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• Node.js/Express Partials problem: Can't be nested too deep?

  - by heorling

  I'm learning Node.js, Express, haml.js and liking it. I've run into a prety annoying problem though. I'm pretty new to this but have been getting nice results so far. I'm writing a jquery heavy web app that relies on a table containing divs. The divs slide around, switch back and fourth and are resized etc to my hearts content. What I'm looking for a way to switch (template?) the divs. Since I've been building in express and mimicking the chat example it would make sense to use partials. The rub is that I've been using inexplicit divs in haml, held within a td. The divs are cunstructed as follows: %tr %td .class1.class2.class3.classetc Which has worked fine cross browser. Parsing the classes works great for the js code to pass arguments around, fetch values etc. What I'd like to be able to do is something like: %tr %td .class1.class2.class3.classetc %ul#messages != this.partial('message.html.haml', { collection: messages }) Any combination I've tried with this has failed however. And I might have tried them all. If I could put a partial into that div I'd probably be set. And you can nest them as long as you use #ids instead of .classes. But if you use more than one class it breaks! I think that's the most accurate way of summing it up. How do you do this? I've checked out various templating solutions like mu.js and micro template like by John Resig. I earlier checked out this thread on templating engines. It's very possible I'm making some fundamental mistake here, I'm new to this. What's a good way to do this?

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• MySQL running on an EC2 m1.small instance has high load but low memory usage, possible resolutions?

  - by Tosh

  I have a MySQL server 5.0.75 Ubuntu, on an m1.small instance running on Amazon's EC2 as part of an application. During peak usage the server load will rise very high, while the memory usage stays low and the application server is no longer responsive since it's waiting for query results. The application server has only 5-8 apache processes running (mod_perl processes). The data directory uses only 140MB of data so the MyIsam tables aren't very big. The queries are pretty complicated with some big joins being performed, and the application makes a lot of queries. mysqltuner reports everything OK except "Maximum possible memory usage: 1.7G (99% of installed RAM)" but I'm nowhere close to using that. My question is, where should I be looking to fix this? Is this something that can be tuned away, or do I just need a larger instance/server? Googling indicates either or also upgrading MySQL server. Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated, thanks! EDIT: I just discovered this in my slow queries log: # Time: 101116 11:17:00 # User@Host: user[pass] @ [host] # Query_time: 4063 Lock_time: 1035 Rows_sent: 0 Rows_examined: 19960174 SELECT * FROM contacts WHERE contacts.contact_id IN (SELECT external_id FROM contact_relations WHERE external_table = 'contacts' AND contact_id IN (SELECT contact_id FROM contacts WHERE (company_name like '%%butan%%%' OR country like '%%butan%%%' OR city like '%%butan%%%' OR email1 like '%%butan%%%') AND (company_name is not null and company_name != ''))); Which actually brings up a different but related question: If I have a contact table containing: John Smith,The Fun Factory,555-1212,[email protected] What's the best way to search for that record using "factory" as a search key? Fulltext rarely seems to find items in the middle of a word, for example "actor" should bring up "Factory"

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• Creating Modules for VB Program (Similar to firefox add on)

  - by Assimilater

  Hi all. I have a contact manager program that I'd like to design for multiple network marketing companies. My desired structure would include a core program which covers basic contact management functions. After that one could purchase a module for their specific network marketing company. This module would contain a variety of controls that the original program would need to be able to manipulate. Here is an example of what it would have to have: A group box containing buttons that link to a genealogy view, and the option to import one's donwnline from the back office provided by a company. A panel which is displayed on the contact page allowing the user to input business information or which will be filled by importing a downline from the back office: ie business ID, qualification level, sponsor information etc. a panel displayed when one searches for contacts on the contact list page which allows the user to sort based on information such as when they joined, what their business id is and so forth. a panel which is displayed in a personal business overview page which presents to an individual how many people in their downline are at each qualification level and develop a mailing list for individuals of a certain qualification level. I have the code developed to perform all these functions, I just wanted to give you an example of what needed to be done. I'm thinking that what I'm trying to create is a library that one can download and the program will recognize, but I'm not really sure where to go. What I'm really trying to do is figure out what kind of file I can make that will contain all this code and the GUI information that the program will recognize. Any ideas? With thanks, John

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• HTTP post using php and curl failing

  - by user2916484

  I am trying to send an XML file to an external system. I am using the below code for doing so, which I got over the internet. But I observed that when i put an echo on the xml variable, it does not show me the XML as a string, but it is parsing the xml and showing me the values. Same is happening when I am sending this to external system. Which is failing. Can you please tell me a way, in which the XML is not parsed and I can send the entire XML text as a string to external system? My code is below. <?php $xml = '<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding="UTF-8" ?><shiporder><orderID>1234</orderID> <orderperson>John Smith</orderperson></shiporder>'; $xml2 = ''; $headers = array( "Content-type: text/xml", "Content-length: " . strlen($xml), "Connection: close", ); // give the path of the Third party site $url = "http://<server>:<port>/XMII/Illuminator?service=WSMessageListener&mode=WSMessageListenerServer&NAME=shiporder&IllumLoginName=<name>&IllumLoginPassword=<pswd>"; echo $xml; echo $url; $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url); //curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MUTE, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 10); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $xml); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); $output = curl_exec($ch); echo $output; curl_close($ch); ?> Regards, Gita

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• Best way to limit results in MySQL with user subcategories

  - by JM4

  I am trying to essentially solve for the following: 1) Find all users in the system who ONLY have programID 1. 2) Find all users in the system who have programID 1 AND any other active program. My tables structures (in very simple terms are as follows): users userID | Name ================ 1 | John Smith 2 | Lewis Black 3 | Mickey Mantle 4 | Babe Ruth 5 | Tommy Bahama plans ID | userID | plan | status --------------------------- 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 8 | 3 | 3 | 1 9 | 3 | 4 | 1 10 | 4 | 2 | 1 11 | 4 | 4 | 1 12 | 5 | 1 | 1 I know I can easily find all members with a specific plan with something like the following: SELECT * FROM users a JOIN plans b ON (a.userID = b.userID) WHERE b.plan = 1 AND b.status = 1 but this will only tell me which users have an 'active' plan 1. How can I tell who ONLY has plan 1 (in this case only userID 5) and how to tell who has plan 1 AND any other active plan? Update: This is not to get a count, I will actually need the original member information, including all the plans they have so a COUNT(*) response may not be what I'm trying to achieve.

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• Best practice to hide/encrypt email adress in webpage

  - by Sebi

  I couldn't find a similar question, that's why here it is: Whats the best way to hide or encrypt an email link in a website, so that a crawler can't read it, but the user can nevertheless click it? I don't want to conufse the users by typing the email like this: john (at) mail.com or similar ways. (and i think this kind of links can nevertheless read by crawlers?) I also tried things like that: <script>// <![CDATA[eval(unescape('%76%61%72%20%73%3D%27%61%6D%6C%69%6F%74%72%3A%62%61%40%65%64%61%6E%6F%6C%2E%69%27%3B%76%61%72%20%72%3D%27%27%3B%66%6F%72%28%76%61%72%20%69%3D%30%3B%69%3C%73%2E%6C%65%6E%67%74%68%3B%69%2B%2B%2C%69%2B%2B%29%7B%72%3D%72%2B%73%2E%73%75%62%73%74%72%69%6E%67%28%69%2B%31%2C%69%2B%32%29%2B%73%2E%73%75%62%73%74%72%69%6E%67%28%69%2C%69%2B%31%29%7D%64%6F%63%75%6D%65%6E%74%2E%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3C%61%20%68%72%65%66%3D%22%27%2B%72%2B%27%22%3E%4F%62%65%72%70%61%72%6C%65%69%74%65%72%3C%2F%61%3E%27%29%3B'))]]></script> but i heard this can also be read by crawler and it isn't really good practices are ther any common approaches?

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• C Programming - Passing a pointer to array

  - by Pedro

  How do I pass a pointer value to an array of the struct; For example, on a txt I have this: John Doe;[email protected];214425532; My code: typedef struct Person{ char name[100]; char email[100]; int phone; }PERSON; int main(){ PERSON persons[100]; FILE *fp; char *ap_name; char *ap_email; char *ap_phone; char line[100]; fp=("text.txt","r"); if(fp==NULL){ exit(1); } else{ fgets(line,100,fp); ap_name=strtok(line,";"); ap_email=strtok(NULL,";"); ap_phone=strtok(NULL,";"); } return 0; } My question is how can I pass the value of ap_name, ap_email, ap_phone to the struct? And, do I need to use all of these pointers?

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• Change XML node element value in PHP and save file.

  - by Hannes

  <testimonials> <testimonial id="4c050652f0c3e"> <nimi>John</nimi> <email>[email protected]</email> <text>Some text</text> <active>1</active> </testimonial> <testimonial id="4c05085e1cd4f"> <name>ats</name> <email>[email protected]</email> <text>Great site!</text> <active>0</akctive> </testimonial> </testimonials> I have this XML strcuture and i need to find a testimonial with specific id and change its value and save file. I have a PHP script deleting specific testimonial according its ID: <?php $xmlFile = file_get_contents('test.xml'); $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlFile); $kust_id = $_GET["id"]; foreach($xml->testimonial as $story) { if($story['id'] == $kust_id) { $dom=dom_import_simplexml($story); $dom->parentNode->removeChild($dom); $xml->asXML('test.xml'); header("Location: newfile.php"); } } ?>

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• Emacs hide/show support for C++ triple-slash Doxygen markup?

  - by jsyjr

  I use Doxygen's triple-slash syntax to markup my C++ code. There are two important cases which arise: 1) block markup comments which are the sole element on the line and may or may not begin flush left; e.g. class foo /// A one sentence brief description of foo. The elaboration can /// continue on for many lines. { ... }; void foo::bar /// A one sentence brief description of bar. The elaboration can /// continue on for many lines. () const { ... } 2) trailing markup comments which always follow some number of C++ tokens earlier on the first line but may still spill over onto subsequent lines; e.g. class foo { int _var1; ///< A brief description of _var1. int _var2; ///< A brief description of _var2 ///< requiring additional lines. } void foo::bar ( int arg1 ///< A brief description of arg1. , int arg2 ///< A brief description of arg2 ///< requiring additional lines. ) const { ... } I wonder what hide/show support exists to deal with these conventions. The most important cases are the block markup comments. Ideally I would like to be able to eliminate these altogether, meaning that I would prefer not to waste a line simply to indicate presence of a folded block markup comment. Instead I would like a fringe marker, a la http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/hideshowvis.el /john

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• EF Code First, how can I achieve two foreign keys from one table to other table?

  - by Yoo Matsuo

  I've recently downloaded Entity Framework Code First CTP5, and have a trouble with this scenario. I have two tables as follows: Members table ID Name Comments table ID Comment CommentedMemberID CommentMemberID And, the data should be like the following: Members ID Name 1 Mike 2 John 3 Tom Comments ID Comment CommentedMemberID CommentMemberID 1 Good 1 2 2 Good 1 3 3 Bad 2 1 Then, I coded as shown below: public class Member { public int ID {get; set; } public string Name { get; set;} public virtual ICollection Comments { get; set;} } public class Comment { public int ID { get; set; } public string Comment { get; set; } public int CommentedMemberID { get; set; } public int CommentMemberID{ get; set; } public virtual Member CommentedMember { get; set; } public virtual Member CommentMember { get; set; } } public class TestContext : DbContext { public DbSet Members { get; set; } public DbSet Comments { get; set; } } But when I run these models on my cshtml, it gives me errors saying "Cannot create CommentMember instance" or something like that (Sorry, I already changed my models to proceed the EF Code First evaluation, so can't reproduce the same error). I've also tried to use OnModelCreating on the TestContext, but can't find any good instructions and don't know what to do. I saw a blog post of the EF Code First CTP3, and it seems there was a RelatedTo attribute in that version, but now it has gone. Could anyone know how to get it work properly? Or is this a totally wrong way to go with this scenario? Thanks, Yoo

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• Grouping by property value and writing group members

  - by Will S

  I need to group the following list by the department value but am having trouble with the LINQ syntax. Here's my list of objects: var people = new List<Person> { new Person { name = "John", department = new List<fields> {new fields { name = "department", value = "IT"}}}, new Person { name = "Sally", department = new List<fields> {new fields { name = "department", value = "IT"}}}, new Person { name = "Bob", department = new List<fields> {new fields { name = "department", value = "Finance"}}}, new Person { name = "Wanda", department = new List<fields> {new fields { name = "department", value = "Finance"}}}, }; I've toyed around with grouping. This is as far as I've got: var query = from p in people from field in p.department where field.name == "department" group p by field.value into departments select new { Department = departments.Key, Name = departments }; So can iterate over the groups, but not sure how to list the Person names - foreach (var department in query) { Console.WriteLine("Department: {0}", department.Department); foreach (var foo in department.Department) { // ?? } } Any ideas on what to do better or how to list the names of the relevant departments?

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• Why isn't obliterate an essential feature of Subversion?

  - by Dimitri C.

  For some years now, I'm waiting for Subversion to feature a "delete permanently" (obliterate) function. I hesitate to make the transition to Subversion (coming from Visual SourceSafe :p), because I think this is an essential feature, as otherwise I'd expect the repository to grow unstopably. However, for one reason or the other, the feature gets postponed over and over again. So I begin wondering if there is some other feature or workaround which makes the obliterate function dispensable. What do you do when you want to shrink the SVN central repository? Example 1: I check in a large third party library, and after a few weeks I realize it is not suited for my needs. I don't want that to store and backup that large amount of data forever. Example 2: I have 10 versions of 10 big third party libraries in the repository, but I only use the latest versions. Example 3: I accidentally checked in sensitive information (as suggested by John). Example 4: I accidentally checked in some big files that were never meant to be put in the repository.

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• Assistance with CC Processing script

  - by JM4

  I am currently implementing a credit card processing script, most as provided by the merchant gateway. The code calls functions within a class and returns a string based on the response. The end php code I am using (details removed of course) with example information is: <?php $gw = new gwapi; $gw->setLogin("username", "password"); $gw->setBilling("John","Smith","Acme, Inc.","888","Suite 200", "Beverly Hills", "CA","77777","US","555-555-5555","555-555-5556","[email protected]", "www.example.com"); // "CA","90210","US","[email protected]"); $gw->setOrder("1234","Big Order",1, 2, "PO1234","65.192.14.10"); $r = $gw->doSale("1.00","4111111111111111","1010"); print $gw->responses['responsetext']; ?> where setlogin allows me to login, setbilling takes the sample consumer information, set order takes the order id and description, dosale takes the amount charged, cc number and exp date. when all the variables are sent validated then sent off for processing, a string is returned in the following format: response=1&responsetext=SUCCESS&authcode=123456&transactionid=23456&avsresponse=M&orderid=&type=sale&response_code=100 where: response = transaction approved or declined response text = textual response authcode = transaction authorization code transactionid = payment gateway tran id avsresponse = avs response code orderid = original order id passed in tran request response_code = numeric mapping of processor response I am trying to solve for the following: How do I take the data which is passed back and display it appropriately on the page - If the transaction failed or AVS code doesnt match my liking or something is wrong, an error is displayed to the consumer; if the transaction processed, they are taken to a completion page and the transaction id is sent in SESSION as output to the consumer If the response_code value matches a table of values, certain actions are taken, i.e. if code =100, take to success page, if code = 300 print specific error on original page to customer, etc.

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• Basic SQL Query, I am newbie

  - by user3530547

  I just started my database and query class on Monday. We met on Monday and just went over the syllabus, and on Wednesday the network at school was down so we couldn't even do the power point lecture. Right now I am working on my first homework assignment and I am almost finished but I am having trouble on one question. Here is is... Write a SELECT statement that returns one column from the Customers table named FullName that joins the LastName and FirstName columns. Format the columns with the last name, a comma, a space, and the first name like this: Doe, John Sort the result set by last name in ascending sequence. Return only the contacts whose last name begins with letters from M to Z. Here is what I have so far... USE md0577283 SELECT FirstName,LastName FROM Customers ORDER BY LastName,FirstName My question is how do I format is Lastname, FirstName like the professor wants and how do I only select names M-Z? If someone could point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. PS With all do respect, I didn't ask for the answer I asked for a nudge in the right direction so why the down vote guys?

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• Not getting an array as result (calling a webservice by AJAX-JSON)

  - by Pasargad

  I'm trying to get the result of my web service as an array and then loop over the result to fetch all of the data; what I have done so far: In my web service when I return the result I use return json_encode($newFiles); and the result is as following: "[{\"path\":\"c:\\\\my_images\\\\123.jpg\",\"ID\":\"123\",\"FName\":\"John\",\"LName\":\"Brown\",\"dept\":\"Hr\"}]" tehn in my Web application I'm calling the rest web service by the following code in the RestService class: public function getNewImages($time) { $url = $this->rest_url['MyService'] . "?action=getAllNewPhotos&accessKey=" . $this->rest_key['MyService'] . "&lastcheck=" . $time; $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); $data = curl_exec($ch); if ($data) { return json_decode($data); } else { return null; } } and then in my controller I have the following code: public function getNewImgs($time="2011-11-03 14:35:08") { $newImgs = $this->restservice->getNewImages($time); echo json_encode$newImgs; } and I'm calling this `enter code here`controller method by AJAX: $("#searchNewImgManually").click(function(e) { e.preventDefault(); $.ajax({ type: "POST", async: true, datatype: "json", url: "<?PHP echo base_url("myProjectController/getNewImgs"); ?>", success: function(imgsResults) { alert(imgsResults[0]); } }); }); but instead of giving me the first object it is just giving me quotation mark (the first charachter of the result) " Why is that? I'm passing in JSON format and in AJAX I mentioned datatype as "JSON" ! Please let me know if you need more clarification! Thanks :)

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• vb Syntax error in INSERT INTO statement

  - by user201806

  im new in vb, i was create a program to connection ms access but when i run the program it get syntax error in Insert into statement, OleDbExpection was unhandled here my code Public Class Form2 Dim cnn As New OleDb.OleDbConnection Private Sub Form2_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load txtdate.Value = DateTime.Now cnn = New OleDb.OleDbConnection cnn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.Oledb.4.0; Data Source=C:\Users\John\Documents\db.mdb" End Sub Private Sub btnsave_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnsave.Click If Not cnn.State = ConnectionState.Open Then cnn.Open() End If Dim cmd As New OleDb.OleDbCommand cmd.Connection = cnn cmd.CommandText = "INSERT INTO sr(names,add,tel,dates,prob,serv,model,snm,acc,sna,remark)" & _ "VALUES ('" & Me.txtname.Text & "','" & Me.txtadd.Text & "','" & Me.txttel.Text & "', '" & _ Me.txtdate.Text & "','" & Me.txtpro.Text & "','" & Me.txtser.Text & "','" & Me.txtmod.Text & "', '" & _ Me.txtsnm.Text & "','" & Me.txtacc.Text & "','" & Me.txtsna.Text & "','" & Me.txtrem.Text & "')" cmd.ExecuteNonQuery() cnn.Close() End Sub End Class it's there any wrong with my code?

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• How to stream authenticated content with MediaPlayer on Android

  - by 102790073222983779908

  I've seen quite a few posts askign this question on SO but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer (or at least an answer I like!) I've got content protected behind basic auth (username/password) -- I can download it fine using the various HTTP download clases but for the life of me I can't sort out how to tell media player to stream it (and provide the authentication). I saw one post that suggested it wasn't possible since the MediaPlayer is all native code and doesn't things like the Authenticator. There are plenty of examples of how to first download to a cached copy and then play that back but....That sort of sucks (and the files maybe 100's of MB's). I saw at least one proposal to download it in smalish chunks and then start & stop the playback (redirecting to the new file) but that sort of sucks also since there would (I presume) be a stutter (I haven't tried it though) The best idea I have at this point is to start downloading to a cache file and then when it's 'full enough' start up playback while I continue to fill the file.... I hope that this works (but again, haven't tried it). Am I missing something obvious? It's so painful to have all the various pieces almost working and I sort of convinced myself that there had to be a way to natively stream protected content (or have it take a already established & qualified InputStream) but it appears no joy. BTW I'm a Mac/iPhone guy and a newb at Android so I'm still fighting a bit of Java learning.... Excuse me if I'm missing somthing obvious. -john

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• [Ruby On Rails] belongs_to with :class_name option fails.

  - by crackpot

  I have no idea what went wrong but I can't get belongs_to work with :class_name option. Could somebody enlighten me. Thanks a lot! Here is a snip from my code. class CreateUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :users do |t| t.text :name end end def self.down drop_table :users end end ##################################################### class CreateBooks < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :books do |t| t.text :title t.integer :author_id, :null => false end end def self.down drop_table :books end end ##################################################### class User < ActiveRecord::Base has_many: books end ##################################################### class Book < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :author, :class_name => 'User', :validate => true end ##################################################### class BooksController < ApplicationController def create user = User.new({:name => 'John Woo'}) user.save @failed_book = Book.new({:title => 'Failed!', :author => @user}) @failed_book.save # missing author_id @success_book = Book.new({:title => 'Nice day', :author_id => @user.id}) @success_book.save # no error! end end environment: ruby 1.9.1-p387 Rails 2.3.5

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• Questions about "sets"

  - by James

  I have a test tomorrow that I am revising for and the lecturer has supplied some sample questions with no answers. I was hoping I could get some help with a couple of them. I've written what I think the answer is for them. 1. What is the type of the set {1, 2, 3}? integer/number 2. What is the type of the set {{1}, {2}, {3}}? integer/number (unsure what putting each number in {} does?) 3. What is the type of the set {{1}, {2}, {3}, empty}? integer/number 4. What is the type of the set {1, {2}, 3}? — is it well typed? integer/number 5. What is the type of the set {1, 2, john}? — is it well typed? unsure for a mixed set. Taking a complete guess of void or empty. Any help will be much appreciated.

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• SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services - The Word is But a Stage (T-SQL Tuesday #006)

  - by smisner

  Host Michael Coles (blog|twitter) has selected LOB data as the topic for this month's T-SQL Tuesday, so I'll take this opportunity to post an overview of reporting with spatial data types. As part of my work with SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services, I've been exploring the use of spatial data types in the new map data region. You can create a map using any of the following data sources: Map Gallery - a set of Shapefiles for the United States only that ships with Reporting Services ESRI Shapefile - a .shp file conforming to the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) shapefile spatial data format SQL Server spatial data - a query that includes SQLGeography or SQLGeometry data types Rob Farley (blog|twitter) points out today in his T-SQL Tuesday post that using the SQL geography field is a preferable alternative to ESRI shapefiles for storing spatial data in SQL Server. So how do you get spatial data? If you don't already have a GIS application in-house, you can find a variety of sources. Here are a few to get you started: US Census Bureau Website, http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/ Global Administrative Areas Spatial Database, http://biogeo.berkeley.edu/gadm/ Digital Chart of the World Data Server, http://www.maproom.psu.edu/dcw/ In a recent post by Pinal Dave (blog|twitter), you can find a link to free shapefiles for download and a tutorial for using Shape2SQL, a free tool to convert shapefiles into SQL Server data. In my post today, I'll show you how to use combine spatial data that describes boundaries with spatial data in AdventureWorks2008R2 that identifies stores locations to embed a map in a report. Preparing the spatial data First, I downloaded Shapefile data for the administrative boundaries in France and unzipped the data to a local folder. Then I used Shape2SQL to upload the data into a SQL Server database called Spatial. I'm not sure of the reason why, but I had to uncheck the option to create a spatial index to upload the data. Otherwise, the upload appeared to run successfully, but no table appeared in my database. The zip file that I downloaded contained three files, but I didn't know what was in them until I used Shape2SQL to upload the data into tables. Then I found that FRA_adm0 contains spatial data for the country of France, FRA_adm1 contains spatial data for each region, and FRA_adm2 contains spatial data for each department (a subdivision of region). Next I prepared my SQL query containing sales data for fictional stores selling Adventure Works products in France. The Person.Address table in the AdventureWorks2008R2 database (which you can download from Codeplex) contains a SpatialLocation column which I joined - along with several other tables - to the Sales.Customer and Sales.Store tables. I'll be able to superimpose this data on a map to see where these stores are located. I included the SQL script for this query (as well as the spatial data for France) in the downloadable project that I created for this post. Step 1: Using the Map Wizard to Create a Map of France You can build a map without using the wizard, but I find it's rather useful in this case. Whether you use Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) or Report Builder 3.0, the map wizard is the same. I used BIDS so that I could create a project that includes all the files related to this post. To get started, I added an empty report template to the project and named it France Stores. Then I opened the Toolbox window and dragged the Map item to the report body which starts the wizard. Here are the steps to perform to create a map of France: On the Choose a source of spatial data page of the wizard, select SQL Server spatial query, and click Next. On the Choose a dataset with SQL Server spatial data page, select Add a new dataset with SQL Server spatial data. On the Choose a connection to a SQL Server spatial data source page, select New. In the Data Source Properties dialog box, on the General page, add a connecton string like this (changing your server name if necessary): Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog=Spatial Click OK and then click Next. On the Design a query page, add a query for the country shape, like this: select * from fra_adm1 Click Next. The map wizard reads the spatial data and renders it for you on the Choose spatial data and map view options page, as shown below. You have the option to add a Bing Maps layer which shows surrounding countries. Depending on the type of Bing Maps layer that you choose to add (from Road, Aerial, or Hybrid) and the zoom percentage you select, you can view city names and roads and various boundaries. To keep from cluttering my map, I'm going to omit the Bing Maps layer in this example, but I do recommend that you experiment with this feature. It's a nice integration feature. Use the + or - button to rexize the map as needed. (I used the + button to increase the size of the map until its edges were just inside the boundaries of the visible map area (which is called the viewport). You can eliminate the color scale and distance scale boxes that appear in the map area later. Select the Embed map data in this report for faster rendering. The spatial data won't be changing, so there's no need to leave it in the database. However, it does increase the size of the RDL. Click Next. On the Choose map visualization page, select Basic Map. We'll add data for visualization later. For now, we have just the outline of France to serve as the foundation layer for our map. Click Next, and then click Finish. Now click the color scale box in the lower left corner of the map, and press the Delete key to remove it. Then repeat to remove the distance scale box in the lower right corner of the map. Step 2: Add a Map Layer to an Existing Map The map data region allows you to add multiple layers. Each layer is associated with a different data set. Thus far, we have the spatial data that defines the regional boundaries in the first map layer. Now I'll add in another layer for the store locations by following these steps: If the Map Layers windows is not visible, click the report body, and then click twice anywhere on the map data region to display it. Click on the New Layer Wizard button in the Map layers window. And then we start over again with the process by choosing a spatial data source. Select SQL Server spatial query, and click Next. Select Add a new dataset with SQL Server spatial data, and click Next. Click New, add a connection string to the AdventureWorks2008R2 database, and click Next. Add a query with spatial data (like the one I included in the downloadable project), and click Next. The location data now appears as another layer on top of the regional map created earlier. Use the + button to resize the map again to fill as much of the viewport as possible without cutting off edges of the map. You might need to drag the map within the viewport to center it properly. Select Embed map data in this report, and click Next. On the Choose map visualization page, select Basic Marker Map, and click Next. On the Choose color theme and data visualization page, in the Marker drop-down list, change the marker to diamond. There's no particular reason for a diamond; I think it stands out a little better than a circle on this map. Clear the Single color map checkbox as another way to distinguish the markers from the map. You can of course create an analytical map instead, which would change the size and/or color of the markers according to criteria that you specify, such as sales volume of each store, but I'll save that exploration for another post on another day. Click Finish and then click Preview to see the rendered report. Et voilà...c'est fini. Yes, it's a very simple map at this point, but there are many other things you can do to enhance the map. I'll create a series of posts to explore the possibilities. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• 2 Days of Share &amp; Point

  - by Mark Rackley

  Groovy man… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is back for 2010, bigger and better than before. Join us for a far out time and learn more about SharePoint in one day than you could in a year from the man… Yes! SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is back! SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is the largest SharePoint conference in Arkansas, Southern Missouri, and the very north east tip of Oklahoma. Last year we had a great turn out with 20 speakers, 5 MVPs, and attendees coming from Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Michigan, and Washington. Hey Man… what’s SharePoint Saturday anyway? Sounds like a conspiracy man… Not to worry, SharePoint Saturday is not an arm of the government bent on mind control or any attempt what-so-ever to bring you down man. SharePoint Saturday is grass roots effort started by Michael Lotter (http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/pages/about.aspx). It is a FREE one day event where the best SharePoint speakers gather to present their love, hatred, and frustrations of SharePoint to those lucky individuals who attend. Lessons are learned, contacts are made, prizes are won, food is eaten, assorted beverages are consumed until wee hours of the morning. SharePoint Saturday started with just a few sporadic one day events here and there. However, over the past year SharePoint Saturday has exploded and it’s hard to find a weekend where there is NOT a SharePoint Saturday event happing in some corner of the globe. There are even occasions where there are two SharePoint Saturdays on the same day! Many people are pleasantly surprised at the caliber of speakers at these SharePoint Saturday events. For the most part, these speakers are more eloquent, practiced, and practical than those speakers you find at the major multi-day conferences. These guys aren’t even paid to speak.. they do it out of love man… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2009 Alumni We had a star studded cast last year with many returning this year! Just check out the fun that they had… John Ferringer – Admin rockstar… I can still sense the awesomeness   SharePoint poster children Mike Watson & Laura Rogers     Lori Gowin spreading the SharePoint Love Eric Shupps is a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll       Cathy Dew, Sean McDonough, and JD Wade relaxing between gigs Actually, you can see real photos from last year’s SharePoint Saturday ozarks here:  picasaweb.google.com/mrackley/SharePointSaturdayOzarks#    What’s new for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 will totally blow your mind man. We’re getting the band back to together with many returning speakers and few new faces. Joel Oleson will be speaking this year, maybe he’ll grace us with his song stylings. Sadly, once again, Andrew Connell will not be able to attend SharePoint Saturday Ozarks, however he did feel the need to show his support in his own way. Prizes this year currently include books, software, a Zune HD, and much more! Wait Man… You said 2 days? I thought it was a one day event? Correct you are my herbal smelling friend… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 will spread the love an additional day this year. The first day will be all about the SharePoint love, on day 2 we will be taking a leisurely float down the Buffalo National River for those interested in a truly unique experience (no banjos allowed please).   Here are the details: WHAT 4 – 5 hour float down the Buffalo National River WHEN & WHERE Sunday June 13th. We will be leaving at 10am from the Parking Lot of: Gordon’s Motel & Canoe Rental Old Highway 7 Jasper, AR 72641 (870) 446-5252 Jasper is about 30 minutes south of Harrison, AR on Highway 7 South. You are responsible for bumming a ride to/from Gordon’s Motel, but they will be shuttling us to/from the river and providing canoes and a boxed lunch. WHAT ELSE? The float trip is dependent on the weather of course, we won’t be floating down the river in a thunderstorm, however I planned SPS Ozarks around a time of year ideal for floating. We aren’t talking class 5 rapids here, you don’t need any real skill, but you need to be okay with possibly tipping your canoe over once or twice. You can bring your own assorted beverages with you, but glass containers are not allowed on the river. I suggest a small cooler with extra snacks and drinks. Also bring clothing you can get wet in (these SharePoint people can get ornery). HOW DO I SIGN UP? When you register for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks, you will have the option to also sign up for the float trip. Seats are limited though! If you do not intend to go, please do not take someone else’s place.  The cost for the float trip will be about $35 dollars per person (which you are responsible for unless we find a sponsor). The price includes shuttle to/from river, canoe, life jackets, paddles, and boxed lunch. Far out man… how do I register??? You can register for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks by going to http://spsozarks.eventbrite.com/ We are limited to 200 people for the conference and 50 people for the float trip, so register today before we are sold out. Lodging for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks will once again take place at the Hotel Seville: Annex Suites are available for $103.20 This is So Groovy.. How can I help? I’m glad you asked! We are still looking for a few sponsors and one or two more speakers. If you are interested please let me know!  You can find out more information at http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/ozarks Hey… wait a minute…. what exactly IS SharePoint man??? Come to SharePoint Saturday Ozarks and find out!!  See you guys there!

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• So, how is the Oracle HCM Cloud User Experience? In a word, smokin’!

  - by Edith Mireles-Oracle

  By Misha Vaughan, Oracle Applications User Experience Oracle unveiled its game-changing cloud user experience strategy at Oracle OpenWorld 2013 (remember that?) with a new simplified user interface (UI) paradigm.  The Oracle HCM cloud user experience is about light-weight interaction, tailored to the task you are trying to accomplish, on the device you are comfortable working with. A key theme for the Oracle user experience is being able to move from smartphone to tablet to desktop, with all of your data in the cloud. The Oracle HCM Cloud user experience provides designs for better productivity, no matter when and how your employees need to work. Release 8  Oracle recently demonstrated how fast it is moving development forward for our cloud applications, with the availability of release 8.  In release 8, users will see expanded simplicity in the HCM cloud user experience, such as filling out a time card and succession planning. Oracle has also expanded its mobile capabilities with task flows for payslips, managing absences, and advanced analytics. In addition, users will see expanded extensibility with the new structures editor for simplified pages, and the with the user interface text editor, which allows you to update language throughout the UI from one place. If you don’t like calling people who work for you “employees,” you can use this tool to create a term that is suited to your business.  Take a look yourself at what’s available now. What are people saying?Debra Lilley (@debralilley), an Oracle ACE Director who has a long history with Oracle Applications, recently gave her perspective on release 8: “Having had the privilege of seeing a preview of release 8, I am again impressed with the enhancements around simplified UI. Even more so, at a user group event in London this week, an existing Cloud HCM customer speaking publically about his implementation said he was very excited about release 8 as the absence functionality was so superior and simple to use.”  In an interview with Lilley for a blog post by Dennis Howlett  (@dahowlett), we probably couldn’t have asked for a more even-handed look at the Oracle Applications Cloud and the impact of user experience. Take the time to watch all three videos and get the full picture.  In closing, Howlett’s said: “There is always the caveat that getting from the past to Fusion [from the editor: Fusion is now called the Oracle Applications Cloud] is not quite as simple as may be painted, but the outcomes are much better than anticipated in large measure because the user experience is so much better than what went before.” Herman Slange, Technical Manager with Oracle Applications partner Profource, agrees with that comment. “We use on-premise Financials & HCM for internal use. Having a simple user interface that works on a desktop as well as a tablet for (very) non-technical users is a big relief. Coming from E-Business Suite, there is less training (none) required to access HCM content.  From a technical point of view, having the abilities to tailor the simplified UI very easy makes it very efficient for us to adjust to specific customer needs.  When we have a conversation about simplified UI, we just hand over a tablet and ask the customer to just use it. No training and no explanation required.” Finally, in a story by Computer Weekly  about Oracle customer BG Group, a natural gas exploration and production company based in the UK and with a presence in 20 countries, the author states: “The new HR platform has proved to be easier and more intuitive for HR staff to use than the previous SAP-based technology.” What’s Next for Oracle’s Applications Cloud User Experiences? This is the question that Steve Miranda, Oracle Executive Vice President, Applications Development, asks the Applications User Experience team, and we’ve been hard at work for some time now on “what’s next.”  I can’t say too much about it, but I can tell you that we’ve started talking to customers and partners, under non-disclosure agreements, about user experience concepts that we are working on in order to get their feedback. We recently had a chance to talk about possibilities for the Oracle HCM Cloud user experience at an Oracle HCM Southern California Customer Success Summit. This was a fantastic event, hosted by Shane Bliss and Vance Morossi of the Oracle Client Success Team. We got to use the uber-slick facilities of Allergan, our hosts (of Botox fame), headquartered in Irvine, Calif., with a presence in more than 100 countries. Photo by Misha Vaughan, Oracle Applications User Experience Vance Morossi, left, and Shane Bliss, of the Oracle Client Success Team, at an Oracle HCM Southern California Customer Success Summit.  We were treated to a few really excellent talks around human resources (HR). Alice White, VP Human Resources, discussed Allergan's process for global talent acquisition -- how Allergan has designed and deployed a global process, and global tools, along with Oracle and Cognizant, and are now at the end of a global implementation. She shared a couple of insights about the journey for Allergan: “One of the major areas for improvement was on role clarification within the company.” She said the company is “empowering managers and deputizing them as recruiters. Now it is a global process that is nimble and efficient."  Deepak Rammohan, VP Product Management, HCM Cloud, Oracle, also took the stage to talk about pioneering modern HR. He reflected modern HR problems of getting the right data about the workforce, the importance of getting the right talent as a key strategic initiative, and other workforce insights. "How do we design systems to deal with all of this?” he asked. “Make sure the systems are talent-centric. The next piece is collaborative, engaging, and mobile. A lot of this is influenced by what users see today. The last thing is around insight; insight at the point of decision-making." Rammohan showed off some killer HCM Cloud talent demos focused on simplicity and mobility that his team has been cooking up, and closed with a great line about the nature of modern recruiting: "Recruiting is a team sport." Deepak Rammohan, left, and Jake Kuramoto, both of Oracle, debate the merits of a Google Glass concept demo for recruiters on-the-go. Later, in an expo-style format, the Apps UX team showed several concepts for next-generation HCM Cloud user experiences, including demos shown by Jake Kuramoto (@jkuramoto) of The AppsLab, and Aylin Uysal (@aylinuysal), Director, HCM Cloud user experience. We even hauled out our eye-tracker, a research tool used to show where the eye is looking at a particular screen, thanks to teammate Michael LaDuke. Dionne Healy, HCM Client Executive, and Aylin Uysal, Director, HCM Cloud user experiences, Oracle, take a look at new HCM Cloud UX concepts. We closed the day with Jeremy Ashley (@jrwashley), VP, Applications User Experience, who brought it all back together by talking about the big picture for applications cloud user experiences. He covered the trends we are paying attention to now, what users will be expecting of their modern enterprise apps, and what Oracle’s design strategy is around these ideas.   We closed with an excellent reception hosted by ADP Payroll services at Bistango. Want to read more?Want to see where our cloud user experience is going next? Read more on the UsableApps web site about our latest design initiative: “Glance, Scan, Commit.” Or catch up on the back story by looking over our Applications Cloud user experience content on the UsableApps web site.  You can also find out where we’ll be next at the Events page on UsableApps.

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• XNA Notes 010

  - by George Clingerman

  With GDC 2011 wrapping up there were a LOT of great interviews and posts with and about XNA and XBLIG and some of our more notorious developers. Definitely worth spending many, many hours watching, listening and reading all those. Very inspiring! Also, don’t forget to get signed up for Dream Build Play! And just as an early warning reminder do NOT, I repeat do NOT wait to submit your game the last day. There are major issues submitting the last day every year and you do not want all your hard work to be hanging on whether your entry actually went through in that last day. Plan on submitting a few days if not a week before. I’m serious, you’ll thank yourself later! Now on to what’s happening in the XNA community! Time Critical XNA News: PAX East Meet Up (really wish I was going!) http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/71921/439262.aspx Want to stay panicked about the countdown to Dream Build Play? Mike McLaughlin shares his DBP countdown clock http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/44454458960252928 XNA Team: Nick Gravelyn Only needs less than 600 new users in his unique marketing plan for Pixel Man 2 http://nickgravelyn.com/pixelman2/ And hares his ad revenue numbers with his XNA WP7 games http://theoneswiththelight.com/2011/my-results-with-ad-revenue-for-wp7-games/ XNA MVPs: Andy “The ZMan” Dunn posts his 15,000th App Hub forum post and shares a few thoughts on the MVP summit http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/77625.aspx Chris Williams shares his thoughts on the MVP summit http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2011/03/07/144229.aspx XNA Developers: Nathan Fouts of Mommy’s Best games Wraps up GDC http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2011/03/gdc-2011-wrapped.html And shares the wonderful screenshots from Serious Sam. (I’m so jealous people at PAX East willl be playing a demo of this game!) http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2011/03/serious-sam-double-d.html James Silva of Ska Studios announces http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/09/vampire-smile-at-hotel-sierra/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/08/vengeance-begins-april-6th/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/04/good-morning-gato-52/ Michael McLaughlin writes an extremely useful set of tips for XNA WP7 developers http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/03/10/tips-for-xna-wp7-developers.aspx Robert Boyd “the one man XBLIG improving machine” posts his 9 tips for marketing an Xbox LIVE Indie Gam http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110309/7183/9_Tips_for_XBLIG_Marketing.php http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/77534/470586.aspx#470586 And shares his day by day experience at GDC this year http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110301/7118/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_1.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110301/7123/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_2.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110303/7129/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_3.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110307/7133/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_4.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110307/7160/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_5.php Phillipe Da Silva releases new IGF Pong Sample preview http://www.vimeo.com/20904070 Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): Gamergeddon posts XBox Indie Game Roundup for March 6th http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/03/06/xbox-indie-game-round-up-march-6th/ Dealspwn interviews FortressCraft developer Projector Games http://www.dealspwn.com/fortresscraft-developer-interview-minecraft-clones-venting-haters-part-1/ http://www.dealspwn.com/fortresscraft-developer-interview-part-2-trials-tribulations-indie-development/ Writings of Mass Destruction continues the Xbox LIVE Indie Game a day campaign, here’s his take on FishCraft (be sure to check out his other posts!) http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/03/05/day-116-fishcraft/ Tom Ogburn shares his GDC notes on the XBLIG panel jotted quickly while attending the panel http://twitter.com/#!/TOgburn/status/44454191028125696 http://www.starlitskygames.com/blogs/site_news/archive/2011/03/06/802.aspx Dave Voyles of Armless Octopus has crazy good coverage on XNA and Xbox LIVE Indie Game developers at GDC 2011. Interviews and articles all extremely well done! http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/06/gdc-2011-successful-indie-developers-share-insight-on-microsofts-self-publishing-service/ There’s honestly so many posts and interviews you should just hit his front page and scroll down through all of the latest ones. http://www.armlessoctopus.com/ GameMarx Episode 12 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/27/ep-12-march-4-2011.aspx B.U.T.T.O.N now on Steam! http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/03/button_party_game_now_on_steam.php German Xbox Dashboard gets review program from GamePro http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/07/gamepo-indie-review-show-debuts-on-german-xbox-dashboard/ XboxIndies.com (one of the best XNA sites out there at this point!) continues to add review sites to it’s main review feed. (And don’t forget to play with that awesome XBLIG pivot control!) http://xboxindies.com/ Kris Steele of FunInfused Games shares early footage of his game World of Chalk http://twitter.com/#!/kriswd40/status/45007114371989504 Raymond Matthews of Darkstarmatryx reviews FunInfused Games Abduction Action http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=264 TheVideoGamerRob reviews Zombie Football Carnage http://videogamerrob.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/xblig-review-zombie-football-carnage/ XBLIG Square Off Making the Jump to WP7 http://www.wp7connect.com/2011/03/08/xblig-square-off-will-make-the-jump-to-windows-phone/ Mommy’s Best Games making the news round with their Serious Sam announcement http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/09/serious-sam-gets-serious-indie-cred-with-new-indie-series/ Most quoted and linked XBLIG article of the week with the least amount of actual facts and reporting. Shared only because it makes me sad that this is the best coverage we get. (Hey reporters, there’s LOT and LOTS of XBLIG and XNA experts you can contact if you need to check up on facts or wonder why on questions like, Why can’t XBLIGs have Nazis? There’s actually a real answer for that..) http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/06/xblig-facts-nazi-killing-a-no-no-revenue-a-yes-yes/ XNA Development: Mort8088 has been in an XNA tutorial writing frenzy releasing 4 XNA 4.0 entry level tutorials this week! http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-0-intro/ http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-1-fonts/ http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-2-sprites/ http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-3-input-from-keyboard/ Interesting discussion on what it means to be a community (you do have to sign up to be a member of the XNA UK forums to read it...) http://twitter.com/#!/XNAUK/status/44705269254594560 Slyprid continues his incredible pace on Transmute and shares screens of his new Animation Builder http://twitter.com/#!/slyprid/status/45169271847911424 http://forgottenstarstudios.com/blog/ Philippe Da Silva wants to know who is using IGF for their games. If it’s you, drop him a note letting him know! http://twitter.com/#!/philippedasilva/status/44325893719588864 New Sunburn Video Tutorials released http://www.synapsegaming.com/blogs/fivesidedbarrel/archive/2011/03/07/new-documentation-video-tutorials.aspx Loading and rendering animated collada models using XNA 4.0 http://bunkernetz.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/loading-and-rendering-animated-collada-models-using-xna-4-0/ XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 6 Accelerometer Input http://buzzgamesnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/xna-for-silverlight-developers-part-6.html

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• On StringComparison Values

  - by Jesse

  When you use the .NET Framework’s String.Equals and String.Compare methods do you use an overloStringComparison enumeration value? If not, you should be because the value provided for that StringComparison argument can have a big impact on the results of your string comparison. The StringComparison enumeration defines values that fall into three different major categories: Culture-sensitive comparison using a specific culture, defaulted to the Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture value (StringComparison.CurrentCulture and StringComparison.CurrentCutlureIgnoreCase) Invariant culture comparison (StringComparison.InvariantCulture and StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) Ordinal (byte-by-byte) comparison of  (StringComparison.Ordinal and StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) There is a lot of great material available that detail the technical ins and outs of these different string comparison approaches. If you’re at all interested in the topic these two MSDN articles are worth a read: Best Practices For Using Strings in the .NET Framework: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465121.aspx How To Compare Strings: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc165449.aspx Those articles cover the technical details of string comparison well enough that I’m not going to reiterate them here other than to say that the upshot is that you typically want to use the culture-sensitive comparison whenever you’re comparing strings that were entered by or will be displayed to users and the ordinal comparison in nearly all other cases. So where does that leave the invariant culture comparisons? The “Best Practices For Using Strings in the .NET Framework” article has the following to say: “On balance, the invariant culture has very few properties that make it useful for comparison. It does comparison in a linguistically relevant manner, which prevents it from guaranteeing full symbolic equivalence, but it is not the choice for display in any culture. One of the few reasons to use StringComparison.InvariantCulture for comparison is to persist ordered data for a cross-culturally identical display. For example, if a large data file that contains a list of sorted identifiers for display accompanies an application, adding to this list would require an insertion with invariant-style sorting.” I don’t know about you, but I feel like that paragraph is a bit lacking. Are there really any “real world” reasons to use the invariant culture comparison? I think the answer to this question is, “yes”, but in order to understand why we should first think about what the invariant culture comparison really does. The invariant culture comparison is really just a culture-sensitive comparison using a special invariant culture (Michael Kaplan has a great post on the history of the invariant culture on his blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2004/12/29/344136.aspx). This means that the invariant culture comparison will apply the linguistic customs defined by the invariant culture which are guaranteed not to differ between different machines or execution contexts. This sort of consistently does prove useful if you needed to maintain a list of strings that are sorted in a meaningful and consistent way regardless of the user viewing them or the machine on which they are being viewed. Example: Prototype Names Let’s say that you work for a large multi-national toy company with branch offices in 10 different countries. Each year the company would work on 15-25 new toy prototypes each of which is assigned a “code name” while it is under development. Coming up with fun new code names is a big part of the company culture that everyone really enjoys, so to be fair the CEO of the company spent a lot of time coming up with a prototype naming scheme that would be fun for everyone to participate in, fair to all of the different branch locations, and accessible to all members of the organization regardless of the country they were from and the language that they spoke. Each new prototype will get a code name that begins with a letter following the previously created name using the alphabetical order of the Latin/Roman alphabet. Each new year prototype names would start back at “A”. The country that leads the prototype development effort gets to choose the name in their native language. (An appropriate Romanization system will be used for countries where the primary language is not written in the Latin/Roman alphabet. For example, the Pinyin system could be used for Chinese). To avoid repeating names, a list of all current and past prototype names will be maintained on each branch location’s company intranet site. Assuming that maintaining a single pre-sorted list is not feasible among all of the highly distributed intranet implementations, what string comparison method would you use to sort each year’s list of prototype names so that the list is both meaningful and consistent regardless of the country within which the list is being viewed? Sorting the list with a culture-sensitive comparison using the default configured culture on each country’s intranet server the list would probably work most of the time, but subtle differences between cultures could mean that two different people would see a list that was sorted slightly differently. The CEO wants the prototype names to be a unifying aspect of company culture and is adamant that everyone see the the same list sorted in the same order and there’s no way to guarantee a consistent sort across different cultures using the culture-sensitive string comparison rules. The culture-sensitive sort would produce a meaningful list for the specific user viewing it, but it wouldn’t always be consistent between different users. Sorting with the ordinal comparison would certainly be consistent regardless of the user viewing it, but would it be meaningful? Let’s say that the current year’s prototype name list looks like this: Antílope (Spanish) Babouin (French) Cahoun (Czech) Diamond (English) Flosse (German) If you were to sort this list using ordinal rules you’d end up with: Antílope Babouin Diamond Flosse Cahoun This sort is no good because the entry for “C” appears the bottom of the list after “F”. This is because the Czech entry for the letter “C” makes use of a diacritic (accent mark). The ordinal string comparison does a byte-by-byte comparison of the code points that make up each character in the string and the code point for the “C” with the diacritic mark is higher than any letter without a diacritic mark, which pushes that entry to the bottom of the sorted list. The CEO wants each country to be able to create prototype names in their native language, which means we need to allow for names that might begin with letters that have diacritics, so ordinal sorting kills the meaningfulness of the list. As it turns out, this situation is actually well-suited for the invariant culture comparison. The invariant culture accounts for linguistically relevant factors like the use of diacritics but will provide a consistent sort across all machines that perform the sort. Now that we’ve walked through this example, the following line from the “Best Practices For Using Strings in the .NET Framework” makes a lot more sense: One of the few reasons to use StringComparison.InvariantCulture for comparison is to persist ordered data for a cross-culturally identical display That line describes the prototype name example perfectly: we need a way to persist ordered data for a cross-culturally identical display. While this example is 100% made-up, I think it illustrates that there are indeed real-world situations where the invariant culture comparison is useful.

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• Learning content for MCSDs: Web Applications and Windows Store Apps using HTML5

  Recently, I started again to learn for various Microsoft certifications. First candidate on my way to MSCD: Web Applications is the Exam 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3. Motivation to go for a Microsoft exam I guess, this is quite personal but let me briefly describe my intentions to go that exam. First, I'm doing web development since the 1990's. Working with HTML, CSS and Javascript is happening almost daily in my workspace. And honestly, I do not only do 'pure' web development but already integrated several HTML/CSS/Javascript frontend UIs into an existing desktop application (written in Visual FoxPro) inclusive two-way communication and data exchange. Hm, might be an interesting topic for another blog article here... Second, this exam has a very interesting aspect which is listed at the bottom of the exam's details: Credit Toward Certification When you pass Exam 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3, you complete the requirements for the following certification(s): Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 Specialist Exam 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3: counts as credit toward the following certification(s): MCSD: Web Applications MCSD: Windows Store Apps using HTML5 So, passing one single exam will earn you specialist certification straight-forward, and opens the path to higher levels of certifications. Preparations and learning path Well, due to a newsletter from Microsoft Learning (MSL) I caught interest in picking up the circumstances and learning materials for this particular exam. As of writing this article there is a promotional / voucher code available which enables you to register for this exam for free! Simply register yourself with or log into your existing account at Prometric, choose the exam for a testing facility near to you and enter the voucher code HTMLJMP (available through 31.03.2013 or while supplies last). Hurry up, there are restrictions... As stated above, I'm already very familiar with web development and the programming flavours involved into this. But of course, it is always good to freshen up your knowledge and reflect on yourself. Microsoft is putting a lot of effort to attract any kind of developers into the 'App Development'. Whether it is for the Windows 8 Store or the Windows Phone 8 Store, doesn't really matter. They simply need more apps. This demand for skilled developers also comes with a nice side-effect: Lots and lots of material to study. During the first couple of hours, I could easily gather high quality preparation material - again for free! Following is just a small list of starting points. If you have more resources, please drop me a message in the comment section, and I'll be glad to update this article accordingly. Developing HTML5 Apps Jump Start This is an accelerated jump start video course on development of HTML5 Apps for Windows 8. There are six modules that are split into two video sessions per module. Very informative and intense course material. This is packed stuff taken from an official preparation course for exam 70-480. Developing Windows Store Apps with HTML5 Jump Start Again, an accelerated preparation video course on Windows 8 Apps. There are six modules with two video sessions each which will catapult you to your exam. This is also related to preps for exam 70-481. Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Kraig Brockschmidt delves into the ups and downs of Windows 8 App development over 800+ pages. Great eBook to read, study, and to practice the samples - best of all, it's for free. codeSHOW() This is a Windows 8 HTML/JS project with the express goal of demonstrating simple development concepts for the Windows 8 platform. Code, code and more code... absolutely great stuff to study and practice. Microsoft Virtual Academy I already wrote about the MVA in a previous article. Well, if you haven't registered yourself yet, now is the time. The list is not complete for sure, but this might keep you busy for at least one or even two weeks to go through the material. Please don't hesitate to add more resources in the comment section. Right now, I'm already through all videos once, and digging my way through chapter 4 of Kraig's book. Additional material - Pluralsight Apart from those free online resources, I also following some courses from the excellent library of Pluralsight. They already have their own section for Windows 8 development, but of course, you get companion material about HTML5, CSS and Javascript in other sections, too. Introduction to Building Windows 8 Applications Building Windows 8 Applications with JavaScript and HTML Selling Windows 8 Apps HTML5 Fundamentals Using HTML5 and CSS3 HTML5 Advanced Topics CSS3 etc... Interesting to see that Michael Palermo provides his course material on multiple platforms. Fantastic! You might also pay a visit to his personal blog. Hm, it just came to my mind that Aaron Skonnard of Pluralsight publishes so-called '24 hours Learning Paths' based on courses available in the course library. Would be interested to see a combination for Windows 8 App development using HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript in the future. Recommended workspace environment Well, you might have guessed it but this requires Windows 8, Visual Studio 2012 Express or another flavour, and a valid Developers License. Due to an MSDN subscription I working on VS 2012 Premium with some additional tools by Telerik. Honestly, the fastest way to get you up and running for Windows 8 App development is the source code archive of codeSHOW(). It does not only give you all source code in general but contains a couple of SDKs like Bing Maps, Microsoft Advertising, Live ID, and Telerik Windows 8 controls... for free! Hint: Get the Windows Phone 8 SDK as well. Don't worry, while you are studying the material for Windows 8 you will be able to leverage from this knowledge to development for the phone platform, too. It takes roughly one to two hours to get your workspace and learning environment, at least this was my time frame due to slow internet connection and an aged spare machine. ;-) Oh, before I forget to mention it, as soon as you're done, go quickly to the Windows Store and search for ClassBrowserPlus. You might not need it ad hoc for your development using HTML5, CSS and Javascript but I think that it is a great developer's utility that enables you to view the properties, methods and events (along with help text) for all Windows 8 classes. It's always good to look behind the scenes and to explore how it is made. Idea: Start/join a learning group The way you learn new things or intensify your knowledge in a certain technology is completely up to your personal preference. Back in my days at the university, we used to meet once or twice a week in a small quiet room to exchange our progress, questions and problems we ran into. In general, I recommend to any software craftsman to lift your butt and get out to exchange with other developers. Personally, I like this approach, as it gives you new points of view and an insight into others' own experience with certain techniques and how they managed to solve tricky issues. Just keep it relaxed and not too formal after all, and you might a have a good time away from your dull office desk. Give your machine a break, too.

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