidoo

  What am I doing wrong here? I'm serializing a value, storing it in a database (table bb_meta), retrieving it... OK so far... but then I have to unserialize it twice. Shouldn't I be able to just unserialize once? This seems to work, but I'm wondering what point about serialization I'm missing here. //check database to see if user has ever visited before. $querystring = $bbdb->prepare( "SELECT `meta_value` FROM `$bbdb->meta` WHERE `object_type` = %s AND `object_id` = %s AND `meta_key` = %s LIMIT 1", $bbtype, $bb_this_thread, $bbuser ); $bb_last_visits = $bbdb->get_row($querystring, OBJECT); //if $bb_last_visits is empty, add time() as the metavalue using bb_update_meta if (empty($bb_last_visits)) { $first_visit = time(); echo 'serialized first visit: ' . $bb_this_visit_time_serialized = serialize(array($bb_this_thread => $first_visit)); bb_update_meta( $bb_this_thread, $bbuser, $bb_this_visit_time_serialized, $bbtype ); //add to database, bb_meta table echo '$bb_last_visits was empty. Setting first visit time as ' . $bb_this_visit_time_serialized . '<br>'; } else { //else, test by unserializing the data for use. echo 'last visit time already set: '; echo $bb_last_visits->meta_value; echo '<br>'; //fatal error - echo 'unserialized: ' . $bb_last_visits_unserialized = unserialize($bb_last_visits[0]->meta_value); echo '<br>'; echo 'unserialize: ' . $unserialized_visits = unserialize($bb_last_visits->meta_value); echo '<br>'; echo 'hmm, need to unserialize again??: '; echo $unserialized_unserialized_visits = unserialize($unserialized_visits); echo '<br>'; echo 'hey look, it\'s an array value I can finally use now. phew: ' . $unserialized_unserialized_visits[$bb_this_thread]; }

  Read the article

• emacs public/protected/private label indentation of C++ header file not working for zero offset

  - by murrekatt

  I cannot get zero offset for some things for my C++ header files in emacs even if I have it defined in my .emacs file. The header file below shows a class definition inside two namespaces and most importantly the public keyword I would like to have with zero offset like below. namespace n1 { namespace n2 { class SomeClass { public: // this line with zero offset SomeClass(); ... }; } // n2 } // n2 In my .emacs file I have added label like this: (c-set-offset 'label 0) I used Ctrl-C Ctrl-S to find out what to modify. Other offsets I have defined in the .emacs file are working fine and also values other than 0 work for label. When I set offset 0 for label it turns out to be 1 when hitting tab for that line. This is strange and looks like something else is overriding or adding a minimum of 1. Can anyone explain how I can achieve what I want and maybe also an explanation what is happening currently? Phew, this was my first question here. Thanks :)

  Read the article

• Installing Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Service Pack 1

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  As has become customary when the product team releases a new patch, SP or version I like to document the install. Although I had no errors on my main computer, my netbook did have problems. Although I am not ready to call it a Service Pack problem just yet! Update 2011-03-10 – Running the Team Foundation Server 2010 Service Pack 1 install a second time worked As per Brian's post I am installing the Team Foundation Server Service Pack first and indeed as this is a single server local deployment I need to install both. If I only install one it will leave the other product broken. This however does not affect you if you are running Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server on separate computers as is normal in a production deployment. Main workhorse I will be installing the service pack first on my main computer as I want to actually use it here. Figure: My main workhorse I will also be installing this on my netbook which is obviously of significantly lower spec, but I will do that one after. Although, as always I had my fingers crossed, I was not really worried. Figure: KB2182621 Compared to Visual Studio there are not really a lot of components to update. Figure: TFS 2010 and SQL 2008 are the main things to update There is no “web” installer for the Team Foundation Server 2010 Service Pack, but that is ok as most people will be installing it on a production server and will want to have everything local. I would have liked a Web installer, but the added complexity for the product team is not work the capability for a 500mb patch. Figure: There is currently no way to roll SP1 and RTM together Figure: No problems with the file verification, phew Figure: Although the install took a while, it progressed smoothly   Figure: I always like a success screen Well, as far as the install is concerned everything is OK, but what about TFS? Can I still connect and can I still administer it. Figure: Service Pack 1 is reflected correctly in the Administration Console I am confident that there are no major problems with TFS on my system and that it has been updated to SP1. I can do all of the things that I used before with ease, and with the new features detailed by Brian I think I will be happy. Netbook The great god Murphy has stuck, and my poor wee laptop spat the Team Foundation Server 2010 Service Pack 1 out so fast it hit me on the back of the head. That will teach me for not looking… Figure: “Installation did not succeed” I am pretty sure should not be all caps! On examining the file I found that everything worked, except the actual Team Foundation Server 2010 serving step. Action: System Requirement Checks... Action complete Action: Downloading and/or Verifying Items c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\VS10-KB2182621.msp: Verifying signature for VS10-KB2182621.msp c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\VS10-KB2182621.msp Signature verified successfully for VS10-KB2182621.msp c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\DACFramework_enu.msi: Verifying signature for DACFramework_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\DACFramework_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for DACFramework_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\DACProjectSystemSetup_enu.msi: Verifying signature for DACProjectSystemSetup_enu.msi Exists: evaluating Exists evaluated to false c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\DACProjectSystemSetup_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for DACProjectSystemSetup_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\TSqlLanguageService_enu.msi: Verifying signature for TSqlLanguageService_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\TSqlLanguageService_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for TSqlLanguageService_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SharedManagementObjects_x86_enu.msi: Verifying signature for SharedManagementObjects_x86_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SharedManagementObjects_x86_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for SharedManagementObjects_x86_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SharedManagementObjects_amd64_enu.msi: Verifying signature for SharedManagementObjects_amd64_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SharedManagementObjects_amd64_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for SharedManagementObjects_amd64_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SQLSysClrTypes_x86_enu.msi: Verifying signature for SQLSysClrTypes_x86_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SQLSysClrTypes_x86_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for SQLSysClrTypes_x86_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SQLSysClrTypes_amd64_enu.msi: Verifying signature for SQLSysClrTypes_amd64_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SQLSysClrTypes_amd64_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for SQLSysClrTypes_amd64_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.cab: Verifying signature for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.cab c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.cab Signature verified successfully for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.cab c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.msi: Verifying signature for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.msi Signature verified successfully for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SetupUtility.exe: Verifying signature for SetupUtility.exe c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SetupUtility.exe Signature verified successfully for SetupUtility.exe c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.cab: Verifying signature for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.cab c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.cab Signature verified successfully for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.cab c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.msi: Verifying signature for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.msi Signature verified successfully for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\NDP40-KB2468871.exe: Verifying signature for NDP40-KB2468871.exe c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\NDP40-KB2468871.exe Signature verified successfully for NDP40-KB2468871.exe Action complete Action: Performing actions on all Items Entering Function: BaseMspInstallerT >::PerformAction Action: Performing Install on MSP: c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\VS10-KB2182621.msp targetting Product: Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010 - ENU Returning IDOK. INSTALLMESSAGE_ERROR [Error 1935.An error occurred during the installation of assembly 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WebAccess.WorkItemTracking,version="10.0.0.0",publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a",processorArchitecture="MSIL",fileVersion="10.0.40219.1",culture="neutral"'. Please refer to Help and Support for more information. HRESULT: 0x80070005. ] Returning IDOK. INSTALLMESSAGE_ERROR [Error 1712.One or more of the files required to restore your computer to its previous state could not be found. Restoration will not be possible.] Patch (c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\VS10-KB2182621.msp) Install failed on product (Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010 - ENU). Msi Log: MSI returned 0x643 Entering Function: MspInstallerT >::Rollback Action Rollback changes PerformMsiOperation returned 0x643 PerformMsiOperation returned 0x643 OnFailureBehavior for this item is to Rollback. Action complete Final Result: Installation failed with error code: (0x80070643), "Fatal error during installation. " (Elapsed time: 0 00:14:09). Figure: Error log for Team Foundation Server 2010 install shows a failure As there is really no information in this log as to why the installation failed so I checked the event log on that box. Figure: There are hundreds of errors and it actually looks like there are more problems than a failed Service Pack I am going to just run it again and see if it was because the netbook was slow to catch on to the update. Hears hoping, but even if it fails, I would question the installation of Windows (PDC laptop original install) before I question the Service Pack Figure: Second run through was successful I don’t know if the laptop was just slow, or what… Did you get this error? If you did I will push this to the product team as a problem, but unless more people have this sort of error, I will just look to write this off as a corrupted install of Windows and reinstall.

  Read the article

• .NET vs Windows 8

  - by Simon Cooper

  So, day 1 of DevWeek. Lots and lots of Windows 8 and WinRT, as you would expect. The keynote had some actual content in it, fleshed out some of the details of how your apps linked into the Metro infrastructure, and confirmed that there would indeed be an enterprise version of the app store available for Metro apps.) However, that's, not what I want to focus this post on. What I do want to focus on is this: Windows 8 does not make .NET developers obsolete. Phew! .NET in the New Ecosystem In all the hype around Windows 8 the past few months, a lot of developers have got the impression that .NET has been sidelined in Windows 8; C++ and COM is back in vogue, and HTML5 + JavaScript is the New Way of writing applications. You know .NET? It's yesterday's tech. Enter the 21st Century and write <div>! However, after speaking to people at the conference, and after a couple of talks by Dave Wheeler on the innards of WinRT and how .NET interacts with it, my views on the coming operating system have changed somewhat. To summarize what I've picked up, in no particular order (none of this is official, just my sense of what's been said by various people): Metro apps do not replace desktop apps. That is, Windows 8 fully supports .NET desktop applications written for every other previous version of Windows, and will continue to do so in the forseeable future. There are some apps that simply do not fit into Metro. They do not fit into the touch-based paradigm, and never will. Traditional desktop support is not going away anytime soon. The reason Silverlight has been hidden in all the Metro hype is that Metro is essentially based on Silverlight design principles. Silverlight developers will have a much easier time writing Metro apps than desktop developers, as they would already be used to all the principles of sandboxing and separation introduced with Silverlight. It's desktop developers who are going to have to adapt how they work. .NET + XAML is equal to HTML5 + JS in importance. Although the underlying WinRT system is built on C++ & COM, most application development will be done either using .NET or HTML5. Both systems have their own wrapper around the underlying WinRT infrastructure, hiding the implementation details. The CLR is unchanged; it's still the .NET 4 CLR, running IL in .NET assemblies. The thing that changes between desktop and Metro is the class libraries, which have more in common with the Silverlight libraries than the desktop libraries. In Metro, although all the types look and behave the same to callers, some of the core BCL types are now wrappers around their WinRT equivalents. These wrappers are then enhanced using standard .NET types and code to produce the Metro .NET class libraries. You can't simply port a desktop app into Metro. The underlying file IO, network, timing and database access is either completely different or simply missing. Similarly, although the UI is programmed using XAML, the behaviour of the Metro XAML is different to WPF or Silverlight XAML. Furthermore, the new design principles and touch-based interface for Metro applications demand a completely new UI. You will be able to re-use sections of your app encapsulating pure program logic, but everything else will need to be written from scratch. Microsoft has taken the opportunity to remove a whole raft of types and methods from the Metro framework that are obsolete (non-generic collections) or break the sandbox (synchronous APIs); if you use these, you will have to rewrite to use the alternatives, if they exist at all, to move your apps to Metro. If you want to write public WinRT components in .NET, there are some quite strict rules you have to adhere to. But the compilers know about these rules; you can write them in C# or VB, and the compilers will tell you when you do something that isn't allowed and deal with the translation to WinRT metadata rather than .NET assemblies. It is possible to write a class library that can be used in Metro and desktop applications. However, you need to be very careful not to use types that are available in one but not the other. One can imagine developers writing their own abstraction around file IO and UIs (MVVM anyone?) that can be implemented differently in Metro and desktop, but look the same within your shared library. So, if you're a .NET developer, you have a lot less to worry about. .NET is a viable platform on Metro, and traditional desktop apps are not going away. You don't have to learn HTML5 and JavaScript if you don't want to. Hurray!

  Read the article

• FY12 Partner Kickoff – Are you Ready?

  - by user715249

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Want to know what Oracle has up its sleeve for FY12? Join us on June 28th (or 29th depending on your region) as we kick off the new year and fill you in on our latest plans. This live, interactive session will be hosted by Judson Althoff and he’s bringing some top Oracle executives into the studio with him. Take a peek below as Lydia Smyers, Oracle WW A&C vice president, talks about this upcoming event. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} As if that weren’t enough, Oracle President Mark Hurd will update you on his focus for partners in FY12 and OPN will be making a special announcement for our ISV partners highlighting some exciting new offerings on how we will go to market together.  But wait, there’s more – you’ll also hear from Oracle product executives and regional sales leaders outlining their priorities for the upcoming year.  Phew – We’re tired just thinking about all of the great content that will be shared on June 28th/29th.  There are a lot of exciting announcements in store for you later this month so tune in for the latest updates! Register now to get your name on ‘the list’, The OPN Communications Team

  Read the article

• T-SQL Tuesday #21 - Crap!

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  Adam Machanic's (blog | twitter) ever popular T-SQL Tuesday series is being held on Wednesday this time, and the topic is… SHIT CRAP. No, not fecal material.  But crap code.  Crap SQL.  Crap ideas that you thought were good at the time, or were forced to do due (doo-doo?) to lack of time. The challenge for me is to look back on my SQL Server career and find something that WASN'T crap.  Well, there's a lot that wasn't, but for some reason I don't remember those that well.  So the additional challenge is to pick one particular turd that I really wish I hadn't squeezed out.  Let's see if this outline fits the bill: An ETL process on text files; That had to interface between SQL Server and an AS/400 system; That didn't use SSIS (should have) or BizTalk (ummm, no) but command-line scripting, using Unix utilities(!) via: xp_cmdshell; That had to email reports and financial data, some of it sensitive Yep, the stench smell is coming back to me now, as if it was yesterday… As to why SSIS and BizTalk were not options, basically I didn't know either of them well enough to get the job done (and I still don't).  I also had a strict deadline of 3 days, in addition to all the other responsibilities I had, so no time to learn them.  And seeing how screwed up the rest of the process was: Payment files from multiple vendors in multiple formats; Sent via FTP, PGP encrypted email, or some other wizardry; Manually opened/downloaded and saved to a particular set of folders (couldn't change this); Once processed, had to be placed BACK in the same folders with the original archived; x2 divisions that had to run separately; Plus an additional vendor file in another format on a completely different schedule; So that they could be MANUALLY uploaded into the AS/400 system (couldn't change this either, even if it was technically possible) I didn't feel so bad about the solution I came up with, which was naturally: Copy the payment files to the local SQL Server drives, using xp_cmdshell Run batch files (via xp_cmdshell) to parse the different formats using sed, a Unix utility (this was before Powershell) Use other Unix utilities (join, split, grep, wc) to process parsed files and generate metadata (size, date, checksum, line count) Run sqlcmd to execute a stored procedure that passed the parsed file names so it would bulk load the data to do a comparison bcp the compared data out to ANOTHER text file so that I could grep that data out of the original file Run another stored procedure to import the matched data into SQL Server so it could process the payments, including file metadata Process payment batches and log which division and vendor they belong to Email the payment details to the finance group (since it was too hard for them to run a web report with the same data…which they ran anyway to compare the emailed file against…which always matched, surprisingly) Email another report showing unmatched payments so they could manually void them…about 3 months afterward All in "Excel" format, using xp_sendmail (SQL 2000 system) Copy the unmatched data back to the original folder locations, making sure to match the file format exactly (if you've ever worked with ACH files, you'll understand why this sucked) If you're one of the 10 people who have read my blog before, you know that I love the DOS "for" command.  Like passionately.  Like fairy-tale love.  So my batch files were riddled with for loops, nested within other for loops, that called other batch files containing for loops.  I think there was one section that had 4 or 5 nested for commands.  It was wrong, disturbed, and completely un-maintainable by anyone, even myself.  Months, even a year, after I left the company I got calls from someone who had to make a minor change to it, and they called me to talk them out of spraying the office with an AK-47 after looking at this code.  (for you Star Trek TOS fans) The funniest part of this, well, one of the funniest, is that I made the deadline…sort of, I was only a day late…and the DAMN THING WORKED practically unchanged for 3 years.  Most of the problems came from the manual parts of the overall process, like forgetting to decrypt the files, or missing/late files, or saved to the wrong folders.  I'm definitely not trying to toot my own horn here, because this was truly one of the dumbest, crappiest solutions I ever came up with.  Fortunately as far as I know it's no longer in use and someone has written a proper replacement.  Today I would knuckle down and do it in SSIS or Powershell, even if it took me weeks to get it right. The real lesson from this crap code is to make things MAINTAINABLE and UNDERSTANDABLE.  sed scripting regular expressions doesn't fit that criteria in any way.  If you ever find yourself under pressure to do something fast at all costs, DON'T DO IT.  Stop and consider long-term maintainability, not just for yourself but for others on your team.  If you can't explain the basic approach in under 5 minutes, it ultimately won't succeed.  And while you may love to leave all that crap behind, it may follow you anyway, and you'll step in it again.   P.S. - if you're wondering about all the manual stuff that couldn't be changed, it was because the entire process had gone through Six Sigma, and was deemed the best possible way.  Phew!  Talk about stink!

  Read the article

• PanelGridLayout - A Layout Revolution

  - by Duncan Mills

  With the most recent 11.1.2 patchset (11.1.2.3) there has been a lot of excitement around ADF Essentials (and rightly so), however, in all the fuss I didn't want an even more significant change to get missed - yes you read that correctly, a more significant change! I'm talking about the new panelGridLayout component, I can confidently say that this one of the most revolutionary components that we've introduced in 11g, even though it sounds rather boring. To be totally accurate, panelGrid was introduced in 11.1.2.2 but without any presence in the component palette or other design time support, so it was largely missed unless you read the release notes. However in this latest patchset it's finally front and center. Its time to explore - we (really) need to talk about layout.  Let's face it,with ADF Faces rich client, layout is a rather arcane pursuit, once you are a layout master, all bow before you, but it's more of an art than a science, and it is often, in fact, way too difficult to achieve what should (apparently) be a pretty simple. Here's a great example, it's a homework assignment I set for folks I'm teaching this stuff to:  The requirements for this layout are: The header is 80px high, the footer is 30px. These are both fixed.  The first section of the header containing the logo is 180px wide The logo is centered within the top left hand corner of the header  The title text is start aligned in the center zone of the header and will wrap if the browser window is narrowed. It should be aligned in the center of the vertical space  The about link is anchored to the right hand side of the browser with a 20px gap and again is center aligned vertically. It will move as the browser window is reduced in width. The footer has a right aligned copyright statement, again middle aligned within a 30px high footer region and with a 20px buffer to the right hand edge. It will move as the browser window is reduced in width. All remaining space is given to a central zone, which, in this case contains a panelSplitter. Expect that at some point in time you'll need a separate messages line in the center of the footer.  In the homework assigment I set I also stipulate that no inlineStyles can be used to control alignment or margins and no use of other taglibs (e.g. JSF HTML or Trinidad HTML). So, if we take this purist approach, that basic page layout (in my stock solution) requires 3 panelStretchLayouts, 5 panelGroupLayouts and 4 spacers - not including the spacer I use for the logo and the contents of the central zone splitter - phew! The point is that even a seemingly simple layout needs a bit of thinking about, particulatly when you consider strechting and browser re-size behavior. In fact, this little sample actually teaches you much of what you need to know to become vaguely competant at layouts in the framework. The underlying result of "the way things are" is that most of us reach for panelStretchLayout before even finishing the first sip of coffee as we embark on a new page design. In fact most pages you will see in any moderately complex ADF page will basically be nested panelStretchLayouts and panelGroupLayouts, sometimes many, many levels deep. So this is a problem, we've known this for some time and now we have a good solution. (I should point out that the oft-used Trinidad trh tags are not a particularly good solution as you're tie-ing yourself to an HTML table based layout in that case with a host of attendent issues in resize and bi-di behavior, but I digress.) So, tadaaa, I give to you panelGridLayout. PanelGrid, as the name suggests takes a grid like (dare I say slightly gridbag-like) approach to layout, dividing your layout into rows and colums with margins, sizing, stretch behaviour, colspans and rowspans all rolled in, all without the use of inlineStyle. As such, it provides for a much more powerful and consise way of defining a layout such as the one above that is actually simpler and much more logical to design. The basic building blocks are the panelGridLayout itself, gridRow and gridCell. Your content sits inside the cells inside the rows, all helpfully allowing both streching, valign and halign definitions without the need to nest further panelGroupLayouts. So much simpler!  If I break down the homework example above my nested comglomorate of 12 containers and spacers can be condensed down into a single panelGrid with 3 rows and 5 cell definitions (39 lines of source reduced to 24 in the case of the sample). What's more, the actual runtime representation in the browser DOM is much, much simpler, and clean, with basically one DIV per cell (Note that just because the panelGridLayout semantics looks like an HTML table does not mean that it's rendered that way!) . Another hidden benefit is the runtime cost. Because we can use a single layout to achieve much more complex geometries the client side layout code inside the browser is having to work a lot less. This will be a real benefit if your application needs to run on lower powered clients such as netbooks or tablets. So, it's time, if you're on 11.1.2.2 or above, to smile warmly at your panelStretchLayouts, wrap the blanket around it's knees and wheel it off to the Sunset Retirement Home for a well deserved rest. There's a new kid on the block and it wants to be your friend. 

  Read the article

1 2  | Next Page >