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• The Great Divorce

  - by BlackRabbitCoder

  I have a confession to make: I've been in an abusive relationship for more than 17 years now.  Yes, I am not ashamed to admit it, but I'm finally doing something about it. I met her in college, she was new and sexy and amazingly fast -- and I'd never met anything like her before.  Her style and her power captivated me and I couldn't wait to learn more about her.  I took a chance on her, and though I learned a lot from her -- and will always be grateful for my time with her -- I think it's time to move on. Her name was C++, and she so outshone my previous love, C, that any thoughts of going back evaporated in the heat of this new romance.  She promised me she'd be gentle and not hurt me the way C did.  She promised me she'd clean-up after herself better than C did.  She promised me she'd be less enigmatic and easier to keep happy than C was.  But I was deceived.  Oh sure, as far as truth goes, it wasn't a complete lie.  To some extent she was more fun, more powerful, safer, and easier to maintain.  But it just wasn't good enough -- or at least it's not good enough now. I loved C++, some part of me still does, it's my first-love of programming languages and I recognize its raw power, its blazing speed, and its improvements over its predecessor.  But with today's hardware, at speeds we could only dream to conceive of twenty years ago, that need for speed -- at the cost of all else -- has died, and that has left my feelings for C++ moribund. If I ever need to write an operating system or a device driver, then I might need that speed.  But 99% of the time I don't.  I'm a business-type programmer and chances are 90% of you are too, and even the ones who need speed at all costs may be surprised by how much you sacrifice for that.   That's not to say that I don't want my software to perform, and it's not to say that in the business world we don't care about speed or that our job is somehow less difficult or technical.  There's many times we write programs to handle millions of real-time updates or handle thousands of financial transactions or tracking trading algorithms where every second counts.  But if I choose to write my code in C++ purely for speed chances are I'll never notice the speed increase -- and equally true chances are it will be far more prone to crash and far less easy to maintain.  Nearly without fail, it's the macro-optimizations you need, not the micro-optimizations.  If I choose to write a O(n2) algorithm when I could have used a O(n) algorithm -- that can kill me.  If I choose to go to the database to load a piece of unchanging data every time instead of caching it on first load -- that too can kill me.  And if I cross the network multiple times for pieces of data instead of getting it all at once -- yes that can also kill me.  But choosing an overly powerful and dangerous mid-level language to squeeze out every last drop of performance will realistically not make stock orders process any faster, and more likely than not open up the system to more risk of crashes and resource leaks. And that's when my love for C++ began to die.  When I noticed that I didn't need that speed anymore.  That that speed was really kind of a lie.  Sure, I can be super efficient and pack bits in a byte instead of using separate boolean values.  Sure, I can use an unsigned char instead of an int.  But in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter as much as you think it does.  The key is maintainability, and that's where C++ failed me.  I like to tell the other developers I work with that there's two levels of correctness in coding: Is it immediately correct? Will it stay correct? That is, you can hack together any piece of code and make it correct to satisfy a task at hand, but if a new developer can't come in tomorrow and make a fairly significant change to it without jeopardizing that correctness, it won't stay correct. Some people laugh at me when I say I now prefer maintainability over speed.  But that is exactly the point.  If you focus solely on speed you tend to produce code that is much harder to maintain over the long hall, and that's a load of technical debt most shops can't afford to carry and end up completely scrapping code before it's time.  When good code is written well for maintainability, though, it can be correct both now and in the future. And you know the best part is?  My new love is nearly as fast as C++, and in some cases even faster -- and better than that, I know C# will treat me right.  Her creators have poured hundreds of thousands of hours of time into making her the sexy beast she is today.  They made her easy to understand and not an enigmatic mess.  They made her consistent and not moody and amorphous.  And they made her perform as fast as I care to go by optimizing her both at compile time and a run-time. Her code is so elegant and easy on the eyes that I'm not worried where she will run to or what she'll pull behind my back.  She is powerful enough to handle all my tasks, fast enough to execute them with blazing speed, maintainable enough so that I can rely on even fairly new peers to modify my work, and rich enough to allow me to satisfy any need.  C# doesn't ask me to clean up her messes!  She cleans up after herself and she tries to make my life easier for me by taking on most of those optimization tasks C++ asked me to take upon myself.  Now, there are many of you who would say that I am the cause of my own grief, that it was my fault C++ didn't behave because I didn't pay enough attention to her.  That I alone caused the pain she inflicted on me.  And to some extent, you have a point.  But she was so high maintenance, requiring me to know every twist and turn of her vast and unrestrained power that any wrong term or bout of forgetfulness was met with painful reminders that she wasn't going to watch my back when I made a mistake.  But C#, she loves me when I'm good, and she loves me when I'm bad, and together we make beautiful code that is both fast and safe. So that's why I'm leaving C++ behind.  She says she's changing for me, but I have no interest in what C++0x may bring.  Oh, I'll still keep in touch, and maybe I'll see her now and again when she brings her problems to my door and asks for some attention -- for I always have a soft spot for her, you see.  But she's out of my house now.  I have three kids and a dog and a cat, and all require me to clean up after them, why should I have to clean up after my programming language as well?

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• Connect to running web role on Azure using Remote Desktop Connection and VS2012

  - by Magnus Karlsson

  We want to be able to collect IntelliTrace information from our running app and also use remote desktop to connect to the IIS and look around(probably debugging). 1. Create certificate 1.1 Right-click the cloud project (marked in red) and select “Configure remote desktop”. 1.2 In the drop down list of certificates, choose <create> at the bottom. 1.3. Follow the instructions, you can set it up with default values. 1.4 When done. Choose the certificate and click “Copy to File…” as seen in the left of the picture above. 1.5. Save the file with any name you want. Now we will save it to local storage to be able to import it to our solution through the azure configuration manager in step 3. 2. Save certificate to local storage Now we need to attach it to our local certificate storage to be able to reach it from our confiuguration manager in visual studio. Microsoft provides the following steps for doing this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/232137 In order to view the Certificates store on the local computer, perform the following steps: Click Start, and then click Run. Type "MMC.EXE" (without the quotation marks) and click OK. Click Console in the new MMC you created, and then click Add/Remove Snap-in. In the new window, click Add. Highlight the Certificates snap-in, and then click Add. Choose the Computer option and click Next. Select Local Computer on the next screen, and then click OK. Click Close , and then click OK. You have now added the Certificates snap-in, which will allow you to work with any certificates in your computer's certificate store. You may want to save this MMC for later use. Now that you have access to the Certificates snap-in, you can import the server certificate into you computer's certificate store by following these steps: Open the Certificates (Local Computer) snap-in and navigate to Personal, and then Certificates. Note: Certificates may not be listed. If it is not, that is because there are no certificates installed. Right-click Certificates (or Personal if that option does not exist.) Choose All Tasks, and then click Import. When the wizard starts, click Next. Browse to the PFX file you created containing your server certificate and private key. Click Next. Enter the password you gave the PFX file when you created it. Be sure the Mark the key as exportable option is selected if you want to be able to export the key pair again from this computer. As an added security measure, you may want to leave this option unchecked to ensure that no one can make a backup of your private key. Click Next, and then choose the Certificate Store you want to save the certificate to. You should select Personal because it is a Web server certificate. If you included the certificates in the certification hierarchy, it will also be added to this store. Click Next. You should see a summary of screen showing what the wizard is about to do. If this information is correct, click Finish. You will now see the server certificate for your Web server in the list of Personal Certificates. It will be denoted by the common name of the server (found in the subject section of the certificate). Now that you have the certificate backup imported into the certificate store, you can enable Internet Information Services 5.0 to use that certificate (and the corresponding private key). To do this, perform the following steps: Open the Internet Services Manager (under Administrative Tools) and navigate to the Web site you want to enable secure communications (SSL/TLS) on. Right-click on the site and click Properties. You should now see the properties screen for the Web site. Click the Directory Security tab. Under the Secure Communications section, click Server Certificate. This will start the Web Site Certificate Wizard. Click Next. Choose the Assign an existing certificate option and click Next. You will now see a screen showing that contents of your computer's personal certificate store. Highlight your Web server certificate (denoted by the common name), and then click Next. You will now see a summary screen showing you all the details about the certificate you are installing. Be sure that this information is correct or you may have problems using SSL or TLS in HTTP communications. Click Next, and then click OK to exit the wizard. You should now have an SSL/TLS-enabled Web server. Be sure to protect your PFX files from any unwanted personnel. Image of a typical MMC.EXE with the certificates up.   3. Import the certificate to you visual studio project. 3.1 Now right click your equivalent to the MvcWebRole1 (as seen in the first picture under the red oval) and choose properties. 3.2 Choose Certificates. Right click the ellipsis to the right of the “thumbprint” and you should be able to select your newly created certificate here. After selecting it- save the file.   4. Upload the certificate to your Azure subscription. 4.1 Go to the azure management portal, click the services menu icon to the left and choose the service. Click Upload in the bottom menu.     5. Connect to server. Since I tried to use account settings(have to use another name) we have to set up a new name for the connection. No biggie. 5.1 Go to azure management portal, select your service and in the bottom menu, choose “REMOTE”. This will display the configuration for remote connection. It will actually change your ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file. After you change It here it might be good to choose download and replace the one in your project. Set a name that is not your windows azure account name and not Administrator. 5.2 Goto visual studio, click Server Explorer. Choose as selected in the picture below and click “COnnect using remote desktop”.   5.2 You will now be able to log in with the name and password set up in step 5.1. and voila! Windows server 2012, IIS and other nice stuff!   To do this one I’ve been using http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ff683671.aspx where you can collect some of this information and additional one.

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• Problems with inheritance query view and one to many association in entity framework 4

  - by Kazys

  Hi, I have situation in with I stucked and don't know way out. The problem is in my bigger model, but I have made small example which shows the same problem. I have 4 tables. I called them SuperParent, NamedParent, TypedParent and ParentType. NamedParent and TypedParent derives from superParent. TypedParent has one to many association with ParentType. I describe mapping for entities using queryView. The problem is then I want to get TypedParents and Include ParentType I get the following exception: An error occurred while preparing the command definition. See the inner exception for details. --- System.ArgumentException: The ResultType of the specified expression is not compatible with the required type. The expression ResultType is 'Transient.reference[PasibandymaiModel.SuperParent]' but the required type is 'Transient.reference[PasibandymaiModel.TypedParent]'. Parameter name: arguments[1] To get TypedParents I use following code: context.SuperParent.OfType().Include("ParentType"); my edmx file: <edmx:Edmx Version="2.0" xmlns:edmx="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/10/edmx"> <!-- EF Runtime content --> <edmx:Runtime> <!-- SSDL content --> <edmx:StorageModels> <Schema Namespace="PasibandymaiModel.Store" Alias="Self" Provider="System.Data.SqlClient" ProviderManifestToken="2005" xmlns:store="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/12/edm/EntityStoreSchemaGenerator" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/02/edm/ssdl"> <EntityContainer Name="PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer"> <EntitySet Name="NamedParent" EntityType="PasibandymaiModel.Store.NamedParent" store:Type="Tables" Schema="dbo" /> <EntitySet Name="ParentType" EntityType="PasibandymaiModel.Store.ParentType" store:Type="Tables" Schema="dbo" /> <EntitySet Name="SuperParent" EntityType="PasibandymaiModel.Store.SuperParent" store:Type="Tables" Schema="dbo" /> <EntitySet Name="TypedParent" EntityType="PasibandymaiModel.Store.TypedParent" store:Type="Tables" Schema="dbo" /> <AssociationSet Name="fk_NamedParent_SuperParent" Association="PasibandymaiModel.Store.fk_NamedParent_SuperParent"> <End Role="SuperParent" EntitySet="SuperParent" /> <End Role="NamedParent" EntitySet="NamedParent" /> </AssociationSet> <AssociationSet Name="fk_TypedParent_ParentType" Association="PasibandymaiModel.Store.fk_TypedParent_ParentType"> <End Role="ParentType" EntitySet="ParentType" /> <End Role="TypedParent" EntitySet="TypedParent" /> </AssociationSet> <AssociationSet Name="fk_TypedParent_SuperParent" Association="PasibandymaiModel.Store.fk_TypedParent_SuperParent"> <End Role="SuperParent" EntitySet="SuperParent" /> <End Role="TypedParent" EntitySet="TypedParent" /> </AssociationSet> </EntityContainer> <EntityType Name="NamedParent"> <Key> <PropertyRef Name="ParentId" /> </Key> <Property Name="ParentId" Type="int" Nullable="false" /> <Property Name="Name" Type="nvarchar" Nullable="false" MaxLength="100" /> </EntityType> <EntityType Name="ParentType"> <Key> <PropertyRef Name="ParentTypeId" /> </Key> <Property Name="ParentTypeId" Type="int" Nullable="false" StoreGeneratedPattern="Identity" /> <Property Name="Name" Type="nvarchar" MaxLength="100" /> </EntityType> <EntityType Name="SuperParent"> <Key> <PropertyRef Name="ParentId" /> </Key> <Property Name="ParentId" Type="int" Nullable="false" StoreGeneratedPattern="Identity" /> <Property Name="SomeAttribute" Type="nvarchar" Nullable="false" MaxLength="100" /> </EntityType> <EntityType Name="TypedParent"> <Key> <PropertyRef Name="ParentId" /> </Key> <Property Name="ParentId" Type="int" Nullable="false" /> <Property Name="ParentTypeId" Type="int" Nullable="false"/> </EntityType> <Association Name="fk_NamedParent_SuperParent"> <End Role="SuperParent" Type="PasibandymaiModel.Store.SuperParent" Multiplicity="1" /> <End Role="NamedParent" Type="PasibandymaiModel.Store.NamedParent" Multiplicity="0..1" /> <ReferentialConstraint> <Principal Role="SuperParent"> <PropertyRef Name="ParentId" /> </Principal> <Dependent Role="NamedParent"> <PropertyRef Name="ParentId" /> </Dependent> </ReferentialConstraint> </Association> <Association Name="fk_TypedParent_ParentType"> <End Role="ParentType" Type="PasibandymaiModel.Store.ParentType" Multiplicity="1" /> <End Role="TypedParent" Type="PasibandymaiModel.Store.TypedParent" Multiplicity="*" /> <ReferentialConstraint> <Principal Role="ParentType"> <PropertyRef Name="ParentTypeId" /> </Principal> <Dependent Role="TypedParent"> <PropertyRef Name="ParentTypeId" /> </Dependent> </ReferentialConstraint> </Association> <Association Name="fk_TypedParent_SuperParent"> <End Role="SuperParent" Type="PasibandymaiModel.Store.SuperParent" Multiplicity="1" /> <End Role="TypedParent" Type="PasibandymaiModel.Store.TypedParent" Multiplicity="0..1" /> <ReferentialConstraint> <Principal Role="SuperParent"> <PropertyRef Name="ParentId" /> </Principal> <Dependent Role="TypedParent"> <PropertyRef Name="ParentId" /> </Dependent> </ReferentialConstraint> </Association> <Function Name="ChildDelete" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="ChildId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="ChildInsert" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="Name" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="ParentId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="ChildUpdate" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="ChildId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="ParentId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="Name" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="NamedParentDelete" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="ParentId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="NamedParentInsert" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="Name" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="SomeAttribute" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="NamedParentUpdate" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="ParentId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="SomeAttribute" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="Name" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="ParentTypeDelete" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="ParentTypeId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="ParentTypeInsert" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="Name" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="ParentTypeUpdate" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="ParentTypeId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="Name" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="TypedParentDelete" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="ParentId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="TypedParentInsert" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="ParentTypeId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="SomeAttribute" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> </Function> <Function Name="TypedParentUpdate" Aggregate="false" BuiltIn="false" NiladicFunction="false" IsComposable="false" ParameterTypeSemantics="AllowImplicitConversion" Schema="dbo"> <Parameter Name="ParentId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="SomeAttribute" Type="nvarchar" Mode="In" /> <Parameter Name="ParentTypeId" Type="int" Mode="In" /> </Function> </Schema> </edmx:StorageModels> <!-- CSDL content --> <edmx:ConceptualModels> <Schema Namespace="PasibandymaiModel" Alias="Self" xmlns:annotation="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/02/edm/annotation" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/09/edm"> <EntityContainer Name="PasibandymaiEntities" annotation:LazyLoadingEnabled="true"> <EntitySet Name="ParentType" EntityType="PasibandymaiModel.ParentType" /> <EntitySet Name="SuperParent" EntityType="PasibandymaiModel.SuperParent" /> <AssociationSet Name="ParentTypeTypedParent" Association="PasibandymaiModel.ParentTypeTypedParent"> <End Role="ParentType" EntitySet="ParentType" /> <End Role="TypedParent" EntitySet="SuperParent" /> </AssociationSet> </EntityContainer> <EntityType Name="NamedParent" BaseType="PasibandymaiModel.SuperParent"> <Property Type="String" Name="Name" Nullable="false" MaxLength="100" FixedLength="false" Unicode="true" /> </EntityType> <EntityType Name="ParentType"> <Key> <PropertyRef Name="ParentTypeId" /> </Key> <Property Type="Int32" Name="ParentTypeId" Nullable="false" annotation:StoreGeneratedPattern="Identity" /> <Property Type="String" Name="Name" MaxLength="100" FixedLength="false" Unicode="true" /> <NavigationProperty Name="TypedParent" Relationship="PasibandymaiModel.ParentTypeTypedParent" FromRole="ParentType" ToRole="TypedParent" /> </EntityType> <EntityType Name="SuperParent" Abstract="true"> <Key> <PropertyRef Name="ParentId" /> </Key> <Property Type="Int32" Name="ParentId" Nullable="false" annotation:StoreGeneratedPattern="Identity" /> <Property Type="String" Name="SomeAttribute" Nullable="false" MaxLength="100" FixedLength="false" Unicode="true" /> </EntityType> <EntityType Name="TypedParent" BaseType="PasibandymaiModel.SuperParent"> <NavigationProperty Name="ParentType" Relationship="PasibandymaiModel.ParentTypeTypedParent" FromRole="TypedParent" ToRole="ParentType" /> <Property Type="Int32" Name="ParentTypeId" Nullable="false" /> </EntityType> <Association Name="ParentTypeTypedParent"> <End Type="PasibandymaiModel.ParentType" Role="ParentType" Multiplicity="1" /> <End Type="PasibandymaiModel.TypedParent" Role="TypedParent" Multiplicity="*" /> <ReferentialConstraint> <Principal Role="ParentType"> <PropertyRef Name="ParentTypeId" /> </Principal> <Dependent Role="TypedParent"> <PropertyRef Name="ParentTypeId" /> </Dependent> </ReferentialConstraint> </Association> </Schema> </edmx:ConceptualModels> <!-- C-S mapping content --> <edmx:Mappings> <Mapping Space="C-S" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/09/mapping/cs"> <EntityContainerMapping StorageEntityContainer="PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer" CdmEntityContainer="PasibandymaiEntities"> <EntitySetMapping Name="ParentType"> <QueryView> SELECT VALUE PasibandymaiModel.ParentType(tp.ParentTypeId, tp.Name) FROM PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer.ParentType AS tp </QueryView> </EntitySetMapping> <EntitySetMapping Name="SuperParent"> <QueryView> SELECT VALUE CASE WHEN (np.ParentId IS NOT NULL) THEN PasibandymaiModel.NamedParent(sp.ParentId, sp.SomeAttribute, np.Name) WHEN (tp.ParentId IS NOT NULL) THEN PasibandymaiModel.TypedParent(sp.ParentId, sp.SomeAttribute, tp.ParentTypeId) END FROM PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer.SuperParent AS sp LEFT JOIN PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer.NamedParent AS np ON sp.ParentId = np.ParentId LEFT JOIN PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer.TypedParent AS tp ON sp.ParentId = tp.ParentId </QueryView> <QueryView TypeName="PasibandymaiModel.TypedParent"> SELECT VALUE PasibandymaiModel.TypedParent(sp.ParentId, sp.SomeAttribute, tp.ParentTypeId) FROM PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer.SuperParent AS sp INNER JOIN PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer.TypedParent AS tp ON sp.ParentId = tp.ParentId </QueryView> <QueryView TypeName="PasibandymaiModel.NamedParent"> SELECT VALUE PasibandymaiModel.NamedParent(sp.ParentId, sp.SomeAttribute, np.Name) FROM PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer.SuperParent AS sp INNER JOIN PasibandymaiModelStoreContainer.NamedParent AS np ON sp.ParentId = np.ParentId </QueryView> </EntitySetMapping> </EntityContainerMapping> </Mapping> </edmx:Mappings> </edmx:Runtime> </edmx:Edmx> I have tried using AssociationSetMapping instead of using Association with ReferentialConstraint. But then couldn't insert related entities at once, becouse entity framework didn't provided entity key of inserted entities for related entities. Thanks for any idea

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• The Faces in the Crowdsourcing

  - by Applications User Experience

  By Jeff Sauro, Principal Usability Engineer, Oracle Imagine having access to a global workforce of hundreds of thousands of people who can perform tasks or provide feedback on a design quickly and almost immediately. Distributing simple tasks not easily done by computers to the masses is called "crowdsourcing" and until recently was an interesting concept, but due to practical constraints wasn't used often. Enter Amazon.com. For five years, Amazon has hosted a service called Mechanical Turk, which provides an easy interface to the crowds. The service has almost half a million registered, global users performing a quarter of a million human intelligence tasks (HITs). HITs are submitted by individuals and companies in the U.S. and pay from $.01 for simple tasks (such as determining if a picture is offensive) to several dollars (for tasks like transcribing audio). What do we know about the people who toil away in this digital crowd? Can we rely on the work done in this anonymous marketplace? A rendering of the actual Mechanical Turk (from Wikipedia) Knowing who is behind Amazon's Mechanical Turk is fitting, considering the history of the actual Mechanical Turk. In the late 1800's, a mechanical chess-playing machine awed crowds as it beat master chess players in what was thought to be a mechanical miracle. It turned out that the creator, Wolfgang von Kempelen, had a small person (also a chess master) hiding inside the machine operating the arms to provide the illusion of automation. The field of human computer interaction (HCI) is quite familiar with gathering user input and incorporating it into all stages of the design process. It makes sense then that Mechanical Turk was a popular discussion topic at the recent Computer Human Interaction usability conference sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery in Atlanta. It is already being used as a source for input on Web sites (for example, Feedbackarmy.com) and behavioral research studies. Two papers shed some light on the faces in this crowd. One paper tells us about the shifting demographics from mostly stay-at-home moms to young men in India. The second paper discusses the reliability and quality of work from the workers. Just who exactly would spend time doing tasks for pennies? In "Who are the crowdworkers?" University of California researchers Ross, Silberman, Zaldivar and Tomlinson conducted a survey of Mechanical Turk worker demographics and compared it to a similar survey done two years before. The initial survey reported workers consisting largely of young, well-educated women living in the U.S. with annual household incomes above $40,000. The more recent survey reveals a shift in demographics largely driven by an influx of workers from India. Indian workers went from 5% to over 30% of the crowd, and this block is largely male (two-thirds) with a higher average education than U.S. workers, and 64% report an annual income of less than $10,000 (keeping in mind $1 has a lot more purchasing power in India). This shifting demographic certainly has implications as language and culture can play critical roles in the outcome of HITs. Of course, the demographic data came from paying Turkers $.10 to fill out a survey, so there is some question about both a self-selection bias (characteristics which cause Turks to take this survey may be unrepresentative of the larger population), not to mention whether we can really trust the data we get from the crowd. Crowds can perform tasks or provide feedback on a design quickly and almost immediately for usability testing. (Photo attributed to victoriapeckham Flikr While having immediate access to a global workforce is nice, one major problem with Mechanical Turk is the incentive structure. Individuals and companies that deploy HITs want quality responses for a low price. Workers, on the other hand, want to complete the task and get paid as quickly as possible, so that they can get on to the next task. Since many HITs on Mechanical Turk are surveys, how valid and reliable are these results? How do we know whether workers are just rushing through the multiple-choice responses haphazardly answering? In "Are your participants gaming the system?" researchers at Carnegie Mellon (Downs, Holbrook, Sheng and Cranor) set up an experiment to find out what percentage of their workers were just in it for the money. The authors set up a 30-minute HIT (one of the more lengthy ones for Mechanical Turk) and offered a very high $4 to those who qualified and $.20 to those who did not. As part of the HIT, workers were asked to read an email and respond to two questions that determined whether workers were likely rushing through the HIT and not answering conscientiously. One question was simple and took little effort, while the second question required a bit more work to find the answer. Workers were led to believe other factors than these two questions were the qualifying aspect of the HIT. Of the 2000 participants, roughly 1200 (or 61%) answered both questions correctly. Eighty-eight percent answered the easy question correctly, and 64% answered the difficult question correctly. In other words, about 12% of the crowd were gaming the system, not paying enough attention to the question or making careless errors. Up to about 40% won't put in more than a modest effort to get paid for a HIT. Young men and those that considered themselves in the financial industry tended to be the most likely to try to game the system. There wasn't a breakdown by country, but given the demographic information from the first article, we could infer that many of these young men come from India, which makes language and other cultural differences a factor. These articles raise questions about the role of crowdsourcing as a means for getting quick user input at low cost. While compensating users for their time is nothing new, the incentive structure and anonymity of Mechanical Turk raises some interesting questions. How complex of a task can we ask of the crowd, and how much should these workers be paid? Can we rely on the information we get from these professional users, and if so, how can we best incorporate it into designing more usable products? Traditional usability testing will still play a central role in enterprise software. Crowdsourcing doesn't replace testing; instead, it makes certain parts of gathering user feedback easier. One can turn to the crowd for simple tasks that don't require specialized skills and get a lot of data fast. As more studies are conducted on Mechanical Turk, I suspect we will see crowdsourcing playing an increasing role in human computer interaction and enterprise computing. References: Downs, J. S., Holbrook, M. B., Sheng, S., and Cranor, L. F. 2010. Are your participants gaming the system?: screening mechanical turk workers. In Proceedings of the 28th international Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Atlanta, Georgia, USA, April 10 - 15, 2010). CHI '10. ACM, New York, NY, 2399-2402. Link: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1753326.1753688 Ross, J., Irani, L., Silberman, M. S., Zaldivar, A., and Tomlinson, B. 2010. Who are the crowdworkers?: shifting demographics in mechanical turk. In Proceedings of the 28th of the international Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Atlanta, Georgia, USA, April 10 - 15, 2010). CHI EA '10. ACM, New York, NY, 2863-2872. Link: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1753846.1753873

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• H1 Visa interview tips–What you must know before attending the interview?

  - by Gopinath

  USA’s H1 visa allows highly qualified professionals from other countries to work in America. Many IT professionals in India aspire to go to USA on H1 and work for their clients. Recently I had a chance to study H1 visa process to help one of my friends and I would like to share what I learned. With the assumption that your H1 petition is approved and you got an interview scheduled at US Embassy for your visa stamping, here are tips you must know before attending the interview Dress Code – Formals Say no to casuals or any fancy dress when you attend the interview. It’s not a party or friends home you are visiting. Consider H1 Visa interview as your job interview and dress up in formals. There is no option B for your, you must be in formals. A plain formal shirt with a matching pant is suggested for men. Tie and Suit would not be required, but if you are a professional at management level you can consider wearing suit. Women can wear either formal Salwar or formal pant-shirt. Avoid heavy jewellery, wear what is must as per your tradition or culture. Body Language -  Smile on your face Your body language reflects what you are and what’s going on in your mind. Don’t be nervous or restless, be relaxed and wear a beautiful smile on your face. A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. When you are called for the interview, greet the interviewer with a beautiful smile. Say Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening depending on time you are visiting them. Whenever appropriate say Thank You. Generally American professionals are very friendly people and they reciprocate for your greetings. Make sure that you make them comfortable to start the interview. Carry original documents in a separate folder I don’t want to talk much about the documents that are required for your H1B interview as it’s big subject on it’s own and it requires a separate post. I assume that your consultant or employer helped you in gathering all the required documents like – petition, DS 160 forms, education & job related documents, resume, interview call letters, client letters, etc. For all the documents you are going to submit at the interview make sure that you have originals in a separate folder.  If required interviewer may ask you show the originals of any of the document you submitted for visa processing. Don’t mix the original documents with the documents you need to submit for interview. Have a separate folder for them. For those who are going to stamping along with their spouse and children, they need to carry few extra original documents like – marriage certificate, marriage photos(30 numbers)/album, birth certificates, passports, education and profession related certificates of the spouse and children. Know your role & responsibilities The interviewer will ask you questions on your roles and responsibilities at client location. Be clear what is your day to day tasks at client place and prepared to face detailed questions on the same. When asked explain clearly and also make sure what you say is inline with what is mentioned in your petition and client invitation letter. At times they may ask you questions specific to the project/technology you are going to work. So doing some homework in this area will help you easily answer the questions. Failing to answer basic questions on your role & responsibilities may result in rejection. You work for your Employer at Client location but NOT FOR CLIENT One of the important things to keep in mind that you work for your employer and you are being deputed to client location on a work visa.  Your employer is going to be solely responsible for your salary, work, promotion, pay hikes or what so ever during your stay at USA. Your client will not be responsible for anything. Lets say you are employed with Company X in India and they are applying for H1B to work at your client(ex: Microsoft) in USA, you must keep in my mind that Microsoft is not your employer. Microsoft will not pay your salaries or responsible for any employment related activities. Company X will be solely responsible for all your employer related activities. If you don’t get this correctly and say to Visa interviewer that your client is responsible, then you may get into troubles. Know your client It’s always good to know the clients with whom you are going to work in USA and their business. If your client is a well know organisation then you may not get many questions from interviewer else you need to be well prepared to provide details like – nature of business, location, size of the organisation, etc.  Get to know the basic details about your client and be confident while providing those details to the interviewer. Also make sure that you never talk about any confidential details of your client projects and business. Revealing confidential details of your client may land your job itself in soup. Make sure that your spouse is also in sync with you If you’ve applied a H4 visa for your spouse along with your H1, make sure that spouse is in sync with you. Your spouse also should know the basic details of your job, your employer, client and location where you will be travelling. Your spouse should also be prepared to answers questions related to marriage, their profession(if working), kids, education, etc. Interviewers will try to asses your spouse communication skills, whereabouts while staying in USA and would they prefer to work USA or not. On H4, which is a dependent visa, your spouse is not allowed to work in USA and at any point your spouse should not show the intentions to search for work in USA. Less luggage more comfort You would have definitely heard that there are lot of restrictions on what you can carry along with you to an US Embassy while attending the interview. To be frank it’s not good to say there are many restrictions, but there are a hell a lot of restrictions. There are unbelievable restrictions and it’s for the safety of everyone. You are not allowed to carry mobile phones, CD/DVDs, USBs, bank cards, cameras, cosmetics, food(except baby food), water, wallets, backpacks, sealed covers, etc. Trust me most of the things we carry with us regularly every day are not allowed inside. As there are 100s of restrictions, it would be easier if you understand what you can carry along with you and just carry them alone. Ask your employer/consultant to provide you a checklist of items that you can carry. Most what you would require are H1B related documents provided by the employer/consultant Photographs All original documents supporting your H1B Passports Some cash for your travel expenses (avoid coins) Any important phone number / details written in a paper(like your cab driver number, etc.) If you carry restricted stuff then you will be stopped at security checks, you have to find people who can safely keep all the restricted items. Due to heavy restrictions in and around the US Embassy you will not find any  place to keep your luggage. So just carry the bare minimum things required so that you feel more comfortable. Useful Links THE U.S. NON IMMIGRANT VISA APPLICATION PROCESS U.S VISA SECURITY REGULATIONS GENERAL FAQS Hope this information is helpful to you and best of luck for your interview. Creative commons Image credit: Flickr/ alexfrance, vinothchandar. hughelectronic, architratan, striatic

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• Communities - The importance of exchange and discussion

  Communication with your environment is an essential part of everyone's life. And it doesn't matter whether you are actually living in a rural area in the middle of nowhere, within the pulsating heart of a big city, or in my case on a wonderful island in the Indian Ocean. The ability to exchange your thoughts, your experience and your worries with another person helps you to get different points of view and new ideas on how to resolve an issue you might be confronted with. Benefits of community work What happens to be common sense in your daily life, also applies to your work environment. Working in IT, or ICT as it is called in Mauritius, requires a lot of reading and learning. Not only during your lectures at the university but with your colleagues in a project assignment and hopefully with 'unknown' pals in the universe of online communities. At least I can say that I learned quite a lot from other developers code, their responses in various forums, their numerous blog articles, and while attending local user group meetings. When I started to work as a professional software developer (or engineer some may say) years ago I immediately checked the existence of communities on the programming language, the database technology and other vital information on software development in general. Luckily, it wasn't too difficult to find. My employer had a subscription of the monthly magazines and newsletters of a national organisation which also run the biggest forum in that area. Getting in touch with other developers and reading their common problems but also solutions was a huge benefit to my growth. Image courtesy of Michael Kappel (CC BY-NC 2.0) Active participation and regular contribution to this community gave me some nice advantages, too. Within three years I was listed as a conference speaker at the annual developer's conference and provided several sessions on different topics during consecutive years. Back in 2004, I took over the responsibility and management of the monthly meetings of a regional user group, and organised it for more than two years. Furthermore, I was invited to the newly-founded community program of Microsoft Germany (Community Leader/Insider Program - CLIP). My website on Active FoxPro Pages was nominated in the second batch of online communities. Due to my community work and providing advice to others, I had the honour to be awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) - Visual Developer for Visual FoxPro in the years 2006 and 2007. It was a great experience to meet with other like-minded people and I'm really grateful for that. Just in case, more details are listed in my Curriculum Vitae. But this all changed when I moved to Mauritius... Cyber island Mauritius? During the first months in Mauritius I was way too busy to think about community activities at all. First of all, there was the new company that had to be set up, the new staff had to be trained and of course the communication work-flows and so on with the project managers back in Germany had to be sorted out, too. Second, I had to get a grip of my private matters like getting the basics for my new household or exploring the neighbourhood, and last but not least I needed a break from the hectic and intensive work prior to my departure. As soon as the sea literally calmed down, I started to have conversations with my colleagues about communities and user groups. Sadly, it turned out that there were none, or at least no one was aware of any at that time. Oh oh, what did I do? Anyway, having this kind of background and very positive experience with off-line and on-line activities I decided for myself that some day I'm going to found a community in Mauritius for all kind of IT/ICT-related fields. The main focus might be on software development but not on a certain technology or methodology. It was clear to me that it should be an open infrastructure and anyone is welcome to join, to experience, to share and to contribute if they would like to. That was the idea at that time... Ok, fast-forward to recent events. At the end of October 2012 I was invited to an event called Open Days organised by Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands together with other local partners and resellers. There I got in touch with local Technical Evangelist Arnaud Meslier and we had a good conversation on communities during the breaks. Eventually, I left a good impression on him, as we are having chats on Facebook or Skype irregularly. Well, seeing that my personal and professional surroundings have been settled and running smooth, having that great exchange and contact with Microsoft IOI (again), and being really eager to re-animate my intentions from 2007, I recently founded a new community: Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community - #MSCC It took me a while to settle down with the name but it was obvious that the community should not be attached to one single technology, like ie. .NET user group, Oracle developers, or Joomla friends (these are fictitious names). There are several other reasons why I came up with 'Craftsmanship' as the core topic of this community. The expression of 'engineering' didn't feel right with the fields covered. Software development in all kind of facets is a craft, and therefore demands a lot of practice but also guidance from more experienced developers. It also includes the process of designing, modelling and drafting the ideas. Has to deal with various types of tests and test methodologies, and of course should be focused on flexible and agile ways of acting. In order to meet and to excel a customer's request for a solution. Next, I was looking for an easy way to handle the organisation of events and meeting appointments. Using all kind of social media platforms like Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, Xing, etc. I was never really confident about their features of event handling. More by chance I stumbled upon Meetup.com and in combination with the other entities (G+ Communities, FB Pages or in Groups) I am looking forward to advertise and manage all future activities here: Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community This is a community for those who care and are proud of what they do. For those developers, regardless how experienced they are, who want to improve and master their craft. This is a community for those who believe that being average is just not good enough. I know, there are not many 'craftsmen' yet but it's a start... Let's see how it looks like by the end of the year. There are free smartphone apps for Android and iOS from Meetup.com that allow you to keep track of meetings and to stay informed on latest updates. And last but not least, there will be a Trello workspace to collect and share ideas and provide downloads of slides, etc. Sharing is caring! As mentioned, the #MSCC is present in various social media networks in order to cover as many people as possible here in Mauritius. Following is an overview of the current networks: Twitter - Latest updates and quickies Google+ - Community channel Facebook - Community Page LinkedIn - Community Group Trello - Collaboration workspace to share and develop ideas Hopefully, this covers the majority of computer-related people in Mauritius. Please spread the word about the #MSCC between your colleagues, your friends and other interested 'geeks'. Your future looks bright Running and participating in a user group or any kind of community usually provides quite a number of advantages for anyone. On the one side it is very joyful for me to organise appointments and get in touch with people that might be interested to present a little demo of their projects or their recent problems they had to tackle down, and on the other side there are lots of companies that have various support programs or sponsorships especially tailored for user groups. At the moment, I already have a couple of gimmicks that I would like to hand out in small contests or raffles during one of the upcoming meetings, and as said, companies provide all kind of goodies, books free of charge, or sometimes even licenses for communities. Meeting other software developers or IT guys also opens up your point of view on the local market and there might be interesting projects or job offers available, too. A community like the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community is great for freelancers, self-employed, students and of course employees. Meetings will be organised on a regular basis, and I'm open to all kind of suggestions from you. Please leave a comment here in blog or join the conversations in the above mentioned social networks. Let's get this community up and running, my fellow Mauritians!

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• It was a figure of speech!

  - by Ratman21

  Yesterday I posted the following as attention getter / advertisement (as well as my feelings). In the groups, (I am in) on the social networking site, LinkedIn and boy did I get responses.    I am fighting mad about (a figure of speech, really) not having a job! Look just because I am over 55 and have gray hair. It does not mean, my brain is dead or I can no longer trouble shoot a router or circuit or LAN issue. Or that I can do “IT” work at all. And I could prove this if; some one would give me at job. Come on try me for 90 days at min. wage. I know you will end up keeping me (hope fully at normal pay) around. Is any one hearing me…come on take up the challenge!     This was the responses I got.   I hear you. We just need to retrain and get our skills up to speed is all. That is what I am doing. I have not given up. Just got to stay on top of the game. Experience is on our side if we have the credentials and we are reasonable about our salaries this should not be an issue.   Already on it, going back to school and have got three certifications (CompTIA A+, Security+ and Network+. I am now studying for my CISCO CCNA certification. As to my salary, I am willing to work at very reasonable rate.   You need to re-brand yourself like a product, market and sell yourself. You need to smarten up, look and feel a million dollars, re-energize yourself, regain your confidents. Either start your own business, or re-write your CV so it stands out from the rest, get the template off the internet. Contact every recruitment agent in your town, state, country and overseas, and on the web. Apply to every job you think you could do, you may not get it but you will make a contact for your network, which may lead to a job at the end of the tunnel. Get in touch with everyone you know from past jobs. Do charity work. I maintain the IT Network, stage electrical and the Telecom equipment in my church,   Again already on it. I have email the world is seems with my resume and cover letters. So far, I have rewritten or had it rewrote, my resume and cover letters; over seven times so far. Re-energize? I never lost my energy level or my self-confidents in my work (now if could get some HR personal to see the same). I also volunteer at my church, I created and maintain the church web sit.   I share your frustration. Sucks being over 50 and looking for work. Please don't sell yourself short at min wage because the employer will think that’s your worth. Keep trying!!   I never stop trying and min wage is only for 90 days. If some one takes up the challenge. Some post asked if I am keeping up technology.   Do you keep up with the latest technology and can speak the language fluidly?   Yep to that and as to speaking it also a yep! I am a geek you know. I heard from others over the 50 year mark and younger too.   I'm with you! I keep getting told that I don't have enough experience because I just recently completed a Masters level course in Microsoft SQL Server, which gave me a project-intensive equivalent of between 2 and 3 years of experience. On top of that training, I have 19 years as an applications programmer and database administrator. I can normalize rings around experienced DBAs and churn out effective code with the best of them. But my 19 years is worthless as far as most recruiters and HR people are concerned because it is not the specific experience for which they're looking. HR AND RECRUITERS TAKE NOTE: Experience, whatever the language, translates across platforms and technology! By the way, I'm also over 55 and still have "got it"!   I never lost it and I also can work rings round younger techs.   I'm 52 and female and seem to be having the same issues. I have over 10 years experience in tech support (with a BS in CIS) and can't get hired either.   Ow, I only have an AS in computer science along with my certifications.   Keep the faith, I have been unemployed since August of 2008. I agree with you...I am willing to return to the beginning of my retail career and work myself back through the ranks, if someone will look past the grey and realize the knowledge I would bring to the table.   I also would like some one to look past the gray.   Interesting approach, volunteering to work for minimum wage for 90 days. I'm in the same situation as you, being 55 & balding w/white hair, so I know where you're coming from. I've been out of work now for a year. I'm in Michigan, where the unemployment rate is estimated to be 15% (the worst in the nation) & even though I've got 30+ years of IT experience ranging from mainframe to PC desktop support, it's difficult to even get a face-to-face interview. I had one prospective employer tell me flat out that I "didn't have the energy required for this position". Mostly I never get any feedback. All I can say is good luck & try to remain optimistic.   He said WHAT! Yes remaining optimistic is key. Along with faith in God. Then there was this (for lack of better word) jerk.   Give it up already. You were too old to work in high tech 10 years ago. Scratch that, 20 years ago! Try selling hot dogs in front of Fry's Electronics. At least you would get a chance to eat lunch with your previous colleagues....   You know funny thing on this person is that I checked out his profile. He is older than I am.

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• Probation is Over: PASS Board Year 1, Q2

  - by Denise McInerney

  Though it's not always official every job begins with a probation period. You start out with lots of questions and every day you find out how much more you have to learn. Usually after a few months you discover that you can actually answer some questions and have at least an idea of what you are supposed to be doing. Now at the end of my second quarter on the "job" of serving on the PASS Board I have reached that point. My probation period is over. The last three months were busy for the entire Board with the budget process, an in-person meeting and moving forward with PASS Global Growth plans. I had also set a specific goal for myself for my 2nd quarter: to see the Board to adopt a Code of Conduct for the PASS Summit. Code of Conduct When I ran for the Board I included my desire to see PASS establish a code of conduct in my campaign platform.  I was motivated to do this for a few reasons. Other technical conferences have had incidents of harassment. Most of these did not have a policy in place prior to having a problem, though several conference organizers have since adopted anti-harassment policies or codes of conduct. I felt it would be in PASS' interest to establish a policy so we would be prepared should there be an incident.   "This is Community" Adopting a code of conduct would reinforce our community orientation and send a message about the positive character of the Summit. PASS is a leader among technical organizations for its promotion and support of women. Adopting a code of conduct would further demonstrate our leadership in this area. After researching similar polices from other organizations I published a first draft in April. I solicited feedback from the Board, HQ staff and some PASS members. Incorporating that feedback I presented version 4 at the May Board meeting, where we had a good discussion. You can read the meeting minutes for details. I incorporated points from  the Board discussion as well as feedback from a legal review to produce a final version which has been submitted to the Board. It will be discussed at the Board meeting July 12. You can read the full text at the end of this post. Virtual Chapters In the first quarter we started ramping up marketing support for the Virtual Chapters. Since then each edition of the Connector has highlighted a different VC to help get out the message about the variety of eductional opporutnities that are offered. These VC profiles will continue in the coming months. I was very pleased to welcome the new DBA Fundamentals VC which is geared toward new DBAs, people who are considering entering the field and those transitioning from a different IT role. Thanks to the contributions of Erin Stellato, Michelle Nalliah and Karla Landrum we published a "Virtual Chapter Guidebook". This document includes great advice on how to build and promote a VC. It's also a reference for how things work, from budgets to webinar hosting. I think this document will be extremely valuable to all our VC leaders and am grateful to those who put it together. Board Meeting/SQL Rally The Board met in May in Dallas. Among the items discussed were Global Growth, the budget, future events and the upcoming elections. We covered a lot of ground in two days and I will again refer you to the meeting minutes for details. The meeting schedule allowed us to participate in the SQL Rally networking events and one full day of the conference. I enjoyed having the opportunity to meet and talk with many PASS members. And my hat is off to the SQL Rally organizers who put on an outstanding event. Global Growth PASS has undertaken a major intitiative to reach and engage SQL Server professionals around the world. This Global Growth plan is ambitious and will have a significant impact on the strategic direction of the organization. We have been reaching out to the community for feedback, including hosting Twitter chats and live Town Hall meetings. I co-hosted two of these events and appreciated hearing the different perspectives of the people who participated If you have not done so I encourage you to read about the Global Growth vision and proposed governance changes  and submit your feedback. FY13 Budget July 1 is the beginning of PASS' fiscal year, which makes the end of June the deadline for approving a budget. Each director submits a budget for his or her portfolio. For the Virtual Chapter portfolio I focused on how we can allocate resources to grow the VCs. Budgeting is a give-and-take process, and while I didn't get everything I asked for I'm pleased the FY13 budget includes a significant increase in financial support for the Virtual Chapters. Many people put a lot of work into the budget, but no two people deserve credit more than VP of Finance Douglas McDowell and Accounting Manager Sandy Cherry. Thanks to both of them for getting us across the goal line on time. SQL Saturday I attended SQL Saturdays in Orange Co. CA and Phoenix. It's always inspiring to see the enthusiasm in the community for learning and networking. These events are successful due to the hard work of many volunteers. Thanks to the organizers in both cities for all your efforts. Next Up This quarter we'll be gearing up plans for the VCs at the Summit and exploring ways the VCs can best support PASS' Global Growth work. I'll also be wrapping up work on the Code of Conduct and attending a Board meeting in September. And I will be at SQL Saturday #144 in Sacramento later this month. Here is the language of the Code of Conduct I have submitted to the Board for consideration: PASS Code of Conduct The PASS Summit provides database professionals from a variety of backgrounds with an opportunity to connect, share and learn.  We value the strong sense of community that characterizes this event and we seek to foster an inclusive, professional atmosphere. We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, religion or any other protected classification.  Everyone at the Summit is expected to follow the Code of Conduct. This includes but is not limited to: PASS Staff, Exhibitors, Speakers, Attendees and anyone affiliated with the event. Participants are expected to follow the Code of Conduct at all Summit events, including PASS-sponsored social events. Participant behavior Harassment includes, but is not limited to, offensive verbal comments related to gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, religion, or any other protected classification.  Intimidation, threats, stalking, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact and unwelcome attention will also be considered harassment. Similarly, sexual, racist, derogatory, threatening or other inappropriate language and imagery are not appropriate for any conference venue, including sessions.  Recourse If a participant engages in any conduct that is prohibited under this Code of Conduct, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expelling the offender from the conference. No refunds will be granted to attendees expelled from the Summit due to violations of the Code of Conduct. If you are being harassed, witness harassment, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of conference staff immediately. Conference staff can be identified by their “Headquarters/Staff” shirts and are trained to handle the situation appropriately. A Code of Conduct Committee (CCC) made up of the Executive Manager and three members of the Board of Directors designated by the President will be authorized to take action in response to an incident or behavior that violates the Code of Conduct.

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• Five Key Strategies in Master Data Management

  - by david.butler(at)oracle.com

  Here is a very interesting Profit Magazine article on MDM: A recent customer survey reveals the deleterious effects of data fragmentation. by Trevor Naidoo, December 2010   Across industries and geographies, IT organizations have grown in complexity, whether due to mergers and acquisitions, or decentralized systems supporting functional or departmental requirements. With systems architected over time to support unique, one-off process needs, they are becoming costly to maintain, and the Internet has only further added to the complexity. Data fragmentation has become a key inhibitor in delivering flexible, user-friendly systems. The Oracle Insight team conducted a survey assessing customers' master data management (MDM) capabilities over the past two years to get a sense of where they are in terms of their capabilities. The responses, by 27 respondents from six different industries, reveal five key areas in which customers need to improve their data management in order to get better financial results. 1. Less than 15 percent of organizations surveyed understand the sources and quality of their master data, and have a roadmap to address missing data domains. Examples of the types of master data domains referred to are customer, supplier, product, financial and site. Many organizations have multiple sources of master data with varying degrees of data quality in each source -- customer data stored in the customer relationship management system is inconsistent with customer data stored in the order management system. Imagine not knowing how many places you stored your customer information, and whether a customer's address was the most up to date in each source. In fact, more than 55 percent of the respondents in the survey manage their data quality on an ad-hoc basis. It is important for organizations to document their inventory of data sources and then profile these data sources to ensure that there is a consistent definition of key data entities throughout the organization. Some questions to ask are: How do we define a customer? What is a product? How do we define a site? The goal is to strive for one common repository for master data that acts as a cross reference for all other sources and ensures consistent, high-quality master data throughout the organization. 2. Only 18 percent of respondents have an enterprise data management strategy to ensure that data is treated as an asset to the organization. Most respondents handle data at the department or functional level and do not have an enterprise view of their master data. The sales department may track all their interactions with customers as they move through the sales cycle, the service department is tracking their interactions with the same customers independently, and the finance department also has a different perspective on the same customer. The salesperson may not be aware that the customer she is trying to sell to is experiencing issues with existing products purchased, or that the customer is behind on previous invoices. The lack of a data strategy makes it difficult for business users to turn data into information via reports. Without the key building blocks in place, it is difficult to create key linkages between customer, product, site, supplier and financial data. These linkages make it possible to understand patterns. A well-defined data management strategy is aligned to the business strategy and helps create the governance needed to ensure that data stewardship is in place and data integrity is intact. 3. Almost 60 percent of respondents have no strategy to integrate data across operational applications. Many respondents have several disparate sources of data with no strategy to keep them in sync with each other. Even though there is no clear strategy to integrate the data (see #2 above), the data needs to be synced and cross-referenced to keep the business processes running. About 55 percent of respondents said they perform this integration on an ad hoc basis, and in many cases, it is done manually with the help of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. For example, a salesperson needs a report on global sales for a specific product, but the product has different product numbers in different countries. Typically, an analyst will pull all the data into Excel, manually create a cross reference for that product, and then aggregate the sales. The exact same procedure has to be followed if the same report is needed the following month. A well-defined consolidation strategy will ensure that a central cross-reference is maintained with updates in any one application being propagated to all the other systems, so that data is synchronized and up to date. This can be done in real time or in batch mode using integration technology. 4. Approximately 50 percent of respondents spend manual efforts cleansing and normalizing data. Information stored in various systems usually follows different standards and formats, making it difficult to match the data. A customer's address can be stored in different ways using a variety of abbreviations -- for example, "av" or "ave" for avenue. Similarly, a product's attributes can be stored in a number of different ways; for example, a size attribute can be stored in inches and can also be entered as "'' ". These types of variations make it difficult to match up data from different sources. Today, most customers rely on manual, heroic efforts to match, cleanse, and de-duplicate data -- clearly not a scalable, sustainable model. To solve this challenge, organizations need the ability to standardize data for customers, products, sites, suppliers and financial accounts; however, less than 10 percent of respondents have technology in place to automatically resolve duplicates. It is no wonder, therefore, that we get communications about products we don't own, at addresses we don't reside, and using channels (like direct mail) we don't like. An all-too-common example of a potential challenge follows: Customers end up receiving duplicate communications, which not only impacts customer satisfaction, but also incurs additional mailing costs. Cleansing, normalizing, and standardizing data will help address most of these issues. 5. Only 10 percent of respondents have the ability to share data that was mastered in a master data hub. Close to 60 percent of respondents have efforts in place that profile, standardize and cleanse data manually, and the output of these efforts are stored in spreadsheets in various parts of the organization. This valuable information is not easily shared with the rest of the organization and, more importantly, this enriched information cannot be sent back to the source systems so that the data is fixed at the source. A key benefit of a master data management strategy is not only to clean the data, but to also share the data back to the source systems as well as other systems that need the information. Aside from the source systems, another key beneficiary of this data is the business intelligence system. Having clean master data as input to business intelligence systems provides more accurate and enhanced reporting.  Characteristics of Stellar MDM When deciding on the right master data management technology, organizations should look for solutions that have four main characteristics: enterprise-grade MDM performance complete technology that can be rapidly deployed and addresses multiple business issues end-to-end MDM process management with data quality monitoring and assurance pre-built MDM business relevant applications with data stores and workflows These master data management capabilities will aid in moving closer to a best-practice maturity level, delivering tremendous efficiencies and savings as well as revenue growth opportunities as a result of better understanding your customers.  Trevor Naidoo is a senior director in Industry Strategy and Insight at Oracle. 

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• Developing Schema Compare for Oracle (Part 1)

  - by Simon Cooper

  SQL Compare is one of Red Gate's most successful SQL Server tools; it allows developers and DBAs to compare and synchronize the contents of their databases. Although similar tools exist for Oracle, they are quite noticeably lacking in the usability and stability that SQL Compare is known for in the SQL Server world. We could see a real need for a usable schema comparison tools for Oracle, and so the Schema Compare for Oracle project was born. Over the next few weeks, as we come up to release of v1, I'll be doing a series of posts on the development of Schema Compare for Oracle. For the first post, I thought I would start with the main pitfalls that we stumbled across when developing the product, especially from a SQL Server background. 1. Schemas and Databases The most obvious difference is that the concept of a 'database' is quite different between Oracle and SQL Server. On SQL Server, one server instance has multiple databases, each with separate schemas. There is typically little communication between separate databases, and most databases are no more than about 1000-2000 objects. This means SQL Compare can register an entire database in a reasonable amount of time, and cross-database dependencies probably won't be an issue. It is a quite different scene under Oracle, however. The terms 'database' and 'instance' are used interchangeably, (although technically 'database' refers to the datafiles on disk, and 'instance' the running Oracle process that reads & writes to the database), and a database is a single conceptual entity. This immediately presents problems, as it is infeasible to register an entire database as we do in SQL Compare; in my Oracle install, using the standard recommended options, there are 63975 system objects. If we tried to register all those, not only would it take hours, but the client would probably run out of memory before we finished. As a result, we had to allow people to specify what schemas they wanted to register. This decision had quite a few knock-on effects for the design, which I will cover in a future post. 2. Connecting to Oracle The next obvious difference is in actually connecting to Oracle – in SQL Server, you can specify a server and database, and off you go. On Oracle things are slightly more complicated. SIDs, Service Names, and TNS A database (the files on disk) must have a unique identifier for the databases on the system, called the SID. It also has a global database name, which consists of a name (which doesn't have to match the SID) and a domain. Alternatively, you can identify a database using a service name, which normally has a 1-to-1 relationship with instances, but may not if, for example, using RAC (Real Application Clusters) for redundancy and failover. You specify the computer and instance you want to connect to using TNS (Transparent Network Substrate). The user-visible parts are a config file (tnsnames.ora) on the client machine that specifies how to connect to an instance. For example, the entry for one of my test instances is: SC_11GDB1 = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = simonctest)(PORT = 1521)) ) (CONNECT_DATA = (SID = 11gR1db1) ) ) This gives the hostname, port, and SID of the instance I want to connect to, and associates it with a name (SC_11GDB1). The tnsnames syntax also allows you to specify failover, multiple descriptions and address lists, and client load balancing. You can then specify this TNS identifier as the data source in a connection string. Although using ODP.NET (the .NET dlls provided by Oracle) was fine for internal prototype builds, once we released the EAP we discovered that this simply wasn't an acceptable solution for installs on other people's machines. Due to .NET assembly strong naming, users had to have installed on their machines the exact same version of the ODP.NET dlls as we had on our build server. We couldn't ship the ODP.NET dlls with our installer as the Oracle license agreement prohibited this, and we didn't want to force users to install another Oracle client just so they can run our program. To be able to list the TNS entries in the connection dialog, we also had to locate and parse the tnsnames.ora file, which was complicated by users with several Oracle client installs and intricate TNS entries. After much swearing at our computers, we eventually decided to use a third party Oracle connection library from Devart that we could ship with our program; this could use whatever client version was installed, parse the TNS entries for us, and also had the nice feature of being able to connect to an Oracle server without having any client installed at all. Unfortunately, their current license agreement prevents us from shipping an Oracle SDK, but that's a bridge we'll cross when we get to it. 3. Running synchronization scripts The most important difference is that in Oracle, DDL is non-transactional; you cannot rollback DDL statements like you can on SQL Server. Although we considered various solutions to this, including using the flashback archive or recycle bin, or generating an undo script, no reliable method of completely undoing a half-executed sync script has yet been found; so in this case we simply have to trust that the DBA or developer will check and verify the script before running it. However, before we got to that stage, we had to get the scripts to run in the first place... To run a synchronization script from SQL Compare we essentially pass the script over to the SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery method. However, when we tried to do the same for an OracleConnection we got a very strange error – 'ORA-00911: invalid character', even when running the most basic CREATE TABLE command. After much hair-pulling and Googling, we discovered that Oracle has got some very strange behaviour with semicolons at the end of statements. To understand what's going on, we need to take a quick foray into SQL and PL/SQL. PL/SQL is not T-SQL In SQL Server, T-SQL is the language used to interface with the database. It has DDL, DML, control flow, and many other nice features (like Turing-completeness) that you can mix and match in the same script. In Oracle, DDL SQL and PL/SQL are two completely separate languages, with different syntax, different datatypes and different execution engines within the instance. Oracle SQL is much more like 'pure' ANSI SQL, with no state, no control flow, and only the basic DML commands. PL/SQL is the Turing-complete language, but can only do DML and DCL (i.e. BEGIN TRANSATION commands). Any DDL or SQL commands that aren't recognised by the PL/SQL engine have to be passed back to the SQL engine via an EXECUTE IMMEDIATE command. In PL/SQL, a semicolons is a valid token used to delimit the end of a statement. In SQL, a semicolon is not a valid token (even though the Oracle documentation gives them at the end of the syntax diagrams) . When you execute the command CREATE TABLE table1 (COL1 NUMBER); in SQL*Plus the semicolon on the end is a command to SQL*Plus to execute the preceding statement on the server; it strips off the semicolon before passing it on. SQL Developer does a similar thing. When executing a PL/SQL block, however, the syntax is like so: BEGIN INSERT INTO table1 VALUES (1); INSERT INTO table1 VALUES (2); END; / In this case, the semicolon is accepted by the PL/SQL engine as a statement delimiter, and instead the / is the command to SQL*Plus to execute the current block. This explains the ORA-00911 error we got when trying to run the CREATE TABLE command – the server is complaining about the semicolon on the end. This also means that there is no SQL syntax to execute more than one DDL command in the same OracleCommand. Therefore, we would have to do a round-trip to the server for every command we want to execute. Obviously, this would cause lots of network traffic and be very slow on slow or congested networks. Our first attempt at a solution was to wrap every SQL statement (without semicolon) inside an EXECUTE IMMEDIATE command in a PL/SQL block and pass that to the server to execute. One downside of this solution is that we get no feedback as to how the script execution is going; we're currently evaluating better solutions to this thorny issue. Next up: Dependencies; how we solved the problem of being unable to register the entire database, and the knock-on effects to the whole product.

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• JNI 'problmatic frame' causes JVM to crash

  - by HJED

  Hi I'm using JNI to access the exiv2 library (written in C++) in Java and I'm getting a weird runtime error in the JNI code. I've tried using various -Xms and -Xmx options, but that seems to have no affect. I've also tried running this code on JDK1.7.0 with the same result. # A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment: # # SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007ff31807757f, pid=4041, tid=140682078746368 # # JRE version: 6.0_20-b20 # Java VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (19.0-b09 mixed mode linux-amd64 ) # Derivative: IcedTea6 1.9.2 # Distribution: Ubuntu 10.10, package 6b20-1.9.2-0ubuntu2 # Problematic frame: # V [libjvm.so+0x42757f] # # If you would like to submit a bug report, please include # instructions how to reproduce the bug and visit: # https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openjdk-6/ # --------------- T H R E A D --------------- Current thread (0x000000000190d000): JavaThread "main" [_thread_in_Java, id=4043, stack(0x00007ff319447000,0x00007ff319548000)] siginfo:si_signo=SIGSEGV: si_errno=0, si_code=1 (SEGV_MAPERR), si_addr=0x0000000000000024 Registers: ... Register to memory mapping: RAX=0x0000000000000002 0x0000000000000002 is pointing to unknown location RBX=0x000000000190db90 0x000000000190db90 is pointing to unknown location RCX=0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000000000 is pointing to unknown location RDX=0x00007ff3195463f8 0x00007ff3195463f8 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE RSP=0x00007ff319546270 0x00007ff319546270 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE RBP=0x00007ff319546270 0x00007ff319546270 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE RSI=0x0000000000000024 0x0000000000000024 is pointing to unknown location RDI=0x00007ff3195463e0 0x00007ff3195463e0 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R8 =0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R9 =0x000000000190db88 0x000000000190db88 is pointing to unknown location R10=0x00007ff319546300 0x00007ff319546300 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R11=0x0000000000000002 0x0000000000000002 is pointing to unknown location R12=0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R13=0x00007ff319546560 0x00007ff319546560 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R14=0x00007ff3195463e0 0x00007ff3195463e0 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R15=0x0000000000000003 0x0000000000000003 is pointing to unknown location Top of Stack: (sp=0x00007ff319546270) ... Instructions: (pc=0x00007ff31807757f) 0x00007ff31807756f: e2 03 48 03 57 58 31 c9 48 8b 32 48 85 f6 74 03 0x00007ff31807757f: 48 8b 0e 48 89 0a 8b 77 68 83 c0 01 39 f0 7c d1 Stack: [0x00007ff319447000,0x00007ff319548000], sp=0x00007ff319546270, free space=1020k Native frames: (J=compiled Java code, j=interpreted, Vv=VM code, C=native code) V [libjvm.so+0x42757f] V [libjvm.so+0x42866b] V [libjvm.so+0x4275c8] V [libjvm.so+0x4331bd] V [libjvm.so+0x44e5c7] C [libExiff2-binding.so+0x1f16] _ZN7JNIEnv_15CallVoidMethodAEP8_jobjectP10_jmethodIDPK6jvalue+0x40 C [libExiff2-binding.so+0x1b96] _Z8loadIPTCSt8auto_ptrIN5Exiv25ImageEEPKcP7JNIEnv_P8_jobject+0x2ba C [libExiff2-binding.so+0x1d3f] _Z7getVarsPKcP7JNIEnv_P8_jobject+0x176 C [libExiff2-binding.so+0x1de7] Java_photo_exiv2_Exiv2MetaDataStore_impl_1loadFromExiv+0x4b j photo.exiv2.Exiv2MetaDataStore.impl_loadFromExiv(Ljava/lang/String;Lphoto/exiv2/Exiv2MetaDataStore;)V+0 j photo.exiv2.Exiv2MetaDataStore.loadFromExiv2()V+9 j photo.exiv2.Exiv2MetaDataStore.loadData()V+1 j photo.exiv2.Exiv2MetaDataStore.<init>(Lphoto/ImageFile;)V+10 j test.Main.main([Ljava/lang/String;)V+76 v ~StubRoutines::call_stub V [libjvm.so+0x428698] V [libjvm.so+0x4275c8] V [libjvm.so+0x432943] V [libjvm.so+0x447f91] C [java+0x3495] JavaMain+0xd75 --------------- P R O C E S S --------------- Java Threads: ( => current thread ) 0x00007ff2c4027800 JavaThread "Low Memory Detector" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4060, stack(0x00007ff2c9052000,0x00007ff2c9153000)] 0x00007ff2c4025000 JavaThread "CompilerThread1" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4059, stack(0x00007ff2c9153000,0x00007ff2c9254000)] 0x00007ff2c4022000 JavaThread "CompilerThread0" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4058, stack(0x00007ff2c9254000,0x00007ff2c9355000)] 0x00007ff2c401f800 JavaThread "Signal Dispatcher" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4057, stack(0x00007ff2c9355000,0x00007ff2c9456000)] 0x00007ff2c4001000 JavaThread "Finalizer" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4056, stack(0x00007ff2c994d000,0x00007ff2c9a4e000)] 0x0000000001984000 JavaThread "Reference Handler" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4055, stack(0x00007ff2c9a4e000,0x00007ff2c9b4f000)] =>0x000000000190d000 JavaThread "main" [_thread_in_Java, id=4043, stack(0x00007ff319447000,0x00007ff319548000)] Other Threads: 0x000000000197d800 VMThread [stack: 0x00007ff2c9b4f000,0x00007ff2c9c50000] [id=4054] 0x00007ff2c4032000 WatcherThread [stack: 0x00007ff2c8f51000,0x00007ff2c9052000] [id=4061] VM state:not at safepoint (normal execution) VM Mutex/Monitor currently owned by a thread: None Heap PSYoungGen total 18432K, used 316K [0x00007ff2fed30000, 0x00007ff3001c0000, 0x00007ff313730000) eden space 15808K, 2% used [0x00007ff2fed30000,0x00007ff2fed7f0b8,0x00007ff2ffca0000) from space 2624K, 0% used [0x00007ff2fff30000,0x00007ff2fff30000,0x00007ff3001c0000) to space 2624K, 0% used [0x00007ff2ffca0000,0x00007ff2ffca0000,0x00007ff2fff30000) PSOldGen total 42240K, used 0K [0x00007ff2d5930000, 0x00007ff2d8270000, 0x00007ff2fed30000) object space 42240K, 0% used [0x00007ff2d5930000,0x00007ff2d5930000,0x00007ff2d8270000) PSPermGen total 21248K, used 2827K [0x00007ff2cb330000, 0x00007ff2cc7f0000, 0x00007ff2d5930000) object space 21248K, 13% used [0x00007ff2cb330000,0x00007ff2cb5f2f60,0x00007ff2cc7f0000) Dynamic libraries: 00400000-00409000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141899 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 00608000-00609000 r--p 00008000 08:03 141899 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 00609000-0060a000 rw-p 00009000 08:03 141899 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 01904000-019ad000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [heap] ... 7ff2c820c000-7ff2c8232000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 917704 /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 7ff2c8232000-7ff2c8432000 ---p 00026000 08:03 917704 /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 7ff2c8432000-7ff2c8434000 r--p 00026000 08:03 917704 /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 7ff2c8434000-7ff2c8435000 rw-p 00028000 08:03 917704 /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 7ff2c8435000-7ff2c844a000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 917708 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 7ff2c844a000-7ff2c8649000 ---p 00015000 08:03 917708 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 7ff2c8649000-7ff2c864a000 r--p 00014000 08:03 917708 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 7ff2c864a000-7ff2c864b000 rw-p 00015000 08:03 917708 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 7ff2c864b000-7ff2c8733000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 134995 /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.14 7ff2c8733000-7ff2c8932000 ---p 000e8000 08:03 134995 /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.14 7ff2c8932000-7ff2c893a000 r--p 000e7000 08:03 134995 /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.14 7ff2c893a000-7ff2c893c000 rw-p 000ef000 08:03 134995 /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.14 7ff2c893c000-7ff2c8951000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff2c8951000-7ff2c8af3000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 134599 /usr/lib/libexiv2.so.6.0.0 7ff2c8af3000-7ff2c8cf2000 ---p 001a2000 08:03 134599 /usr/lib/libexiv2.so.6.0.0 7ff2c8cf2000-7ff2c8d0f000 r--p 001a1000 08:03 134599 /usr/lib/libexiv2.so.6.0.0 7ff2c8d0f000-7ff2c8d10000 rw-p 001be000 08:03 134599 /usr/lib/libexiv2.so.6.0.0 7ff2c8d10000-7ff2c8d23000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff2c8d42000-7ff2c8d45000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 800718 /home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so 7ff2c8d45000-7ff2c8f44000 ---p 00003000 08:03 800718 /home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so 7ff2c8f44000-7ff2c8f45000 r--p 00002000 08:03 800718 /home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so 7ff2c8f45000-7ff2c8f46000 rw-p 00003000 08:03 800718 /home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so 7ff2c8f46000-7ff2c8f49000 r--s 0000f000 08:03 141333 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/ext/pulse-java.jar 7ff2c8f49000-7ff2c8f51000 r--s 00066000 08:03 408472 /usr/share/java/gnome-java-bridge.jar ... 7ff2ca559000-7ff2ca55b000 r--s 0001d000 08:03 141354 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/plugin.jar 7ff2ca55b000-7ff2ca560000 r--s 00044000 08:03 141353 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/netx.jar 7ff2ca560000-7ff2ca592000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff2ca592000-7ff2ca720000 r--s 038af000 08:03 141833 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/rt.jar ... 7ff31673b000-7ff316742000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141867 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libzip.so 7ff316742000-7ff316941000 ---p 00007000 08:03 141867 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libzip.so 7ff316941000-7ff316942000 r--p 00006000 08:03 141867 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libzip.so 7ff316942000-7ff316943000 rw-p 00007000 08:03 141867 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libzip.so 7ff316943000-7ff31694f000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921396 /lib/libnss_files-2.12.1.so 7ff31694f000-7ff316b4e000 ---p 0000c000 08:03 921396 /lib/libnss_files-2.12.1.so 7ff316b4e000-7ff316b4f000 r--p 0000b000 08:03 921396 /lib/libnss_files-2.12.1.so 7ff316b4f000-7ff316b50000 rw-p 0000c000 08:03 921396 /lib/libnss_files-2.12.1.so 7ff316b50000-7ff316b5a000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921398 /lib/libnss_nis-2.12.1.so 7ff316b5a000-7ff316d59000 ---p 0000a000 08:03 921398 /lib/libnss_nis-2.12.1.so 7ff316d59000-7ff316d5a000 r--p 00009000 08:03 921398 /lib/libnss_nis-2.12.1.so 7ff316d5a000-7ff316d5b000 rw-p 0000a000 08:03 921398 /lib/libnss_nis-2.12.1.so 7ff316d5b000-7ff316d63000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921393 /lib/libnss_compat-2.12.1.so 7ff316d63000-7ff316f62000 ---p 00008000 08:03 921393 /lib/libnss_compat-2.12.1.so 7ff316f62000-7ff316f63000 r--p 00007000 08:03 921393 /lib/libnss_compat-2.12.1.so 7ff316f63000-7ff316f64000 rw-p 00008000 08:03 921393 /lib/libnss_compat-2.12.1.so 7ff316f64000-7ff316f6c000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141869 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/native_threads/libhpi.so 7ff316f6c000-7ff31716b000 ---p 00008000 08:03 141869 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/native_threads/libhpi.so 7ff31716b000-7ff31716c000 r--p 00007000 08:03 141869 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/native_threads/libhpi.so 7ff31716c000-7ff31716d000 rw-p 00008000 08:03 141869 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/native_threads/libhpi.so 7ff31716d000-7ff317184000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921392 /lib/libnsl-2.12.1.so 7ff317184000-7ff317383000 ---p 00017000 08:03 921392 /lib/libnsl-2.12.1.so 7ff317383000-7ff317384000 r--p 00016000 08:03 921392 /lib/libnsl-2.12.1.so 7ff317384000-7ff317385000 rw-p 00017000 08:03 921392 /lib/libnsl-2.12.1.so 7ff317385000-7ff317387000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff317387000-7ff3173b2000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141850 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjava.so 7ff3173b2000-7ff3175b1000 ---p 0002b000 08:03 141850 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjava.so 7ff3175b1000-7ff3175b2000 r--p 0002a000 08:03 141850 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjava.so 7ff3175b2000-7ff3175b5000 rw-p 0002b000 08:03 141850 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjava.so 7ff3175b5000-7ff3175c3000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141866 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libverify.so 7ff3175c3000-7ff3177c2000 ---p 0000e000 08:03 141866 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libverify.so 7ff3177c2000-7ff3177c4000 r--p 0000d000 08:03 141866 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libverify.so 7ff3177c4000-7ff3177c5000 rw-p 0000f000 08:03 141866 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libverify.so 7ff3177c5000-7ff3177cc000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921405 /lib/librt-2.12.1.so 7ff3177cc000-7ff3179cb000 ---p 00007000 08:03 921405 /lib/librt-2.12.1.so 7ff3179cb000-7ff3179cc000 r--p 00006000 08:03 921405 /lib/librt-2.12.1.so 7ff3179cc000-7ff3179cd000 rw-p 00007000 08:03 921405 /lib/librt-2.12.1.so 7ff3179cd000-7ff317a4f000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921390 /lib/libm-2.12.1.so 7ff317a4f000-7ff317c4e000 ---p 00082000 08:03 921390 /lib/libm-2.12.1.so 7ff317c4e000-7ff317c4f000 r--p 00081000 08:03 921390 /lib/libm-2.12.1.so 7ff317c4f000-7ff317c50000 rw-p 00082000 08:03 921390 /lib/libm-2.12.1.so 7ff317c50000-7ff3184c4000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141871 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so 7ff3184c4000-7ff3186c3000 ---p 00874000 08:03 141871 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so 7ff3186c3000-7ff318739000 r--p 00873000 08:03 141871 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so 7ff318739000-7ff318754000 rw-p 008e9000 08:03 141871 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so 7ff318754000-7ff31878d000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31878d000-7ff318907000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921385 /lib/libc-2.12.1.so 7ff318907000-7ff318b06000 ---p 0017a000 08:03 921385 /lib/libc-2.12.1.so 7ff318b06000-7ff318b0a000 r--p 00179000 08:03 921385 /lib/libc-2.12.1.so 7ff318b0a000-7ff318b0b000 rw-p 0017d000 08:03 921385 /lib/libc-2.12.1.so 7ff318b0b000-7ff318b10000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff318b10000-7ff318b12000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921388 /lib/libdl-2.12.1.so 7ff318b12000-7ff318d12000 ---p 00002000 08:03 921388 /lib/libdl-2.12.1.so 7ff318d12000-7ff318d13000 r--p 00002000 08:03 921388 /lib/libdl-2.12.1.so 7ff318d13000-7ff318d14000 rw-p 00003000 08:03 921388 /lib/libdl-2.12.1.so 7ff318d14000-7ff318d18000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141838 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/jli/libjli.so 7ff318d18000-7ff318f17000 ---p 00004000 08:03 141838 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/jli/libjli.so 7ff318f17000-7ff318f18000 r--p 00003000 08:03 141838 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/jli/libjli.so 7ff318f18000-7ff318f19000 rw-p 00004000 08:03 141838 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/jli/libjli.so 7ff318f19000-7ff318f31000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921401 /lib/libpthread-2.12.1.so 7ff318f31000-7ff319130000 ---p 00018000 08:03 921401 /lib/libpthread-2.12.1.so 7ff319130000-7ff319131000 r--p 00017000 08:03 921401 /lib/libpthread-2.12.1.so 7ff319131000-7ff319132000 rw-p 00018000 08:03 921401 /lib/libpthread-2.12.1.so 7ff319132000-7ff319136000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff319136000-7ff31914c000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 917772 /lib/libz.so.1.2.3.4 7ff31914c000-7ff31934c000 ---p 00016000 08:03 917772 /lib/libz.so.1.2.3.4 7ff31934c000-7ff31934d000 r--p 00016000 08:03 917772 /lib/libz.so.1.2.3.4 7ff31934d000-7ff31934e000 rw-p 00017000 08:03 917772 /lib/libz.so.1.2.3.4 7ff31934e000-7ff31936e000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921379 /lib/ld-2.12.1.so 7ff319387000-7ff319391000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff319391000-7ff319447000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff319447000-7ff31944a000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31944a000-7ff31954d000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff319562000-7ff31956a000 rw-s 00000000 08:03 1966453 /tmp/hsperfdata_hjed/4041 7ff31956a000-7ff31956b000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31956b000-7ff31956c000 r--p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31956c000-7ff31956e000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31956e000-7ff31956f000 r--p 00020000 08:03 921379 /lib/ld-2.12.1.so 7ff31956f000-7ff319570000 rw-p 00021000 08:03 921379 /lib/ld-2.12.1.so 7ff319570000-7ff319571000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7fff0fb03000-7fff0fb24000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [stack] 7fff0fbff000-7fff0fc00000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vdso] ffffffffff600000-ffffffffff601000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vsyscall] VM Arguments: jvm_args: -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 java_command: test.Main Launcher Type: SUN_STANDARD Environment Variables: PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games USERNAME=hjed LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/../lib/amd64 SHELL=/bin/bash DISPLAY=:0.0 Signal Handlers: SIGSEGV: [libjvm.so+0x712700], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGBUS: [libjvm.so+0x712700], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGFPE: [libjvm.so+0x5d4020], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGPIPE: [libjvm.so+0x5d4020], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGXFSZ: [libjvm.so+0x5d4020], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGILL: [libjvm.so+0x5d4020], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGUSR1: SIG_DFL, sa_mask[0]=0x00000000, sa_flags=0x00000000 SIGUSR2: [libjvm.so+0x5d3730], sa_mask[0]=0x00000004, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGHUP: [libjvm.so+0x5d61a0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGINT: SIG_IGN, sa_mask[0]=0x00000000, sa_flags=0x00000000 SIGTERM: [libjvm.so+0x5d61a0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGQUIT: [libjvm.so+0x5d61a0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 --------------- S Y S T E M --------------- OS:Ubuntu 10.10 (maverick) uname:Linux 2.6.35-24-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 2 02:41:37 UTC 2010 x86_64 libc:glibc 2.12.1 NPTL 2.12.1 rlimit: STACK 8192k, CORE 0k, NPROC infinity, NOFILE 1024, AS infinity load average:0.25 0.16 0.21 /proc/meminfo: MemTotal: 4048200 kB MemFree: 1230476 kB Buffers: 589572 kB Cached: 911132 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 1321712 kB Inactive: 1202272 kB Active(anon): 1023852 kB Inactive(anon): 7168 kB Active(file): 297860 kB Inactive(file): 1195104 kB Unevictable: 64 kB Mlocked: 64 kB SwapTotal: 7065596 kB SwapFree: 7065596 kB Dirty: 632 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 1023368 kB Mapped: 145832 kB Shmem: 7728 kB Slab: 111136 kB SReclaimable: 66316 kB SUnreclaim: 44820 kB KernelStack: 3824 kB PageTables: 27736 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 9089696 kB Committed_AS: 2378396 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB VmallocUsed: 332928 kB VmallocChunk: 34359397884 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 0 HugePages_Free: 0 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 HugePages_Surp: 0 Hugepagesize: 2048 kB DirectMap4k: 67136 kB DirectMap2M: 4118528 kB CPU:total 8 (4 cores per cpu, 2 threads per core) family 6 model 26 stepping 5, cmov, cx8, fxsr, mmx, sse, sse2, sse3, ssse3, sse4.1, sse4.2, popcnt, ht Memory: 4k page, physical 4048200k(1230476k free), swap 7065596k(7065596k free) vm_info: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (19.0-b09) for linux-amd64 JRE (1.6.0_20-b20), built on Dec 10 2010 19:45:55 by "buildd" with gcc 4.4.5 time: Sat Jan 1 14:12:27 2011 elapsed time: 0 seconds The java code is: ... public class Main { public static void main(String[] args) { ... ImageFile img = new ImageFile(System.getProperty("user.home") + "/PC100001.JPG"); Exiv2MetaDataStore e = new Exiv2MetaDataStore(img); Iterator<Entry<String, String>> i = e.entrySet().iterator(); while (i.hasNext()) { Entry<String, String> entry = i.next(); System.out.println(entry.getKey() + ":" + entry.getValue()); } //if you switch this print statment with the while loop you get the same error. // System.out.print(e.toString()); } } and /** NB: MetaDataStore is an abstract class that extends HashMap<String,String> */ public class Exiv2MetaDataStore extends MetaDataStore{ ... private final ImageFile F; /** * Creates an meta data store from an ImageFile using Exiv2 * this calls loadData(); * @param f */ public Exiv2MetaDataStore(ImageFile f) { F = f; loadData(); } ... @Override protected void loadData() { loadFromExiv2(); } ... private void loadFromExiv2() { impl_loadFromExiv(F.getAbsolutePath(), this); } private native void impl_loadFromExiv(String path, Exiv2MetaDataStore str); //this method called by the C++ code public void exiv2_reciveElement(String key, String value) { super.put(key,value); } static { Runtime.getRuntime().load("/home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so"); } } C++ code: #include <exif.hpp> #include <image.hpp> #include <iptc.hpp> #include <exiv2/exiv2.hpp> #include <exiv2/error.hpp> #include <iostream> #include <iomanip> #include <cassert> void loadIPTC(Exiv2::Image::AutoPtr image, const char * path, JNIEnv * env, jobject obj) { Exiv2::IptcData &iptcData = image->iptcData(); //load method jclass cls = env->GetObjectClass(obj); jmethodID mid = env->GetMethodID(cls, "exiv2_reciveElement", "(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)V"); //is there any IPTC data AND check that method exists if (iptcData.empty() | (mid == NULL)) { std::string error(path); error += ": failed loading IPTC data, there may not be any data"; } else { Exiv2::IptcData::iterator end = iptcData.end(); for (Exiv2::IptcData::iterator md = iptcData.begin(); md != end; ++md) { jvalue values[2]; const char* key = md->key().c_str(); values[0].l = env->NewStringUTF(key); md->value().toString().c_str(); const char* value = md->typeName(); values[2].l = env->NewStringUTF(value); //If I replace the code for values[2] with the commented out code I get the same error. //const char* type = md->typeName(); //values[2].l = env->NewStringUTF(type); env->CallVoidMethodA(obj, mid, values); } } } void getVars(const char* path, JNIEnv * env, jobject obj) { //Load image Exiv2::Image::AutoPtr image = Exiv2::ImageFactory::open(path); assert(image.get() != 0); image->readMetadata(); //Load IPTC data loadIPTC(image, path, env, obj); } JNIEXPORT void JNICALL Java_photo_exiv2_Exiv2MetaDataStore_impl_1loadFromExiv(JNIEnv * env, jobject obj, jstring path, jobject obj2) { const char* path2 = env->GetStringUTFChars(path, NULL); getVars(path2, env, obj); env->ReleaseStringUTFChars(path, path2); } I've searched for a fix for this, but I can't find one. I don't have much experience using C++ so if I've made an obvious mistake in the C code I apologies. Thanks for any help, HJED P.S. This is my first post on this site and I wasn't sure how much of the code I needed to show. Sorry if I've put to much up.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, June 16, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, June 16, 2012Popular ReleasesCosmos (C# Open Source Managed Operating System): Release 92560: Prerequisites Visual Studio 2010 - Any version including Express. Express users must also install Visual Studio 2010 Integrated Shell runtime VMWare - Cosmos can run on real hardware as well as other virtualization environments but our default debug setup is configured for VMWare. VMWare Player (Free). or Workstation VMWare VIX API 1.11AutoUpdaterdotNET : Autoupdate for VB.NET and C# Developer: AutoUpdater.NET 1.1: Release Notes *New feature added that allows user to select remind later interval.Sumzlib: API document: API documentMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: AdventureWorks 2008 OLTP Script: Install AdventureWorks2008 OLTP database from script The AdventureWorks database can be created by running the instawdb.sql DDL script contained in the AdventureWorks 2008 OLTP Script.zip file. The instawdb.sql script depends on two path environment variables: SqlSamplesDatabasePath and SqlSamplesSourceDataPath. The SqlSamplesDatabasePath environment variable is set to the default Microsoft ® SQL Server 2008 path. You will need to change the SqlSamplesSourceDataPath environment variable to th...HigLabo: HigLabo_20120613: Bug fix HigLabo.Mail Decode header encoded by CP1252Jasc (just another script compressor): 1.3.1: Updated Ajax Minifier to 4.55.WipeTouch, a jQuery touch plugin: 1.2.0: Changes since 1.1.0: New: wipeMove event, triggered while moving the mouse/finger. New: added "source" to the result object. Bug fix: sometimes vertical wipe events would not trigger correctly. Bug fix: improved tapToClick handler. General code refactoring. Windows Phone 7 is not supported, yet! Its behaviour is completely broken and would require some special tricks to make it work. Maybe in the future...Phalanger - The PHP Language Compiler for the .NET Framework: 3.0.0.3026 (June 2012): Fixes: round( 0.0 ) local TimeZone name TimeZone search compiling multi-script-assemblies PhpString serialization DocDocument::loadHTMLFile() token_get_all() parse_url()BlackJumboDog: Ver5.6.4: 2012.06.13 Ver5.6.4 　(1) Web???????、???POST??????????????????Yahoo! UI Library: YUI Compressor for .Net: Version 2.0.0.0 - Ferret: - Merging both 3.5 and 2.0 codebases to a single .NET 2.0 assembly. - MSBuild Task. - NAnt Task.Bumblebee: Version 0.3.1: Changed default config values to decent ones. Restricted visibility of Hive.fs to internal. Added some XML documentation. Added Array.shuffle utility. The dll is also available on NuGet My apologies, the initial source code referenced was missing one file which prevented it from building The source code contains two examples, one in C#, one in F#, illustrating the usage of the framework on the Travelling Salesman Problem: Source CodeSharePoint XSL Templates: SPXSLT 0.0.9: Added new template FixAmpersands. Fixed the contents of the MultiSelectValueCheck.xsl file, which was missing the stylesheet wrapper.ExcelFileEditor: .CS File: nothingBizTalk Scheduled Task Adapter: Release 4.0: Works with BizTalk Server 2010. Compiled in .NET Framework 4.0. In this new version are available small improvements compared to the current version (3.0). We can highlight the following improvements or changes: 24 hours support in “start time” property. Previous versions had an issue with setting the start time, as it shown 12 hours watch but no AM/PM. Daily scheduler review. Solved a small bug on Daily Properties: unable to switch between “Every day” and “on these days” Installation e...Weapsy - ASP.NET MVC CMS: 1.0.0 RC: - Upgrade to Entity Framework 4.3.1 - Added AutoMapper custom version (by nopCommerce Team) - Added missed model properties and localization resources of Plugin Definitions - Minor changes - Fixed some bugsXenta Framework - extensible enterprise n-tier application framework: Xenta Framework 1.8.0 Beta: Catalog and Publication reviews and ratings Store language packs in data base Improve reporting system Improve Import/Export system A lot of WebAdmin app UI improvements Initial implementation of the WebForum app DB indexes Improve and simplify architecture Less abstractions Modernize architecture Improve, simplify and unify API Simplify and improve testing A lot of new unit tests Codebase refactoring and ReSharpering Utilize Castle Windsor Utilize NHibernate ORM ...Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.55: Properly handle IE extension to CSS3 grammar that allows for multiple parameters to functional pseudo-class selectors. add new switch -braces:(new|same) that affects where opening braces are placed in multi-line output. The default, "new" puts them on their own new line; "same" outputs them at the end of the previous line. add new optional values to the -inline switch: -inline:(force|noforce), which can be combined with the existing boolean value via comma-separators; value "force" (which...Microsoft Media Platform: Player Framework: MMP Player Framework 2.7 (Silverlight and WP7): Additional DownloadsSMFv2.7 Full Installer (MSI) - This will install everything you need in order to develop your own SMF player application, including the IIS Smooth Streaming Client. It only includes the assemblies. If you want the source code please follow the link above. Smooth Streaming Sample Player - This is a pre-built player that includes support for IIS Smooth Streaming. You can configure the player to playback your content by simplying editing a configuration file - no need to co...Liberty: v3.2.1.0 Release 10th June 2012: Change Log -Added -Liberty is now digitally signed! If the certificate on Liberty.exe is missing, invalid, or does not state that it was developed by "Xbox Chaos, Open Source Developer," your copy of Liberty may have been altered in some (possibly malicious) way. -Reach Mass biped max health and shield changer -Fixed -H3/ODST Fixed all of the glitches that users kept reporting (also reverted the changes made in 3.2.0.2) -Reach Made some tag names clearer and more consistent between m...Media Companion: Media Companion 3.503b: It has been a while, so it's about time we release another build! Major effort has been for fixing trailer downloads, plus a little bit of work for episode guide tag in TV show NFOs.New Projects.NinJa (dotNinja): An extensive JavaScript Framework revolving around principles found in .NET and aiming to integrate full Intellisense support. bab-rizg: solve unemployment problemBizTalk Multi-part Message Attachments Zipper Pipeline Component: This pipeline component replaces all attachments of a multi-part message, in a send pipeline, for its zipped equivalent.Boggle.Net: A basic implementation of Boggle for WPF.CFScript: CFScript is an ANT-like scripting system for Compact Framework. Tasks like copying files, setting registry values o install CAB files can be done with CFScript.Diablo3: Diablo3Dygraphs.NET: Dygraphs.NETDynamics CRM plugin for nopCommerce: This plugins is a bridge between nopCommerce and Dynamics CRM. nms.gaming: Place holderProject Bright Star: Project Bright Star. Deal with it.RDFSharp: RDFSharp is a library designed to ease the development of .NET applications based on the RDF and Semantic Web data model.SlamCMS: An application framework that allows you to build content managed sites leveraging SharePoint 2010 for publishing with tools to query and manifest your data.test02: no

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• Partner Blog Series: PwC Perspectives - Looking at R2 for Customer Organizations

  - by Tanu Sood

  Welcome to the first of our partner blog series. November Mondays are all about PricewaterhouseCoopers' perespective on Identity and R2. In this series, we have identity management experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) share their perspective on (and experiences with) the recent identity management release, Oracle Identity Management R2. The purpose of the series is to discuss real world identity use cases that helped shape the innovations in the recent R2 release and the implementation strategies that customers are employing today with expertise from PwC. Part 1: Looking at R2 for Customer Organizations In this inaugural post, we will discuss some of the new features of the R2 release of Oracle Identity Manager that some of our customer organizations are implementing today and the business rationale for those. Oracle's R2 Security portfolio represents a solid step forward for a platform that is already market-leading.  Prior to R2, Oracle was an industry titan in security with reliable products, expansive compatibility, and a large customer base.  Oracle has taken their identity platform to the next level in their latest version, R2.  The new features include a customizable UI, a request catalog, flexible security, and enhancements for its connectors, and more. Oracle customers will be impressed by the new Oracle Identity Manager (OIM) business-friendly UI.  Without question, Oracle has invested significant time in responding to customer feedback about making access requests and related activities easier for non-IT users.  The flexibility to add information to screens, hide fields that are not important to a particular customer, and adjust web themes to suit a company's preference make Oracle's Identity Manager stand out among its peers.  Customers can also expect to carry UI configurations forward with minimal migration effort to future versions of OIM.  Oracle's flexible UI will benefit many organizations looking for a customized feel with out-of-the-box configurations. Organizations looking to extend their services to end users will benefit significantly from new usability features like OIM’s ‘Catalog.’  Customers familiar with Oracle Identity Analytics' 'Glossary' feature will be able to relate to the concept.  It will enable Roles, Entitlements, Accounts, and Resources to be requested through the out-of-the-box UI.  This is an industry-changing feature as customers can make the process to request access easier than ever.  For additional ease of use, Oracle has introduced a shopping cart style request interface that further simplifies the experience for end users.  Common requests can be setup as profiles to save time.  All of this is combined with the approval workflow engine introduced in R1 that provides the flexibility customers need to meet their compliance requirements. Enhanced security was also on the list of features Oracle wanted to deliver to its customers.  The new end-user UI provides additional granular access controls.  Common Help Desk use cases can be implemented with ease by updating the application profiles.  Access can be rolled out so that administrators can only manage a certain department or organization.  Further, OIM can be more easily configured to select which fields can be read-only vs. updated.  Finally, this security model can be used to limit search results for roles and entitlements intended for a particular department.  Every customer has a different need for access and OIM now matches this need with a flexible security model. One of the important considerations when selecting an Identity Management platform is compatibility.  The number of supported platform connectors and how well it can integrate with non-supported platforms is a key consideration for selecting an identity suite.  Oracle has a long list of supported connectors.  When a customer has a requirement for a platform not on that list, Oracle has a solution too.  Oracle is introducing a simplified architecture called Identity Connector Framework (ICF), which holds the potential to simplify custom connectors.  Finally, Oracle has introduced a simplified process to profile new disconnected applications from the web browser.  This is a useful feature that enables administrators to profile applications quickly as well as empowering the application owner to fulfill requests from their web browser.  Support will still be available for connectors based on previous versions in R2. Oracle Identity Manager's new R2 version has delivered many new features customers have been asking for.  Oracle has matured their platform with R2, making it a truly distinctive platform among its peers. In our next post, expect a deep dive into use cases for a customer considering R2 as their new Enterprise identity solution. In the meantime, we look forward to hearing from you about the specific challenges you are facing and your experience in solving those. Meet the Writers Dharma Padala is a Director in the Advisory Security practice within PwC.  He has been implementing medium to large scale Identity Management solutions across multiple industries including utility, health care, entertainment, retail and financial sectors.   Dharma has 14 years of experience in delivering IT solutions out of which he has been implementing Identity Management solutions for the past 8 years. Scott MacDonald is a Director in the Advisory Security practice within PwC.  He has consulted for several clients across multiple industries including financial services, health care, automotive and retail.   Scott has 10 years of experience in delivering Identity Management solutions. John Misczak is a member of the Advisory Security practice within PwC.  He has experience implementing multiple Identity and Access Management solutions, specializing in Oracle Identity Manager and Business Process Engineering Language (BPEL). Jenny (Xiao) Zhang is a member of the Advisory Security practice within PwC.  She has consulted across multiple industries including financial services, entertainment and retail. Jenny has three years of experience in delivering IT solutions out of which she has been implementing Identity Management solutions for the past one and a half years. Praveen Krishna is a Manager in the Advisory  Security practice within PwC.  Over the last decade Praveen has helped clients plan, architect and implement Oracle identity solutions across diverse industries.  His experience includes delivering security across diverse topics like network, infrastructure, application and data where he brings a holistic point of view to problem solving.

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• Augmenting your Social Efforts via Data as a Service (DaaS)

  - by Mike Stiles

  The following is the 3rd in a series of posts on the value of leveraging social data across your enterprise by Oracle VP Product Development Don Springer and Oracle Cloud Data and Insight Service Sr. Director Product Management Niraj Deo. In this post, we will discuss the approach and value of integrating additional “public” data via a cloud-based Data-as-as-Service platform (or DaaS) to augment your Socially Enabled Big Data Analytics and CX Management. Let’s assume you have a functional Social-CRM platform in place. You are now successfully and continuously listening and learning from your customers and key constituents in Social Media, you are identifying relevant posts and following up with direct engagement where warranted (both 1:1, 1:community, 1:all), and you are starting to integrate signals for communication into your appropriate Customer Experience (CX) Management systems as well as insights for analysis in your business intelligence application. What is the next step? Augmenting Social Data with other Public Data for More Advanced Analytics When we say advanced analytics, we are talking about understanding causality and correlation from a wide variety, volume and velocity of data to Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to achieve and optimize business value. And in some cases, to predict future performance to make appropriate course corrections and change the outcome to your advantage while you can. The data to acquire, process and analyze this is very nuanced: It can vary across structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data It can span across content, profile, and communities of profiles data It is increasingly public, curated and user generated The key is not just getting the data, but making it value-added data and using it to help discover the insights to connect to and improve your KPIs. As we spend time working with our larger customers on advanced analytics, we have seen a need arise for more business applications to have the ability to ingest and use “quality” curated, social, transactional reference data and corresponding insights. The challenge for the enterprise has been getting this data inline into an easily accessible system and providing the contextual integration of the underlying data enriched with insights to be exported into the enterprise’s business applications. The following diagram shows the requirements for this next generation data and insights service or (DaaS): Some quick points on these requirements: Public Data, which in this context is about Common Business Entities, such as - Customers, Suppliers, Partners, Competitors (all are organizations) Contacts, Consumers, Employees (all are people) Products, Brands This data can be broadly categorized incrementally as - Base Utility data (address, industry classification) Public Master Reference data (trade style, hierarchy) Social/Web data (News, Feeds, Graph) Transactional Data generated by enterprise process, workflows etc. This Data has traits of high-volume, variety, velocity etc., and the technology needed to efficiently integrate this data for your needs includes - Change management of Public Reference Data across all categories Applied Big Data to extract statics as well as real-time insights Knowledge Diagnostics and Data Mining As you consider how to deploy this solution, many of our customers will be using an online “cloud” service that provides quality data and insights uniformly to all their necessary applications. In addition, they are requesting a service that is: Agile and Easy to Use: Applications integrated with the service can obtain data on-demand, quickly and simply Cost-effective: Pre-integrated into applications so customers don’t have to Has High Data Quality: Single point access to reference data for data quality and linkages to transactional, curated and social data Supports Data Governance: Becomes more manageable and cost-effective since control of data privacy and compliance can be enforced in a centralized place Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) Just as the cloud has transformed and now offers a better path for how an enterprise manages its IT from their infrastructure, platform, and software (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS), the next step is data (DaaS). Over the last 3 years, we have seen the market begin to offer a cloud-based data service and gain initial traction. On one side of the DaaS continuum, we see an “appliance” type of service that provides a single, reliable source of accurate business data plus social information about accounts, leads, contacts, etc. On the other side of the continuum we see more of an online market “exchange” approach where ISVs and Data Publishers can publish and sell premium datasets within the exchange, with the exchange providing a rich set of web interfaces to improve the ease of data integration. Why the difference? It depends on the provider’s philosophy on how fast the rate of commoditization of certain data types will occur. How do you decide the best approach? Our perspective, as shown in the diagram below, is that the enterprise should develop an elastic schema to support multi-domain applicability. This allows the enterprise to take the most flexible approach to harness the speed and breadth of public data to achieve value. The key tenet of the proposed approach is that an enterprise carefully federates common utility, master reference data end points, mobility considerations and content processing, so that they are pervasively available. One way you may already be familiar with this approach is in how you do Address Verification treatments for accounts, contacts etc. If you design and revise this service in such a way that it is also easily available to social analytic needs, you could extend this to launch geo-location based social use cases (marketing, sales etc.). Our fundamental belief is that value-added data achieved through enrichment with specialized algorithms, as well as applying business “know-how” to weight-factor KPIs based on innovative combinations across an ever-increasing variety, volume and velocity of data, will be where real value is achieved. Essentially, Data-as-a-Service becomes a single entry point for the ever-increasing richness and volume of public data, with enrichment and combined capabilities to extract and integrate the right data from the right sources with the right factoring at the right time for faster decision-making and action within your core business applications. As more data becomes available (and in many cases commoditized), this value-added data processing approach will provide you with ongoing competitive advantage. Let’s look at a quick example of creating a master reference relationship that could be used as an input for a variety of your already existing business applications. In phase 1, a simple master relationship is achieved between a company (e.g. General Motors) and a variety of car brands’ social insights. The reference data allows for easy sort, export and integration into a set of CRM use cases for analytics, sales and marketing CRM. In phase 2, as you create more data relationships (e.g. competitors, contacts, other brands) to have broader and deeper references (social profiles, social meta-data) for more use cases across CRM, HCM, SRM, etc. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as the amount of master reference relationships is constrained only by your imagination and the availability of quality curated data you have to work with. DaaS is just now emerging onto the marketplace as the next step in cloud transformation. For some of you, this may be the first you have heard about it. Let us know if you have questions, or perspectives. In the meantime, we will continue to share insights as we can.Photo: Erik Araujo, stock.xchng

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• Master-slave vs. peer-to-peer archictecture: benefits and problems

  - by Ashok_Ora

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Almost two decades ago, I was a member of a database development team that introduced adaptive locking. Locking, the most popular concurrency control technique in database systems, is pessimistic. Locking ensures that two or more conflicting operations on the same data item don’t “trample” on each other’s toes, resulting in data corruption. In a nutshell, here’s the issue we were trying to address. In everyday life, traffic lights serve the same purpose. They ensure that traffic flows smoothly and when everyone follows the rules, there are no accidents at intersections. As I mentioned earlier, the problem with typical locking protocols is that they are pessimistic. Regardless of whether there is another conflicting operation in the system or not, you have to hold a lock! Acquiring and releasing locks can be quite expensive, depending on how many objects the transaction touches. Every transaction has to pay this penalty. To use the earlier traffic light analogy, if you have ever waited at a red light in the middle of nowhere with no one on the road, wondering why you need to wait when there’s clearly no danger of a collision, you know what I mean. The adaptive locking scheme that we invented was able to minimize the number of locks that a transaction held, by detecting whether there were one or more transactions that needed conflicting eyou could get by without holding any lock at all. In many “well-behaved” workloads, there are few conflicts, so this optimization is a huge win. If, on the other hand, there are many concurrent, conflicting requests, the algorithm gracefully degrades to the “normal” behavior with minimal cost. We were able to reduce the number of lock requests per TPC-B transaction from 178 requests down to 2! Wow! This is a dramatic improvement in concurrency as well as transaction latency. The lesson from this exercise was that if you can identify the common scenario and optimize for that case so that only the uncommon scenarios are more expensive, you can make dramatic improvements in performance without sacrificing correctness. So how does this relate to the architecture and design of some of the modern NoSQL systems? NoSQL systems can be broadly classified as master-slave sharded, or peer-to-peer sharded systems. NoSQL systems with a peer-to-peer architecture have an interesting way of handling changes. Whenever an item is changed, the client (or an intermediary) propagates the changes synchronously or asynchronously to multiple copies (for availability) of the data. Since the change can be propagated asynchronously, during some interval in time, it will be the case that some copies have received the update, and others haven’t. What happens if someone tries to read the item during this interval? The client in a peer-to-peer system will fetch the same item from multiple copies and compare them to each other. If they’re all the same, then every copy that was queried has the same (and up-to-date) value of the data item, so all’s good. If not, then the system provides a mechanism to reconcile the discrepancy and to update stale copies. So what’s the problem with this? There are two major issues: First, IT’S HORRIBLY PESSIMISTIC because, in the common case, it is unlikely that the same data item will be updated and read from different locations at around the same time! For every read operation, you have to read from multiple copies. That’s a pretty expensive, especially if the data are stored in multiple geographically separate locations and network latencies are high. Second, if the copies are not all the same, the application has to reconcile the differences and propagate the correct value to the out-dated copies. This means that the application program has to handle discrepancies in the different versions of the data item and resolve the issue (which can further add to cost and operation latency). Resolving discrepancies is only one part of the problem. What if the same data item was updated independently on two different nodes (copies)? In that case, due to the asynchronous nature of change propagation, you might land up with different versions of the data item in different copies. In this case, the application program also has to resolve conflicts and then propagate the correct value to the copies that are out-dated or have incorrect versions. This can get really complicated. My hunch is that there are many peer-to-peer-based applications that don’t handle this correctly, and worse, don’t even know it. Imagine have 100s of millions of records in your database – how can you tell whether a particular data item is incorrect or out of date? And what price are you willing to pay for ensuring that the data can be trusted? Multiple network messages per read request? Discrepancy and conflict resolution logic in the application, and potentially, additional messages? All this overhead, when all you were trying to do was to read a data item. Wouldn’t it be simpler to avoid this problem in the first place? Master-slave architectures like the Oracle NoSQL Database handles this very elegantly. A change to a data item is always sent to the master copy. Consequently, the master copy always has the most current and authoritative version of the data item. The master is also responsible for propagating the change to the other copies (for availability and read scalability). Client drivers are aware of master copies and replicas, and client drivers are also aware of the “currency” of a replica. In other words, each NoSQL Database client knows how stale a replica is. This vastly simplifies the job of the application developer. If the application needs the most current version of the data item, the client driver will automatically route the request to the master copy. If the application is willing to tolerate some staleness of data (e.g. a version that is no more than 1 second out of date), the client can easily determine which replica (or set of replicas) can satisfy the request, and route the request to the most efficient copy. This results in a dramatic simplification in application logic and also minimizes network requests (the driver will only send the request to exactl the right replica, not many). So, back to my original point. A well designed and well architected system minimizes or eliminates unnecessary overhead and avoids pessimistic algorithms wherever possible in order to deliver a highly efficient and high performance system. If you’ve every programmed an Oracle NoSQL Database application, you’ll know the difference! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

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• General Policies and Procedures for Maintaining the Value of Data Assets

  Here is a general list for policies and procedures regarding maintaining the value of data assets. Data Backup Policies and Procedures Backups are very important when dealing with data because there is always the chance of losing data due to faulty hardware or a user activity. So the need for a strategic backup system should be mandatory for all companies. This being said, in the real world some companies that I have worked for do not really have a good data backup plan. Typically when companies tend to take this kind of approach in data backups usually the data is not really recoverable.  Unfortunately when companies do not regularly test their backup plans they get a false sense of security because they think that they are covered. However, I can tell you from personal and professional experience that a backup plan/system is never fully implemented until it is regularly tested prior to the time when it actually needs to be used. Disaster Recovery Plan Expanding on Backup Policies and Procedures, a company needs to also have a disaster recovery plan in order to protect its data in case of a catastrophic disaster.  Disaster recovery plans typically encompass how to restore all of a company’s data and infrastructure back to a restored operational status.  Most Disaster recovery plans also include time estimates on how long each step of the disaster recovery plan should take to be executed.  It is important to note that disaster recovery plans are never fully implemented until they have been tested just like backup plans. Disaster recovery plans should be tested regularly so that the business can be confident in not losing any or minimal data due to a catastrophic disaster. Firewall Policies and Content Filters One way companies can protect their data is by using a firewall to separate their internal network from the outside. Firewalls allow for enabling or disabling network access as data passes through it by applying various defined restrictions. Furthermore firewalls can also be used to prevent access from the internal network to the outside by these same factors. Common Firewall Restrictions Destination/Sender IP Address Destination/Sender Host Names Domain Names Network Ports Companies can also desire to restrict what their network user’s view on the internet through things like content filters. Content filters allow a company to track what webpages a person has accessed and can also restrict user’s access based on established rules set up in the content filter. This device and/or software can block access to domains or specific URLs based on a few factors. Common Content Filter Criteria Known malicious sites Specific Page Content Page Content Theme  Anti-Virus/Mal-ware Polices Fortunately, most companies utilize antivirus programs on all computers and servers for good reason, virus have been known to do the following: Corrupt/Invalidate Data, Destroy Data, and Steal Data. Anti-Virus applications are a great way to prevent any malicious application from being able to gain access to a company’s data.  However, anti-virus programs must be constantly updated because new viruses are always being created, and the anti-virus vendors need to distribute updates to their applications so that they can catch and remove them. Data Validation Policies and Procedures Data validation is very important to ensure that only accurate information is stored. The existence of invalid data can cause major problems when businesses attempt to use data for knowledge based decisions and for performance reporting. Data Scrubbing Policies and Procedures Data scrubbing is valuable to companies in one of two ways. The first can be used to clean data prior to being analyzed for report generation. The second is that it allows companies to remove things like personally Identifiable information from its data prior to transmit it between multiple environments or if the information is sent to an external location. An example of this can be seen with medical records in regards to HIPPA laws that prohibit the storage of specific personal and medical information. Additionally, I have professionally run in to a scenario where the Canadian government does not allow any Canadian’s personal information to be stored on a server not located in Canada. Encryption Practices The use of encryption is very valuable when a company needs to any personal information. This allows users with the appropriated access levels to view or confirm the existence or accuracy of data within a system by either decrypting the information or encrypting a piece of data and comparing it to the stored version.  Additionally, if for some unforeseen reason the data got in to the wrong hands then they would have to first decrypt the data before they could even be able to read it. Encryption just adds and additional layer of protection around data itself. Standard Normalization Practices The use of standard data normalization practices is very important when dealing with data because it can prevent allot of potential issues by eliminating the potential for unnecessary data duplication. Issues caused by data duplication include excess use of data storage, increased chance for invalidated data, and over use of data processing. Network and Database Security/Access Policies Every company has some form of network/data access policy even if they have none. These policies help secure data from being seen by inappropriate users along with preventing the data from being updated or deleted by users. In addition, without a good security policy there is a large potential for data to be corrupted by unassuming users or even stolen. Data Storage Policies Data storage polices are very important depending on how they are implemented especially when a company is trying to utilize them in conjunction with other policies like Data Backups. I have worked at companies where all network user folders are constantly backed up, and if a user wanted to ensure the existence of a piece of data in the form of a file then they had to store that file in their network folder. Conversely, I have also worked in places where when a user logs on or off of the network there entire user profile is backed up. Training Policies One of the biggest ways to prevent data loss and ensure that data will remain a company asset is through training. The practice of properly train employees on how to work with in systems that access data is crucial when trying to ensure a company’s data will remain an asset. Users need to be trained on how to manipulate a company’s data in order to perform their tasks to reduce the chances of invalidating data.

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• BI Applications overview

  - by sv744

  Welcome to Oracle BI applications blog! This blog will talk about various features, general roadmap, description of functionality and implementation steps related to Oracle BI applications. In the first post we start with an overview of the BI apps and will delve deeper into some of the topics below in the upcoming weeks and months. If there are other topics you would like us to talk about, pl feel free to provide feedback on that. The Oracle BI applications are a set of pre-built applications that enable pervasive BI by providing role-based insight for each functional area, including sales, service, marketing, contact center, finance, supplier/supply chain, HR/workforce, and executive management. For example, Sales Analytics includes role-based applications for sales executives, sales management, as well as front-line sales reps, each of whom have different needs. The applications integrate and transform data from a range of enterprise sources—including Siebel, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, and others—into actionable intelligence for each business function and user role. This blog  starts with the key benefits and characteristics of Oracle BI applications. In a series of subsequent blogs, each of these points will be explained in detail. Why BI apps? Demonstrate the value of BI to a business user, show reports / dashboards / model that can answer their business questions as part of the sales cycle. Demonstrate technical feasibility of BI project and significantly lower risk and improve success Build Vs Buy benefit Don’t have to start with a blank sheet of paper. Help consolidate disparate systems Data integration in M&A situations Insulate BI consumers from changes in the OLTP Present OLTP data and highlight issues of poor data / missing data – and improve data quality and accuracy Prebuilt Integrations BI apps support prebuilt integrations against leading ERP sources: Fusion Applications, E- Business Suite, Peoplesoft, JD Edwards, Siebel, SAP Co-developed with inputs from functional experts in BI and Applications teams. Out of the box dimensional model to source model mappings Multi source and Multi Instance support Rich Data Model    BI apps have a very rich dimensionsal data model built over 10 years that incorporates best practises from BI modeling perspective as well as reflect the source system complexities  Thanks for reading a long post, and be on the lookout for future posts.  We will look forward to your valuable feedback on these topics as well as suggestions on what other topics would you like us to cover. I Conformed dimensional model across all business subject areas allows cross functional reporting, e.g. customer / supplier 360 Over 360 fact tables across 7 product areas CRM – 145, SCM – 47, Financials – 28, Procurement – 20, HCM – 27, Projects – 18, Campus Solutions – 21, PLM - 56 Supported by 300 physical dimensions Support for extensive calendars; Gregorian, enterprise and ledger based Conformed data model and metrics for real time vs warehouse based reporting  Multi-tenant enabled Extensive BI related transformations BI apps ETL and data integration support various transformations required for dimensional models and reporting requirements. All these have been distilled into common patterns and abstracted logic which can be readily reused across different modules Slowly Changing Dimension support Hierarchy flattening support Row / Column Hybrid Hierarchy Flattening As Is vs. As Was hierarchy support Currency Conversion :-  Support for 3 corporate, CRM, ledger and transaction currencies UOM conversion Internationalization / Localization Dynamic Data translations Code standardization (Domains) Historical Snapshots Cycle and process lifecycle computations Balance Facts Equalization of GL accounting chartfields/segments Standardized values for categorizing GL accounts Reconciliation between GL and subledgers to track accounted/transferred/posted transactions to GL Materialization of data only available through costly and complex APIs e.g. Fusion Payroll, EBS / Fusion Accruals Complex event Interpretation of source data – E.g. o    What constitutes a transfer o    Deriving supervisors via position hierarchy o    Deriving primary assignment in PSFT o    Categorizing and transposition to measures of Payroll Balances to specific metrics to support side by side comparison of measures of for example Fixed Salary, Variable Salary, Tax, Bonus, Overtime Payments. o    Counting of Events – E.g. converting events to fact counters so that for example the number of hires can easily be added up and compared alongside the total transfers and terminations. Multi pass processing of multiple sources e.g. headcount, salary, promotion, performance to allow side to side comparison. Adding value to data to aid analysis through banding, additional domain classifications and groupings to allow higher level analytical reporting and data discovery Calculation of complex measures examples: o    COGs, DSO, DPO, Inventory turns  etc o    Transfers within a Hierarchy or out of / into a hierarchy relative to view point in hierarchy. Configurability and Extensibility support  BI apps offer support for extensibility for various entities as automated extensibility or part of extension methodology Key Flex fields and Descriptive Flex support  Extensible attribute support (JDE)  Conformed Domains ETL Architecture BI apps offer a modular adapter architecture which allows support of multiple product lines into a single conformed model Multi Source Multi Technology Orchestration – creates load plan taking into account task dependencies and customers deployment to generate a plan based on a customers of multiple complex etl tasks Plan optimization allowing parallel ETL tasks Oracle: Bit map indexes and partition management High availability support    Follow the sun support. TCO BI apps support several utilities / capabilities that help with overall total cost of ownership and ensure a rapid implementation Improved cost of ownership – lower cost to deploy On-going support for new versions of the source application Task based setups flows Data Lineage Functional setup performed in Web UI by Functional person Configuration Test to Production support Security BI apps support both data and object security enabling implementations to quickly configure the application as per the reporting security needs Fine grain object security at report / dashboard and presentation catalog level Data Security integration with source systems  Extensible to support external data security rules Extensive Set of KPIs Over 7000 base and derived metrics across all modules Time series calculations (YoY, % growth etc) Common Currency and UOM reporting Cross subject area KPIs (analyzing HR vs GL data, drill from GL to AP/AR, etc) Prebuilt reports and dashboards 3000+ prebuilt reports supporting a large number of industries Hundreds of role based dashboards Dynamic currency conversion at dashboard level Highly tuned Performance The BI apps have been tuned over the years for both a very performant ETL and dashboard performance. The applications use best practises and advanced database features to enable the best possible performance. Optimized data model for BI and analytic queries Prebuilt aggregates& the ability for customers to create their own aggregates easily on warehouse facts allows for scalable end user performance Incremental extracts and loads Incremental Aggregate build Automatic table index and statistics management Parallel ETL loads Source system deletes handling Low latency extract with Golden Gate Micro ETL support Bitmap Indexes Partitioning support Modularized deployment, start small and add other subject areas seamlessly Source Specfic Staging and Real Time Schema Support for source specific operational reporting schema for EBS, PSFT, Siebel and JDE Application Integrations The BI apps also allow for integration with source systems as well as other applications that provide value add through BI and enable BI consumption during operational decision making Embedded dashboards for Fusion, EBS and Siebel applications Action Link support Marketing Segmentation Sales Predictor Dashboard Territory Management External Integrations The BI apps data integration choices include support for loading extenral data External data enrichment choices : UNSPSC, Item class etc. Extensible Spend Classification Broad Deployment Choices Exalytics support Databases :  Oracle, Exadata, Teradata, DB2, MSSQL ETL tool of choice : ODI (coming), Informatica Extensible and Customizable Extensible architecture and Methodology to add custom and external content Upgradable across releases

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• &lt;%: %&gt;, HtmlEncode, IHtmlString and MvcHtmlString

  - by Shaun

  One of my colleague and friend, Robin is playing and struggling with the ASP.NET MVC 2 on a project these days while I’m struggling with a annoying client. Since it’s his first time to use ASP.NET MVC he was meetings with a lot of problem and I was very happy to share my experience to him. Yesterday he asked me when he attempted to insert a <br /> element into his page he found that the page was rendered like this which is bad. He found his <br /> was shown as a part of the string rather than creating a new line. After checked a bit in his code I found that it’s because he utilized a new ASP.NET markup supported in .NET 4.0 – “<%: %>”. If you have been using ASP.NET MVC 1 or in .NET 3.5 world it would be very common that using <%= %> to show something on the page from the backend code. But when you do it you must ensure that the string that are going to be displayed should be Html-safe, which means all the Html markups must be encoded. Otherwise this might cause an XSS (cross-site scripting) problem. So that you’d better use the code like this below to display anything on the page. In .NET 4.0 Microsoft introduced a new markup to solve this problem which is <%: %>. It will encode the content automatically so that you will no need to check and verify your code manually for the XSS issue mentioned below. But this also means that it will encode all things, include the Html element you want to be rendered. So I changed his code like this and it worked well. After helped him solved this problem and finished a spreadsheet for my boring project I considered a bit more on the <%: %>. Since it will encode all thing why it renders correctly when we use “<%: Html.TextBox(“name”) %>” to show a text box? As you know the Html.TextBox will render a “<input name="name" id="name" type="text"/>” element on the page. If <%: %> will encode everything it should not display a text box. So I dig into the source code of the MVC and found some comments in the class MvcHtmlString. 1: // In ASP.NET 4, a new syntax <%: %> is being introduced in WebForms pages, where <%: expression %> is equivalent to 2: // <%= HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(expression) %>. The intent of this is to reduce common causes of XSS vulnerabilities 3: // in WebForms pages (WebForms views in the case of MVC). This involves the addition of an interface 4: // System.Web.IHtmlString and a static method overload System.Web.HttpUtility::HtmlEncode(object). The interface 5: // definition is roughly: 6: // public interface IHtmlString { 7: // string ToHtmlString(); 8: // } 9: // And the HtmlEncode(object) logic is roughly: 10: // - If the input argument is an IHtmlString, return argument.ToHtmlString(), 11: // - Otherwise, return HtmlEncode(Convert.ToString(argument)). 12: // 13: // Unfortunately this has the effect that calling <%: Html.SomeHelper() %> in an MVC application running on .NET 4 14: // will end up encoding output that is already HTML-safe. As a result, we're changing out HTML helpers to return 15: // MvcHtmlString where appropriate. <%= Html.SomeHelper() %> will continue to work in both .NET 3.5 and .NET 4, but 16: // changing the return types to MvcHtmlString has the added benefit that <%: Html.SomeHelper() %> will also work 17: // properly in .NET 4 rather than resulting in a double-encoded output. MVC developers in .NET 4 will then be able 18: // to use the <%: %> syntax almost everywhere instead of having to remember where to use <%= %> and where to use 19: // <%: %>. This should help developers craft more secure web applications by default. 20: // 21: // To create an MvcHtmlString, use the static Create() method instead of calling the protected constructor. The comment said the encoding rule of the <%: %> would be: If the type of the content is IHtmlString it will NOT encode since the IHtmlString indicates that it’s Html-safe. Otherwise it will use HtmlEncode to encode the content. If we check the return type of the Html.TextBox method we will find that it’s MvcHtmlString, which was implemented the IHtmlString interface dynamically. That is the reason why the “<input name="name" id="name" type="text"/>” was not encoded by <%: %>. So if we want to tell ASP.NET MVC, or I should say the ASP.NET runtime that the content is Html-safe and no need, or should not be encoded we can convert the content into IHtmlString. So another resolution would be like this. Also we can create an extension method as well for better developing experience. 1: using System; 2: using System.Collections.Generic; 3: using System.Linq; 4: using System.Web; 5: using System.Web.Mvc; 6:  7: namespace ShaunXu.Blogs.IHtmlStringIssue 8: { 9: public static class Helpers 10: { 11: public static MvcHtmlString IsHtmlSafe(this string content) 12: { 13: return MvcHtmlString.Create(content); 14: } 15: } 16: } Then the view would be like this. And the page rendered correctly.         Summary In this post I explained a bit about the new markup in .NET 4.0 – <%: %> and its usage. I also explained a bit about how to control the page content, whether it should be encoded or not. We can see the ASP.NET MVC gives us more points to control the web pages.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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• Super constructor must be a first statement in Java constructor [closed]

  - by Val

  I know the answer: "we need rules to prevent shooting into your own foot". Ok, I make millions of programming mistakes every day. To be prevented, we need one simple rule: prohibit all JLS and do not use Java. If we explain everything by "not shooting your foot", this is reasonable. But there is not much reason is such reason. When I programmed in Delphy, I always wanted the compiler to check me if I read uninitializable. I have discovered myself that is is stupid to read uncertain variable because it leads unpredictable result and is errorenous obviously. By just looking at the code I could see if there is an error. I wished if compiler could do this job. It is also a reliable signal of programming error if function does not return any value. But I never wanted it do enforce me the super constructor first. Why? You say that constructors just initialize fields. Super fields are derived; extra fields are introduced. From the goal point of view, it does not matter in which order you initialize the variables. I have studied parallel architectures and can say that all the fields can even be assigned in parallel... What? Do you want to use the unitialized fields? Stupid people always want to take away our freedoms and break the JLS rules the God gives to us! Please, policeman, take away that person! Where do I say so? I'm just saying only about initializing/assigning, not using the fields. Java compiler already defends me from the mistake of accessing notinitialized. Some cases sneak but this example shows how this stupid rule does not save us from the read-accessing incompletely initialized in construction: public class BadSuper { String field; public String toString() { return "field = " + field; } public BadSuper(String val) { field = val; // yea, superfirst does not protect from accessing // inconstructed subclass fields. Subclass constr // must be called before super()! System.err.println(this); } } public class BadPost extends BadSuper { Object o; public BadPost(Object o) { super("str"); this. o = o; } public String toString() { // superconstructor will boom here, because o is not initialized! return super.toString() + ", obj = " + o.toString(); } public static void main(String[] args) { new BadSuper("test 1"); new BadPost(new Object()); } } It shows that actually, subfields have to be inilialized before the supreclass! Meantime, java requirement "saves" us from writing specializing the class by specializing what the super constructor argument is, public class MyKryo extends Kryo { class MyClassResolver extends DefaultClassResolver { public Registration register(Registration registration) { System.out.println(MyKryo.this.getDepth()); return super.register(registration); } } MyKryo() { // cannot instantiate MyClassResolver in super super(new MyClassResolver(), new MapReferenceResolver()); } } Try to make it compilable. It is always pain. Especially, when you cannot assign the argument later. Initialization order is not important for initialization in general. I could understand that you should not use super methods before initializing super. But, the requirement for super to be the first statement is different. It only saves you from the code that does useful things simply. I do not see how this adds safety. Actually, safety is degraded because we need to use ugly workarounds. Doing post-initialization, outside the constructors also degrades safety (otherwise, why do we need constructors?) and defeats the java final safety reenforcer. To conclude Reading not initialized is a bug. Initialization order is not important from the computer science point of view. Doing initalization or computations in different order is not a bug. Reenforcing read-access to not initialized is good but compilers fail to detect all such bugs Making super the first does not solve the problem as it "Prevents" shooting into right things but not into the foot It requires to invent workarounds, where, because of complexity of analysis, it is easier to shoot into the foot doing post-initialization outside the constructors degrades safety (otherwise, why do we need constructors?) and that degrade safety by defeating final access modifier When there was java forum alive, java bigots attecked me for these thoughts. Particularly, they dislaked that fields can be initialized in parallel, saying that natural development ensures correctness. When I replied that you could use an advanced engineering to create a human right away, without "developing" any ape first, and it still be an ape, they stopped to listen me. Cos modern technology cannot afford it. Ok, Take something simpler. How do you produce a Renault? Should you construct an Automobile first? No, you start by producing a Renault and, once completed, you'll see that this is an automobile. So, the requirement to produce fields in "natural order" is unnatural. In case of alarmclock or armchair, which are still chair and clock, you may need first develop the base (clock and chair) and then add extra. So, I can have examples where superfields must be initialized first and, oppositely, when they need to be initialized later. The order does not exist in advance. So, the compiler cannot be aware of the proper order. Only programmer/constructor knows is. Compiler should not take more responsibility and enforce the wrong order onto programmer. Saying that I cannot initialize some fields because I did not ininialized the others is like "you cannot initialize the thing because it is not initialized". This is a kind of argument we have. So, to conclude once more, the feature that "protects" me from doing things in simple and right way in order to enforce something that does not add noticeably to the bug elimination at that is a strongly negative thing and it pisses me off, altogether with the all the arguments to support it I've seen so far. It is "a conceptual question about software development" Should there be the requirement to call super() first or not. I do not know. If you do or have an idea, you have place to answer. I think that I have provided enough arguments against this feature. Lets appreciate the ones who benefit form it. Let it just be something more than simple abstract and stupid "write your own language" or "protection" kind of argument. Why do we need it in the language that I am going to develop?

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• Blogging locally and globally–my experience

  - by DigiMortal

  In Baltic MVP Summit 2011 there was discussion about having two blogs - one for local and another for global audience – and how to publish once written information in these blogs. There are many ways how to optimize your blogging activities if you have more than one audience and here you can find my experiences, best practices and advices about this topic. My two blogs I have to working blogs: this one here technology and programming blog for local market My local blog is almost five years old and it makes it one of the oldest company blogs in Estonia. It is still active and I write there as much as I have time for it. This blog here is active since September 2007, so it is about 3.5 years old right now. Both of these blogs are  my major hits in my MVP carrier and they have very good web statistics too. My local blog My local blog is about programming, web and technology. It has way wider target audience then this blog here has. By example, in my local blog I blog also about local events, cool new concept phones, different webs providing some interesting services etc. But local guys can find there also my postings about how to solve one or another programming problem and postings about Microsoft technologies I am playing with. This far my local blog has a lot of readers for such a small country that Estonia is. This blog has made me a lot of cool contacts and I have had there a lot of interesting discussions about different technical topics. Why I started this blog? Living in small country is different than living in big country. In small country you have less people and therefore smaller audience so you have to target more than one technical topic to find enough readers. In a same time you are still interested in your main topics and you want to reach to more people who are sharing same interests with you. Practically one day y will grow out from local market and you go global. This is how this blog was born. Was it worth to create, promote and mess with it? Every second I have put on my time to this blog has been worth of it. Thanks to this blog I have found new good friends and without them I think it is more boring to work on different problems and solutions. Defining target audiences One thing you should always do when having more than one blog is defining target audiences. If you are just technomaniac interested in sharing your stuff and make some new friends and have something to write to your MVP nomination form then you don’t have to go through complex targeting process. You can do it simple way and same effectively. Here is how I defined target audiences to my blogs: local blog – reader of my local blog is IT professional, software developer, technology innovator or just some guy who is interested in technology,   this blog – reader of this blog is experienced professional software developer who works on Microsoft technologies or software developer who is open minded and open to new technologies and interesting solutions to development problems. You can see how local blog – due to small market with less people – has wider definition for audience while this blog is heavily targeted to Microsoft technologies and specially to software development. On practical side these decisions are also made well I think because it is very hard to build up popular common IT blog. On global level it is better to target some specific niche and find readers who are professionals on your favorite topics. Thanks to this blog I have found new friends who are professional developers and I am very happy about all the discussions I have had with them. Publishing content to different blogs My local blog and this blog have some overlapping topics like .NET, databases and SEO. Due to this overlapping there is question: when I write posting to my local blog then should I have to publish same thing in my global blog? And if I write something to my global blog then should I publish same thing also in my local blog? Well, it really depends on the definition of your target audiences. If they match then of course it is good idea to translate you post and publish it also to another blog. But if you have different audiences then you may need to modify your posting before publishing it. The questions you have to answer are: is target audience interested in this topic? is target audience expecting more specific and deeper handling of this topic or are they expecting more general handling of topic? is the problem you are discussing actual for target audience or not? You have to answer these questions and after that make your decision. If you need to modify your original posting then take some time and do it. Provide quality to all your readers because they will respect you if you respect them. Cross-posting and referencing It is tempting to save time that preparing some blog post takes and if you have are done with posting in one blog it may seem like good idea to make short posting to another blog and add reference to first one where topic is discussed longer. Well, don’t do it – all your readers expect good quality content from you and jumping from one blog post to another is disturbing for them. Of course, there is problem with differences between target audiences. You may have wider target audience and some people may be interested in more specific handling of topic. In this case feel free to refer your blog you are writing in english. This is not working very well in opposite direction because almost all my global blog readers understand english but not estonian. By example, estonian language is complex one and online translating tools make very poor translations from estonian language. This is why I don’t even plan to publish postings here that refer to my local blog for more information. I am keeping these two blogs as two different worlds and if there is posting that fits well to both blogs I will write my posting to one blog and then answer previous three questions before posting same thing to another blog. Conclusion Growing out of your local market is not anything mysterious if you are living in small country. As it is harder to find people there who are interested in same topics with you then sooner or later you will start finding these new contacts from global audience. Global audience is bigger and to be visible there you must provide high quality content to your audience. It is something you will learn over time and you will learn every day something new when you are posting to your global blog. You may ask: if global blog is much more complex thing to do then is it worth to do at all? My answer is: yes, do it for sure. It is not easy thing to do when you start but if you work on your global blog and improve it over time you will get over all obstacles pretty soon. Just don’t forget one thing – content is king and your readers expect high quality from you.

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• HTG Explains: Should You Buy Extended Warranties?

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Buy something at an electronics store and you’ll be confronted by a pushy salesperson who insists you need an extended warranty. You’ll also see extended warranties pushed hard when shopping online. But are they worth it? There’s a reason stores push extended warranties so hard. They’re almost always pure profit for the store involved. An electronics store may live on razor-thin product margins and make big profits on extended warranties and overpriced HDMI cables. You’re Already Getting Multiple Warranties First, back up. The product you’re buying already includes a warranty. In fact, you’re probably getting several different types of warranties. Store Return and Exchange: Most electronics stores allow you to return a malfunctioning product within the first 15 or 30 days and they’ll provide you with a new one. The exact period of time will vary from store to store. If you walk out of the store with a defective product and have to swap it for a new one within the first few weeks, this should be easy. Manufacturer Warranty: A device’s manufacturer — whether the device is a laptop, a television, or a graphics card — offers their own warranty period. The manufacturer warranty covers you after the store refuses to take the product back and exchange it. The length of this warranty depends on the type of product. For example, a cheap laptop may only offer a one-year manufacturer warranty, while a more expensive laptop may offer a two-year warranty. Credit Card Warranty Extension: Many credit cards offer free extended warranties on products you buy with that credit card. Credit card companies will often give you an additional year of warranty. For example, if you buy a laptop with a two year warranty and it fails in the third year, you could then contact your credit card company and they’d cover the cost of fixing or replacing it. Check your credit card’s benefits and fine print for more information. Why Extended Warranties Are Bad You’re already getting a fairly long warranty period, especially if you have a credit card that offers you a free extended warranty — these are fairly common. If the product you get is a “lemon” and has a manufacturing error, it will likely fail pretty soon — well within your warranty period. The extended warranty matters after all your other warranties are exhausted. In the case of a laptop with a two-year warranty that you purchase with a credit card giving you a one-year warranty extension, your extended warranty will kick in three years after you purchase the laptop. In that many years, your current laptop will likely feel pretty old and laptops that are as good — or better — will likely be pretty cheap. If it’s a television, better television displays will be available at a lower price point. You’ll either want to upgrade to a newer model or you’ll be able to buy a new, just-as-good product for very cheap. You’ll only have to pay out-of-pocket if your device fails after the normal warranty period — in over two or three years for typical laptops purchased with a decent credit card. Save the money you would have spent on the warranty and put it towards a future upgrade. How Much Do Extended Warranties Cost? Let’s look at an example from a typical pushy retail outlet, Best Buy. We went to Best Buy’s website and found a pretty standard $600 Samsung laptop. This laptop comes with a one-year warranty period. If purchased with a fairly common credit card, you can easily get a two-year warranty period on this laptop without spending an additional penny. (Yes, such credit cards are available with no yearly fees.) During the check-out process, Best Buy tries to sell you a Geek Squad “Accidental Protection Plan.” To get an additional year of Best Buy’s extended warranty, you’d have to pay $324.98 for a “3-Year Accidental Protection Plan”. You’d basically be paying more than half the price of your laptop for an additional year of warranty — remember, the standard warranties would cover you anyway for the first two years. If this laptop did break sometime between two and three years from now, we wouldn’t be surprised if you could purchase a comparable laptop for about $325 anyway. And, if you don’t need to replace it, you’ve saved that money. Best Buy would object that this isn’t a standard extended warranty. It’s a supercharged warranty plan that will also provide coverage if you spill something on your laptop or drop it and break it. You just have to ask yourself a question. What are the odds that you’ll drop your laptop or spill something on it? They’re probably pretty low if you’re a typical human being. Is it worth spending more than half the price of the laptop just in case you’ll make an uncommon mistake? Probably not. There may be occasional exceptions to this — some Apple users swear by Apple’s AppleCare, for example — but you should generally avoid buying these things. There’s a reason stores are so pushy about extended warranties, and it’s not because they want to help protect you. It’s because they’re making lots of profit from these plans, and they’re making so much profit because they’re not a good deal for customers. Image Credit: Philip Taylor on Flickr     

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• Introduction to Human Workflow 11g

  - by agiovannetti

  Human Workflow is a component of SOA Suite just like BPEL, Mediator, Business Rules, etc. The Human Workflow component allows you to incorporate human intervention in a business process. You can use Human Workflow to create a business process that requires a manager to approve purchase orders greater than $10,000; or a business process that handles article reviews in which a group of reviewers need to vote/approve an article before it gets published. Human Workflow can handle the task assignment and routing as well as the generation of notifications to the participants. There are three common patterns or usages of Human Workflow: 1) Approval Scenarios: manage documents and other transactional data through approval chains . For example: approve expense report, vacation approval, hiring approval, etc. 2) Reviews by multiple users or groups: group collaboration and review of documents or proposals. For example, processing a sales quote which is subject to review by multiple people. 3) Case Management: workflows around work management or case management. For example, processing a service request. This could be routed to various people who all need to modify the task. It may also incorporate ad hoc routing which is unknown at design time. SOA 11g Human Workflow includes the following features: Assignment and routing of tasks to the correct users or groups. Deadlines, escalations, notifications, and other features required for ensuring the timely performance of a task. Presentation of tasks to end users through a variety of mechanisms, including a Worklist application. Organization, filtering, prioritization and other features required for end users to productively perform their tasks. Reports, reassignments, load balancing and other features required by supervisors and business owners to manage the performance of tasks. Human Workflow Architecture The Human Workflow component is divided into 3 modules: the service interface, the task definition and the client interface module. The Service Interface handles the interaction with BPEL and other components. The Client Interface handles the presentation of task data through clients like the Worklist application, portals and notification channels. The task definition module is in charge of managing the lifecycle of a task. Who should get the task assigned? What should happen next with the task? When must the task be completed? Should the task be escalated?, etc Stages and Participants When you create a Human Task you need to specify how the task is assigned and routed. The first step is to define the stages and participants. A stage is just a logical group. A participant can be a user, a group of users or an application role. The participants indicate the type of assignment and routing that will be performed. Stages can be sequential or in parallel. You can combine them to create any usage you require. See diagram below: Assignment and Routing There are different ways a task can be assigned and routed: Single Approver: task is assigned to a single user, group or role. For example, a vacation request is assigned to a manager. If the manager approves or rejects the request, the employee is notified with the decision. If the task is assigned to a group then once one of managers acts on it, the task is completed. Parallel : task is assigned to a set of people that must work in parallel. This is commonly used for voting. For example, a task gets approved once 50% of the participants approve it. You can also set it up to be a unanimous vote. Serial : participants must work in sequence. The most common scenario for this is management chain escalation. FYI (For Your Information) : task is assigned to participants who can view it, add comments and attachments, but can not modify or complete the task. Task Actions The following is the list of actions that can be performed on a task: Claim : if a task is assigned to a group or multiple users, then the task must be claimed first to be able to act on it. Escalate : if the participant is not able to complete a task, he/she can escalate it. The task is reassigned to his/her manager (up one level in a hierarchy). Pushback : the task is sent back to the previous assignee. Reassign :if the participant is a manager, he/she can delegate a task to his/her reports. Release : if a task is assigned to a group or multiple users, it can be released if the user who claimed the task cannot complete the task. Any of the other assignees can claim and complete the task. Request Information and Submit Information : use when the participant needs to supply more information or to request more information from the task creator or any of the previous assignees. Suspend and Resume :if a task is not relevant, it can be suspended. A suspension is indefinite. It does not expire until Resume is used to resume working on the task. Withdraw : if the creator of a task does not want to continue with it, for example, he wants to cancel a vacation request, he can withdraw the task. The business process determines what happens next. Renew : if a task is about to expire, the participant can renew it. The task expiration date is extended one week. Notifications Human Workflow provides a mechanism for sending notifications to participants to alert them of changes on a task. Notifications can be sent via email, telephone voice message, instant messaging (IM) or short message service (SMS). Notifications can be sent when the task status changes to any of the following: Assigned/renewed/delegated/reassigned/escalated Completed Error Expired Request Info Resume Suspended Added/Updated comments and/or attachments Updated Outcome Withdraw Other Actions (e.g. acquiring a task) Here is an example of an email notification: Worklist Application Oracle BPM Worklist application is the default user interface included in SOA Suite. It allows users to access and act on tasks that have been assigned to them. For example, from the Worklist application, a loan agent can review loan applications or a manager can approve employee vacation requests. Through the Worklist Application users can: Perform authorized actions on tasks, acquire and check out shared tasks, define personal to-do tasks and define subtasks. Filter tasks view based on various criteria. Work with standard work queues, such as high priority tasks, tasks due soon and so on. Work queues allow users to create a custom view to group a subset of tasks in the worklist, for example, high priority tasks, tasks due in 24 hours, expense approval tasks and more. Define custom work queues. Gain proxy access to part of another user's tasks. Define custom vacation rules and delegation rules. Enable group owners to define task dispatching rules for shared tasks. Collect a complete workflow history and audit trail. Use digital signatures for tasks. Run reports like Unattended tasks, Tasks productivity, etc. Here is a screenshoot of what the Worklist Application looks like. On the right hand side you can see the tasks that have been assigned to the user and the task's detail. References Introduction to SOA Suite 11g Human Workflow Webcast Note 1452937.2 Human Workflow Information Center Using the Human Workflow Service Component 11.1.1.6 Human Workflow Samples Human Workflow APIs Java Docs

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• Notes on implementing Visual Studio 2010 Navigate To

  - by cyberycon

  One of the many neat functions added to Visual Studio in VS 2010 was the Navigate To feature. You can find it by clicking Edit, Navigate To, or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl, (yes, that's control plus the comma key). This pops up the Navigate To dialog that looks like this: As you type, Navigate To starts searching through a number of different search providers for your term. The entries in the list change as you type, with most providers doing some kind of fuzzy or at least substring matching. If you have C#, C++ or Visual Basic projects in your solution, all symbols defined in those projects are searched. There's also a file search provider, which displays all matching filenames from projects in the current solution as well. And, if you have a Visual Studio package of your own, you can implement a provider too. Micro Focus (where I work) provide the Visual COBOL language inside Visual Studio (http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/ef9bc810-c133-4581-9429-b01420a9ea40 ), and we wanted to provide this functionality too. This post provides some notes on the things I discovered mainly through trial and error, but also with some kind help from devs inside Microsoft. The expectation of Navigate To is that it searches across the whole solution, not just the current project. So in our case, we wanted to search for all COBOL symbols inside all of our Visual COBOL projects inside the solution. So first of all, here's the Microsoft documentation on Navigate To: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee844862.aspx . It's the reference information on the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Language.NavigateTo.Interfaces Namespace, and it lists all the interfaces you will need to implement to create your own Navigate To provider. Navigate To uses Visual Studio's latest mechanism for integrating external functionality and services, Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF). MEF components don't require any registration with COM or any other registry entries to be found by Visual Studio. Visual Studio looks in several well-known locations for manifest files (extension.vsixmanifest). It then uses reflection to scan for MEF attributes on classes in the assembly to determine which functionality the assembly provides. MEF itself is actually part of the .NET framework, and you can learn more about it here: http://mef.codeplex.com/. To get started with Visual Studio and MEF you could do worse than look at some of the editor examples on the VSX page http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/vsx . I've also written a small application to help with switching between development and production MEF assemblies, which you can find on Codeproject: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/MEF_Switch.aspx. The Navigate To interfaces Back to Navigate To, and summarizing the MSDN reference documentation, you need to implement the following interfaces: INavigateToItemProviderFactoryThis is Visual Studio's entry point to your Navigate To implementation, and you must decorate your implementation with the following MEF export attribute: [Export(typeof(INavigateToItemProviderFactory))]  INavigateToItemProvider Your INavigateToItemProviderFactory needs to return your implementation of INavigateToItemProvider. This class implements StartSearch() and StopSearch(). StartSearch() is the guts of your provider, and we'll come back to it in a minute. This object also needs to implement IDisposeable(). INavigateToItemDisplayFactory Your INavigateToItemProvider hands back NavigateToItems to the NavigateTo framework. But to give you good control over what appears in the NavigateTo dialog box, these items will be handed back to your INavigateToItemDisplayFactory, which must create objects implementing INavigateToItemDisplay  INavigateToItemDisplay Each of these objects represents one result in the Navigate To dialog box. As well as providing the description and name of the item, this object also has a NavigateTo() method that should be capable of displaying the item in an editor when invoked. Carrying out the search The lifecycle of your INavigateToItemProvider is the same as that of the Navigate To dialog. This dialog is modal, which makes your implementation a little easier because you know that the user can't be changing things in editors and the IDE while this dialog is up. But the Navigate To dialog DOES NOT run on the main UI thread of the IDE – so you need to be aware of that if you want to interact with editors or other parts of the IDE UI. When the user invokes the Navigate To dialog, your INavigateToItemProvider gets sent a TryCreateNavigateToItemProvider() message. Instantiate your INavigateToItemProvider and hand this back. The sequence diagram below shows what happens next. Your INavigateToItemProvider will get called with StartSearch(), and passed an INavigateToCallback. StartSearch() is an asynchronous request – you must return from this method as soon as possible, and conduct your search on a separate thread. For each match to the search term, instantiate a NavigateToItem object and send it to INavigateToCallback.AddItem(). But as the user types in the Search Terms field, NavigateTo will invoke your StartSearch() method repeatedly with the changing search term. When you receive the next StartSearch() message, you have to abandon your current search, and start a new one. You can't rely on receiving a StopSearch() message every time. Finally, when the Navigate To dialog box is closed by the user, you will get a Dispose() message – that's your cue to abandon any uncompleted searches, and dispose any resources you might be using as part of your search. While you conduct your search invoke INavigateToCallback.ReportProgress() occasionally to provide feedback about how close you are to completing the search. There does not appear to be any particular requirement to how often you invoke ReportProgress(), and you report your progress as the ratio of two integers. In my implementation I report progress in terms of the number of symbols I've searched over the total number of symbols in my dictionary, and send a progress report every 16 symbols. Displaying the Results The Navigate to framework invokes INavigateToItemDisplayProvider.CreateItemDisplay() once for each result you passed to the INavigateToCallback. CreateItemDisplay() is passed the NavigateToItem you handed to the callback, and must return an INavigateToItemDisplay object. NavigateToItem is a sealed class which has a few properties, including the name of the symbol. It also has a Tag property, of type object. This enables you to stash away all the information you will need to create your INavigateToItemDisplay, which must implement an INavigateTo() method to display a symbol in an editor IDE when the user double-clicks an entry in the Navigate To dialog box. Since the tag is of type object, it is up to you, the implementor, to decide what kind of object you store in here, and how it enables the retrieval of other information which is not included in the NavigateToItem properties. Some of the INavigateToItemDisplay properties are self-explanatory, but a couple of them are less obvious: Additional informationThe string you return here is displayed inside brackets on the same line as the Name property. In English locales, Visual Studio includes the preposition "of". If you look at the first line in the Navigate To screenshot at the top of this article, Book_WebRole.Default is the additional information for textBookAuthor, and is the namespace qualified type name the symbol appears in. For procedural COBOL code we display the Program Id as the additional information DescriptionItemsYou can use this property to return any textual description you want about the item currently selected. You return a collection of DescriptionItem objects, each of which has a category and description collection of DescriptionRun objects. A DescriptionRun enables you to specify some text, and optional formatting, so you have some control over the appearance of the displayed text. The DescriptionItems property is displayed at the bottom of the Navigate To dialog box, with the Categories on the left and the Descriptions on the right. The Visual COBOL implementation uses it to display more information about the location of an item, making it easier for the user to know disambiguate duplicate names (something there can be a lot of in large COBOL applications). Summary I hope this article is useful for anyone implementing Navigate To. It is a fantastic navigation feature that Microsoft have added to Visual Studio, but at the moment there still don't seem to be any examples on how to implement it, and the reference information on MSDN is a little brief for anyone attempting an implementation.

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• Delight and Excite

  - by Applications User Experience

  Mick McGee, CEO & President, EchoUser Editor’s Note: EchoUser is a User Experience design firm in San Francisco and a member of the Oracle Usability Advisory Board. Mick and his staff regularly consult on Oracle Applications UX projects. Being part of a user experience design firm, we have the luxury of working with a lot of great people across many great companies. We get to help people solve their problems.  At least we used to. The basic design challenge is still the same; however, the goal is not necessarily to solve “problems” anymore; it is, “I want our products to delight and excite!” The question for us as UX professionals is how to design to those goals, and then how to assess them from a usability perspective. I’m not sure where I first heard “delight and excite” (A book? blog post? Facebook  status? Steve Jobs quote?), but now I hear these listed as user experience goals all the time. In particular, somewhat paradoxically, I routinely hear them in enterprise software conversations. And when asking these same enterprise companies what will make the project successful, we very often hear, “Make it like Apple.” In past days, it was “make it like Yahoo (or Amazon or Google“) but now Apple is the common benchmark. Steve Jobs and Apple were not secrets, but with Jobs’ passing and Apple becoming the world’s most valuable company in the last year, the impact of great design and experience is suddenly very widespread. In particular, users’ expectations have gone way up. Being an enterprise company is no shield to the general expectations that users now have, for all products. Designing a “Minimum Viable Product” The user experience challenge has historically been, to echo the words of Eric Ries (author of Lean Startup) , to create a “minimum viable product”: the proverbial, “make it good enough”. But, in our profession, the “minimum viable” part of that phrase has oftentimes, unfortunately, referred to the design and user experience. Technology typically dominated the focus of the biggest, most successful companies. Few have had the laser focus of Apple to also create and sell design and user experience alongside great technology. But now that Apple is the most valuable company in the world, copying their success is a common undertaking. Great design is now a premium offering that everyone wants, from the one-person startup to the largest companies, consumer and enterprise. This emerging business paradigm will have significant impact across the user experience design process and profession. One area that particularly interests me is, how are we going to evaluate these new emerging “delight and excite” experiences, which are further customized to each particular domain? How to Measure “Delight and Excite” Traditional usability measures of task completion rate, assists, time, and errors are still extremely useful in many situations; however, they are too blunt to offer much insight into emerging experiences “Satisfaction” is usually assessed in user testing, in roughly equivalent importance to the above objective metrics. Various surveys and scales have provided ways to measure satisfying UX, with whatever questions they include. However, to meet the demands of new business goals and keep users at the center of design and development processes, we have to explore new methods to better capture custom-experience goals and emotion-driven user responses. We have had success assessing custom experiences, including “delight and excite”, by employing a variety of user testing methods that tend to combine formative and summative techniques (formative being focused more on identifying usability issues and ways to improve design, and summative focused more on metrics). Our most successful tool has been one we’ve been using for a long time, Magnitude Estimation Technique (MET). But it’s not necessarily about MET as a measure, rather how it is created. Caption: For one client, EchoUser did two rounds of testing.  Each test was a mix of performing representative tasks and gathering qualitative impressions. Each user participated in an in-person moderated 1-on-1 session for 1 hour, using a testing set-up where they held the phone. The primary goal was to identify usability issues and recommend design improvements. MET is based on a definition of the desired experience, which users will then use to rate items of interest (usually tasks in a usability test). In other words, a custom experience definition needs to be created. This can then be used to measure satisfaction in accomplishing tasks; “delight and excite”; or anything else from strategic goals, user demands, or elsewhere. For reference, our standard MET definition in usability testing is: “User experience is your perception of how easy to use, well designed and productive an interface is to complete tasks.” Articulating the User Experience We’ve helped construct experience definitions for several clients to better match their business goals. One example is a modification of the above that was needed for a company that makes medical-related products: “User experience is your perception of how easy to use, well-designed, productive and safe an interface is for conducting tasks. ‘Safe’ is how free an environment (including devices, software, facilities, people, etc.) is from danger, risk, and injury.” Another example is from a company that is pushing hard to incorporate “delight” into their enterprise business line: “User experience is your perception of a product’s ease of use and learning, satisfaction and delight in design, and ability to accomplish objectives.” I find the last one particularly compelling in that there is little that identifies the experience as being for a highly technical enterprise application. That definition could easily be applied to any number of consumer products. We have gone further than the above, including “sexy” and “cool” where decision-makers insisted they were part of the desired experience. We also applied it to completely different experiences where the “interface” was, for example, riding public transit, the “tasks” were train rides, and we followed the participants through the train-riding journey and rated various aspects accordingly: “A good public transportation experience is a cost-effective way of reliably, conveniently, and safely getting me to my intended destination on time.” To construct these definitions, we’ve employed both bottom-up and top-down approaches, depending on circumstances. For bottom-up, user inputs help dictate the terms that best fit the desired experience (usually by way of cluster and factor analysis). Top-down depends on strategic, visionary goals expressed by upper management that we then attempt to integrate into product development (e.g., “delight and excite”). We like a combination of both approaches to push the innovation envelope, but still be mindful of current user concerns. Hopefully the idea of crafting your own custom experience, and a way to measure it, can provide you with some ideas how you can adapt your user experience needs to whatever company you are in. Whether product-development or service-oriented, nearly every company is ultimately providing a user experience. The Bottom Line Creating great experiences may have been popularized by Steve Jobs and Apple, but I’ll be honest, it’s a good feeling to be moving from “good enough” to “delight and excite,” despite the challenge that entails. In fact, it’s because of that challenge that we will expand what we do as UX professionals to help deliver and assess those experiences. I’m excited to see how we, Oracle, and the rest of the industry will live up to that challenge.

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• update jframe in java or revalidate/repaint/ panel

  - by user1516251

  How to update a java frame with changed content I want to update a frame or just the panel with updated content. What do I use for this Here is where i want to revalidate the frame or repaint mainpanel or whatever will work I have tried a number of things, but none of them have worked. public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { //System.out.println(e.getActionCommand()); if (e.getActionCommand().equals("advance")) { multi--; // Revalidate update repaint here <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< } else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("reverse")) { multi++; // Revalidate update repaint here <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< } else { openURL(e.getActionCommand()); } } Here is the whole java file /* * * */ package build; import java.lang.reflect.Method; import javax.swing.JOptionPane; import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.*; import java.util.ArrayList; import javax.swing.*; import javax.swing.AbstractButton; import javax.swing.JScrollPane; import javax.swing.JButton; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.JFrame; import javax.swing.ImageIcon; import java.awt.*; import java.awt.event.ActionEvent; import java.awt.event.ActionListener; import java.awt.event.KeyEvent; /* * ButtonDemo.java requires the following files: * images/right.gif * images/middle.gif * images/left.gif */ public class StockTable extends JPanel implements ActionListener { static int multi = 1; int roll = 0; static TextVars textvars = new TextVars(); static final String[] browsers = { "firefox", "opera", "konqueror", "epiphany", "seamonkey", "galeon", "kazehakase", "mozilla", "netscape" }; JFrame frame; JPanel mainpanel, panel1, panel2, panel3, panel4, panel2left, panel2center, panel2right; JButton stknames_btn[] = new JButton[textvars.getNumberOfStocks()]; JLabel label[] = new JLabel[textvars.getNumberOfStocks()]; JLabel headlabel, dayspan, namelabel; JRadioButton radioButton; JButton button; JScrollPane scrollpane; int wid = 825; public JPanel createContentPane() { mainpanel = new JPanel(); mainpanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(wid, 800)); mainpanel.setLayout(new GridBagLayout()); GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints(); panel1 = new JPanel(); panel1.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(wid, 25)); c.gridx = 0; c.gridy = 0; c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0); mainpanel.add(panel1, c); // Panel 2------------ panel2 = new JPanel(); panel2.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(wid, 51)); c.gridx = 0; c.gridy = 1; c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0); mainpanel.add(panel2, c); panel2left = new JPanel(); panel2left.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(270, 51)); c.gridx = 0; c.gridy = 1; c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0); panel2.add(panel2left, c); panel2center = new JPanel(); panel2center.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(258, 51)); c.gridx = 1; c.gridy = 1; c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0); panel2.add(panel2center, c); panel2right = new JPanel(); panel2right.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(270, 51)); c.gridx = 2; c.gridy = 1; c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0); panel2.add(panel2right, c); // ------------------ panel3 = new JPanel(); panel3.setLayout(new GridBagLayout()); scrollpane = new JScrollPane(panel3); scrollpane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(wid, 675)); c.gridx = 0; c.gridy = 2; c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0); mainpanel.add(scrollpane, c); ImageIcon leftButtonIcon = createImageIcon("images/right.gif"); //b1 = new JButton("Disable middle button", leftButtonIcon); //b1.setVerticalTextPosition(AbstractButton.CENTER); //b1.setHorizontalTextPosition(AbstractButton.LEADING); //aka LEFT, for left-to-right locales //b1.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_D); //b1.setActionCommand("disable"); //Listen for actions on buttons 1 //b1.addActionListener(this); //b1.setToolTipText("Click this button to disable the middle button."); //Add Components to this container, using the default FlowLayout. //add(b1); headlabel = new JLabel("hellorow1"); c.gridx = 0; c.gridy = 0; c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0); panel1.add(headlabel, c); radioButton = new JRadioButton("Percentage"); c.gridx = 2; c.gridy = 0; c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0); panel1.add(radioButton, c); radioButton = new JRadioButton("Days Range"); c.gridx = 3; c.gridy = 0; c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0); panel1.add(radioButton, c); radioButton = new JRadioButton("Open / Close"); c.gridx = 4; c.gridy = 0; c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0,0 ); panel1.add(radioButton, c); button = new JButton("<<"); button.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(50, 50)); button.setActionCommand("reverse"); button.addActionListener(this); c.gridx = 0; c.gridy = 1; c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0); panel2left.add(button, c); dayspan = new JLabel("hellorow2"); dayspan.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER); dayspan.setVerticalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER); dayspan.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(270, 50)); c.gridx = 1; c.gridy = 1; c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0); panel2center.add(dayspan, c); button = new JButton(">>"); button.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(50, 50)); button.setActionCommand("advance"); button.addActionListener(this); if (multi == 0) { button.setEnabled(false); } else { button.setEnabled(true); } c.gridx = 2; c.gridy = 1; c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0); panel2right.add(button, c); int availSpace_int = textvars.getStocks().size()-textvars.getNumberOfStocks()*7; ArrayList<String[]> stocknames = textvars.getStockNames(); ArrayList<String[]> stocks = textvars.getStocks(); for (int column = 0; column < 8; column++) { for (int row = 0; row < textvars.getNumberOfStocks(); row++) { if (column==0) { if (row==0) { namelabel = new JLabel(stocknames.get(0)[0]); namelabel.setVerticalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER); namelabel.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER); namelabel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 25)); c.gridx = column; c.gridy = row; c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0); panel3.add(namelabel, c); } else { stknames_btn[row] = new JButton(stocknames.get(row)[0], leftButtonIcon); stknames_btn[row].setVerticalTextPosition(AbstractButton.CENTER); stknames_btn[row].setActionCommand(stocknames.get(row)[1]); stknames_btn[row].addActionListener(this); stknames_btn[row].setToolTipText("go to Google Finance "+stocknames.get(row)[0]); stknames_btn[row].setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 25)); c.gridx = column; c.gridy = row; c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0); //scrollpane.add(stknames[row], c); panel3.add(stknames_btn[row], c); } } else { label[row]= new JLabel(textvars.getStocks().get(columnMulti(multi))[1]); label[row].setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black)); label[row].setVerticalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER); label[row].setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER); label[row].setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 25)); c.gridx = column; c.gridy = row; c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0); panel3.add(label[row], c); } } } return mainpanel; } public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { //System.out.println(e.getActionCommand()); if (e.getActionCommand().equals("advance")) { multi--; } else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("reverse")) { multi++; } else { openURL(e.getActionCommand()); } } /** Returns an ImageIcon, or null if the path was invalid. */ protected static ImageIcon createImageIcon(String path) { java.net.URL imgURL = StockTable.class.getResource(path); if (imgURL != null) { return new ImageIcon(imgURL); } else { System.err.println("Couldn't find file: " + path); return null; } } public static void openURL(String url) { String osName = System.getProperty("os.name"); try { if (osName.startsWith("Mac OS")) { Class<?> fileMgr = Class.forName("com.apple.eio.FileManager"); Method openURL = fileMgr.getDeclaredMethod("openURL", new Class[] {String.class}); openURL.invoke(null, new Object[] {url}); } else if (osName.startsWith("Windows")) { Runtime.getRuntime().exec("rundll32 url.dll,FileProtocolHandler " + url); } else { //assume Unix or Linux boolean found = false; for (String browser : browsers) if (!found) { found = Runtime.getRuntime().exec( new String[] {"which", browser}).waitFor() == 0; if (found) Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] {browser, url}); } if (!found) throw new Exception(Arrays.toString(browsers)); } } catch (Exception e) { JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Error attempting to launch web browser\n" + e.toString()); } } int reit = 0; int start = textvars.getStocks().size()-((textvars.getNumberOfStocks()*5)*7)-1; public int columnMulti(int multi) { reit++; start++; if (reit == textvars.getNumberOfStocks()) { reit = 0; start=start+64; } //start = start - (multi*(textvars.getNumberOfStocks())); return start; } /** * Create the GUI and show it. For thread safety, * this method should be invoked from the * event-dispatching thread. */ private static void createAndShowGUI() { //Create and set up the window. JFrame frame = new JFrame("Stock Table"); frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); //Create and set up the content pane. StockTable newContentPane = new StockTable(); //newContentPane.setOpaque(true); //content panes must be opaque //frame.setContentPane(newContentPane); frame.setContentPane(newContentPane.createContentPane()); frame.setSize(800, 800); //Display the window. frame.pack(); frame.setVisible(true); } public static void main(String[] args) { //Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread: //creating and showing this application's GUI. javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() { public void run() { createAndShowGUI(); } }); } }

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