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Using XML as data storage

- by Kian Mayne

I was thinking about the XML format and the following quote: “XML is not a database. It was never meant to be a database. It is never going to be a database. Relational databases are proven technology with more than 20 years of implementation experience. They are solid, stable, useful products. They are not going away. XML is a very useful technology for moving data between different databases or between databases and other programs. However, it is not itself a database. Don't use it like one.“ -Effective XML: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your XML by Elliotte Rusty Harold (page 230, Part 4, Item 41, 2nd paragraph) This seems to really stress that XML should not be used for data storage and should only be used for program to program interoperability. Personally, I disagree and .NET's app.config file that's used to store a program's settings is an example of data storage in an XML file. However for databases rather than configurations etc XML should not be used. To develop my point, I will use two examples: A) Data about customers with fields that are all on one level i.e. there are a number of fields all relating to one customer with no children B) Data about configuration of an application where nested fields and properties make a lot of sense So my question is, Is this still a valid statement and is it now acceptable to store data using XML? EDIT: I've sent an email to the author of that quote to ask for his input/extra context.

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New release of Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework is available for download - March 2011

- by Jialiang

A new release of Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework is available on March 8th. Download address: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62267#DownloadId=215627 You can download individual code samples or browse code samples grouped by technology in the updated code sample index. If it’s the first time that you hear about Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework, please read this Microsoft News Center article http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2011/jan11/01-13codeframework.mspx, or watch the introduction video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO5Li3APU58, or read the introduction on our homepage http://1code.codeplex.com/. -------------- New Silverlight code samples CSSLTreeViewCRUDDragDrop Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215808 The code sample was created by Amit Dey. It demonstrates a custom TreeView with added functionalities of CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) and drag-and-drop operations. Silverlight TreeView control with CRUD and drag & drop is a frequently asked programming question in Silverlight forums. Many customers also requested this code sample in our code sample request service. We hope that this sample can reduce developers' efforts in handling this typical programming scenario. The following blog article introduces the sample in detail: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/codefx/archive/2011/02/15/silverlight-treeview-control-with-crud-and-drag-amp-drop.aspx. CSSL4FileDragDrop and VBSL4FileDragDrop Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215809 http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215810 The code sample demonstrates the new drag&drop feature of Silverlight 4 to implement dragging picures from the local file system to a Silverlight application. Sometimes we want to change SiteMapPath control's titles and paths according to Query String values. And sometimes we want to create the SiteMapPath dynamically. This code sample shows how to achieve these goals by handling SiteMap.SiteMapResolve event. CSASPNETEncryptAndDecryptConfiguration, VBASPNETEncryptAndDecryptConfiguration Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215027 http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215106 In this sample, we encrypt and decrypt some sensitive information in the config file of a web application by using the RSA asymmetric encryption. This project contains two snippets. The first one demonstrates how to use RSACryptoServiceProvider to generate public key and the corresponding private key and then encrypt/decrypt string value on page. The second part shows how to use RSA configuration provider to encrypt and decrypt configuration section in web.config of web application. connectionStrings section in plain text: Encrypted connectionString: Note that if you store sensitive data in any of the following configuration sections, we cannot encrypt it by using a protected configuration provider <processModel> <runtime> <mscorlib> <startup> <system.runtime.remoting> <configProtectedData> <satelliteassemblies> <cryptographySettings> <cryptoNameMapping> CSASPNETFileUploadStatus Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215028 I believe ASP.NET programmers will like this sample, because in many cases we need customers know the current status of the uploading files, including the upload speed and completion percentage and so on. Under normal circumstances, we need to use COM components to accomplish this function, such as Flash, Silverlight, etc. The uploading data can be retrieved in two places, the client-side and the server-side. For the client, for the safety factors, the file upload status information cannot be got from JavaScript or server-side code, so we need COM component, like Flash and Silverlight to accomplish this, I do not like this approach because the customer need to install these components, but also we need to learn another programming framework. For the server side, we can get the information through coding, but the key question is how to tell the client results. In this case, We will combine custom HTTPModule and AJAX technology to illustrate how to analyze the HTTP protocol, how to break the file request packets, how to customize the location of the server-side file caching, how to return the file uploading status back to the client and so on . CSASPNETHighlightCodeInPage, VBASPNETHighlightCodeInPage Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215029 http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215108 This sample imitates a system that needs display the highlighted code in an ASP.NET page . As a matter of fact, sometimes we input code like C# or HTML in a web page and we need these codes to be highlighted for a better reading experience. It is convenient for us to keep the code in mind if it is highlighted. So in this case, the sample shows how to highlight the code in an ASP.NET page. It is not difficult to highlight the code in a web page by using String.Replace method directly. This method can return a new string in which all occurrences of a specified string in the current instance are replaced with another specified string. However, it may not be a good idea, because it's not extremely fast, in fact, it's pretty slow. In addition, it is hard to highlight multiple keywords by using String.Replace method directly. Sometimes we need to copy source code from visual studio to a web page, for readability purpose, highlight the code is important while set the different types of keywords to different colors in a web page by using String.Replace method directly is not available. To handle this issue, we need to use a hashtable variable to store the different languages of code and their related regular expressions with matching options. Furthermore, define the css styles which used to highlight the code in a web page. The sample project can auto add the style object to the matching string of code. A step-by-step guide illustrating how to highlight the code in an ASP.NET page: 1. the HighlightCodePage.aspx page Choose a type of language in the dropdownlist control and paste the code in the textbox control, then click the HighLight button. 2. Display the highlighted code in an ASP.NET page After user clicks the HighLight button, the highlighted code will be displayed at right side of the page. CSASPNETPreventMultipleWindows Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215032 This sample demonstrates a step-by-step guide illustrating how to detect and prevent multiple windows or tab usage in Web Applications. The sample imitates a system that need to prevent multiple windows or tabs to solve some problems like sharing sessions, protect duplicated login, data concurrency, etc. In fact, there are many methods achieving this goal. Here we give a solution of use JavaScript, Sample shows how to use window.name property check the correct links and throw other requests to invalid pages. This code-sample use two user controls to make a distinction between base page and target page, user only need drag different controls to appropriate web form pages. so user need not write repetitive code in every page, it will make coding work lightly and convenient for modify your code. JSVirtualKeyboard Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215093 This article describes an All-In-One framework sample that demonstrates a step-by-step guide illustrating how to build a virtual keyboard in your HTML page. Sometimes we may need to offer a virtual keyboard to let users input something without their real keyboards. This scenario often occurs when users will enter their password to get access to our sites and we want to protect the password from some kinds of back-door software, a Key-logger for example, and we will find a virtual keyboard on the page will be a good choice here. To create a virtual keyboard, we firstly need to add some buttons to the page. And when users click on a certain button, the JavaScript function handling the onclick event will input an appropriated character to the textbox. That is the simple logic of this feature. However, if we indeed want a virtual keyboard to substitute for the real keyboard completely, we will need more advanced logic to handle keys like Caps-Lock and Shift etc. That will be a complex work to achieve. CSASPNETDataListImageGallery Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62261#DownloadId=215267 This code sample demonstrates how to create an Image Gallery application by using the DataList control in ASP.NET. You may find the Image Gallery is widely used in many social networking sites, personal websites and E-Business websites. For example, you may use the Image Gallery to show a library of personal uploaded images on a personal website. Slideshow is also a popular tool to display images on websites. This code sample demonstrates how to use the DataList and ImageButton controls in ASP.NET to create an Image Gallery with image navigation. You can click on a thumbnail image in the Datalist control to display a larger version of the image on the page. This sample code reads the image paths from a certain directory into a FileInfo array. Then, the FileInfo array is used to populate a custom DataTable object which is bound to the Datalist control. This code sample also implements a custom paging system that allows five images to be displayed horizontally on one page. The following link buttons are used to implement a custom paging system: • First • Previous • Next • Last Note We recommend that you use this method to load no more than five images at a time. You can also set the SelectedIndex property for the DataList control to limit the number of the thumbnail images that can be selected. To indicate which image is selected, you can set the SelectedStyle property for the DataList control. VBASPNETSearchEngine Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215112 This sample shows how to implement a simple search engine in an ASP.NET web site. It uses LIKE condition in SQL statement to search database. Then it highlights keywords in search result by using Regular Expression and JavaScript. New Windows General code samples CSCheckEXEType, VBCheckEXEType Downloads: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215045 http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215120 The sample demonstrates how to check an executable file type. For a given executable file, we can get 1 whether it is a console application 2 whether it is a .Net application 3 whether it is a 32bit native application. 4 The full display name of a .NET application, e.g. System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089, processorArchitecture=MSIL New Internet Explorer code samples CSIEExplorerBar, VBIEExplorerBar Downloads: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215060 http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215133 The sample demonstrates how to create and deploy an IE Explorer Bar which could list all the images in a web page. CSBrowserHelperObject, VBBrowserHelperObject Downloads: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215044 http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215119 The sample demonstrates how to create and deploy a Browser Helper Object, and the BHO in this sample is used to disable the context menu in IE. New Windows Workflow Foundation code samples CSWF4ActivitiesCorrelation Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215085 Consider that there are two such workflow instances: start start | | Receive activity Receive activity | | Receive2 activity Receive2 activity | | A WCF request comes to call the second Receive2 activity. Which one should take care of the request? The answer is Correlation. This sample will show you how to correlate two workflow service to work together. -------------- New ASP.NET code samples CSASPNETBreadcrumbWithQueryString Download: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/62253#DownloadId=215022

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How to diagnose and fix Kernel Panic Fatal Machine Check error?

- by 0x4a6f4672

I have got a new Samsung Series 7 laptop with dual boot setup for Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10. A fine machine comparable to a Macbook Pro. The Ubuntu installation was quite a hassle, but with the help of Boot Repair finally it seemed to work. Or so I thought. Windows 8 starts fine, but if I want to start Ubuntu regularly the following Machine Check Exception error occurs, quite similar to this one [Hardware Error] CPU 1: Machine Check Exception: 5 Bank 6 [Hardware Error] RIP !inexact! 33 <00007fab2074598a> [Hardware Error] TSC 95b623464c ADDR fe400 MISC 3880000086 .. [similar messages for CPU 2,3 and 0] .. [Hardware Error] Machine Check: Processor context corrupt Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal Machine Check Rebooting in 30 seconds Kernel panic does not sound good. Then it starts to reboot, and the second boot trial often works. Is it a Kernel or driver problem? The laptop has an Intel Core i7 processor. I already deactivated Hyperthreading in the BIOS, but it does not seem to help :-( I also disabled the Execute Disable Bit (EDB) flag in the BIOS. EDB is an Intel hardware-based security feature that can help reduce system exposure to viruses and malicious code. Since I disabled it, the error did occur less frequently, but it still appears occasionally :-( It seems to be the same error as described here and here. Maybe a Samsung specific Kernel problem? A similar error also happens on a Samsung Ultrabook Series 9 (which seems to be kernel bugs 49161 and 47121). At my Samsung Series 7, it still occurs for instance during booting on battery after "Checking battery state". Perhaps anyone else has an idea? These Kernel Panic errors are reallly annoying..

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 19, 2012

CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 19, 2012Popular ReleasesZXMAK2: Version 2.6.1.8: - fix download links with badly formatted content-disposition - little refactoring for AY8910 code - added Sprinter emulation pluginGhostBuster: GhostBuster Setup (91520): Added WMI based RestorePoint support Removed test code from program.cs Improved counting. Changed color of ghosted but unfiltered devices. Changed HwEntries into an ObservableCollection. Added Properties Form. Added Properties MenuItem to Context Menu. Added Hide Unfiltered Devices to Context Menu. If you like this tool, leave me a note, rate this project or write a review or Donate to Ghostbuster. Donate to GhostbusterProject Tracy: Tracy 2.1 Stable (2.1.4): 2.1.4 ???：?dll?????Bin??? ??AppData??????ACCESS 2007?SQL Server2008??、??、????????: DataPie_V3.2: V3.2, 2012?5?19? ????ORACLE??????。AvalonDock: AvalonDock 2.0.0795: Welcome to the Beta release of AvalonDock 2.0 After 4 months of hard work I'm ready to upload the beta version of AvalonDock 2.0. This new version boosts a lot of new features and now is stable enough to be deployed in production scenarios. For this reason I encourage everyone is using AD 1.3 or earlier to upgrade soon to this new version. The final version is scheduled for the end of June. What is included in Beta: 1) Stability! thanks to all users contribution I’ve corrected a lot of issues...myCollections: Version 2.1.0.0: New in this version : Improved UI New Metro Skin Improved Performance Added Proxy Settings New Music and Books Artist detail Lot of Bug FixingfastJSON: v1.9.8: v1.9.8 - added DeepCopy(obj) and DeepCopy<T>(obj) - refactored code to JSONParameters and removed the JSON overloads - added support to serialize anonymous types (deserialize is not possible at the moment) - bug fix $types output with non object rootAspxCommerce: AspxCommerce1.1: AspxCommerce - 'Flexible and easy eCommerce platform' offers a complete e-Commerce solution that allows you to build and run your fully functional online store in minutes. You can create your storefront; manage the products through categories and subcategories, accept payments through credit cards and ship the ordered products to the customers. We have everything set up for you, so that you can only focus on building your own online store. Note: To login as a superuser, the username and pass...SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: SiteMap Editor (1.1.1616.403): BUG FIX Hide save button when Titles or Descriptions element is selectedMapWindow 6 Desktop GIS: MapWindow 6.1.2: Looking for a .Net GIS Map Application?MapWindow 6 Desktop GIS is an open source desktop GIS for Microsoft Windows that is built upon the DotSpatial Library. This release requires .Net 4 (Client Profile). Are you a software developer?Instead of downloading MapWindow for development purposes, get started with with the DotSpatial template. The extensions you create from the template can be loaded in MapWindow.DotSpatial: DotSpatial 1.2: This is a Minor Release. See the changes in the issue tracker. Minimal -- includes DotSpatial core and essential extensions Extended -- includes debugging symbols and additional extensions Tutorials are available. Just want to run the software? End user (non-programmer) version available branded as MapWindow Want to add your own feature? Develop a plugin, using the template and contribute to the extension feed (you can also write extensions that you distribute in other ways). Components ...Mugen Injection: Mugen Injection 2.2.1 (WinRT supported): Added ManagedScopeLifecycle. Increase performance. Added support for resolve 'params'.Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.52: Make preprocessor comment-statements nestable; add the ///#IFNDEF statement. (Discussion #355785) Don't throw an error for old-school JScript event handlers, and don't rename them if they aren't global functions.DotNetNuke® Events: 06.00.00: This is a serious release of Events. DNN 6 form pattern - We have take the full route towards DNN6: most notably the incorporation of the DNN6 form pattern with streamlined UX/UI. We have also tried to change all formatting to a div based structure. A daunting task, since the Events module contains a lot of forms. Roger has done a splendid job by going through all the forms in great detail, replacing all table style layouts into the new DNN6 div class="dnnForm XXX" type of layout with chang...LogicCircuit: LogicCircuit 2.12.5.15: Logic Circuit - is educational software for designing and simulating logic circuits. Intuitive graphical user interface, allows you to create unrestricted circuit hierarchy with multi bit buses, debug circuits behavior with oscilloscope, and navigate running circuits hierarchy. Changes of this versionThis release is fixing one but nasty bug. Two functions XOR and XNOR when used with 3 or more inputs were incorrectly evaluating their results. If you have a circuit that is using these functions...Image Popup Module dotnetnuke: Image Pop-up In HTML Module Source: Image Pop-up In HTML Module is a module to show pop ups Please Follow the steps to use this module 1 Install the module and drop on your page where you want to show the pop up 2 In your HTML module editor add the token "{imagepopup}" 3 In your HTML module editor add class="popup-img" in your images which you want to show in popup.FileZilla Server Config File Editor: FileZillaConfig 1.0.0.1: Sorry for not including the config file with the previous release. It was a "lost in translation" when I was moving my local repository to CodePlex repository. Sorry for the rookie mistake.LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter Beta v2.0.25: Supports .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4.0, Windows Phone 7.1, Client Profile, and Windows 8. 100% Twitter API coverage. Also available via NuGet! Follow @JoeMayo.BlogEngine.NET: BlogEngine.NET 2.6: Get DotNetBlogEngine for 3 Months Free! Click Here for More Info BlogEngine.NET Hosting - 3 months free! Cheap ASP.NET Hosting - $4.95/Month - Click Here!! Click Here for More Info Cheap ASP.NET Hosting - $4.95/Month - Click Here! If you want to set up and start using BlogEngine.NET right away, you should download the Web project. If you want to extend or modify BlogEngine.NET, you should download the source code. If you are upgrading from a previous version of BlogEngine.NET, please take...BlackJumboDog: Ver5.6.2: 2012.05.07 Ver5.6.2 (1)　Web???????、????????·????????? (2)　Web???????、?????????? COMSPEC PATHEXT WINDIR SERVERADDR SERVERPORT DOCUMENTROOT SERVERADMIN REMOTE_PORT HTTPACCEPTCHRSET HTTPACCEPTLANGUAGE HTTPACCEPTEXCODINGNew ProjectsAsset Tracking: Bespoke inhouse solution for managing asset's within the organisation.Chsword Project: Chsword project is a collection of .net project.conjee: Conjee UI DesignDealKhuyenMaiV2.com: d? án web cu?i kì nhóm g2Devtm.ServiceModel: ServiceFactory The library provides easy access to all your services through the helper ServiceFactory. This way to consume your services requires absolutely no place the call to service in a block (try / finally) because all proxies provided by the helper "ServiceFactory" are dynamically generated for the contract as a parameter. This block is built into the code provided for each method.Dream Runtime Analyzer: Dream Runtime Analyzer is a tool made to help Furcadia dreamweavers test their dreams for bandwidth usage and optimize their dragonspeak performance. It allows you to see which DragonSpeak lines were transmitted the most and thus tell you which areas need to be optimized.DynamicsNAV Protocol Handler: Target of this project is to develop DYNAMICSNAV protocol handler which will solve problems of side-by-side installation of many NAV versions on one PC. Today only one version could be handled through the hyperlinks. from.js: Powerful and High-speed LINQ implementation for JavaScriptFurcadia Installer Browser: A program that can access files within a Furcadia installer and allow the user to open them from within the install package, extract some or all the files inside the package, check data integrity of each file and compare the content of two installers.Furcadia Map Normalizer: Furcadia Map Normalizer is a small tool that helps recover a damaged Furcadia map after a live-edit bug. It restores out-of-range elements within back to zero.Homework: TSU students in action :DHRASP: human resourcesiseebooks: this is book s website for self developmentITORG CMS: ITORG Simple Content Managment System ASP.NET MVC 3Kinesthesia (Kinect-based MIDI controller): A simple yet highly configurable Kinect-based MIDI controller with MIDI playback, gesture recognition and voice control.LameBT: A .NET Bluetooth 2.0 stack (HOST and ACL only) based on LibUSB, supporting multiple USB bluetooth dongles.pongISEN: projet de l'ISEN pongRadminPassword: ????????? ??? ??????????????? ????? ??????? ? ????????? ????????? ?????????? ?????????? ?? Radmin. A program to automatically enter the passwords in the famous PC remote control software Radmin.RicciWebSiteSystem: soon websiteScripted Deployment of a System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Secondary Site: In System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, you can no longer deploy a secondary site server using Setup (wizard or scripted). Instead, you must use the Configuration Manager console to create a new secondary site. This is less than ideal if you want to deploy several secondary sites or want to automate the process for any other reason. This project provides a script that will allow you to install a new System Center 2012 Configuration Manager secondary site server without using the Con...Snapshot: Snap is a screen and desktop capture application that automatically uploads your screen captures to a remote image host and leaves you their direct links.SOA based Open Source E-Commerce System: This project will be a new Ecommerce System, based on service oriented architecture.Symphony Framework: The Symphony Framework is a set of classes and capabilities that are designed to assist the Synergy/DE developer enhance the power of the Synergy .NET development environment and migrate their traditional Synergy/DE applications to a Windows Presentation Foundation desktop user experience.testddgit0518201201: ghtestddtfs0518201201: ertesttom05072012git01: fsdfdstesttom05182012git01: fdstesttom05182012hg01: Summarytesttom05182012tfs01: fdsfdsfdsVisualCron - web client: VisualCron, www.visualcron.com, is an advanced scheduler and automation tool. VisualCron has a WinForms interface built on the VisualCron API. This projects is a proof of concept web client built upon the VisualCron API. The project was originally built by VisualCron developers as a test to provide a realtime/responsive web client.

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ASP.NET MVC: Moving code from controller action to service layer

- by DigiMortal

I fixed one controller action in my application that doesn’t seemed good enough for me. It wasn’t big move I did but worth to show to beginners how nice code you can write when using correct layering in your application. As an example I use code from my posting ASP.NET MVC: How to implement invitation codes support. Problematic controller action Although my controller action works well I don’t like how it looks. It is too much for controller action in my opinion. [HttpPost] public ActionResult GetAccess(string accessCode) { if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(accessCode.Trim())) { ModelState.AddModelError("accessCode", "Insert invitation code!"); return View(); } Guid accessGuid; try { accessGuid = Guid.Parse(accessCode); } catch { ModelState.AddModelError("accessCode", "Incorrect format of invitation code!"); return View(); } using(var ctx = new EventsEntities()) { var user = ctx.GetNewUserByAccessCode(accessGuid); if(user == null) { ModelState.AddModelError("accessCode", "Cannot find account with given invitation code!"); return View(); } user.UserToken = User.Identity.GetUserToken(); ctx.SaveChanges(); } Session["UserId"] = accessGuid; return Redirect("~/admin"); } Looking at this code my first idea is that all this access code stuff must be located somewhere else. We have working functionality in wrong place and we should do something about it. Service layer I add layers to my application very carefully because I don’t like to use hand grenade to kill a fly. When I see real need for some layer and it doesn’t add too much complexity I will add new layer. Right now it is good time to add service layer to my small application. After that it is time to move code to service layer and inject service class to controller. public interface IUserService { bool ClaimAccessCode(string accessCode, string userToken, out string errorMessage); // Other methods of user service } I need this interface when writing unit tests because I need fake service that doesn’t communicate with database and other external sources. public class UserService : IUserService { private readonly IDataContext _context; public UserService(IDataContext context) { _context = context; } public bool ClaimAccessCode(string accessCode, string userToken, out string errorMessage) { if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(accessCode.Trim())) { errorMessage = "Insert invitation code!"; return false; } Guid accessGuid; if (!Guid.TryParse(accessCode, out accessGuid)) { errorMessage = "Incorrect format of invitation code!"; return false; } var user = _context.GetNewUserByAccessCode(accessGuid); if (user == null) { errorMessage = "Cannot find account with given invitation code!"; return false; } user.UserToken = userToken; _context.SaveChanges(); errorMessage = string.Empty; return true; } } Right now I used simple solution for errors and made access code claiming method to follow usual TrySomething() methods pattern. This way I can keep error messages and their retrieval away from controller and in controller I just mediate error message from service to view. Controller Now all the code is moved to service layer and we need also some modifications to controller code so it makes use of users service. I don’t show here DI/IoC details about how to give service instance to controller. GetAccess() action of controller looks like this right now. [HttpPost] public ActionResult GetAccess(string accessCode) { var userToken = User.Identity.GetUserToken(); string errorMessage; if (!_userService.ClaimAccessCode(accessCode, userToken, out errorMessage)) { ModelState.AddModelError("accessCode", errorMessage); return View(); } Session["UserId"] = Guid.Parse(accessCode); return Redirect("~/admin"); } It’s short and nice now and it deals with web site part of access code claiming. In the case of error user is shown access code claiming view with error message that ClaimAccessCode() method returns as output parameter. If everything goes fine then access code is reserved for current user and user is authenticated. Conclusion When controller action grows big you have to move code to layers it actually belongs. In this posting I showed you how I moved access code claiming functionality from controller action to user service class that belongs to service layer of my application. As the result I have controller action that coordinates the user interaction when going through access code claiming process. Controller communicates with service layer and gets information about how access code claiming succeeded.

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What is an effective git process for managing our central code library?

- by Mathew Byrne

Quick background: we're a small web agency (3-6 developers at any one time) developing small to medium sized Symfony 1.4 sites. We've used git for a year now, but most of our developers have preferred Subversion and aren't used to a distributed model. For the past 6 months we've put a lot of development time into a central Symfony plugin that powers our custom CMS. This plugin includes a number of features, helpers, base classes etc. that we use to build custom functionality. This plugin is stored in git, but branches wildly as the plugin is used in various products and is pulled from/pushed to constantly. The repository is usually used as a submodule within a major project. The problems we're starting to see now are a large number of Merge conflicts and backwards incompatible changes brought into the repository by developers adding custom functionality in the context of their own project. I've read Vincent Driessen's excellent git branching model and successfully used it for projects in the past, but it doesn't seem to quite apply well to our particular situation; we have a number of projects concurrently using the same core plugin while developing new features for it. What we need is a strategy that provides the following: A methodology for developing major features within the code repository. A way of migrating those features into other projects. A way of versioning the core repository, and of tracking which version each major project uses. A plan for migrating bug fixes back to older versions. A cleaner history that's easier to see where changes have come from. Any suggestions or discussion would be greatly appreciated.

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Loading the Cache from the Business Application Server

- by ACShorten

By default, the Web Application server will directly connect to the Database to load its cache at startup time. Customers, who implement the product installation in distributed mode, where the Web Application Server and Business Application Server are deployed separately, may wish to prevent the Web Application Server to connect to the database directly. Installation of the product in distributed mode was introduced in Oracle Utilities Application Framework V2.2. In the Advanced Web Application Server configuration, it is possible to set the Create Simple Web Application Context (WEBAPPCONTEXT) to true to force the Web Application Server to load its cache via the Business Application rather than direct loading. The value of false will retain the default behavior of allowing the Web Application Server to connect directly to the database at startup time to load the cache. The value of true will load the cache data via direct calls to the Business Application Server, which can cause a slight delay in the startup process to cater for the architecture load rather than the direct load. The impact of the settings is illustrated in the figure below: When setting this value to true, the following properties files should be manually removed prior to executing the product: $SPLEBASE/etc/conf/root/WEB-INF/classes/hibernate.properties $SPLEBASE/splapp/applications/root/WEB-INF/classes/hibernate.properties Note: For customers who are using a local installation, where the Web Application Server and Business Application Server are combined in the deployed server, it is recommended to set this parameter to false, the default, unless otherwise required. This facility is available for Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.1 in Group Fix 3 (via Patch 11900153) and Patch 13538242 available from My Oracle Support.

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Can the csv format be defined by a regex?

- by Spencer Rathbun

A colleague and I have recently argued over whether a pure regex is capable of fully encapsulating the csv format, such that it is capable of parsing all files with any given escape char, quote char, and separator char. The regex need not be capable of changing these chars after creation, but it must not fail on any other edge case. I have argued that this is impossible for just a tokenizer. The only regex that might be able to do this is a very complex PCRE style that moves beyond just tokenizing. I am looking for something along the lines of: ... the csv format is a context free grammar and as such, it is impossible to parse with regex alone ... Or am I wrong? Is it possible to parse csv with just a POSIX regex? For example, if both the escape char and the quote char are ", then these two lines are valid csv: """this is a test.""","" "and he said,""What will be, will be."", to which I replied, ""Surely not!""","moving on to the next field here..."

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Where should SQL/DB Queries be encapsulated in a software system?

- by Stephen Bennet

I frequently write small applications (either web based or otherwise) that require heavy database usage. i've attempted various ways of handling where to put the actual sql queries (sort of ad-hoc ORM systems). These include: Models that build themselves up - and only allowing SQL to be inside of a model. A sort of factory style method where the models are built by a factory class that is allowed to know about SQL. A third entity that maps models based on their fields/keys into the database and generates SQL code on the fly based on this. Is there a common knowledge of which method is best? Or another way I have missed? Clearly a lot of it will be based on the context of the system itself, which for me is usually to produce lightweight tools or utility frameworks. In experimenting, I've never found any of them that feel intuitively "right" and not clunky, but I also do not want to go for a full framework such as Django or Ruby - both because the tools I create are in a variety of languages and because they usually do not warrant that level of surrounding footprint.

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Security vulnerability and nda's [closed]

- by Chris

I want to propose a situation and gain insight from the communities thoughts. A customer, call them Customer X has a contract with a vendor, Vendor Y to provide an application and services. Customer X discovers a serious authentication vulnerability in Vendor Y's software. Vendor Y and Customer X has a discussion. Vendor Y acknowledges/confirms flaw. Vendor Y confirms they will put effort to fix. Customer X requests Vendor Y to inform all customers impacted by this. Vendor agrees. Fast forward 2 months, and the flaw has not been fixed. Patches were applied to mitigate but the flaw still exists. However, no customers were informed of issue. At this point customer X contacts Vendor Y to determine the status and understand why customer's were not informed. The vendor nicely reminds the customer they are under an NDA and are still working on the issue. A few questions/discussion pieces out of this. By discussing a software flaw with a vendor, does this imply you have agreed to any type of NDA disclosure? Additionally, what rights as does Customer X have to inform other customers of this vulnerability if vendor does not appear willing to comply? I (the op) am under the impression that when this situation occurs, you are supposed to notify vendor of issue, provide them with ample time to respond and if no response you are able to do what you wish with the information. I am thinking back to the MIT/subway incident where they contacted transit authorities, transit authorities didn't respond in a timely fashion so the students disclosed the information publicly on their own. Few things to note about this: I am not the customer in above situation, also lets assume for purposes of keeping discussion inline that customer X has no intentions of disclosing information, they are merely concerned and interested in making sure other customers are aware until it is fixed so they do not expierence a major security breach. (More information can be supplied if needed to add context to question. )

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Adding a CMS to an existing Magento shop

- by user6341

I am working on a project for 3 niche stores built on magento (using magento's multi-store function) that each get roughly 50k unique visitors a day. The sites don't currently have a blog or forum or any social networking aspects. Would like to add a cms to each site that can be centrally run and would like it to take over the front end content from Magento. Also would like it to maintain an online blog/publication of sorts with videos, articles, and the like with privileges to edit the content given to a dozen or so people with different privileges. Want to add a forum to each site that is fairly robust and to possibly add some social networking aspects down the road, so extandability and available plugins/mods in each cms is important. Other than shared login between the forums,blog/publication and store, would like to be able to integrate some content from the forums and blog/publication into the store as well. After researching this a bit, I am inclined towards Drupal, but I haven't found any modules to integrate it with Magento. Also, since the blog content will be done by about a dozen nontechnical people, I want something that is very easy to work with. Lastly, since the site gets a good amount of traffic, speed and security are very important. What CMS would you recommend integrating in this context? Deciding between Drupal, Wordpress and ModX. Also Plone as well. Thanks.

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How to protect UI components using OPSS Resource Permissions

- by frank.nimphius

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 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:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; 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; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} table.MsoTableGrid {mso-style-name:"Table Grid"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-priority:59; mso-style-unhide:no; border:solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt:solid black .5pt; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-border-insideh:.5pt solid black; mso-border-insidev:.5pt solid black; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} ADF security protects ADF bound pages, bounded task flows and ADF Business Components entities with framework specific JAAS permissions classes (RegionPermission, TaskFlowPermission and EntityPermission). If used in combination with the ADF security expression language and security checks performed in Java, this protection already provides you with fine grained access control that can also be used to secure UI components like buttons and input text field. For example, the EL shown below disables the user profile panel tabs for unauthenticated users: <af:panelTabbed id="pt1" position="above"> ... <af:showDetailItem text="User Profile" id="sdi2" disabled="#{!securityContext.authenticated}"> </af:showDetailItem> ... </af:panelTabbed> The next example disables a panel tab item if the authenticated user is not granted access to the bounded task flow exposed in a region on this tab: <af:panelTabbed id="pt1" position="above"> ... <af:showDetailItem text="Employees Overview" id="sdi4" disabled="#{!securityContext.taskflowViewable ['/WEB-INF/EmployeeUpdateFlow.xml#EmployeeUpdateFlow']}"> </af:showDetailItem> ... </af:panelTabbed> Security expressions like shown above allow developers to check the user permission, authentication and role membership status before showing UI components. Similar, using Java, developers can use code like shown below to verify the user authentication status: ADFContext adfContext = ADFContext.getCurrent(); SecurityContext securityCtx = adfContext.getSecurityContext(); boolean userAuthenticated = securityCtx.isAuthenticated(); Note that the Java code lines use the same security context reference that is used with expression language. But is this all that there is? No ! The goal of ADF Security is to enable all ADF developers to build secure web application with JAAS (Java Authentication and Authorization Service). For this, more fine grained protection can be defined using the ResourcePermission, a generic JAAS permission class owned by the Oracle Platform Security Services (OPSS). Using the ResourcePermission class, developers can grant permission to functional parts of an application that are not protected by page or task flow security. For example, an application menu allows creating and canceling product shipments to customers. However, only a specific user group - or application role, which is the better way to use ADF Security - is allowed to cancel a shipment. To enforce this rule, a permission is needed that can be used declaratively on the UI to hide a menu entry and programmatically in Java to check the user permission before the action is performed. Note that multiple lines of defense are what you should implement in your application development. Don't just rely on UI protection through hidden or disabled command options. To create menu protection permission for an ADF Security enable application, you choose Application | Secure | Resource Grants from the Oracle JDeveloper menu. The opened editor shows a visual representation of the jazn-data.xml file that is used at design time to define security policies and user identities for testing. An option in the Resource Grants section is to create a new Resource Type. A list of pre-defined types exists for you to create policy definitions for. Many of these pre-defined types use the ResourcePermission class. To create a custom Resource Type, for example to protect application menu functions, you click the green plus icon next to the Resource Type select list. The Create Resource Type editor that opens allows you to add a name for the resource type, a display name that is shown when granting resource permissions and a description. The ResourcePermission class name is already set. In the menu protection sample, you add the following information: Name: MenuProtection Display Name: Menu Protection Description: Permission to grant menu item permissions OK the dialog to close the resource permission creation. To create a resource policy that can be used to check user permissions at runtime, click the green plus icon in the Resources section of the Resource Grants section. In the Create Resource dialog, provide a name for the menu option you want to protect. To protect the cancel shipment menu option, create a resource with the following settings Resource Type: Menu Protection Name: Cancel Shipment Display Name: Cancel Shipment Description: Grant allows user to cancel customer good shipment A new resource Cancel Shipmentis added to the Resources panel. Initially the resource is not granted to any user, enterprise or application role. To grant the resource, click the green plus icon in the Granted To section, select the Add Application Role option and choose one or more application roles in the opened dialog. Finally, you click the process action to define the policy. Note that permission can have multiple actions that you can grant individually to users and roles. The cancel shipment permission for example could have another action "view" defined to determine which user should see that this option exist and which users don't. To use the cancel shipment permission, select the disabled property on a command item, like af:commandMenuItem and click the arrow icon on the right. From the context menu, choose the Expression Builder entry. Expand the ADF Bindings | securityContext node and click the userGrantedResource option. Hint: You can expand the Description panel below the EL selection panel to see an example of how the grant should look like. The EL that is created needs to be manually edited to show as #{!securityContext.userGrantedResource[ 'resourceName=Cancel Shipment;resourceType=MenuProtection;action=process']} OK the dialog so the permission checking EL is added as a value to the disabled property. Running the application and expanding the Shipment menu shows the Cancel Shipments menu item disabled for all users that don't have the custom menu protection resource permission granted. Note: Following the steps listed above, you create a JAAS permission and declaratively configure it for function security in an ADF application. Do you need to understand JAAS for this? No! This is one of the benefits that you gain from using the ADF development framework. To implement multi lines of defense for your application, the action performed when clicking the enabled "Cancel Shipments" option should also check if the authenticated user is allowed to use process it. For this, code as shown below can be used in a managed bean public void onCancelShipment(ActionEvent actionEvent) { SecurityContext securityCtx = ADFContext.getCurrent().getSecurityContext(); //create instance of ResourcePermission(String type, String name, //String action) ResourcePermission resourcePermission = new ResourcePermission("MenuProtection","Cancel Shipment", "process"); boolean userHasPermission = securityCtx.hasPermission(resourcePermission); if (userHasPermission){ //execute privileged logic here } } Note: To learn more abput ADF Security, visit http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/web.1111/b31974/adding_security.htm#BGBGJEAHNote: A monthly summary of OTN Harvest blog postings can be downloaded from ADF Code Corner. The monthly summary is a PDF document that contains supporting screen shots for some of the postings: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/adf/learnmore/index-101235.html

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How to use the unit of work and repository patterns in a service oriented enviroment

- by A. Karimi

I've created an application framework using the unit of work and repository patterns for it's data layer. Data consumer layers such as presentation depend on the data layer design. For example a CRUD abstract form has a dependency to a repository (IRepository). This architecture works like a charm in client/server environments (Ex. a WPF application and a SQL Server). But I'm looking for a good pattern to change or reuse this architecture for a service oriented environment. Of course I have some ideas: Idea 1: The "Adapter" design pattern Keep the current architecture and create a new unit of work and repository implementation which can work with a service instead of the ORM. Data layer consumers are loosely coupled to the data layer so it's possible but the problem is about the unit of work; I have to create a context which tracks the objects state at the client side and sends the changes to the server side on calling the "Commit" (Something that I think the RIA has done for Silverlight). Here the diagram: ----------- CLIENT----------- | ------------------ SERVER ---------------------- [ UI ] -> [ UoW/Repository ] ---> [ Web Services ] -> [ UoW/Repository ] -> [DB] Idea 2: Add another layer Add another layer (let say "local services" or "data provider"), then put it between the data layer (unit of work and repository) and the data consumer layers (like UI). Then I have to rewrite the consumer classes (CRUD and other classes which are dependent to IRepository) to depend on another interface. And the diagram: ----------------- CLIENT ------------------ | ------------------- SERVER --------------------- [ UI ] -> [ Local Services/Data Provider ] ---> [ Web Services ] -> [ UoW/Repository ] -> [DB] Please note that I have the local services layer on the current architecture but it doesn't expose the data layer functionality. In another word the UI layer can communicate with both of the data and local services layers whereas the local services layer also uses the data layer. | | | | | | | | ---> | Local Services | ---> | | | UI | | | | Data | | | | | | | ----------------------------> | |

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, December 21, 2010

CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, December 21, 2010Popular ReleasesSQL Monitor - tracking sql server activities: SQL Monitor 3.0 alpha 7: 1. added script save/load in user query window 2. fixed problem with connection dialog when choosing windows auth but still ask for user name 3. auto open user table when double click one table node 4. improved alert message, added log only methodOpen NFe: Open NFe 2.0 (Beta): Última versão antes da versão final a ser lançada nos próximos dias.EnhSim: EnhSim 2.2.6 ALPHA: 2.2.6 ALPHAThis release supports WoW patch 4.03a at level 85 To use this release, you must have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=A7B7A05E-6DE6-4D3A-A423-37BF0912DB84 To use the GUI you must have the .NET 4.0 Framework installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992 - Fixing up some r...LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter Beta v2.0.18: Silverlight, OAuth, 100% Twitter API coverage, streaming, extensibility via Raw Queries, and added documentation. Bug fixes.ASP.NET MVC Project Awesome (jQuery Ajax helpers): 1.4.3: Helpers (controls) that you can use to build highly responsive and interactive Ajax-enabled Web applications. These helpers include Autocomplete, AjaxDropdown, Lookup, Confirm Dialog, Popup Form, Popup and Pager new stuff: Improvements for confirm, popup, popup form RenderView controller extension the user experience for crud in live demo has been substantially improved + added search all the features are shown in the live demoGanttPlanner: GanttPlanner V1.0: GanttPlanner V1.0 include GanttPlanner.dll and also a Demo application.N2 CMS: 2.1 release candidate 3: * Web platform installer support available N2 is a lightweight CMS framework for ASP.NET. It helps you build great web sites that anyone can update. Major Changes Support for auto-implemented properties ({get;set;}, based on contribution by And Poulsen) A bunch of bugs were fixed File manager improvements (multiple file upload, resize images to fit) New image gallery Infinite scroll paging on news Content templates First time with N2? Try the demo site Download one of the templ...TweetSharp: TweetSharp v2.0.0.0 - Preview 6: Documentation for this release may be found at http://tweetsharp.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=UserGuide&referringTitle=Documentation. Note: This code is currently preview quality. Preview 6 ChangesMaintenance release with user reported fixes Preview 5 ChangesMaintenance release with user reported fixes Preview 4 ChangesReintroduced fluent interface support via satellite assembly Added entities support, entity segmentation, and ITweetable/ITweeter interfaces for client development Numer...Team Foundation Server Administration Tool: 2.1: TFS Administration Tool 2.1, is the first version of the TFS Administration Tool which is built on top of the Team Foundation Server 2010 object model. TFS Administration Tool 2.1 can be installed on machines that are running either Team Explorer 2010, or Team Foundation Server 2010.Hacker Passwords: HackerPasswords.zip: Source code, executable and documentationSubtitleTools: SubtitleTools 1.3: - Added .srt FileAssociation & Win7 ShowRecentCategory feature. - Applied UnifiedYeKe to fix Persian search problems. - Reduced file size of Persian subtitles for uploading @OSDB.Facebook C# SDK: 4.1.0: - Lots of bug fixes - Removed Dynamic Runtime Language dependencies from non-dynamic platforms. - Samples included in release for ASP.NET, MVC, Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, WPF, WinForms, and one Visual Basic Sample - Changed internal serialization to use Json.net - BREAKING CHANGE: Canvas Session is no longer support. Use Signed Request instead. Canvas Session has been deprecated by Facebook. - BREAKING CHANGE: Some renames and changes with Authorizer, CanvasAuthorizer, and Authorization ac...NuGet (formerly NuPack): NuGet 1.0 build 11217.102: Note: this release is slightly newer than RC1, and fixes a couple issues relating to updating packages to newer versions. NuGet is a free, open source developer focused package management system for the .NET platform intent on simplifying the process of incorporating third party libraries into a .NET application during development. This release is a Visual Studio 2010 extension and contains the the Package Manager Console and the Add Package Dialog. This new build targets the newer feed (h...WCF Community Site: WCF Web APIs 10.12.17: Welcome to the second release of WCF Web APIs on codeplex Here is what is new in this release. WCF Support for jQuery - create WCF web services that are easy to consume from JavaScript clients, in particular jQuery. Better support for using JsonValue as dynamic Support for JsonValue change notification events for databinding and other purposes Support for going between JsonValue and CLR types WCF HTTP - create HTTP / REST based web services. This is a minor release which contains fixe...LiveChat Starter Kit: LCSK v1.0: This is a working version of the LCSK for Visual Studio 2010, ASP.NET MVC 3 (using Razor View Engine). this is still provider based (with 1 provider Sql) and this is still using WebService and Windows Forms operator console. The solution is cleaner, with an installer to create tables etc. You can also install it via nuget (Install-Package lcsk) Let me know your feedbackOrchard Project: Orchard 0.9: Orchard Release Notes Build: 0.9.253 Published: 12/16/2010 How to Install OrchardTo install the Orchard tech preview using Web PI, follow these instructions: http://www.orchardproject.net/docs/Installing-Orchard-Using-Web-PI.ashx Web PI will detect your hardware environment and install the application. --OR-- Alternatively, to install the release manually, download the Orchard.Web.0.9.253.zip file. The zip contents are pre-built and ready-to-run. Simply extract the contents of the Orch...DotSpatial: DotSpatial 12-15-2010: This release contains a few minor bug fixes and hopefully the GDAL libraries for the 3.5 x86 build actually built to the correct directory this time.DotNetNuke® Community Edition: 05.06.01 Beta: This is the initial Beta of DotNetNuke 5.6.1. See the DotNetNuke Roadmap a full list of changes in this release.MSBuild Extension Pack: December 2010: Release Blog Post The MSBuild Extension Pack December 2010 release provides a collection of over 380 MSBuild tasks. A high level summary of what the tasks currently cover includes the following: System Items: Active Directory, Certificates, COM+, Console, Date and Time, Drives, Environment Variables, Event Logs, Files and Folders, FTP, GAC, Network, Performance Counters, Registry, Services, Sound Code: Assemblies, AsyncExec, CAB Files, Code Signing, DynamicExecute, File Detokenisation, GU...Silverlight Contrib: Silverlight Contrib 2010.1.0: 2010.1.0 New FeaturesCompatibility Release for Silverlight 4 and Visual Studio 2010New Projectsaqq2: aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2aqq2Cameleon CMS: Caméléon, le CMS open-source le plus simple d'utilisation sur le marché.Dail Emulator: Dail Emulator is a software that emulates the server software of Aeonsofts game FlyFF. Specifically made for the now defunct version 6 of the game.Dmitry Lyalin's WP7 Sample Application: A project where im putting all my public samples in a single WP7 client test applicationElixir: DotNetNuke module test framework. Use this DLL to write concise, to-the-point tests for your modules that can target multiple DNN platforms and multiple browsers.FlightTableEditor: This edits the Flight and Healing Tables of Pokémon Fire Red and Pokémon Leaf Green.Genetico UNLaM: Algoritmo Genetico UNLaMHelpCentral HelpDesk Ticket Application: An open-ended framework and client for a helpdesk ticket application and bug tracker. Built to be as extensible and available as possible, the central system is a WCF webservice which can be accessed by any client application.Import Media for Umbraco: This package allows you to import multiple or large files that have been uploaded to the server via FTP or other means. A new media item is created in the media tree and the media is moved from the upload location to the new directory for the media item.LargeCMS full sample (How to call CryptMsg API in streaming mode): LargeCms implements SignedLargeCMS and EnvelopedLargeCMS classes, my own version of .NET SignedCms and EnvelopedCMS to work with large data. It shows a way to call CryptMsg API in streaming mode to overcome the limitations of current .NET classesLinq.Autocompiler: Adds runtime, on demand compilation of Linq queries (in Linq to SQL), which creates CompiledQuery instances and stores them in a cache. Mathetris: it's a game.MonoWiimote: Managed c# library for using Wii Remote device under Mono/Linux enviroment. It requires libcwiimote-0.4 (sudo apt-get install libcwiimote-0.4).Movie Captor: Concorrendo no Desafio .NETNSpotifyLib: A .NET library contains wrapper classes for the Spotify Metadata API. http://developer.spotify.com/en/metadata-api/overview/ This library supports searching for artists, albums and tracks by using the Spotify Metadata API. In the future I'll add support for Lookups as well.Silverhawk: It's developed in C# programming language.SimpleSpy: Detecting object handle on cursor move and get its information. Basically this is a bare bone program for detecting object handle at cursor and add your own logic to detect for further information. SunburnJitter: JitterSunburn contains helper classes and methods to use the jitter physics engine easier in your sunburn projects. Simple component based shapes will provide easy editing in editor. It's developed in C#.Sunrod: Sunrod is a .NET wrapper for the Obsidian Portal API.TouchStack - A MonoTouch ServiceStack.NET client: TouchStack makes it easier for MonoTouch developers to consume Web services created and exposed by the brilliant ServiceStack.NET webservice framework. TouchStack is written in C# and uses the MonoTouch library.VNTViewer: Viewer for notes/memos (VNT files)VpNet: Official .NET Wrapper for Virtual Paradise.xlGUI: Streamlet GUI Framework

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Static classes and/or singletons -- How many does it take to become a code smell?

- by Earlz

In my projects I use quite a lot of static classes. These are usually classes that naturally seem to fit into a single-instance type of thing. Many times I use static classes and recently I've started using some singletons. How many of these does it take to become a code smell? For instance, in my recent project which has a lot of static classes is an Authentication library for ASP.Net. I use a static class for a helper class that fixes ASP.Net error codes so it can be used like CustomErrorsFixer.Fix(Context); Or my authentication class itself is a static class //in global.asax's begin_application Authentication.SomeState="blah"; Authentication.SomeOption=true; //etc //in global.asax's begin_request Authentication.Authenticate(); When are static or singleton classes bad to use? Am I doing it wrong, or am I just in a project that by definition has very little per-instance state associated with it? The only per-instance state I have is stored in HttpContext.Current.Items like so: /// <summary> /// The current user logged in for the HTTP request. If there is not a user logged in, this will be null. /// </summary> public static UserData CurrentUser{ get{ return HttpContext.Current.Items["fscauth_currentuser"] as UserData; //use HttpContext.Current as a little place to persist static data for this request } private set{ HttpContext.Current.Items["fscauth_currentuser"]=value; } }

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HTG Projects: Create a Pop Art Sci-Fi Poster with an Inkjet Printer

- by Eric Z Goodnight

Looking to decorate your house with some cool artwork? Grab some of your favorite Sci-Fi pics and some surprisingly simple tools, and create a Pop Art style poster in minutes. Through a simple process called “posterization,” you can reduce any graphic into a cool limited graphic with a similar look that Andy Warhol would have used when he created his famous Marylin Monroe image in the sixties. Pick a theme, grab some images, and get ready to decorate your home with a surprisingly easy and surprisingly cool poster any inkjet printer can produce Latest Features How-To Geek ETC HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 Arctic Theme for Windows 7 Gives Your Desktop an Icy Touch Install LibreOffice via PPA and Receive Auto-Updates in Ubuntu Creative Portraits Peek Inside the Guts of Modern Electronics Scenic Winter Lane Wallpaper to Create a Relaxing Mood Access Your Web Apps Directly Using the Context Menu in Chrome The Deep – Awesome Use of Metal Objects as Deep Sea Creatures [Video]

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, January 08, 2011

CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, January 08, 2011Popular ReleasesExtended WPF Toolkit: Extended WPF Toolkit - 1.3.0: What's in the 1.3.0 Release?BusyIndicator ButtonSpinner ChildWindow ColorPicker - Updated (Breaking Changes) DateTimeUpDown - New Control Magnifier - New Control MaskedTextBox - New Control MessageBox NumericUpDown RichTextBox RichTextBoxFormatBar - Updated .NET 3.5 binaries and SourcePlease note: The Extended WPF Toolkit 3.5 is dependent on .NET Framework 3.5 and the WPFToolkit. You must install .NET Framework 3.5 and the WPFToolkit in order to use any features in the To...sNPCedit: sNPCedit v0.9d: added elementclient coordinate catcher to catch coordinates select a target (ingame) i.e. your char, npc or monster than click the button and coordinates+direction will be transfered to the selected row in the table corrected labels from Rot to Direction (because it is a vector)AutoLoL: AutoLoL v1.5.2: Implemented the Auto Updater Fix: Your settings will no longer be cleared with new releases of AutoLoL The mastery Editor and Browser now have their own tabs instead of nested tabs The Browser tab will only show the masteries matching ALL filters instead of just one Added a 'Browse' button in the Mastery Editor tab to open the Masteries Directory The Browser tab now shows a message when there are no mastery files in the Masteries Directory Fix: Fixed the Save As dialog again, for ...Ionics Isapi Rewrite Filter: 2.1 latest stable: V2.1 is stable, and is in maintenance mode. This is v2.1.1.25. It is a bug-fix release. There are no new features. 28629 29172 28722 27626 28074 29164 27659 27900 many documentation updates and fixes proper x64 build environment. This release includes x64 binaries in zip form, but no x64 MSI file. You'll have to manually install x64 servers, following the instructions in the documentation.StyleCop for ReSharper: StyleCop for ReSharper 5.1.14980.000: A considerable amount of work has gone into this release: Huge focus on performance around the violation scanning subsystem: - caching added to reduce IO operations around reading and merging of settings files - caching added to reduce creation of expensive objects Users should notice condsiderable perf boost and a decrease in memory usage. Bug Fixes: - StyleCop's new ObjectBasedEnvironment object does not resolve the StyleCop installation path, thus it does not return the correct path ...VivoSocial: VivoSocial 7.4.1: New release with bug fixes and updates for performance.SSH.NET Library: 2011.1.6: Fixes CommandTimeout default value is fixed to infinite. Port Forwarding feature improvements Memory leaks fixes New Features Add ErrorOccurred event to handle errors that occurred on different thread New and improve SFTP features SftpFile now has more attributes and some operations Most standard operations now available Allow specify encoding for command execution KeyboardInteractiveConnectionInfo class added for "keyboard-interactive" authentication. Add ability to specify bo....NET Extensions - Extension Methods Library for C# and VB.NET: Release 2011.03: Added lot's of new extensions and new projects for MVC and Entity Framework. object.FindTypeByRecursion Int32.InRange String.RemoveAllSpecialCharacters String.IsEmptyOrWhiteSpace String.IsNotEmptyOrWhiteSpace String.IfEmptyOrWhiteSpace String.ToUpperFirstLetter String.GetBytes String.ToTitleCase String.ToPlural DateTime.GetDaysInYear DateTime.GetPeriodOfDay IEnumberable.RemoveAll IEnumberable.Distinct ICollection.RemoveAll IList.Join IList.Match IList.Cast Array.IsNullOrEmpty Array.W...VidCoder: 0.8.0: Added x64 version. Made the audio output preview more detailed and accurate. If the chosen encoder or mixdown is incompatible with the source, the fallback that will be used is displayed. Added "Auto" to the audio mixdown choices. Reworked non-anamorphic size calculation to work better with non-standard pixel aspect ratios and cropping. Reworked Custom anamorphic to be more intuitive and allow display width to be set automatically (Thanks, Statick). Allowing higher bitrates for 6-ch....NET Voice Recorder: Auto-Tune Release: This is the source code and binaries to accompany the article on the Coding 4 Fun website. It is the Auto Tuner release of the .NET Voice Recorder application.BloodSim: BloodSim - 1.3.2.0: - Simulation Log is now automatically disabled and hidden when running 10 or more iterations - Hit and Expertise are now entered by Rating, and include option for a Racial Expertise bonus - Added option for boss to use a periodic magic ability (Dragon Breath) - Added option for boss to periodically Enrage, gaining a Damage/Attack Speed buffEnhSim: EnhSim 2.2.9 BETA: 2.2.9 BETAThis release supports WoW patch 4.03a at level 85 To use this release, you must have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=A7B7A05E-6DE6-4D3A-A423-37BF0912DB84 To use the GUI you must have the .NET 4.0 Framework installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992 - Added in the Gobl...xUnit.net - Unit Testing for .NET: xUnit.net 1.7 Beta: xUnit.net release 1.7 betaBuild #1533 Important notes for Resharper users: Resharper support has been moved to the xUnit.net Contrib project. Important note for TestDriven.net users: If you are having issues running xUnit.net tests in TestDriven.net, especially on 64-bit Windows, we strongly recommend you upgrade to TD.NET version 3.0 or later. This release adds the following new features: Added support for ASP.NET MVC 3 Added Assert.Equal(double expected, double actual, int precision)...Json.NET: Json.NET 4.0 Release 1: New feature - Added Windows Phone 7 project New feature - Added dynamic support to LINQ to JSON New feature - Added dynamic support to serializer New feature - Added INotifyCollectionChanged to JContainer in .NET 4 build New feature - Added ReadAsDateTimeOffset to JsonReader New feature - Added ReadAsDecimal to JsonReader New feature - Added covariance to IJEnumerable type parameter New feature - Added XmlSerializer style Specified property support New feature - Added ...DbDocument: DbDoc Initial Version: DbDoc Initial versionASP .NET MVC CMS (Content Management System): Atomic CMS 2.1.2: Atomic CMS 2.1.2 release notes Atomic CMS installation guide N2 CMS: 2.1: N2 is a lightweight CMS framework for ASP.NET. It helps you build great web sites that anyone can update. Major Changes Support for auto-implemented properties ({get;set;}, based on contribution by And Poulsen) All-round improvements and bugfixes File manager improvements (multiple file upload, resize images to fit) New image gallery Infinite scroll paging on news Content templates First time with N2? Try the demo site Download one of the template packs (above) and open the proj...Mobile Device Detection and Redirection: 0.1.11.10: IMPORTANT CHANGESThis release changes the way some WURFL capabilities and attributes are exposed to .NET developers. If you cast MobileCapabilities to return some values then please read the Release Note before implementing this release. The following code snippet can be used to access any WURFL capability. For instance, if the device is a tablet: string capability = Request.Browser["is_tablet"]; SummaryNew attributes have been added to the redirect section: originalUrlAsQueryString If se...Wii Backup Fusion: Wii Backup Fusion 1.0: - Norwegian translation - French translation - German translation - WBFS dump for analysis - Scalable full HQ cover - Support for log file - Load game images improved - Support for image splitting - Diff for images after transfer - Support for scrubbing modes - Search functionality for log - Recurse depth for Files/Load - Show progress while downloading game cover - Supports more databases for cover download - Game cover loading routines improvedBlogEngine.NET: BlogEngine.NET 2.0: Get DotNetBlogEngine for 3 Months Free! Click Here for More Info 3 Months FREE – BlogEngine.NET Hosting – Click Here! If you want to set up and start using BlogEngine.NET right away, you should download the Web project. If you want to extend or modify BlogEngine.NET, you should download the source code. If you are upgrading from a previous version of BlogEngine.NET, please take a look at the Upgrading to BlogEngine.NET 2.0 instructions. To get started, be sure to check out our installatio...New Projects2011 Scripting Games: Track Changes for the 2011 Scripting Games to be hosted on PoshCode by the Microsoft Scripting Guys and the PowerShell community. ADO.NET Unit Testable Repository Generator: Generates a strongly-typed Object Context and POCO Entities from your EDMX file. Additionally a Repository and an abstract Unit Test for the Repository is created (with a mock for the ObjectContext and mock for the ObjectSets). Bases on the "ADO.NET C# POCO Entity Generator".AshpazKhone: ???AVAilable Rooms: AVAilable Rooms Can be used to show and book rooms on an exchange serverContentManager: Content Manger for SAP Kpro exports the data pool of a content-server by PHIOS-Lists (txt-files) into local binary files. Afterwards this files can be imported in a SAP content-repository . The whole List of the PHIOS Keys can also be downloaded an splitted in practical units.CSLauncher: CSLauncher is a small application providing a launching interface similar to Counter Strike's weapons selection menu. You can organize your favorite applications in CSLauncher in the order you wish, then launch them by remembering their numbers.DbMetadata: A simple lightweight library used to retrieve database metadata.DotNetSiemensPLCToolBoxLibrary: DotNetSiemensPLCToolBoxLibrary A Library for working with Siemens Step5 and Step7 Projects, connecting to S5 or S7 PLC's.EmptyX: EmptyX is a game developped with c# and xna for the XNA CHALLENGE in AlgeriaERASMUS: Erasmus šitFaceDeBouc: Simplebook, le nouveau Facebook CPE! Technlogies .NET Serveur: - BDD SQLServer - Logique métier - Web services Clients: - client lourd WPF - client léger ASP.NETFunction resolver: Application using .NET Expression trees to resolve a function for a set of numbersMLRobotic: Programme de gestion MLRobotic 2011 Sissa ProjectMS CRM Multiple Attachment Download Application: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 currently does not have a built in way for CRM Administrators to Export multiple attachments from the database and store it on a local directory on the Server or the local PC. This application allows you to do so.Open Data Publisher: Open Data Publisher is a C# MVC application that allows you to quickly and easily publish data from SQL Server tables and views using the OData protocol, and present data from OData and static sources to the public for download and exploration.OttawaZagreb1: Test projectPrague: ????? ?? ???? ??????PSSplunk: PSSplunk is a set of Powershell cmdlets that use the RESTFUL API provided by www.splunk.com The goal is provide access to all of Splunks configuration and search features from the CLI without having to have Splunk installed locally.Reactive C#: Reactive language extensions for C#SemanaWebcasts: Projeto para semana de webcasts.Steward: Personal StewardSVNUG.Tracker: SVNUG.Tracker is an example task tracking application used as a presentation project for the Sangamon Valley .NET User Group (svnug.com). The purpose of SVNUG.Tracker is to be a common problem domain for exercising new .NET technology. SVNUG.Tracker is written in C# 4.The Silverlight Cookbook - A Reference Application for Silverlight 4 LOB Apps: The Silverlight Cookbook is a .NET example application that demonstrates how to build a full-blown line-of-business app using the reference architecture explained at: http://www.dennisdoomen.net/search/label/Silverlight Vkontakte Wpf Client: This is a simple client for social network Vkontakte. It can send message to your friends, download audio files or play it,list user video. Also you can view user status and change yours.Windows Phone Multilingual Keyboard: Multilingual keyboard for Windows Phone 7WPF Controls & MVVM Practices: WPF Controls contains various controls that can be used in applications. Currently Featured * FilteredListBox (filter and selected items notification) * IsDirty functionality for a ViewModel model

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unity top menu keyboard shortcuts for desktop alone, no programs running

- by user108754

Alt+F1 accesses the launcher menu, with arrow keys to navigate the list (side menu). Alt+F10 accesses the top bar in an open application (or Alt+an underlined menu item letter), which allows access to the global ubuntu settings in the top right (battery, wifi/networking, audio, time/calendar, user, power). Alt+F10, when no application is open and you're just staring at the desktop, accesses those ubuntu settings immediately. But the top menu bar does list, in the top left, menu commands for the desktop per se (create new folder, go home, help, start server, etc). These can be accessed only by mouse hovering and click. No way to get to them only by keyboard (arrow keys just cycle through the settings, don't jump over to the left side of the top bar). Is there a keyboard shortcut way to access the desktop menu bar for manipulating icons on your desktop and other general things? Or is this a work in progress for unity? If you use the context menu key (or some equivalent you've set to generate that signal) along with other shortcuts for working on the desktop, you can cover most of the functionality of the top menu bar. However, I don't want to memorize those keys to become proficient. I just want a way to open and browse through those menu items (and they aren't ALL available through hotkeys anyway).

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C# : When to go Fluent

- by ach

In many respects I really like the idea of Fluent interfaces, but with all of the modern features of C# (initializers, lambdas, named parameters) I find myself thinking, "is it worth it?", and "Is this the right pattern to use?". Could anyone give me, if not an accepted practice, at least their own experience or decision matrix for when to use the Fluent pattern? Conclusion: Some good rules of thumb from the answers so far: Fluent interfaces help greatly when you have more actions than setters, since calls benefit more from the context pass-through. Fluent interfaces should be thought of as a layer over top of an api, not the sole means of use. The modern features such as lambdas, initializers, and named parameters, can work hand-in-hand to make a fluent interface even more friendly. ... Edit: Here is an example of what I mean by the modern features making it feel less needed. Take for example a (perhaps poor example) Fluent interface that allows me to create an Employee like: Employees.CreateNew().WithFirstName("Peter") .WihtLastName("Gibbons") .WithManager() .WithFirstName("Bill") .WithLastName("Lumbergh") .WithTitle("Manager") .WithDepartment("Y2K"); Could easily be written with initiallizers like: Employees.Add(new Employee() { FirstName = "Peter", LastName = "Gibbons", Manager = new Employee() { FirstName = "Bill", LastName = "Lumbergh", Title = "Manager", Department = "Y2K" } }); I could also have used named parameters in a constructors in this example.

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Install Adobe AIR on Ubuntu/Linux

Since quite some time Adobe Technologies released the Linux version of Adobe AIR to bring web applications and widgets to your desktop. Installing new applications on a Linux system is not always as easy as switching the computer on. The following instructions might be helpful to install Adobe AIR on any Linux system. First of all, get the latest installer of Adobe AIR from http://get.adobe.com/air/ - as of writing this article the file name is AdobeAIRInstaller.bin. Save the download in your preferred folder. Now, there are two ways to run the installer - visual style or console style. Visual Installation Launch your favorite or standard file manager like thunar or nautilus and browse to the folder where the AdobeAIRInstaller.bin has been saved. Right click on the file and choose 'Properties' in the context menu Set 'Execute' permissions and confirm modifications with OK Rename file into AdobeAIRInstaller Double click and follow the instructions Using the console Open a terminal like xterm Change into the directory where you stored the download Run this command:[code]chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin[/code] Now run this command:[code]sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin[/code] The normal installer will open, install it. From now whenever you download a .air file, just double click it and it will be installed. Troubleshooting In case that the installation does not start properly, try to install via console. This gives you more details about the reasons. Should you run into something like this: [code]AdobeAIRInstaller.bin: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected[/code] Double check the execute permission of the installer file and try again.

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IoT? Time for Enterprise Architecture

- by OTN ArchBeat

Of course you've been listening to the latest OTN ArchBeat Podcast on the challenges and opportunities in the Internet of Things. If so, you'll also be interested in ZDNet blogger Joe McKendricks' recent post, Will the 'Internet of Things' make CIOs' jobs harder?. In that post McKendrick offers this important bit of advice that will certainly have architects saying "I told you so." Enterprises need to develop architectural approaches to the management of data. Meaning the development of repeatable processes to source, ingest, transform and store information. For years, IT managers simply bought more hardware and addressed data with on-off integration projects. Now it's time for enterprise architecture. IoT is an important new phase in the evolution of enterprise IT. Challenging? You bet! But meeting any such challenge requires big, broad thinking and planning. In that context Enterprise Architecture has always been important. But as IoT gains traction and speed, enterprise architecture should be top of mind for all concerned.

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Identity Propagation for Web Service - 11g

- by Prakash Yamuna

I came across this post from Beimond on how to do identity propagation using OWSM.As I have mentioned in the past here, here and here - Beimond has a number of excellent posts on OWSM. However I found one part of his comment puzzling. I quote: "OWSM allows you to pass on the identity of the authenticated user to your OWSM protected web service ( thanks to OPSS ), this username can then be used by your service. This will work on one or between different WebLogic domains. Off course when you don't want to use OWSM you can always use Oracle Access Manager OAM which can do the same." The sentence in red highlights the issue i find puzzling. In fact I just discussed this particular topic recently here. So let me try and clarify on a few points: a) OAM is used for Web SSO. b) OWSM is used for securing Web Services. You cannot do identity propagation using OAM for Web Services. c) You use SAML to do identity propagation across Web Services. OAM also supports SAML - but that is the browser profile of SAML relevant in the context of Web SSO and is not related to the SAML Token Profile defined as part of the WS-Security spec.

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Steam (via Wine) crashes after login - any troubleshooting tips?

- by new Thrall

The Steam client crashes after I login. After submitting my credentials, Steam displays a dialog box informing me the client is 'connecting'. I then see the Steam main page and news page displayed for roughly a second or so before the client crashes. I'm running Ubuntu 10.10 (I think..what's the best way to verify? uname only displays Linux) which I've installed on a usb flash drive using a capser-rw file for persistence. wine-1.3.14 I'm not sure how to troubleshoot. How do I identify if the problem is with wine or steam or the video card driver, or what? Any ideas? hardware: motherboard: ECS Elitegroup 945GCT-M sound: integrated audio video: ATI Radeon X1950 console output: ubuntu@ubuntu:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steam$ wine Steam.exe fixme:process:GetLogicalProcessorInformation ((nil),0x32e488): stub fixme:process:GetLogicalProcessorInformation (0x1010c00,0x32e488): stub fixme:process:SetProcessShutdownParameters (00000100, 00000000): partial stub. fixme:urlmon:CoInternetSetFeatureEnabled 5, 0x00000002, 1, stub fixme:urlmon:CoInternetSetFeatureEnabled 10, 0x00000002, 1, stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x1009a, 2, 0x32d334, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x1009a, 3, 0x32d338, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x1009a, 4, 0x32d33c, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100a2, 2, 0x32d964, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100a2, 3, 0x32d968, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100a2, 4, 0x32d96c, 4) stub err:ole:CoGetClassObject class {77f10cf0-3db5-4966-b520-b7c54fd35ed6} not registered err:ole:CoGetClassObject no class object {77f10cf0-3db5-4966-b520-b7c54fd35ed6} could be created for context 0x1 fixme:wbemprox:wbem_locator_ConnectServer 0x1ab5f0, L"ROOT\CIMV2", (null), (null), (null), 0x00000080, (null), (nil), 0x42bbee8) fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100ae, 2, 0x32d8cc, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100ae, 3, 0x32d8d0, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100ae, 4, 0x32d8d4, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100b6, 2, 0x32d80c, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100b6, 3, 0x32d810, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100b6, 4, 0x32d814, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100c0, 2, 0x32d2e4, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100c0, 3, 0x32d2e8, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100c0, 4, 0x32d2ec, 4) stub fixme:winhttp:WinHttpGetIEProxyConfigForCurrentUser returning no proxy used fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100dc, 2, 0x32d94c, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100dc, 3, 0x32d950, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x100dc, 4, 0x32d954, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x10118, 2, 0x32da8c, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x10118, 3, 0x32da90, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x10118, 4, 0x32da94, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x10122, 2, 0x32d514, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x10122, 3, 0x32d518, 4) stub fixme:dwmapi:DwmSetWindowAttribute (0x10122, 4, 0x32d51c, 4) stub fixme:dbghelp:elf_search_auxv can't find symbol in module

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Day 6 - Game Menuing Woes and Future Screen Sneak Peeks

- by dapostolov

So, after my last post on Day 5 I dabbled with my game class design. I took the approach where each game objects is tightly coupled with a graphic. The good news is I got the menu working but not without some hard knocks and game growing pains. I'll explain later, but for now...here is a class diagram of my first stab at my class structure and some code... Ok, there are few mistakes, however, I'm going to leave it as is for now... As you can see I created an inital abstract base class called GameSprite. This class when inherited will provide a simple virtual default draw method: public virtual void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, Color.White); } The benefits of coding it this way allows me to inherit the class and utilise the method in the screen draw method...So regardless of what the graphic object type is it will now have the ability to render a static image on the screen. Example: public class MyStaticTreasureChest : GameSprite {} If you remember the window draw method from Day 3's post, we could use the above code as follows... protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend); foreach(var gameSprite in ListOfGameObjects) { gameSprite.DrawSprite(spriteBatch); } spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } I have to admit the GameSprite object is pretty plain as with its DrawSprite method... But ... we now have the ability to render 3 static menu items on the screen ... BORING! I want those menu items to do something exciting, which of course involves animation... So, let's have a peek at AnimatedGameSprite in the above game diagram. The idea with the AnimatedGameSprite is that it has an image to animate...such as ... characters, fireballs, and... menus! So after inheriting from GameSprite class, I added a few more options such as UpdateSprite... public virtual void UpdateSprite(float elapsed) { _totalElapsed += elapsed; if (_totalElapsed > _timePerFrame) { _frame++; _frame = _frame % _framecount; _totalElapsed -= _timePerFrame; } } And an overidden DrawSprite... public override void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { int FrameWidth = Sprite.Width / _framecount; Rectangle sourcerect = new Rectangle(FrameWidth * _frame, 0, FrameWidth, Sprite.Height); spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, sourcerect, Color.White, _rotation, _origin, _scale, SpriteEffects.None, _depth); } With these two methods...I can animate and image, all I had to do was add a few more lines to the screens Update Method (From Day 3), like such: float elapsed = (float) gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; foreach (var item in ListOfAnimatedGameObjects) { item.UpdateSprite(elapsed); } And voila! My images begin to animate in one spot, on the screen... Hmm, but how do I interact with the menu items using a mouse...well the mouse cursor was easy enough... this.IsMouseVisible = true; But, to have it "interact" with an image was a bit more tricky...I had to perform collision detection! mouseStateCurrent = Mouse.GetState(); var uiEnabledSprites = (from s in menuItems where s.IsEnabled select s).ToList(); foreach (var item in uiEnabledSprites) { var r = new Rectangle((int)item.Position.X, (int)item.Position.Y, item.Sprite.Width, item.Sprite.Height); item.MenuState = MenuState.Normal; if (r.Intersects(new Rectangle(mouseStateCurrent.X, mouseStateCurrent.Y, 0, 0))) { item.MenuState = MenuState.Hover; if (mouseStatePrevious.LeftButton == ButtonState.Pressed && mouseStateCurrent.LeftButton == ButtonState.Released) { item.MenuState = MenuState.Pressed; } } } mouseStatePrevious = mouseStateCurrent; So, basically, what it is doing above is iterating through all my interactive objects and detecting a rectangle collision and the object , plays the state animation (or static image). Lessons Learned, Time Burned... So, I think I did well to start, but after I hammered out my prototype...well...things got sloppy and I began to realise some design flaws... At the time: I couldn't seem to figure out how to open another window, such as the character creation screen Input was not event based and it was bugging me My menu design relied heavily on mouse input and I couldn't use keyboard. Mouse input, is tightly bound with graphic rendering / positioning, so its logic will have to be in each scene. Menu animations would stop mid frame, then continue when the action occured again. This is bad, because...what if I had a sword sliding onthe screen? Then it would slide a quarter of the way, then stop due to another action, then render again mid-slide... it just looked sloppy. Menu, Solved!? To solve the above problems I did a little research and I found some great code in the XNA forums. The one worth mentioning was the GameStateManagementSample. With this sample, you can create a basic "text based" menu system which allows you to swap screens, popup screens, play the game, and quit....basic game state management... In my next post I'm going to dwelve a bit more into this code and adapt it with my code from this prototype. Text based menus just won't cut it for me, for now...however, I'm still going to stick with my animated menu item idea. A sneak peek using the Game State Management Sample...with no changes made... Cool Things to Mention: At work ... I tend to break out in random conversations every-so-often and I get talking about some of my challenges with this game (or some stupid observation about something... stupid) During one conversation I was discussing how I should animate my images; I explained that I knew I had to use the Update method provided, but I didn't know how (at the time) to render an image at an appropriate "pace" and how many frames to use, etc.. I also got thinking that if a machine rendered my images faster / slower, that was surely going to f-up my animations. To which a friend, Sheldon, answered, surely the Draw method is like a camera taking a snapshot of a scene in time. Then it clicked...I understood the big picture of the game engine... After some research I discovered that the Draw method attempts to keep a framerate of 60 fps. From what I understand, the game engine will even leave out a few calls to the draw method if it begins to slow down. This is why we want to put our sprite updates in the update method. Then using a game timer (provided by the engine), we want to render the scene based on real time passed, not framerate. So even the engine renders at 20 fps, the animations will still animate at the same real time speed! Which brings up another point. Why 60 fps? I'm speculating that Microsoft capped it because LCD's dont' refresh faster than 60 fps? On another note, If the game engine knows its falling behind in rendering...then surely we can harness this to speed up our games. Maybe I can find some flag which tell me if the game is lagging, and what the current framerate is, etc...(instead of coding it like I did last time) Sheldon, suggested maybe I can render like WoW does, in prioritised layers...I think he's onto something, however I don't think I'll have that many graphics to worry about such a problem of graphic latency. We'll see. People to Mention: Well,as you are aware I hadn't posted in a couple days and I was surprised to see a few emails and messenger queries about my game progress (and some concern as to why I stopped). I want to thank everyone for their kind words of support and put everyone at ease by stating that I do intend on completing this project. Granted I only have a few hours each night, but, I'll do it. Thank you to Garth for mailing in my next screen! That was a nice surprise! The Sneek Peek you've been waiting for... Garth has also volunteered to render me some wizard images. He was a bit shocked when I asked for them in 2D animated strips. He said I was going backward (and that I have really bad Game Development Lingo). But, I advised Garth that I will use 3D images later...for now...2D images. Garth also had some great game design ideas to add on. I advised him that I will save his ideas and include them in the future design document (for the 3d version?). Lastly, my best friend Alek, is going to join me in developing this game. This was a project we started eons ago but never completed because of our careers. Now, priorities change and we have some spare time on our hands. Let's see what trouble Alek and I can get into! Tonight I'll be uploading my prototypes and base game to a source control for both of us to work off of. D.

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VirtualBox : increase hard disk size of the virtual machine

- by wim

I have run out of space on my WinXP virtual machine, which I only gave 10 GB space for when I created it. Is there an easy way to increase it to, say, 20 GB? I can't see any obvious option in VirtualBox settings. edit: the suggestion below gives this error wim@wim-ubuntu:/media/data/winxp_vm$ VBoxManage modifyhd wim.vdi --resize 20000 VBoxManage: error: Cannot register the hard disk '/media/data/winxp_vm/wim.vdi' {46284957-2c09-4e70-8a49-bfbe0f7f681d} because a hard disk '/home/wim/VirtualBox VMs/winxp_vm/wim.vdi' with UUID {46284957-2c09-4e70-8a49-bfbe0f7f681d} already exists VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG (0x80070057), component VirtualBox, interface IVirtualBox, callee nsISupports Context: "OpenMedium(Bstr(pszFilenameOrUuid).raw(), enmDevType, AccessMode_ReadWrite, fForceNewUuidOnOpen, pMedium.asOutParam())" at line 210 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp edit2: removing the .vdi from VirtualBox before calling VBoxManage command, then adding it back in, was successful. But now I can't boot the virtual machine, I get this worrying screen: By the way, it says FATAL: Could not read from the boot medium! System halted. edit3: The vdi must be reattached to the VM after VBoxManage command. Further, the partition will need to be resized from WITHIN windows, because you will have this empty space: I was able to resize the partition easily using a bit of freeware called EASEUS Partition Master 9.1.0 Home Edition.

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