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• Refresh banshee album art

  - by kmassada

  I usually just copy ~/.config/banshee-1, and ~/.gconf/apps/banshee-1 when i'm moving from one computer to the other, if I keep the path of the folders. I get to keep my music library intact with the playlists I have. The problem with this method is that, the album arts doesn't carry over nicely. You'd have to play every album to get the album art to appear. Anyone knows a workaround, to maybe force banshee to reload all album art? I saw this, but not quite what my issue is? I tried banshee --fetch-artwork, but didn't work too well kenneth@dv7:~$ banshee --fetch-artwork [Warn 11:23:38.200] DBus support could not be started. Disabling for this sessi on. - System.Exception: Error 111: Connection refused (in `dbus-sharp') at DBus.Unix.UnixSocket.Connect (System.Byte[] remote_end) [0x00000] in <filen ame unknown>:0 at DBus.Transports.UnixNativeTransport.OpenAbstractUnix (System.String path) [ 0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at DBus.Transports.UnixNativeTransport.Open (System.String path, Boolean abstr act) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at DBus.Transports.UnixTransport.Open (DBus.AddressEntry entry) [0x00000] in < filename unknown>:0 at DBus.Transports.Transport.Create (DBus.AddressEntry entry) [0x00000] in <fi lename unknown>:0 at DBus.Connection.OpenPrivate (System.String address) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at DBus.Connection..ctor (System.String address) [0x00000] in <filename unknow n>:0 at DBus.Bus..ctor (System.String address) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at DBus.Bus.Open (System.String address) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at DBus.Bus.get_Session () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 System.Exception: Unable to open the session message bus. (in `dbus-sharp') at DBus.Bus.get_Session () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at DBus.BusG.Init () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at Banshee.ServiceStack.DBusConnection.Connect (System.String serviceName, Boo lean init) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at Banshee.ServiceStack.DBusConnection.GrabDefaultName () [0x00000] in <filena me unknown>:0 [Info 11:23:38.286] Running Banshee 2.6.0: [Ubuntu 12.10 (linux-gnu, x86_64) @ 2012-10-11 06:19:37 UTC] (Banshee:21865): GConf-WARNING **: Client failed to connect to the D-BUS daemon: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-vLxS6Riwsn: Connection refused [Warn 11:23:38.948] Could not read GConf key core.send_anonymous_usage_data - G Lib.GException: No D-BUS daemon running (in `gconf-sharp') at GConf.Client.Get (System.String key) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at Banshee.GnomeBackend.GConfConfigurationClient.TryGet[Boolean] (System.Strin g namespace, System.String key, System.Boolean& result) [0x00000] in <filename u nknown>:0 (Banshee:21865): GConf-WARNING **: Client failed to connect to the D-BUS daemon: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-vLxS6Riwsn: Connection refused [Warn 11:23:39.239] Could not read GConf key core.send_anonymous_usage_data - G Lib.GException: No D-BUS daemon running (in `gconf-sharp') at GConf.Client.Get (System.String key) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at Banshee.GnomeBackend.GConfConfigurationClient.TryGet[Boolean] (System.Strin g namespace, System.String key, System.Boolean& result) [0x00000] in <filename u nknown>:0

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• Tackling Big Data Analytics with Oracle Data Integrator

  - by Irem Radzik

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}  By Mike Eisterer  The term big data draws a lot of attention, but behind the hype there's a simple story. For decades, companies have been making business decisions based on transactional data stored in relational databases. Beyond that critical data, however, is a potential treasure trove of less structured data: weblogs, social media, email, sensors, and documents that can be mined for useful information.  Companies are facing emerging technologies, increasing data volumes, numerous data varieties and the processing power needed to efficiently analyze data which changes with high velocity. Oracle offers the broadest and most integrated portfolio of products to help you acquire and organize these diverse data sources and analyze them alongside your existing data to find new insights and capitalize on hidden relationships Oracle Data Integrator Enterprise Edition(ODI) is critical to any enterprise big data strategy. ODI and the Oracle Data Connectors provide native access to Hadoop, leveraging such technologies as MapReduce, HDFS and Hive. Alongside with ODI’s metadata driven approach for extracting, loading and transforming data; companies may now integrate their existing data with big data technologies and deliver timely and trusted data to their analytic and decision support platforms. In this session, you’ll learn about ODI and Oracle Big Data Connectors and how, coupled together, they provide the critical integration with multiple big data platforms. Tackling Big Data Analytics with Oracle Data Integrator October 1, 2012 12:15 PM at MOSCONE WEST – 3005 For other data integration sessions at OpenWorld, please check our Focus-On document.  If you are not able to attend OpenWorld, please check out our latest resources for Data Integration.

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• What's the best way to create a static utility class in python? Is using metaclasses code smell?

  - by rsimp

  Ok so I need to create a bunch of utility classes in python. Normally I would just use a simple module for this but I need to be able to inherit in order to share common code between them. The common code needs to reference the state of the module using it so simple imports wouldn't work well. I don't like singletons, and classes that use the classmethod decorator do not have proper support for python properties. One pattern I see used a lot is creating an internal python class prefixed with an underscore and creating a single instance which is then explicitly imported or set as the module itself. This is also used by fabric to create a common environment object (fabric.api.env). I've realized another way to accomplish this would be with metaclasses. For example: #util.py class MetaFooBase(type): @property def file_path(cls): raise NotImplementedError def inherited_method(cls): print cls.file_path #foo.py from util import * import env class MetaFoo(MetaFooBase): @property def file_path(cls): return env.base_path + "relative/path" def another_class_method(cls): pass class Foo(object): __metaclass__ = MetaFoo #client.py from foo import Foo file_path = Foo.file_path I like this approach better than the first pattern for a few reasons: First, instantiating Foo would be meaningless as it has no attributes or methods, which insures this class acts like a true single interface utility, unlike the first pattern which relies on the underscore convention to dissuade client code from creating more instances of the internal class. Second, sub-classing MetaFoo in a different module wouldn't be as awkward because I wouldn't be importing a class with an underscore which is inherently going against its private naming convention. Third, this seems to be the closest approximation to a static class that exists in python, as all the meta code applies only to the class and not to its instances. This is shown by the common convention of using cls instead of self in the class methods. As well, the base class inherits from type instead of object which would prevent users from trying to use it as a base for other non-static classes. It's implementation as a static class is also apparent when using it by the naming convention Foo, as opposed to foo, which denotes a static class method is being used. As much as I think this is a good fit, I feel that others might feel its not pythonic because its not a sanctioned use for metaclasses which should be avoided 99% of the time. I also find most python devs tend to shy away from metaclasses which might affect code reuse/maintainability. Is this code considered code smell in the python community? I ask because I'm creating a pypi package, and would like to do everything I can to increase adoption.

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• VirtualBox image SOA Suite &amp; BPM Suite 11.1.1.6.0 & Your feedback?

  - by JuergenKress

  The integration PM team is very pleased to announce the release of a new version of our pre-configured SOA/BPM VirtualBox image for testing and evaluation. This VirtualBox appliance contains a fully configured, ready-to-use SOA/BPM/Webcenter 11.1.1.6.0 installation. All you need is to install Oracle VM VirtualBox on your desktop/laptop and import the SOA/BPM appliance and you are ready to try out SOA Suite and BPM Suite -- no installation and configuration required! The following software is installed in this VritualBox image: Oracle Enterprise Linux (64-bit) EL 5 Update 5 Oracle XE Database 11.2.0 Oracle SOA Suite 11.1.1.6.0 (includes Service Bus) Oracle BPM Suite 11.1.1.6.0 Oracle Webcenter Content (Enterprise Content Management) 11.1.1.6.0 Oracle Webcenter Suite 11.1.1.6.0 Oracle JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0 JRockit R28.2.0-79-146777-1.6.0_29s Sun Java SDK 1.6.0_29-b11 If you want to try it out, please go to the Pre-built Virtual Machine for SOA Suite and BPM Suite 11g OTN page for detailed instructions on downloading and importing the VirtualBox image. Jon Petter Hjulstad published the first impression at his blog Twitter & LinkedIn We have been waiting for the new VirtualBox Image for a long time, and finally it is here. The appliance has improved in many ways since last release, so it has been worth waiting for. Both the appliance itself and the documentation is excellent. It is evident that Oracle has listened to feedback on the previous release, and I think the developer VMs are useful. Especially the adoption of new patchsets and versions (ex when 12c will be available) will gain a lot from quick getting hands-on experiences. This VirtualBox appliance is a multipurpose image which can be used in different domain configurations. The image has a number of pre-configured domains that you can use depending on your need. The image can be set up so that it requires use of as few resources as possible, you can for instance easily disable B2B if you do not need it, or you can shut down the desktop console and save 600MB. It is important to say that this image is not for production purposes. Read the full article SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix ForumTechnorati Tags: SOA Suite Image,VirtualBox,BPM suite Image,SOA Specialization award,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-09-19

  - by Bob Rhubart

  BPM Process Accelerator Packs – Update | Pat Shepherd Architect Pat Shepherd shares several resources relevant to the new Oracle Process Accelerators for Oracle Business Process Management. Oracle BI EE Management Pack Now Available for Oracle Enterprise Manager 12cR2 | Mark Rittman A handy and informative overview from Oracle ACE Director Mark Rittman. WebSockets on WebLogic Server | Steve Button "As there's no standard WebSocket Java API at this point, we've chosen to model the API on the Grizzly WebSocket API with some minor changes where necessary," says James "Buttso" Buttons. "Once the results of JSR-356 (Java API for WebSocket) becomes public, we'll look to implement and support that." Oracle Reference Architecture: Software Engineering This document from the IT Strategies from Oracle library focuses on integrated asset management and the need for efffective asset metadata management to insure that assets are properly tracked and reused in a manner that provides a holistic functional view of the enterprise. The tipping point for cloud management is nigh | Cloud Computing - InfoWorld "Businesses typically don't think too much about managing IT resources until they become too numerous and cumbersome to deal with on an ad hoc basis—a point many companies will soon hit in their adoption of cloud computing." — David Linthicum DevOps Basics: Track Down High CPU Thread with ps, top and the new JDK7 jcmd Tool | Frank Munz "The approach is very generic and works for WebLogic, Glassfish or any other Java application," say Frank Munz. "UNIX commands in the example are run on CentOS, so they will work without changes for Oracle Enterprise Linux or RedHat. Creating the thread dump at the end of the video is done with the jcmd tool from JDK7." Frank has captured the process in the posted video. OIM 11g R2 UI customization | Daniel Gralewski "OIM user interface customizations are easier now, and they survive patch applications--there is no need to reapply them after patching," says Fusion Middleware A-Team member Daniel Gralewski. "Adding new artifacts, new skins, and plugging code directly into the user interface components became an easier task." Daniel shows just how easy in this post. Thought for the Day "I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated." — Poul Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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• How to Modify a Signature for Use in Plain Text Emails in Outlook 2013

  - by Lori Kaufman

  If you’ve created a signature with an image, links, text formatting, or special characters, the signature will not look the same in plain text formatted emails as it does in HTML format. As the name suggests, Plain Text does not support any type of formatting. For example, if you include an image in your signature, as shown below, the plain text version will be blank. Active links in HTML signatures will be converted to just the text of the link in plain text emails. The How-To Geek link in the image below will become simply How-To Geek and will look like the rest of the text in the signature. The same thing is true in the following example. The active links are stripped from the text. The picture of the envelope that was inserted using the Wingdings font will only display as the plain text character associated with it. There are times you may need to send email in Plain Text format, but still include your signature. You can edit the plain text version of your signature to make it look good in plain text emails by manually editing the text file. To do this, click the File tab. Click Options in the menu list on the left side of the Account Information screen. On the Outlook Options dialog box, click Mail in the list of options on the left side of the dialog box. In the Compose messages section, press and hold the Ctrl key and click the Signatures button. This opens the Signatures folder containing the files used to insert signatures into emails. The .txt file version of each signature is used when inserting a signature into a plain text email. Double-click on a .txt file for the signature you want to edit to open it in Notepad, or your default text editor. Notice that the links on “How-To Geek” and “Email me” are gone and the envelope typed using the Wingdings font was converted to an “H.” Edit the text file to remove extra characters, replace images, and provide full web and email links. Save the text file. Create a new mail message and select the edited signature, if it’s not the default signature for the current email account. To convert the email to plain text, click the Format Text tab and click Plain Text in the Format section. The Microsoft Outlook Compatibility Checker displays telling you that Formatted text will become plain text. Click Continue. The HTML version of your signature is converted to the plain text version. NOTE: You should make a backup of the .txt signature file you edited, as this file will change again when you change your signature in the Signature Editor.     

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• Automate RAC Cluster Upgrades using EM12c

  - by HariSrinivasan

  One of the most arduous processes  in DB maintenance is upgrading Databases across major versions, especially for complex RAC Clusters.With the release of Database Plug-in  (12.1.0.5.0), EM12c Rel 3 (12.1.0.3.0)  now supports automated upgrading of RAC Clusters in addition to Standalone Databases. This automation includes: Upgrade of the complete Cluster across the nodes. ( Example: 11.1.0.7 CRS, ASM, RAC DB  ->   11.2.0.4 or 12.1.0.1 GI, RAC DB)  Best practices in tune with your operations, where you can automate upgrade in steps: Step 1: Upgrade the Clusterware to Grid Infrastructure (Allowing you to wait, test and then move to DBs). Step 2: Upgrade RAC DBs either separately or in group (Mass upgrade of RAC DB's in the cluster). Standard pre-requisite checks like Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) and RAC checks Division of Upgrade process into Non-downtime activities (like laying down the new Oracle Homes (OH), running checks) to Downtime Activities (like Upgrading Clusterware to GI, Upgrading RAC) there by lowering the downtime required. Ability to configure Back up and Restore options as a part of this upgrade process. You can choose to : a. Take Backup via this process (either Guaranteed Restore Point (GRP) or RMAN) b. Set the procedure to pause just before the upgrade step to allow you to take a custom backup c. Ignore backup completely, if there are external mechanisms already in place.  High Level Steps: Select the Procedure "Upgrade Database" from Database Provisioning Home page. Choose the Target Type for upgrade and the Destination version Pick and choose the Cluster, it picks up the complete topology since the clusterware/GI isn't upgraded already Select the Gold Image of the destination version for deploying both the GI and RAC OHs Specify new OH patch, credentials, choose the Restore and Backup options, if required provide additional pre and post scripts Set the Break points in the procedure execution to isolate Downtime activities Submit and track the procedure's execution status.  The animation below captures the steps in the wizard.  For step by step process and to understand the support matrix check this documentation link. Explore the functionality!! In the next blog, will talk about automating rolling Upgrades of Databases in Physical Standby Data Guard environment using Transient Logical Standby.

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• Error message during update from 13.04 to 13.10

  - by layonhands

  The following was reported after I attempted to report the problem back to Ubuntu: The problem cannot be reported: You have some obsolete package versions installed. Please upgrade the following packages and check if the problem still occurs: ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk, apport, apport-gtk, apport-symptoms, apt, apt-utils, at-spi2-core, binutils, dbus, gcc-4.7-base, gdb, gir1.2-atk-1.0, gir1.2-gtk-3.0, glib-networking, glib-networking-common, glib-networking-services, gnupg, gpgv, ifupdown, initramfs-tools, initramfs-tools-bin, kmod, libappindicator3-1, libapt-inst1.5, libapt-pkg4.12, libasound2, libatk-bridge2.0-0, libatk1.0-0, libatk1.0-data, libatspi2.0-0, libc-bin, libc6, libcups2, libdbus-1-3, libdbusmenu-glib4, libdbusmenu-gtk3-4, libdrm-intel1, libdrm-nouveau2, libdrm-radeon1, libdrm2, libgail-3-0, libgcc1, libgcrypt11, libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-data, libgnutls26, libgomp1, libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0, libgstreamer1.0-0, libgtk-3-0, libgtk-3-bin, libgtk-3-common, libgudev-1.0-0, libicu48, libindicator3-7, libkmod2, liblcms2-2, libpci3, libplymouth2, libpolkit-agent-1-0, libpolkit-backend-1-0, libpolkit-gobject-1-0, libprocps0, libpython-stdlib, libpython2.7, libpython2.7-minimal, libpython2.7-stdlib, libpython3-stdlib, libpython3.3-minimal, libpython3.3-stdlib, libssl1.0.0, libstdc++6, libtiff5, libudev1, libx11-6, libx11-data, libx11-xcb1, libxcb-dri2-0, libxcb-glx0, libxcb-render0, libxcb-shm0, libxcb1, libxcursor1, libxext6, libxfixes3, libxi6, libxinerama1, libxml2, libxrandr2, libxrender1, libxres1, libxt6, libxtst6, libxxf86vm1, lsb-base, lsb-release, module-init-tools, multiarch-support, openssl, passwd, pciutils, perl, perl-base, perl-modules, plymouth, plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text, policykit-1, procps, python, python-gi, python-minimal, python2.7, python2.7-minimal, python3, python3-apport, python3-distupgrade, python3-gi, python3-minimal, python3-problem-report, python3-software-properties, python3-update-manager, python3.3, python3.3-minimal, rsyslog, shared-mime-info, software-properties-common, software-properties-gtk, tar, tzdata, ubuntu-release-upgrader-core, ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk, udev, update-manager, update-manager-core, update-notifier, update-notifier-common If this question has already been answered, I'm sorry for the repost, but I would appreciate a link to the fix. Thanks. FYI: Dell Latitude D630, Intel Centrino processor. Also, the updater is currently running what seems to be the update. I will report back when it is done going through its process to let you know if it is in fact the 13.10 update. Update 2: System went through an update, but it wasn't for the OS. I think it was an update for the error message mentioned above. Now the OS update is currently running the 'distribution upgrade' portion of the update. This is further than it had gone before. Again I will report back once this is done to let you know whether or not the update was successful. Final Update: Don't know for sure what happened, but I'm almost sure that the error mentioned above was resolved in the first update prior to the 13.10 update. All set.

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• Agile PLM Highlights from Oracle OpenWorld 2012

  - by Kerrie Foy

  Thank you to everyone who joined us at Oracle OpenWorld this year, either in person or virtually (thanks for tweeting #oowplm)!  From customer presentations to after-hours networking opportunities, there was a lot to see and do during the entire conference. Sessions It was our pleasure to feature several customer speakers during our PLM sessions at OpenWorld from such companies as Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Eli Lilly, and many more.  Each had a unique perspective to share and fascinating insight into how they successfully leverage Agile PLM to facilitate profitable innovation, protect brand integrity, streamline operations, manage compliance, launch faster, etc.  For example, during the Product Value Chain keynote session, CIO Chris Bedi of JDSU shared how they implemented Agile PLM to support business imperatives around rapid innovation, centralizing product information, collaboration, and eliminate the “Excel gymnastics” required to obtain global portfolio visibility. In just 120 days after implementing, JDSU employees reported significant improvements around product record management, new product introduction, engineering collaboration and more, which created a better work environment to enable critical innovation. I could write on and on about the almost 20 sessions! So to spare yourselves, please visit launch.oracle.com/?plmopenworld2012; it’s a curated selection of PLM presentations from the OpenWorld Content Catalog and available on-demand. Enjoy! Agile Innovation Management During OpenWorld, we announced an exciting new addition to the Agile PLM applications called Innovation Management that redefines the industry’s scope of product lifecycle management.  Our broad vision of complete enterprise PLM for the entire Product Value Chain already broke new ground by helping organizations extend PLM disciplines downstream by connecting product design to commercialization processes; now we are helping executives look farther upstream in the early innovation phases to ultimately close the gap between strategy and execution that so commonly nags innovation initiatives.  More on this coming soon so stay tuned! Unique Networking Opportunities  We know it can be challenging during OpenWorld to find time to productively connect and network with your industry peers, so we hosted an Agile PLM “Birds of a Feather” networking brunch for the second year in a row.  At a fine restaurant close to Moscone we hosted nine tables, each with only ten seats to encourage active conversation.  Furthermore, guests could select from a list of predetermined table topics sponsored by a specialized PLM partner to guarantee – even more so – that they were seated with like-minded company and optimizing their time at the conference.  Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to easily connect with other PLM users during OpenWorld in a more casual setting. What’s Next? Thank you again to all who joined us!  If you haven't yet, mark your calendar to join us for the next Oracle Agile PLM conference at the Value Chain Summit in San Francisco, February 4-6 in 2013!  We’ll have 40 sessions of PLM content in four tracks. Don’t miss it! You can sign up to be notified when official registration opens by visiting www.oracle.com/goto/vcs. 

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• How To Deal With Terrible Design Decisions

  - by splatto

  I'm a consultant at one company. There is another consultant who is a year older than me and has been here 3 months longer than I have, and a full time developer. The full-time developer is great. My concern is that I see the consultant making absolutely terrible design decisions. For example, M:M relationships are being stored in the database as a comma-delimited string rather than using a conjunction table to hold the relationships. For example, consider two tables, Car and Property: Car records: Camry Volvo Mercedes Property records: Spare Tire Satellite Radio Ipod Support Standard Rather than making a table CarProperties to represent this, he has made a "Property" attribute on the Car table whose data looks like "1,3,7,13,19,25," I hate how this decision and others are affecting the quality of my code. We have butted heads over this design three times in the past two months since I've been here. He asked me why my suggestion was better, and I responded that our database would be eliminating redundant data by converting to a higher normal form. I explained that this design flaw in particular is discussed and discouraged in entry level college programs, and he responded with a shot at me saying that these comma-separated-value database properties are taught when you do your masters (which neither of us have). Needless to say, he became very upset and demanded I apologize for criticizing his work, which I did in the interest of not wanting to be the consultant to create office drama. Our project manager is focused on delivering a product ASAP and is a very strong personality - Suggesting to him at this point that we spend some time to do this right will set him off. There is a strong likelihood that both of our contracts will be extended to work on a second project coming up. How will I be able to exert dominant influence over the design of the system and the data model to ensure that such terrible mistakes are not repeated in the next project? A glimpse at the dynamics: I can be a strong personality if I don't measure myself. The other consultant is not a strong personality, is a poor communicator, is quite stubborn and thinks he is better than everyone else. The project manager is an extremely strong personality who is focused on releasing tomorrow's product yesterday. The full-time developer is very laid back and easy going, a very effective communicator, but is someone who will accept bad design if it means not rocking the boat. Code reviews or anything else that takes "time" will be out of the question - there is no way our PM will be sold on such a thing by anybody.

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• Partner Blog Series: PwC Perspectives - The Gotchas, The Do's and Don'ts for IDM Implementations

  - by Tanu Sood

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-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:12.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:12.0pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6 {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:1; mso-tstyle-colband-size:1; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; border-top:solid #E0301E 1.0pt; mso-border-top-themecolor:accent6; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #E0301E 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor:accent6; border-right:none; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Georgia","serif"; color:black; mso-themecolor:text1; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6FirstRow {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:first-row; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-border-top:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-bottom-themecolor:accent6; font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Georgia; mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:major-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:major-bidi;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6LastRow {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:last-row; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-border-top:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-top-themecolor:accent6; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-bottom-themecolor:accent6; color:#968C6D; mso-themecolor:text2; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6FirstCol {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:first-column; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6LastCol {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:last-column; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-border-top:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-top-themecolor:accent6; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-bottom-themecolor:accent6; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6OddColumn {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:odd-column; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#F7CBC7; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent6; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:63;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6OddRow {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:odd-row; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#F7CBC7; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent6; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:63;} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-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:12.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:12.0pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6 {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:1; mso-tstyle-colband-size:1; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; border-top:solid #E0301E 1.0pt; mso-border-top-themecolor:accent6; border-left:none; border-bottom:solid #E0301E 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor:accent6; border-right:none; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Georgia","serif"; color:black; mso-themecolor:text1; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6FirstRow {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:first-row; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-border-top:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-bottom-themecolor:accent6; font-family:"Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Georgia; mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:major-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Georgia; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:major-bidi;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6LastRow {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:last-row; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-border-top:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-top-themecolor:accent6; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-bottom-themecolor:accent6; color:#968C6D; mso-themecolor:text2; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6FirstCol {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:first-column; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6LastCol {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:last-column; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-border-top:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-top-themecolor:accent6; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:1.0pt solid #E0301E; mso-tstyle-border-bottom-themecolor:accent6; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6OddColumn {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:odd-column; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#F7CBC7; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent6; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:63;} table.MsoTableMediumList1Accent6OddRow {mso-style-name:"Medium List 1 - Accent 6"; mso-table-condition:odd-row; mso-style-priority:65; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#F7CBC7; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent6; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:63;} It is generally accepted among business communities that technology by itself is not a silver bullet to all problems, but when it is combined with leading practices, strategy, careful planning and execution, it can create a recipe for success. This post attempts to highlight some of the best practices along with dos & don’ts that our practice has accumulated over the years in the identity & access management space in general, and also in the context of R2, in particular. Best Practices The following section illustrates the leading practices in “How” to plan, implement and sustain a successful OIM deployment, based on our collective experience. Planning is critical, but often overlooked A common approach to planning an IAM program that we identify with our clients is the three step process involving a current state assessment, a future state roadmap and an executable strategy to get there. It is extremely beneficial for clients to assess their current IAM state, perform gap analysis, document the recommended controls to address the gaps, align future state roadmap to business initiatives and get buy in from all stakeholders involved to improve the chances of success. When designing an enterprise-wide solution, the scalability of the technology must accommodate the future growth of the enterprise and the projected identity transactions over several years. Aligning the implementation schedule of OIM to related information technology projects increases the chances of success. As a baseline, it is recommended to match hardware specifications to the sizing guide for R2 published by Oracle. Adherence to this will help ensure that the hardware used to support OIM will not become a bottleneck as the adoption of new services increases. If your Organization has numerous connected applications that rely on reconciliation to synchronize the access data into OIM, consider hosting dedicated instances to handle reconciliation. Finally, ensure the use of clustered environment for development and have at least three total environments to help facilitate a controlled migration to production. If your Organization is planning to implement role based access control, we recommend performing a role mining exercise and consolidate your enterprise roles to keep them manageable. In addition, many Organizations have multiple approval flows to control access to critical roles, applications and entitlements. If your Organization falls into this category, we highly recommend that you limit the number of approval workflows to a small set. Most Organizations have operations managed across data centers with backend database synchronization, if your Organization falls into this category, ensure that the overall latency between the datacenters when replicating the databases is less than ten milliseconds to ensure that there are no front office performance impacts. Ingredients for a successful implementation During the development phase of your project, there are a number of guidelines that can be followed to help increase the chances for success. Most implementations cannot be completed without the use of customizations. If your implementation requires this, it’s a good practice to perform code reviews to help ensure quality and reduce code bottlenecks related to performance. We have observed at our clients that the development process works best when team members adhere to coding leading practices. Plan for time to correct coding defects and ensure developers are empowered to report their own bugs for maximum transparency. Many organizations struggle with defining a consistent approach to managing logs. This is particularly important due to the amount of information that can be logged by OIM. We recommend Oracle Diagnostics Logging (ODL) as an alternative to be used for logging. ODL allows log files to be formatted in XML for easy parsing and does not require a server restart when the log levels are changed during troubleshooting. Testing is a vital part of any large project, and an OIM R2 implementation is no exception. We suggest that at least one lower environment should use production-like data and connectors. Configurations should match as closely as possible. For example, use secure channels between OIM and target platforms in pre-production environments to test the configurations, the migration processes of certificates, and the additional overhead that encryption could impose. Finally, we ask our clients to perform database backups regularly and before any major change event, such as a patch or migration between environments. In the lowest environments, we recommend to have at least a weekly backup in order to prevent significant loss of time and effort. Similarly, if your organization is using virtual machines for one or more of the environments, it is recommended to take frequent snapshots so that rollbacks can occur in the event of improper configuration. Operate & sustain the solution to derive maximum benefits When migrating OIM R2 to production, it is important to perform certain activities that will help achieve a smoother transition. At our clients, we have seen that splitting the OIM tables into their own tablespaces by categories (physical tables, indexes, etc.) can help manage database growth effectively. If we notice that a client hasn’t enabled the Oracle-recommended indexing in the applicable database, we strongly suggest doing so to improve performance. Additionally, we work with our clients to make sure that the audit level is set to fit the organization’s auditing needs and sometimes even allocate UPA tables and indexes into their own table-space for better maintenance. Finally, many of our clients have set up schedules for reconciliation tables to be archived at regular intervals in order to keep the size of the database(s) reasonable and result in optimal database performance. For our clients that anticipate availability issues with target applications, we strongly encourage the use of the offline provisioning capabilities of OIM R2. This reduces the provisioning process for a given target application dependency on target availability and help avoid broken workflows. To account for this and other abnormalities, we also advocate that OIM’s monitoring controls be configured to alert administrators on any abnormal situations. Within OIM R2, we have begun advising our clients to utilize the ‘profile’ feature to encapsulate multiple commonly requested accounts, roles, and/or entitlements into a single item. By setting up a number of profiles that can be searched for and used, users will spend less time performing the same exact steps for common tasks. We advise our clients to follow the Oracle recommended guides for database and application server tuning which provides a good baseline configuration. It offers guidance on database connection pools, connection timeouts, user interface threads and proper handling of adapters/plug-ins. All of these can be important configurations that will allow faster provisioning and web page response times. Many of our clients have begun to recognize the value of data mining and a remediation process during the initial phases of an implementation (to help ensure high quality data gets loaded) and beyond (to support ongoing maintenance and business-as-usual processes). A successful program always begins with identifying the data elements and assigning a classification level based on criticality, risk, and availability. It should finish by following through with a remediation process. Dos & Don’ts Here are the most common dos and don'ts that we socialize with our clients, derived from our experience implementing the solution. Dos Don’ts Scope the project into phases with realistic goals. Look for quick wins to show success and value to the stake holders. Avoid “boiling the ocean” and trying to integrate all enterprise applications in the first phase. Establish an enterprise ID (universal unique ID across the enterprise) earlier in the program. Avoid major UI customizations that require code changes. Have a plan in place to patch during the project, which helps alleviate any major issues or roadblocks (product and database). Avoid publishing all the target entitlements if you don't anticipate their usage during access request. Assess your current state and prepare a roadmap to address your operations, tactical and strategic goals, align it with your business priorities. Avoid integrating non-production environments with your production target systems. Defer complex integrations to the later phases and take advantage of lessons learned from previous phases Avoid creating multiple accounts for the same user on the same system, if there is an opportunity to do so. Have an identity and access data quality initiative built into your plan to identify and remediate data related issues early on. Avoid creating complex approval workflows that would negative impact productivity and SLAs. Identify the owner of the identity systems with fair IdM knowledge and empower them with authority to make product related decisions. This will help ensure overcome any design hurdles. Avoid creating complex designs that are not sustainable long term and would need major overhaul during upgrades. Shadow your internal or external consulting resources during the implementation to build the necessary product skills needed to operate and sustain the solution. Avoid treating IAM as a point solution and have appropriate level of communication and training plan for the IT and business users alike. Conclusion In our experience, Identity programs will struggle with scope, proper resourcing, and more. We suggest that companies consider the suggestions discussed in this post and leverage them to help enable their identity and access program. This concludes PwC blog series on R2 for the month and we sincerely hope that the information we have shared thus far has been beneficial. For more information or if you have questions, you can reach out to Rex Thexton, Senior Managing Director, PwC and or Dharma Padala, Director, PwC. We look forward to hearing from you. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-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:12.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:12.0pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} 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. 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. 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).

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• WebLogic Server Weekly for March 26th, 2012: WLS 1211 Update, Java 7 Certification, Galleria, WebLogic for DBAs, REST and Enterprise Architecture, Singleton Services

  - by Steve Button

  WebLogic Server 12c Certified with Java 7 for Production Use WebLogic Server 12c (12.1.1) has been certified with JDK 7 for development usage since December and we have now completed JDK 7 certification for use with production systems. In doing so, we have updated the WebLogic Server 12c (12.1.1) distributions incorporating fixes associated with JDK 7 support as well as some bundled patches that address several issues that have been discovered since the initial release. These updated distributions are available for download from OTN and will be beneficial for all WebLogic Server 12c (12.1.1) users in general. What's New Release Notes Download Here! Updated Oracle WebLogic Server 12.1.1.0 distribution Never one to miss a trick, Markus Eisele was one of the first to notice the WebLogic Server 12c update and post a blog about it. Sources told me that as of Friday last week you have an updated version of WebLogic Server 12c on OTN. http://blog.eisele.net/2012/03/updated-oracle-weblogic-server-12110.html Using WebLogic Server 12c with Java 7 - Video To illustrate the use of Java 7 with WebLogic Server 12c, I put together a screen cam showing the creation of a domain using Java 7 and then build and deploy a simple web application that uses Java 7 syntax to show it working. Ireland OUG Presentation: WebLogic for DBAs Simon Haslam posted his slides from a presentation he gave Dublin on 21/3/12 at the OUG Ireland conference. In this presentation, he explains the core concepts and ideas behind WebLogic Server, walks through an installation and offers some tips and common gotcha's to avoid. Simon also covers some aspects of installing and use Enterprise Manager 12c. Note: I usually install the JVM and use the generic .jar installer rather than using an installer bundled with a JVM. http://www.slideshare.net/Veriton/weblogic-for-dbas-10h Slightly Retro: Jeff West on Enterprise Architecure and REST In this weeks flashback, we look at Jeff West's blog from early 2011 where he provides some thoughtful opinions on enterprise architecture and innovation, then jumps into his views on REST. After I progressed in my career and did more team-leading and architecture type roles I was ‘educated’ on what it meant to have Asynchronous and Long-Running processes as part of your Enterprise Application architecture. If I had a synchronous process then I needed a thread available to service the request and then provide the response. https://blogs.oracle.com/jeffwest/entry/weblogic_integration_wli_web_services_and_soap_and_rest_part_1 Starting Managed Servers without an Administration Server using Node Manager and WLST Blogger weblogic-tips shows how to start a managed server without going through the Administration Server, using the Node Manager and WLST. Connect WLST to a Node Manager by entering the nmConnect command. http://www.weblogic-tips.com/2012/02/18/starting-managed-servers-without-an-administration-server-using-node-manager-and-wlst/ Using WebLogic Server Singleton Services WebLogic Server has supported the notion of a Singleton Service for a number of releases, in which WebLogic Server will maintain a single instance of a configured singleton service on one managed server within a cluster. This blog demonstrates how the singleton service can be accessed and used from applications deployed on the cluster. http://buttso.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/weblogic-server-singleton-services.html

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• SharePoint 2010 Hosting :: Sending SMS Alerts in SharePoint 2010 Over Office Mobile Service Protocol (OMS)

  - by mbridge

  In this post, I want to share the exciting news of SharePoint's 2010 new feature. Finally it's possible to send SMS directly from SharePoint to mobile phones. The advantages of sending SMS instead of Email messages are obvious: SMS alerts or reminders that are received on mobile phones are more preferred than Email messages that can be lost in the mass of spam. The interface is standard as it's very similar to previous versions of the product. Adjustments are easy to do, simply enter the address of the Office Mobile Service (OMS) web-service which you want to use for sending messages, then specify the connection parameters. Further details on Office Mobile Service is available below. The Test Service button checks if OMS web-service is accessible using provided URL (user name and password are not verified). This check is needed because OMS web-service URL depends on the mobile operator and country. It's now possible to select the method of sending alerts in alerts settings. Email option is selected by default. Alerts delivery method is displayed in the list of existing alerts. Office Mobile Service (OMS) SharePoint 2010 uses exterior servers similar to SMTP servers for sending SMS alerts. However, Microsoft started development and promotion of their own protocol instead of using existing ones. That is how Office Mobile Service (OMS) appeared. This open protocol enables clients to send text and multimedia messages (mobile messages) remotely to the server which processes these messages and delivers them to mobile phones.  Typical scenario of utilizing this protocol is data transfer between computer application and mobile phone. The recipient can answer messages and the server in return will deliver the answer by SMTP protocol, i.e. by email.  Key quality of this protocol is that it's built on base of HTPP(S) and SOAP protocols.     This means that in fact SMS gateway must support typified web-service. What do you get from web-service? What you get is the ability to send SMS from any platform you want.  The protocol is being developed at the moment and version 0.2 from 08/28/2009 was available when the article was published.  For promotion of their protocol and simplifying server search, Microsoft represented web-service http://messaging.office.microsoft.com/HostingProviders.aspx that helps to receive the list of providers, which supports OMS protocol and message delivery to your operator.  All you need to do is decide which provider to use, complete the agreement, then adjust the SharePoint connection parameters and start working.  Some providers advertise themselves not only for clients but for mobile operators as well. They offer automatic adding to the list of the Office Mobile Service Providers.  To view the full specifications of OMS, please go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd774103.aspx.

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• When to use SOAP over REST

  So, how does REST based services differ from SOAP based services, and when should you use SOAP? Representational State Transfer (REST) implements the standard HTTP/HTTPS as an interface allowing clients to obtain access to resources based on requested URIs. An example of a URI may look like this http://mydomain.com/service/method?parameter=var1&parameter=var2. It is important to note that REST based services are stateless because http/https is natively stateless. One of the many benefits for implementing HTTP/HTTPS as an interface is can be found in caching. Caching can be done on a web service much like caching is done on requested web pages. Caching allows for reduced web server processing and increased response times because content is already processed and stored for immediate access. Typical actions performed by REST based services include generic CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations and operations that do not require state. Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) on the other hand uses a generic interface in order to transport messages. Unlike REST, SOAP can use HTTP/HTTPS, SMTP, JMS, or any other standard transport protocols. Furthermore, SOAP utilizes XML in the following ways: Define a message Defines how a message is to be processed Defines the encoding of a message Lays out procedure calls and responses As REST aligns more with a Resource View, SOAP aligns more with a Method View in that business logic is exposed as methods typically through SOAP web service because they can retain state. In addition, SOAP requests are not cached therefore every request will be processed by the server. As stated before Soap does retain state and this gives it a special advantage over REST for services that need to preform transactions where multiple calls to a service are need in order to complete a task. Additionally, SOAP is more ideal for enterprise level services that implement standard exchange formats in the form of contracts due to the fact that REST does not currently support this. A real world example of where SOAP is preferred over REST can be seen in the banking industry where money is transferred from one account to another. SOAP would allow a bank to perform a transaction on an account and if the transaction failed, SOAP would automatically retry the transaction ensuring that the request was completed. Unfortunately, with REST, failed service calls must be handled manually by the requesting application. References: Francia, S. (2010). SOAP vs. REST. Retrieved 11 20, 2011, from spf13: http://spf13.com/post/soap-vs-rest Rozlog, M. (2010). REST and SOAP: When Should I Use Each (or Both)? Retrieved 11 20, 2011, from Infoq.com: http://www.infoq.com/articles/rest-soap-when-to-use-each

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• Move Data into the grid for scalable, predictable response times

  - by JuergenKress

  CloudTran is pleased to introduce the availability of the CloudTran Transaction and Persistence Manager for creating scalable, reliable data services on the Oracle Coherence In-Memory Data Grid (IMDG). Use of IMDG architectures has been key to handling today’s web-scale loads because it eliminates database latency by storing important and frequently access data in memory instead of on disk. The CloudTran product lets developers easily use an IMDG for full ACID-compliant transactions without having to be concerned about the location or spread of data. The system has its own implementation of fast, scalable distributed transactions that does NOT depend on XA protocols but still guarantees all ACID properties. Plus, CloudTran asynchronously replicates data going into the IMDG to back-end datastores and back-up data centers, again ensuring ACID properties. CloudTran can be accessed through Java Persistence API (JPA via TopLink Grid) and now, through a new Low-Level API, or LLAPI. This is ideal for use in SOA applications that need data reliability, high availability, performance, and scalability. It is still in its limited beta release, the LLAPI gives developers the ability to use standard put/remove logic available in Coherence and then wrap logic with simple Spring annotations or XML+AspectJ to start transactions. An important feature of LLAPI is the ability to join transactions. This is a common outcome for SOA applications that need to reduce network traffic by aggregating data into single cache entries and then doing SOA service processing in the node holding the data. This results in the need to orchestrate transaction processing across multiple service calls. CloudTran has the capability to handle these “multi-client” transactions at speed with no loss in ACID properties. Developing software around an IMDG like Oracle Coherence is an important choice for today’s web-scale applications and services. But this introduces new architectural considerations to maintain scalability in light of increased network loads and data movement. Without using CloudTran, developers are faced with an incredibly difficult task to ensure data reliability, availability, performance, and scalability when working with an IMDG. Working with highly distributed data that is entirely volatile while stored in memory presents numerous edge cases where failures can result in data loss. The CloudTran product takes care of all of this, leaving developers with the confidence and peace of mind that all data is processed correctly. For those interested in evaluating the CloudTran product and IMDGs, take a look at this link for more information: http://www.CloudTran.com/downloadAPI.ph , or send your questions to [email protected]. SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: CloudTran,data grid,M,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• need some concrete examples on user stories, tasks and how they relate to functional and technical specifications

  - by gideon

  Little heads up, Im the only lonely dev building/planning/mocking my project as I go. Ive come up with a preview release that does only the core aspects of the system, with good business value and I've coded most of the UI as dirty throw-able mockups over nicely abstracted and very minimal base code. In the end I know quite well what my clients want on the whole. I can't take agile-ish cowboying anymore because Im completely dis-organized and have no paper plan and since my clients are happy, things are getting more complex with more features and ideas. So I started using and learning Agile & Scrum Here are my problems: I know what a functional spec is.(sample): Do all user stories and/or scenarios become part of the functional spec? I know what user stories and tasks are. Are these kinda user stories? I dont see any Business Value reason added to them. I made a mind map using freemind, I had problems like this: Actor : Finance Manager Can Add a Financial Plan into the system because well thats the point of it? What Business Value reason do I add for things like this? Example : A user needs to be able to add a blog article (in the blogger app) because..?? Its the point of a blogger app, it centers around that feature? How do I go into the finer details and system definitions: Actor: Finance Manager Action: Adds a finance plan. This adding is a complicated process with lots of steps. What User Story will describe what a finance plan in the system is ?? I can add it into the functional spec under definitions explaining what a finance plan is and how one needs to add it into the system, but how do I get to the backlog planning from there? Example: A Blog Article is mostly a textual document that can be written in rich text in the system. To add a blog article one must...... But how do you create backlog list/features out of this? Where are the user stories for what a blog article is and how one adds/removes it? Finally, I'm a little confused about the relations between functional specs and user stories. Will my spec contain user stories in them with UI mockups? Now will these user stories then branch out tasks which will make up something like a technical specification? Example : EditorUser Can add a blog article. Use XML to store blog article. Add a form to add blog. Add Windows Live Writer Support. That would be agile tasks but would that also be part of/or form the technical specs? Some concrete examples/answers of my questions would be nice!!

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• WPF Control Toolkits Comparison for LOB Apps

  In preparation for a new WPF project Ive been researching options for WPF Control toolkits.  While we want a lot of the benefits of WPF, the application is a fairly typical line of business application (LOB).  So were not focused on things like media and animations, but instead a simple, solid, intuitive, and modern user interface that allows for well architected separation of business logic and presentation layers. While WPF is mature, it hasnt lived the long life that Winforms has yet, so there is still a lot of room for third party and community control toolkits to fill the gaps between the controls that ship with the Framework.  There are two such gaps I was concerned about.  As this is an LOB app, we have needs for presenting lots of data and not surprisingly much of it is in grid format with the need for high performance, grouping, inline editing, aggregation, printing and exporting and things that weve been doing with LOB apps for a long time.  In addition we want a dashboard style for the UI in which the user can rearrange and shrink and grow tiles that house the content and functionality.  From a cost perspective, building these types of well performing controls from scratch doesnt make sense.  So I evaluated what you get from the .NET Framework along with a few different options for control toolkits.  I tried to be fairly thorough, but know that this isnt a detailed benchmarking comparison or intense evaluation.  Its just meant to be a feature set comparison to be used when thinking about building an LOB app in WPF.  I tried to list important feature differences and notes based on my experience with the trial versions and what I found in documentation and reference materials and samples.  Ive also listed the importance of the controls based on how I think they are needed in LOB apps.  There are several toolkits available, but given I dont have unlimited time, I picked just a few.  Maybe Ill add on more later.  The toolkits I compared are: Teleriks RadControls for WPF since I had heard some good things about Telerik Infragistics NetAdvantage WPF since both I and the customer have some experience with the vendors tools WPF Toolkit on codeplex since many of my colleagues have used it Blacklight codeplex project which had WPF support for the Tile View control  (with Release 4.3 WPF is not going to be supported in favor of focusing only on SilverLight controls, so I dropped that from the comparison) Click Here to Download the WPF Control Toolkits Comparison Hopefully this helps someone out there.  Feel free to post a comment on your experiences or if you think something I listed is incorrect or missing.  Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Data Structures usage and motivational aspects

  - by Aubergine

  For long student life I was always wondering why there are so many of them yet there seems to be lack of usage at all in many of them. The opinion didn't really change when I got a job. We have brilliant books on what they are and their complexities, but I never encounter resources which would actually give a good hint of practical usage. I perfectly understand that I have to look at problem , analyse required operations, look for data structure that does them efficiently. However in practice I never do that, not because of human laziness syndrome, but because when it comes to work I acknowledge time priority over self-development. Over time I thought that when I would be better developer I will automatically use more of them - that didn't happen at all or maybe I just didn't. Then I found that the colleagues usually in the same plate as me - knowing more or less some three of data structures and being totally happy about it and refusing to discuss this matter further with me, coming back to conversations about 'cool new languages' 'libraries that do jobs for you' and the joy to work under scrumban etc. I am stuck with ArrayLists, Arrays and SortedMap , which no matter what I do always suffice or either I tweak them to be capable of fulfilling my task. Yes, it might be inefficient but do we really have to care if Intel increases performance over years no matter if we improve our skills? Does new Xeon or IBM machines really care what we use? What if I like build things, but I am not particularly excited whether it is n log(n) or just n? Over twenty years the processing power increased enormously, which gives us freedom of not being critical about which one to use? On top of that new more optimized languages appear which support multiple cores more efficiently. To be more specific: I would like to find motivational material on complex real areas/cases of possible effective usages of data structures. I would be really grateful if you would provide relevant resources. There is similar question ,but in the end the links again mostly describe or do dumb example(vehicles, students or holy grail quest - yes, very relevant) them and people keep referring to the "scenario decides the data structure to use". I want to know these complex scenarios to be able to identify similarities to my scenario and then use them. The complex scenarios where it really matters and not necessarily of quantitive nature. It seems that data structures only concern is efficiency and nothing else? There seems to be no particular convenience for developer in use one over another. (only when I found scientific resources on why exactly simple carbohydrates are evil I stopped eating sugar and candies completely replacing it with less harmful fruits - I hope you can see the analogy)

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• Apprentice Boot Camp in South Africa (Part 1)

  - by Tim Koekkoek

  By Maximilian Michel (DE), Jorge Garnacho (ES), Daniel Maull (UK), Adam Griffiths (UK), Guillermo De Las Nieves (ES), Catriona McGill (UK), Ed Dunlop (UK) The Boot Camp in South Africa was an amazing experience for all of us. The minute we landed, we were made to feel at home from our host Patrick Fitzgerald. The whole family who run the Guest House were also very friendly and always keen to help us. Since we had people from South Africa to show us all the amazing sights and their traditional ways to live their lives, the two weeks were very enjoyable for all of us and we came much closer together as a group. You can read this in the following parts of this report. Enjoy! The first group of Apprentices in Oracle (from left to right): Maximilian Michel (DE), Jorge Garnacho (ES), Daniel Maull (UK), Adam Griffiths (UK), Guillermo De Las Nieves (ES), Catriona McGill (UK), Ed Dunlop (UK) The Training Well, it’s time to talk about the main purpose of our trip to South Africa: the training. Two weeks, two courses. Servers and Storage. Two weeks to learn as much as possible and get the certificate. First week: Eben Pretorius with Servers Boot Camp. Learning about: • Machines: T1000, T2000, T3, T4, M series; • How to connect to the machines: serial and network connections; • Levels of software: ALOM, ILOM, OBP and of course the operating system, Solaris Combined with the practical part (screwdriver in one hand, and antistatic wristband on the other) makes quite a lot of stuff! But fortunately, Eben was able to tell us about everything without making our brains explode. For the second week: Storage Boot Camp with Deon Van Vuuren. Taking a look at the content: • Storage machines; • Connectors and protocols: SCSi, SAS, SATA Fiber Channel. Again, huge amounts of information, but Deon definitely did a great job and helped us learn it all. At the end, there was just one question left. Were we able to pass the exam and get the certificate? Well, what can we say? Just take a closer look at the picture above and make your conclusions! Our lovely Oracle office in Woodmead (near Johannesburg) We are all very proud to receive certification in “Server and Storage Support Fundamentals” together with our trainer Deon Van Vuuren. In summary, in case that you don't remember any of the above, the allies for a field engineer are: • System Handbook • EIS-DVD • A proper toolkit With these tools by our side, we’ll be unbeatable!  In the next article later this week, you can find part 2 of our experiences!

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• Regular Expression Transformation

  The regular expression transformation exposes the power of regular expression matching within the pipeline. One or more columns can be selected, and for each column an individual expression can be applied. The way multiple columns are handled can be set on the options page. The AND option means all columns must match, whilst the OR option means only one column has to match. If rows pass their tests then rows are passed down the successful match output. Rows that fail are directed down the alternate output. This transformation is ideal for validating data through the use of regular expressions. You can enter any expression you like, or select a pre-configured expression within the editor. You can expand the list of pre-configured expressions yourself. These are stored in a Xml file, %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\nnn\DTS\PipelineComponents\RegExTransform.xml, where nnn represents the folder version, 90 for 2005, 100 for 2008 and 110 for 2012. If you want to use regular expressions to manipulate data, rather than just validating it, try the RegexClean Transformation. The component is provided as an MSI file, however for 2005/200 you will have to add the transformation to the Visual Studio toolbox by hand. This process has been described in detail in the related FAQ entry for How do I install a task or transform component?, just select Regular Expression Transformation in the Choose Toolbox Items window. Downloads The Regular Expression Transformation is available for SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 (includes R2) and SQL Server 2012. Please choose the version to match your SQL Server version, or you can install multiple versions and use them side by side if you have more than one version of SQL Server installed. Regular Expression Transformation for SQL Server 2005 Regular Expression Transformation for SQL Server 2008 Regular Expression Transformation for SQL Server 2012 Version History SQL Server 2012Version 2.0.0.87 - SQL Server 2012 release. Includes upgrade support for both 2005 and 2008 packages to 2012. (5 Jun 2012) SQL Server 2008Version 2.0.0.87 - Release for SQL Server 2008 Integration Services. (10 Oct 2008) SQL Server 2005 Version 1.1.0.93 - Added option for you to choose AND or OR logic when multiple columns have been selected. Previously behaviour was OR only. (31 Jul 2008) Version 1.0.0.76 - Installer update and improved exception handling. (28 Jan 2008) Version 1.0.0.41 - Update for user interface stability fixes. (2 Aug 2006) Version 1.0.0.24 - SQL Server 2005 RTM Refresh. SP1 Compatibility Testing. (12 Jun 2006) Version 1.0.0.9 - Public Release for SQL Server 2005 IDW 15 June CTP (29 Aug 2005) Screenshots  

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• SCHA API for resource group failover / switchover history

  - by krishna.k.murthy

  The Oracle Solaris Cluster framework keeps an internal log of cluster events, including switchover and failover of resource groups. These logs can be useful to Oracle support engineers for diagnosing cluster behavior. However, till now, there was no external interface to access the event history. Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.2 provides a new API option for viewing the recent history of resource group switchovers in a program-parsable format. Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.2 provides a new option tag argument RG_FAILOVER_LOG for the existing API command scha_cluster_get which can be used to list recent failover / switchover events for resource groups. The command usage is as shown below: # scha_cluster_get -O RG_FAILOVER_LOG number_of_days number_of_days : the number of days to be considered for scanning the historical logs. The command returns a list of events in the following format. Each field is separated by a semi-colon [;]: resource_group_name;source_nodes;target_nodes;time_stamp source_nodes: node_names from which resource group is failed over or was switched manually. target_nodes: node_names to which the resource group failed over or was switched manually. There is a corresponding enhancement in the C API function scha_cluster_get() which uses the SCHA_RG_FAILOVER_LOG query tag. In the example below geo-infrastructure (failover resource group), geo-clusterstate (scalable resource group), oracle-rg (failover resource group), asm-dg-rg (scalable resource group) and asm-inst-rg (scalable resource group) are part of Geographic Edition setup. # /usr/cluster/bin/scha_cluster_get -O RG_FAILOVER_LOG 3 geo-infrastructure;schost1c;;Mon Jul 21 15:51:51 2014 geo-clusterstate;schost2c,schost1c;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:52:26 2014 oracle-rg;schost1c;;Mon Jul 21 15:54:31 2014 asm-dg-rg;schost2c,schost1c;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:54:58 2014 asm-inst-rg;schost2c,schost1c;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:56:11 2014 oracle-rg;;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:58:51 2014 geo-infrastructure;;schost2c;Mon Jul 21 15:59:19 2014 geo-clusterstate;schost2c;schost2c,schost1c;Mon Jul 21 16:01:51 2014 asm-inst-rg;schost2c;schost2c,schost1c;Mon Jul 21 16:01:10 2014 asm-dg-rg;schost2c;schost2c,schost1c;Mon Jul 21 16:02:10 2014 oracle-rg;schost2c;;Tue Jul 22 16:58:02 2014 oracle-rg;;schost1c;Tue Jul 22 16:59:05 2014 oracle-rg;schost1c;schost1c;Tue Jul 22 17:05:33 2014 Note that in the output some of the entries might have an empty string in the source_nodes. Such entries correspond to events in which the resource group is switched online manually or during a cluster boot-up. Similarly, an empty destination_nodes list indicates an event in which the resource group went offline. - Arpit Gupta, Harish Mallya

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• Great opportunity to try Windows Azure over the next 7 days if you are a UK developer &ndash; act to

  - by Eric Nelson

  Are you a UK based developer who has been put off from trying out the Windows Azure Platform? Were you concerned that you needed to hand over credit card details even to use the introductory offer? Or concerned about how many charges you might run up as you played with “elastic computing”. Then we might have just what you need. 7 Days of access to the Windows Azure Platform – for FREE (expires June 6th 2010) If you are accepted, you will be given a Windows Azure Platfom subscription that will enable you to create Windows Azure hosted services and storage accounts, SQL Azure databases and AppFabric services without any fear of being charged between now and Sunday the 6th of June 2010. No credit card is required. Important: At the end of Sunday your subscription and all your code and data you have uploaded will be deleted. It is your responsibility to keep local copies of your code and data. Apply now To apply for this offer you need to: email ukdev AT microsoft.com with a subject line that starts “UKAZURETRAIL:” (This must  be present) In the email you need to demonstrate you are UK based (.uk email alias or address or… be creative) And you must include 30 to 100 words explaining What your interest is in the Windows Azure Platform and Cloud Computing What you would use the 7 days to explore Some notes (please read!): We have a limited number of these offers to give away on a first come, first served basis (subject to meeting the above criteria). We plan to process all request asap – but there is a UK bank holiday weekend looming. We will do our best to process all by Tues afternoon (which would still give you 5 days of access) There will be no specific support for this offer. We will not be processing any requests that arrive after Tuesday 1st. In case you were wondering, there is no equivalent offer for developer outside of the UK. This offer is a direct result of UK based training we are currently doing which has some spare Azure capacity which we wanted to make best use of. Sorry in advance if you based outside of the UK. Related Links: If you are UK based, you should also join the UK Windows Azure Platform community http://ukazure.ning.com Microsoft UK Windows Azure Platform page

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• Suggestions for connecting .NET WPF GUI with Java SE Server aoo

  - by Sam Goldberg

  BACKGROUND We are building a Java (SE) trading application which will be monitoring market data and sending trade messages based on the market data, and also on user defined configuration parameters. We are planning to provide the user with a thin client, built in .NET (WPF) for managing the parameters, controlling the server behavior, and viewing the current state of the trading. The client doesn't need real-time updates; it will instead update the view once every few seconds (or whatever interval is configured by the user). The client has about 6 different operations it needs to perform with the server, for example: CRUD with configuration parameters query subset of the data receive updates of current positions from server It is possible that most of the different operations (except for receiving data) are just different flavors of managing the configuration parameters, but it's too early in our analysis for us to be sure. To connect the client with the server, we have been considering using: SOAP Web Service RESTful service building a custom TCP/IP based API (text or xml) (least preferred - but we use this approach with other applications we have) As best as I understand, pros and cons of the different web service flavors are: SOAP pro: totally automated in .NET (and Java), modifying server side interface require no code changes in communication layer, just running refresh on Web Service reference to regenerate the classes. con: more overhead in the communication layer sending more text, etc. We're not using J2EE container so maybe doesn't work so well with J2SE REST pro: lighter weight, less data. Has good .NET and Java support. (I don't have any real experience with this, so don't know what other benefits it has.) con: client will not be automatically aware if there are any new operations or properties added (?), so communication layer needs to be updated by developer if server interface changes. con: (both approaches) Server cannot really push updates to the client at regular intervals (?) (However, we won't mind if client polls the server to get updates.) QUESTION What are your opinions on the above options or suggestions for other ways to connect the 2 parts? (Ideally, we don't want to put much work into the communication layer, because it's not the significant part of the application so the more off-the-shelf and automated the better.)

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• BPM 11g Customer Stories & Solution Catalog & Process Accelerators

  - by JuergenKress

  Stories Everyone loves a good story on planning or implementing a BPM strategy. Everyone wants to hear how it was done before?, what worked?, what was achieved? If you have achieved success with BPM, we are very keen to hear your stories and examples of how your customers use it. We receive lots of requests from people who are thinking of using BPM to solve a specific problem or in combination with a specific technology to talk to someone who has done it before. These stories are invaluable. Drop down the details of anything you think is relevant with a bit of detail and we will follow up on it. As one good deed deserves another, we will do our best to give you stories if you need them to show that where you are going, others have treaded before. Send your stories to us using this e-mail link and we will share them among other like minded people. Solution Catalogue This summer, Oracle is launching a solution catalogue specifically intended for partners. If you have delivered a successful implementation in BPM and think it could be reused and applied again in a similar scenario in the same industry or in a similar environment, then we ware keen to know about it and will add it to the solution catalogue. The solution catalogue will showcase successful BPM solutions both inside and outside Oracle. Be in touch with us on this e-mail link and we will make sure to add your solution. Process Accelerators Finally if you have specific processes that you are expert on, you have implemented at a customer and you want to work with us on getting these productised, then we would love to know about it. The process accelerator programme is explained in the most recent SOA/BPM Community Newsletter but again feel free to contact us if you want to get involved. Good luck with BPM and let us know how we can help. Barry O'Reilly Director BPM Solutions [email protected] SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: BPM,Barry O Reilly,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Preventing Users From Copying Text From and Pasting It Into TextBoxes

  Many websites that support user accounts require users to enter an email address as part of the registration process. This email address is then used as the primary communication channel with the user. For instance, if the user forgets her password a new one can be generated and emailed to the address on file. But what if, when registering, a user enters an incorrect email address? Perhaps the user meant to enter [email protected], but accidentally transposed the first two letters, entering [email protected]. How can such typos be prevented? The only foolproof way to ensure that the user's entered email address is valid is to send them a validation email upon registering that includes a link that, when visited, activates their account. (This technique is discussed in detail in Examining ASP.NET's Membership, Roles, and Profile - Part 11.) The downside to using a validation email is that it adds one more step to the registration process, which will cause some people to bail out on the registration process. A simpler approach to lessening email entry errors is to have the user enter their email address twice, just like how most registration forms prompt users to enter their password twice. In fact, you may have seen registration pages that do just this. However, when I encounter such a registration page I usually avoid entering the email address twice, but instead enter it once and then copy and paste it from the first textbox into the second. This behavior circumvents the purpose of the two textboxes - any typo entered into the first textbox will be copied into the second. Using a bit of JavaScript it is possible to prevent most users from copying text from one textbox and pasting it into another, thereby requiring the user to type their email address into both textboxes. This article shows how to disable cut and paste between textboxes on a web page using the free jQuery library. Read on to learn more! Read More >Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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