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Using the “Settings.settings” functionalities in VB.NET can be tricky…

- by Vincent Grondin

Sometime you’re searching for something forever and when you find it, you realize it was right under your nose. Maybe you were distracted by other things around… or maybe that thing right under your nose was so well hidden that it deserves a blog post… That happened to me a few days ago while using the “Settings.settings” functionalities in my VB.NET application… I thought it was a cool feature and I decided to use it… So there I am adding new settings with “USER” scope and StringCollection as the data type, testing my application and everything works perfectly fine... That was before I decided to modify the “Value” of one of my settings… After changing the value of one of my settings, I start my application again and, to my surprise, my new values aren’t showing! Hmmm… That’s odd… My setting was a pretty long list of strings so I was rather angry at myself for not saving my work after I was done… So I open up the Settings.setting in the designer and click the ellipsis symbol to enter my string collection again, but to my great pleasure (and disbelief) my strings are there!!! Alright, you rock VB.NET! You’ve just save me a bunch of typing time and I’m thinking it’s just a simple Visual Studio glitch… I hit “Save” then “Save All” (just in case) and finally I rebuild everything and fire up my app once again. Huh? Where are my darn strings???????? Ok there’s a bug there… I open up the app.config and my new strings are there!!! Alright, let’s recap… My new strings are in the app.config, they show correctly in the Settings.settings designer UI but they aren’t showing at runtime… Hmmmm? Let’s try something else… Let’s start the application but outside Visual Studio this time… I fire up the exe and BAM! My strings where there! I “alt-tab” and hit “F5” and BOOM, no strings! So it’s a bug in the Visual Studio environment… or could it be a FEATURE? I must admit that I’m a little confused over what’s a bug and what’s a feature in Visual Studio… lol! Finally I found out there’s a “cache” for your Visual Studio located here: C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\<your app name and a very weird temp ID>\<your app version>\user.config When using the “Settings.settings” with a setting of scope “user”, this file is out of sync with your app.config until you manually decide to update it… The button is right there… under your nose… at the top left corner of your screen in the settings designer… See the big “Synchronize” button there? Yep… Now that’s user friendly isn’t it? Oh, and wait until you see what it does when you click it… It prompts you and basically says: “Would you like your settings to start working inside Visual Studio now that you found out that I exist?” and of course the right answer is yes… or rather “OK”… Unfortunately, you have to do this every time you edit a value… On the other hand, adding and removing settings seem to work flawlessly without having to click this magical button… go figure! Oh and I almost forgot… this great “feature” is only available for VB.NET… A project in C# using Settings.settings will work perfectly EVEN when editing values… Here’s a screenshot that shows this important button: Button Using other data types appears to work perfectly well… Maybe it’s simply related to the StringCollection data type? If you are a VB.NET programmer, you should pay attention to this when you plan on using the settings functionalities and your scope is “user” and your data type is StringCollection… Happy coding all!

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China’s Better Life Selects Oracle® Retail to Support Hypermarket Growth

- by user801960

On Monday, China’s first multi-format retailer, Better Life Commercial Chain Share Co. announced that it has selected a broad selection of Oracle solutions including specific Oracle Retail applications to support the growth of its hypermarket operations. Better Life currently operates 186 hypermarkets, department stores, consumer electronics stores, as well as entertainment and real estate operations across Southern China. The company’s expansion strategy for its hypermarket business is integral to its overall plan for rapid growth in an increasingly competitive market and after evaluating Oracle and SAP, Better Life identified a range of Oracle solutions including components of Oracle Retail Merchandising Operations Management, Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization, and Oracle Retail In-Store Operations as key enablers to optimizing its operations. The Oracle Retail offering will help Better Life to create a consolidated view of product, price, inventory and associated back office information that facilitates improved fulfilment of customer demand. These solutions will also provide a better understanding of inventory from buying through store transactions, delivering actionable insight with which it can make smarter, more profitable decisions around planning, forecasting and replenishment. You can read the full blog post here: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/1680357

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Welcome, Oracle ACE Directors for MySQL

- by justin.kestelyn

It's my great pleasure to introduce our first two Oracle ACE Directors for MySQL, Sheeri Cabral and Ronald Bradford. Sheeri is a well-known MySQL evangelist working for Pythian Group (aka The Oracle ACE Factory); Ronald is a consulting enterprise system/data architect with loads of contributions to the MySQL community under his belt. We're happy to both of them join the ranks of Oracle ACEs, during this week of MySQL Conf!

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What’s wrong with See[Mike]Code? (no relation)

- by mbcrump

I have been hearing a lot about the website See[Mike]Code. Basically, the site creates an interview url and a job candidate url and lets you see the potential programmer’s code (specifically .NET developer). Below is the candidate’s URL Below is the interviewer url So you might think, ah, this is a good thing. We can screen candidates cheaper and more efficiently. In reality, this is only a good thing if you want your programmer to develop using notepad. I use the most efficient tools that exist to do my job. I would simply fire up VS2010 and type “for” and hit the tab key twice and get the following template. I have no problem keeping MSDN/Google in one of my monitors. I spend time learning VS macros and using Aurora XAML/Expression to produce my XAML for WPF. Sure, I can write a for loop without using the VS Macro, but the real question is, “Why should I?”. My point being, if you really want to test a .NET programmer knowledge then fire up his native working environment and let him use the features of the IDE to develop the simple 10-line program. For a more sophisticated program, then give him 20 minutes and allow access to msdn/google. If the programmer cannot find at the right path then give him the boot.

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To ORM or Not to ORM. That is the question…

- by Patrick Liekhus

UPDATE: Thanks for the feedback and comments. I have adjusted my table below with your recommendations. I had missed a point or two. I wanted to do a series on creating an entire project using the EDMX XAF code generation and the SpecFlow BDD Easy Test tools discussed in my earlier posts, but I thought it would be appropriate to start with a simple comparison and reasoning on why I choose to use these tools. Let’s start by defining the term ORM, or Object-Relational Mapping. According to Wikipedia it is defined as the following: Object-relational mapping (ORM, O/RM, and O/R mapping) in computer software is a programming technique for converting data between incompatible type systems in object-oriented programming languages. This creates, in effect, a "virtual object database" that can be used from within the programming language. Why should you care? Basically it allows you to map your business objects in code to their persistence layer behind them. And better yet, why would you want to do this? Let me outline it in the following points: Development speed. No more need to map repetitive tasks query results to object members. Once the map is created the code is rendered for you. Persistence portability. The ORM knows how to map SQL specific syntax for the persistence engine you choose. It does not matter if it is SQL Server, Oracle and another database of your choosing. Standard/Boilerplate code is simplified. The basic CRUD operations are consistent and case use database metadata for basic operations. So how does this help? Well, let’s compare some of the ORM tools that I have used and/or researched. I have been interested in ORM for some time now. My ORM of choice for a long time was NHibernate and I still believe it has a strong case in some business situations. However, you have to take business considerations into account and the law of diminishing returns. Because of these two factors, my recent activity and experience has been around DevExpress eXpress Persistence Objects (XPO). The primary reason for this is because they have the DevExpress eXpress Application Framework (XAF) that sits on top of XPO. With this added value, the data model can be created (either database first of code first) and the Web and Windows client can be created from these maps. While out of the box they provide some simple list and detail screens, you can verify easily extend and modify these to your liking. DevExpress has done a tremendous job of providing enough framework while also staying out of the way when you need to extend it. This sounds worse than it really is. What I mean by this is that if you choose to follow DevExpress coding style and recommendations, the hooks and extension points provided allow you to do some pretty heavy lifting while also not worrying about the basics. I have put together a list of the top features that I have used to compare the limited list of ORM’s that I have exposure with. Again, the biggest selling point in my opinion is that XPO is just a solid as any of the other ORM’s but with the added layer of XAF they become unstoppable. And then couple that with the EDMX modeling tools and code generation, it becomes a no brainer. Designer Features Entity Framework NHibernate Fluent w/ Nhibernate Telerik OpenAccess DevExpress XPO DevExpress XPO/XAF plus Liekhus Tools Uses XML to map relationships - Yes - - - Visual class designer interface Yes - - - - Yes Management integrated w/ Visual Studio Yes - - Yes - Yes Supports schema first approach Yes - - Yes - Yes Supports model first approach Yes - - Yes Yes Yes Supports code first approach Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Attribute driven coding style Yes - Yes - Yes Yes I have a very small team and limited resources with a lot of responsibilities. In order to keep up with our customers, we must rely on tools like these. We use the EDMX tool so that we can create a visual representation of the applications with our customers. Second, we rely on the code generation so that we can focus on the business problems at hand and not whether a field is mapped correctly. This keeps us from requiring as many junior level developers on our team. I have also worked on multiple teams where they believed in writing their own “framework”. In my experiences and opinion this is not the route to take unless you have a team dedicated to supporting just the framework. Each time that I have worked on custom frameworks, the framework eventually becomes old, out dated and full of “performance” enhancements specific to one or two requirements. With an ORM, there are a lot smarter people than me working on the bigger issue of persistence and performance. Again, my recommendation would be to use an available framework and get to working on your business domain problems. If your coding is not making money for you, why are you working on it? Do you really need to be writing query to object member code again and again? Thanks

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The Product Owner

- by Robert May

In a previous post, I outlined the rules of Scrum. This post details one of those rules. Picking a most important part of Scrum is difficult. All of the rules are required, but if there were one rule that is “more” required that every other rule, its having a good Product Owner. Simply put, the Product Owner can make or break the project. Duties of the Product Owner A Product Owner has many duties and responsibilities. I’ll talk about each of these duties in detail below. A Product Owner: Discovers and records stories for the backlog. Prioritizes stories in the Product Backlog, Release Backlog and Iteration Backlog. Determines Release dates and Iteration Dates. Develops story details and helps the team understand those details. Helps QA to develop acceptance tests. Interact with the Customer to make sure that the product is meeting the customer’s needs. Discovers and Records Stories for the Backlog When I do Scrum, I always use User Stories as the means for capturing functionality that’s required in the system. Some people will use Use Cases, but the same rule applies. The Product Owner has the ultimate responsibility for figuring out what functionality will be in the system. Many different mechanisms for capturing this input can be used. User interviews are great, but all sources should be considered, including talking with Customer Support types. Often, they hear what users are struggling with the most and are a great source for stories that can make the application easier to use. Care should be taken when soliciting user stories from technical types such as programmers and the people that manage them. They will almost always give stories that are very technical in nature and may not have a direct benefit for the end user. Stories are about adding value to the company. If the stories don’t have direct benefit to the end user, the Product Owner should question whether or not the story should be implemented. In general, technical stories should be included as tasks in User Stories. Technical stories are often needed, but the ultimate value to the user is in user based functionality, so technical stories should be considered nothing more than overhead in providing that user functionality. Until the iteration prior to development, stories should be nothing more than short, one line placeholders. An exercise called Story Planning can be used to brainstorm and come up with stories. I’ll save the description of this activity for another blog post. For more information on User Stories, please read the book User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn. Prioritizes Stories in the Product Backlog, Release Backlog and Iteration Backlog Prioritization of stories is one of the most difficult tasks that a Product Owner must do. A key concept of Scrum done right is the need to have the team working from a single set of prioritized stories. If the team does not have a single set of prioritized stories, Scrum will likely fail at your organization. The Product Owner is the ONLY person who has the responsibility to prioritize that list. The Product Owner must be very diplomatic and sincerely listen to the people around him so that he can get the priorities correct. Just listening will still not yield the proper priorities. Care must also be taken to ensure that Return on Investment is also considered. Ultimately, determining which stories give the most value to the company for the least cost is the most important factor in determining priorities. Product Owners should be willing to look at cold, hard numbers to determine the order for stories. Even when many people want a feature, if that features is costly to develop, it may not have as high of a return on investment as features that are cheaper, but not as popular. The act of prioritization often causes conflict in an environment. Customer Service thinks that feature X is the most important, because it will stop people from calling. Operations thinks that feature Y is the most important, because it will stop servers from crashing. Developers think that feature Z is most important because it will make writing software much easier for them. All of these are useful goals, but the team can have only one list of items, and each item must have a priority that is different from all other stories. The Product Owner will determine which feature gives the best return on investment and the other features will have to wait their turn, which means that someone will not have their top priority feature implemented first. A weak Product Owner will refuse to do prioritization. I’ve heard from multiple Product Owners the following phrase, “Well, it’s all got to be done, so what does it matter what order we do it in?” If your product owner is using this phrase, you need a new Product Owner. Order is VERY important. In Scrum, every release is potentially shippable. If the wrong priority items are developed, then the value added in each release isn’t what it should be. Additionally, the Product Owner with this mindset doesn’t understand Agile. A product is NEVER finished, until the company has decided that it is no longer a going concern and they are no longer going to sell the product. Therefore, prioritization isn’t an event, its something that continues every day. The logical extension of the phrase “It’s all got to be done” is that you will never ship your product, since a product is never “done.” Once stories have been prioritized, assigning them to the Release Backlog and the Iteration Backlog becomes relatively simple. The top priority items are copied into the respective backlogs in order and the task is complete. The team does have the right to shuffle things around a little in the iteration backlog. For example, they may determine that working on story C with story A is appropriate because they’re related, even though story B is technically a higher priority than story C. Or they may decide that story B is too big to complete in the time available after Story A has tasks created, so they’ll work on Story C since it’s smaller. They can’t, however, go deep into the backlog to pick stories to implement. The team and the Product Owner should work together to determine what’s best for the company. Prioritization is time consuming, but its one of the most important things a Product Owner does. Determines Release Dates and Iteration Dates Product owners are responsible for determining release dates for a product. A common misconception that Product Owners have is that every “release” needs to correspond with an actual release to customers. This is not the case. In general, releases should be no more than 3 months long. You may decide to release the product to the customers, and many companies do release the product to customers, but it may also be an internal release. If a release date is too far away, developers will fall into the trap of not feeling a sense of urgency. The date is far enough away that they don’t need to give the release their full attention. Additionally, important tasks, such as performance tuning, regression testing, user documentation, and release preparation, will not happen regularly, making them much more difficult and time consuming to do. The more frequently you do these tasks, the easier they are to accomplish. The Product Owner will be a key participant in determining whether or not a release should be sent out to the customers. The determination should be made on whether or not the features contained in the release are valuable enough and complete enough that the customers will see real value in the release. Often, some features will take more than three months to get them to a state where they qualify for a release or need additional supporting features to be released. The product owner has the right to make this determination. In addition to release dates, the Product Owner also will help determine iteration dates. In general, an iteration length should be chosen and the team should follow that iteration length for an extended period of time. If the iteration length is changed every iteration, you’re not doing Scrum. Iteration lengths help the team and company get into a rhythm of developing quality software. Iterations should be somewhere between 2 and 4 weeks in length. Any shorter, and significant software will likely not be developed. Any longer, and the team won’t feel urgency and planning will become very difficult. Iterations may not be extended during the iteration. Companies where Scrum isn’t really followed will often use this as a strategy to complete all stories. They don’t want to face the harsh reality of what their true performance is, and looking good is more important than seeking visibility and improving the process and team. Companies like this typically don’t allow failure. This is unhealthy. Failure is part of life and unless we learn from it, we can’t improve. I would much rather see a team push out stories to the next iteration and then have healthy discussions about why they failed rather than extend the iteration and not deal with the core problems. If iteration length varies, retrospectives become more difficult. For example, evaluating the performance of the team’s estimation efforts becomes much more difficult if the iteration length varies. Also, the team must have a velocity measurement. If the iteration length varies, measuring velocity becomes impossible and upper management no longer will have the ability to evaluate the teams performance. People external to the team will no longer have the ability to determine when key features are likely to be developed. Variable iterations cause the entire company to fail and likely cause Scrum to fail at an organization. Develops Story Details and Helps the Team Understand Those Details A key concept in Scrum is that the stories are nothing more than a placeholder for a conversation. Stories should be nothing more than short, one line statements about the functionality. The team will then converse with the Product Owner about the details about that story. The product owner needs to have a very good idea about what the details of the story are and needs to be able to help the team understand those details. Too often, we see this requirement as being translated into the need for comprehensive documentation about the story, including old fashioned requirements documentation. The team should only develop the documentation that is required and should not develop documentation that is only created because their is a process to do so. In general, what we see that works best is the iteration before a team starts development work on a story, the Product Owner, with other appropriate business analysts, will develop the details of that story. They’ll figure out what business rules are required, potentially make paper prototypes or other light weight mock-ups, and they seek to understand the story and what is implied. Note that the time allowed for this task is deliberately short. The Product Owner only has a single iteration to develop all of the stories for the next iteration. If more than one iteration is used, I’ve found that teams will end up with Big Design Up Front and traditional requirements documents. This is a waste of time, since the team will need to then have discussions with the Product Owner to figure out what the requirements document says. Instead of this, skip making the pretty pictures and detailing the nuances of the requirements and build only what is minimally needed by the team to do development. If something comes up during development, you can address it at that time and figure out what you want to do. The goal is to keep things as light weight as possible so that everyone can move as quickly as possible. Helps QA to Develop Acceptance Tests In Scrum, no story can be counted until it is accepted by QA. Because of this, acceptance tests are very important to the team. In general, acceptance tests need to be developed prior to the iteration or at the very beginning of the iteration so that the team can make sure that the tasks that they develop will fulfill the acceptance criteria. The Product Owner will help the team, including QA, understand what will make the story acceptable. Note that the Product Owner needs to be careful about specifying that the feature will work “Perfectly” at the end of the iteration. In general, features are developed a little bit at a time, so only the bit that is being developed should be considered as necessary for acceptance. A weak Product Owner will make statements like “Do it right the first time.” Not only are these statements damaging to the team (like they would try to do it WRONG the first time . . .), they’re also ignoring the iterative nature of Scrum. Additionally, a weak product owner will seek to add scope in the acceptance testing. For example, they will refuse to determine acceptance at the beginning of the iteration, and then, after the team has planned and committed to the iteration, they will expand scope by defining acceptance. This often causes the team to miss the iteration because scope that wasn’t planned on is included. There are ways that the team can mitigate this problem. For example, include extra “Product Owner” time to deal with the uncertainty that you know will be introduced by the Product Owner. This will slow the perceived velocity of the team and is not ideal, since they’ll be doing more work than they get credit for. Interact with the Customer to Make Sure that the Product is Meeting the Customer’s Needs Once development is complete, what the team has worked on should be put in front of real live people to see if it meets the needs of the customer. One of the great things about Agile is that if something doesn’t work, we can revisit it in a future iteration! This frees up the team to make the best decision now and know that if that decision proves to be incorrect, the team can revisit it and change that decision. Features are about adding value to the customer, so if the customer doesn’t find them useful, then having the team make tweaks is valuable. In general, most software will be 80 to 90 percent “right” after the initial round and only minor tweaks are required. If proper coding standards are followed, these tweaks are usually minor and easy to accomplish. Product Owners that are doing a good job will encourage real users to see and use the software, since they know that they are trying to add value to the customer. Poor product owners will think that they know the answers already, that their customers are silly and do stupid things and that they don’t need customer input. If you have a product owner that is afraid to show the team’s work to real customers, you probably need a different product owner. Up Next, “Who Makes a Good Product Owner.” Followed by, “Messing with the Team.” Technorati Tags: Scrum,Product Owner

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Transparency and AlphaBlending

- by TechTwaddle

In this post we'll look at the AlphaBlend() api and how it can be used for semi-transparent blitting. AlphaBlend() takes a source device context and a destination device context (DC) and combines the bits in such a way that it gives a transparent effect. Follow the links for the msdn documentation. So lets take a image like, and AlphaBlend() it on our window. The code to do so is below, (under the WM_PAINT message of WndProc) HBITMAP hBitmap=NULL, hBitmapOld=NULL; HDC hMemDC=NULL; BLENDFUNCTION bf; hdc = BeginPaint(hWnd, &ps); hMemDC = CreateCompatibleDC(hdc); hBitmap = LoadBitmap(g_hInst, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDB_BITMAP1)); hBitmapOld = SelectObject(hMemDC, hBitmap); bf.BlendOp = AC_SRC_OVER; bf.BlendFlags = 0; bf.SourceConstantAlpha = 80; //transparency value between 0-255 bf.AlphaFormat = 0; AlphaBlend(hdc, 0, 25, 240, 100, hMemDC, 0, 0, 240, 100, bf); SelectObject(hMemDC, hBitmapOld); DeleteDC(hMemDC); DeleteObject(hBitmap); EndPaint(hWnd, &ps); The code above creates a memory DC (hMemDC) using CreateCompatibleDC(), loads a bitmap onto the memory DC and AlphaBlends it on the device DC (hdc), with a transparency value of 80. The result is: Pretty simple till now. Now lets try to do something a little more exciting. Lets get two images involved, each overlapping the other, giving a better demonstration of transparency. I am also going to add a few buttons so that the user can increase or decrease the transparency by clicking on the buttons. Since this is the first time I played around with GDI apis, I ran into something that everybody runs into sometime or the other, flickering. When clicking the buttons the images would flicker a lot, I figured out why and used something called double buffering to avoid flickering. We will look at both my first implementation and the second implementation just to give the concept a little more depth and perspective. A few pre-conditions before I dive into the code: - hBitmap and hBitmap2 are handles to the two images obtained using LoadBitmap(), these variables are global and are initialized under WM_CREATE - The two buttons in the application are labeled Opaque++ (make more opaque, less transparent) and Opaque-- (make less opaque, more transparent) - DrawPics(HWND hWnd, int step=0); is the function called to draw the images on the screen. This is called from under WM_PAINT and also when the buttons are clicked. When Opaque++ is clicked the 'step' value passed to DrawPics() is +20 and when Opaque-- is clicked the 'step' value is -20. The default value of 'step' is 0 Now lets take a look at my first implementation: //this funciton causes flicker, cos it draws directly to screen several times void DrawPics(HWND hWnd, int step) { HDC hdc=NULL, hMemDC=NULL; BLENDFUNCTION bf; static UINT32 transparency = 100; //no point in drawing when transparency is 0 and user clicks Opaque-- if (transparency == 0 && step < 0) return; //no point in drawing when transparency is 240 (opaque) and user clicks Opaque++ if (transparency == 240 && step > 0) return; hdc = GetDC(hWnd); if (!hdc) return; //create a memory DC hMemDC = CreateCompatibleDC(hdc); if (!hMemDC) { ReleaseDC(hWnd, hdc); return; } //while increasing transparency, clear the contents of screen if (step < 0) { RECT rect = {0, 0, 240, 200}; FillRect(hdc, &rect, (HBRUSH)GetStockObject(WHITE_BRUSH)); } SelectObject(hMemDC, hBitmap2); BitBlt(hdc, 0, 25, 240, 100, hMemDC, 0, 0, SRCCOPY); SelectObject(hMemDC, hBitmap); transparency += step; if (transparency >= 240) transparency = 240; if (transparency <= 0) transparency = 0; bf.BlendOp = AC_SRC_OVER; bf.BlendFlags = 0; bf.SourceConstantAlpha = transparency; bf.AlphaFormat = 0; AlphaBlend(hdc, 0, 75, 240, 100, hMemDC, 0, 0, 240, 100, bf); DeleteDC(hMemDC); ReleaseDC(hWnd, hdc); } In the code above, we first get the window DC using GetDC() and create a memory DC using CreateCompatibleDC(). Then we select hBitmap2 onto the memory DC and Blt it on the window DC (hdc). Next, we select the other image, hBitmap, onto memory DC and AlphaBlend() it over window DC. As I told you before, this implementation causes flickering because it draws directly on the screen (hdc) several times. The video below shows what happens when the buttons were clicked rapidly: Well, the video recording tool I use captures only 15 frames per second and so the flickering is not visible in the video. So you're gonna have to trust me on this, it flickers (; To solve this problem we make sure that the drawing to the screen happens only once and to do that we create an additional memory DC, hTempDC. We perform all our drawing on this memory DC and finally when it is ready we Blt hTempDC on hdc, and the images are displayed in one go. Here is the code for our new DrawPics() function: //no flicker void DrawPics(HWND hWnd, int step) { HDC hdc=NULL, hMemDC=NULL, hTempDC=NULL; BLENDFUNCTION bf; HBITMAP hBitmapTemp=NULL, hBitmapOld=NULL; static UINT32 transparency = 100; //no point in drawing when transparency is 0 and user clicks Opaque-- if (transparency == 0 && step < 0) return; //no point in drawing when transparency is 240 (opaque) and user clicks Opaque++ if (transparency == 240 && step > 0) return; hdc = GetDC(hWnd); if (!hdc) return; hMemDC = CreateCompatibleDC(hdc); hTempDC = CreateCompatibleDC(hdc); hBitmapTemp = CreateCompatibleBitmap(hdc, 240, 150); hBitmapOld = (HBITMAP)SelectObject(hTempDC, hBitmapTemp); if (!hMemDC) { ReleaseDC(hWnd, hdc); return; } //while increasing transparency, clear the contents if (step < 0) { RECT rect = {0, 0, 240, 150}; FillRect(hTempDC, &rect, (HBRUSH)GetStockObject(WHITE_BRUSH)); } SelectObject(hMemDC, hBitmap2); //Blt hBitmap2 directly to hTempDC BitBlt(hTempDC, 0, 0, 240, 100, hMemDC, 0, 0, SRCCOPY); SelectObject(hMemDC, hBitmap); transparency += step; if (transparency >= 240) transparency = 240; if (transparency <= 0) transparency = 0; bf.BlendOp = AC_SRC_OVER; bf.BlendFlags = 0; bf.SourceConstantAlpha = transparency; bf.AlphaFormat = 0; AlphaBlend(hTempDC, 0, 50, 240, 100, hMemDC, 0, 0, 240, 100, bf); //now hTempDC is ready, blt it directly on hdc BitBlt(hdc, 0, 25, 240, 150, hTempDC, 0, 0, SRCCOPY); SelectObject(hTempDC, hBitmapOld); DeleteObject(hBitmapTemp); DeleteDC(hMemDC); DeleteDC(hTempDC); ReleaseDC(hWnd, hdc); } This function is very similar to the first version, except for the use of hTempDC. Another point to note is the use of CreateCompatibleBitmap(). When a memory device context is created using CreateCompatibleDC(), the context is exactly one monochrome pixel high and one monochrome pixel wide. So in order for us to draw anything onto hTempDC, we first have to set a bitmap on it. We use CreateCompatibleBitmap() to create a bitmap of required dimension (240x150 above), and then select this bitmap onto hTempDC. Think of it as utilizing an extra canvas, drawing everything on the canvas and finally transferring the contents to the display in one scoop. And with this version the flickering is gone, video follows: If you want the entire solutions source code then leave a message, I will share the code over SkyDrive.

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.NET Framework 4.0 mysteriously loses track of System.EnterpriseServices

- by Lorin Thwaits

The GAC in .NET 4.0 is cut into two parts now -- one half for .NET Framework 2.0 stuff, and the other for v4.0 stuff. When compiling any project, targeting .NET 2.0, 3.5, or what have you, this annoying error may pop up: Could not load file or assembly 'System.EnterpriseServices, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. In that case, open a run box and perform this copy command: xcopy %ProgramFiles%\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.EnterpriseServices.dll %windir%\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_32\System.EnterpriseServices\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a /e This reconstructs the proper portion of the GAC for that one missing file.

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To 'seal' or to 'wrap': that is the question ...

- by Simon Thorpe

If you follow this blog you will already have a good idea of what Oracle Information Rights Management (IRM) does. By encrypting documents Oracle IRM secures and tracks all copies of those documents, everywhere they are shared, stored and used, inside and outside your firewall. Unlike earlier encryption products authorized end users can transparently use IRM-encrypted documents within standard desktop applications such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer, etc. without first having to manually decrypt the documents. Oracle refers to this encryption process as 'sealing', and it is thanks to the freely available Oracle IRM Desktop that end users can transparently open 'sealed' documents within desktop applications without needing to know they are encrypted and without being able to save them out in unencrypted form. So Oracle IRM provides an amazing, unprecedented capability to secure and track every copy of your most sensitive information - even enabling end user access to be revoked long after the documents have been copied to home computers or burnt to CD/DVDs. But what doesn't it do? The main limitation of Oracle IRM (and IRM products in general) is format and platform support. Oracle IRM supports by far the broadest range of desktop applications and the deepest range of application versions, compared to other IRM vendors. This is important because you don't want to exclude sensitive business processes from being 'sealed' just because either the file format is not supported or users cannot upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Office or Adobe Reader. But even the Oracle IRM Desktop can only open 'sealed' documents on Windows and does not for example currently support CAD (although this is coming in a future release). IRM products from other vendors are much more restrictive. To address this limitation Oracle has just made available the Oracle IRM Wrapper all-format, any-platform encryption/decryption utility. It uses the same core Oracle IRM web services and classification-based rights model to manually encrypt and decrypt files of any format on any Java-capable operating system. The encryption envelope is the same, and it uses the same role- and classification-based rights as 'sealing', but before you can use 'wrapped' files you must manually decrypt them. Essentially it is old-school manual encryption/decryption using the modern classification-based rights model of Oracle IRM. So if you want to share sensitive CAD documents, ZIP archives, media files, etc. with a partner, and you already have Oracle IRM, it's time to get 'wrapping'! Please note that the Oracle IRM Wrapper is made available as a free sample application (with full source code) and is not formally supported by Oracle. However it is informally supported by its author, Martin Lambert, who also created the widely-used Oracle IRM Hot Folder automated sealing application.

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JD Edwards World Reporting Made Easy with Real Time Reporting Tools from The GL Company

Fred talks to Paul Yarwood, US Operations General Manager and Richard Crotty, North America Business Development Manager for The GL Company, an Oracle Certified Partner, and Denise Grills, Senior Director of Marketing and Product Strategy for Oracle's JD Edwards World products. They discuss how the finance department of JD Edwards World customers can have complete control over their management reporting with a true inquiry, consolidation, and reporting solution from The GL Company, freeing up the finance team from being dependent upon IT time and resources.

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How Oracle Data Integration Customers Differentiate Their Business in Competitive Markets

- by Irem Radzik

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 With data being a central force in driving innovation and competing effectively, data integration has become a key IT approach to remove silos and ensure working with consistent and trusted data. Especially with the release of 12c version, Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle GoldenGate offer easy-to-use and high-performance solutions that help companies with their critical data initiatives, including big data analytics, moving to cloud architectures, modernizing and connecting transactional systems and more. In a recent press release we announced the great momentum and analyst recognition Oracle Data Integration products have achieved in the data integration and replication market. In this press release we described some of the key new features of Oracle Data Integrator 12c and Oracle GoldenGate 12c. In addition, a few from our 4500+ customers explained how Oracle’s data integration platform helped them achieve their business goals. In this blog post I would like to go over what these customers shared about their experience. Land O’Lakes is one of America’s premier member-owned cooperatives, and offers an extensive line of agricultural supplies, as well as production and business services. Rich Bellefeuille, manager, ETL & data warehouse for Land O’Lakes told us how GoldenGate helped them modernize their critical ERP system without impacting service and how they are moving to new projects with Oracle Data Integrator 12c: “With Oracle GoldenGate 11g, we've been able to migrate our enterprise-wide implementation of Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, ERP system, to a new database and application server platform with minimal downtime to our business. Using Oracle GoldenGate 11g we reduced database migration time from nearly 30 hours to less than 30 minutes. Given our quick success, we are considering expansion of our Oracle GoldenGate 12c footprint. We are also in the midst of deploying a solution leveraging Oracle Data Integrator 12c to manage our pricing data to handle orders more effectively and provide a better relationship with our clients. We feel we are gaining higher productivity and flexibility with Oracle's data integration products." ICON, a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, highlighted the competitive advantage that a solid data integration foundation brings. Diarmaid O’Reilly, enterprise data warehouse manager, ICON plc said “Oracle Data Integrator enables us to align clinical trials intelligence with the information needs of our sponsors. It helps differentiate ICON’s services in an increasingly competitive drug-development industry." You can find more info on ICON's implementation here. A popular use case for Oracle GoldenGate’s real-time data integration is offloading operational reporting from critical transaction processing systems. SolarWorld, one of the world’s largest solar-technology producers and the largest U.S. solar panel manufacturer, implemented Oracle GoldenGate for real-time data integration of manufacturing data for fast analysis. Russ Toyama, U.S. senior database administrator for SolarWorld told us real-time data helps their operations and GoldenGate’s solution supports high performance of their manufacturing systems: “We use Oracle GoldenGate for real-time data integration into our decision support system, which performs real-time analysis for manufacturing operations to continuously improve product quality, yield and efficiency. With reliable and low-impact data movement capabilities, Oracle GoldenGate also helps ensure that our critical manufacturing systems are stable and operate with high performance." You can watch the full interview with SolarWorld's Russ Toyama here. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size: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;} Starwood Hotels and Resorts is one of the many customers that found out how well Oracle Data Integration products work with Oracle Exadata. Gordon Light, senior director of information technology for StarWood Hotels, says they had notable performance gain in loading Oracle Exadata reporting environment: “We leverage Oracle GoldenGate to replicate data from our central reservations systems and other OLTP databases – significantly decreasing the overall ETL duration. Moving forward, we plan to use Oracle GoldenGate to help the company achieve near-real-time reporting.”You can listen about Starwood Hotels' implementation here. Many companies combine the power of Oracle GoldenGate with Oracle Data Integrator to have a single, integrated data integration platform for variety of use cases across the enterprise. Ufone is another good example of that. The leading mobile communications service provider of Pakistan has improved customer service using timely customer data in its data warehouse. Atif Aslam, head of management information systems for Ufone says: “Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle GoldenGate help us integrate information from various systems and provide up-to-date and real-time CRM data updates hourly, rather than daily. The applications have simplified data warehouse operations and allowed business users to make faster and better informed decisions to protect revenue in the fast-moving Pakistani telecommunications market.” You can read more about Ufone's use case here. In our Oracle Data Integration 12c launch webcast back in November we also heard from BT’s CTO Surren Parthab about their use of GoldenGate for moving to private cloud architecture. Surren also shared his perspectives on Oracle Data Integrator 12c and Oracle GoldenGate 12c releases. You can watch the video here. These are only a few examples of leading companies that have made data integration and real-time data access a key part of their data governance and IT modernization initiatives. They have seen real improvements in how their businesses operate and differentiate in today’s competitive markets. You can read about other customer examples in our Ebook: The Path to the Future and access resources including white papers, data sheets, podcasts and more via our Oracle Data Integration resource kit. /* 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;}

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FAQ: GridView Calculation with JavaScript

- by Vincent Maverick Durano

In my previous post I wrote a simple demo on how to Calculate Totals in GridView and Display it in the Footer. Basically what it does is it calculates the total amount by typing into the TextBox and display the grand total in the footer of the GridView and basically it was a server side implemenation. Many users in the forums are asking how to do the same thing without postbacks and how to calculate both amount and total amount together. In this post I will demonstrate how to do this using JavaScript. To get started let's go ahead and set up the form. Just for the simplicity of this demo I just set up the form like this: <asp:gridview ID="GridView1" runat="server" ShowFooter="true" AutoGenerateColumns="false"> <Columns> <asp:BoundField DataField="RowNumber" HeaderText="Row Number" /> <asp:BoundField DataField="Description" HeaderText="Item Description" /> <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Item Price"> <ItemTemplate> <asp:Label ID="LBLPrice" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("Price") %>'></asp:Label> </ItemTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Quantity"> <ItemTemplate> <asp:TextBox ID="TXTQty" runat="server"></asp:TextBox> </ItemTemplate> <FooterTemplate> <b>Total Amount:</b> </FooterTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Sub-Total"> <ItemTemplate> <asp:Label ID="LBLSubTotal" runat="server"></asp:Label> </ItemTemplate> <FooterTemplate> <asp:Label ID="LBLTotal" runat="server" ForeColor="Green"></asp:Label> </FooterTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> </Columns> </asp:gridview> As you can see there's no fancy about the mark up above. It just a standard GridView with BoundFields and TemplateFields on it. Now just for the purpose of this demo I just use a dummy data for populating the GridView. Here's the code below: public partial class GridCalculation : System.Web.UI.Page { private void BindDummyDataToGrid() { DataTable dt = new DataTable(); DataRow dr = null; dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("RowNumber", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Description", typeof(string))); dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Price", typeof(string))); dr = dt.NewRow(); dr["RowNumber"] = 1; dr["Description"] = "Nike"; dr["Price"] = "1000"; dt.Rows.Add(dr); dr = dt.NewRow(); dr["RowNumber"] = 2; dr["Description"] = "Converse"; dr["Price"] = "800"; dt.Rows.Add(dr); dr = dt.NewRow(); dr["RowNumber"] = 3; dr["Description"] = "Adidas"; dr["Price"] = "500"; dt.Rows.Add(dr); dr = dt.NewRow(); dr["RowNumber"] = 4; dr["Description"] = "Reebok"; dr["Price"] = "750"; dt.Rows.Add(dr); dr = dt.NewRow(); dr["RowNumber"] = 5; dr["Description"] = "Vans"; dr["Price"] = "1100"; dt.Rows.Add(dr); dr = dt.NewRow(); dr["RowNumber"] = 6; dr["Description"] = "Fila"; dr["Price"] = "200"; dt.Rows.Add(dr); //Bind the Gridview GridView1.DataSource = dt; GridView1.DataBind(); } protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (!IsPostBack) { BindDummyDataToGrid(); } } } Now try to run the page. The output should look something like below: The Client-Side Calculation Here's the code for the GridView calculation: <script type="text/javascript"> function CalculateTotals() { var gv = document.getElementById("<%= GridView1.ClientID %>"); var tb = gv.getElementsByTagName("input"); var lb = gv.getElementsByTagName("span"); var sub = 0; var total = 0; var indexQ = 1; var indexP = 0; for (var i = 0; i < tb.length; i++) { if (tb[i].type == "text") { sub = parseFloat(lb[indexP].innerHTML) * parseFloat(tb[i].value); if (isNaN(sub)) { lb[i + indexQ].innerHTML = ""; sub = 0; } else { lb[i + indexQ].innerHTML = sub; } indexQ++; indexP = indexP + 2; total += parseFloat(sub); } } lb[lb.length -1].innerHTML = total; } </script> The code above calculates the sub-total by multiplying the price and the quantity and at the same time calculates the total amount by adding the sub-total values. Now you can simply call the JavaScript function above like this: <ItemTemplate> <asp:TextBox ID="TXTQty" runat="server" onkeyup="CalculateTotals();"></asp:TextBox> </ItemTemplate> Running the code above will display something like below: That's it! I hope someone find this post useful! Technorati Tags: ASP.NET,JavaScript,GridView,TipsTricks

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B2B and B2C Commerce are alike… but a little different – Oracle Commerce named Leader in Forrester B2B Commerce Wave

- by Katrina Gosek

We weren’t surprised to see Oracle Commerce positioned as a Leader in Forrester’s first Commerce Wave focused on B2B, released earlier this month. The reports validates much of what we’ve heard from our largest customers – the world’s largest distribution, manufacturing and high-tech customers who sell billions of dollars of goods and services to other businesses through their Web channels. More importantly, the report confirms something very important: B2B and B2C Commerce are alike… but a little different. B2B and B2C Commerce are alike… Clearly, B2C experiences have set expectations for B2B. Every B2B buyer is a consumer at home and brings the same expectations to a website selling electronic components, aftermarket parts, or MRO products. Forrester calls these rich consumer-based capabilities that help B2B customers do their jobs “table stakes”: search & navigation, promotions, cross-channel commerce and mobile: “Whether they are just beginning to sell online or are in the late stages of launching a next-generation site, B2B eCommerce operations today must: offer a customer experience standard comparable to what leading b2c sites now offer; address the growing influence that mobile devices are having in the workplace; make a qualitative and quantitative business case that drives sustained investment.” Just five years ago, many of our B2B customers’ online business comprised only 5-10% of their total revenue. Today, when we speak to those same brands, we hear about double and triple digit growth in their online channels. Many have seen the percentage of the business they perform in their web channels cross the 30-50% threshold. You can hear first-hand from several Oracle Commerce B2B customers about the success they are seeing, and what they’re trying to accomplish (Carolina Biological, Premier Farnell, DeliXL, Elsevier). This momentum is likely the reason Forrester broke out the separate B2B Commerce Wave from the B2C Wave. In fact, B2B is becoming the larger force in commerce, expected to collect twice the online dollars of B2C this year ($559 billion). But a little different… Despite the similarities, there is a key and very important difference between B2C and B2B. Unlike a consumer shopping for shoes, a business shopper buying from a distributor or manufacturer is coming to the Web channel as a part of their job. So in addition to a rich, consumer-like experience this shopper expects, these B2B buyers need quoting tools and complex pricing capabilities, like eProcurement, bulk order entry, and other self-service tools such as account, contract and organization management. Forrester also is emphasizing three additional “back-end” tools and capabilities their clients say they need to drive growth in their B2B online channels: i) product information management (PIM), which provides a single system of record for large part lists and product catalogs; ii) web content management (WCM), needed to manage large volumes of unstructured marketing information, and iii) order management systems (OMS), which manage and orchestrate the complex B2B order life cycle from quote through approval, submission to manufacturing, distribution and delivery. We would like to expand on each of these 3 areas: As Forrester highlights, back-end PIM is definitely needed by B2B Commerce providers. Most B2B companies have made significant investments in enterprise-grade PIMs, given the importance of product data management for aggregation and syndication of content, product attribution, analytics, and handling of complex workflows. While in principle it may sound appealing to have a PIM as part of a commerce offering (especially for SMBs who have to do more with less), our customers have typically found that PIM in a commerce platform is largely redundant with what they already have in-place, and is not fully-featured or robust enough to handle the complexity of the product data sets that B2B distributors and manufacturers usually handle. To meet the PIM needs for commerce, Oracle offers enterprise PIM (Product Hub/Fusion PIM) and a robust enterprise data quality product (EDQP) integrated with the Oracle Commerce solution. These are key differentiators of our offering and these capabilities are becoming even more tightly integrated with Oracle Commerce over time. For Commerce, what customers really need is a robust product catalog and content management system for enabling business users to further enrich and ready catalog and content data to be presented and sold online. This has been a significant area of investment in the Oracle Commerce platform , which continue to get stronger. We see this combination of capabilities as best meeting the needs of our customers for a commerce platform without adding a largely redundant, less functional PIM in the commerce front-end. On the topic of web content management, we were pleased to see Forrester recognize Oracle’s unique functional capabilities in this area and the “unique opportunity in the market to lead the convergence of commerce and content management with the amalgamation of Oracle Commerce with WebCenter Sites (formally FatWire).” Strong content management capabilities are critical for distributors and manufacturers who are frequently serving an engineering audience coming to their websites to conduct product research in search of technical data sheets, drawings, videos and more. The convergence of content, commerce, and experience is critical for B2B brands selling online. Regarding order management, Forrester notes that many businesses use their existing back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to manage order life cycles. We hear the same from most of our B2B customers, as they already have an ERP system—if not several of them—and are not interested in yet another one. So what do we take away from the Wave results? Forrester notes that the Oracle Commerce Platform “has always had strong B2B commerce capabilities and Oracle has an exhaustive list of B2B customers using the solution.” What makes us excited about developing leading B2B solutions are the close relationships with our customers and the clear opportunity in the market – which we’ll address in an exciting new release in the coming months. Oracle has one of the world’s largest B2B customer bases, providing leading solutions across key business-to-business functions – from marketing, sales automation, and service to master data management, and ERP. To learn more about Oracle’s Commerce product vision and strategy, visit our website and check out these other B2B Commerce Resources: - 2013 B2B Commerce Trends Report - B2B Commerce Whitepaper: Consumerization, Complexity, Change - B2B Commerce Webcast: What Industry Trend Setters Do Right - Internet Retailer, Web Drives Sales for B2B Companies - Internet Retailer, The Web Means Business: B2B Companies Beef Up Their Websites, borrowing from b2c retailers and breaking new ground - Internet Retailer, B2B e-Commerce is poised for growth ----------THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE INCORPORATED INTO A CONTRACT OR AGREEMENT

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Global User Experience Research: Mobile

- by ultan o'broin

A shout out to the usableapps.oracle.com blog article Going Native to Understand Mobile Workers. Oracle is a global company and with all that revenue coming from outside the US, international usability research is essential. So read up about how the Applications User Experience team went about this important user-centered ethnographic research. Personalization is king in the mobile space. Going native is a great way to uncover exactly what users want as they work and use their mobile devices, but you need to do it worldwide!

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ASP.NET MVC 3 Hosting :: How to Deploy Web Apps Using ASP.NET MVC 3, Razor and EF Code First - Part I

- by mbridge

First, you can download the source code from http://efmvc.codeplex.com. The following frameworks will be used for this step by step tutorial. public class Category { public int CategoryId { get; set; } [Required(ErrorMessage = "Name Required")] [StringLength(25, ErrorMessage = "Must be less than 25 characters")] public string Name { get; set;} public string Description { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<Expense> Expenses { get; set; } } Expense Class public class Expense { public int ExpenseId { get; set; } public string Transaction { get; set; } public DateTime Date { get; set; } public double Amount { get; set; } public int CategoryId { get; set; } public virtual Category Category { get; set; } } Define Domain Model Let’s create domain model for our simple web application Category Class We have two domain entities - Category and Expense. A single category contains a list of expense transactions and every expense transaction should have a Category. In this post, we will be focusing on CRUD operations for the entity Category and will be working on the Expense entity with a View Model object in the later post. And the source code for this application will be refactored over time. The above entities are very simple POCO (Plain Old CLR Object) classes and the entity Category is decorated with validation attributes in the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace. Now we want to use these entities for defining model objects for the Entity Framework 4. Using the Code First approach of Entity Framework, we can first define the entities by simply writing POCO classes without any coupling with any API or database library. This approach lets you focus on domain model which will enable Domain-Driven Development for applications. EF code first support is currently enabled with a separate API that is runs on top of the Entity Framework 4. EF Code First is reached CTP 5 when I am writing this article. Creating Context Class for Entity Framework We have created our domain model and let’s create a class in order to working with Entity Framework Code First. For this, you have to download EF Code First CTP 5 and add reference to the assembly EntitFramework.dll. You can also use NuGet to download add reference to EEF Code First. public class MyFinanceContext : DbContext { public MyFinanceContext() : base("MyFinance") { } public DbSet<Category> Categories { get; set; } public DbSet<Expense> Expenses { get; set; } } The above class MyFinanceContext is derived from DbContext that can connect your model classes to a database. The MyFinanceContext class is mapping our Category and Expense class into database tables Categories and Expenses using DbSet<TEntity> where TEntity is any POCO class. When we are running the application at first time, it will automatically create the database. EF code-first look for a connection string in web.config or app.config that has the same name as the dbcontext class. If it is not find any connection string with the convention, it will automatically create database in local SQL Express database by default and the name of the database will be same name as the dbcontext class. You can also define the name of database in constructor of the the dbcontext class. Unlike NHibernate, we don’t have to use any XML based mapping files or Fluent interface for mapping between our model and database. The model classes of Code First are working on the basis of conventions and we can also use a fluent API to refine our model. The convention for primary key is ‘Id’ or ‘<class name>Id’. If primary key properties are detected with type ‘int’, ‘long’ or ‘short’, they will automatically registered as identity columns in the database by default. Primary key detection is not case sensitive. We can define our model classes with validation attributes in the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace and it automatically enforces validation rules when a model object is updated or saved. Generic Repository for EF Code First We have created model classes and dbcontext class. Now we have to create generic repository pattern for data persistence with EF code first. If you don’t know about the repository pattern, checkout Martin Fowler’s article on Repository Let’s create a generic repository to working with DbContext and DbSet generics. public interface IRepository<T> where T : class { void Add(T entity); void Delete(T entity); T GetById(long Id); IEnumerable<T> All(); } RepositoryBasse – Generic Repository class protected MyFinanceContext Database { get { return database ?? (database = DatabaseFactory.Get()); } } public virtual void Add(T entity) { dbset.Add(entity); } public virtual void Delete(T entity) { dbset.Remove(entity); } public virtual T GetById(long id) { return dbset.Find(id); } public virtual IEnumerable<T> All() { return dbset.ToList(); } } DatabaseFactory class public class DatabaseFactory : Disposable, IDatabaseFactory { private MyFinanceContext database; public MyFinanceContext Get() { return database ?? (database = new MyFinanceContext()); } protected override void DisposeCore() { if (database != null) database.Dispose(); } } Unit of Work If you are new to Unit of Work pattern, checkout Fowler’s article on Unit of Work . According to Martin Fowler, the Unit of Work pattern "maintains a list of objects affected by a business transaction and coordinates the writing out of changes and the resolution of concurrency problems." Let’s create a class for handling Unit of Work public interface IUnitOfWork { void Commit(); } UniOfWork class public class UnitOfWork : IUnitOfWork { private readonly IDatabaseFactory databaseFactory; private MyFinanceContext dataContext; public UnitOfWork(IDatabaseFactory databaseFactory) { this.databaseFactory = databaseFactory; } protected MyFinanceContext DataContext { get { return dataContext ?? (dataContext = databaseFactory.Get()); } } public void Commit() { DataContext.Commit(); } } The Commit method of the UnitOfWork will call the commit method of MyFinanceContext class and it will execute the SaveChanges method of DbContext class. Repository class for Category In this post, we will be focusing on the persistence against Category entity and will working on other entities in later post. Let’s create a repository for handling CRUD operations for Category using derive from a generic Repository RepositoryBase<T>. public class CategoryRepository: RepositoryBase<Category>, ICategoryRepository { public CategoryRepository(IDatabaseFactory databaseFactory) : base(databaseFactory) { } } public interface ICategoryRepository : IRepository<Category> { } If we need additional methods than generic repository for the Category, we can define in the CategoryRepository. Dependency Injection using Unity 2.0 If you are new to Inversion of Control/ Dependency Injection or Unity, please have a look on my articles at http://weblogs.asp.net/shijuvarghese/archive/tags/IoC/default.aspx. I want to create a custom lifetime manager for Unity to store container in the current HttpContext. public class HttpContextLifetimeManager<T> : LifetimeManager, IDisposable { public override object GetValue() { return HttpContext.Current.Items[typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName]; } public override void RemoveValue() { HttpContext.Current.Items.Remove(typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName); } public override void SetValue(object newValue) { HttpContext.Current.Items[typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName] = newValue; } public void Dispose() { RemoveValue(); } } Let’s create controller factory for Unity in the ASP.NET MVC 3 application. 404, String.Format( "The controller for path '{0}' could not be found" + "or it does not implement IController.", reqContext.HttpContext.Request.Path)); if (!typeof(IController).IsAssignableFrom(controllerType)) throw new ArgumentException( string.Format( "Type requested is not a controller: {0}", controllerType.Name), "controllerType"); try { controller= container.Resolve(controllerType) as IController; } catch (Exception ex) { throw new InvalidOperationException(String.Format( "Error resolving controller {0}", controllerType.Name), ex); } return controller; } } Configure contract and concrete types in Unity Let’s configure our contract and concrete types in Unity for resolving our dependencies. private void ConfigureUnity() { //Create UnityContainer IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer() .RegisterType<IDatabaseFactory, DatabaseFactory>(new HttpContextLifetimeManager<IDatabaseFactory>()) .RegisterType<IUnitOfWork, UnitOfWork>(new HttpContextLifetimeManager<IUnitOfWork>()) .RegisterType<ICategoryRepository, CategoryRepository>(new HttpContextLifetimeManager<ICategoryRepository>()); //Set container for Controller Factory ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory( new UnityControllerFactory(container)); } In the above ConfigureUnity method, we are registering our types onto Unity container with custom lifetime manager HttpContextLifetimeManager. Let’s call ConfigureUnity method in the Global.asax.cs for set controller factory for Unity and configuring the types with Unity. protected void Application_Start() { AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas(); RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters); RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes); ConfigureUnity(); } Developing web application using ASP.NET MVC 3 We have created our domain model for our web application and also have created repositories and configured dependencies with Unity container. Now we have to create controller classes and views for doing CRUD operations against the Category entity. Let’s create controller class for Category Category Controller public class CategoryController : Controller { private readonly ICategoryRepository categoryRepository; private readonly IUnitOfWork unitOfWork; public CategoryController(ICategoryRepository categoryRepository, IUnitOfWork unitOfWork) { this.categoryRepository = categoryRepository; this.unitOfWork = unitOfWork; } public ActionResult Index() { var categories = categoryRepository.All(); return View(categories); } [HttpGet] public ActionResult Edit(int id) { var category = categoryRepository.GetById(id); return View(category); } [HttpPost] public ActionResult Edit(int id, FormCollection collection) { var category = categoryRepository.GetById(id); if (TryUpdateModel(category)) { unitOfWork.Commit(); return RedirectToAction("Index"); } else return View(category); } [HttpGet] public ActionResult Create() { var category = new Category(); return View(category); } [HttpPost] public ActionResult Create(Category category) { if (!ModelState.IsValid) { return View("Create", category); } categoryRepository.Add(category); unitOfWork.Commit(); return RedirectToAction("Index"); } [HttpPost] public ActionResult Delete(int id) { var category = categoryRepository.GetById(id); categoryRepository.Delete(category); unitOfWork.Commit(); var categories = categoryRepository.All(); return PartialView("CategoryList", categories); } } Creating Views in Razor Now we are going to create views in Razor for our ASP.NET MVC 3 application. Let’s create a partial view CategoryList.cshtml for listing category information and providing link for Edit and Delete operations. CategoryList.cshtml @using MyFinance.Helpers; @using MyFinance.Domain; @model IEnumerable<Category> <table> <tr> <th>Actions</th> <th>Name</th> <th>Description</th> </tr> @foreach (var item in Model) { <tr> <td> @Html.ActionLink("Edit", "Edit",new { id = item.CategoryId }) @Ajax.ActionLink("Delete", "Delete", new { id = item.CategoryId }, new AjaxOptions { Confirm = "Delete Expense?", HttpMethod = "Post", UpdateTargetId = "divCategoryList" }) </td> <td> @item.Name </td> <td> @item.Description </td> </tr> } </table> <p> @Html.ActionLink("Create New", "Create") </p> The delete link is providing Ajax functionality using the Ajax.ActionLink. This will call an Ajax request for Delete action method in the CategoryCotroller class. In the Delete action method, it will return Partial View CategoryList after deleting the record. We are using CategoryList view for the Ajax functionality and also for Index view using for displaying list of category information. Let’s create Index view using partial view CategoryList Index.chtml @model IEnumerable<MyFinance.Domain.Category> @{ ViewBag.Title = "Index"; } <h2>Category List</h2> <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.unobtrusive-ajax.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script> <div id="divCategoryList"> @Html.Partial("CategoryList", Model) </div> We can call the partial views using Html.Partial helper method. Now we are going to create View pages for insert and update functionality for the Category. Both view pages are sharing common user interface for entering the category information. So I want to create an EditorTemplate for the Category information. We have to create the EditorTemplate with the same name of entity object so that we can refer it on view pages using @Html.EditorFor(model => model) . So let’s create template with name Category. Category.cshtml @model MyFinance.Domain.Category <div class="editor-label"> @Html.LabelFor(model => model.Name) </div> <div class="editor-field"> @Html.EditorFor(model => model.Name) @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Name) </div> <div class="editor-label"> @Html.LabelFor(model => model.Description) </div> <div class="editor-field"> @Html.EditorFor(model => model.Description) @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Description) </div> Let’s create view page for insert Category information @model MyFinance.Domain.Category @{ ViewBag.Title = "Save"; } <h2>Create</h2> <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script> @using (Html.BeginForm()) { @Html.ValidationSummary(true) <fieldset> <legend>Category</legend> @Html.EditorFor(model => model) <p> <input type="submit" value="Create" /> </p> </fieldset> } <div> @Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index") </div> ViewStart file In Razor views, we can add a file named _viewstart.cshtml in the views directory and this will be shared among the all views with in the Views directory. The below code in the _viewstart.cshtml, sets the Layout page for every Views in the Views folder. @{ Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml"; } Tomorrow, we will cotinue the second part of this article. :)

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Blend for Visual Studio 2013 Prototyping Applications with SketchFlow

- by T

Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/tburger/archive/2014/08/10/blend-for-visual-studio-2013-prototyping-applications-with-sketchflow.aspxSketchFlow enables rapid creating of dynamic interface mockups very quickly. The SketchFlow workspace is the same as the standard Blend workspace with the inclusion of three panels: the SketchFlow Feedback panel, the SketchFlow Animation panel and the SketchFlow Map panel. By using SketchFlow to prototype, you can get feedback early in the process. It helps to surface possible issues, lower development iterations, and increase stakeholder buy in. SketchFlow prototypes not only provide an initial look but also provide a way to add additional ideas and input and make sure the team is on track prior to investing in complete development. When you have completed the prototyping, you can discard the prototype and just use the lessons learned to design the application from or extract individual elements from your prototype and include them in the application. I don’t recommend trying to transition the entire project into a development project. Objects that you add with the SketchFlow style have a hand-sketched look. The sketch style is used to remind stakeholders that this is a prototype. This encourages them to focus on the flow and functionality without getting distracted by design details. The sketchflow assets are under sketchflow in the asset panel and are identifiable by the postfix “–Sketch”. For example “Button-Sketch”. You can mix sketch and standard controls in your interface, if required. Be creative, if there is a missing control or your interface has a different look and feel than the out of the box one, reuse other sketch controls to mimic the functionality or look and feel. Only use standard controls if it doesn’t distract from the idea that this is a prototype and not a standard application. The SketchFlow Map panel provides information about the structure of your application. To create a new screen in your prototype: Right-click the map surface and choose “Create a Connected Screen”. Name the screens with names that are meaningful to the stakeholders. The start screen is the one that has the green arrow. To change the start screen, right click on any other screen and set to start screen. Only one screen can be the start screen at a time. Rounded screen are component screens to mimic reusable custom controls that will be built into the final application. You can change the colors of all of the boxes and should use colors to create functional groupings. The groupings can be identified in the SketchFlow Project Settings. To add connections between screens in the SketchFlow Map panel. Move the mouse over a screen in the SketchFlow and a menu will appear at the bottom of the screen node. In the menu, click Connect to an existing screen. Drag the arrow to another screen on the Map. You add navigation to your prototype by adding connections on the SketchFlow map or by adding navigation directly to items on your interface. To add navigation from objects on the artboard, right click the item then from the menu, choose “Navigate to”. This will expose a sub-menu with available screens, backward, or forward. When the map has connected screens, the SketchFlow Player displays the connected screens on the Navigate sidebar. All screens show in the SketchFlow Player Map. To see the SketchFlow Player, run your SketchFlow prototype. The Navigation sidebar is meant to show the desired user work flow. The map can be used to view the different screens regardless of suggested navigation in the navigation bar. The map is able to be hidden and shown. As mentioned, a component screen is a shared screen that is used in more than one screen and generally represents what will be a custom object in the application. To create a component screen, you can create a screen, right click on it in the SketchFlow Map and choose “Make into component screen”. You can mouse over a screen and from the menu that appears underneath, choose create and insert component screen. To use an existing screen, select if from the Asset panel under SketchFlow, Components. You can use Storyboards and Visual State animations in your SketchFlow project. However, SketchFlow also offers its own animation technique that is simpler and better suited for prototyping. The SketchFlow Animation panel is above your artboard by default. In SketchFlow animation, you create frames and then position the elements on your interface for each frame. You then specify elapsed time and any effects you want to apply to the transition. The + at the top is what creates new frames. Once you have a new Frame, select it and change the property you want to animate. In the example above, I changed the Text of the result box. You can adjust the time between frames in the lower area between the frames. The easing and effects functions are changed in the center between each frame. You edit the hold time for frames by clicking the clock icon in the lower left and the hold time will appear on each frame and can be edited. The FluidLayout icon (also located in the lower left) will create smooth transitions. Next to the FluidLayout icon is the name of that Animation. You can rename the animation by clicking on it and editing the name. The down arrow chevrons next to the name allow you to view the list of all animations in this prototype and select them for editing. To add the animation to the interface object (such as a button to start the animation), select the PlaySketchFlowAnimationAction from the SketchFlow behaviors in the Assets menu and drag it to an object on your interface. With the PlaySketchFlowAnimationAction that you just added selected in the Objects and Timeline, edit the properties to change the EventName to the event you want and choose the SketchFlowAnimation you want from the drop down list. You may want to add additional information to your screens that isn’t really part of the prototype but is relevant information or a request for clarification or feedback from the reviewer. You do this with annotations or notes. Both appear on the user interface, however, annotations can be switched on or off at design and review time. Notes cannot be switched off. To add an Annotation, chose the Create Annotation from the Tools menu. The annotation appears on the UI where you will add the notes. To display or Hide annotations, click the annotation toggle at the bottom right on the artboard . After to toggle annotations on, the identifier of the person who created them appears on the artboard and you must click that to expand the notes. To add a note to the artboard, simply select the Note-Sketch from Assets ->SketchFlow ->Styles ->Sketch Styles. Drag and drop it to the artboard and place where you want it. When you are ready for users to review the prototype, you have a few options available. Click File -> Export and choose one of the options from the list: Publish to Sharepoint, Package SketchFlowProject, Export to Microsoft Word, or Export as Images. I suggest you play with as many of the options as you can to see what they do. Both the Sharepoint and Packaged SketchFlowProject allow you to collect feedback from one or more users that you can import into the project. The user can make notes on the UI and in the Feedback area in the bottom left corner of the player. When the user is done adding feedback, it is exported from the right most folder icon in the My Feedback panel. Feeback is imported on a panel named SketchFlow Feedback. To get that panel to show up, select Window -> SketchFlow Feedback. Once you have the panel showing, click the + in the upper right of the panel and find the notes you exported. When imported, they will show up in a list and on the artboard. To document your prototype, use the Export to Microsoft Word option from the File menu. That should get you started with prototyping.

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NetBackup-pal is muködik az Oracle Database 11gR2 mentés Exadata V2 környezetben

- by Fekete Zoltán

A Veritas NetBackup szoftverrel is menthetok az Oracle 11gR2 adatbázisok az Oracle Enterprise Linux-on is (RMAN-t használva), 64-bites környezetben. A dokumentumokban a Red Hat-re vonatkozó infót kell keresnünk, mivel http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/337048.htm szerint "Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL)" Supported based on NetBackup Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.x/5.x Client, Server, and Oracle Agent support. BMR is not supported. NetBackup compatibility listák: http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/303344.htm - A NetBackup 7 kompatibilis az Oracle Exadata V2-vel: http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/340295.htm - A NetBackup 6.x verziókra telepíteni kell a következo patch-et: NB_6.5.5_ET1940073_1_347227.zip is a NetBackup 6.5.5 EEB (Emergency Engineering Binary) for Oracle Clients. http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/347227.htm és http://support.veritas.com/docs/279048.

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Logical Domain Modeling Made Simple

- by Knut Vatsendvik

How can logical domain modeling be made simple and collaborative? Many non-technical end-users, managers and business domain experts find it difficult to understand the visual models offered by many UML tools. This creates trouble in capturing and verifying the information that goes into a logical domain model. The tools are also too advanced and complex for a non-technical user to learn and use. We have therefore, in our current project, ended up with using Confluence as tool for designing the logical domain model with the help of a few very useful plugins. Big thanks to Ole Nymoen and Per Spilling for their expertise in this field that made this posting possible. Confluence Plugins Here is a list of Confluence plugins used in this solution. Install these before trying out the macros used below. Plugin Description Copy Space Allows a space administrator to copy a space, including the pages within the space Metadata Supports adding metadata to Wiki pages Label Manages labeling of pages Linking Contains macros for linking to templates, the dashboard and other Table Enhances the table capability in Confluence Creating a Confluence Space First we need to create a new confluence space for the domain model. Click the link Create a Space located below the list of spaces on the Dashboard. Please contact your Confluence administrator is you do not have permissions to do this. For illustrative purpose all attributes and entities in this posting are based on my imaginary project manager domain model. When a logical domain model is good enough for being implemented, do a copy of the Confluence Space (see Copy Space plugin). In this way you create a stable version of the logical domain model while further design can continue with the new copied space. Typical will the implementation phase result in a database design and/or a XSD schema design. Add Space Templates Go to the Home page of your Confluence Space. Navigate to the Browse drop-down menu and click on Advanced. Then click the Templates option in the left navigation panel. Click Add New Space Template to add the following three templates. Name: attribute {metadata-list} || Name | | || Type | | || Format | | || Description | | {metadata-list} {add-label:attribute} Name: primary-type {metadata-list} || Name | || || Type | || || Format | || || Description | || {metadata-list} {add-label:primary-type} Name: complex-type {metadata-list} || Name | || || Description | || {metadata-list} h3. Attributes || Name || Type || Format || Description || | [name] | {metadata-from:name|Type} | {metadata-from:name|Format} | {metadata-from:name|Description} | {add-label:complex-type,entity} The metadata-list macro (see Metadata plugin) will save a list of metadata values to the page. The add-label macro (see Label plugin) will automatically label the page. Primary Types Page Our first page to add will act as container for our primary types. Switch to Wiki markup when adding the following content to the page. | (+) {add-page:template=primary-type|parent=@self}Add new primary type{add-page} | {metadata-report:Name,Type,Format,Description|sort=Name|root=@self|pages=@descendents} Once the page is created, click the Add new primary type (create-page macro) to start creating a new pages. Here is an example of input to the LocalDate page. Embrace the LocalDate with square brackets [] to make the page linkable. Again switch to Wiki markup before editing. {metadata-list} || Name | [LocalDate] || || Type | Date || || Format | YYYY-MM-DD || || Description | Date in local time zone. YYYY = year, MM = month and DD = day || {metadata-list} {add-label:primary-type} The metadata-report macro will show a tabular report of all child pages. Attributes Page The next page will act as container for all of our attributes. | (+) {add-page:template=attribute|parent=@self|title=attribute}Add new attribute{add-page} | {metadata-report:Name,Type,Format,Description|sort=Name|pages=@descendants} Here is an example of input to the startDate page. {metadata-list} || Name | [startDate] || || Type | [LocalDate] || || Format | {metadata-from:LocalDate|Format} || || Description | The projects start date || {metadata-list} {add-label:attribute} Using the metadata-from macro we fetch the text from the previously created LocalDate page. Complex Types Page The last page in this example shows how attributes can be combined together to form more complex types. h3. Intro Overview of complex types in the domain model. | (+) {add-page:template=complex-type|parent=@self}Add a new complex type{add-page}\\ | {metadata-report:Name,Description|sort=Name|root=@self|pages=@descendents} Here is an example of input to the ProjectType page. {metadata-list} || Name | [ProjectType] || || Description | Represents a project || {metadata-list} h3. Attributes || Name || Type || Format || Description || | [projectId] | {metadata-from:projectId|Type} | {metadata-from:projectId|Format} | {metadata-from:projectId|Description} | | [name] | {metadata-from:name|Type} | {metadata-from:name|Format} | {metadata-from:name|Description} | | [description] | {metadata-from:description|Type} | {metadata-from:description|Format} | {metadata-from:description|Description} | | [startDate] | {metadata-from:startDate|Type} | {metadata-from:startDate|Format} | {metadata-from:startDate|Description} | {add-label:complex-type,entity} Gives us this Conclusion Using a web-based corporate Wiki like Confluence to create a logical domain model increases the collaboration between people with different roles in the enterprise. It’s my believe that this helps the domain model to be more accurate, and better documented. In our real project we have more pages than illustrated here to complete the documentation. We do also still use UML tools to create different types of diagrams that Confluence do not support. As a last tip, an ImageMap plugin can make those diagrams clickable when used in pages. Enjoy!

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Introducing AutoVue Document Print Service

- by celine.beck

We recently announced the availability of our new AutoVue Document Print Service products. For more information, please read the article entitled Print Any Document Type with AutoVue Document Print Services that was posted on our blog. The AutoVue Document Print Service products help address a trivial, yet very common challenge: printing and batch printing documents. The AutoVue Document Print Service is a Web-Services based interface, which allows developers to complement their print server solutions by leveraging AutoVue's printing capabilities within broader enterprise applications like Asset Lifecycle Management, Product Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Content Management solutions, etc. This means that you can leverage the AutoVue Document Print Service products as part of your printing solution to automate the printing of virtually any document type required in any business process. Clients that consume AutoVue's Document Print Service can be written in any language (for example Java or .NET) as long as they understand Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and communicate using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). The print solution consists of three main components, as described in the diagram below: a print server (not included in the AutoVue Document Print Service offering) that will interact with your application to identify the files that need to be printed, the printer to send each file, as well as the print options needed for each file (paper size, page orientation, etc), and collate the print job requests. The print server will also take care of calling the AutoVue Document Print Service to perform the actual printing. The AutoVue Document Print Services send files to a printer for printing. The AutoVue Document Print Service products leverage AutoVue's format- and platform agnostic technology to let you print/batch virtually any type of files, without requiring the authoring application installed on your machine. and Printers As shown above, you can trigger printing from your application either programmatically through automated business processes or manually through human interaction. If documents that need to be printed from your application are stored inside a content repository/Document Management System (DMS) such as Oracle Universal Content Management System (UCM), then the Print Server will need to identify the list of documents and pass the ID of each document to the AutoVue DPS to print. In this case, AutoVue DPS leverages the AutoVue VueLink integration (note: AutoVue VueLink integrations are pre-packaged AutoVue integrations with most common enterprise systems. Check our Website for more information on the subject) to fetch documents out of the document management system for printing. In lieu of the AutoVue VueLink integration, you can also leverage the AutoVue Integration Software Development Kit (iSDK) to build your own connector. If the documents you need to print from your application are not stored in a content management system, the Print Server will need to ensure that files are made available to the AutoVue Document Print Service. The Print Server could for example fetch the files out of your application or an extension to the application could be developed to fetch the files and make them available to the AutoVue DPS. More information on methods to pass on file information to the AutoVue Document Print Service products can be found in the AutoVue Document Print Service Overview documentation available on the Oracle Technology Network. Related article: Any Document Type with AutoVue Document Print Services

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LOV's autoSuggestBehaviour

- by raghu.yadav

af:autoSuggestBehaviour component example works pretty straight forward on LOV's in input form and Table'sgood example by juan here http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/howtos/autosuggest/explaining_autosuggestbehavior.htm,

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Selecting Your Theme

- by Ruth

Would you like to personalize CRM On Demand? You can quite easily with CRM On Demand Release 17. Whether your company wants a custom theme that matches your company brand, or you have a preference about the look and feel of the application, you can select your theme in a few clicks. If you are interested in creating a custom theme, take a look at the Themes - Create Your CRM Style blog article. Selecting Your Company Theme If you are the company administrator, you can select the company theme from the company profile. Click the Admin link. Navigate to Company Administration Company Profile. In the Company Theme Setting section, click the Theme Name field to select a new theme. Selecting Your Personal Theme Even if you are not an administrator, you can select a theme for CRM On Demand on your computer. Your company may not allow access to this option, so talk to your company administrator if you are unable to select your theme. Click the My Setup link. Click the My Profile link. Click the Personal Profile link. In the Additional Information section, select the theme that you want in the Theme Name picklist. Here are some standard themes to help you find the look that you want:

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Silverlight Cream for March 05, 2010 -- #807

- by Dave Campbell

In this Issue: Phil Middlemiss(-2-, -3-), Pencho Popadiyn, John Papa(-2-, -3-), Jim Lynn, and SilverLaw(-2-). Shoutouts: Walt Ritscher has added more shaders and features: Shazzam 1.2 – Feature Overview I hope you're getting as excited as I am about MIX10. You should be reading MIX10 News and checking out the sessions and the directory of attendees. From SilverlightCream.com: Watermarked TextBox Part I Phil Middlemiss's Orb Radio Button hit number two in the Silverlight Cream Skim page, in 2 days... now Phil has a very nice 3-part tutorial up on creating a Watermarked TextBox with lots of cool features. This is part 1 and starts the series off. Watermarked TextBox Part II In Phil Middlemiss's Part II of the Watermarked TextBox tutorial, he's concentrating on visual elements of the control began in the last episode... you're paying attention, right? ... this is a cool control :) Watermarked Textbox Part III In the final part of Phil Middlemiss's tutorial series, he's wiring all the pieces together in the UserControl. Go grab the control, then leave Phil some love on his blog! Using Reactive Extensions in Silverlight Pencho Popadiyn has a great tutorial up on SilverlightShow about Rx ... if you want to get your arms around this... this tutorial is a good place to begin. Silverlight TV 10: Silverlight Hyper Video Platform with Jesse Liberty Running a little behind here, but check out John Papa and THE Silverlight GeekTM Jesse Liberty discussing Jesse's Hyper Video Platform on Silverlight TV Silverlight TV 11: Dynamically Loading XAPs with MEF In Silverlight TV episode 11, John Papa talks to Glenn Block about MEF and partitioning and dynamically loading XAPs ... good stuff. Silverlight TV 12: The Best Blend 3 Video Ever! And the latest Silverlight TV episode, number 12, has John Papa and Adam Kinney giving "The Best Blend 3 Video ever (or at least on Silverlight TV)"... check out the list of topics and you'll want to watch :) InvalidOperation_EnumFailedVersion when binding data to a Silverlight Chart Read Jim Lynn's post about a problem found while deploying his app, the very confusing (long) error, and the workaround. Leather Stamped Style Series For Silverlight Controls - Part 1 SilverLaw contued after his 'leather stamped' textbox and has added TextBlock, Button and some template bindings... check it out then get it at the Expression Gallery Circular Accordion Style Silverlight 3 SilverLaw also built a Circualar Accordian style... interesting idea and once again it, in the Expression Gallery. He's also looking for feedback. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight Silverlight 3 Silverlight 4 MIX10

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Spaghetti Code Podcast with Jeff Brand

- by Chris Williams

Last week I spent some time hanging out with Jeff Brand on his Spaghetti Code Podcast talking about Windows Phone 7, XNA, Gaming and whatever else came to mind. Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/2544ajc

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Using Web Services from an XNA 4.0 WP7 Game

- by Michael Cummings

Now that the Windows Phone 7 development tools have been out for a while, let’s talk about how you can use them. Windows Phone 7 ( WP7 ) has two application types that you can create, either Silverlight or XNA, and you can’t really mix the two together. The development environment for WP7 is a special edition of Visual Studio 2010 called Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone. This edition will be installed with the WP7 tools, even if you have a full edition of VS2010 already installed. While you can use your full edition of VS2010 to do WP7 development, this astute developer has noticed that there are a few things that you can only do in the Express for Windows Phone edition. So lets start by discussing WP7 networking. On the WP7 platform the only networking available is through Web Services using WCF or if you’re really masochistic, you’ll use the WebClient to do http. In Silverlight, it’s fairly easy to wire up a WCF proxy to call a web service and get some data. In the XNA projects, not so much. Create WCF Service First, we’ll create our service that will return some information that we need in our game. Open Visual Studio 2010, and create a new WCF Web Service project. We’ll use the default implementation as we only need to see how to use a service, we are not interested in creating a really cool service at this point. However you may want to follow the instructions in the comments of Service1.svc.cs to change the name to something better, I used DataService and IDataService for the interface. You should now be able to run the project and the WCF Test Client will load and properly enumerate your service. At this point we have a functional service that can be consumed by our XNA game. Consume the WCF Service Open Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone and create a new XNA Game Studio 4.0 Windows Phone Game project. Now if you try to add a service reference to the project, you’ll notice that the option is not available. However, if you add a Silverlight application to your solution, you’ll notice that you can create a service reference there. So using the Silverlight project, we can create the service reference. Unfortunately you can’t reference the Silverlight project from the XNA Game project, so using Windows Explorer copy the Service References folder from the Silverlight project directory to the XNA Game project directory, then add the folder to your XNA Game project. You’ll need to set the property Build Action to None for all the files, except for Reference.cs, which should be Build. Truely, we only need Reference.cs but I find it easier to copy the whole folder. If you try to compile at this point, you’ll notice that we are missing a couple of references, System.Runtime.Serialization, System.Net and System.ServiceModel. Add these to the XNA Game project and you should build successfully. You’ll also need to copy the ServiceReference.ClientConfig file and add it to your project. The WCF infrastructure looks for this file and will complain if it can’t find it. You’ll need to set the Copy to Output Directory property to Copy if Newer. We now need to add the code to call the service and display the results on the screen. Go ahead and add a SpriteFont resource to the Content project and load it in the Game project. There’s nothing here that’s changed much from 3.1 other than your Content project is now under the Solution node and not the Project node. While you’re at it, add a string field to store the result of the service call, and intialize it to string.Empty. Then in the Draw method, write the string out to the screen, only if it does not equal string.Empty. Now to wrap this up, lets create a new field that’s of the type DataServiceClient. In the Initialize Method, create a new instance of this type using its default contructor, then in the LoadContent we can call the service. Since we can only call the GetData method of our service asynchronously we need to set up a Completed event handler first. Thankfully, Visual Studio helps out a lot there just create, using the tab key whatever VS says to. In the GetDataAsyncCompleted event handler assign the service result ( e.Result) to your string field. If you run your game, you should get something like this : Enjoy!

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What’s Your Tax Strategy? Automate the Tax Transfer Pricing Process!

- by tobyehatch

Does your business operate in multiple countries? Well, whether you like it or not, many local and international tax authorities inspect your tax strategy. Legal, effective tax planning is perceived as a “moral” issue. CEOs are being asked to testify on their process of tax transfer pricing between multinational legal entities. Marc Seewald, Senior Director of Product Management for EPM Applications specializing in all tax subjects and Product Manager for Oracle Hyperion Tax Provisioning, and Bart Stoehr, Senior Director of Product Strategy for Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management joined me for a discussion/podcast on this interesting subject. So what exactly is “tax transfer pricing”? Marc defined it this way. “Tax transfer pricing is a profit allocation methodology required to be used by multinational corporations. Specifically, the ultimate goal of the transfer pricing is to ensure that the global multinational pays their fair share of income tax in each of their local markets. Specifically, it prevents companies from unfairly moving profit from ‘high tax’ countries to ‘low tax’ countries.” According to Marc, in today’s global economy, profitability can be significantly impacted by goods and services exchanged between the related divisions within a single multinational company. To ensure that these cost allocations are done fairly, there are rules that govern the process. These rules ensure that intercompany allocations fairly represent the actual nature of the businesses activity- as if two divisions were unrelated - and provide a clear audit trail of how the costs have been allocated to prove that allocations fall within reasonable ranges. What are the repercussions of improper tax transfer pricing? How important is it? Tax transfer pricing allocations can materially impact the amount of overall corporate income taxes paid by a company worldwide, in some cases by hundreds of millions of dollars! Since so much tax revenue is at stake, revenue agencies like the IRS, and international regulatory bodies like the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are pushing to reform and clarify reporting for tax transfer pricing. Most recently the OECD announced an “Action Plan for Base Erosion and Profit Shifting”. As Marc explained, the times are changing and companies need to be responsive to this issue. “It feels like every other week there is another company being accused of avoiding taxes,” said Marc. Most recently, Caterpillar was accused of avoiding billions of dollars in taxes. In the last couple of years, Apple, GE, Ikea, and Starbucks, have all been accused of tax avoidance. It’s imperative that companies like these have a clear and auditable tax transfer process that enables them to justify tax transfer pricing allocations and avoid steep penalties and bad publicity. Transparency and efficiency are what is needed when it comes to the tax transfer pricing process. Bart explained that tax transfer pricing is driving a deeper inspection of profit recognition specifically focused on the tax element of profit. However, allocations needed to support tax profitability are nearly identical in process to allocations taking place in other parts of the finance organization. For example, the methods and processes necessary to arrive at tax profitability by legal entity are no different than those used to arrive at fully loaded profitability for a product line. In fact, there is a great opportunity for alignment across these two different functions.So it seems that tax transfer pricing should be reflected in profitability in general. Bart agreed and told us more about some of the critical sub-processes of an overall tax transfer pricing process within the Oracle solution for tax transfer pricing. “First, there is a ton of data preparation, enrichment and pre-allocation data analysis that is managed in the Oracle Hyperion solution. This serves as the “data staging” to the next, critical sub-processes. From here, we leverage the Oracle EPM platform’s ability to re-use dimensions and legal entity driver data and financial data with Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management (HPCM). Within HPCM, we manage the driver data, define the legal entity to legal entity allocation rules (like cost plus), and have the option to test out multiple, simultaneous tax transfer pricing what-if scenarios. Once processed, a tax expert can evaluate the effectiveness of any one scenario result versus another via a variance analysis configured with HPCM’s pre-packaged reporting capability known as Oracle Hyperion SmartView for Office.” Further, Bart explained that the ability to visibly demonstrate how a cost or revenue has been allocated is really helpful and auditable. “HPCM’s Traceability Maps are that visual representation of all allocation flows that have been executed and is the tax transfer analyst’s best friend in maintaining clear documentation for tax transfer pricing audits. Simply click and drill as you inspect the chain of allocation definitions and results. Once final, the post-allocated tax data can be compared to the GL to create invoices and journal entries for posting to your GL system of choice. Of course, there is a framework for overall governance of the journal entries, allocation percentages, and reporting to include necessary approvals.” Lastly, Marc explained that the key value in using the Oracle Hyperion solution for tax transfer pricing is that it keeps everything in alignment in one single place. Specifically, Oracle Hyperion effectively becomes the single book of record for the GAAP, management, and the tax set of books. There are many benefits to having one source of the truth. These include EFFICIENCY, CONTROLS and TRANSPARENCY.So, what’s your tax strategy? Why not automate the tax transfer pricing process!To listen to the entire podcast, click here.To learn more about Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management (HPCM), click here.

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