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• BizTalk &ndash; Routing failure on Delivery Notifications (BizTalk 2006 R2 to 2013)

  - by S.E.R.

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/SERivas/archive/2013/11/11/biztalk-routing-failure-on-delivery-notifications.aspxThis is a detailed explanation of a something I posted a few month ago on stackoverflow, concerning a weird behavior (a bug, really…) of the delivery notifications in BizTalk. Reminder: what are delivery notifications Mechanism BizTalk has the ability to automatically publish positive acknowledgments (ACK) when it has succeeded transmitting a message or negative acknowledgments (NACK) in case of a transmission failure. Orchestrations can use delivery notifications to subscribe to those ACKs and NACKs in order to know if a message sent on a one-way send port has been successfully transmitted. Delivery Notifications can be “activated” in two ways: The most common and easy way is to set the Delivery Notification property of a logical send port (in the orchestration designer) to Transmitted: Another way is to set the BTS.AckRequired context property of the message to be sent to true: NOTE: fundamentally, those methods are strictly equivalent since the fact of setting the Delivery Notification to Transmitted on the send port only tells BizTalk the BTS.AckRequired context property has to be set to true on the outgoing message. Related context properties ACKs and NACKs have a common set of propoted context properties, which are : Propriété Description AckType Equals ACK when successful or NACK otherwise AckID MessageID of the message concerned by the acknowledgment AckOwnerID InstanceID of the instance associated with the acknowledgment AckSendPortID ID of the send port AckSendPortName Name of the send port AckOutboundTransportLocation URI of the send port AckReceivePortID ID of the port the message came from AckReceivePortName Name of the port the message came from AckInboundTransportLocation URI of the port the message came from Detailed behavior The way Delivery Notifications are handled by BizTalk is peculiar compared to the standard behavior of the Message Box: if no active subscription exists for the acknowledgment, it is simply discarded. The direct consequence of this is that there can be no routing failure for an acknowledgment, and an acknowledgment cannot be suspended. Moreover, when a message is sent to a send port where Delivery Notification = Transmitted, a correlation set is initialized and a correlation token is attached to the message (Context property: CorrelationToken). This correlation token will also be attached to the acknowledgment. So when the acknowledgment is issued, it is automatically routed to the source orchestration. Finally, when a NACK is received by the source orchestration, a DeliveryFailureException is thrown, which can be caught in Catch section. Context of the problem Consider this scenario: In an orchestration, Delivery Notifications are activated on a One-Way send port In case of a transmission failure, the messaging instance is suspended and the orchestration catches an exception (DeliveryFailureException). When the exception is caught, the orchestration does some logging and then terminates (thanks to a Terminate shape). So that leaves only the suspended messaging instance, waiting to be resumed. Symptoms Once the problem that caused the transmission failure is solved, the messaging instance is resumed. Considering what was said in the reminder, we would expect the instance to complete, leaving no active or suspended instance. Nevertheless, the result is that the messaging instance is once more suspended, this time because of a routing failure: The routing failure report shows that the suspended message has the following attached properties: Explanation Those properties clearly indicate that the message being suspended is an acknowledgment (ACK in this case), which was published in the message box and was supended because no subscribers were found. This makes sense, since the source orchestration was terminated before we resumed the messaging instance. So its subscription to the acknowledgments was no longer active when the ACK was published, which explains the routing failure. But this behavior is in direct contradiction with what was said earlier: an acknowledgment must be discarded when no subscriber is found and therefore should not be suspended. Cause It is indeed an outright bug, which appeared with the SP1 of BizTalk 2006 R2 and was never corrected since then: not in the next 4 CUs, not in BizTalk 2009, not in 2010 and not event in 2013 – though I haven’t tested CU1 and CU2 for this last edition, but I bet there is nothing to be expected from those CUs (on this particular point). Side effects This bug can have pretty nasty side effects: this behavior can be propagated to other ports, due to routing mechanisms. For instance: you have configured the ESB Toolkit and have activated the “Enable routing failure for failed messages”. The result will be that the ESB Exception SQL send port will also try and publish ACKs or NACKs concerning its own messaging instances. In itself, this is already messy, but remember that those acknowledgments will also have the source correlation token attached to them… See how far it goes? Well, actually there is more: in SQL send ports, transactions will be rolled back because of the routing failure (I guess it also happens with other adapters - like Oracle, but I haven’t tested them). Again, think of what happens when the send port is the ESB Exception send port: your BizTalk box is going mad, but you have no idea since no exception can be written in the exception database! All of this can be tricky to diagnose, I can tell you that… Solution There is no real solution, only a work-around, but it won’t solve all of the problems and side effects. The idea is to create an orchestration which subscribes to all acknowledgments. That is to say: The message type of the incoming message will be XmlDocument The BTS.AckType property exists The logical receive port will use direct binding By doing so, all acknowledgments will be consumed by an instance of this orchestration, thus avoiding the routing failure. Here is an example of what this orchestration could look like: In order not to pollute the HAT and the DTA Db (after all, this orchestration is only meant to be a palliative to some faulty internal BizTalk mechanism, so there should be no trace of its execution), all tracking must be deactivated:

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• SSIS Debugging Tip: Using Data Viewers

  - by Jim Giercyk

  When you have an SSIS package error, it is often very helpful to see the data records that are causing the problem.  After all, if your input has 50,000 records and 1 of them has corrupt data, it can be a chore.  Your execution results will tell you which column contains the bad data, but not which record…..enter the Data Viewer. In this scenario I have created a truncation error.  The input length of [lastname] is 50, but the output table has a length of 15.  When it runs, at least one of the records causes the package to fail.     Now what?  We can tell from our execution results that there is a problem with [lastname], but we have no idea WHICH record?     Let’s identify the row that is actually causing the problem.  First, we grab the oft’ forgotten Row Count shape from our toolbar and connect it to the error output from our input query.  Remember that in order to intercept errors with the error output, you must redirect them.     The Row Count shape requires 1 integer variable.  For our purposes, we will not reference the variable, but it is still required in order for the package to run.  Typically we would use the variable to hold the number of rows in the table and refer back to it later in our process.  We are simply using the Row Count as a “Dead End” for errors.  I called my variable RowCounter.  To create a variable, with no shapes selected, right-click on the background and choose Variable.     Once we have setup the Row Count shape, we can right-click on the red line (error output) from the query, and select Data Viewers.  In the popup, we click the add button and we will see this:     There are other fancier options we can play with, but for now we just want to view the output in a grid.  WE select Grid, then click OK on all of the popup windows to shut them down.  We should now see a grid with a pair of glasses on the error output line.     So, we are ready to catch the error output in a grid and see that is causing the problem!  This time when we run the package, it does not fail because we directed the error to the Row Count.  We also get a popup window showing the error record in a grid.  If there were multiple errors we would see them all.     Indeed, the [lastname] column is longer than 15 characters.  Notice the last column in the grid, [Error Code – Description].  We knew this was a truncation error before we added the grid, but if you have worked with SSIS for any length of time, you know that some errors are much more obscure.  The description column can be very useful under those circumstances! Data viewers can be used any time we want to see the data that is actually in the pipeline;  they stop the package temporarily until we shut them.  Also remember that the Row Count shape can be used as a “Dead End”.  It is useful during development when we want to see the output from a dataflow, but don’t want to update a table or file with the data.  Data viewers are an invaluable tool for both development and debugging.  Just remember to REMOVE THEM before putting your package into production

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• The path to MCSE:SharePoint. The Overview.

  - by Enrique Lima

  There have been some changes to certifications recently.  And with that new challenges and requirements.  In the past we had MCTS and MCITP or MCPD on a specific product and that was it, now the story is somewhat different. You will need to not only know the product (yes, I am one that still focuses on knowing a product not the test) but also the environment on which it sits or lives (therefore Windows Server and supporting services). The requirements for MCSE: SharePoint now take you through the MCSA:Windows Server 2012.  Many have questioned this, I don’t. Why? I have seen plenty of “accidental SharePoint Farm Administrators” that have no background with the Server OS, much less with the services (like DNS and IIS).  Again, I am not saying this will guarantee knowledge but it does in some way require exposure to it. So, again, the next number of posts will be to provide guidance for the needed knowledge for the test requirements.  If you have seen the way I go about this, you then know I don’t focus on exam questions, but rather providing guidance to the TechNet and MSDN documentation to get to know the product.  I will also in this case go through the process to setup your virtual environment to play with the products and get to know them. Now, the requirements themselves are: MCSA: Windows Server 2012. Exam 70-410: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 Exam 70-411: Administering Windows Server 2012 Exam 70-412: Configuring Advanced Windows Server 2012 Services SharePoint specific exams. Exam 70-331: Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 Exam 70-332: Advanced Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 Passing the 5 exams will grant you the MCSE: SharePoint credential.

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• Sub-Select to Delimited List in T-SQL

  - by Doug Lampe

  The following transact-SQL statement can be used with Microsoft SQL Server to create a delimited list from a sub-query.  In this case the delimiter is a comma. SELECT Left(item,LEN(item)-1)as delimited_list FROM (     select       CAST       (          (               select original_item + ','               from TABLE             where condition_field = 'value'             for xml path ('')           )   as varchar(max)      ) as item ) as temp

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• Insufficient memory issue during Build Process Customization

  - by jehan

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US ZH-CN X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} When customizing the Build Process Template in Workflow designer, I came across the OutOfMemoryException errors while performing Save as Image and Copy operations: "Insufficient memory to continue execution of program"   Normal 0 false false false EN-US ZH-CN X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} There is a fix available on Microsoft Connect  which has resolved the issue.

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• Extra Life 2012 - The Final Plea ... Until the Next One

  - by Chris Gardner

  I thought I'd share the email stream that my friends and family get about the event.So, here we are again. We scream closer to the event, and the goal is not met.I was approached by the ghost of feral platypii past last night. Well, approached is putting it lightly. I was mugged by the ghost of platypii past last night. He reminded me, in no uncertain terms that I have only reached the midway point of my fundraising goal. He then reminded me, in even less uncertain terms, that we are one week away from the event. There were other reminders past that, but this is a family broadcast. *shudder*Now, let us be serious for a moment. The event organizers claim a personal story helps to tug heart strings, whatever those are...I've been to Children's Hospital of Birmingham. I had to take Spawn, the Latter, there to verify she was not going to die. Instead, she's just a ticking time bomb for the next generation, but I digress.While I was there, I saw things. I saw child after child after child waiting for their appointment. I saw the most sublime displays of children's art juxtaposed with hospital sterilization that I could ever possibly imagine. I saw and heard things that only occur in the nightmares of parents, and I was only in the waiting rooms.But I will never forget the 10-ish year old girl that came in for her regularly scheduled dialysis appointment ... as if it was just another Friday afternoon. She had her school books, a little snack, a book to read for pleasure, and a DVD, in case she finished her homework a little early. You know, everything you'd need for an afternoon hooked up to a huge medical machine that going to clean out all the toxins in your blood. As she entered the secured area, she warmly greeted all the doctors and nurses with the same familiarity that I would greet the staff of my favorite coffee shop as I stopped in for my morning cup of coffee.I don't know the status of that little girl. I don't know if she's healthy or, quite frankly, alive. I don't even know her name, as I only heard it in passing for the 37 seconds our paths crossed. However, I do remember being incredibly moved and touched by her upbeat attitude about the situations, and I hope that my efforts last two Octobers got her, in some way, a little comfort.And, if she is still with us, I hope we can get her a little more.=== PREVIOUS MESSAGE FOLLOWS ===Greetings (Again),If you are receiving this updated message, then you didn't feel generous the first time. Now, I tried to be nice the first time. I tried to send a simple, unobtrusive email message to get you into the spirit. Well, much like the bell ringers that I ignore in front of the Wal-Mart, you ignored me.I probably should have seen that coming...However, unlike those poor souls, I know how to contact you. And I can find out where you live. So, so, so, you better feel lucky that I'm too lazy to terrorize you people, but cause I could do it.Remember, it's not for me, it's for those poor kids... and the feral platypii.  Because, we can make more children, but platypii are hard to come by.=== ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS ===It's that time of year again. The time when I beg you for money for charity. See, unlike those bell ringers outside Wal-Mart, I don't do it when you have ten bazillion holiday obligations...Once again, I will be enduring a 24-hour marathon of gaming to raise money for Children Hospital in Birmingham. All the money goes straight to them, and you get to tell Uncie Samuel that you're good for that money. I'd REALLY like to break $1000 this year, as I have come REALLY close for the past 2 year to doing so.This year, the event will take place on October 20th, beginning at 8 A.M. Once again, I will try to provide some web streams, etc, if you want to point and laugh (especially if I have to result to playing Dance Central at 4 AM to stay awake for the last part.)Look at it this way, I'm going to badger you about this for the next month. You might as well donate some money so you can righteously tell me to shut the Smurf up.You can place your bid at the link below. Feel free to spread the word to anyone and everyone.I thank you. The children thank you. Several breeds of feral platypus thank you. Maybe, just maybe, doing so will help you feel the love felt by re-fried beans when lovingly hugged in a warm tortilla.Enjoy your burrito.http://www.extra-life.org/participant/cgardner

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• Silverlight Goes Mobile!

  - by PeterTweed

  The most exciting announcements from Mix 2010 last week for me were the release of the Windows Phone 7 Series SDK and the news that the platform utilizes Silverlight for the application development technology. From the press and exposure that the platform is being given and the experience that is promised it looks like the Windows Phone 7 Series could eventually compete with the iPhone. For me this is exciting as Silverlight can now be used to develop RIA apps, easily deployed desktop apps and mobile apps. As someone who delivers enterprise technology solutions this equates to a whole bunch of opportunity knocking at the door and asking to join the party. Watch this space for future posts on developing apps on the Windows Phone 7 Series platform!

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• Glume cu chelneri

  - by interesante

  La un mic restaurant, in luna decembrie:- Chelner, ce ai rece in acest moment?- Picioarele, domnule.Distreaza-te si cu alte lucruri amuzante de pe jurnalul meu haios.La un restaurant de lux, vine controlul de la Sanepid.Fac ei controlul si constata ca totul era o.k.Multumiti,din partea patronului de local,primesc si un pranz.Vine chelnerul,ii intreaba ce vin doresc sa serveasca,le aduce vinul,scoate dopul de pluta,le toarna in pahare si, ca la un local care se respecta,acesta scoase o lingurita de la pieptul sacoului si curata cu grija bucatelele de pluta din paharele mesenilor. Dupa ce inspectorii servira masa, il chemara pe chelner sa-i multumeasca si-l intrebara: - Nu va suparati! De ce purtati snur la slit? - Igiena inainte de toate! Cand ne ducem la buda, ca sa nu mai punem mana, tragem de snur si gata! - Aha! Si cum o bagati la loc? - Cu lingurita!

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• Game-a-Week 2 (The Sequel)

  - by Matt Christian

  After finishing Game-a-Week One I immediately wanted to go back and begin refactoring the code although I also wanted to work on a game demo idea I've had for quite awhile.  I tried doing both over the holiday weekend while up north (without internet!) and eventually hit a wall with an error. Today I am going to restart my refactoring and updates by starting Game-a-Week 2.  This challenge is to do the following: Refactor the old code Add a handful of new features to the demo This sounds simple enough but will be quite a challenge to finish in just around a week.  I have an idea on how I want to refactor the code, but the new features I'd like to implement will be tricky.  I'm going to try to implement: Quest giving / finishing / NPC's Quest Log Menu Inventory giving / receiving Inventory Menu This Game-a-Week is much more design oriented although will provide a good challenge for programming as well.  Wish me luck!

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• Visual Studio Extension: Web Essentials

  - by BizTalk Visionary

  To quote Scott Hanselman…. Visual Studio 2010 is really extensible and that's allowed many folks on the team to try out new features for Web Development without having to rebuild Visual Studio itself. One of those "playground" extensions is called "Web Essentials" by Mads Kristensen. Mads handles HTML5 and CSS3 tools for our team. You might remember Mads from when we released the Web Standards Update a few months back. Get it here: Scott Nanselman blog...

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• SharePoint Saturday DC 2010 Slides, Demo Scripts, and Pictures

  - by Brian Jackett

  Wow! This past weekend I attended SharePoint Saturday Washington DC (SPSDC) which was quite an event to say the least.  For those unfamiliar, SharePoint Saturday is a community driven event where various speakers gather to present at a FREE conference on all topics related to SharePoint.  This made my fifth SharePoint Saturday attended and fourth I’ve spoken at.  SPSDC was a bit different than most SharePoint Saturdays mostly due to the scale of it.  We had almost 950 attendees, over 80 speakers presenting close to 90 sessions, and dozens of sponsors.  A big thanks goes out to the organizers of this event.  They put in a lot of hard work and time to pull this event off and should be very proud of the end result.      For SPSDC I presented “The Power of PowerShell + SharePoint 2007”.  I want to thank all of the attendees of my session for coming and asking some great questions.  Below you can find the slides and demo scripts for this session.  I also took some photos throughout the day (not as many as usual since so much going on) so check them out.  If you have any follow up questions feel free to drop me a line in the comments or the contact link at the top of the site.   Slides and Scripts Click here for the demo scripts and slides posted on my SkyDrive. VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: One thing I forgot to mention in my presentation.  In order to run code against the SharePoint API you need to load the Microsoft.SharePoint.dll assembly first.  Run the below command on the PowerShell console line to complete that:   [void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint") Photos Facebook album -or- My album on Windows Live site (higher res shots). View Full Album         -Frog Out

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• Recursion in the form of a Recursive Func&lt;T, T&gt;

  - by ToStringTheory

  I gotta admit, I am kind of surprised that I didn’t realize I could do this sooner.  I recently had a problem which required a recursive function call to come up with the answer.  After some time messing around with a recursive method, and creating an API that I was not happy with, I was able to create an API that I enjoy, and seems intuitive. Introduction To bring it to a simple example, consider the summation to n: A mathematically identical formula is: In a .NET function, this can be represented by a function: Func<int, int> summation = x => x*(x+1)/2 Calling summation with an input integer will yield the summation to that number: var sum10 = summation(4); //sum10 would be equal to 10 But what if I wanted to get a second level summation…  First some to n, and then use that argument as the input to the same function, to find the second level summation: So as an easy example, calculate the summation to 3, which yields 6.  Then calculate the summation to 6 which yields 21. Represented as a mathematical formula - So what if I wanted to represent this as .NET functions.  I can always do: //using the summation formula from above var sum3 = summation(3); //sets sum3 to 6 var sum3_2 = summation(sum3); //sets sum3 to 21 I could always create a while loop to perform the calculations too: Func<int, int> summation = x => x*(x+1)/2; //for the interests of a smaller example, using shorthand int sumResultTo = 3; int level = 2; while(level-- > 0) { sumResultTo = summation(sumResultTo); } //sumResultTo is equal to 21 now. Or express it as a for-loop, method calls, etc…  I really didn’t like any of the options that I tried.  Then it dawned on me – since I was using a Func<T, T> anyways, why not use the Func’s output from one call as the input as another directly. Some Code So, I decided that I wanted a recursion class.  Something that I would be generic and reusable in case I ever wanted to do something like this again. It is limited to only the Func<T1, T2> level of Func, and T1 must be the same as T2. The first thing in this class is a private field for the function: private readonly Func<T, T> _functionToRecurse; So, I since I want the function to be unchangeable, I have defined it as readonly.  Therefore my constructor looks like: public Recursion(Func<T, T> functionToRecurse) { if (functionToRecurse == null) { throw new ArgumentNullException("functionToRecurse", "The function to recurse can not be null"); } _functionToRecurse = functionToRecurse; } Simple enough.  If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments, and I will be sure to answer them. Next, I want enough. If be able to get the result of a function dependent on how many levels of recursion: private Func<T, T> GetXLevel(int level) { if (level < 1) { throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("level", level, "The level of recursion must be greater than 0"); } if (level == 1) return _functionToRecurse; return _GetXLevel(level - 1, _functionToRecurse); } So, if you pass in 1 for the level, you get just the Func<T,T> back.  If you say that you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole, it calls a method which accepts the level it is at, and the function which it needs to use to recurse further: private Func<T, T> _GetXLevel(int level, Func<T, T> prevFunc) { if (level == 1) return y => prevFunc(_functionToRecurse(y)); return _GetXLevel(level - 1, y => prevFunc(_functionToRecurse(y))); } That is really all that is needed for this class. If I exposed the GetXLevel function publicly, I could use that to get the function for a level, and pass in the argument..  But I wanted something better.  So, I used the ‘this’ array operator for the class: public Func<T,T> this[int level] { get { if (level < 1) { throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("level", level, "The level of recursion must be greater than 0"); } return this.GetXLevel(level); } } So, using the same example above of finding the second recursion of the summation of 3: var summator = new Recursion<int>(x => (x * (x + 1)) / 2); var sum_3_level2 = summator[2](3); //yields 21 You can even find just store the delegate to the second level summation, and use it multiple times: var summator = new Recursion<int>(x => (x * (x + 1)) / 2); var sum_level2 = summator[2]; var sum_3_level2 = sum_level2(3); //yields 21 var sum_4_level2 = sum_level2(4); //yields 55 var sum_5_level2 = sum_level2(5); //yields 120 Full Code Don’t think I was just going to hold off on the full file together and make you do the hard work…  Copy this into a new class file: public class Recursion<T> { private readonly Func<T, T> _functionToRecurse; public Recursion(Func<T, T> functionToRecurse) { if (functionToRecurse == null) { throw new ArgumentNullException("functionToRecurse", "The function to recurse can not be null"); } _functionToRecurse = functionToRecurse; } public Func<T,T> this[int level] { get { if (level < 1) { throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("level", level, "The level of recursion must be greater than 0"); } return this.GetXLevel(level); } } private Func<T, T> GetXLevel(int level) { if (level < 1) { throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("level", level, "The level of recursion must be greater than 0"); } if (level == 1) return _functionToRecurse; return _GetXLevel(level - 1, _functionToRecurse); } private Func<T, T> _GetXLevel(int level, Func<T, T> prevFunc) { if (level == 1) return y => prevFunc(_functionToRecurse(y)); return _GetXLevel(level - 1, y => prevFunc(_functionToRecurse(y))); } } Conclusion The great thing about this class, is that it can be used with any function with same input/output parameters.  I strived to find an implementation that I found clean and useful, and I finally settled on this.  If you have feedback – good or bad, I would love to hear it!

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• You Can&rsquo;t Upload An Empty File To SharePoint 2007 Or SharePoint 2010

  - by Brian Jackett

  The title of this post is pretty self explanatory, but I thought it worth mentioning since I had never run across this rule until just recently.  A few weeks ago I was testing out a new workflow attached to a SharePoint 2007 document library.  I uploaded various file types to ensure all were handled properly.  One of the files I happened to test with was an empty .txt file to which I got the following error.      As you can see from the error message you aren’t allowed to upload a file that is empty.  Fast forward to this week when I was doing some research for my upcoming SharePoint 2010 beta exams.  I remembered that error I got a few weeks ago and decided to try out with SharePoint 2010 as well.  No surprises I got a similar error. Conclusion     Next time you are uploading files to a SharePoint 2007 or 2010 document library, make sure the file is not empty.  Coincidentally when I tweeted about this issue a few friends replied that they had also found this error recently.  I don’t know the internal reasoning why this is prevented but I assume it has something to do with how the blob for the file is stored in the database.  I assume that this would still be the case even if you had Remote Blob Storage (RBS) configured for your farm, but don’t have access to such a farm to confirm.  If anyone reading this does have access and wants to confirm that would be appreciated, just leave a comment.         -Frog Out

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• Myths about Coding Craftsmanship part 2

  - by tom

  Myth 3: The source of all bad code is inept developers and stupid people When you review code is this what you assume?  Shame on you.  You are probably making assumptions in your code if you are assuming so much already.  Bad code can be the result of any number of causes including but not limited to using dated techniques (like boxing when generics are available), not following standards (“look how he does the spacing between arguments!” or “did he really just name that variable ‘bln_Hello_Cats’?”), being redundant, using properties, methods, or objects in a novel way (like switching on button.Text between “Hello World” and “Hello World “ //clever use of space character… sigh), not following the SOLID principals, hacking around assumptions made in earlier iterations / hacking in features that should be worked into the overall design.  The first two issues, while annoying are pretty easy to spot and can be fixed so easily.  If your coding team is made up of experienced professionals who are passionate about staying current then these shouldn’t be happening.  If you work with a variety of skills, backgrounds, and experience then there will be some of this stuff going on.  If you have an opportunity to mentor such a developer who is receptive to constructive criticism don’t be a jerk; help them and the codebase will improve.  A little patience can improve the codebase, your work environment, and even your perspective. The novelty and redundancy I have encountered has often been the use of creativity when language knowledge was perceived as unavailable or too time consuming.  When developers learn on the job you get a lot of this.  Rather than going to MSDN developers will use what they know.  Depending on the constraints of their assignment hacking together what they know may seem quite practical.  This was not stupid though I often wonder how much time is actually “saved” by hacking.  These issues are often harder to untangle if we ever do.  They can also grow out of control as we write hack after hack to make it work and get back to some development that is satisfying. Hacking upon an existing hack is what I call “feeding the monster”.  Code monsters are anti-patterns and hacks gone wild.  The reason code monsters continue to get bigger is that they keep growing in scope, touching more and more of the application.  This is not the result of dumb developers. It is probably the result of avoiding design, not taking the time to understand the problems or anticipate or communicate the vision of the product.  If our developers don’t understand the purpose of a feature or product how do we expect potential customers to do so? Forethought and organization are often what is missing from bad code.  Developers who do not use the SOLID principals should be encouraged to learn these principals and be given guidance on how to apply them.  The time “saved” by giving hackers room to hack will be made up for and then some. Not as technical debt but as shoddy work that if not replaced will be struggled with again and again.  Bad code is not the result of dumb developers (usually) it is the result of trying to do too much without the proper resources and neglecting the right thing that needs doing with the first thoughtless thing that comes into our heads. Object oriented code is all about relationships between objects.  Coders who believe their coworkers are all fools tend to write objects that are difficult to work with, not eager to explain themselves, and perform erratically and irrationally.  If you constantly find you are surrounded by idiots you may want to ask yourself if you are being unreasonable, if you are being closed minded, of if you have chosen the right profession.  Opening your mind up to the idea that you probably work with rational, well-intentioned people will probably make you a better coder and it might even make you less grumpy.  If you are surrounded by jerks who do not engage in the exchange of ideas who do not care about their customers or the durability of the code you are building together then I suggest you find a new place to work.  Myth 4: Customers don’t care about “beautiful” code Craftsmanship is customer focused because it means that the job was done right, the product will withstand the abuse, modifications, and scrutiny of our customers.  Users can appreciate a predictable timeline for a release, a product delivered on time and on budget, a feature set that does not interfere with the task(s) it is supporting, quick turnarounds on exception messages, self healing issues, and less issues.  These are all hindered by skimping on craftsmanship.  When we write data access and when we write reusable code.   What do you think?  Does bad code come primarily from low IQ individuals?  Do customers care about beautiful code?

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• A Visual Studio Release Grows in Brooklyn

  - by andrewbrust

  Yesterday, Microsoft held its flagship launch event for Office 2010 in Manhattan.  Today, the Redmond software company is holding a local launch event for Visual Studio (VS) 2010, in Brooklyn.  How come information workers get the 212 treatment and developers are relegated to 718? Well, here’s the thing: the Brooklyn Marriott is actually a great place for an event, but you need some intimate knowledge of New York City to know that.  NBC’s Studio 8H, where the Office launch was held yesterday (and from where SNL is broadcast) is a pretty small venue, but you’d need some inside knowledge to recognize that.  Likewise, while Office 2010 is a product whose value is apparent.  Appreciating VS 2010’s value takes a bit more savvy.  Setting aside its year-based designation, this release of VS, counting the old Visual Basic releases, is the 10th version of the product.  How can a developer audience get excited about an integrated development environment when it reaches double-digit version numbers?  Well, it can be tough.  Luckily, Microsoft sent Jay Schmelzer, a Group Program Manager from the Visual Studio team in Redmond, to come tell the Brooklyn audience why they should be excited. Turns out there’s a lot of reasons.  Support fro SharePoint development is a big one.  In previous versions of VS, that support has been anemic, at best.  Shortage of SharePoint developers is a huge issue in the industry, and this should help.  There’s also built in support for Windows Azure (Microsoft’s cloud platform) and, through a download, support for the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 platform.  ASP.NET MVC, a “close-to-the-metal” Web development option that does away with the Web Forms abstraction layer, has a first-class presence in VS.  So too does jQuery, the Open Source environment that makes JavaScript development a breeze.  The jQuery support is so good that Microsoft now contributes to that Open Source project and offers IntelliSense support for it in the code editor. Speaking of the VS code editor, it now supports multi-monitor setups, zoom-in, and block selection.  If you’re not a developer, this may sound confusing and minute.  I’ll just say that for people who are developers these are little things that really contribute to productivity, and that translates into lower development costs. The really cool demo, though, was around Visual Studio 2010’s new debugging features.  This stuff is hard to showcase, but I believe it’s truly breakthrough technology: imagine being able to step backwards in time to see what might have caused a bug.  Cool?  Now imagine being able to do that, even if you weren’t the tester and weren’t present while the testing was being done.  Then imagine being able to see a video screen capture of what the tester was doing with your app when the bug occurred.  VS 2010 allows all that.  This could be the demise of the IWOMM (“it works on my machine”) syndrome. After the keynote, I asked Schmelzer if any of Microsoft’s competitors have debugging tools that come close to VS 2010’s.  His answer was an earnest “we don’t think so.”  If that’s true, that’s a big deal, and a huge advantage for developer teams who adopt it.  It will make software development much cheaper and more efficient.  Kind of like holding a launch event at the Brooklyn Marriott instead of 30 Rock in Manhattan! VS 2010 (version 10) and Office 2010 (version 14) aren’t the only new product versions Microsoft is releasing right now.  There’s also SQL Server 2008 R2 (version 10.5), Exchange 2010 (version 8, I believe), SharePoint 2010 (version 4) and, of course, Windows 7.  With so many new versions at such levels of maturity, I think it’s fair to say Microsoft has reached middle-age.  How does a company stave off a potential mid-life crisis, especially when with young Turks like Google coming along and competing so fiercely?  Hard to say.  But if focusing on core value, including value that’s hard to play into a sexy demo, is part oft the answer, then Microsoft’s doing OK.  And if some new tricks, like Windows Phone 7, can gain some traction, that might round things out nicely. Are the legacy products old tricks, or are they revised classics?  I honestly don’t know, because it’s the market’s prerogative to pass that judgement.  I can say this though: based on today’s show, I think Microsoft’s been doing its homework.

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• Why the R# Method Group Refactoring is Evil

  - by Liam McLennan

  The refactoring I’m talking about is recommended by resharper when it sees a lambda that consists entirely of a method call that is passed the object that is the parameter to the lambda. Here is an example: public class IWishIWasAScriptingLanguage { public void SoIWouldntNeedAllThisJunk() { (new List<int> {1, 2, 3, 4}).Select(n => IsEven(n)); } private bool IsEven(int number) { return number%2 == 0; } } When resharper gets to n => IsEven(n) it underlines the lambda with a green squiggly telling me that the code can be replaced with a method group. If I apply the refactoring the code becomes: public class IWishIWasAScriptingLanguage { public void SoIWouldntNeedAllThisJunk() { (new List<int> {1, 2, 3, 4}).Select(IsEven); } private bool IsEven(int number) { return number%2 == 0; } } The method group syntax implies that the lambda’s parameter is the same as the IsEven method’s parameter. So a readable, explicit syntax has been replaced with an obfuscated, implicit syntax. That is why the method group refactoring is evil.

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• February 2011 Chicago Information Technology Architects Group Meeting

  - by Tim Murphy

  We are back! After the holidays and a false start in January we are ready to get 2011 rolling.  We are going to kick things off with Chris Geraghty giving us an overview of Enterpirse Architecture.  He will be covering EA methods, its role in technology and business change as well as a number of tips for implementing EA. We are looking at mobile architectures for a future topic.  If there are any topics you would like to see or would like to present feel free to contact me. Please join us by registering at the link below. http://citag.eventbrite.com del.icio.us Tags: CITAG,Chicago Information Technology Architects Group,Enterpirse Architecture,Chris Geraghty

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• IsNullOrDefault generic helper function for nullable types

  - by Michael Freidgeim

  I've wrote  IsNullOrDefault generic helper function       public  static bool IsNullOrDefault<T>(this Nullable<T> param) where T : struct     {         T deflt = default(T);         if (!param.HasValue)             return true;         else if (param.Value.Equals(deflt))             return true;         return false;     }   , but then realized that there is more short implementation on stackoverflow submitted by Josh

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• F# Simple Twitter Update

  - by mroberts

  A short while ago I posted some code for a C# twitter update.  I decided to move the same functionality / logic to F#.  Here is what I came up with. 1: namespace Server.Actions 2:   3: open System 4: open System.IO 5: open System.Net 6: open System.Text 7:   8: type public TwitterUpdate() = 9: 10: //member variables 11: [<DefaultValue>] val mutable _body : string 12: [<DefaultValue>] val mutable _userName : string 13: [<DefaultValue>] val mutable _password : string 14:   15: //Properties 16: member this.Body with get() = this._body and set(value) = this._body <- value 17: member this.UserName with get() = this._userName and set(value) = this._userName <- value 18: member this.Password with get() = this._password and set(value) = this._password <- value 19:   20: //Methods 21: member this.Execute() = 22: let login = String.Format("{0}:{1}", this._userName, this._password) 23: let creds = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(login)) 24: let tweet = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(String.Format("status={0}", this._body)) 25: let request = WebRequest.Create("http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml") :?> HttpWebRequest 26: 27: request.Method <- "POST" 28: request.ServicePoint.Expect100Continue <- false 29: request.Headers.Add("Authorization", String.Format("Basic {0}", creds)) 30: request.ContentType <- "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" 31: request.ContentLength <- int64 tweet.Length 32: 33: let reqStream = request.GetRequestStream() 34: reqStream.Write(tweet, 0, tweet.Length) 35: reqStream.Close() 36:   37: let response = request.GetResponse() :?> HttpWebResponse 38:   39: match response.StatusCode with 40: | HttpStatusCode.OK -> true 41: | _ -> false   While the above seems to work, it feels to me like it is not taking advantage of some functional concepts.  Love to get some feedback as to how to make the above more “functional” in nature.  For example, I don’t like the mutable properties.

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• Using LINQ to Twitter OAuth with Windows 8

  - by Joe Mayo

  In previous posts, I explained how to use LINQ to Twitter with Windows 8, but the example was a Twitter Search, which didn’t require authentication. Much of the Twitter API requires authentication, so this post will explain how you can perform OAuth authentication with LINQ to Twitter in a Windows 8 Metro-style application. Getting Started I have earlier posts on how to create a Windows 8 app and add pages, so I’ll assume it isn’t necessary to repeat here. One difference is that I’m using Visual Studio 2012 RC and some of the terminology and/or library code might be slightly different.  Here are steps to get started: Create a new Windows metro style app, selecting the Blank App project template. Create a new Basic Page and name it OAuth.xaml.  Note: You’ll receive a prompt window for adding files and you should click Yes because those files are necessary for this demo. Add a new Basic Page named TweetPage.xaml. Open App.xaml.cs and change !rootFrame.Navigate(typeof(MainPage)) to !rootFrame.Navigate(typeof(TweetPage)). Now that the project is set up you’ll see the reason why authentication is required by setting up the TweetPage. Setting Up to Tweet a Status In this section, I’ll show you how to set up the XAML and code-behind for a tweet.  The tweet logic will check to see if the user is authenticated before performing the tweet. To tweet, I put a TextBox and Button on the XAML page. The following code omits most of the page, concentrating primarily on the elements of interest in this post: <StackPanel Grid.Row="1"> <TextBox Name="TweetTextBox" Margin="15" /> <Button Name="TweetButton" Content="Tweet" Click="TweetButton_Click" Margin="15,0" /> </StackPanel> Given the UI above, the user types the message they want to tweet, and taps Tweet. This invokes TweetButton_Click, which checks to see if the user is authenticated.  If the user is not authenticated, the app navigates to the OAuth page.  If they are authenticated, LINQ to Twitter does an UpdateStatus to post the user’s tweet.  Here’s the TweetButton_Click implementation: void TweetButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { PinAuthorizer auth = null; if (SuspensionManager.SessionState.ContainsKey("Authorizer")) { auth = SuspensionManager.SessionState["Authorizer"] as PinAuthorizer; } if (auth == null || !auth.IsAuthorized) { Frame.Navigate(typeof(OAuthPage)); return; } var twitterCtx = new TwitterContext(auth); Status tweet = twitterCtx.UpdateStatus(TweetTextBox.Text); new MessageDialog(tweet.Text, "Successful Tweet").ShowAsync(); } For authentication, this app uses PinAuthorizer, one of several authorizers available in the LINQ to Twitter library. I’ll explain how PinAuthorizer works in the next section. What’s important here is that LINQ to Twitter needs an authorizer to post a Tweet. The code above checks to see if a valid authorizer is available. To do this, it uses the SuspensionManager class, which is part of the code generated earlier when creating OAuthPage.xaml. The SessionState property is a Dictionary<string, object> and I’m using the Authorizer key to store the PinAuthorizer.  If the user previously authorized during this session, the code reads the PinAuthorizer instance from SessionState and assigns it to the auth variable. If the user is authorized, auth would not be null and IsAuthorized would be true. Otherwise, the app navigates the user to OAuthPage.xaml, which I’ll discuss in more depth in the next section. When the user is authorized, the code passes the authorizer, auth, to the TwitterContext constructor. LINQ to Twitter uses the auth instance to build OAuth signatures for each interaction with Twitter.  You no longer need to write any more code to make this happen. The code above accepts the tweet just posted in the Status instance, tweet, and displays a message with the text to confirm success to the user. You can pull the PinAuthorizer instance from SessionState, instantiate your TwitterContext, and use it as you need. Just remember to make sure you have a valid authorizer, like the code above. As shown earlier, the code navigates to OAuthPage.xaml when a valid authorizer isn’t available. The next section shows how to perform the authorization upon arrival at OAuthPage.xaml. Doing the OAuth Dance This section shows how to authenticate with LINQ to Twitter’s built-in OAuth support. From the user perspective, they must be navigated to the Twitter authentication page, add credentials, be navigated to a Pin number page, and then enter that Pin in the Windows 8 application. The following XAML shows the relevant elements that the user will interact with during this process. <StackPanel Grid.Row="2"> <WebView x:Name="OAuthWebBrowser" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="400" Margin="15" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="700" /> <TextBlock Text="Please perform OAuth process (above), enter Pin (below) when ready, and tap Authenticate:" Margin="15,15,15,5" /> <TextBox Name="PinTextBox" Margin="15,0,15,15" Width="432" HorizontalAlignment="Left" IsEnabled="False" /> <Button Name="AuthenticatePinButton" Content="Authenticate" Margin="15" IsEnabled="False" Click="AuthenticatePinButton_Click" /> </StackPanel> The WebView in the code above is what allows the user to see the Twitter authentication page. The TextBox is for entering the Pin, and the Button invokes code that will take the Pin and allow LINQ to Twitter to complete the authentication process. As you can see, there are several steps to OAuth authentication, but LINQ to Twitter tries to minimize the amount of code you have to write. The two important parts of the code to make this happen are the part that starts the authentication process and the part that completes the authentication process. The following code, from OAuthPage.xaml.cs, shows a couple events that are instrumental in making this process happen: public OAuthPage() { this.InitializeComponent(); this.Loaded += OAuthPage_Loaded; OAuthWebBrowser.LoadCompleted += OAuthWebBrowser_LoadCompleted; } The OAuthWebBrowser_LoadCompleted event handler enables UI controls when the browser is done loading – notice that the TextBox and Button in the previous XAML have their IsEnabled attributes set to False. When the Page.Loaded event is invoked, the OAuthPage_Loaded handler starts the OAuth process, shown here: void OAuthPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { auth = new PinAuthorizer { Credentials = new InMemoryCredentials { ConsumerKey = "", ConsumerSecret = "" }, UseCompression = true, GoToTwitterAuthorization = pageLink => Dispatcher.RunAsync(CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, () => OAuthWebBrowser.Navigate(new Uri(pageLink, UriKind.Absolute))) }; auth.BeginAuthorize(resp => Dispatcher.RunAsync(CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, () => { switch (resp.Status) { case TwitterErrorStatus.Success: break; case TwitterErrorStatus.RequestProcessingException: case TwitterErrorStatus.TwitterApiError: new MessageDialog(resp.Error.ToString(), resp.Message).ShowAsync(); break; } })); } The PinAuthorizer, auth, a field of this class instantiated in the code above, assigns keys to the Credentials property. These are credentials that come from registering an application with Twitter, explained in the LINQ to Twitter documentation, Securing Your Applications. Notice how I use Dispatcher.RunAsync to marshal the web browser navigation back onto the UI thread. Internally, LINQ to Twitter invokes the lambda expression assigned to GoToTwitterAuthorization when starting the OAuth process.  In this case, we want the WebView control to navigate to the Twitter authentication page, which is defined with a default URL in LINQ to Twitter and passed to the GoToTwitterAuthorization lambda as pageLink. Then you need to start the authorization process by calling BeginAuthorize. This starts the OAuth dance, running asynchronously.  LINQ to Twitter invokes the callback assigned to the BeginAuthorize parameter, allowing you to take whatever action you need, based on the Status of the response, resp. As mentioned earlier, this is where the user performs the authentication process, enters the Pin, and clicks authenticate. The handler for authenticate completes the process and saves the authorizer for subsequent use by the application, as shown below: void AuthenticatePinButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { auth.CompleteAuthorize( PinTextBox.Text, completeResp => Dispatcher.RunAsync(CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, () => { switch (completeResp.Status) { case TwitterErrorStatus.Success: SuspensionManager.SessionState["Authorizer"] = auth; Frame.Navigate(typeof(TweetPage)); break; case TwitterErrorStatus.RequestProcessingException: case TwitterErrorStatus.TwitterApiError: new MessageDialog(completeResp.Error.ToString(), completeResp.Message).ShowAsync(); break; } })); } The PinAuthorizer CompleteAuthorize method takes two parameters: Pin and callback. The Pin is from what the user entered in the TextBox prior to clicking the Authenticate button that invoked this method. The callback handles the response from completing the OAuth process. The completeResp holds information about the results of the operation, indicated by a Status property of type TwitterErrorStatus. On success, the code assigns auth to SessionState. You might remember SessionState from the previous description of TweetPage – this is where the valid authorizer comes from. After saving the authorizer, the code navigates the user back to TweetPage, where they can type in a message, click the Tweet button, and observe that they have successfully tweeted. Summary You’ve seen how to get started with using LINQ to Twitter in a Metro-style application. The generated code contained a SuspensionManager class with way to manage information across multiple pages via its SessionState property. You also saw how LINQ to Twitter performs authorization in two steps of starting the process and completing the process when the user provides a Pin number. Remember to marshal callback thread back onto the UI – you saw earlier how to use Dispatcher.RunAsync to accomplish this. There were a few steps in the process, but LINQ to Twitter did minimize the amount of code you needed to write to make it happen. You can download the MetroOAuthDemo.zip sample on the LINQ to Twitter Samples Page.   @JoeMayo

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• .Net oracle parameter order

  - by jkrebsbach

  Using the ODAC (Oracle Data Access Components) downloaded from Oracle to talk to a handfull of Oracle DBs - Was putting together my DAL to update the DB, and things weren't working as I hoped - UPDATE foo SET bar = :P_BAR WHERE bap = :P_BAP I assign my parameters - objCmd.Parameters.Add(objBap); objCmd.Parameters.Add(objBar);   Execute update command - int result = objCmd.ExecuteNonQuery() and result is zero! ...  Is my filter incorrect? SELECT count(*) FROM foo WHERE bap = :P_BAP ...result is one... Is my new value incorrect?  Am I using Char instead of Varchar somewhere and need an RTRIM?  Is there a transaction getting involved?  An error thrown and not caught? The answer: Order of parameters.   The order parameters are added to the Oracle Command object must match the order the parameters are referenced in the SQL statement.  I was adding the parameters for the WHERE clause before adding the SET value parameters, and for that reason although no error was being thrown, no value was updated either. Flip parameter collection around to match order of params in the SQL statement, and ExecuteNonQuery() is back to returning the number of rows affected.

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• Create Pivot collections much faster than DeepZoomTools CollectionCreator class

  - by John Conwell

  I've been playing with Microsoft Live Labs Pivot to create a hierarchy of collections all linked together to allow someone to explore a hierarchy of data visually. The problem has been the generation time of the entire hierarchy. I end up creating 500 - 600 collections total and it takes hours and hours using the CollectionCreator class that comes with the DeepZoomTools.  So digging around I found a way to make the actual DeepZoom collection creation wicked fast. Dont use the CollectionCreator!  Turns out Pivot doesnt actually use the image pyramid generated by the CollectionCreator. Or if it does, its only when you open a new collection it shows all the images zooming in. But once the zoom in is complete, Pivot uses the individual DeepZoom images. What Pivot does need is the xml generated by the CollectionCreator, which is in a very simple format.  So what i did was manually generate the xml for the collection image pyramid, and then create the folder structure required (one folder per level of the pyramid), and put a single pixel png file in each folder.  Now, I can create the required files and folders for 500 collections in about 10 seconds. Sweet! Now you still have to use the ImageCreator to create a DeepZoom image for each image in the collection and that still takes some time, but at least the total processing time is way better.

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• The True Cost of a Solution

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  I had a Twitter chat recently with someone suggesting Oracle and SQL Server were losing out to OSS (Open Source Software) in the enterprise due to their issues with scaling or being too generic (one size fits all). I challenged that a bit, as my experience with enterprise sized clients has been different – adverse to OSS but receptive to an established vendor. The response I got was: Found it easier to influence change by showing how X can’t solve our problems or X is extremely costly to scale. Money talks. I think this is definitely the right approach for anyone pitching an alternate or alien technology as part of a solution: identify the issue, identify the solution, then present pros and cons including a cost/benefit analysis. What can happen though is we get tunnel vision and don’t present a full view of the costs associated with a solution. An “Acura”te Example (I’m so clever…) This is my dream vehicle, a Crystal Black Pearl coloured Acura MDX with the SH-AWD package! We’re a family of 4 (5 if my daughters ever get their wish of adding a dog), and I’ve always wanted a luxury type of vehicle, so this is a perfect replacement in a few years when our Rav 4 has hit the 8 – 10 year mark. MSRP – $62,890 But as we all know, that’s not *really* the cost of the vehicle. There’s taxes and fees added on, there’s the extended warranty if I choose to purchase it, there’s the finance rate that needs to be factored in… MSRP –   $62,890 Taxes –      $7,546 Warranty - $2,500 SubTotal – $72,936 Finance Charge – $ 1094.04 Grand Total – $74,030 Well! Glad we did that exercise – we discovered an extra $11k added on to the MSRP! Well now we have our true price…or do we? Lifetime of the Vehicle I’m expecting to have this vehicle for 7 – 10 years. While the hard cost of the vehicle is known and dealt with, the costs to run and maintain the vehicle are on top of this. I did some research, and here’s what I’ve found: Fuel and Mileage Gas prices are high as it is for regular fuel, but getting into an MDX will require that I *only* purchase premium fuel, which comes at a premium price. I need to expect my bill at the pump to be higher. Comparing the MDX to my 2007 Rav4 also shows I’ll be gassing up more often. The Rav4 has a city MPG of 21, while the MDX plummets to 16! The MDX does have a bigger fuel tank though, so all in all the number of times I hit the pumps might even out. Still, I estimate I’ll be spending approximately $8000 – $10000 more on gas over a 10 year period than my current Rav4. Service Options Limited Although I have options with my Toyota here in Winnipeg (we have 4 Toyota dealerships), I do go to my original dealer for any service work. Still, I like the fact that I have options. However, there’s only one Acura dealership in all of Winnipeg! So if, for whatever reason, I’m not satisfied with the level of service I’m stuck. Non Warranty Service Work Also let’s not forget that there’s a bulk of work required every year that is *not* covered under warranty – oil changes, tire rotations, brake pads, etc. I expect I’ll need to get new tires at the 5 years mark as well, which can easily be $1200 – $1500 (I just paid $1000 for new tires for the Rav4 and we’re at the 5 year mark). Now these aren’t going to be *new* costs that I’m not used to from our existing vehicles, but they should still be factored in. I’d budget $500/year, or $5000 over the 10 years I’ll own the vehicle. Final Assessment So let’s re-assess the true cost of my dream MDX: MSRP                    $62,890 Taxes                       $7,546 Warranty                 $2,500 Finance Charge         $1094 Gas                        $10,000 Service Work            $5000 Grand Total           $89,030 So now I have a better idea of 10 year cost overall, and I’ve identified some concerns with local service availability. And there’s now much more to consider over the original $62,890 price tag. Tying This Back to Technology Solutions The process that we just went through is no different than what organizations do when considering implementing a new system, technology, or technology based solution, within their environments. It’s easy to tout the short term cost savings of particular product/platform/technology in a vacuum. But its when you consider the wider impact that the true cost comes into play. Let’s create a scenario: A company is not happy with its current data reporting suite. An employee suggests moving to an open source solution. The selling points are: - Because its open source its free - The organization would have access to the source code so they could alter it however they wished - It provided features not available with the current reporting suite At first this sounds great to the management and executive, but then they start asking some questions and uncover more information: - The OSS product is built on a technology not used anywhere within the organization - There are no vendors offering product support for the OSS product - The OSS product requires a specific server platform to operate on, one that’s not standard in the organization All of a sudden, the true cost of implementing this solution is starting to become clearer. The company might save money on licensing costs, but their training costs would increase significantly – developers would need to learn how to develop in the technology the OSS solution was built on, IT staff must learn how to set up and maintain a new server platform within their existing infrastructure, and if a problem was found there was no vendor to contact for support. The true cost of implementing a “free” OSS solution is actually spinning up a project to implement it within the organization – no small cost. And that’s just the short-term cost. Now the organization must ensure they maintain trained staff who can make changes to the OSS reporting solution and IT staff that will stay knowledgeable in the new server platform. If those skills are very niche, then higher labour costs could be incurred if those people are hard to find or if trained employees use that knowledge as leverage for higher pay. Maybe a vendor exists that will contract out support, but then there are those costs to consider as well. And let’s not forget end-user training – in our example, anyone that runs reports will need to be trained on how to use the new system. Here’s the Point We still tend to look at software in an “off the shelf” kind of way. It’s very easy to say “oh, this product is better than vendor x’s product – and its free because its OSS!” but the reality is that implementing any new technology within an organization has a cost regardless of the retail price of the product. Training, integration, support – these are real costs that impact an organization and span multiple departments. Whether you’re pitching an improved business process, a new system, or a new technology, you need to consider the bigger picture costs of implementation. What you define as success (in our example, having better reporting functionality) might not be what others define as success if implementing your solution causes them issues. A true enterprise solution needs to consider the entire enterprise.

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• What is Stackify?

  - by Matt Watson

  You have developers, applications, and servers. Stackify makes sure that they are all working efficiently. Our mission is to give developers the integrated tools they need to better troubleshoot and monitor the applications they create and the servers that they run on. Traditional IT operations tools are designed for network and system administrators. Developers commonly spend 30% of their time working with IT Operations remediating application service problems. Developers currently lack tools to efficiently support the applications they create. Stackify delivers the application support functionality that developers need:View application deployment locations, versions, and historyBrowse files on servers to ensure proper deploymentsAccess configuration and log files on serversRemotely restart windows services, scheduled tasks, and web applicationsBasic server monitoring and alertsCollects all application exceptions to a centralized pointLog and report on custom applications eventsStackify is building an integrated DevOps solution delivered from the cloud designed to meet the needs of developers but also help unify the working relationship with IT operations teams and existing security roles. Our goal is to help unify the interaction between developers and IT operations. Stackify allows both teams to have visibility that they never had before  to solve complex application service issues easier and faster. Stackify’s CEO and CTO both have experience managing very large and high growth software development teams. That experience is driving our design in Stackify to deliver the integrated tools we always wished we had, the next generation of development operations tools.

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• Auto-hydrate your objects with ADO.NET

  - by Jake Rutherford

  Recently while writing the monotonous code for pulling data out of a DataReader to hydrate some objects in an application I suddenly wondered "is this really necessary?" You've probably asked yourself the same question, and many of you have: - Used a code generator - Used a ORM such as Entity Framework - Wrote the code anyway because you like busy work     In most of the cases I've dealt with when making a call to a stored procedure the column names match up with the properties of the object I am hydrating. Sure that isn't always the case, but most of the time it's 1 to 1 mapping.  Given that fact I whipped up the following method of hydrating my objects without having write all of the code. First I'll show the code, and then explain what it is doing.      /// <summary>     /// Abstract base class for all Shared objects.     /// </summary>     /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>     [Serializable, DataContract(Name = "{0}SharedBase")]     public abstract class SharedBase<T> where T : SharedBase<T>     {         private static List<PropertyInfo> cachedProperties;         /// <summary>         /// Hydrates derived class with values from record.         /// </summary>         /// <param name="dataRecord"></param>         /// <param name="instance"></param>         public static void Hydrate(IDataRecord dataRecord, T instance)         {             var instanceType = instance.GetType();                         //Caching properties to avoid repeated calls to GetProperties.             //Noticable performance gains when processing same types repeatedly.             if (cachedProperties == null)             {                 cachedProperties = instanceType.GetProperties().ToList();             }                         foreach (var property in cachedProperties)             {                 if (!dataRecord.ColumnExists(property.Name)) continue;                 var ordinal = dataRecord.GetOrdinal(property.Name);                 var isNullable = property.PropertyType.IsGenericType &&                                  property.PropertyType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof (Nullable<>);                 var isNull = dataRecord.IsDBNull(ordinal);                 var propertyType = property.PropertyType;                 if (isNullable)                 {                     if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyType.FullName))                     {                         var nullableType = Type.GetType(propertyType.FullName);                         propertyType = nullableType != null ? nullableType.GetGenericArguments()[0] : propertyType;                     }                 }                 switch (Type.GetTypeCode(propertyType))                 {                     case TypeCode.Int32:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull) ? (int?) null : dataRecord.GetInt32(ordinal), null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.Double:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull) ? (double?) null : dataRecord.GetDouble(ordinal),                                           null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.Boolean:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull) ? (bool?) null : dataRecord.GetBoolean(ordinal),                                           null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.String:                         property.SetValue(instance, (isNullable && isNull) ? null : isNull ? null : dataRecord.GetString(ordinal),                                           null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.Int16:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull) ? (int?) null : dataRecord.GetInt16(ordinal), null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.DateTime:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull)                                               ? (DateTime?) null                                               : dataRecord.GetDateTime(ordinal), null);                         break;                 }             }         }     }   Here is a class which utilizes the above: [Serializable] [DataContract] public class foo : SharedBase<foo> {     [DataMember]     public int? ID { get; set; }     [DataMember]     public string Name { get; set; }     [DataMember]     public string Description { get; set; }     [DataMember]     public string Subject { get; set; }     [DataMember]     public string Body { get; set; }            public foo(IDataRecord record)     {         Hydrate(record, this);                }     public foo() {} }   Explanation: - Class foo inherits from SharedBase specifying itself as the type. (NOTE SharedBase is abstract here in the event we want to provide additional methods which could be overridden by the instance class) public class foo : SharedBase<foo> - One of the foo class constructors accepts a data record which then calls the Hydrate method on SharedBase passing in the record and itself. public foo(IDataRecord record) {      Hydrate(record, this); } - Hydrate method on SharedBase will use reflection on the object passed in to determine its properties. At the same time, it will effectively cache these properties to avoid repeated expensive reflection calls public static void Hydrate(IDataRecord dataRecord, T instance) {      var instanceType = instance.GetType();      //Caching properties to avoid repeated calls to GetProperties.      //Noticable performance gains when processing same types repeatedly.      if (cachedProperties == null)      {           cachedProperties = instanceType.GetProperties().ToList();      } . . . - Hydrate method on SharedBase will iterate each property on the object and determine if a column with matching name exists in data record foreach (var property in cachedProperties) {      if (!dataRecord.ColumnExists(property.Name)) continue;      var ordinal = dataRecord.GetOrdinal(property.Name); . . . NOTE: ColumnExists is an extension method I put on IDataRecord which I’ll include at the end of this post. - Hydrate method will determine if the property is nullable and whether the value in the corresponding column of the data record has a null value var isNullable = property.PropertyType.IsGenericType && property.PropertyType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof (Nullable<>); var isNull = dataRecord.IsDBNull(ordinal); var propertyType = property.PropertyType; . . .  - If Hydrate method determines the property is nullable it will determine the underlying type and set propertyType accordingly - Hydrate method will set the value of the property based upon the propertyType   That’s it!!!   The magic here is in a few places. First, you may have noticed the following: public abstract class SharedBase<T> where T : SharedBase<T> This says that SharedBase can be created with any type and that for each type it will have it’s own instance. This is important because of the static members within SharedBase. We want this behavior because we are caching the properties for each type. If we did not handle things in this way only 1 type could be cached at a time, or, we’d need to create a collection that allows us to cache the properties for each type = not very elegant.   Second, in the constructor for foo you may have noticed this (literally): public foo(IDataRecord record) {      Hydrate(record, this); } I wanted the code for auto-hydrating to be as simple as possible. At first I wasn’t quite sure how I could call Hydrate on SharedBase within an instance of the class and pass in the instance itself. Fortunately simply passing in “this” does the trick. I wasn’t sure it would work until I tried it out, and fortunately it did.   So, to actually use this feature when utilizing ADO.NET you’d do something like the following:        public List<foo> GetFoo(int? fooId)         {             List<foo> fooList;             const string uspName = "usp_GetFoo";             using (var conn = new SqlConnection(_dbConnection))             using (var cmd = new SqlCommand(uspName, conn))             {                 cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;                 cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@FooID", SqlDbType.Int)                                        {Direction = ParameterDirection.Input, Value = fooId});                 conn.Open();                 using (var dr = cmd.ExecuteReader())                 {                     fooList= (from row in dr.Cast<DbDataRecord>()                                             select                                                 new foo(row)                                            ).ToList();                 }             }             return fooList;         }   Nice! Instead of having line after line manually assigning values from data record to an object you simply create a new instance and pass in the data record. Note that there are certainly instances where columns returned from stored procedure do not always match up with property names. In this scenario you can still use the above method and simply do your manual assignments afterward.

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