Search Results

Search found 53054 results on 2123 pages for 'sql sample database'.

Page 1108/2123 | < Previous Page | 1104 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115  | Next Page >

• Tool or library for end-users to run queries to select (not modify) data?

  - by Mark Rushakoff

  For a utility I'm working on, the client would like to be able to generate graphic reports on the data that has been collected. I can already generate a couple canned graphs (using ZedGraph, which is a very nice library); however, the utility would be much more flexible if the graphs were more programmable or configurable by the end-user. TLDR version I want users to be able to use something like SQL to safely extract and select data from a List of objects that I provide and can describe. What free tools or libraries will help me accomplish this? Full version I've given thought to using IronPython, IronRuby, and LuaInterface, but frankly they're all a bit overpowered for what I want to do. My classes are fairly simple, along the lines of: class Person: string Name; int HeightInCm; DateTime BirthDate; Weight[] WeighIns; class Weight: int WeightInKg; DateTime Date; Person Owner; (exact classes have been changed to protect the innocent). To come up with the data for the graph, the user will choose whether it's a bar graph, scatter plot, etc., and then to actually obtain the data, I would like to obtain some kind of List from the user simply entering something SQL-ish along the lines of SELECT Name, AVG(WeighIns) FROM People SELECT WeightInKg, Owner.HeightInCm FROM Weights And as a bonus, it would be nice if you could actually do operations as well: SELECT WeightInKg, (Date - Owner.BirthDate) AS Age FROM Weights The DSL doesn't have to be compliant SQL in any way; it doesn't even have to resemble SQL, but I can't think of a more efficient descriptive language for the task. I'm fine filling in blanks; I don't expect a library to do everything for me. What I would expect to exist (but haven't been able to find in any way, shape, or form) is something like Fluent NHibernate (which I am already using in the project) where I can declare a mapping, something like var personRequest = Request<Person>(); personRequest.Item("Name", (p => p.Name)); personRequest.Item("HeightInCm", (p => p.HeightInCm)); personRequest.Item("HeightInInches", (p => p.HeightInCm * CM_TO_INCHES)); // ... var weightRequest = Request<Weight>(); weightRequest.Item("Owner", (w => w.Owner), personRequest); // Indicate a chain to personRequest // ... var people = Table<Person>("People", GetPeopleFromDatabase()); var weights = Table<Weight>("Weights", GetWeightsFromDatabase()); // ... TryRunQuery(userInputQuery); LINQ is so close to what I want to do, but AFAIK there's no way to sandbox it. I don't want to expose any unnecessary functionality to the end user; meaning I don't want the user to be able to send in and process: from p in people select (p => { System.IO.File.Delete("C:\\something\\important"); return p.Name }) So does anyone know of any free .NET libraries that allow something like what I've described above? Or is there some way to sandbox LINQ? cs-script is close too, but it doesn't seem to offer sandboxing yet either. I'd be hesitant to expose the NHibernate interface either, as the user should have a read-only view of the data at this point in the usage. I'm using C# 3.5, and pure .NET solutions would be preferred. The bottom line is that I'm really trying to avoid writing my own parser for a subset of SQL that would only apply to this single project.

  Read the article

• How can I read and parse chunks of data into a Perl hash of arrays?

  - by neversaint

  I have data that looks like this: #info #info2 1:SRX004541 Submitter: UT-MGS, UT-MGS Study: Glossina morsitans transcript sequencing project(SRP000741) Sample: Glossina morsitans(SRS002835) Instrument: Illumina Genome Analyzer Total: 1 run, 8.3M spots, 299.9M bases Run #1: SRR016086, 8330172 spots, 299886192 bases 2:SRX004540 Submitter: UT-MGS Study: Anopheles stephensi transcript sequencing project(SRP000747) Sample: Anopheles stephensi(SRS002864) Instrument: Solexa 1G Genome Analyzer Total: 1 run, 8.4M spots, 401M bases Run #1: SRR017875, 8354743 spots, 401027664 bases 3:SRX002521 Submitter: UT-MGS Study: Massive transcriptional start site mapping of human cells under hypoxic conditions.(SRP000403) Sample: Human DLD-1 tissue culture cell line(SRS001843) Instrument: Solexa 1G Genome Analyzer Total: 6 runs, 27.1M spots, 977M bases Run #1: SRR013356, 4801519 spots, 172854684 bases Run #2: SRR013357, 3603355 spots, 129720780 bases Run #3: SRR013358, 3459692 spots, 124548912 bases Run #4: SRR013360, 5219342 spots, 187896312 bases Run #5: SRR013361, 5140152 spots, 185045472 bases Run #6: SRR013370, 4916054 spots, 176977944 bases What I want to do is to create a hash of array with first line of each chunk as keys and SR## part of lines with "^Run" as its array member: $VAR = { 'SRX004541' => ['SRR016086'], # etc } But why my construct doesn't work. And it must be a better way to do it. use Data::Dumper; my %bighash; my $head = ""; my @temp = (); while ( <> ) { chomp; next if (/^\#/); if ( /^\d{1,2}:(\w+)/ ) { print "$1\n"; $head = $1; } elsif (/^Run \#\d+: (\w+),.*/){ print "\t$1\n"; push @temp, $1; } elsif (/^$/) { push @{$bighash{$head}}, [@temp]; @temp =(); } } print Dumper \%bighash ;

  Read the article

• How can I remove this query from within a loop?

  - by Chris

  I am currently designing a forum as a personal project. One of the recurring issues I've come across is database queries in loops. I've managed to avoid doing that so far by using table joins or caching of data in arrays for later use. Right now though I've come across a situation where I'm not sure how I can write the code in such a way that I can use either of those methods easily. However I'd still prefer to do at most 2 queries for this operation rather than 1 + 1 per group of forums, which so far has resulted in 5 per page. So while 5 isn't a huge number (though it will increase for each forum group I add) it's the principle that's important to me here, I do NOT want to write queries in loops What I'm doing is displaying forum index groupings (eg admin forums, user forums etc) and then each forum within that group on a single page index, it's the combination of both in one page that's causing me issue. If it had just been a single group per page, I'd use a table join and problem solved. But if I use a table join here, although I can potentially get all the data I need it'll be in one mass of results and it needs displaying properly. Here's the code (I've removed some of the html for clarity) <?php $sql= "select * from forum_groups"; //query 1 $result1 = $database->query($sql); while($group = mysql_fetch_assoc($result1)) //first loop {?> <table class="threads"> <tr> <td class="forumgroupheader"> <?php echo $group['group_name']; ?> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="forumgroupheader2"> <?php echo $group['group_desc']; ?> </td> </tr> </table> <table> <tr> <th class="thforum"> Forum Name</th> <th class="thforum"> Forum Decsription</th> <th class="thforum"> Last Post </th> <tr> <?php $group_id = $group['id']; $sql = "SELECT forums.id, forums.forum_group_id, forums.forum_name, forums.forum_desc, forums.visible_rank, forums.locked, forums.lock_rank, forums.topics, forums.posts, forums.last_post, forums.last_post_id, users.username FROM forums LEFT JOIN users on forums.last_post_id=users.id WHERE forum_group_id='{$group_id}'"; //query 2 $result2 = $database->query($sql); while($forum = mysql_fetch_assoc($result2)) //second loop {?> So how can I either a) write the SQL in such a way as to remove the second query from inside the loop or b) combine the results in an array either way I need to be able to access the data as an when so I can format it properly for the page output, ie within the loops still.

  Read the article

• Images missing after moving Django to new server

  - by miszczu

  I'm moving Django project to new server. I'm newbie in Django, and I don't know where should be upload folder. There are all images which should be displayed on website. In config file I haven't seen upload folder I could specify, so I'm guessing it always should be the same location for django projects or I just can't find it. Locations are saved in database. When I've put uploaded files into media folder, so url was like domain.co.uk/media/upload/media/images/year/month/day/image_name.ext and the same is on the old website, images on website ware still missing. All images are visible if I put url by hand, but django doesn't seems to see files. Also I check django log file: 2012-05-30 09:13:33,393 ERROR render: Thumbnail tag failed: [in /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sorl_thumbnail-11.12-py2.6.egg/sorl/thumbnail/templatetags/thumbnail.py (line 49)] Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sorl_thumbnail-11.12-py2.6.egg/sorl/thumbnail/templatetags/thumbnail.py", line 45, in render return self._render(context) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sorl_thumbnail-11.12-py2.6.egg/sorl/thumbnail/templatetags/thumbnail.py", line 97, in _render file_, geometry, **options File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sorl_thumbnail-11.12-py2.6.egg/sorl/thumbnail/base.py", line 50, in get_thumbnail cached = default.kvstore.get(thumbnail) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sorl_thumbnail-11.12-py2.6.egg/sorl/thumbnail/kvstores/base.py", line 25, in get return self._get(image_file.key) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sorl_thumbnail-11.12-py2.6.egg/sorl/thumbnail/kvstores/base.py", line 123, in _get value = self._get_raw(add_prefix(key, identity)) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sorl_thumbnail-11.12-py2.6.egg/sorl/thumbnail/kvstores/cached_db_kvstore.py", line 26, in _get_raw value = KVStoreModel.objects.get(key=key).value File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/models/manager.py", line 132, in get return self.get_query_set().get(*args, **kwargs) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/models/query.py", line 344, in get num = len(clone) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/models/query.py", line 82, in __len__ self._result_cache = list(self.iterator()) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/models/query.py", line 273, in iterator for row in compiler.results_iter(): File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 680, in results_iter for rows in self.execute_sql(MULTI): File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 735, in execute_sql cursor.execute(sql, params) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/util.py", line 34, in execute return self.cursor.execute(sql, params) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py", line 86, in execute return self.cursor.execute(query, args) File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py", line 174, in execute self.errorhandler(self, exc, value) File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py", line 36, in defaulterrorhandler raise errorclass, errorvalue DatabaseError: (1146, "Table 'thumbnail_kvstore' doesn't exist") 2012-05-30 09:13:33,396 DEBUG execute: (0.000) SELECT `freetext_freetext`.`id`, `freetext_freetext`.`key`, `freetext_freetext`.`content`, `freetext_freetext`.`active` FROM `freetext_freetext` WHERE (`freetext_freetext`.`active` = True AND `freetext_freetext`.`key` = office-closed-message ); args=(True, u'office-closed-message') [in /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/util.py (line 44)] 2012-05-30 09:13:33,399 DEBUG execute: (0.000) SELECT `menus_menu`.`id`, `menus_menu`.`name`, `menus_menu`.`slug`, `menus_menu`.`base_url`, `menus_menu`.`description`, `menus_menu`.`enabled` FROM `menus_menu` WHERE (`menus_menu`.`enabled` = True AND `menus_menu`.`slug` = about ); args=(True, u'about') [in /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/util.py (line 44)] 2012-05-30 09:13:33,401 DEBUG execute: (0.000) SELECT `menus_menuitem`.`id`, `menus_menuitem`.`menu_id`, `menus_menuitem`.`title`, `menus_menuitem`.`url`, `menus_menuitem`.`order` FROM `menus_menuitem` INNER JOIN `menus_menu` ON (`menus_menuitem`.`menu_id` = `menus_menu`.`id`) WHERE `menus_menu`.`slug` = about ORDER BY `menus_menuitem`.`order` ASC; args=(u'about',) [in /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/util.py (line 44)] 2012-05-30 09:13:33,404 DEBUG execute: (0.000) SELECT `freetext_freetext`.`id`, `freetext_freetext`.`key`, `freetext_freetext`.`content`, `freetext_freetext`.`active` FROM `freetext_freetext` WHERE (`freetext_freetext`.`active` = True AND `freetext_freetext`.`key` = contactdetails-footer ); args=(True, u'contactdetails-footer') [in /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/util.py (line 44)] I checked database and there is no table calls thumbnail_kvstore, but I have database backup, and in backup files this table doesn't exist. All uploaded files I get are in media/uploads/media/. Also I'm getting errors on some pages: Syntax error. Expected: ``thumbnail source geometry [key1=val1 key2=val2...] as var`` /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sorl_thumbnail-11.12-py2.6.egg/sorl/thumbnail/templatetags/thumbnail.py in __init__, line 72 In template /var/www/vhosts/domain.co.uk/sites/apps/shop/products/templates/products/product_detail.html, error at line 34 {% thumbnail image.file "800x700" detail as zoom %} Maybe some modules I install are not in the right version. Dont know how to fix it. Im using, CentOS 6, mod_wsgi, apache, python 2.6. Update 1.0: On the old server was Django 1.3, on the new one is Django 1.3.1 Update 1.1: I this i know where is the problem. I tried python manage.py syncdb and this is output: Syncing... Creating tables ... The following content types are stale and need to be deleted: orders | ordercontact Any objects related to these content types by a foreign key will also be deleted. Are you sure you want to delete these content types? If you're unsure, answer 'no'. Type 'yes' to continue, or 'no' to cancel: no Installing custom SQL ... Installing indexes ... No fixtures found. Synced: > django.contrib.auth > django.contrib.contenttypes > django.contrib.sessions > django.contrib.sites > django.contrib.messages > django.contrib.admin > django.contrib.admindocs > django.contrib.markup > django.contrib.sitemaps > django.contrib.redirects > django_filters > freetext > sorl.thumbnail > django_extensions > south > currencies > pagination > tagging > honeypot > core > faq > logentry > menus > news > shop > shop.cart > shop.orders Not synced (use migrations): - dbtemplates - contactform - links - media - pages - popularity - testimonials - shop.brands - shop.collections - shop.discount - shop.pricing - shop.product_types - shop.products - shop.shipping - shop.tax (use ./manage.py migrate to migrate these) Next I run python manage.py migrate, and thats what i get: Running migrations for dbtemplates: - Migrating forwards to 0002_auto__del_unique_template_name. > dbtemplates:0001_initial ! Error found during real run of migration! Aborting. ! Since you have a database that does not support running ! schema-altering statements in transactions, we have had ! to leave it in an interim state between migrations. ! You *might* be able to recover with: = DROP TABLE `django_template` CASCADE; [] = DROP TABLE `django_template_sites` CASCADE; [] ! The South developers regret this has happened, and would ! like to gently persuade you to consider a slightly ! easier-to-deal-with DBMS. ! NOTE: The error which caused the migration to fail is further up. Traceback (most recent call last): File "manage.py", line 13, in <module> execute_manager(settings) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 438, in execute_manager utility.execute() File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 379, in execute self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 191, in run_from_argv self.execute(*args, **options.__dict__) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 220, in execute output = self.handle(*args, **options) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/management/commands/migrate.py", line 105, in handle ignore_ghosts = ignore_ghosts, File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/migration/__init__.py", line 191, in migrate_app success = migrator.migrate_many(target, workplan, database) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/migration/migrators.py", line 221, in migrate_many result = migrator.__class__.migrate_many(migrator, target, migrations, database) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/migration/migrators.py", line 292, in migrate_many result = self.migrate(migration, database) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/migration/migrators.py", line 125, in migrate result = self.run(migration) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/migration/migrators.py", line 99, in run return self.run_migration(migration) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/migration/migrators.py", line 81, in run_migration migration_function() File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/migration/migrators.py", line 57, in <lambda> return (lambda: direction(orm)) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django_dbtemplates-1.3-py2.6.egg/dbtemplates/migrations/0001_initial.py", line 18, in forwards ('last_changed', self.gf('django.db.models.fields.DateTimeField')(default=datetime.datetime.now)), File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/db/generic.py", line 226, in create_table ', '.join([col for col in columns if col]), File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/South-0.7.3-py2.6.egg/south/db/generic.py", line 150, in execute cursor.execute(sql, params) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/util.py", line 34, in execute return self.cursor.execute(sql, params) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py", line 86, in execute return self.cursor.execute(query, args) File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py", line 174, in execute self.errorhandler(self, exc, value) File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py", line 36, in defaulterrorhandler raise errorclass, errorvalue _mysql_exceptions.OperationalError: (1050, "Table 'django_template' already exists") Also i run python manage.py migrate --list, and uotput is: dbtemplates (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__del_unique_template_name contactform (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__add_callback (*) 0003_auto__add_field_callback_notes (*) 0004_auto__add_field_callback_is_closed__add_field_callback_closed (*) 0005_auto__add_field_callback_url (*) 0006_auto__add_contact (*) 0007_auto__add_field_contact_category (*) 0008_auto__add_field_contact_url links (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__add_field_category_enabled__add_field_category_order media (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__del_field_image_external_url__add_field_image_link_url__del_fiel (*) 0003_add_model_FileAttachment (*) 0004_auto__chg_field_file_slug__chg_field_image_slug (*) 0005_auto__chg_field_image_file (*) 0006_auto__chg_field_file_file pages (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__chg_field_page_meta_description__chg_field_page_meta_title__chg_ (*) 0003_auto__add_field_page_show_in_sitemap (*) 0004_auto__add_field_page_changefreq__add_field_page_priority popularity (*) 0001_initial testimonials (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__add_field_testimonial_is_featured brands (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__add_field_brand_template (*) 0003_auto__chg_field_brand_meta_description__chg_field_brand_meta_title__ch (*) 0004_auto__add_field_brand_url (*) 0005_auto__del_field_brand_image__add_field_brand_logo collections (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__add_field_collection_discount (*) 0003_auto__chg_field_collection_meta_description__chg_field_collection_meta (*) 0004_auto__add_field_collection_is_featured (*) 0005_auto__add_field_collection_order discount (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_added_field_discount_description (*) 0003_auto__add_field_discountvoucher_automatic (*) 0004_auto__add_field_discountvoucher_collection (*) 0005_auto__del_field_discountvoucher_collection (*) 0006_auto__chg_field_discountvoucher_expiry_date pricing (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__add_pricingrule product_types (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__add_field_producttype_meta_title__add_field_producttype_meta_des (*) 0003_auto__add_field_producttype_summary__add_field_producttype_description products (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__del_field_product_is_featured (*) 0003_auto__chg_field_product_meta_keywords__chg_field_product_meta_descript (*) 0004_auto shipping (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__add_field_shippingmethod_includes_tax__add_field_shippingmethod_ (*) 0003_auto__add_field_shippingmethod_order (*) 0004_auto__del_field_shippingmethod_tax_rate__del_field_shippingmethod_incl (*) 0005_auto__del_field_shippingrule_enabled tax (*) 0001_initial (*) 0002_auto__add_field_taxrate_internal_name (*) 0003_initial_internal_names (*) 0004_auto__add_unique_taxrate_internal_name (*) 0005_force_unique_taxrate_name (*) 0006_auto__add_unique_taxrate_name After that some images source were something like this: src="cache/1e/bd/1ebd719910aa843238028edd5fe49e71.jpg" Is any1 could help me with syncdb pledase?

  Read the article

• MySQL Binary Storage using BLOB VS OS File System: large files, large quantities, large problems.

  - by Quantico773

  Hi Guys, Versions I am running (basically latest of everything): PHP: 5.3.1 MySQL: 5.1.41 Apache: 2.2.14 OS: CentOS (latest) Here is the situation. I have thousands of very important documents, ranging from customer contracts to voice signatures (recordings of customer authorisation for contracts), with file types including, but not limited to jpg, gif, png, tiff, doc, docx, xls, wav, mp3, pdf, etc. All of these documents are currently stored on several servers including Windows 32 bit, CentOS and Mac, among others. Some files are also stored on employees desktop computers and laptops, and some are still hard copies stored in hundreds of boxes and filing cabinets. Now because customers or lawyers could demand evidence of contracts at any time, my company has to be able to search and locate the correct document(s) effectively, for this reason ALL of these files have to be digitised (if not already) and correlated into some sort of order for searching and accessing. As the programmer, I have created a full Customer Relations Management tool that the whole company uses. This includes Customer Profiles management, Order and job Tracking tools, Job/sale creation and management modules, etc, and at the moment any file that is needed at a customer profile level (drivers licence, credit authority, etc) or at a job/sale level (contracts, voice signatures, etc) can be uploaded to the server and sits in a parent/child hierarchy structure, just like Windows Explorer or any other typical file managment model. The structure appears as such: drivers_license |- DL_123.jpg voice_signatures |- VS_123.wav |- VS_4567.wav contracts So the files are uplaoded using PHP and Apache, and are stored in the file system of the OS. At the time of uploading, certain information about the file(s) is stored in a MySQL database. Some of the information stored is: TABLE: FileUploads FileID CustomerID (the customer id that the file belongs to, they all have this.) JobID/SaleID (the id of the job/sale associated, if any.) FileSize FileType UploadedDateTime UploadedBy FilePath (the directory path the file is stored in.) FileName (current file name of uploaded file, combination of CustomerID and JobID/SaleID if applicable.) FileDescription OriginalFileName (original name of the source file when uploaded, including extension.) So as you can see, the file is linked to the database by the File Name. When I want to provide a customers' files for download to a user all I have to do is "SELECT * FROM FileUploads WHERE CustomerID = 123 OR JobID = 2345;" and this will output all the file details I require, and with the FilePath and FileName I can provide the link for download. http... server / FilePath / FileName There are a number of problems with this method: Storing files in this "database unconcious" environment means data integrity is not kept. If a record is deleted, the file may not be deleted also, or vice versa. Files are strewn all over the place, different servers, computers, etc. The file name is the ONLY thing matching the binary to the database and customer profile and customer records. etc, etc. There are so many reasons, some of which are described here: http://www.dreamwerx.net/site/article01 . Also there is an interesting article here too: sietch.net/ViewNewsItem.aspx?NewsItemID=124 . SO, after much research I have pretty much decided I am going to store ALL of these files in the database, as a BLOB or LONGBLOB, but there are still many considerations before I do this. I know that storing them in the database is a viable option, however there are a number of methods of storing them. I also know storing them is one thing; correlating and accessing them in a manageable way is another thing entirely. The article provided at this link: dreamwerx.net/site/article01 describes a way of splitting the uploaded binary files into 64kb chunks and storing each chunk with the FileID, and then streaming the actual binary file to the client using headers. This is a really cool idea since it alleviates preassure on the servers memory; instead of loading an entire 100mb file into the RAM and then sending it to the client, it is doing it 64kb at a time. I have tried this (and updated his scripts) and this is totally successful, in a very small frame of testing. So if you are in agreeance that this method is a viable, stable and robust long-term option to store moderately large files (1kb to couple hundred megs), and large quantities of these files, let me know what other considerations or ideas you have. Also, I am considering getting a current "File Management" PHP script that gives an interface for managing files stored in the File System and converting it to manage files stored in the database. If there is already any software out there that does this, please let me know. I guess there are many questions I could ask, and all the information is up there ^^ so please, discuss all aspects of this and we can pass ideas back and forth and teach each other. Cheers, Quantico773

  Read the article

• storing session data in mysql using php is not retrieving the data properly from the tables.

  - by Ronedog

  I have a problem retrieving some data from the $_SESSION using php and mysql. I've commented out the line in php.ini that tells the server to use the "file" to store the session info so my database will be used. I have a class that I use to write the information to the database and its working fine. When the user passes their credentials the class gets instantiated and the $_SESSION vars get set, then the user gets redirected to the index page. The index.php page includes the file where the db session class is, which when instantiated calles session_start() and the session variables should be in $_SESSION, but when I do var_dump($_SESSION) there is nothing in the array. However, when I look at the data in mysql, all the session information is in there. Its acting like session_start() has not been called, but by instantiating the class it is. Any idea what could be wrong? Here's the HTML: <?php include_once "classes/phpsessions_db/class.dbsession.php"; //used for sessions var_dump($_SESSION); ?> <html> . . . </html> Here's the dbsession class: <?php error_reporting(E_ALL); class dbSession { function dbSession($gc_maxlifetime = "", $gc_probability = "", $gc_divisor = "") { // if $gc_maxlifetime is specified and is an integer number if ($gc_maxlifetime != "" && is_integer($gc_maxlifetime)) { // set the new value @ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', $gc_maxlifetime); } // if $gc_probability is specified and is an integer number if ($gc_probability != "" && is_integer($gc_probability)) { // set the new value @ini_set('session.gc_probability', $gc_probability); } // if $gc_divisor is specified and is an integer number if ($gc_divisor != "" && is_integer($gc_divisor)) { // set the new value @ini_set('session.gc_divisor', $gc_divisor); } // get session lifetime $this->sessionLifetime = ini_get("session.gc_maxlifetime"); //Added by AARON. cancel the session's auto start,important, without this the session var's don't show up on next pg. session_write_close(); // register the new handler session_set_save_handler( array(&$this, 'open'), array(&$this, 'close'), array(&$this, 'read'), array(&$this, 'write'), array(&$this, 'destroy'), array(&$this, 'gc') ); register_shutdown_function('session_write_close'); // start the session @session_start(); } function stop() { $new_sess_id = $this->regenerate_id(true); session_unset(); session_destroy(); return $new_sess_id; } function regenerate_id($return_val=false) { // saves the old session's id $oldSessionID = session_id(); // regenerates the id // this function will create a new session, with a new id and containing the data from the old session // but will not delete the old session session_regenerate_id(); // because the session_regenerate_id() function does not delete the old session, // we have to delete it manually //$this->destroy($oldSessionID); //ADDED by aaron // returns the new session id if($return_val) { return session_id(); } } function open($save_path, $session_name) { // global $gf; // $gf->debug_this($gf, "GF: Opening Session"); // change the next values to match the setting of your mySQL database $mySQLHost = "localhost"; $mySQLUsername = "user"; $mySQLPassword = "pass"; $mySQLDatabase = "sessions"; $link = mysql_connect($mySQLHost, $mySQLUsername, $mySQLPassword); if (!$link) { die ("Could not connect to database!"); } $dbc = mysql_select_db($mySQLDatabase, $link); if (!$dbc) { die ("Could not select database!"); } return true; } function close() { mysql_close(); return true; } function read($session_id) { $result = @mysql_query(" SELECT session_data FROM session_data WHERE session_id = '".$session_id."' AND http_user_agent = '".$_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"]."' AND session_expire > '".time()."' "); // if anything was found if (is_resource($result) && @mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) { // return found data $fields = @mysql_fetch_assoc($result); // don't bother with the unserialization - PHP handles this automatically return unserialize($fields["session_data"]); } // if there was an error return an empty string - this HAS to be an empty string return ""; } function write($session_id, $session_data) { // global $gf; // first checks if there is a session with this id $result = @mysql_query(" SELECT * FROM session_data WHERE session_id = '".$session_id."' "); // if there is if (@mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) { // update the existing session's data // and set new expiry time $result = @mysql_query(" UPDATE session_data SET session_data = '".serialize($session_data)."', session_expire = '".(time() + $this->sessionLifetime)."' WHERE session_id = '".$session_id."' "); // if anything happened if (@mysql_affected_rows()) { // return true return true; } } else // if this session id is not in the database { // $gf->debug_this($gf, "inside dbSession, trying to write to db because session id was NOT in db"); $sql = " INSERT INTO session_data ( session_id, http_user_agent, session_data, session_expire ) VALUES ( '".serialize($session_id)."', '".$_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"]."', '".$session_data."', '".(time() + $this->sessionLifetime)."' ) "; // insert a new record $result = @mysql_query($sql); // if anything happened if (@mysql_affected_rows()) { // return an empty string return ""; } } // if something went wrong, return false return false; } function destroy($session_id) { // deletes the current session id from the database $result = @mysql_query(" DELETE FROM session_data WHERE session_id = '".$session_id."' "); // if anything happened if (@mysql_affected_rows()) { // return true return true; } // if something went wrong, return false return false; } function gc($maxlifetime) { // it deletes expired sessions from database $result = @mysql_query(" DELETE FROM session_data WHERE session_expire < '".(time() - $maxlifetime)."' "); } } //End of Class $session = new dbsession(); ?>

  Read the article

• PHP Form not working IE and Chrome, but fine in FF

  - by RO

  <? if(isset($_POST['accountUser']) && isset($_POST['accountPassword'])) { include("dbase.php"); include("settings.php"); if ($_POST['accountType']=="member") { $database="chatusers"; } else if ($_POST['accountType']=="model") { $database="chatmodels"; } else if ($_POST['accountType']=="studioop") { $database="chatoperators"; } $userExists=false; $result = mysql_query("SELECT id,user,password,status FROM $database WHERE status!='pending' AND status!='rejected' "); while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { $tempUser=$row["user"]; $tempPass=$row["password"]; $tempId=$row["id"]; if ($_POST['accountUser']==$tempUser && md5($_POST['accountPassword'])==$tempPass) { if ($row["status"]=="blocked") { $userExists=true; $errorMsg="Account is blocked, please contact the administrator for more details"; } else { $userExists=true; $currentTime=time(); mysql_query("UPDATE $database SET lastLogIn='$currentTime' WHERE id = '$tempId' LIMIT 1"); setcookie("usertype", $database, time()+3600); setcookie("id", $tempId, time()+3600); header("Location: cp/$database/"); } } } if (!$userExists){ $errorMsg="Wrong Username or password"; } } else if (isset($_GET['from']) && $_GET['from']=="recoverpass"){ $errorMsg="Your new password has been sent to your mail"; } else { $errorMsg="Please complete username and password fields"; } ?> <? include("_main.header.php"); ?> <table width="720" height="200" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td align="center" valign="middle"><form action="login.php" method="post" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded" name="form1"> <p>&nbsp;</p> <table width="720" border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td colspan="2"><p align="left"> <span class="error"><?php if ( isset($errorMsg) && $errorMsg!=""){ echo $errorMsg; } ?></span> <br> <br> </p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="210" align="right" valign="top" class="form_definitions"><div align="right">Username:</div></td> <td align="left" valign="top"><input name="accountUser" type="text" id="accountUser" value="<? echo $_GET[user];?>" size="24" maxlength="24"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top" class="form_definitions"><div align="right">Password:</div></td> <td align="left" valign="top"><input name="accountPassword" type="password" id="accountPassword2" size="24" maxlength="24"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top" class="form_definitions"><div align="right">Account type:</div></td> <td align="left" valign="top"> <select name="accountType" id="select"> <option value="member" selected>Member</option> <option value="model">Model</option> <option value="studioop">Studio Operator</option> </select> <div align="left"></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top" class="form_definitions">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" valign="top"> <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Log In to your account"> <div align="left"></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top" class="form_definitions">&nbsp;</td> <td align="left" valign="top"><a href="lostpassword.php" class="left">Lost Password? Press Here!</a></td> </tr> </table> </form></td> </tr> </table> <br> <br> <? include("_main.footer.php"); ?>

  Read the article

• Edit Contact code worked in 1.6 but doesn't work on Droid 2.1?

  - by user225405

  Hi All, I had some fairly simple code in my app to invoke Edit Contact activity on a known good contact index that worked in Android 1.6 but is broken for me now in Android 2.1 on the Droid. I built a sample activity/app 'EdCon' to show this: package com.jbh; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.Intent; import android.net.Uri; import android.os.Bundle; public class EdCon extends Activity { /** Called when the activity is first created. */ @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); // Build an intent to edit a known good contact index Intent i; i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_EDIT); i.setData(Uri.parse("content://contacts/people/10")); startActivity(i); } } When I run this on my G1 running 1.6 it works as expected i.e. brings up the Edit Contact screen for the known index and then I can hit BACK to return to "Hello World, EdCon". When I run this on the Droid under 2.1 I get the following: 05-07 15:35:57.787: INFO/ActivityManager(1013): Starting activity: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] flg=0x10000000 cmp=com.jbh/.EdCon } 05-07 15:35:57.826: DEBUG/AndroidRuntime(13780): Shutting down VM 05-07 15:35:57.826: DEBUG/dalvikvm(13780): DestroyJavaVM waiting for non-daemon threads to exit 05-07 15:35:57.928: DEBUG/dalvikvm(13780): DestroyJavaVM shutting VM down 05-07 15:35:57.928: DEBUG/dalvikvm(13780): HeapWorker thread shutting down 05-07 15:35:57.928: DEBUG/dalvikvm(13780): HeapWorker thread has shut down 05-07 15:35:57.928: DEBUG/jdwp(13780): JDWP shutting down net... 05-07 15:35:57.928: DEBUG/jdwp(13780): Got wake-up signal, bailing out of select 05-07 15:35:57.928: INFO/dalvikvm(13780): Debugger has detached; object registry had 1 entries 05-07 15:35:57.928: DEBUG/dalvikvm(13780): VM cleaning up 05-07 15:35:57.935: INFO/ActivityManager(1013): Start proc com.jbh for activity com.jbh/.EdCon: pid=13802 uid=10052 gids={1015} 05-07 15:35:57.967: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13780): ERROR: thread attach failed 05-07 15:35:58.053: INFO/ActivityThread(13792): Publishing provider com.android.vending.SuggestionsProvider: com.android.vending.SuggestionsProvider 05-07 15:35:58.154: INFO/dalvikvm(13802): Debugger thread not active, ignoring DDM send (t=0x41504e4d l=38) 05-07 15:35:58.209: DEBUG/dalvikvm(13780): LinearAlloc 0x0 used 639500 of 5242880 (12%) 05-07 15:35:58.365: INFO/dalvikvm(13802): Debugger thread not active, ignoring DDM send (t=0x41504e4d l=18) 05-07 15:35:58.639: INFO/ActivityManager(1013): Starting activity: Intent { act=android.intent.action.EDIT dat=content://contacts/people/10 cmp=com.android.contacts/.ui.EditContactActivity } 05-07 15:35:58.975: DEBUG/dalvikvm(13137): GC freed 2902 objects / 166768 bytes in 61ms 05-07 15:35:59.100: DEBUG/vending(13792): com.android.vending.LocalDbSyncService.run(): Syncing local DB with package manager... 05-07 15:35:59.100: DEBUG/vending(13792): com.android.vending.LocalDbSyncService.syncLocalDbWithPackageManager(): No INSTALLING or UNINSTALLING assets. 05-07 15:35:59.115: INFO/ActivityManager(1013): Displayed activity com.android.contacts/.ui.EditContactActivity: 387 ms (total 1296 ms) 05-07 15:35:59.185: DEBUG/Sources(13137): Creating external source for type=com.facebook.auth.login, packageName=com.facebook.katana 05-07 15:35:59.225: DEBUG/vending(13792): com.android.vending.LocalDbSyncService.run(): Syncing done. 05-07 15:35:59.232: WARN/dalvikvm(13137): threadid=27: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001b180) 05-07 15:35:59.232: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): Uncaught handler: thread AsyncTask #1 exiting due to uncaught exception 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): java.lang.RuntimeException: An error occured while executing doInBackground() 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.os.AsyncTask$3.done(AsyncTask.java:200) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerSetException(FutureTask.java:273) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.setException(FutureTask.java:124) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:307) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:137) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1068) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:561) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1096) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): Caused by: android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: no such column: raw_contact_id: , while compiling: SELECT account_name, account_type, sourceid, version, dirty, data_id, res_package, mimetype, data1, data2, data3, data4, data5, data6, data7, data8, data9, data10, data11, data12, data13, data14, data15, data_sync1, data_sync2, data_sync3, data_sync4, _id, is_primary, is_super_primary, data_version, group_sourceid, sync1, sync2, sync3, sync4, deleted, contact_id, starred, is_restricted FROM contact_entities_view WHERE (1) AND (raw_contact_id=10) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteProgram.native_compile(Native Method) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteProgram.compile(SQLiteProgram.java:110) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteProgram.(SQLiteProgram.java:59) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteQuery.(SQLiteQuery.java:49) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDirectCursorDriver.query(SQLiteDirectCursorDriver.java:49) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase.rawQueryWithFactory(SQLiteDatabase.java:1221) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteQueryBuilder.query(SQLiteQueryBuilder.java:316) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at com.android.providers.contacts.ContactsProvider2.query(ContactsProvider2.java:3850) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at com.android.providers.contacts.ContactsProvider2.query(ContactsProvider2.java:3840) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at com.android.providers.contacts.ContactsProvider2$RawContactsEntityIterator.(ContactsProvider2.java:4498) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at com.android.providers.contacts.ContactsProvider2.queryEntities(ContactsProvider2.java:4751) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.content.ContentProvider$Transport.queryEntities(ContentProvider.java:140) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.content.ContentProviderClient.queryEntities(ContentProviderClient.java:98) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.content.ContentResolver.queryEntities(ContentResolver.java:296) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at com.android.contacts.model.EntitySet.fromQuery(EntitySet.java:72) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at com.android.contacts.ui.EditContactActivity$QueryEntitiesTask.doInBackground(EditContactActivity.java:191) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at com.android.contacts.ui.EditContactActivity$QueryEntitiesTask.doInBackground(EditContactActivity.java:154) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at com.android.contacts.util.WeakAsyncTask.doInBackground(WeakAsyncTask.java:45) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at android.os.AsyncTask$2.call(AsyncTask.java:185) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:305) 05-07 15:35:59.295: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(13137): ... 4 more 05-07 15:35:59.303: INFO/Process(1013): Sending signal. PID: 13137 SIG: 3 05-07 15:35:59.303: INFO/dalvikvm(13137): threadid=7: reacting to signal 3 05-07 15:35:59.303: ERROR/dalvikvm(13137): Unable to open stack trace file '/data/anr/traces.txt': Permission denied 05-07 15:35:59.506: INFO/DumpStateReceiver(1013): Added state dump to 1 crashes 05-07 15:36:07.053: DEBUG/dalvikvm(12901): GC freed 389 objects / 25056 bytes in 145ms 05-07 15:36:17.287: DEBUG/dalvikvm(11649): GC freed 154 objects / 6816 bytes in 136ms 05-07 15:36:22.365: DEBUG/dalvikvm(13574): GC freed 348 objects / 67848 bytes in 112ms 05-07 15:36:27.451: DEBUG/dalvikvm(11836): GC freed 267 objects / 17432 bytes in 65ms 05-07 15:36:32.553: DEBUG/dalvikvm(12757): GC freed 1888 objects / 92440 bytes in 67ms 05-07 15:36:38.803: INFO/power(1013): * set_screen_state 0 05-07 15:36:38.813: DEBUG/SurfaceFlinger(1013): About to give-up screen, flinger = 0x114c30 05-07 15:36:38.826: DEBUG/Sensors(1013): using accelerometer (name=accelerometer) 05-07 15:36:38.834: DEBUG/PhoneWindow(13137): couldn't save which view has focus because the focused view android.widget.ScrollView@44883558 has no id. 05-07 15:36:38.865: DEBUG/WifiService(1013): ACTION_SCREEN_OFF 05-07 15:36:38.889: DEBUG/WifiService(1013): setting ACTION_DEVICE_IDLE timer for 900000ms 05-07 15:36:44.107: DEBUG/dalvikvm(1013): GC freed 7351 objects / 521440 bytes in 130ms 05-07 15:36:49.373: DEBUG/dalvikvm(13553): GC freed 321 objects / 12056 bytes in 102ms The no such column: raw_contact_id: looks like the issue but I'm not sure how or why that would happen or what it means. Any help appreciated! [email protected]

  Read the article

• NOOB Memory Problem - EXC_BAD_ACCESS

  - by Michael Bordelon

  I have been banging my head against the wall for a couple days and need some help. I have a feeling that I am doing something really silly here, but I cannot find the issue. This is the controller for a table view. I put the SQL in line to simplify it as part of the troubleshooting of this error. Normally, it would be in an accessor method in a model class. It gets through the SQL read just fine. Finds the two objects, loads them into the todaysWorkout array and then builds the cells for the table view. The table view actually comes up on the scree and then it throws the EXC_BAD_ACCESS. I ran instruments and it shows the following: 0 CFString Malloc 1 00:03.765 0x3946470 176 Foundation -[NSPlaceholderString initWithFormat:locale:arguments:] 1 CFString Autorelease 00:03.765 0x3946470 0 Foundation NSRecordAllocationEvent 2 CFString CFRelease 0 00:03.767 0x3946470 0 Bring It -[WorkoutViewController viewDidLoad] 3 CFString Zombie -1 00:03.917 0x3946470 0 Foundation NSPopAutoreleasePool Here is the source code for the controller. I left it all in there just in case there is something extraneous causing the problem. I sincerely appreciate any help I can get: #import "WorkoutViewController.h" #import "MoveListViewController.h" #import "Profile.h" static sqlite3 *database = nil; @implementation WorkoutViewController @synthesize todaysWorkouts; @synthesize woNoteCell; @synthesize bi; //@synthesize woSwitchCell; - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; bi = [[BIUtility alloc] init]; todaysWorkouts = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; NSString *query; sqlite3_stmt *statement; //open the database if (sqlite3_open([[BIUtility getDBPath] UTF8String], &database) != SQLITE_OK) { sqlite3_close(database); NSAssert(0, @"Failed to opendatabase"); } query = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"SELECT IWORKOUT.WOINSTANCEID, IWORKOUT.WORKOUTID, CWORKOUTS.WORKOUTNAME FROM CWORKOUTS JOIN IWORKOUT ON IWORKOUT.WORKOUTID = CWORKOUTS.WORKOUTID AND DATE = '%@'", [BIUtility todayDateString]]; if (sqlite3_prepare_v2(database, [query UTF8String], -1, &statement, nil) == SQLITE_OK) { while (sqlite3_step(statement) == SQLITE_ROW) { Workout *wo = [[Workout alloc] init]; wo.woInstanceID = sqlite3_column_int(statement, 0); wo.workoutID = sqlite3_column_int(statement, 1); wo.workoutName = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:(char *)sqlite3_column_text(statement, 2)]; [todaysWorkouts addObject:wo]; [wo release]; } sqlite3_finalize(statement); } if(database) sqlite3_close(database); [query release]; } - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { //todaysWorkouts = [BIUtility todaysScheduledWorkouts]; static NSString *noteCellIdentifier = @"NoteCellIdentifier"; UITableViewCell *cell; if (indexPath.section < ([todaysWorkouts count])) { cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"OtherCell"]; if (cell == nil) { cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero reuseIdentifier: @"OtherCell"] autorelease]; cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryNone; } if (indexPath.row == 0) { Workout *wo = [todaysWorkouts objectAtIndex:indexPath.section]; [cell.textLabel setText:wo.workoutName]; } else { [cell.textLabel setText:@"Completed?"]; [cell.textLabel setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:@"Arial" size:15]]; [cell.textLabel setTextColor:[UIColor blueColor]]; } } else { cell = (NoteCell *)[tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:noteCellIdentifier]; if (cell == nil) { NSArray *nib = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"NoteCell" owner:self options:nil]; cell = [nib objectAtIndex:0]; } } return cell; //[cell release]; } - (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { NSUInteger row = [indexPath row]; if (indexPath.section < ([todaysWorkouts count]) && (row == 0)) { MoveListViewController *moveListController = [[MoveListViewController alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewStylePlain]; moveListController.workoutID = [[todaysWorkouts objectAtIndex:indexPath.section] workoutID]; moveListController.workoutName = [[todaysWorkouts objectAtIndex:indexPath.section] workoutName]; moveListController.woInstanceID = [[todaysWorkouts objectAtIndex:indexPath.section] woInstanceID]; NSLog(@"Workout Selected: %@", [[todaysWorkouts objectAtIndex:indexPath.section] workoutName]); Bring_ItAppDelegate *delegate = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate]; [delegate.workoutNavController pushViewController:moveListController animated:YES]; } else { UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath]; if (indexPath.section < ([todaysWorkouts count]) && (row == 1)) { if (cell.accessoryType == UITableViewCellAccessoryNone) { cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark; } else { cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryNone; } } } [tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES]; } - (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { NSInteger h = 35; return h; } - (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView { return ([todaysWorkouts count] + 1); //return ([todaysWorkouts count]); } - (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section { if (section < ([todaysWorkouts count])) { return 2; } else { return 1; } } - (NSString *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView titleForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section { if (section < ([todaysWorkouts count])) { return @"Workout"; } else { return @"How Was Your Workout?"; } } - (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning { // Releases the view if it doesn't have a superview. [super didReceiveMemoryWarning]; // Release any cached data, images, etc that aren't in use. } - (void)viewDidUnload { [super viewDidUnload]; // Release any retained subviews of the main view. // e.g. self.myOutlet = nil; } - (void)dealloc { [todaysWorkouts release]; [bi release]; [super dealloc]; } @end

  Read the article

• Am I just not understanding TDD unit testing (Asp.Net MVC project)?

  - by KallDrexx

  I am trying to figure out how to correctly and efficiently unit test my Asp.net MVC project. When I started on this project I bought the Pro ASP.Net MVC, and with that book I learned about TDD and unit testing. After seeing the examples, and the fact that I work as a software engineer in QA in my current company, I was amazed at how awesome TDD seemed to be. So I started working on my project and went gun-ho writing unit tests for my database layer, business layer, and controllers. Everything got a unit test prior to implementation. At first I thought it was awesome, but then things started to go downhill. Here are the issues I started encountering: I ended up writing application code in order to make it possible for unit tests to be performed. I don't mean this in a good way as in my code was broken and I had to fix it so the unit test pass. I mean that abstracting out the database to a mock database is impossible due to the use of linq for data retrieval (using the generic repository pattern). The reason is that with linq-sql or linq-entities you can do joins just by doing: var objs = select p from _container.Projects select p.Objects; However, if you mock the database layer out, in order to have that linq pass the unit test you must change the linq to be var objs = select p from _container.Projects join o in _container.Objects on o.ProjectId equals p.Id select o; Not only does this mean you are changing your application logic just so you can unit test it, but you are making your code less efficient for the sole purpose of testability, and getting rid of a lot of advantages using an ORM has in the first place. Furthermore, since a lot of the IDs for my models are database generated, I proved to have to write additional code to handle the non-database tests since IDs were never generated and I had to still handle those cases for the unit tests to pass, yet they would never occur in real scenarios. Thus I ended up throwing out my database unit testing. Writing unit tests for controllers was easy as long as I was returning views. However, the major part of my application (and the one that would benefit most from unit testing) is a complicated ajax web application. For various reasons I decided to change the app from returning views to returning JSON with the data I needed. After this occurred my unit tests became extremely painful to write, as I have not found any good way to write unit tests for non-trivial json. After pounding my head and wasting a ton of time trying to find a good way to unit test the JSON, I gave up and deleted all of my controller unit tests (all controller actions are focused on this part of the app so far). So finally I was left with testing the Service layer (BLL). Right now I am using EF4, however I had this issue with linq-sql as well. I chose to do the EF4 model-first approach because to me, it makes sense to do it that way (define my business objects and let the framework figure out how to translate it into the sql backend). This was fine at the beginning but now it is becoming cumbersome due to relationships. For example say I have Project, User, and Object entities. One Object must be associated to a project, and a project must be associated to a user. This is not only a database specific rule, these are my business rules as well. However, say I want to do a unit test that I am able to save an object (for a simple example). I now have to do the following code just to make sure the save worked: User usr = new User { Name = "Me" }; _userService.SaveUser(usr); Project prj = new Project { Name = "Test Project", Owner = usr }; _projectService.SaveProject(prj); Object obj = new Object { Name = "Test Object" }; _objectService.SaveObject(obj); // Perform verifications There are many issues with having to do all this just to perform one unit test. There are several issues with this. For starters, if I add a new dependency, such as all projects must belong to a category, I must go into EVERY single unit test that references a project, add code to save the category then add code to add the category to the project. This can be a HUGE effort down the road for a very simple business logic change, and yet almost none of the unit tests I will be modifying for this requirement are actually meant to test that feature/requirement. If I then add verifications to my SaveProject method, so that projects cannot be saved unless they have a name with at least 5 characters, I then have to go through every Object and Project unit test to make sure that the new requirement doesn't make any unrelated unit tests fail. If there is an issue in the UserService.SaveUser() method it will cause all project, and object unit tests to fail and it the cause won't be immediately noticeable without having to dig through the exceptions. Thus I have removed all service layer unit tests from my project. I could go on and on, but so far I have not seen any way for unit testing to actually help me and not get in my way. I can see specific cases where I can, and probably will, implement unit tests, such as making sure my data verification methods work correctly, but those cases are few and far between. Some of my issues can probably be mitigated but not without adding extra layers to my application, and thus making more points of failure just so I can unit test. Thus I have no unit tests left in my code. Luckily I heavily use source control so I can get them back if I need but I just don't see the point. Everywhere on the internet I see people talking about how great TDD unit tests are, and I'm not just talking about the fanatical people. The few people who dismiss TDD/Unit tests give bad arguments claiming they are more efficient debugging by hand through the IDE, or that their coding skills are amazing that they don't need it. I recognize that both of those arguments are utter bullocks, especially for a project that needs to be maintainable by multiple developers, but any valid rebuttals to TDD seem to be few and far between. So the point of this post is to ask, am I just not understanding how to use TDD and automatic unit tests?

  Read the article

• delete row from mysql through generated table with records

  - by HennySmafter

  I am using 2 pages. On one page it generates a table with the records and a delete button. After pressing delete it goes to the second page which should delete the record. But it doesn't. Below is the code that I am using. PS: The code is adapted from a tutorial I found through Google a while ago. delete_overzicht.php <?php // Load Joomla! configuration file require_once('../../../configuration.php'); // Create a JConfig object $config = new JConfig(); // Get the required codes from the configuration file $server = $config->host; $username = $config->user; $password = $config->password; $database = $config->db; // Connect to db $con = mysqli_connect($server,$username,$password,$database); if (!$con){ die('Could not connect: ' . mysqli_error($con)); } mysqli_select_db($con,$database); // Get results $result = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM cypg8_overzicht"); echo "<table border='1' id='example' class='tablesorter'><thead><tr><th>Formulier Id</th><th>Domeinnaam</th><th>Bedrijfsnaam</th><th>Datum</th><th>Periode</th><th>Subtotaal</th><th>Dealernaam</th><th>Verwijderen</th></tr></thead><tbody>"; while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) { echo "<tr>"; echo "<td>" . $row['formuliernummer'] . "</td>"; echo "<td>" . $row['domeinnaam'] . "</td>"; echo "<td>" . $row['bedrijfsnaam'] . "</td>"; echo "<td>" . $row['datum'] . "</td>"; echo "<td>" . $row['periode'] . "</td>"; echo "<td> &euro; " . $row['subtotaal'] . "</td>"; echo "<td>" . $row['dealercontactpersoon'] . "</td>"; echo "<td><a href='delete.php?id=" . $row['id'] . "'>Verwijderen </a></td>"; echo "</tr>"; } echo "</tbody></table>"; mysqli_close($con); ?> delete.php <?php // Load Joomla! configuration file require_once('../../../configuration.php'); // Create a JConfig object $config = new JConfig(); // Get the required codes from the configuration file $server = $config->host; $username = $config->user; $password = $config->password; $database = $config->db; // Connect to db $con = mysqli_connect($server,$username,$password,$database); if (!$con){ die('Could not connect: ' . mysqli_error($con)); } mysqli_select_db($con,$database); // Check whether the value for id is transmitted if (isset($_GET['id'])) { // Put the value in a separate variable $id = $_GET['id']; // Query the database for the details of the chosen id $result = mysqli_query($con,"DELETE * FROM cypg8_overzicht WHERE id = $id"); } else { die("No valid id specified!"); } ?> Thanks to everyone who is willing to help!

  Read the article

• Laissez les bon temps rouler! (Microsoft BI Conference 2010)

  - by smisner

  "Laissez les bons temps rouler" is a Cajun phrase that I heard frequently when I lived in New Orleans in the mid-1990s. It means "Let the good times roll!" and encapsulates a feeling of happy expectation. As I met with many of my peers and new acquaintances at the Microsoft BI Conference last week, this phrase kept running through my mind as people spoke about their plans in their respective businesses, the benefits and opportunities that the recent releases in the BI stack are providing, and their expectations about the future of the BI stack. Notwithstanding some jabs here and there to point out the platform is neither perfect now nor will be anytime soon (along with admissions that the competitors are also not perfect), and notwithstanding several missteps by the event organizers (which I don't care to enumerate), the overarching mood at the conference was positive. It was a refreshing change from the doom and gloom hovering over several conferences that I attended in 2009. Although many people expect economic hardships to continue over the coming year or so, everyone I know in the BI field is busier than ever and expects to stay busy for quite a while. Self-Service BI Self-service was definitely a theme of the BI conference. In the keynote, Ted Kummert opened with a look back to a fairy tale vision of self-service BI that he told in 2008. At that time, the fairy tale future was a time when "every end user was able to use BI technologies within their job in order to move forward more effectively" and transitioned to the present time in which SQL Server 2008 R2, Office 2010, and SharePoint 2010 are available to deliver managed self-service BI. This set of technologies is presumably poised to address the needs of the 80% of users that Kummert said do not use BI today. He proceeded to outline a series of activities that users ought to be able to do themselves--from simple changes to a report like formatting or an addtional data visualization to integration of an additional data source. The keynote then continued with a series of demonstrations of both current and future technology in support of self-service BI. Some highlights that interested me: PowerPivot, of course, is the flagship product for self-service BI in the Microsoft BI stack. In the TechEd keynote, which was open to the BI conference attendees, Amir Netz (twitter) impressed the audience by demonstrating interactivity with a workbook containing 100 million rows. He upped the ante at the BI keynote with his demonstration of a future-state PowerPivot workbook containing over 2 billion records. It's important to note that this volume of data is being processed by a server engine, and not in the PowerPivot client engine. (Yes, I think it's impressive, but none of my clients are typically wrangling with 2 billion records at a time. Maybe they're thinking too small. This ability to work quickly with large data sets has greater implications for BI solutions than for self-service BI, in my opinion.) Amir also demonstrated KPIs for the future PowerPivot, which appeared to be easier to implement than in any other Microsoft product that supports KPIs, apart from simple KPIs in SharePoint. (My initial reaction is that we have one more place to build KPIs. Great. It's confusing enough. I haven't seen how well those KPIs integrate with other BI tools, which will be important for adoption.) One more PowerPivot feature that Amir showed was a graphical display of the lineage for calculations. (This is hugely practical, especially if you build up calculations incrementally. You can more easily follow the logic from calculation to calculation. Furthermore, if you need to make a change to one calculation, you can assess the impact on other calculations.) Another product demonstration will be available within the next 30 days--Pivot for Reporting Services. If you haven't seen this technology yet, check it out at www.getpivot.com. (It definitely has a wow factor, but I'm skeptical about its practicality. However, I'm looking forward to trying it out with data that I understand.) Michael Tejedor (twitter) demonstrated a feature that I think is really interesting and not emphasized nearly enough--overshadowed by PowerPivot, no doubt. That feature is the Microsoft Business Intelligence Indexing Connector, which enables search of the content of Excel workbooks and Reporting Services reports. (This capability existed in MOSS 2007, but was more cumbersome to implement. The search results in SharePoint 2010 are not only cooler, but more useful by describing whether the content is found in a table or a chart, for example.) This may yet be the dawning of the age of self-service BI - a phrase I've heard repeated from time to time over the last decade - but I think BI professionals are likely to stay busy for a long while, and need not start looking for a new line of work. Kummert repeatedly referenced strategic BI solutions in contrast to self-service BI to emphasize that self-service BI is not a replacement for the services that BI professionals provide. After all, self-service BI does not appear magically on user desktops (or whatever device they want to use). A supporting infrastructure is necessary, and grows in complexity in proportion to the need to simplify BI for users. It's one thing to hear the party line touted by Microsoft employees at the BI keynote, but it's another to hear from the people who are responsible for implementing and supporting it within an organization. Rob Collie (blog | twitter), Kasper de Jonge (blog | twitter), Vidas Matelis (site | twitter), and I were invited to join Andrew Brust (blog | twitter) as he led a Birds of a Feather session at TechEd entitled "PowerPivot: Is It the BI Deal-Changer for Developers and IT Pros?" I would single out the prevailing concern in this session as the issue of control. On one side of this issue were those who were concerned that they would lose control once PowerPivot is implemented. On the other side were those who believed that data should be freely accessible to users in PowerPivot, and even acknowledgment that users would get the data they want even if it meant they would have to manually enter into a workbook to have it ready for analysis. For another viewpoint on how PowerPivot played out at the conference, see Rob Collie's observations. Collaborative BI I have been intrigued by the notion of collaborative BI for a very long time. Before I discovered BI, I was a Lotus Notes developer and later a manager of developers, working in a software company that enabled collaboration in the legal industry. Not only did I help create collaborative systems for our clients, I created a complete project management from the ground up to collaboratively manage our custom development work. In that case, collaboration involved my team, my client contacts, and me. I was also able to produce my own BI from that system as well, but didn't know that's what I was doing at the time. Only in recent years has SharePoint begun to catch up with the capabilities that I had with Lotus Notes more than a decade ago. Eventually, I had the opportunity at that job to formally investigate BI as another product offering for our software, and the rest - as they say - is history. I built my first data warehouse with Scott Cameron (who has also ventured into the authoring world by writing Analysis Services 2008 Step by Step and was at the BI Conference last week where I got to reminisce with him for a bit) and that began a career that I never imagined at the time. Fast forward to 2010, and I'm still lauding the virtues of collaborative BI, if only the tools will catch up to my vision! Thus, I was anxious to see what Donald Farmer (blog | twitter) and Rita Sallam of Gartner had to say on the subject in their session "Collaborative Decision Making." As I suspected, the tools aren't quite there yet, but the vendors are moving in the right direction. One thing I liked about this session was a non-Microsoft perspective of the state of the industry with regard to collaborative BI. In addition, this session included a better demonstration of SharePoint collaborative BI capabilities than appeared in the BI keynote. Check out the video in the link to the session to see the demonstration. One of the use cases that was demonstrated was linking from information to a person, because, as Donald put it, "People don't trust data, they trust people." The Microsoft BI Stack in General A question I hear all the time from students when I'm teaching is how to know what tools to use when there is overlap between products in the BI stack. I've never taken the time to codify my thoughts on the subject, but saw that my friend Dan Bulos provided good insight on this topic from a variety of perspectives in his session, "So Many BI Tools, So Little Time." I thought one of his best points was that ideally you should be able to design in your tool of choice, and then deploy to your tool of choice. Unfortunately, the ideal is yet to become real across the platform. The closest we come is with the RDL in Reporting Services which can be produced from two different tools (Report Builder or Business Intelligence Development Studio's Report Designer), manually, or by a third-party or custom application. I have touted the idea for years (and publicly said so about 5 years ago) that eventually more products would be RDL producers or consumers, but we aren't there yet. Maybe in another 5 years. Another interesting session that covered the BI stack against a backdrop of competitive products was delivered by Andrew Brust. Andrew did a marvelous job of consolidating a lot of information in a way that clearly communicated how various vendors' offerings compared to the Microsoft BI stack. He also made a particularly compelling argument about how the existence of an ecosystem around the Microsoft BI stack provided innovation and opportunities lacking for other vendors. Check out his presentation, "How Does the Microsoft BI Stack...Stack Up?" Expo Hall I had planned to spend more time in the Expo Hall to see who was doing new things with the BI stack, but didn't manage to get very far. Each time I set out on an exploratory mission, I got caught up in some fascinating conversations with one or more of my peers. I find interacting with people that I meet at conferences just as important as attending sessions to learn something new. There were a couple of items that really caught me eye, however, that I'll share here. Pragmatic Works. Whether you develop SSIS packages, build SSAS cubes, or author SSRS reports (or all of the above), you really must take a look at BI Documenter. Brian Knight (twitter) walked me through the key features, and I must say I was impressed. Once you've seen what this product can do, you won't want to document your BI projects any other way. You can download a free single-user database edition, or choose from more feature-rich standard or professional editions. Microsoft Press ebooks. I also stopped by the O'Reilly Media booth to meet some folks that one of my acquisitions editors at Microsoft Press recommended. In case you haven't heard, Microsoft Press has partnered with O'Reilly Media for distribution and publishing. Apart from my interest in learning more about O'Reilly Media as an author, an advertisement in their booth caught me eye which I think is a really great move. When you buy Microsoft Press ebooks through the O'Reilly web site, you can receive it in any (or all) of the following formats where possible: PDF, epub, .mobi for Kindle and .apk for Android. You also have lifetime DRM-free access to the ebooks. As someone who is an avid collector of books, I fnd myself running out of room for storage. In addition, I travel a lot, and it's hard to lug my reference library with me. Today's e-reader options make the move to digital books a more viable way to grow my library. Having a variety of formats means I am not limited to a single device, and lifetime access means I don't have to worry about keeping track of where I've stored my files. Because the e-books are DRM-free, I can copy and paste when I'm compiling notes, and I can print pages when necessary. That's a winning combination in my mind! Overall, I was pleased with the BI conference. There were many more sessions that I couldn't attend, either because the room was full when I got there or there were multiple sessions running concurrently that I wanted to see. Fortunately, many of the sessions are accessible for viewing online at http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica along with the TechEd sessions. You can spot the BI sessions by the yellow skyline on the title slide of the presentation as shown below. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

  Read the article

• TechEd 2010 Day One – How I Travel

  - by BuckWoody

  Normally when I blog on the first day of a conference, well, there hasn’t been a first day yet. So I talk about the value of a conference or some other facet. And normally in my (non-conference) blogs, I show you how I have learned to be a data professional – things I’ve learned how to do over the years. But in all that time, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about a big part of my job – traveling. I’ve traveled a lot throughout the years, when I’ve taught, gone to conferences, consulted and in my current role assisting Microsoft customers with large-scale database system designs.  So I’ll share a few thoughts about what I do. Keep in mind that I travel for short durations, just a day or so, and sometimes I travel internationally. For those I prepare differently – what I’m talking about here is what I do for a multi-day, same-country trip. Hopefully you find it useful. I’ll tag a few other travelers I know to add their thoughts.  Preparing for Travel   When I’m notified of a trip, I begin researching the location. I find the flights, hotel and (if I have to) a car to use while I’m away. We have an in-house system we use to book the travel, but when I travel not-for-Microsoft I use Expedia and Kayak to find what I need.  Traveling on Sunday and Friday is the worst. I have to do it sometimes (like this week) and it’s always a bad idea. But you can blunt the impact by booking as early as you can stand it. That means I have to be up super-early, but the flights are normally on time. I stay flexible, and always have a backup plan in case the flights are delayed or canceled.  For the hotel, I tend to go on the cheaper side, and I look for older hotels that have been renovated, or quirky ones. For instance, in Boise, ID recently I stayed at a 60’s-themed (think Mad-Men) hotel that was very cool. Always I go on the less expensive side – I find the “luxury” hotels nail me for Internet, food, everything. The cheaper places include all kinds of things, and even have breakfasts, shuttles and all kinds of things that start to add up. I even call ahead to make sure there’s an iron and ironing board available, since I’ll need those when I get there.  I find any way I can not to get a car. I use mass-transit wherever possible, and try to make friends and pay their gas to take me places. In a pinch, I’ll use a taxi. It ends up being cheaper, faster, and less stressful all around.  Packing  Over the years I’ve learned never to check luggage whenever I can. To do that, I lay out everything I want to take with me on the bed, and then try and make sure I’m really going to use it. I wear a dark wool set of pants, which I can clean and wear in hot and cold climates. I bring undies and socks of course, and for most places I have to wear “dress up” shirts. I bring at least two print T-Shirts in case I want to dress down for something while I’m gone, but I only bring one set of shoes. All the  clothes are rolled as tightly as possible as I learned in the military. Then I use those to cushion the electronics I take.  For toiletries I bring a shaver, toothpaste and toothbrush, D/O and a small brush. Everything else the hotel will provide.  For entertainment, I take a small Zune, a full PC-Headset (so I can make IP calls on the road) and my laptop. I don’t take books or anything else – everything is electronic. I use E-books (downloaded from our Library), Audio-Books (on the Zune) and I also bring along a Kaossilator (more here) to play music in the hotel room or even on the plane without being heard.  If I can, I pack into one roll-on bag. There’s not a lot better than this one, but I also have a Bag I was given as a prize for something or other here at Microsoft. Either way, I like something with less pockets and more big, open compartments. Everything gets rolled up and packed in, with all of the wires and charges in small bags my wife made for me. The laptop (and anything I don’t want gate-checked) goes on top or in an outside pouch so I can grab it quickly if I have to gate-check the bag. As much as I can, I try to go in one bag. When I can’t (like this week) I use this bag since it can expand, roll up, crush and even be put away later. It’s super-heavy canvas and worth the price. This allows me to not check a bag.  Journey Logistics The day of the trip, I have everything ready since I’m getting up early. I pack a few small snacks inside a plastic large-mouth water bottle, which protects the snacks and lets me get water in the terminal. I bring along those little powdered drink mixes to add to the water.  At the airport, I make a beeline for the power-outlets. I charge up my laptop and phone, and download all my e-mails so I can work on them off-line in the air. I don’t travel as often as I used to – just every month or so now, so I don’t have a membership to an airline club. If I travel much more, I’ll invest in one again – they are WELL worth the money, for the wifi, food and quiet if for nothing else.  I print out my logistics on paper and put that in my pocket – flight numbers, hotel addresses and phones for everything. That way if I have to make a change, I don’t have to boot up anything or even have power to be able to roll with the punches if things change.  Working While Away  While I’m away I realize I’m going to be swamped with things at the conference or with my clients. So I turn on Out-Of-Office notifications to let people know I won’t be as responsive, and I keep my Outlook calendar up to date so my co-workers know what I’m up to. I even update it with hotel and phone info in case they really need to reach me. I share my calendar with my wife so my family knows what I’m doing as well.  I check my e-mail during breaks, but I only respond to them in the evening or early morning at the hotel. I tweet during conferences. The point is to be as present as possible during the event or when I’m at the clients. Both deserve it.  So those are my initial thoughts. I’ll tag Brent Ozar, Brad McGeHee and Paul Randal, and they can tag whomever they wish. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

  Read the article

• Exploring the Excel Services REST API

  - by jamiet

  Over the last few years Analysis Services guru Chris Webb and I have been on something of a crusade to enable better access to data that is locked up in countless Excel workbooks that litter the hard drives of enterprise PCs. The most prominent manifestation of that crusade up to now has been a forum thread that Chris began on Microsoft Answers entitled Excel Web App API? Chris began that thread with: I was wondering whether there was an API for the Excel Web App? Specifically, I was wondering if it was possible (or if it will be possible in the future) to expose data in a spreadsheet in the Excel Web App as an OData feed, in the way that it is possible with Excel Services? Up to recently the last 10 words of that paragraph "in the way that it is possible with Excel Services" had completely washed over me however a comment on my recent blog post Thoughts on ExcelMashup.com (and a rant) by Josh Booker in which Josh said: Excel Services is a service application built for sharepoint 2010 which exposes a REST API for excel documents. We're looking forward to pros like you giving it a try now that Office365 makes sharepoint more easily accessible.  Can't wait for your future blog about using REST API to load data from Excel on Offce 365 in SSIS. made me think that perhaps the Excel Services REST API is something I should be looking into and indeed that is what I have been doing over the past few days. And you know what? I'm rather impressed with some of what Excel Services' REST API has to offer. Unfortunately Excel Services' REST API also has one debilitating aspect that renders this blog post much less useful than it otherwise would be; namely that it is not publicly available from the Excel Web App on SkyDrive. Therefore all I can do in this blog post is show you screenshots of what the REST API provides in Sharepoint rather than linking you directly to those REST resources; that's a great shame because one of the benefits of a REST API is that it is easily and ubiquitously demonstrable from a web browser. Instead I am hosting a workbook on Sharepoint in Office 365 because that does include Excel Services' REST API but, again, all I can do is show you screenshots. N.B. If anyone out there knows how to make Office-365-hosted spreadsheets publicly-accessible (i.e. without requiring a username/password) please do let me know (because knowing which forum on which to ask the question is an exercise in futility). In order to demonstrate Excel Services' REST API I needed some decent data and for that I used the World Tourism Organization Statistics Database and Yearbook - United Nations World Tourism Organization dataset hosted on Azure Datamarket (its free, by the way); this dataset "provides comprehensive information on international tourism worldwide and offers a selection of the latest available statistics on international tourist arrivals, tourism receipts and expenditure" and you can explore the data for yourself here. If you want to play along at home by viewing the data as it exists in Excel then it can be viewed here. Let's dive in.   The root of Excel Services' REST API is the model resource which resides at: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model Note that this is true for every workbook hosted in a Sharepoint document library - each Excel workbook is a RESTful resource. (Update: Mark Stacey on Twitter tells me that "It's turned off by default in onpremise Sharepoint (1 tickbox to turn on though)". Thanks Mark!) The data is provided as an ATOM feed but I have Firefox's feed reading ability turned on so you don't see the underlying XML goo. As you can see there are four top level resources, Ranges, Charts, Tables and PivotTables; exploring one of those resources is where things get interesting. Let's take a look at the Tables Resource: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables Our workbook contains only one table, called ‘Table1’ (to reiterate, you can explore this table yourself here). Viewing that table via the REST API is pretty easy, we simply append the name of the table onto our previous URI: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables('Table1') As you can see, that quite simply gives us a representation of the data in that table. What you cannot see from this screenshot is that this is pure HTML that is being served up; that is all well and good but actually we can do more interesting things. If we specify that the data should be returned not as HTML but as: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables('Table1')?$format=image then that data comes back as a pure image and can be used in any web page where you would ordinarily use images. This is the thing that I really like about Excel Services’ REST API – we can embed an image in any web page but instead of being a copy of the data, that image is actually live – if the underlying data in the workbook were to change then hitting refresh will show a new image. Pretty cool, no? The same is true of any Charts or Pivot Tables in your workbook - those can be embedded as images too and if the underlying data changes, boom, the image in your web page changes too. There is a lot of data in the workbook so the image returned by that previous URI is too large to show here so instead let’s take a look at a different resource, this time a range: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Ranges('Data!A1|C15') That URI returns cells A1 to C15 from a worksheet called “Data”: And if we ask for that as an image again: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Ranges('Data!A1|C15')?$format=image Were this image resource not behind a username/password then this would be a live image of the data in the workbook as opposed to one that I had to copy and upload elsewhere. Nonetheless I hope this little wrinkle doesn't detract from the inate value of what I am trying to articulate here; that an existing image in a web page can be changed on-the-fly simply by inserting some data into an Excel workbook. I for one think that that is very cool indeed! I think that's enough in the way of demo for now as this shows what is possible using Excel Services' REST API. Of course, not all features work quite how I would like and here is a bulleted list of some of my more negative feedback: The URIs are pig-ugly. Are "_vti_bin" & "ExcelRest.aspx" really necessary as part of the URI? Would this not be better: http://server/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/Model/Tables(‘Table1’) That URI provides the necessary addressability and is a lot easier to remember. Discoverability of these resources is not easy, we essentially have to handcrank a URI ourselves. Take the example of embedding a chart into a blog post - would it not be better if I could browse first through the document library to an Excel workbook and THEN through the workbook to the chart/range/table that I am interested in? Call it a wizard if you like. That would be really cool and would, I am sure, promote this feature and cut down on the copy-and-paste disease that the REST API is meant to alleviate. The resources that I demonstrated can be returned as feeds as well as images or HTML simply by changing the format parameter to ?$format=atom however for some inexplicable reason they don't return OData and no-one on the Excel Services team can tell me why (believe me, I have asked). $format is an OData parameter however other useful parameters such as $top and $filter are not supported. It would be nice if they were. Although I haven't demonstrated it here Excel Services' REST API does provide a makeshift way of altering the data by changing the value of specific cells however what it does not allow you to do is add new data into the workbook. Google Docs allows this and was one of the motivating factors for Chris Webb's forum post that I linked to above. None of this works for Excel workbooks hosted on SkyDrive This blog post is as long as it needs to be for a short introduction so I'll stop now. If you want to know more than I recommend checking out a few links: Excel Services REST API documentation on MSDNSo what does REST on Excel Services look like??? by Shahar PrishExcel Services in SharePoint 2010 REST API Syntax by Christian Stich. Any thoughts? Let's hear them in the comments section below! @Jamiet 

  Read the article

• The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

  - by BuckWoody

  At the Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) in 2010 we announced an addition to the Computational Roles in Windows Azure, called the VM Role. This new feature allows a great deal of control over the applications you write, but some have confused it with our full infrastructure offering in Windows Hyper-V. There is a proper architecture pattern for both of them. Virtualization Virtualization is the process of taking all of the hardware of a physical computer and replicating it in software alone. This means that a single computer can “host” or run several “virtual” computers. These virtual computers can run anywhere - including at a vendor’s location. Some companies refer to this as Cloud Computing since the hardware is operated and maintained elsewhere. IaaS The more detailed definition of this type of computing is called Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) since it removes the need for you to maintain hardware at your organization. The operating system, drivers, and all the other software required to run an application are still under your control and your responsibility to license, patch, and scale. Microsoft has an offering in this space called Hyper-V, that runs on the Windows operating system. Combined with a hardware hosting vendor and the System Center software to create and deploy Virtual Machines (a process referred to as provisioning), you can create a Cloud environment with full control over all aspects of the machine, including multiple operating systems if you like. Hosting machines and provisioning them at your own buildings is sometimes called a Private Cloud, and hosting them somewhere else is often called a Public Cloud. State-ful and Stateless Programming This paradigm does not create a new, scalable way of computing. It simply moves the hardware away. The reason is that when you limit the Cloud efforts to a Virtual Machine, you are in effect limiting the computing resources to what that single system can provide. This is because much of the software developed in this environment maintains “state” - and that requires a little explanation. “State-ful programming” means that all parts of the computing environment stay connected to each other throughout a compute cycle. The system expects the memory, CPU, storage and network to remain in the same state from the beginning of the process to the end. You can think of this as a telephone conversation - you expect that the other person picks up the phone, listens to you, and talks back all in a single unit of time. In “Stateless” computing the system is designed to allow the different parts of the code to run independently of each other. You can think of this like an e-mail exchange. You compose an e-mail from your system (it has the state when you’re doing that) and then you walk away for a bit to make some coffee. A few minutes later you click the “send” button (the network has the state) and you go to a meeting. The server receives the message and stores it on a mail program’s database (the mail server has the state now) and continues working on other mail. Finally, the other party logs on to their mail client and reads the mail (the other user has the state) and responds to it and so on. These events might be separated by milliseconds or even days, but the system continues to operate. The entire process doesn’t maintain the state, each component does. This is the exact concept behind coding for Windows Azure. The stateless programming model allows amazing rates of scale, since the message (think of the e-mail) can be broken apart by multiple programs and worked on in parallel (like when the e-mail goes to hundreds of users), and only the order of re-assembling the work is important to consider. For the exact same reason, if the system makes copies of those running programs as Windows Azure does, you have built-in redundancy and recovery. It’s just built into the design. The Difference Between Infrastructure Designs and Platform Designs When you simply take a physical server running software and virtualize it either privately or publicly, you haven’t done anything to allow the code to scale or have recovery. That all has to be handled by adding more code and more Virtual Machines that have a slight lag in maintaining the running state of the system. Add more machines and you get more lag, so the scale is limited. This is the primary limitation with IaaS. It’s also not as easy to deploy these VM’s, and more importantly, you’re often charged on a longer basis to remove them. your agility in IaaS is more limited. Windows Azure is a Platform - meaning that you get objects you can code against. The code you write runs on multiple nodes with multiple copies, and it all works because of the magic of Stateless programming. you don’t worry, or even care, about what is running underneath. It could be Windows (and it is in fact a type of Windows Server), Linux, or anything else - but that' isn’t what you want to manage, monitor, maintain or license. You don’t want to deploy an operating system - you want to deploy an application. You want your code to run, and you don’t care how it does that. Another benefit to PaaS is that you can ask for hundreds or thousands of new nodes of computing power - there’s no provisioning, it just happens. And you can stop using them quicker - and the base code for your application does not have to change to make this happen. Windows Azure Roles and Their Use If you need your code to have a user interface, in Visual Studio you add a Web Role to your project, and if the code needs to do work that doesn’t involve a user interface you can add a Worker Role. They are just containers that act a certain way. I’ll provide more detail on those later. Note: That’s a general description, so it’s not entirely accurate, but it’s accurate enough for this discussion. So now we’re back to that VM Role. Because of the name, some have mistakenly thought that you can take a Virtual Machine running, say Linux, and deploy it to Windows Azure using this Role. But you can’t. That’s not what it is designed for at all. If you do need that kind of deployment, you should look into Hyper-V and System Center to create the Private or Public Infrastructure as a Service. What the VM Role is actually designed to do is to allow you to have a great deal of control over the system where your code will run. Let’s take an example. You’ve heard about Windows Azure, and Platform programming. You’re convinced it’s the right way to code. But you have a lot of things you’ve written in another way at your company. Re-writing all of your code to take advantage of Windows Azure will take a long time. Or perhaps you have a certain version of Apache Web Server that you need for your code to work. In both cases, you think you can (or already have) code the the software to be “Stateless”, you just need more control over the place where the code runs. That’s the place where a VM Role makes sense. Recap Virtualizing servers alone has limitations of scale, availability and recovery. Microsoft’s offering in this area is Hyper-V and System Center, not the VM Role. The VM Role is still used for running Stateless code, just like the Web and Worker Roles, with the exception that it allows you more control over the environment of where that code runs.

  Read the article

• Exploring the Excel Services REST API

  - by jamiet

  Over the last few years Analysis Services guru Chris Webb and I have been on something of a crusade to enable better access to data that is locked up in countless Excel workbooks that litter the hard drives of enterprise PCs. The most prominent manifestation of that crusade up to now has been a forum thread that Chris began on Microsoft Answers entitled Excel Web App API? Chris began that thread with: I was wondering whether there was an API for the Excel Web App? Specifically, I was wondering if it was possible (or if it will be possible in the future) to expose data in a spreadsheet in the Excel Web App as an OData feed, in the way that it is possible with Excel Services? Up to recently the last 10 words of that paragraph "in the way that it is possible with Excel Services" had completely washed over me however a comment on my recent blog post Thoughts on ExcelMashup.com (and a rant) by Josh Booker in which Josh said: Excel Services is a service application built for sharepoint 2010 which exposes a REST API for excel documents. We're looking forward to pros like you giving it a try now that Office365 makes sharepoint more easily accessible.  Can't wait for your future blog about using REST API to load data from Excel on Offce 365 in SSIS. made me think that perhaps the Excel Services REST API is something I should be looking into and indeed that is what I have been doing over the past few days. And you know what? I'm rather impressed with some of what Excel Services' REST API has to offer. Unfortunately Excel Services' REST API also has one debilitating aspect that renders this blog post much less useful than it otherwise would be; namely that it is not publicly available from the Excel Web App on SkyDrive. Therefore all I can do in this blog post is show you screenshots of what the REST API provides in Sharepoint rather than linking you directly to those REST resources; that's a great shame because one of the benefits of a REST API is that it is easily and ubiquitously demonstrable from a web browser. Instead I am hosting a workbook on Sharepoint in Office 365 because that does include Excel Services' REST API but, again, all I can do is show you screenshots. N.B. If anyone out there knows how to make Office-365-hosted spreadsheets publicly-accessible (i.e. without requiring a username/password) please do let me know (because knowing which forum on which to ask the question is an exercise in futility). In order to demonstrate Excel Services' REST API I needed some decent data and for that I used the World Tourism Organization Statistics Database and Yearbook - United Nations World Tourism Organization dataset hosted on Azure Datamarket (its free, by the way); this dataset "provides comprehensive information on international tourism worldwide and offers a selection of the latest available statistics on international tourist arrivals, tourism receipts and expenditure" and you can explore the data for yourself here. If you want to play along at home by viewing the data as it exists in Excel then it can be viewed here. Let's dive in.   The root of Excel Services' REST API is the model resource which resides at: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model Note that this is true for every workbook hosted in a Sharepoint document library - each Excel workbook is a RESTful resource. (Update: Mark Stacey on Twitter tells me that "It's turned off by default in onpremise Sharepoint (1 tickbox to turn on though)". Thanks Mark!) The data is provided as an ATOM feed but I have Firefox's feed reading ability turned on so you don't see the underlying XML goo. As you can see there are four top level resources, Ranges, Charts, Tables and PivotTables; exploring one of those resources is where things get interesting. Let's take a look at the Tables Resource: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables Our workbook contains only one table, called ‘Table1’ (to reiterate, you can explore this table yourself here). Viewing that table via the REST API is pretty easy, we simply append the name of the table onto our previous URI: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables('Table1') As you can see, that quite simply gives us a representation of the data in that table. What you cannot see from this screenshot is that this is pure HTML that is being served up; that is all well and good but actually we can do more interesting things. If we specify that the data should be returned not as HTML but as: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables('Table1')?$format=image then that data comes back as a pure image and can be used in any web page where you would ordinarily use images. This is the thing that I really like about Excel Services’ REST API – we can embed an image in any web page but instead of being a copy of the data, that image is actually live – if the underlying data in the workbook were to change then hitting refresh will show a new image. Pretty cool, no? The same is true of any Charts or Pivot Tables in your workbook - those can be embedded as images too and if the underlying data changes, boom, the image in your web page changes too. There is a lot of data in the workbook so the image returned by that previous URI is too large to show here so instead let’s take a look at a different resource, this time a range: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Ranges('Data!A1|C15') That URI returns cells A1 to C15 from a worksheet called “Data”: And if we ask for that as an image again: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Ranges('Data!A1|C15')?$format=image Were this image resource not behind a username/password then this would be a live image of the data in the workbook as opposed to one that I had to copy and upload elsewhere. Nonetheless I hope this little wrinkle doesn't detract from the inate value of what I am trying to articulate here; that an existing image in a web page can be changed on-the-fly simply by inserting some data into an Excel workbook. I for one think that that is very cool indeed! I think that's enough in the way of demo for now as this shows what is possible using Excel Services' REST API. Of course, not all features work quite how I would like and here is a bulleted list of some of my more negative feedback: The URIs are pig-ugly. Are "_vti_bin" & "ExcelRest.aspx" really necessary as part of the URI? Would this not be better: http://server/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/Model/Tables(‘Table1’) That URI provides the necessary addressability and is a lot easier to remember. Discoverability of these resources is not easy, we essentially have to handcrank a URI ourselves. Take the example of embedding a chart into a blog post - would it not be better if I could browse first through the document library to an Excel workbook and THEN through the workbook to the chart/range/table that I am interested in? Call it a wizard if you like. That would be really cool and would, I am sure, promote this feature and cut down on the copy-and-paste disease that the REST API is meant to alleviate. The resources that I demonstrated can be returned as feeds as well as images or HTML simply by changing the format parameter to ?$format=atom however for some inexplicable reason they don't return OData and no-one on the Excel Services team can tell me why (believe me, I have asked). $format is an OData parameter however other useful parameters such as $top and $filter are not supported. It would be nice if they were. Although I haven't demonstrated it here Excel Services' REST API does provide a makeshift way of altering the data by changing the value of specific cells however what it does not allow you to do is add new data into the workbook. Google Docs allows this and was one of the motivating factors for Chris Webb's forum post that I linked to above. None of this works for Excel workbooks hosted on SkyDrive This blog post is as long as it needs to be for a short introduction so I'll stop now. If you want to know more than I recommend checking out a few links: Excel Services REST API documentation on MSDNSo what does REST on Excel Services look like??? by Shahar PrishExcel Services in SharePoint 2010 REST API Syntax by Christian Stich. Any thoughts? Let's hear them in the comments section below! @Jamiet 

  Read the article

• Laissez les bon temps rouler! (Microsoft BI Conference 2010)

  - by smisner

  Laissez les bons temps rouler" is a Cajun phrase that I heard frequently when I lived in New Orleans in the mid-1990s. It means "Let the good times roll!" and encapsulates a feeling of happy expectation. As I met with many of my peers and new acquaintances at the Microsoft BI Conference last week, this phrase kept running through my mind as people spoke about their plans in their respective businesses, the benefits and opportunities that the recent releases in the BI stack are providing, and their expectations about the future of the BI stack.Notwithstanding some jabs here and there to point out the platform is neither perfect now nor will be anytime soon (along with admissions that the competitors are also not perfect), and notwithstanding several missteps by the event organizers (which I don't care to enumerate), the overarching mood at the conference was positive. It was a refreshing change from the doom and gloom hovering over several conferences that I attended in 2009. Although many people expect economic hardships to continue over the coming year or so, everyone I know in the BI field is busier than ever and expects to stay busy for quite a while.Self-Service BISelf-service was definitely a theme of the BI conference. In the keynote, Ted Kummert opened with a look back to a fairy tale vision of self-service BI that he told in 2008. At that time, the fairy tale future was a time when "every end user was able to use BI technologies within their job in order to move forward more effectively" and transitioned to the present time in which SQL Server 2008 R2, Office 2010, and SharePoint 2010 are available to deliver managed self-service BI.This set of technologies is presumably poised to address the needs of the 80% of users that Kummert said do not use BI today. He proceeded to outline a series of activities that users ought to be able to do themselves--from simple changes to a report like formatting or an addtional data visualization to integration of an additional data source. The keynote then continued with a series of demonstrations of both current and future technology in support of self-service BI. Some highlights that interested me:PowerPivot, of course, is the flagship product for self-service BI in the Microsoft BI stack. In the TechEd keynote, which was open to the BI conference attendees, Amir Netz (twitter) impressed the audience by demonstrating interactivity with a workbook containing 100 million rows. He upped the ante at the BI keynote with his demonstration of a future-state PowerPivot workbook containing over 2 billion records. It's important to note that this volume of data is being processed by a server engine, and not in the PowerPivot client engine. (Yes, I think it's impressive, but none of my clients are typically wrangling with 2 billion records at a time. Maybe they're thinking too small. This ability to work quickly with large data sets has greater implications for BI solutions than for self-service BI, in my opinion.)Amir also demonstrated KPIs for the future PowerPivot, which appeared to be easier to implement than in any other Microsoft product that supports KPIs, apart from simple KPIs in SharePoint. (My initial reaction is that we have one more place to build KPIs. Great. It's confusing enough. I haven't seen how well those KPIs integrate with other BI tools, which will be important for adoption.)One more PowerPivot feature that Amir showed was a graphical display of the lineage for calculations. (This is hugely practical, especially if you build up calculations incrementally. You can more easily follow the logic from calculation to calculation. Furthermore, if you need to make a change to one calculation, you can assess the impact on other calculations.)Another product demonstration will be available within the next 30 days--Pivot for Reporting Services. If you haven't seen this technology yet, check it out at www.getpivot.com. (It definitely has a wow factor, but I'm skeptical about its practicality. However, I'm looking forward to trying it out with data that I understand.)Michael Tejedor (twitter) demonstrated a feature that I think is really interesting and not emphasized nearly enough--overshadowed by PowerPivot, no doubt. That feature is the Microsoft Business Intelligence Indexing Connector, which enables search of the content of Excel workbooks and Reporting Services reports. (This capability existed in MOSS 2007, but was more cumbersome to implement. The search results in SharePoint 2010 are not only cooler, but more useful by describing whether the content is found in a table or a chart, for example.)This may yet be the dawning of the age of self-service BI - a phrase I've heard repeated from time to time over the last decade - but I think BI professionals are likely to stay busy for a long while, and need not start looking for a new line of work. Kummert repeatedly referenced strategic BI solutions in contrast to self-service BI to emphasize that self-service BI is not a replacement for the services that BI professionals provide. After all, self-service BI does not appear magically on user desktops (or whatever device they want to use). A supporting infrastructure is necessary, and grows in complexity in proportion to the need to simplify BI for users.It's one thing to hear the party line touted by Microsoft employees at the BI keynote, but it's another to hear from the people who are responsible for implementing and supporting it within an organization. Rob Collie (blog | twitter), Kasper de Jonge (blog | twitter), Vidas Matelis (site | twitter), and I were invited to join Andrew Brust (blog | twitter) as he led a Birds of a Feather session at TechEd entitled "PowerPivot: Is It the BI Deal-Changer for Developers and IT Pros?" I would single out the prevailing concern in this session as the issue of control. On one side of this issue were those who were concerned that they would lose control once PowerPivot is implemented. On the other side were those who believed that data should be freely accessible to users in PowerPivot, and even acknowledgment that users would get the data they want even if it meant they would have to manually enter into a workbook to have it ready for analysis. For another viewpoint on how PowerPivot played out at the conference, see Rob Collie's observations.Collaborative BII have been intrigued by the notion of collaborative BI for a very long time. Before I discovered BI, I was a Lotus Notes developer and later a manager of developers, working in a software company that enabled collaboration in the legal industry. Not only did I help create collaborative systems for our clients, I created a complete project management from the ground up to collaboratively manage our custom development work. In that case, collaboration involved my team, my client contacts, and me. I was also able to produce my own BI from that system as well, but didn't know that's what I was doing at the time. Only in recent years has SharePoint begun to catch up with the capabilities that I had with Lotus Notes more than a decade ago. Eventually, I had the opportunity at that job to formally investigate BI as another product offering for our software, and the rest - as they say - is history. I built my first data warehouse with Scott Cameron (who has also ventured into the authoring world by writing Analysis Services 2008 Step by Step and was at the BI Conference last week where I got to reminisce with him for a bit) and that began a career that I never imagined at the time.Fast forward to 2010, and I'm still lauding the virtues of collaborative BI, if only the tools will catch up to my vision! Thus, I was anxious to see what Donald Farmer (blog | twitter) and Rita Sallam of Gartner had to say on the subject in their session "Collaborative Decision Making." As I suspected, the tools aren't quite there yet, but the vendors are moving in the right direction. One thing I liked about this session was a non-Microsoft perspective of the state of the industry with regard to collaborative BI. In addition, this session included a better demonstration of SharePoint collaborative BI capabilities than appeared in the BI keynote. Check out the video in the link to the session to see the demonstration. One of the use cases that was demonstrated was linking from information to a person, because, as Donald put it, "People don't trust data, they trust people."The Microsoft BI Stack in GeneralA question I hear all the time from students when I'm teaching is how to know what tools to use when there is overlap between products in the BI stack. I've never taken the time to codify my thoughts on the subject, but saw that my friend Dan Bulos provided good insight on this topic from a variety of perspectives in his session, "So Many BI Tools, So Little Time." I thought one of his best points was that ideally you should be able to design in your tool of choice, and then deploy to your tool of choice. Unfortunately, the ideal is yet to become real across the platform. The closest we come is with the RDL in Reporting Services which can be produced from two different tools (Report Builder or Business Intelligence Development Studio's Report Designer), manually, or by a third-party or custom application. I have touted the idea for years (and publicly said so about 5 years ago) that eventually more products would be RDL producers or consumers, but we aren't there yet. Maybe in another 5 years.Another interesting session that covered the BI stack against a backdrop of competitive products was delivered by Andrew Brust. Andrew did a marvelous job of consolidating a lot of information in a way that clearly communicated how various vendors' offerings compared to the Microsoft BI stack. He also made a particularly compelling argument about how the existence of an ecosystem around the Microsoft BI stack provided innovation and opportunities lacking for other vendors. Check out his presentation, "How Does the Microsoft BI Stack...Stack Up?"Expo HallI had planned to spend more time in the Expo Hall to see who was doing new things with the BI stack, but didn't manage to get very far. Each time I set out on an exploratory mission, I got caught up in some fascinating conversations with one or more of my peers. I find interacting with people that I meet at conferences just as important as attending sessions to learn something new. There were a couple of items that really caught me eye, however, that I'll share here.Pragmatic Works. Whether you develop SSIS packages, build SSAS cubes, or author SSRS reports (or all of the above), you really must take a look at BI Documenter. Brian Knight (twitter) walked me through the key features, and I must say I was impressed. Once you've seen what this product can do, you won't want to document your BI projects any other way. You can download a free single-user database edition, or choose from more feature-rich standard or professional editions.Microsoft Press ebooks. I also stopped by the O'Reilly Media booth to meet some folks that one of my acquisitions editors at Microsoft Press recommended. In case you haven't heard, Microsoft Press has partnered with O'Reilly Media for distribution and publishing. Apart from my interest in learning more about O'Reilly Media as an author, an advertisement in their booth caught me eye which I think is a really great move. When you buy Microsoft Press ebooks through the O'Reilly web site, you can receive it in any (or all) of the following formats where possible: PDF, epub, .mobi for Kindle and .apk for Android. You also have lifetime DRM-free access to the ebooks. As someone who is an avid collector of books, I fnd myself running out of room for storage. In addition, I travel a lot, and it's hard to lug my reference library with me. Today's e-reader options make the move to digital books a more viable way to grow my library. Having a variety of formats means I am not limited to a single device, and lifetime access means I don't have to worry about keeping track of where I've stored my files. Because the e-books are DRM-free, I can copy and paste when I'm compiling notes, and I can print pages when necessary. That's a winning combination in my mind!Overall, I was pleased with the BI conference. There were many more sessions that I couldn't attend, either because the room was full when I got there or there were multiple sessions running concurrently that I wanted to see. Fortunately, many of the sessions are accessible for viewing online at http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica along with the TechEd sessions. You can spot the BI sessions by the yellow skyline on the title slide of the presentation as shown below. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

  Read the article

• How to calculate checksum?

  - by Patel Rikin

  I m developing instrument driver and i want to know how to calculate checksum of frame. Explanation: Expressed by characters [0-9] and [A-F]. Characters beginning from the character after [STX] and until [ETB] or [ETX] (including [ETB] or [ETX]) are added in binary. The 2-digit numbers, which represent the least significant 8 bits in hexadecimal code, are converted to ASCII characters [0-9] and [A-F]. The most significant digit is stored in CHK1 and the least significant digit in CHK2. This is sample frame : <STX>2Q|1|2^1||||20011001153000<CR><ETX><CHK1><CHK2><CR><LF> and i want to know what is value of chk1 and chk2 and i am new in this so i m totally blank about how to calculate checksum i am not getting above 3rd and 4th point. can any one provide sample code for c#. Please help me.

  Read the article

• ORA-12705: Cannot access NLS data files or invalid environment specified

  - by Mohit Nanda

  I am getting this error while trying to create a connection pool, on my Oracle database, Oracle 10gR2. java.sql.SQLException: ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1 ORA-12705: Cannot access NLS data files or invalid environment specified I am able to connect to the database over sqlplus & iSQLPlus client, but when I try to connect using this Java program, I get this error just when the connection pool is to be initialised and it does not initialise the connection pool. Can someone please help me resolving it? DB Version: Oracle version 10.2.0.1 OS: RHEL 4.0 Here is a barebone, java code which is throwing this error, while connecting to my database. import java.sql.*; public class connect{ public static void main(String[] args) { Connection con = null; CallableStatement cstmt = null; String url = "jdbc:oracle:thin:@hostname:1521:oracle"; String userName = "username"; String password = "password"; try { System.out.println("Registering Driver ..."); DriverManager.registerDriver (new oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver()); System.out.println("Creating Connection ..."); con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, userName, password); System.out.println("Success!"); } catch(Exception ex) { ex.printStackTrace(System.err); } finally { if(cstmt != null) try{cstmt.close();}catch(Exception _ex){} if(con != null) try{con.close();}catch(Exception _ex){} } } }

  Read the article

• Cognos 8.3 and Oracle11g

  - by hiddenkirby

  When i place ojdbc5.jar in the c8\webapps\p2pd\WEB-INF\lib directory... i receive the error below. And yes the content store is on an oracle 11g RAC database. I am running Oracle11g Client. Cognos version is 8.3 SP4. [Content Manager database connection] 1. [ ERROR ] The database connection failed. 2. [ ERROR ] Content Manager failed to start because it could not load driver "oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  Read the article

• DPM 2010 RC Mailbox Recovery Fails

  - by ITGuy24

  I am testing DPM 2010 with Exchange 2010. I am attempting to restore a single mailbox from a previous backup to a Recovery Database. I created and mounting the Recovery Database on the Exchange 2010 server and set the overwrite property. When I run the restore for the mailbox and point it to the recovery databse I get the following error. The recovery jobs for Exchange Mailbox Database MailboxDatabase01 that started at with the destination of EXCHANGE2010.domain.com, have completed. Most or all jobs failed to recover the requested data. (ID 3111) DPM encountered an error while performaing an operation for E:\DatabaseFiles\MailboxDatabase01.edb on EXCHANGE2010.domain.com (ID 2033 Details: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process (0x80070020)) MailboxDatabase01 is one of our MDBs and not the RDB I setup for the recovery. I am confused why it is even trying to access this as I have triple checked that the recovery is pointed to the RDB. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

  Read the article

• Cognos 8.3 and Oracle11g

  - by hiddenkirby

  When i place ojdbc5.jar in the c8\webapps\p2pd\WEB-INF\lib directory... i receive the error below. And yes the content store is on an oracle 11g RAC database. I am running Oracle11g Client. Cognos version is 8.3 SP4. [Content Manager database connection] 1. [ ERROR ] The database connection failed. 2. [ ERROR ] Content Manager failed to start because it could not load driver "oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  Read the article

• MySQL Federated Tables Escaped Table Names

  - by Gordon

  I am trying to use MySQL federated tables. The problem is that the documentation specified at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/federated-use.html says that a federated table should be created using the following format for the CONNECTION parameter: scheme://user_name[:password]@host_name[:port_num]/db_name/tbl_name E.G. CONNECTION='mysql://username:password@hostname:port/database/tablename' CONNECTION='mysql://username@hostname/database/tablename' CONNECTION='mysql://username:password@hostname/database/tablename' The problem is that the table I am trying to connect to has non-standard characters in it and I cannot find the proper way to scape them in the connections tring. For example, a table named `Table (one)` . Which has the space and the parenthesis, requiring backticks surrounding it inside any SQL code. Anyone know the proper way to do this?

  Read the article

• Office 365 Powershell - Export user, license type, and company field to csv file

  - by ASGJim

  I need to be able to export user name or email address (doesn't matter which), company (from the company field under the organization tab in a user account of the exchange admin console), and license type (e.g. exchange online e1, exchange online kiosk etc...) I am able to export both values in two statements into two separate files but that doesn't do me much good. I can export the username and license type with the following: Get-MSOLUser | % { $user=$_; $_.Licenses | Select {$user.displayname},AccountSKuid } | Export-CSV "sample.csv" -NoTypeInformation And, I can get the company values with the following: Get-User | select company | Export-CSV sample.csv Someone on another forum suggested this - $index = @{} Get-User | foreach-object {$index.Add($_.userprincipalname,$_.company)} Get-MsolUser | ForEach-Object { write-host $_.userprincipalname, $index[$_.userprincipalname], $_.licenses.AccountSku.Skupartnumber} That seems like it should work but it doesn't display any license info in my powershell, it's just blank. Also I wouldn't know how to export that to a csv file. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

  Read the article

• How to run adb command through a script

  - by Outride

  As the title says, I'm trying to find how to run adb commands through a pre-written script (such as how .bat and .vbs files work) so I can make a semi automatic program to pull some files from my android phone whenever I click on the launch.bat which launches a line of program to go through the phone and find certain files. I know the script line: adb pull /data/data/kik.android/databases/ %drive%\All\Database This copies all the files in this specific database into the flash drive's folder "Database" under the "All" folder. But, how could i make it so that the adb program looks through the phone and finds other files, and how could i pull the specific files, rather than pulling the entire folder?

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 1104 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115  | Next Page >