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• Stream Media and Live TV Across the Internet with Orb

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Looking for a way to stream your media collection across the Internet? Or perhaps watch and record TV remotely? Today we are going to look at how to do all that and more with Orb. Requirements Windows XP / Vista / 7 or Intel based Mac w/ OS X 10.5 or later. 1 GB RAM or more Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or higher / AMD Athlon 3200+ Broadband connections TV Tuner for streaming and recording live TV (optional) Note: Slower internet connections may result in stuttering during playback. Installation and Setup Download and install Orb on your home computer. (Download link below) You’ll want to take the defaults for the initial portion of the install. When we get to the Orb Account setup portion of the install is when we will have to enter information and make some decisions. Choose your language and click Next. We’ll need to create and user account and password. A valid email address is required as we’ll need to confirm the account later. Click Next.   Now you’ll want to choose your media sources. Orb will automatically look for folders that may contain media files. You can add or remove folders click on the (+) or (-) buttons. To remove a folder, click on it once to select it from the list and then click the minus (-) button. To add a folder, click the plus (+) button and browse for the folder. You can add local folders as well as shared folders from networked computers and USB attached storage. Note: Both the host computer running Orb and the networked computer will need to be running to access shared network folders remotely. When you’ve selected all your media files, click Next. Orb will proceed to index your media files… When the indexing is complete, click Next. Orb TV Setup Note: Streaming Live TV to Macs is not currently supported. If you have a TV tuner card connected to your PC, you can opt to configure Orb to stream live or recorded TV. Click Next  to configure TV. Or, choose Skip if you don’t wish to configure Orb for TV.   If you have a Digital tuner card, type in your Zip Code and click Get List to pull your channel listings. Select a TV provider from the list and click Next. If not, click Skip.   You can select or deselect any channels by checking or un-checking the box to each channel. Select Auto Scan to let Orb find more channels or disable the ones with no reception. Click Next when finished.   Next choose an analog provider, if necessary, and click Next.   Select “Yes” or “No” for a set top box and click Next. Just as we did with the Digital tuner, select or deselect any channels by checking or un-checking the box to each channel. Select Auto Scan to let Orb find more channels or disable the ones with no reception. Click Next when finished.   Now we’re finished with the setup. Click Close. Accessing your Media Remotely Media files are accessed through a web-based interface. Before we go any further, however, we’ll need to confirm our username and password. Check your inbox for an email from Orb Networks. Click the enclosed confirmation link. You’ll be prompted to enter the username and password you selected in your browser then click Next.   Your account will be confirmed. Now, we’re ready to enjoy our media remotely. To get started, point your browser to the MyCast website from your remote computer. (See link below) Enter your credentials and click Log In. Once logged in, you’ll be presented with the MyCast Home screen. By default you’ll see a handful of “channels” such as a TV program guide, random audio and photos, video favorites, and weather. You can add, remove, or customize channels. To add additional channels, click on Add Channels at the top right…   …and select from the dropdown list. To access your full media libraries, click Open Application at the top left and select from one of the options. Live and Recorded TV If you have a TV tuner card you configured for Orb, you’ll see your program guide on the TV / Webcams screen. To watch or record a show, click on the program listing to bring up a detail box. Then click the red button to record, or the green button to play. When recording a show, you’ll see a pulsating red icon at the top right of the listing in the program guide. If you want to watch Live TV, you may be prompted to choose your media player, depending on your browser and settings. Playback should begin shortly.   Note for Windows Media Center Users If you try to stream live TV in Orb while Windows Media Center is running on your PC, you’ll get an error message. Click the Stop MediaCenter button and then try again.   Audio On the Audio screen, you’ll find your music files indexed by genre, artist, and album. You can play a selection by clicking once and then clicking the green play button, or by simply double-clicking.   Playback will begin in the default media player for the streaming format.   Video Video works essentially the same as audio. Click on a selection and press the green play button, or double-click on the video title. Video playback will begin in the default media player for the streaming format.   Streaming Formats You can change the default streaming format in the control panel settings. To access the Control Panel, click on Open Applications  and select Control Panel. You can also click Settings at the top right.   Select General from the drop down list and then click on the Streaming Formats tab. You are provided four options. Flash, Windows Media, .SDP, and .PLS.   Creating Playlists To create playlists, drag and drop your media title to the playlist work area on the right, or click Add to playlist on the top menu. Click Save when finished.    Sharing your Media Orb allows you to share media playlists across the Internet with friends and family. There are a few ways to accomplish this. We’ll start by click the Share button at the bottom of the playlist work area after you’ve compiled your playlist. You’ll be prompted to choose a method by which to share your playlist. You’ll have the option to share your playlist publicly or privately. You can share publically through links, blogs, or on your Orb public profile.  By choosing the Public Profile option, Orb will automatically create a profile page for you with a URL like http://public.orb.com/username that anyone can easily access on the Internet. The private sharing option allows you to invite friends by email and requires recipients to register with Orb. You can also give your playlist a custom name, or accept the auto-generated title. Click OK when finished. Users who visit your public profile will be able to view and stream any of your shared playlists to their computer or supported device.   Portable Media Devices and Smartphones Orb can stream media to many portable devices and 3G phones. Streaming audio is supported on the iPhone and iPod Touch through the Safari browser. However, video and live TV streaming requires the Orb Live iPhone App.  Orb Live is available in the App store for $9.99. To stream media to your portable device, go to the MyCast website in your mobile browser and login. Browse for your media or playlist. Make a selection and play the media. Playback will begin. We found streaming music to both the Droid and the iPhone to work quite nicely. Video playback on the Droid, however, left a bit to be desired. The video looked good, but the audio tended to be out of sync. System Tray Control Panel By default Orb runs in the system tray on start up. To access the System Tray Control Panel, right-click on the Orb icon in the system tray and select Control Panel. Login with your Orb username and  password and click OK.   From here you can add or remove media sources, add manage accounts, change your password, and more. If you’d rather not run Orb on Startup, click the General icon.   Unselect the checkbox next to Start Orb when the system starts. Conclusion It may seem like a lot of steps, but getting Orb up and running isn’t terribly difficult. Orb is available for both Windows and Intel based Macs. It also supports streaming to many Game Consoles such as the Wii, PS3, and XBox 360. If you are running Windows 7 on multiple computers, you may want to check out our write-up on how to stream music and video over the Internet with Windows Media Player 12. Downloads Download Orb Logon to MyCast Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Stream Music and Video Over the Internet with Windows Media Player 12Enable Media Streaming in Windows Home Server to Windows Media PlayerStream Media from Windows 7 to XP with VLC Media PlayerShare Digital Media With Other Computers on a Home Network with Windows 7Automatically Start Windows 7 Media Center in Live TV Mode TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Looking for Good Windows Media Player 12 Plug-ins? Find Out the Celebrity You Resemble With FaceDouble Whoa ! Use Printflush to Solve Printing Problems Icelandic Volcano Webcams Open Multiple Links At One Go

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• Using Razor together with ASP.NET Web API

  - by Fredrik N

  On the blog post “If Then, If Then, If Then, MVC” I found the following code example: [HttpGet]public ActionResult List() { var list = new[] { "John", "Pete", "Ben" }; if (Request.AcceptTypes.Contains("application/json")) { return Json(list, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet); } if (Request.IsAjaxRequest()) [ return PartialView("_List", list); } return View(list); } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The code is a ASP.NET MVC Controller where it reuse the same “business” code but returns JSON if the request require JSON, a partial view when the request is an AJAX request or a normal ASP.NET MVC View. The above code may have several reasons to be changed, and also do several things, the code is not closed for modifications. To extend the code with a new way of presenting the model, the code need to be modified. So I started to think about how the above code could be rewritten so it will follow the Single Responsibility and open-close principle. I came up with the following result and with the use of ASP.NET Web API: public String[] Get() { return new[] { "John", "Pete", "Ben" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   It just returns the model, nothing more. The code will do one thing and it will do it well. But it will not solve the problem when it comes to return Views. If we use the ASP.NET Web Api we can get the result as JSON or XML, but not as a partial view or as a ASP.NET MVC view. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do the following against the Get() method?   Accept: application/json JSON will be returned – Already part of the Web API   Accept: text/html Returns the model as HTML by using a View   The best thing, it’s possible!   By using the RazorEngine I created a custom MediaTypeFormatter (RazorFormatter, code at the end of this blog post) and associate it with the media type “text/html”. I decided to use convention before configuration to decide which Razor view should be used to render the model. To register the formatter I added the following code to Global.asax: GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.Add(new RazorFormatter()); Here is an example of a ApiController that just simply returns a model: using System.Web.Http; namespace WebApiRazor.Controllers { public class CustomersController : ApiController { // GET api/values public Customer Get() { return new Customer { Name = "John Doe", Country = "Sweden" }; } } public class Customer { public string Name { get; set; } public string Country { get; set; } } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Because I decided to use convention before configuration I only need to add a view with the same name as the model, Customer.cshtml, here is the example of the View:   <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery/jquery-1.5.1.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </head> <body> <div id="body"> <section> <div> <hgroup> <h1>Welcome '@Model.Name' to ASP.NET Web API Razor Formatter!</h1> </hgroup> </div> <p> Using the same URL "api/values" but using AJAX: <button>Press to show content!</button> </p> <p> </p> </section> </div> </body> <script type="text/javascript"> $("button").click(function () { $.ajax({ url: '/api/values', type: "GET", contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8", success: function(data, status, xhr) { alert(data.Name); }, error: function(xhr, status, error) { alert(error); }}); }); </script> </html> .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Now when I open up a browser and enter the following URL: http://localhost/api/customers the above View will be displayed and it will render the model the ApiController returns. If I use Ajax against the same ApiController with the content type set to “json”, the ApiController will now return the model as JSON. Here is a part of a really early prototype of the Razor formatter (The code is far from perfect, just use it for testing). I will rewrite the code and also make it possible to specify an attribute to the returned model, so it can decide which view to be used when the media type is “text/html”, but by default the formatter will use convention: using System; using System.Net.Http.Formatting; namespace WebApiRazor.Models { using System.IO; using System.Net; using System.Net.Http.Headers; using System.Reflection; using System.Threading.Tasks; using RazorEngine; public class RazorFormatter : MediaTypeFormatter { public RazorFormatter() { SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("text/html")); SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/xhtml+xml")); } //... public override Task WriteToStreamAsync( Type type, object value, Stream stream, HttpContentHeaders contentHeaders, TransportContext transportContext) { var task = Task.Factory.StartNew(() => { var viewPath = // Get path to the view by the name of the type var template = File.ReadAllText(viewPath); Razor.Compile(template, type, type.Name); var razor = Razor.Run(type.Name, value); var buf = System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetBytes(razor); stream.Write(buf, 0, buf.Length); stream.Flush(); }); return task; } } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Summary By using formatters and the ASP.NET Web API we can easily just extend our code without doing any changes to our ApiControllers when we want to return a new format. This blog post just showed how we can extend the Web API to use Razor to format a returned model into HTML.   If you want to know when I will post more blog posts, please feel free to follow me on twitter:   @fredrikn

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• Windows Azure AppFabric: ServiceBus Queue WPF Sample

  - by xamlnotes

  The latest version of the AppFabric ServiceBus now has support for queues and topics. Today I will show you a bit about using queues and also talk about some of the best practices in using them. If you are just getting started, you can check out this site for more info on Windows Azure. One of the 1st things I thought if when Azure was announced back when was how we handle fault tolerance. Web sites hosted in Azure are no much of an issue unless they are using SQL Azure and then you must account for potential fault or latency issues. Today I want to talk a bit about ServiceBus and how to handle fault tolerance.  And theres stuff like connecting to the servicebus and so on you have to take care of. To demonstrate some of the things you can do, let me walk through this sample WPF app that I am posting for you to download. To start off, the application is going to need things like the servicenamespace, issuer details and so forth to make everything work.  To facilitate this I created settings in the wpf app for all of these items. Then I mapped a static class to them and set the values when the program loads like so: StaticElements.ServiceNamespace = Convert.ToString(Properties.Settings.Default["ServiceNamespace"]); StaticElements.IssuerName = Convert.ToString(Properties.Settings.Default["IssuerName"]); StaticElements.IssuerKey = Convert.ToString(Properties.Settings.Default["IssuerKey"]); StaticElements.QueueName = Convert.ToString(Properties.Settings.Default["QueueName"]);   Now I can get to each of these elements plus some other common values or instances directly from the StaticElements class. Now, lets look at the application.  The application looks like this when it starts:   The blue graphic represents the queue we are going to use.  The next figure shows the form after items were added and the queue stats were updated . You can see how the queue has grown: To add an item to the queue, click the Add Order button which displays the following dialog: After you fill in the form and press OK, the order is published to the ServiceBus queue and the form closes. The application also allows you to read the queued items by clicking the Process Orders button. As you can see below, the form shows the queued items in a list and the  queue has disappeared as its now empty. In real practice we normally would use a Windows Service or some other automated process to subscribe to the queue and pull items from it. I created a class named ServiceBusQueueHelper that has the core queue features we need. There are three public methods: * GetOrCreateQueue – Gets an instance of the queue description if the queue exists. if not, it creates the queue and returns a description instance. * SendMessageToQueue = This method takes an order instance and sends it to the queue. The call to the queue is wrapped in the ExecuteAction method from the Transient Fault Tolerance Framework and handles all the retry logic for the queue send process. * GetOrderFromQueue – Grabs an order from the queue and returns a typed order from the queue. It also marks the message complete so the queue can remove it.   Now lets turn to the WPF window code (MainWindow.xaml.cs). The constructor contains the 4 lines shown about to setup the static variables and to perform other initialization tasks. The next few lines setup certain features we need for the ServiceBus: TokenProvider credentials = TokenProvider.CreateSharedSecretTokenProvider(StaticElements.IssuerName, StaticElements.IssuerKey); Uri serviceUri = ServiceBusEnvironment.CreateServiceUri("sb", StaticElements.ServiceNamespace, string.Empty); StaticElements.CurrentNamespaceManager = new NamespaceManager(serviceUri, credentials); StaticElements.CurrentMessagingFactory = MessagingFactory.Create(serviceUri, credentials); The next two lines update the queue name label and also set the timer to 20 seconds.             QueueNameLabel.Content = StaticElements.QueueName;             _timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(20);             Next I call the UpdateQueueStats to initialize the UI for the queue:             UpdateQueueStats();             _timer.Tick += new EventHandler(delegate(object s, EventArgs a)                         {                      UpdateQueueStats();                  });             _timer.Start();         } The UpdateQueueStats method shown below. You can see that it uses the GetOrCreateQueue method mentioned earlier to grab the queue description, then it can get the MessageCount property.         private void UpdateQueueStats()         {             _queueDescription = _serviceBusQueueHelper.GetOrCreateQueue();             QueueCountLabel.Content = "(" + _queueDescription.MessageCount + ")";             long count = _queueDescription.MessageCount;             long queueWidth = count * 20;             QueueRectangle.Width = queueWidth;             QueueTickCount += 1;             TickCountlabel.Content = QueueTickCount.ToString();         }   The ReadQueueItemsButton_Click event handler calls the GetOrderFromQueue method and adds the order to the listbox. If you look at the SendQueueMessageController, you can see the SendMessage method that sends an order to the queue. Its pretty simple as it just creates a new CustomerOrderEntity instance,fills it and then passes it to the SendMessageToQueue. As you can see, all of our interaction with the queue is done through the helper class (ServiceBusQueueHelper). Now lets dig into the helper class. First, before you create anything like this, download the Transient Fault Handling Framework. Microsoft provides this free and they also provide the C# source. Theres a great article that shows how to use this framework with ServiceBus. I included the entire ServiceBusQueueHelper class in List 1. Notice the using statements for TransientFaultHandling: using Microsoft.AzureCAT.Samples.TransientFaultHandling; using Microsoft.AzureCAT.Samples.TransientFaultHandling.ServiceBus; The SendMessageToQueue in Listing 1 shows how to use the async send features of ServiceBus with them wrapped in the Transient Fault Handling Framework.  It is not much different than plain old ServiceBus calls but it sure makes it easy to have the fault tolerance added almost for free. The GetOrderFromQueue uses the standard synchronous methods to access the queue. The best practices article walks through using the async approach for a receive operation also.  Notice that this method makes a call to Receive to get the message then makes a call to GetBody to get a new strongly typed instance of CustomerOrderEntity to return. Listing 1 using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.AzureCAT.Samples.TransientFaultHandling; using Microsoft.AzureCAT.Samples.TransientFaultHandling.ServiceBus; using Microsoft.ServiceBus; using Microsoft.ServiceBus.Messaging; using System.Xml.Serialization; using System.Diagnostics; namespace WPFServicebusPublishSubscribeSample {     class ServiceBusQueueHelper     {         RetryPolicy currentPolicy = new RetryPolicy<ServiceBusTransientErrorDetectionStrategy>(RetryPolicy.DefaultClientRetryCount);         QueueClient currentQueueClient;         public QueueDescription GetOrCreateQueue()         {                        QueueDescription queue = null;             bool createNew = false;             try             {                 // First, let's see if a queue with the specified name already exists.                 queue = currentPolicy.ExecuteAction<QueueDescription>(() => { return StaticElements.CurrentNamespaceManager.GetQueue(StaticElements.QueueName); });                 createNew = (queue == null);             }             catch (MessagingEntityNotFoundException)             {                 // Looks like the queue does not exist. We should create a new one.                 createNew = true;             }             // If a queue with the specified name doesn't exist, it will be auto-created.             if (createNew)             {                 try                 {                     var newqueue = new QueueDescription(StaticElements.QueueName);                     queue = currentPolicy.ExecuteAction<QueueDescription>(() => { return StaticElements.CurrentNamespaceManager.CreateQueue(newqueue); });                 }                 catch (MessagingEntityAlreadyExistsException)                 {                     // A queue under the same name was already created by someone else,                     // perhaps by another instance. Let's just use it.                     queue = currentPolicy.ExecuteAction<QueueDescription>(() => { return StaticElements.CurrentNamespaceManager.GetQueue(StaticElements.QueueName); });                 }             }             currentQueueClient = StaticElements.CurrentMessagingFactory.CreateQueueClient(StaticElements.QueueName);             return queue;         }         public void SendMessageToQueue(CustomerOrderEntity Order)         {             BrokeredMessage msg = null;             GetOrCreateQueue();             // Use a retry policy to execute the Send action in an asynchronous and reliable fashion.             currentPolicy.ExecuteAction             (                 (cb) =>                 {                     // A new BrokeredMessage instance must be created each time we send it. Reusing the original BrokeredMessage instance may not                     // work as the state of its BodyStream cannot be guaranteed to be readable from the beginning.                     msg = new BrokeredMessage(Order);                     // Send the event asynchronously.                     currentQueueClient.BeginSend(msg, cb, null);                 },                 (ar) =>                 {                     try                     {                         // Complete the asynchronous operation.                         // This may throw an exception that will be handled internally by the retry policy.                         currentQueueClient.EndSend(ar);                     }                     finally                     {                         // Ensure that any resources allocated by a BrokeredMessage instance are released.                         if (msg != null)                         {                             msg.Dispose();                             msg = null;                         }                     }                 },                 (ex) =>                 {                     // Always dispose the BrokeredMessage instance even if the send                     // operation has completed unsuccessfully.                     if (msg != null)                     {                         msg.Dispose();                         msg = null;                     }                     // Always log exceptions.                     Trace.TraceError(ex.Message);                 }             );         }                 public CustomerOrderEntity GetOrderFromQueue()         {             CustomerOrderEntity Order = new CustomerOrderEntity();             QueueClient myQueueClient = StaticElements.CurrentMessagingFactory.CreateQueueClient(StaticElements.QueueName, ReceiveMode.PeekLock);             BrokeredMessage message;             ServiceBusQueueHelper serviceBusQueueHelper = new ServiceBusQueueHelper();             QueueDescription queueDescription;             queueDescription = serviceBusQueueHelper.GetOrCreateQueue();             if (queueDescription.MessageCount > 0)             {                 message = myQueueClient.Receive(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(90));                 if (message != null)                 {                     try                     {                         Order = message.GetBody<CustomerOrderEntity>();                         message.Complete();                     }                     catch (Exception ex)                     {                         throw ex;                     }                 }                 else                 {                     throw new Exception("Did not receive the messages");                 }             }             return Order;         }     } } I will post a link to the download demo in a separate post soon.

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• SOA Suite Integration: Part 2: A basic BPEL process

  - by Anthony Shorten

  This is the next in the series about SOA Suite integration with Oracle Utilities Application Framework. One of the first scenarios I am going to illustrate in this series is building a basic BPEL process using Web Service calls to the Oracle Utilities Application Framework. The scenario is this. I will pass in the userid and the BPEL process will call our the AS-User Web Service we created in Part 1. This is just a basic test and illustrate how to import the Web Service into SOA Suite. To use this scenario, you will need access to Oracle SOA Suite, access to a copy of any Oracle Utilities Application Framework based product and Oracle JDeveloper (to build the process). First of all you need to start Oracle JDeveloper and create a new SOA Project to house the BPEL process in. For the purposes of this example I will call the project simpleBPEL and verify that SOA is part of the project. I will select "Composite with BPEL" to denote it as a BPEL process. I can also the same process to create a Mediator or OSB project (refer to the JDeveloper documentation on these technologies). For this example I will use BPEL 1.1 as my specification standard (BPEL 2.0 can also be used if desired). I give the individual BPEL process as simpleBPEL (you can use a different name but I wanted to keep the project and process the same for this example). I will also build a Synchronous BPEL Process as I want a response from the Web Service. I will leave the defaults to save time. I have no have a blank canvas to build my BPEL process against. Note: for simplicity I am going to use as much defaulting as possible. In fact I am not going to specify an input schema for the incoming call as I will use the basic single field used by BPEL as default. The first step is to import the AS-User Web Service into my BPEL project. To do this I use the standard Web Service BPEL component from the Component Palette to import the WSDL into the BPEL project. Now the tricky part (a joke), you drag and drop the component from the Palette onto the right side of the canvas in the Partner Links swim lane. This swim lane is reserved for Partner Links that have a Partner Role (i.e. being called rather than calling). When you drop the Web Service onto the canvas the Create Web Service wizard is invoked to ask for details of the Web Service. At this point you give the BPEL node a name. I have used the name RetrieveUser as a name. I placed the WSDL URL from the XAI Inbound Service screen in the WSDL URL. Once you specify the URL you can press the Find existing WSDL's button to load the information into BPEL from the call. You will notice the Port Type is prefilled with the port from the WSDL. I also suggest that you check copy wsdl and it's dependent artifacts into the project if you intending to work on the BPEL process offline. If you do not check this your target application must be accessible when you work on the BPEL process (that is not always convenient). Note: For the perceptive of you will notice that the URL specified in this example is different to the URL in the last post. The reason is for the demonstrations I shifted to a new server and did not redo all of the past screen captures. If you copy the WSDL into the project you will get an information screen about Localize Files. It is just a confirmation screen. The last confirmation screen is a summary of the partner link (the main tab is locked for editing at this stage). At this stage you have successfully imported the Web Service. To complete the setup of the Web Service you need to set the credentials for the Web Service to use. Refer to the past post on how to do that. Now to use the Web Service. To call the Web Service (as it is just imported not connected to the BPEL process yet), you must add an Invoke action to your BPEL Process. To do this, select Invoke action from the BPEL Constructs zone on the Component Palette and drop it on the edit nodes between the receiveInput and replyOutput nodes This will create an empty Invoke action. You will notice some connectors on the Invoke node. Grab the node closest to your Web Service and drag it to connect the Invoke to your Web Service. This instructs BPEL to use the Invoke to call the Web Service. Once the Invoke action is connected to the Web Service an Edit Invoke edit dialog is displayed. At this point I suggest you name the Invoke node. It is important to name the nodes straightaway and name them appropriately for you to trace the logic. I used InvokeUser as the name in this example. To complete the node configuration you must create Variables to hold the input and output for the call. To do this clock on Automatically Create Input Variable on the Edit Invoke dialog. You will be presented with a default variable name. It uses the node name (that is why it is important to name the node before hitting this button) as a prefix. You can name the variable anything but I usually take the default. Repeat the same for the output variable. You now have a completed node for invoking the service. You have a very basic BPEL process which contains an input, invoke and output node. It is not complete yet though. You need to tell the BPEL process how to pass data from the input to the invoke step and how to take the output from the service call and pass it back to the service. You need to now add an Assign node to assign the input to the Web Service. To do this select Assign activity from BPEL Constructs zone in the Component Palette. Drag and drop the Assign activity between the receiveInput and InvokeUser nodes as you want to pass data between these two nodes. You have now added a new Assign node to your BPEL process Double clicking the node allows you to specify the name of the node. I use AssignUser to describe that I am assigning user data. On the Copy Rules tab you can specify the mapping between the input variable InputVariable/payload/process/input string and the input variable for the Web Service call. We are passing data from the input to BPEL to the relevant input variable on the Web Service. This is simply drag and drop between the two data structures. In the example, I am using the input to pass to the user element in my Web Service as the user is the primary key for the object. The fields become linked (which means data from source will be copied to target). Almost there. You now need to process the output from the Web Service call to the outputVariable of the client call. I have decided to pass back one piece of data, the name associated with the user by concatenating the firstName and lastName elements from the Web Service call. To do this I will use a Transform as it is not just a matter of an Assign action. It is a concatenation operation. This also illustrates how you can use BPEL functionality to transform data from a Web Service call. As with the other components you drag and drop the Transform component to the appropriate place in the BPEL process. In this case we want to transform the output from the Web Service call so we want it after the InvokeUser action and the replyOutput action. The Transform component is actually part of the Oracle Extensions to the BPEL specification. Double clicking the Transform node will allow you to name the node.  In this example I used TransformName. To complete the transform I need to tell the product the source of the transformation and the target of the transform. In the example this is the InvokeUser output variable. I also named the mapper file to TransformName. By clicking the + or pencil icon next to the map I can create the map. The mapping screen is shows the source and target schemas for me to map across. As with the assign I can map the relevant elements. In my example, I first map the firstName from the Web Service to the result element. As I want to concatenate the names, I drop the concat function on the call line. I now attach the last name to the function to indicate the concatenation of the field. By default the names will be concatenated with no space. To make the name legible I add a space between the field by clicking the function and adding a space in the call. I now have a completed mapping. I can now save the whole project as my BPEL process is now complete. As you can see the following happens: We accept input from the client (the userid for the call) in the receiveInput step. We assign that value to the input parameters for the Web Service call in the AssignUser step. We invoke the Web Service call to retrieve the data from the product in the InvokeUser step. We take the output from the InvokeUser step and concatenate the names in the TransformName step. We pass back the data in the replyOutput step. At this point we can deploy the BPEL process to the SOA Suite server. I will not cover this aspect as it really all SOA Suite specific (it is all done via Oracle JDeveloper). Now we need to test the service in SOA Suite. We will use the Fusion Middleware Control test facility. I will assume that credentials have also been setup as per our previous post (else you will get a 401 error). You navigate to the deployed BPEL process within Fusion Middleware Control and select the Test Service option. Specify some test data on the payload at the bottom of the Test Service screen. In my case I am returning my own userid information. On the response tab you will see the result. It works. You can verify the steps using the Audit trace facility on individual calls. As you can see this is a basic BPEL but you get the idea of importing the Web Service is pretty straightforward. You can create more sophisticated BPEL processes using the full facilities in Oracle SOA Suite. I just showed you the basic principals.

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• [GEEK SCHOOL] Network Security 2: Preventing Disaster with User Account Control

  - by Ciprian Rusen

  In this second lesson in our How-To Geek School about securing the Windows devices in your network, we will talk about User Account Control (UAC). Users encounter this feature each time they need to install desktop applications in Windows, when some applications need administrator permissions in order to work and when they have to change different system settings and files. UAC was introduced in Windows Vista as part of Microsoft’s “Trustworthy Computing” initiative. Basically, UAC is meant to act as a wedge between you and installing applications or making system changes. When you attempt to do either of these actions, UAC will pop up and interrupt you. You may either have to confirm you know what you’re doing, or even enter an administrator password if you don’t have those rights. Some users find UAC annoying and choose to disable it but this very important security feature of Windows (and we strongly caution against doing that). That’s why in this lesson, we will carefully explain what UAC is and everything it does. As you will see, this feature has an important role in keeping Windows safe from all kinds of security problems. In this lesson you will learn which activities may trigger a UAC prompt asking for permissions and how UAC can be set so that it strikes the best balance between usability and security. You will also learn what kind of information you can find in each UAC prompt. Last but not least, you will learn why you should never turn off this feature of Windows. By the time we’re done today, we think you will have a newly found appreciation for UAC, and will be able to find a happy medium between turning it off completely and letting it annoy you to distraction. What is UAC and How Does it Work? UAC or User Account Control is a security feature that helps prevent unauthorized system changes to your Windows computer or device. These changes can be made by users, applications, and sadly, malware (which is the biggest reason why UAC exists in the first place). When an important system change is initiated, Windows displays a UAC prompt asking for your permission to make the change. If you don’t give your approval, the change is not made. In Windows, you will encounter UAC prompts mostly when working with desktop applications that require administrative permissions. For example, in order to install an application, the installer (generally a setup.exe file) asks Windows for administrative permissions. UAC initiates an elevation prompt like the one shown earlier asking you whether it is okay to elevate permissions or not. If you say “Yes”, the installer starts as administrator and it is able to make the necessary system changes in order to install the application correctly. When the installer is closed, its administrator privileges are gone. If you run it again, the UAC prompt is shown again because your previous approval is not remembered. If you say “No”, the installer is not allowed to run and no system changes are made. If a system change is initiated from a user account that is not an administrator, e.g. the Guest account, the UAC prompt will also ask for the administrator password in order to give the necessary permissions. Without this password, the change won’t be made. Which Activities Trigger a UAC Prompt? There are many types of activities that may trigger a UAC prompt: Running a desktop application as an administrator Making changes to settings and files in the Windows and Program Files folders Installing or removing drivers and desktop applications Installing ActiveX controls Changing settings to Windows features like the Windows Firewall, UAC, Windows Update, Windows Defender, and others Adding, modifying, or removing user accounts Configuring Parental Controls in Windows 7 or Family Safety in Windows 8.x Running the Task Scheduler Restoring backed-up system files Viewing or changing the folders and files of another user account Changing the system date and time You will encounter UAC prompts during some or all of these activities, depending on how UAC is set on your Windows device. If this security feature is turned off, any user account or desktop application can make any of these changes without a prompt asking for permissions. In this scenario, the different forms of malware existing on the Internet will also have a higher chance of infecting and taking control of your system. In Windows 8.x operating systems you will never see a UAC prompt when working with apps from the Windows Store. That’s because these apps, by design, are not allowed to modify any system settings or files. You will encounter UAC prompts only when working with desktop programs. What You Can Learn from a UAC Prompt? When you see a UAC prompt on the screen, take time to read the information displayed so that you get a better understanding of what is going on. Each prompt first tells you the name of the program that wants to make system changes to your device, then you can see the verified publisher of that program. Dodgy software tends not to display this information and instead of a real company name, you will see an entry that says “Unknown”. If you have downloaded that program from a less than trustworthy source, then it might be better to select “No” in the UAC prompt. The prompt also shares the origin of the file that’s trying to make these changes. In most cases the file origin is “Hard drive on this computer”. You can learn more by pressing “Show details”. You will see an additional entry named “Program location” where you can see the physical location on your hard drive, for the file that’s trying to perform system changes. Make your choice based on the trust you have in the program you are trying to run and its publisher. If a less-known file from a suspicious location is requesting a UAC prompt, then you should seriously consider pressing “No”. What’s Different About Each UAC Level? Windows 7 and Windows 8.x have four UAC levels: Always notify – when this level is used, you are notified before desktop applications make changes that require administrator permissions or before you or another user account changes Windows settings like the ones mentioned earlier. When the UAC prompt is shown, the desktop is dimmed and you must choose “Yes” or “No” before you can do anything else. This is the most secure and also the most annoying way to set UAC because it triggers the most UAC prompts. Notify me only when programs/apps try to make changes to my computer (default) – Windows uses this as the default for UAC. When this level is used, you are notified before desktop applications make changes that require administrator permissions. If you are making system changes, UAC doesn’t show any prompts and it automatically gives you the necessary permissions for making the changes you desire. When a UAC prompt is shown, the desktop is dimmed and you must choose “Yes” or “No” before you can do anything else. This level is slightly less secure than the previous one because malicious programs can be created for simulating the keystrokes or mouse moves of a user and change system settings for you. If you have a good security solution in place, this scenario should never occur. Notify me only when programs/apps try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop) – this level is different from the previous in in the fact that, when the UAC prompt is shown, the desktop is not dimmed. This decreases the security of your system because different kinds of desktop applications (including malware) might be able to interfere with the UAC prompt and approve changes that you might not want to be performed. Never notify – this level is the equivalent of turning off UAC. When using it, you have no protection against unauthorized system changes. Any desktop application and any user account can make system changes without your permission. How to Configure UAC If you would like to change the UAC level used by Windows, open the Control Panel, then go to “System and Security” and select “Action Center”. On the column on the left you will see an entry that says “Change User Account Control settings”. The “User Account Control Settings” window is now opened. Change the position of the UAC slider to the level you want applied then press “OK”. Depending on how UAC was initially set, you may receive a UAC prompt requiring you to confirm this change. Why You Should Never Turn Off UAC If you want to keep the security of your system at decent levels, you should never turn off UAC. When you disable it, everything and everyone can make system changes without your consent. This makes it easier for all kinds of malware to infect and take control of your system. It doesn’t matter whether you have a security suite or antivirus installed or third-party antivirus, basic common-sense measures like having UAC turned on make a big difference in keeping your devices safe from harm. We have noticed that some users disable UAC prior to setting up their Windows devices and installing third-party software on them. They keep it disabled while installing all the software they will use and enable it when done installing everything, so that they don’t have to deal with so many UAC prompts. Unfortunately this causes problems with some desktop applications. They may fail to work after you enable UAC. This happens because, when UAC is disabled, the virtualization techniques UAC uses for your applications are inactive. This means that certain user settings and files are installed in a different place and when you turn on UAC, applications stop working because they should be placed elsewhere. Therefore, whatever you do, do not turn off UAC completely! Coming up next … In the next lesson you will learn about Windows Defender, what this tool can do in Windows 7 and Windows 8.x, what’s different about it in these operating systems and how it can be used to increase the security of your system.

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• Experience your music in a whole new way with Zune for PC

  - by Matthew Guay

  Tired of the standard Media Player look and feel, and want something new and innovative?  Zune offers a fresh, new way to enjoy your music, videos, pictures, and podcasts, whether or not you own a Zune device. Microsoft started out on a new multimedia experience for PCs and mobile devices with the launch of the Zune several years ago.  The Zune devices have been well received and noted for their innovative UI, and the Zune HD’s fluid interface is the foundation for the widely anticipated Windows Phone 7.  But regardless of whether or not you have a Zune Device, you can still use the exciting new UI and services directly from your PC.  Zune for Windows is a very nice media player that offers a music and video store and wide support for multimedia formats including those used in Apple products.  And if you enjoy listening to a wide variety of music, it also offers the Zune Pass which lets you stream an unlimited number of songs to your computer and download 10 songs for keeps per month for $14.99/month. Or you can do a pre-paid music card as well.  It does all this using the new Metro UI which beautifully shows information using text in a whole new way.  Here’s a quick look at setting up and using Zune on your PC. Getting Started Download the installer (link below), and run it to begin setup.  Please note that Zune offers a separate version for computers running the 64 bit version of Windows Vista or 7, so choose it if your computer is running these. Once your download is finished, run the installer to setup Zune on your computer.  Accept the EULA when prompted. If there are any updates available, they will automatically download and install during the setup.  So, if you’re installing Zune from a disk (for example, one packaged with a Zune device), you don’t have to worry if you have the latest version.  Zune will proceed to install on your computer.   It may prompt you to restart your computer after installation; click Restart Now so you can proceed with your Zune setup.  The reboot appears to be for Zune device support, and the program ran fine otherwise without rebooting, so you could possibly skip this step if you’re not using a Zune device.  However, to be on the safe side, go ahead and reboot. After rebooting, launch Zune.  It will play a cute introduction video on first launch; press skip if you don’t want to watch it. Zune will now ask you if you want to keep the default settings or change them.  Choose Start to keep the defaults, or Settings to customize to your wishes.  Do note that the default settings will set Zune as your default media player, so click Settings if you wish to change this. If you choose to change the default settings, you can change how Zune finds and stores media on your computer.  In Windows 7, Zune will by default use your Windows 7 Libraries to manage your media, and will in fact add a new Podcasts library to Windows 7. If your media is stored on another location, such as on a server, then you can add this to the Library.  Please note that this adds the location to your system-wide library, not just the Zune player. There’s one last step.  Enter three of your favorite artists, and Zune will add Smart DJ mixes to your Quickplay list based on these.  Some less famous or popular artists may not be recognized, so you may have to try another if your choice isn’t available.  Or, you can click Skip if you don’t want to do this right now. Welcome to Zune!  This is the default first page, QuickPlay, where you can easily access your pinned and new items.   If you have a Zune account, or would like to create a new one, click Sign In on the top. Creating a new account is quick and simple, and if you’re new to Zune, you can try out a 14 day trial of Zune Pass for free if you want. Zune allows you to share your listening habits and favorites with friends or the world, but you can turn this off or change it if you like. Using Zune for Windows To access your media, click the Collection link on the top left.  Zune will show all the media you already have stored on your computer, organized by artist and album. Right-click on any album, and you choose to have Zune find album art or do a variety of other tasks with the media.   When playing media, you can view it in several unique ways.  First, the default Mix view will show related tracks to the music you’re playing from Smart DJ.  You can either play these fully if you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, or otherwise you can play 30 second previews. Then, for many popular artists, Zune will change the player background to show pictures and information in a unique way while the music is playing.  The information may range from history about the artist to the popularity of the song being played.   Zune also works as a nice viewer for the pictures on your computer. Start a slideshow, and Zune will play your pictures with nice transition effects and music from your library. Zune Store The Zune Store offers a wide variety of music, TV shows, and videos for purchase.  If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you can listen to or download any song without purchasing it; otherwise, you can preview a 30 second clip first. Zune also offers a wide selection of Podcasts you can subscribe to for free. Using Zune for PC with a Zune Device If you have a Zune device attached to your computer, you can easily add media files to it by simply dragging them to the Zune device icon in the left corner.  In the future, this will also work with Windows Phone 7 devices. If you have a Zune HD, you can also download and add apps to your device. Here’s the detailed information window for the weather app.  Click Download to add it to your device.   Mini Mode The Zune player generally takes up a large portion of your screen, and is actually most impressive when run maximized.  However, if you’re simply wanting to enjoy your tunes while you’re using your computer, you can use the Mini mode to still view music info and control Zune in a smaller mode.  Click the Mini Player button near the window control buttons in the top right to activate it. Now Zune will take up much less of your desktop.  This window will stay on top of other windows so you can still easily view and control it. Zune will display an image of the artist if one is available, and this shows up in Mini mode more often than it does in the full mode. And, in Windows 7, you could simply minimize Zune as you can control it directly from the taskbar thumbnail preview.   Even more controls are available from Zune’s jumplist in Windows 7.  You can directly access your Quickplay links or choose to shuffle all music without leaving the taskbar. Settings Although Zune is designed to be used without confusing menus and settings, you can tweak the program to your liking from the settings panel.  Click Settings near the top left of the window. Here you can change file storage, types, burn, metadata, and many more settings.  You can also setup Zune to stream media to your XBOX 360 if you have one.   You can also customize Zune’s look with a variety of modern backgrounds and gradients. Conclusion If you’re ready for a fresh way to enjoy your media, Zune is designed for you.  It’s innovative UI definitely sets it apart from standard media players, and is very pleasing to use.  Zune is especially nice if your computer is using XP, Vista Home Basic, or 7 Starter as these versions of Windows don’t include Media Center.  Additionally, the mini player mode is a nice touch that brings a feature of Windows 7’s Media Player to XP and Vista.  Zune is definitely one of our favorite music apps.  Try it out, and get a fresh view of your music today! 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• Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Tips and Tricks-Part 2: Key Shortcuts

  - by ToStringTheory

  Ask anyone that knows me, and they will confirm that I hate the mouse.  This isn’t because I deny affection to objects that don’t look like their mammalian-named self, but rather for a much more simple and not-insane reason: I have terrible eyesight.  Introduction Thanks to a degenerative eye disease known as Choroideremia, I have learned to rely more on the keyboard which I can feel digital/static positions of keys relative to my fingers, than the much more analog/random position of the mouse.  Now, I would like to share some of the keyboard shortcuts with you now, as I believe that they not only increase my productivity, but yours as well once you know them (if you don’t already of course)...  I share one of my biggest tips for productivity in the conclusion at the end. Visual Studio Key Shortcuts Global Editor Shortcuts These are shortcuts that are available from almost any application running in Windows, however are many times forgotten. Shortcut Action Visual Studio 2010 Functionality Ctrl + X Cut This shortcut works without a selection. If nothing is selected, the entire line that the caret is on is cut from the editor. Ctrl + C Copy This shortcut works without a selection. If nothing is selected, the entire line that the caret is on is copied from the editor. Ctrl + V Paste If you copied an entire line by the method above, the data is pasted in the line above the current caret line. Ctrl + Shift + V Next Clipboard Element Cut/Copy multiple things, and then hit this combo repeatedly to switch to the next clipboard item when pasting. Ctrl + Backspace Delete Previous Will delete the previous word from the editor directly before the caret. If anything is selected, will just delete that. Ctrl + Del Delete Next Word Will delete the next word/space from the editor directly after the caret. If anything is selected, will just delete that. Shift + Del Delete Focused Line Will delete the line from the editor that the caret is on. If something is selected, will just delete that. Ctrl + ? or Ctrl + ? Left/Right by Word This will move the caret left or right by word or special character boundary. Holding Shift will also select the word. Ctrl + F Quick Find Either the Quick Find panel, or the search bar if you have the Productivity Power Tools installed. Ctrl + Shift + F Find in Solution Opens up the 'Find in Files' window, allowing you to search your solution, as well as using regex for pattern matching. F2 Rename File... While not debugging, selecting a file in the solution explorer\navigator and pressing F2 allows you to rename the selected file. Global Application Shortcuts These are shortcuts that are available from almost any application running in Windows, however are many times forgotten... Again... Shortcut Action Visual Studio 2010 Functionality Ctrl + N New File dialog Opens up the 'New File' dialog to add a new file to the current directory in the Solution\Project. Ctrl + O Open File dialog Opens up the 'Open File' dialog to open a file in the editor, not necessarily in the solution. Ctrl + S Save File dialog Saves the currently focused editor tab back to your HDD/SSD. Ctrl + Shift + S Save All... Quickly save all open/edited documents back to your disk. Ctrl + Tab Switch Panel\Tab Tapping this combo switches between tabs quickly. Holding down Ctrl when hitting tab will bring up a chooser window. Building Shortcuts These are shortcuts that are focused on building and running a solution. These are not usable when the IDE is in Debug mode, as the shortcut changes by context. Shortcut Action Visual Studio 2010 Functionality Ctrl + Shift + B Build Solution Starts a build process on the solution according to the current build configuration manager settings. Ctrl + Break Cancel a Building Solution Will cancel a build operation currently in progress. Good for long running builds when you think of one last change. F5 Start Debugging Will build the solution if needed and launch debugging according to the current configuration manager settings. Ctrl + F5 Start Without Debugger Will build the solution if needed and launch the startup project without attaching a debugger. Debugging Shortcuts These are shortcuts that are used when debugging a solution. Shortcut Action Visual Studio 2010 Functionality F5 Continue Execution Continues execution of code until the next breakpoint. Ctrl + Alt + Break Pause Execution Pauses the program execution. Shift + F5 Stop Debugging Stops the current debugging session. NOTE: Web apps will still continue processing after stopping the debugger. Keep this in mind if working on code such as credit card processing. Ctrl + Shift + F5 Restart Debugging Stops the current debugging session and restarts the debugging session from the beginning. F9 Place Breakpoint Toggles/Places a breakpoint in the editor on the current line. Set a breakpoint in condensed code by highlighting the statement first. F10 Step Over Statement When debugging, executes all code in methods/properties on the current line until the next line. F11 Step Into Statement When debugging, steps into a method call so you can walk through the code executed there (if available). Ctrl + Alt + I Immediate Window Open the Immediate Window to execute commands when execution is paused. Navigation Shortcuts These are shortcuts that are used for navigating in the IDE or editor panel. Shortcut Action Visual Studio 2010 Functionality F4 Properties Panel Opens the properties panel for the selected item in the editor/designer/solution navigator (context driven). F12 Go to Definition Press F12 with the caret on a member to navigate to its declaration. With the Productivity tools, Ctrl + Click works too. Ctrl + K Ctrl + T View Call Hierarchy View the call hierarchy of the member the caret is on. Great for going through n-tier solutions and interface implementations! Ctrl + Alt + B Breakpoint Window View the breakpoint window to manage breakpoints and their advanced options. Allows easy toggling of breakpoints. Ctrl + Alt + L Solution Navigator Open the solution explorer panel. Ctrl + Alt + O Output Window View the output window to see build\general output from Visual Studio. Ctrl + Alt + Enter Live Web Preview Only available with the Web Essential plugin. Launches the auto-updating Preview panel. Testing Shortcuts These are shortcuts that are used for running tests in the IDE. Please note, Visual Studio 2010 is all about context. If your caret is within a test method when you use one of these combinations, the combination will apply to that test. If your caret is within a test class, it will apply to that class. If the caret is outside of a test class, it will apply to all tests. Shortcut Action Visual Studio 2010 Functionality Ctrl + R T Run Test(s) Run all tests in the current context without a debugger attached. Breakpoints will not be stopped on. Ctrl + R Ctrl + T Run Test(s) (Debug) Run all tests in the current context with a debugger attached. This allows you to use breakpoints. Substitute A for T from the preceding combos to run/debug ALL tests in the current context. Substitute Y for T from the preceding combos to run/debug ALL impacted/covering tests for a method in the current context. Advanced Editor Shortcuts These are shortcuts that are used for more advanced editing in the editor window. Shortcut Action Visual Studio 2010 Functionality Shift + Alt + ? Shift + Alt + ? Multiline caret up/down Use this combo to edit multiple lines at once. Not too many uses for it, but once in a blue moon one comes along. Ctrl + Alt + Enter Insert Line Above Inserts a blank line above the line the caret is currently on. No need to be at end or start of line, so no cutting off words/code. Ctrl + K Ctrl + C Comment Selection Comments the current selection out of compilation. Ctrl + K Ctrl + U Uncomment Selection Uncomments the current selection into compilation. Ctrl + K Ctrl + D Format Document Automatically formats the document into a structured layout. Lines up nodes or code into columns intelligently. Alt + ? Alt + ? Code line up/down *Use this combo to move a line of code up or down quickly. Great for small rearrangements of code. *Requires the Productivity Power pack from Microsoft. Conclusion This list is by no means meant to be exhaustive, but these are the shortcuts I use regularly every hour/minute of the day. There are still 100s more in Visual Studio that you can discover through the configuration window, or by tooltips. Something that I started doing months ago seems to have interest in my office.. In my last post, I talked about how I hated a cluttered UI. One of the ways that I aimed to resolve that was by systematically cleaning up the toolbars week by week. First day, I removed ALL icons that I already knew shortcuts to, or would never use them (Undo in a toolbar?!). Then, every week from that point on, I make it a point to remove an icon/two from the toolbar and make an effort to remember its key combination. I gain extra space in the toolbar area, AND become more productive at the same time! I hope that you found this article interesting or at least somewhat informative.. Maybe a shortcut or two you didn't know. I know some of them seem trivial, but I often see people going to the edit menu for Copy/Paste... Thought a refresher might be helpful!

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• Issue 15: SVP Focus

  - by rituchhibber

       SVP FOCUS FOCUS -- Chris Baker SVP Oracle Worldwide ISV-OEM-Java Sales Chris Baker is the Global Head of ISV/OEM Sales responsible for working with ISV/OEM partners to maximise Oracle's business through those partners, whilst maximising those partners’ business to their end users. Chris works with partners, customers, innovators, investors and employees to develop innovative business solutions using Oracle products, services and skills. RESOURCES -- Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) OPN Solutions Catalog Oracle Exastack Program Oracle Exastack Optimized Oracle Cloud Computing Oracle Engineered Systems Oracle and Java SUBSCRIBE FEEDBACK PREVIOUS ISSUES "By taking part in marketing activities, our partners accelerate their sales cycles." -- Firstly, could you please explain Oracle's current strategy for ISV partners, globally and in EMEA? Oracle customers use independent software vendor (ISV) applications to run their businesses. They use them to generate revenue and to fulfil obligations to their own customers. Our strategy is very straight-forward. We want all of our ISV partners and OEMs to concentrate on the things that they do the best—building applications to meet the unique industry and functional requirements of their customer. We want to ensure that we deliver a best-in-class application platform so ISVs are free to concentrate their effort on their application functionality and user experience We invest over four billion dollars in research and development every year, and we want our ISVs to benefit from all of that investment in operating systems, virtualisation, databases, middleware, engineered systems, and other hardware. By doing this, we help them to reduce their costs, gain more consistency and agility for quicker implementations, and also rapidly differentiate themselves from other application vendors. It's all about simplification because we believe that around 25 to 30 percent of the development costs incurred by many ISVs are caused by customising infrastructure and have nothing to do with their applications. Our strategy is to enable our ISV partners to standardise their application platform using engineered architecture, so they can write once to the Oracle stack and deploy seamlessly in the cloud, on-premise, or in hybrid deployments. It's really important that architecture is the same in order to keep cost and time overheads at a minimum, so we provide standardisation and an environment that enables our ISVs to concentrate on the core business that makes them the most money and brings them success. How do you believe this strategy is helping the ISVs to work hand-in-hand with Oracle to ensure that end customers get the industry-leading solutions that they need? We work with our ISVs not just to help them be successful, but also to help them market themselves. We have something called the 'Oracle Exastack Ready Program', which enables ISVs to publicise themselves as 'Ready' to run the core software platforms that run on Oracle's engineered systems including Exadata and Exalogic. So, for example, they can become 'Database Ready' which means that they use the latest version of Oracle Database and therefore can run their application without modification on Exadata or the Oracle Database Appliance. Alternatively, they can become WebLogic Ready, Oracle Linux Ready and Oracle Solaris Ready which means they run on the latest release and therefore can run their application, with no new porting work, on Oracle Exalogic. Those 'Ready' logos are important in helping ISVs advertise to their customers that they are using the latest technologies which have been fully tested. We now also have Exadata Ready and Exalogic Ready programmes which allow ISVs to promote the certification of their applications on these platforms. This highlights these partners to Oracle customers as having solutions that run fluently on the Oracle Exadata Database Machine, the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud or one of our other engineered systems. This makes it easy for customers to identify solutions and provides ISVs with an avenue to connect with Oracle customers who are rapidly adopting engineered systems. We have also taken this programme to the next level in the shape of 'Oracle Exastack Optimized' for partners whose applications run best on the Oracle stack and have invested the time to fully optimise application performance. We ensure that Exastack Optimized partner status is promoted and supported by press releases, and we help our ISVs go to market and differentiate themselves through the use of our technology and the standardisation it delivers. To date we have had several hundred organisations successfully work through our Exastack Optimized programme. How does Oracle's strategy of offering pre-integrated open platform software and hardware allow ISVs to bring their products to market more quickly? One of the problems for many ISVs is that they have to think very carefully about the technology on which their solutions will be deployed, particularly in the cloud or hosted environments. They have to think hard about how they secure these environments, whether the concern is, for example, middleware, identity management, or securing personal data. If they don't use the technology that we build-in to our products to help them to fulfil these roles, they then have to build it themselves. This takes time, requires testing, and must be maintained. By taking advantage of our technology, partners will now know that they have a standard platform. They will know that they can confidently talk about implementation being the same every time they do it. Very large ISV applications could once take a year or two to be implemented at an on-premise environment. But it wasn't just the configuration of the application that took the time, it was actually the infrastructure - the different hardware configurations, operating systems and configurations of databases and middleware. Now we strongly believe that it's all about standardisation and repeatability. It's about making sure that our partners can do it once and are then able to roll it out many different times using standard componentry. What actions would you recommend for existing ISV partners that are looking to do more business with Oracle and its customer base, not only to maximise benefits, but also to maximise partner relationships? My team, around the world and in the EMEA region, is available and ready to talk to any of our ISVs and to explore the possibilities together. We run programmes like 'Excite' and 'Insight' to help us to understand how we can help ISVs with architecture and widen their environments. But we also want to work with, and look at, new opportunities - for example, the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) market or 'The Internet of Things'. Over the next few years, many millions, indeed billions of devices will be collecting massive amounts of data and communicating it back to the central systems where ISVs will be running their applications. The only way that our partners will be able to provide a single vendor 'end-to-end' solution is to use Oracle integrated systems at the back end and Java on the 'smart' devices collecting the data—a complete solution from device to data centre. So there are huge opportunities to work closely with our ISVs, using Oracle's complete M2M platform, to provide the infrastructure that enables them to extract maximum value from the data collected. If any partners don't know where to start or who to contact, then they can contact me directly at [email protected] or indeed any of our teams across the EMEA region. We want to work with ISVs to help them to be as successful as they possibly can through simplification and speed to market, and we also want all of the top ISVs in the world based on Oracle. What opportunities are immediately opened to new ISV partners joining the OPN? As you know OPN is very, very important. New members will discover a huge amount of content that instantly becomes accessible to them. They can access a wealth of no-cost training and enablement materials to build their expertise in Oracle technology. They can download Oracle software and use it for development projects. They can help themselves become more competent by becoming part of a true community and uncovering new opportunities by working with Oracle and their peers in the Oracle Partner Network. As well as publishing massive amounts of information on OPN, we also hold our global Oracle OpenWorld event, at which partners play a huge role. This takes place at the end of September and the beginning of October in San Francisco. Attending ISV partners have an unrivalled opportunity to contribute to elements such as the OpenWorld / OPN Exchange, at which they can talk to other partners and really begin thinking about how they can move their businesses on and play key roles in a very large ecosystem which revolves around technology and standardisation. Finally, are there any other messages that you would like to share with the Oracle ISV community? The crucial message that I always like to reinforce is architecture, architecture and architecture! The key opportunities that ISVs have today revolve around standardising their architectures so that they can confidently think: "I will I be able to do exactly the same thing whenever a customer is looking to deploy on-premise, hosted or in the cloud". The right architecture is critical to being competitive and to really start changing the game. We want to help our ISV partners to do just that; to establish standard architecture and to seize the opportunities it opens up for them. New market opportunities like M2M are enormous - just look at how many devices are all around you right now. We can help our partners to interface with these devices more effectively while thinking about their entire ecosystem, rather than just the piece that they have traditionally focused upon. With standardised architecture, we can help people dramatically improve their speed, reach, agility and delivery of enhanced customer satisfaction and value all the way from the Java side to their centralised systems. All Oracle ISV partners must take advantage of these opportunities, which is why Oracle will continue to invest in and support them. Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Whether you attended Oracle OpenWorld 2009 or not, don't forget to save the date now for Oracle OpenWorld 2010. The event will be held a little earlier next year, from 19th-23rd September, so please don't miss out. With thousands of sessions and hundreds of exhibits and demos already lined up, there's no better place to learn how to optimise your existing systems, get an inside line on upcoming technology breakthroughs, and meet with your partner peers, Oracle strategists and even the developers responsible for the products and services that help you get better results for your end customers. Register Now for Oracle OpenWorld 2010! Perhaps you are interested in learning more about Oracle OpenWorld 2010, but don't wish to register at this time? Great! Please just enter your contact information here and we will contact you at a later date. How to Exhibit at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Sponsorship Opportunities at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Advertising Opportunities at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 -- Back to the welcome page

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• Install NPM Packages Automatically for Node.js on Windows Azure Web Site

  - by Shaun

  In one of my previous post I described and demonstrated how to use NPM packages in Node.js and Windows Azure Web Site (WAWS). In that post I used NPM command to install packages, and then use Git for Windows to commit my changes and sync them to WAWS git repository. Then WAWS will trigger a new deployment to host my Node.js application. Someone may notice that, a NPM package may contains many files and could be a little bit huge. For example, the “azure” package, which is the Windows Azure SDK for Node.js, is about 6MB. Another popular package “express”, which is a rich MVC framework for Node.js, is about 1MB. When I firstly push my codes to Windows Azure, all of them must be uploaded to the cloud. Is that possible to let Windows Azure download and install these packages for us? In this post, I will introduce how to make WAWS install all required packages for us when deploying.   Let’s Start with Demo Demo is most straightforward. Let’s create a new WAWS and clone it to my local disk. Drag the folder into Git for Windows so that it can help us commit and push. Please refer to this post if you are not familiar with how to use Windows Azure Web Site, Git deployment, git clone and Git for Windows. And then open a command windows and install a package in our code folder. Let’s say I want to install “express”. And then created a new Node.js file named “server.js” and pasted the code as below. 1: var express = require("express"); 2: var app = express(); 3: 4: app.get("/", function(req, res) { 5: res.send("Hello Node.js and Express."); 6: }); 7: 8: console.log("Web application opened."); 9: app.listen(process.env.PORT); If we switch to Git for Windows right now we will find that it detected the changes we made, which includes the “server.js” and all files under “node_modules” folder. What we need to upload should only be our source code, but the huge package files also have to be uploaded as well. Now I will show you how to exclude them and let Windows Azure install the package on the cloud. First we need to add a special file named “.gitignore”. It seems cannot be done directly from the file explorer since this file only contains extension name. So we need to do it from command line. Navigate to the local repository folder and execute the command below to create an empty file named “.gitignore”. If the command windows asked for input just press Enter. 1: echo > .gitignore Now open this file and copy the content below and save. 1: node_modules Now if we switch to Git for Windows we will found that the packages under the “node_modules” were not in the change list. So now if we commit and push, the “express” packages will not be uploaded to Windows Azure. Second, let’s tell Windows Azure which packages it needs to install when deploying. Create another file named “package.json” and copy the content below into that file and save. 1: { 2: "name": "npmdemo", 3: "version": "1.0.0", 4: "dependencies": { 5: "express": "*" 6: } 7: } Now back to Git for Windows, commit our changes and push it to WAWS. Then let’s open the WAWS in developer portal, we will see that there’s a new deployment finished. Click the arrow right side of this deployment we can see how WAWS handle this deployment. Especially we can find WAWS executed NPM. And if we opened the log we can review what command WAWS executed to install the packages and the installation output messages. As you can see WAWS installed “express” for me from the cloud side, so that I don’t need to upload the whole bunch of the package to Azure. Open this website and we can see the result, which proved the “express” had been installed successfully.   What’s Happened Under the Hood Now let’s explain a bit on what the “.gitignore” and “package.json” mean. The “.gitignore” is an ignore configuration file for git repository. All files and folders listed in the “.gitignore” will be skipped from git push. In the example below I copied “node_modules” into this file in my local repository. This means,  do not track and upload all files under the “node_modules” folder. So by using “.gitignore” I skipped all packages from uploading to Windows Azure. “.gitignore” can contain files, folders. It can also contain the files and folders that we do NOT want to ignore. In the next section we will see how to use the un-ignore syntax to make the SQL package included. The “package.json” file is the package definition file for Node.js application. We can define the application name, version, description, author, etc. information in it in JSON format. And we can also put the dependent packages as well, to indicate which packages this Node.js application is needed. In WAWS, name and version is necessary. And when a deployment happened, WAWS will look into this file, find the dependent packages, execute the NPM command to install them one by one. So in the demo above I copied “express” into this file so that WAWS will install it for me automatically. I updated the dependencies section of the “package.json” file manually. But this can be done partially automatically. If we have a valid “package.json” in our local repository, then when we are going to install some packages we can specify “--save” parameter in “npm install” command, so that NPM will help us upgrade the dependencies part. For example, when I wanted to install “azure” package I should execute the command as below. Note that I added “--save” with the command. 1: npm install azure --save Once it finished my “package.json” will be updated automatically. Each dependent packages will be presented here. The JSON key is the package name while the value is the version range. Below is a brief list of the version range format. For more information about the “package.json” please refer here. Format Description Example version Must match the version exactly. "azure": "0.6.7" >=version Must be equal or great than the version. "azure": ">0.6.0" 1.2.x The version number must start with the supplied digits, but any digit may be used in place of the x. "azure": "0.6.x" ~version The version must be at least as high as the range, and it must be less than the next major revision above the range. "azure": "~0.6.7" * Matches any version. "azure": "*" And WAWS will install the proper version of the packages based on what you defined here. The process of WAWS git deployment and NPM installation would be like this.   But Some Packages… As we know, when we specified the dependencies in “package.json” WAWS will download and install them on the cloud. For most of packages it works very well. But there are some special packages may not work. This means, if the package installation needs some special environment restraints it might be failed. For example, the SQL Server Driver for Node.js package needs “node-gyp”, Python and C++ 2010 installed on the target machine during the NPM installation. If we just put the “msnodesql” in “package.json” file and push it to WAWS, the deployment will be failed since there’s no “node-gyp”, Python and C++ 2010 in the WAWS virtual machine. For example, the “server.js” file. 1: var express = require("express"); 2: var app = express(); 3: 4: app.get("/", function(req, res) { 5: res.send("Hello Node.js and Express."); 6: }); 7:  8: var sql = require("msnodesql"); 9: var connectionString = "Driver={SQL Server Native Client 10.0};Server=tcp:tqy4c0isfr.database.windows.net,1433;Database=msteched2012;Uid=shaunxu@tqy4c0isfr;Pwd=P@ssw0rd123;Encrypt=yes;Connection Timeout=30;"; 10: app.get("/sql", function (req, res) { 11: sql.open(connectionString, function (err, conn) { 12: if (err) { 13: console.log(err); 14: res.send(500, "Cannot open connection."); 15: } 16: else { 17: conn.queryRaw("SELECT * FROM [Resource]", function (err, results) { 18: if (err) { 19: console.log(err); 20: res.send(500, "Cannot retrieve records."); 21: } 22: else { 23: res.json(results); 24: } 25: }); 26: } 27: }); 28: }); 29: 30: console.log("Web application opened."); 31: app.listen(process.env.PORT); The “package.json” file. 1: { 2: "name": "npmdemo", 3: "version": "1.0.0", 4: "dependencies": { 5: "express": "*", 6: "msnodesql": "*" 7: } 8: } And it failed to deploy to WAWS. From the NPM log we can see it’s because “msnodesql” cannot be installed on WAWS. The solution is, in “.gitignore” file we should ignore all packages except the “msnodesql”, and upload the package by ourselves. This can be done by use the content as below. We firstly un-ignored the “node_modules” folder. And then we ignored all sub folders but need git to check each sub folders. And then we un-ignore one of the sub folders named “msnodesql” which is the SQL Server Node.js Driver. 1: !node_modules/ 2:  3: node_modules/* 4: !node_modules/msnodesql For more information about the syntax of “.gitignore” please refer to this thread. Now if we go to Git for Windows we will find the “msnodesql” was included in the uncommitted set while “express” was not. I also need remove the dependency of “msnodesql” from “package.json”. Commit and push to WAWS. Now we can see the deployment successfully done. And then we can use the Windows Azure SQL Database from our Node.js application through the “msnodesql” package we uploaded.   Summary In this post I demonstrated how to leverage the deployment process of Windows Azure Web Site to install NPM packages during the publish action. With the “.gitignore” and “package.json” file we can ignore the dependent packages from our Node.js and let Windows Azure Web Site download and install them while deployed. For some special packages that cannot be installed by Windows Azure Web Site, such as “msnodesql”, we can put them into the publish payload as well. With the combination of Windows Azure Web Site, Node.js and NPM it makes even more easy and quick for us to develop and deploy our Node.js application to the cloud.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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• I thought everyone did it like this – Training Session Code Management

  - by Fatherjack

  One of an occasional series of blogs about things that I do that perhaps others don’t. From very early on in my dealings with SQL Server Management Studio I started using Solutions and Projects. This means that I started using them when writing sessions and it wasn’t until speaking with someone at PASS Summit 2013 that I found out that this was a process that was unheard of by some people. So, here we go, a run through how I create and manage code and other documents that I use in presentations. For people unsure what solutions and projects are; • Solution – a container for one or more projects. • Project – a container for files, .sql files are grouped as Queries, all other files are stored as Misc. How do I start? Open Management Studio as normal, and then click File | New and select Project This will bring up the New Project dialog box and you can select/add details as necessary in the places indicated. If this is the first project you are creating then be sure to select the Create directory for solution check box (4). If know in advance that you are going to have more than one project in the solution then you may want to edit the Solution name (3) as by default it will take the name of the project that you enter at (2). This will lead you to the following folder structure (depending on the location that you chose in 3) above. In SSMS you need to turn on the Solution Explorer, either via the View menu or pressing Ctrl + Alt + L                   This will bring up a dockable window that will let you quickly access the files that you choose to include in the Solution.                     Can we get to work and write some code yet please? Yes, we can. As with many Microsoft products there are several ways to go about this, let’s look at the easiest way when creating new code. When writing a presentation I usually start from the position we are currently in – a brand new solution and project with no code. Later on we will look at incorporating existing code files into the Project where we need it. Right-click on the Project name and choose Add New Query           As soon as you click this you will be prompted to select the sql server that you want to connect to and once you have done that you will have your new query open in the text editor and the Solution Explorer will now look like this, showing your server connection and your new query.               And the Project folder will look like this         Now once you have written your code don’t press save, choose Save As and give the code a better name than QueryX.sql. SSMS will interpret this as a request to rename Query1 and your Project and the Project folder will show that SQLQuery1.sql no longer exists but there is now a file named as you requested. If you happen to click save in error then right-click the query in the project and choose rename.               You can then alter the name as you like, even when open in the SSMS text editor, and the file will be renamed. When creating a set of scripts for a presentation I name files with a numeric prefix so that when they are sorted by name they are in the order that I need to use them during the session. I love this idea but I’ve got loads of existing scripts I want to put in Projects Excellent, adding existing files to a project is easy, let’s consider that you have query files in your My Documents folder and you want to bring them into the Project we have just created. Right-click on the Project and choose Add | Existing Item           Navigate to the location of your chosen file and select it. The file will open in SSMS text editor and the Project will be updated to show that the selected query is now part of your project. If you look in Windows Explorer you will see that the query file has been copied into the Project folder, the original file still remains in your My Documents (or wherever it existed). I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to explore creating further Projects within a solution but will happily answer questions if you get into difficulties. What other advantages do I get from this? Well, as all your code is neatly in one Solution folder and the folder contains only files that are pertinent to the session you are presenting then it makes it very easy to share this code, simply copy the whole folder onto a USB stick, Blog, FTP location, wherever you choose and it’s all there in one self-contained parcel. You don’t have to limit yourself to .sql query files, you can add any sort of document via the Add Existing Item method, just try it out. Right-click on the protect and choose Add | Existing Item           Change the file type filter.                       You can multi select items here using Ctrl as you click each item you want. When you are done, click the Add button and the items will be brought into your project.                 Again, using this process means the files are copied into the project folder, leaving you original files untouched in their original location. Once they are here you can double click them in the SSMS Solution Explorer to open them, for files with a specific file type then the appropriate application will be launched – ie Word, Excel etc. However, if the files are something that the SSMS Text editor can display then they will open in a tab in SSMS. Try it out with a text file or even a PS1 file … This sounds excellent but what do I need to watch out for? One big thing to consider when working like this is the version of SSMS that you are using. There is something fundamentally different between the different versions in the way that the project (.ssmssqlproj) and solution (.sqlsuo and .ssmssln) files are formatted. If you create a solution in an older version of SSMS and then open it in a newer version you will be given the option to upgrade it. Once you do this upgrade then the older version of SSMS will not be able to open the solution any more. Now this ranks as more of an annoyance than disaster as the files within the projects are not affected in any way, you would just have to delete the files mentioned and recreate the solution in the older version again. Summary So, here we have seen how using SSMS Projects and Solutions can help keep related code files (and other document types) together in a neat structure so that they can be quickly navigated during a presentation and it also makes it incredibly simple to distribute your code and share it with others. I hope this is of use to you and helps you bring more order into your sql files, whether you are a person that does technical presentations or not, having your code grouped and managed can make for a lot of advantages as your code library expands.  

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• Enum driving a Visual State change via the ViewModel

  - by Chris Skardon

  Exciting title eh? So, here’s the problem, I want to use my ViewModel to drive my Visual State, I’ve used the ‘DataStateBehavior’ before, but the trouble with it is that it only works for bool values, and the minute you jump to more than 2 Visual States, you’re kind of screwed. A quick search has shown up a couple of points of interest, first, the DataStateSwitchBehavior, which is part of the Expression Samples (on Codeplex), and also available via Pete Blois’ blog. The second interest is to use a DataTrigger with GoToStateAction (from the Silverlight forums). So, onwards… first let’s create a basic switch Visual State, so, a DataObj with one property: IsAce… public class DataObj : NotifyPropertyChanger { private bool _isAce; public bool IsAce { get { return _isAce; } set { _isAce = value; RaisePropertyChanged("IsAce"); } } } The ‘NotifyPropertyChanger’ is literally a base class with RaisePropertyChanged, implementing INotifyPropertyChanged. OK, so we then create a ViewModel: public class MainPageViewModel : NotifyPropertyChanger { private DataObj _dataObj; public MainPageViewModel() { DataObj = new DataObj {IsAce = true}; ChangeAcenessCommand = new RelayCommand(() => DataObj.IsAce = !DataObj.IsAce); } public ICommand ChangeAcenessCommand { get; private set; } public DataObj DataObj { get { return _dataObj; } set { _dataObj = value; RaisePropertyChanged("DataObj"); } } } Aaaand finally – hook it all up to the XAML, which is a very simple UI: A Rectangle, a TextBlock and a Button. The Button is hooked up to ChangeAcenessCommand, the TextBlock is bound to the ‘DataObj.IsAce’ property and the Rectangle has 2 visual states: IsAce and NotAce. To make the Rectangle change it’s visual state I’ve used a DataStateBehavior inside the Layout Root Grid: <i:Interaction.Behaviors> <ei:DataStateBehavior Binding="{Binding DataObj.IsAce}" Value="true" TrueState="IsAce" FalseState="NotAce"/> </i:Interaction.Behaviors> So now we have the button changing the ‘IsAce’ property and giving us the other visual state: Great! So – the next stage is to get that to work inside a DataTemplate… Which (thankfully) is easy money. All we do is add a ListBox to the View and an ObservableCollection to the ViewModel. Well – ok, a little bit more than that. Once we’ve got the ListBox with it’s ItemsSource property set, it’s time to add the DataTemplate itself. Again, this isn’t exactly taxing, and is purely going to be a Grid with a Textblock and a Rectangle (again, I’m nothing if not consistent). Though, to be a little jazzy I’ve swapped the rectangle to the other side (living the dream). So, all that’s left is to add some States to the template.. (Yes – you can do that), these can be the same names as the others, or indeed, something else, I have chosen to stick with the same names and take the extra confusion hit right on the nose. Once again, I add the DataStateBehavior to the root Grid element: <i:Interaction.Behaviors> <ei:DataStateBehavior Binding="{Binding IsAce}" Value="true" TrueState="IsAce" FalseState="NotAce"/> </i:Interaction.Behaviors> The key difference here is the ‘Binding’ attribute, where I’m now binding to the IsAce property directly, and boom! It’s all gravy!   So far, so good. We can use boolean values to change the visual states, and (crucially) it works in a DataTemplate, bingo! Now. Onwards to the Enum part of this (finally!). Obviously we can’t use the DataStateBehavior, it' only gives us true/false options. So, let’s give the GoToStateAction a go. Now, I warn you, things get a bit complex from here, instead of a bool with 2 values, I’m gonna max it out and bring in an Enum with 3 (count ‘em) 3 values: Red, Amber and Green (those of you with exceptionally sharp minds will be reminded of traffic lights). We’re gonna have a rectangle which also has 3 visual states – cunningly called ‘Red’, ‘Amber’ and ‘Green’. A new class called DataObj2: public class DataObj2 : NotifyPropertyChanger { private Status _statusValue; public DataObj2(Status status) { StatusValue = status; } public Status StatusValue { get { return _statusValue; } set { _statusValue = value; RaisePropertyChanged("StatusValue"); } } } Where ‘Status’ is my enum. Good times are here! Ok, so let’s get to the beefy stuff. So, we’ll start off in the same manner as the last time, we will have a single DataObj2 instance available to the Page and bind to that. Let’s add some Triggers (these are in the LayoutRoot again). <i:Interaction.Triggers> <ei:DataTrigger Binding="{Binding DataObject2.StatusValue}" Value="Amber"> <ei:GoToStateAction StateName="Amber" UseTransitions="False" /> </ei:DataTrigger> <ei:DataTrigger Binding="{Binding DataObject2.StatusValue}" Value="Green"> <ei:GoToStateAction StateName="Green" UseTransitions="False" /> </ei:DataTrigger> <ei:DataTrigger Binding="{Binding DataObject2.StatusValue}" Value="Red"> <ei:GoToStateAction StateName="Red" UseTransitions="False" /> </ei:DataTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> So what we’re saying here is that when the DataObject2.StatusValue is equal to ‘Red’ then we’ll go to the ‘Red’ state. Same deal for Green and Amber (but you knew that already). Hook it all up and start teh project. Hmm. Just grey. Not what I wanted. Ok, let’s add a ‘ChangeStatusCommand’, hook that up to a button and give it a whirl: Right, so the DataTrigger isn’t picking up the data on load. On the plus side, changing the status is making the visual states change. So. We’ll cross the ‘Grey’ hurdle in a bit, what about doing the same in the DataTemplate? <Codey Codey/> Grey again, but if we press the button: (I should mention, pressing the button sets the StatusValue property on the DataObj2 being represented to the next colour). Right. Let’s look at this ‘Grey’ issue. First ‘fix’ (and I use the term ‘fix’ in a very loose way): The Dispatcher Fix This involves using the Dispatcher on the View to call something like ‘RefreshProperties’ on the ViewModel, which will in turn raise all the appropriate ‘PropertyChanged’ events on the data objects being represented. So, here goes, into turdcode-ville – population – me: First, add the ‘RefreshProperties’ method to the DataObj2: internal void RefreshProperties() { RaisePropertyChanged("StatusValue"); } (shudder) Now, add it to the hosting ViewModel: public void RefreshProperties() { DataObject2.RefreshProperties(); if (DataObjects != null && DataObjects.Count > 0) { foreach (DataObj2 dataObject in DataObjects) dataObject.RefreshProperties(); } } (double shudder) and now for the cream on the cake, adding the following line to the code behind of the View: Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => ((MoreVisualStatesViewModel)DataContext).RefreshProperties()); So, what does this *ahem* code give us: Awesome, it makes the single bound data object show the colour, but frankly ignores the DataTemplate items. This (by the way) is the same output you get from: Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => ((MoreVisualStatesViewModel)DataContext).ChangeStatusCommand.Execute(null)); So… Where does that leave me? What about adding a button to the Page to refresh the properties – maybe it’s a timer thing? Yes, that works. Right, what about using the Loaded event then eh? Loaded += (s, e) => ((MoreVisualStatesViewModel) DataContext).RefreshProperties(); Ahhh No. What about converting the DataTemplate into a UserControl? Anything is worth a shot.. Though – I still suspect I’m going to have to ‘RefreshProperties’ if I want the rectangles to update. Still. No. This DataTemplate DataTrigger binding is becoming a bit of a pain… I can’t add a ‘refresh’ button to the actual code base, it’s not exactly user friendly. I’m going to end this one now, and put some investigating into the use of the DataStateSwitchBehavior (all the ones I’ve found, well, all 2 of them are working in SL3, but not 4…)

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• Fraud Detection with the SQL Server Suite Part 1

  - by Dejan Sarka

  While working on different fraud detection projects, I developed my own approach to the solution for this problem. In my PASS Summit 2013 session I am introducing this approach. I also wrote a whitepaper on the same topic, which was generously reviewed by my friend Matija Lah. In order to spread this knowledge faster, I am starting a series of blog posts which will at the end make the whole whitepaper. Abstract With the massive usage of credit cards and web applications for banking and payment processing, the number of fraudulent transactions is growing rapidly and on a global scale. Several fraud detection algorithms are available within a variety of different products. In this paper, we focus on using the Microsoft SQL Server suite for this purpose. In addition, we will explain our original approach to solving the problem by introducing a continuous learning procedure. Our preferred type of service is mentoring; it allows us to perform the work and consulting together with transferring the knowledge onto the customer, thus making it possible for a customer to continue to learn independently. This paper is based on practical experience with different projects covering online banking and credit card usage. Introduction A fraud is a criminal or deceptive activity with the intention of achieving financial or some other gain. Fraud can appear in multiple business areas. You can find a detailed overview of the business domains where fraud can take place in Sahin Y., & Duman E. (2011), Detecting Credit Card Fraud by Decision Trees and Support Vector Machines, Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2011 Vol 1. Hong Kong: IMECS. Dealing with frauds includes fraud prevention and fraud detection. Fraud prevention is a proactive mechanism, which tries to disable frauds by using previous knowledge. Fraud detection is a reactive mechanism with the goal of detecting suspicious behavior when a fraudster surpasses the fraud prevention mechanism. A fraud detection mechanism checks every transaction and assigns a weight in terms of probability between 0 and 1 that represents a score for evaluating whether a transaction is fraudulent or not. A fraud detection mechanism cannot detect frauds with a probability of 100%; therefore, manual transaction checking must also be available. With fraud detection, this manual part can focus on the most suspicious transactions. This way, an unchanged number of supervisors can detect significantly more frauds than could be achieved with traditional methods of selecting which transactions to check, for example with random sampling. There are two principal data mining techniques available both in general data mining as well as in specific fraud detection techniques: supervised or directed and unsupervised or undirected. Supervised techniques or data mining models use previous knowledge. Typically, existing transactions are marked with a flag denoting whether a particular transaction is fraudulent or not. Customers at some point in time do report frauds, and the transactional system should be capable of accepting such a flag. Supervised data mining algorithms try to explain the value of this flag by using different input variables. When the patterns and rules that lead to frauds are learned through the model training process, they can be used for prediction of the fraud flag on new incoming transactions. Unsupervised techniques analyze data without prior knowledge, without the fraud flag; they try to find transactions which do not resemble other transactions, i.e. outliers. In both cases, there should be more frauds in the data set selected for checking by using the data mining knowledge compared to selecting the data set with simpler methods; this is known as the lift of a model. Typically, we compare the lift with random sampling. The supervised methods typically give a much better lift than the unsupervised ones. However, we must use the unsupervised ones when we do not have any previous knowledge. Furthermore, unsupervised methods are useful for controlling whether the supervised models are still efficient. Accuracy of the predictions drops over time. Patterns of credit card usage, for example, change over time. In addition, fraudsters continuously learn as well. Therefore, it is important to check the efficiency of the predictive models with the undirected ones. When the difference between the lift of the supervised models and the lift of the unsupervised models drops, it is time to refine the supervised models. However, the unsupervised models can become obsolete as well. It is also important to measure the overall efficiency of both, supervised and unsupervised models, over time. We can compare the number of predicted frauds with the total number of frauds that include predicted and reported occurrences. For measuring behavior across time, specific analytical databases called data warehouses (DW) and on-line analytical processing (OLAP) systems can be employed. By controlling the supervised models with unsupervised ones and by using an OLAP system or DW reports to control both, a continuous learning infrastructure can be established. There are many difficulties in developing a fraud detection system. As has already been mentioned, fraudsters continuously learn, and the patterns change. The exchange of experiences and ideas can be very limited due to privacy concerns. In addition, both data sets and results might be censored, as the companies generally do not want to publically expose actual fraudulent behaviors. Therefore it can be quite difficult if not impossible to cross-evaluate the models using data from different companies and different business areas. This fact stresses the importance of continuous learning even more. Finally, the number of frauds in the total number of transactions is small, typically much less than 1% of transactions is fraudulent. Some predictive data mining algorithms do not give good results when the target state is represented with a very low frequency. Data preparation techniques like oversampling and undersampling can help overcome the shortcomings of many algorithms. SQL Server suite includes all of the software required to create, deploy any maintain a fraud detection infrastructure. The Database Engine is the relational database management system (RDBMS), which supports all activity needed for data preparation and for data warehouses. SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) supports OLAP and data mining (in version 2012, you need to install SSAS in multidimensional and data mining mode; this was the only mode in previous versions of SSAS, while SSAS 2012 also supports the tabular mode, which does not include data mining). Additional products from the suite can be useful as well. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a tool for developing extract transform–load (ETL) applications. SSIS is typically used for loading a DW, and in addition, it can use SSAS data mining models for building intelligent data flows. SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is useful for presenting the results in a variety of reports. Data Quality Services (DQS) mitigate the occasional data cleansing process by maintaining a knowledge base. Master Data Services is an application that helps companies maintaining a central, authoritative source of their master data, i.e. the most important data to any organization. For an overview of the SQL Server business intelligence (BI) part of the suite that includes Database Engine, SSAS and SSRS, please refer to Veerman E., Lachev T., & Sarka D. (2009). MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-448): Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance. MS Press. For an overview of the enterprise information management (EIM) part that includes SSIS, DQS and MDS, please refer to Sarka D., Lah M., & Jerkic G. (2012). Training Kit (Exam 70-463): Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012. O'Reilly. For details about SSAS data mining, please refer to MacLennan J., Tang Z., & Crivat B. (2009). Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Wiley. SQL Server Data Mining Add-ins for Office, a free download for Office versions 2007, 2010 and 2013, bring the power of data mining to Excel, enabling advanced analytics in Excel. Together with PowerPivot for Excel, which is also freely downloadable and can be used in Excel 2010, is already included in Excel 2013. It brings OLAP functionalities directly into Excel, making it possible for an advanced analyst to build a complete learning infrastructure using a familiar tool. This way, many more people, including employees in subsidiaries, can contribute to the learning process by examining local transactions and quickly identifying new patterns.

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• Big GRC: Turning Data into Actionable GRC Intelligence

  - by Jenna Danko

  While it’s no longer headline news that Governments have carried out large scale data-mining programmes aimed at terrorism detection and identifying other patterns of interest across a wide range of digital data sources, the debate over the ethics and justification over this action, will clearly continue for some time to come. What is becoming clear is that these programmes are a framework for the collation and aggregation of massive amounts of unstructured data and from this, the creation of actionable intelligence from analyses that allowed the analysts to explore and extract a variety of patterns and then direct resources. This data included audio and video chats, phone calls, photographs, e-mails, documents, internet searches, social media posts and mobile phone logs and connections. Although Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) professionals are not looking at the implementation of such programmes, there are many similar GRC “Big data” challenges to be faced and potential lessons to be learned from these high profile government programmes that can be applied a lot closer to home. For example, how can GRC professionals collect, manage and analyze an enormous and disparate volume of data to create and manage their own actionable intelligence covering hidden signs and patterns of criminal activity, the early or retrospective, violation of regulations/laws/corporate policies and procedures, emerging risks and weakening controls etc. Not exactly the stuff of James Bond to be sure, but it is certainly more applicable to most GRC professional’s day to day challenges. So what is Big Data and how can it benefit the GRC process? Although it often varies, the definition of Big Data largely refers to the following types of data: Traditional Enterprise Data – includes customer information from CRM systems, transactional ERP data, web store transactions, and general ledger data. Machine-Generated /Sensor Data – includes Call Detail Records (“CDR”), weblogs and trading systems data. Social Data – includes customer feedback streams, micro-blogging sites like Twitter, and social media platforms like Facebook. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that data volume is growing 40% per year, and will grow 44x between 2009 and 2020. But while it’s often the most visible parameter, volume of data is not the only characteristic that matters. In fact, according to sources such as Forrester there are four key characteristics that define big data: Volume. Machine-generated data is produced in much larger quantities than non-traditional data. This is all the data generated by IT systems that power the enterprise. This includes live data from packaged and custom applications – for example, app servers, Web servers, databases, networks, virtual machines, telecom equipment, and much more. Velocity. Social media data streams – while not as massive as machine-generated data – produce a large influx of opinions and relationships valuable to customer relationship management as well as offering early insight into potential reputational risk issues. Even at 140 characters per tweet, the high velocity (or frequency) of Twitter data ensures large volumes (over 8 TB per day) need to be managed. Variety. Traditional data formats tend to be relatively well defined by a data schema and change slowly. In contrast, non-traditional data formats exhibit a dizzying rate of change. Without question, all GRC professionals work in a dynamic environment and as new services, new products, new business lines are added or new marketing campaigns executed for example, new data types are needed to capture the resultant information.  Value. The economic value of data varies significantly. Typically, there is good information hidden amongst a larger body of non-traditional data that GRC professionals can use to add real value to the organisation; the greater challenge is identifying what is valuable and then transforming and extracting that data for analysis and action. For example, customer service calls and emails have millions of useful data points and have long been a source of information to GRC professionals. Those calls and emails are critical in helping GRC professionals better identify hidden patterns and implement new policies that can reduce the amount of customer complaints.   Now on a scale and depth far beyond those in place today, all that unstructured call and email data can be captured, stored and analyzed to reveal the reasons for the contact, perhaps with the aggregated customer results cross referenced against what is being said about the organization or a similar peer organization on social media. The organization can then take positive actions, communicating to the market in advance of issues reaching the press, strengthening controls, adjusting risk profiles, changing policy and procedures and completely minimizing, if not eliminating, complaints and compensation for that specific reason in the future. In this one example of many similar ones, the GRC team(s) has demonstrated real and tangible business value. Big Challenges - Big Opportunities As pointed out by recent Forrester research, high performing companies (those that are growing 15% or more year-on-year compared to their peers) are taking a selective approach to investing in Big Data.  "Tomorrow's winners understand this, and they are making selective investments aimed at specific opportunities with tangible benefits where big data offers a more economical solution to meet a need." (Forrsights Strategy Spotlight: Business Intelligence and Big Data, Q4 2012) As pointed out earlier, with the ever increasing volume of regulatory demands and fines for getting it wrong, limited resource availability and out of date or inadequate GRC systems all contributing to a higher cost of compliance and/or higher risk profile than desired – a big data investment in GRC clearly falls into this category. However, to make the most of big data organizations must evolve both their business and IT procedures, processes, people and infrastructures to handle these new high-volume, high-velocity, high-variety sources of data and be able integrate them with the pre-existing company data to be analyzed. GRC big data clearly allows the organization access to and management over a huge amount of often very sensitive information that although can help create a more risk intelligent organization, also presents numerous data governance challenges, including regulatory compliance and information security. In addition to client and regulatory demands over better information security and data protection the sheer amount of information organizations deal with the need to quickly access, classify, protect and manage that information can quickly become a key issue  from a legal, as well as technical or operational standpoint. However, by making information governance processes a bigger part of everyday operations, organizations can make sure data remains readily available and protected. The Right GRC & Big Data Partnership Becomes Key  The "getting it right first time" mantra used in so many companies remains essential for any GRC team that is sponsoring, helping kick start, or even overseeing a big data project. To make a big data GRC initiative work and get the desired value, partnerships with companies, who have a long history of success in delivering successful GRC solutions as well as being at the very forefront of technology innovation, becomes key. Clearly solutions can be built in-house more cheaply than through vendor, but as has been proven time and time again, when it comes to self built solutions covering AML and Fraud for example, few have able to scale or adapt appropriately to meet the changing regulations or challenges that the GRC teams face on a daily basis. This has led to the creation of GRC silo’s that are causing so many headaches today. The solutions that stand out and should be explored are the ones that can seamlessly merge the traditional world of well-known data, analytics and visualization with the new world of seemingly innumerable data sources, utilizing Big Data technologies to generate new GRC insights right across the enterprise.Ultimately, Big Data is here to stay, and organizations that embrace its potential and outline a viable strategy, as well as understand and build a solid analytical foundation, will be the ones that are well positioned to make the most of it. A Blueprint and Roadmap Service for Big Data Big data adoption is first and foremost a business decision. As such it is essential that your partner can align your strategies, goals, and objectives with an architecture vision and roadmap to accelerate adoption of big data for your environment, as well as establish practical, effective governance that will maintain a well managed environment going forward. Key Activities: While your initiatives will clearly vary, there are some generic starting points the team and organization will need to complete: Clearly define your drivers, strategies, goals, objectives and requirements as it relates to big data Conduct a big data readiness and Information Architecture maturity assessment Develop future state big data architecture, including views across all relevant architecture domains; business, applications, information, and technology Provide initial guidance on big data candidate selection for migrations or implementation Develop a strategic roadmap and implementation plan that reflects a prioritization of initiatives based on business impact and technology dependency, and an incremental integration approach for evolving your current state to the target future state in a manner that represents the least amount of risk and impact of change on the business Provide recommendations for practical, effective Data Governance, Data Quality Management, and Information Lifecycle Management to maintain a well-managed environment Conduct an executive workshop with recommendations and next steps There is little debate that managing risk and data are the two biggest obstacles encountered by financial institutions.  Big data is here to stay and risk management certainly is not going anywhere, and ultimately financial services industry organizations that embrace its potential and outline a viable strategy, as well as understand and build a solid analytical foundation, will be best positioned to make the most of it. Matthew Long is a Financial Crime Specialist for Oracle Financial Services. He can be reached at matthew.long AT oracle.com.

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• Adventures in Windows 8: Placing items in a GridView with a ColumnSpan or RowSpan

  - by Laurent Bugnion

  Currently working on a Windows 8 app for an important client, I will be writing about small issues, tips and tricks, ideas and whatever occurs to me during the development and the integration of this app. When working with a GridView, it is quite common to use a VariableSizedWrapGrid as the ItemsPanel. This creates a nice flowing layout which will auto-adapt for various resolutions. This is ideal when you want to build views like the Windows 8 start menu. However immediately we notice that the Start menu allows to place items on one column (Smaller) or two columns (Larger). This switch happens through the AppBar. So how do we implement that in our app? Using ColumnSpan and RowSpan When you use a VariableSizedWrapGrid directly in your XAML, you can attach the VariableSizedWrapGrid.ColumnSpan and VariableSizedWrapGrid.RowSpan attached properties directly to an item to create the desired effect. For instance this code create this output (shown in Blend but it runs just the same): <VariableSizedWrapGrid ItemHeight="100" ItemWidth="100" Width="200" Orientation="Horizontal"> <Rectangle Fill="Purple" /> <Rectangle Fill="Orange" /> <Rectangle Fill="Yellow" VariableSizedWrapGrid.ColumnSpan="2" /> <Rectangle Fill="Red" VariableSizedWrapGrid.ColumnSpan="2" VariableSizedWrapGrid.RowSpan="2" /> <Rectangle Fill="Green" VariableSizedWrapGrid.RowSpan="2" /> <Rectangle Fill="Blue" /> <Rectangle Fill="LightGray" /> </VariableSizedWrapGrid> Using the VariableSizedWrapGrid as ItemsPanel When you use a GridView however, you typically bind the ItemsSource property to a collection, for example in a viewmodel. In that case, you want to be able to switch the ColumnSpan and RowSpan depending on properties on the item. I tried to find a way to bind the VariableSizedWrapGrid.ColumnSpan attached property on the GridView’s ItemContainerStyle template to an observable property on the item, but it didn’t work. Instead, I decided to use a StyleSelector to switch the GridViewItem’s style. Here’s how: First I added my two GridViews to my XAML as follows: <Page.Resources> <local:MainViewModel x:Key="Main" /> <DataTemplate x:Key="DataTemplate1"> <Grid Background="{Binding Brush}"> <TextBlock Text="{Binding BrushCode}" /> </Grid> </DataTemplate> </Page.Resources> <Page.DataContext> <Binding Source="{StaticResource Main}" /> </Page.DataContext> <Grid Background="{StaticResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}" Margin="20"> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="*" /> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <GridView ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource DataTemplate1}" VerticalAlignment="Top"> <GridView.ItemsPanel> <ItemsPanelTemplate> <VariableSizedWrapGrid ItemHeight="150" ItemWidth="150" /> </ItemsPanelTemplate> </GridView.ItemsPanel> </GridView> <GridView Grid.Column="1" ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource DataTemplate1}" VerticalAlignment="Top"> <GridView.ItemsPanel> <ItemsPanelTemplate> <VariableSizedWrapGrid ItemHeight="100" ItemWidth="100" /> </ItemsPanelTemplate> </GridView.ItemsPanel> </GridView> </Grid> The MainViewModel looks like this: public class MainViewModel { public IList<Item> Items { get; private set; } public MainViewModel() { Items = new List<Item> { new Item { Brush = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Red) }, new Item { Brush = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Blue) }, new Item { Brush = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Green), }, // And more... }; } } As for the Item class, I am using an MVVM Light ObservableObject but you can use your own simple implementation of INotifyPropertyChanged of course: public class Item : ObservableObject { public const string ColSpanPropertyName = "ColSpan"; private int _colSpan = 1; public int ColSpan { get { return _colSpan; } set { Set(ColSpanPropertyName, ref _colSpan, value); } } public SolidColorBrush Brush { get; set; } public string BrushCode { get { return Brush.Color.ToString(); } } } Then I copied the GridViewItem’s style locally. To do this, I use Expression Blend’s functionality. It has the disadvantage to copy a large portion of XAML to your application, but the HUGE advantage to allow you to change the look and feel of your GridViewItem everywhere in the application. For example, you can change the selection chrome, the item’s alignments and many other properties. Actually everytime I use a ListBox, ListView or any other data control, I typically copy the item style to a resource dictionary in my application and I tweak it. Note that Blend for Windows 8 apps is automatically installed with every edition of Visual Studio 2012 (including Express) so you have no excuses anymore not to use Blend :) Open MainPage.xaml in Expression Blend by right clicking on the MainPage.xaml file in the Solution Explorer and selecting Open in Blend from the context menu. Note that the items do not look very nice! The reason is that the default ItemContainerStyle sets the content’s alignment to “Center” which I never quite understood. Seems to me that you rather want the content to be stretched, but anyway it is easy to change.   Right click on the GridView on the left and select Edit Additional Templates, Edit Generated Item Container (ItemContainerStyle), Edit a Copy. In the Create Style Resource dialog, enter the name “DefaultGridViewItemStyle”, select “Application” and press OK. Side note 1: You need to save in a global resource dictionary because later we will need to retrieve that Style from a global location. Side note 2": I would rather copy the style to an external resource dictionary that I link into the App.xaml file, but I want to keep things simple here. Blend switches in Template edit mode. The template you are editing now is inside the ItemContainerStyle and will govern the appearance of your items. This is where, for instance, the “checked” chrome is defined, and where you can alter it if you need to. Note that you can reuse this style for all your GridViews even if you use a different DataTemplate for your items. Makes sense? I probably need to think about writing another blog post dedicated to the ItemContainerStyle :) In the breadcrumb bar on top of the page, click on the style icon. The property we want to change now can be changed in the Style instead of the Template, which is a better idea. Blend is not in Style edit mode, as you can see in the Objects and Timeline pane. In the Properties pane, in the Search box, enter the word “content”. This will filter all the properties containing that partial string, including the two we are interested in: HorizontalContentAlignment and VerticalContentAlignment. Set these two values to “Stretch” instead of the default “Center”. Using the breadcrumb bar again, set the scope back to the Page (by clicking on the first crumb on the left). Notice how the items are now showing as squares in the first GridView. We will now use the same ItemContainerStyle for the second GridView. To do this, right click on the second GridView and select Edit Additional Templates, Edit Generate Item Container, Apply Resource, DefaultGridViewItemStyle. The page now looks nicer: And now for the ColumnSpan! So now, let’s change the ColumnSpan property. First, let’s define a new Style that inherits the ItemContainerStyle we created before. Make sure that you save everything in Blend by pressing Ctrl-Shift-S. Open App.xaml in Visual Studio. Below the newly created DefaultGridViewItemStyle resource, add the following style: <Style x:Key="WideGridViewItemStyle" TargetType="GridViewItem" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultGridViewItemStyle}"> <Setter Property="VariableSizedWrapGrid.ColumnSpan" Value="2" /> </Style> Add a new class to the project, and name it MainItemStyleSelector. Implement the class as follows: public class MainItemStyleSelector : StyleSelector { protected override Style SelectStyleCore(object item, DependencyObject container) { var i = (Item)item; if (i.ColSpan == 2) { return Application.Current.Resources["WideGridViewItemStyle"] as Style; } return Application.Current.Resources["DefaultGridViewItemStyle"] as Style; } } In MainPage.xaml, add a resource to the Page.Resources section: <local:MainItemStyleSelector x:Key="MainItemStyleSelector" /> In MainPage.xaml, replace the ItemContainerStyle property on the first GridView with the ItemContainerStyleSelector property, pointing to the StaticResource we just defined. <GridView ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource DataTemplate1}" VerticalAlignment="Top" ItemContainerStyleSelector="{StaticResource MainItemStyleSelector}"> <GridView.ItemsPanel> <ItemsPanelTemplate> <VariableSizedWrapGrid ItemHeight="150" ItemWidth="150" /> </ItemsPanelTemplate> </GridView.ItemsPanel> </GridView> Do the same for the second GridView as well. Finally, in the MainViewModel, change the ColumnSpan property on the 3rd Item to 2. new Item { Brush = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Green), ColSpan = 2 }, Running the application now creates the following image, which is what we wanted. Notice how the green item is now a “wide tile”. You can also experiment by creating different Styles, all inheriting the DefaultGridViewItemStyle and using different values of RowSpan for instance. This will allow you to create any layout you want, while leaving the heavy lifting of “flowing the layout” to the GridView control. What about changing these values dynamically? Of course as we can see in the Start menu, it would be nice to be able to change the ColumnSpan and maybe even the RowSpan values at runtime. Unfortunately at this time I have not found a good way to do that. I am investigating however and will make sure to post a follow up when I find what I am looking for!   Laurent Bugnion (GalaSoft) Subscribe | Twitter | Facebook | Flickr | LinkedIn

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• Search in Projects API

  - by Geertjan

  Today I got some help from Jaroslav Havlin, the creator of the new "Search in Projects API". Below are the steps to create a search provider that finds recently modified files, via a new tab in the "Find in Projects" dialog: Here's how to get to the above result. Create a new NetBeans module project named "RecentlyModifiedFilesSearch". Then set dependencies on these libraries: Search in Projects API Lookup API Utilities API Dialogs API Datasystems API File System API Nodes API Create and register an implementation of "SearchProvider". This class tells the application the name of the provider and how it can be used. It should be registered via the @ServiceProvider annotation.Methods to implement: Method createPresenter creates a new object that is added to the "Find in Projects" dialog when it is opened. Method isReplaceSupported should return true if this provider support replacing, not only searching. If you want to disable the search provider (e.g., there aren't required external tools available in the OS), return false from isEnabled. Method getTitle returns a string that will be shown in the tab in the "Find in Projects" dialog. It can be localizable. Example file "org.netbeans.example.search.ExampleSearchProvider": package org.netbeans.example.search; import org.netbeans.spi.search.provider.SearchProvider; import org.netbeans.spi.search.provider.SearchProvider.Presenter; import org.openide.util.lookup.ServiceProvider; @ServiceProvider(service = SearchProvider.class) public class ExampleSearchProvider extends SearchProvider { @Override public Presenter createPresenter(boolean replaceMode) { return new ExampleSearchPresenter(this); } @Override public boolean isReplaceSupported() { return false; } @Override public boolean isEnabled() { return true; } @Override public String getTitle() { return "Recent Files Search"; } } Next, we need to create a SearchProvider.Presenter. This is an object that is passed to the "Find in Projects" dialog and contains a visual component to show in the dialog, together with some methods to interact with it.Methods to implement: Method getForm returns a JComponent that should contain controls for various search criteria. In the example below, we have controls for a file name pattern, search scope, and the age of files. Method isUsable is called by the dialog to check whether the Find button should be enabled or not. You can use NotificationLineSupport passed as its argument to set a display error, warning, or info message. Method composeSearch is used to apply the settings and prepare a search task. It returns a SearchComposition object, as shown below. Please note that the example uses ComponentUtils.adjustComboForFileName (and similar methods), that modifies a JComboBox component to act as a combo box for selection of file name pattern. These methods were designed to make working with components created in a GUI Builder comfortable. Remember to call fireChange whenever the value of any criteria changes. Example file "org.netbeans.example.search.ExampleSearchPresenter": package org.netbeans.example.search; import java.awt.FlowLayout; import javax.swing.BoxLayout; import javax.swing.JComboBox; import javax.swing.JComponent; import javax.swing.JLabel; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.JSlider; import javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent; import javax.swing.event.ChangeListener; import org.netbeans.api.search.SearchScopeOptions; import org.netbeans.api.search.ui.ComponentUtils; import org.netbeans.api.search.ui.FileNameController; import org.netbeans.api.search.ui.ScopeController; import org.netbeans.api.search.ui.ScopeOptionsController; import org.netbeans.spi.search.provider.SearchComposition; import org.netbeans.spi.search.provider.SearchProvider; import org.openide.NotificationLineSupport; import org.openide.util.HelpCtx; public class ExampleSearchPresenter extends SearchProvider.Presenter { private JPanel panel = null; ScopeOptionsController scopeSettingsPanel; FileNameController fileNameComboBox; ScopeController scopeComboBox; ChangeListener changeListener; JSlider slider; public ExampleSearchPresenter(SearchProvider searchProvider) { super(searchProvider, false); } /** * Get UI component that can be added to the search dialog. */ @Override public synchronized JComponent getForm() { if (panel == null) { panel = new JPanel(); panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS)); JPanel row1 = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEADING)); JPanel row2 = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEADING)); JPanel row3 = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEADING)); row1.add(new JLabel("Age in hours: ")); slider = new JSlider(1, 72); row1.add(slider); final JLabel hoursLabel = new JLabel(String.valueOf(slider.getValue())); row1.add(hoursLabel); row2.add(new JLabel("File name: ")); fileNameComboBox = ComponentUtils.adjustComboForFileName(new JComboBox()); row2.add(fileNameComboBox.getComponent()); scopeSettingsPanel = ComponentUtils.adjustPanelForOptions(new JPanel(), false, fileNameComboBox); row3.add(new JLabel("Scope: ")); scopeComboBox = ComponentUtils.adjustComboForScope(new JComboBox(), null); row3.add(scopeComboBox.getComponent()); panel.add(row1); panel.add(row3); panel.add(row2); panel.add(scopeSettingsPanel.getComponent()); initChangeListener(); slider.addChangeListener(new ChangeListener() { @Override public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) { hoursLabel.setText(String.valueOf(slider.getValue())); } }); } return panel; } private void initChangeListener() { this.changeListener = new ChangeListener() { @Override public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) { fireChange(); } }; fileNameComboBox.addChangeListener(changeListener); scopeSettingsPanel.addChangeListener(changeListener); slider.addChangeListener(changeListener); } @Override public HelpCtx getHelpCtx() { return null; // Some help should be provided, omitted for simplicity. } /** * Create search composition for criteria specified in the form. */ @Override public SearchComposition<?> composeSearch() { SearchScopeOptions sso = scopeSettingsPanel.getSearchScopeOptions(); return new ExampleSearchComposition(sso, scopeComboBox.getSearchInfo(), slider.getValue(), this); } /** * Here we return always true, but could return false e.g. if file name * pattern is empty. */ @Override public boolean isUsable(NotificationLineSupport notifySupport) { return true; } } The last part of our search provider is the implementation of SearchComposition. This is a composition of various search parameters, the actual search algorithm, and the displayer that presents the results.Methods to implement: The most important method here is start, which performs the actual search. In this case, SearchInfo and SearchScopeOptions objects are used for traversing. These objects were provided by controllers of GUI components (in the presenter). When something interesting is found, it should be displayed (with SearchResultsDisplayer.addMatchingObject). Method getSearchResultsDisplayer should return the displayer associated with this composition. The displayer can be created by subclassing SearchResultsDisplayer class or simply by using the SearchResultsDisplayer.createDefault. Then you only need a helper object that can create nodes for found objects. Example file "org.netbeans.example.search.ExampleSearchComposition": package org.netbeans.example.search; public class ExampleSearchComposition extends SearchComposition<DataObject> { SearchScopeOptions searchScopeOptions; SearchInfo searchInfo; int oldInHours; SearchResultsDisplayer<DataObject> resultsDisplayer; private final Presenter presenter; AtomicBoolean terminated = new AtomicBoolean(false); public ExampleSearchComposition(SearchScopeOptions searchScopeOptions, SearchInfo searchInfo, int oldInHours, Presenter presenter) { this.searchScopeOptions = searchScopeOptions; this.searchInfo = searchInfo; this.oldInHours = oldInHours; this.presenter = presenter; } @Override public void start(SearchListener listener) { for (FileObject fo : searchInfo.getFilesToSearch( searchScopeOptions, listener, terminated)) { if (ageInHours(fo) < oldInHours) { try { DataObject dob = DataObject.find(fo); getSearchResultsDisplayer().addMatchingObject(dob); } catch (DataObjectNotFoundException ex) { listener.fileContentMatchingError(fo.getPath(), ex); } } } } @Override public void terminate() { terminated.set(true); } @Override public boolean isTerminated() { return terminated.get(); } /** * Use default displayer to show search results. */ @Override public synchronized SearchResultsDisplayer<DataObject> getSearchResultsDisplayer() { if (resultsDisplayer == null) { resultsDisplayer = createResultsDisplayer(); } return resultsDisplayer; } private SearchResultsDisplayer<DataObject> createResultsDisplayer() { /** * Object to transform matching objects to nodes. */ SearchResultsDisplayer.NodeDisplayer<DataObject> nd = new SearchResultsDisplayer.NodeDisplayer<DataObject>() { @Override public org.openide.nodes.Node matchToNode( final DataObject match) { return new FilterNode(match.getNodeDelegate()) { @Override public String getDisplayName() { return super.getDisplayName() + " (" + ageInMinutes(match.getPrimaryFile()) + " minutes old)"; } }; } }; return SearchResultsDisplayer.createDefault(nd, this, presenter, "less than " + oldInHours + " hours old"); } private static long ageInMinutes(FileObject fo) { long fileDate = fo.lastModified().getTime(); long now = System.currentTimeMillis(); return (now - fileDate) / 60000; } private static long ageInHours(FileObject fo) { return ageInMinutes(fo) / 60; } } Run the module, select a node in the Projects window, press Ctrl-F, and you'll see the "Find in Projects" dialog has two tabs, the second is the one you provided above:

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• Navigation in Win8 Metro Style applications

  - by Dennis Vroegop

  In Windows 8, Touch is, as they say, a first class citizen. Now, to be honest: they also said that in Windows 7. However in Win8 this is actually true. Applications are meant to be used by touch. Yes, you can still use mouse, keyboard and pen and your apps should take that into account but touch is where you should focus on initially. Will all users have touch enabled devices? No, not in the first place. I don’t think touchscreens will be on every device sold next year. But in 5 years? Who knows? Don’t forget: if your app is successful it will be around for a long time and by that time touchscreens will be everywhere. Another reason to embrace touch is that it’s easier to develop a touch-oriented app and then to make sure that keyboard, nouse and pen work as doing it the other way around. Porting a mouse-based application to a touch based application almost never works. The reverse gives you much more chances for success. That being said, there are some things that you need to think about. Most people have more than one finger, while most users only use one mouse at the time. Still, most touch-developers translate their mouse-knowledge to the touch and think they did a good job. Martin Tirion from Microsoft said that since Touch is a new language people face the same challenges they do when learning a new real spoken language. The first thing people try when learning a new language is simply replace the words in their native language to the newly learned words. At first they don’t care about grammar. To a native speaker of that other language this sounds all wrong but they still will be able to understand what the intention was. If you don’t believe me: try Google translate to translate something for you from your language to another and then back and see what happens. The same thing happens with Touch. Most developers translate a mouse-click into a tap-event and think they’re done. Well matey, you’re not done. Not by far. There are things you can do with a mouse that you cannot do with touch. Think hover. A mouse has the ability to ‘slide’ over UI elements. Touch doesn’t (I know: with Pen you can do this but I’m talking about actual fingers here). A touch is either there or it isn’t. And right-click? Forget about it. A click is a click.  Yes, you have more than one finger but the machine doesn’t know which finger you use… The other way around is also true. Like I said: most users only have one mouse but they are likely to have more than one finger. So how do we take that into account? Thinking about this is really worth the time: you might come up with some surprisingly good ideas! Still: don’t forget that not every user has touch-enabled hardware so make sure your app is useable for both groups. Keep this in mind: we’re going to need it later on! Now. Apps should be easy to use. You don’t want your user to read through pages and pages of documentation before they can use the app. Imagine that spotter next to an airfield suddenly seeing a prototype of a Concorde 2 landing on the nearby runway. He probably wants to enter that information in our app NOW and not after he’s taken a 3 day course. Even if he still has to download the app, install it for the first time and then run it he should be on his way immediately. At least, fast enough to note down the details of that unique, rare and possibly exciting sighting he just did. So.. How do we do this? Well, I am not talking about games here. Games are in a league of their own. They fall outside the scope of the apps I am describing. But all the others can roughly be characterized as being one of two flavors: the navigation is either flat or hierarchical. That’s it. And if it’s hierarchical it’s no more than three levels deep. Not more. Your users will get lost otherwise and we don’t want that. Flat is simple. Just imagine we have one screen that is as high as our physical screen is and as wide as you need it to be. Don’t worry if it doesn’t fit on the screen: people can scroll to the right and left. Don’t combine up/down and left/right scrolling: it’s confusing. Next to that, since most users will hold their device in landscape mode it’s very natural to scroll horizontal. So let’s use that when we have a flat model. The same applies to the hierarchical model. Try to have at most three levels. If you need more space, find a way to group the items in such a way that you can fit it in three, very wide lanes. At the highest level we have the so called hub level. This is the entry point of the app and as such it should give the user an immediate feeling of what the app is all about. If your app has categories if items then you might show these categories here. And while you’re at it: also show 2 or 3 of the items itself here to give the user a taste of what lies beneath. If the user selects a category you go to the section part. Here you show several sections (again, go as wide as you need) with again some detail examples. After that: the details layer shows each item. By giving some samples of the underlaying layer you achieve several things: you make the layer attractive by showing several different things, you show some highlights so the user sees actual content and you provide a shortcut to the layers underneath. The image below is borrowed from the http://design.windows.com website which has tons and tons of examples: For our app we’ll use this layout. So what will we show? Well, let’s see what sorts of features our app has to offer. I’ll repeat them here: Note planes Add pictures of that plane Notify friends of new spots Share new spots on social media Write down arrival times Write down departure times Write down the runway they take I am sure you can think of some more items but for now we'll use these. In the hub we’ll show something that represents “Spots”, “Friends”, “Social”. Apparently we have an inner list of spotter-friends that are in the app, while we also have to whole world in social. In the layer below we show something else, depending on what the user choose. When they choose “Spots” we’ll display the last spots, last spots by our friends (so we can actually jump from this category to the one next to it) and so on. When they choose a “spot” (or press the + icon in the App bar, which I’ll talk about next time) they go to the lowest and final level that shows details about that spot, including a picture, date and time and the notes belonging to that entry. You’d be amazed at how easy it is to organize your app this way. If you don’t have enough room in these three layers you probably could easily get away with grouping items. Take a look at our hub: we have three completely different things in one place. If you still can’t fit it all in in a logical and consistent way, chances are you are trying to do too much in this app. Go back to your mission statement, determine if it is specific enough and if your feature list helps that statement or makes it unclear. Go ahead. Give it a go! Next time we’ll talk about the look and feel, the charms and the app-bar….

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• Can't get MySQL to install

  - by James Marthenal

  I'd like to think I know what I'm doing in a Unix shell but maybe not. I made a mistake in a configuration file for MySQL, so I decided to just uninstall it and then reinstall it, so I did: sudo apt-get --purge remove mysql-server mysql-server-5.0 mysql-client The files were deleted, so I then tried to install it, but it didn't ask me for a root password or anything else, so I uninstalled it using the above command again and then did sudo rm -rf /etc/mysql sudo rm /etc/init.d/mysql sudo rm -rf /var/lib/mysql* I then restarted the computer then installed it again: sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client It asked for a root password, and everything looked like it would work, until I saw this: $ sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following extra packages will be installed: mysql-server-5.0 Suggested packages: tinyca The following NEW packages will be installed: mysql-client mysql-server mysql-server-5.0 0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded. Need to get 0B/27.4MB of archives. After this operation, 86.7MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated! mysql-server-5.0 mysql-client mysql-server Authentication warning overridden. Preconfiguring packages ... Can't exec "/tmp/mysql-server-5.0.config.28101": Permission denied at /usr/share/perl/5.10/IPC/Open3.pm line 168. open2: exec of /tmp/mysql-server-5.0.config.28101 configure failed at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/ConfModule.pm line 59 mysql-server-5.0 failed to preconfigure, with exit status 255 Selecting previously deselected package mysql-server-5.0. (Reading database ... 160284 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking mysql-server-5.0 (from .../mysql-server-5.0_5.0.51a-24+lenny5_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package mysql-client. Unpacking mysql-client (from .../mysql-client_5.0.51a-24+lenny5_all.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package mysql-server. Unpacking mysql-server (from .../mysql-server_5.0.51a-24+lenny5_all.deb) ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Setting up mysql-server-5.0 (5.0.51a-24+lenny5) ... Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld. /var/lib/dpkg/info/mysql-server-5.0.postinst: line 144: /etc/mysql/conf.d/old_passwords.cnf: No such file or directory dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.0 (--configure): subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1 Setting up mysql-client (5.0.51a-24+lenny5) ... dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-server: mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.0; however: Package mysql-server-5.0 is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing mysql-server (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Errors were encountered while processing: mysql-server-5.0 mysql-server E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Now I can't seem to figure out what to do. I just want to get a clean MySQL installation at this point. I'm running the latest stable release of Debian. All help is appreciated—thanks! Edit: I looked at this similar question, which suggests that I uninstall mysql-common, but when I try to do so I see: The following packages will be REMOVED: apache2 apache2-mpm-prefork apache2-utils apache2.2-common git-svn libapache2-mod-php5 libapache2-mod-python libapache2-svn libaprutil1 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbd-mysql-rubygem libmysql-ruby libmysql-ruby1.8 libmysql-rubygem libmysqlclient15-dev libmysqlclient15off librdf-perl librdf0 libserf-0-0 libsvn-perl libsvn1 mysql-client-5.0 mysql-common mytop ndn-apache22-php5 ndn-apache22-svn ndn-interpreters ndn-lighttpd ndn-netsaint-plugins ndn-perl-modules ndn-php5-cgi ndn-php5-xcache ndn-php53 ndn-php53-suhosin ndn-rubygems php5 php5-mcrypt php5-mysql proftpd proftpd-mod-mysql python-django python-mysqldb python-subversion python-svn subversion subversion-tools trac zendoptimizer 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 48 to remove and 1 not upgraded. Eeek! Any suggestions?

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• Capistrano asks for SSH password when deploying from local machine to server

  - by GhostRider

  When I try to ssh to a server, I'm able to do it as my id_rsa.pub key is added to the authorized keys in the server. Now when I try to deploy my code via Capistrano to the server from my local project folder, the server asks for a password. I'm unable to understand what could be the issue if I'm able to ssh and unable to deploy to the same server. $ cap deploy:setup "no seed data" triggering start callbacks for `deploy:setup' * 13:42:18 == Currently executing `multistage:ensure' *** Defaulting to `development' * 13:42:18 == Currently executing `development' * 13:42:18 == Currently executing `deploy:setup' triggering before callbacks for `deploy:setup' * 13:42:18 == Currently executing `db:configure_mongoid' * executing "mkdir -p /home/deploy/apps/development/flyingbird/shared/config" servers: ["dev1.noob.com", "176.9.24.217"] Password: Cap script: # gem install capistrano capistrano-ext capistrano_colors begin; require 'capistrano_colors'; rescue LoadError; end require "bundler/capistrano" # RVM bootstrap # $:.unshift(File.expand_path('./lib', ENV['rvm_path'])) require 'rvm/capistrano' set :rvm_ruby_string, 'ruby-1.9.2-p290' set :rvm_type, :user # or :user # Application setup default_run_options[:pty] = true # allow pseudo-terminals ssh_options[:forward_agent] = true # forward SSH keys (this will use your SSH key to get the code from git repository) ssh_options[:port] = 22 set :ip, "dev1.noob.com" set :application, "flyingbird" set :repository, "repo-path" set :scm, :git set :branch, fetch(:branch, "master") set :deploy_via, :remote_cache set :rails_env, "production" set :use_sudo, false set :scm_username, "user" set :user, "user1" set(:database_username) { application } set(:production_database) { application + "_production" } set(:staging_database) { application + "_staging" } set(:development_database) { application + "_development" } role :web, ip # Your HTTP server, Apache/etc role :app, ip # This may be the same as your `Web` server role :db, ip, :primary => true # This is where Rails migrations will run # Use multi-staging require "capistrano/ext/multistage" set :stages, ["development", "staging", "production"] set :default_stage, rails_env before "deploy:setup", "db:configure_mongoid" # Uncomment if you use any of these databases after "deploy:update_code", "db:symlink_mongoid" after "deploy:update_code", "uploads:configure_shared" after "uploads:configure_shared", "uploads:symlink" after 'deploy:update_code', 'bundler:symlink_bundled_gems' after 'deploy:update_code', 'bundler:install' after "deploy:update_code", "rvm:trust_rvmrc" # Use this to update crontab if you use 'whenever' gem # after "deploy:symlink", "deploy:update_crontab" if ARGV.include?("seed_data") after "deploy", "db:seed" else p "no seed data" end #Custom tasks to handle resque and redis restart before "deploy", "deploy:stop_workers" after "deploy", "deploy:restart_redis" after "deploy", "deploy:start_workers" after "deploy", "deploy:cleanup" 'Create symlink for public uploads' namespace :uploads do task :symlink do run <<-CMD rm -rf #{release_path}/public/uploads && mkdir -p #{release_path}/public && ln -nfs #{shared_path}/public/uploads #{release_path}/public/uploads CMD end task :configure_shared do run "mkdir -p #{shared_path}/public" run "mkdir -p #{shared_path}/public/uploads" end end namespace :rvm do desc 'Trust rvmrc file' task :trust_rvmrc do run "rvm rvmrc trust #{current_release}" end end namespace :db do desc "Create mongoid.yml in shared path" task :configure_mongoid do db_config = <<-EOF defaults: &defaults host: localhost production: <<: *defaults database: #{production_database} staging: <<: *defaults database: #{staging_database} EOF run "mkdir -p #{shared_path}/config" put db_config, "#{shared_path}/config/mongoid.yml" end desc "Make symlink for mongoid.yml" task :symlink_mongoid do run "ln -nfs #{shared_path}/config/mongoid.yml #{release_path}/config/mongoid.yml" end desc "Fill the database with seed data" task :seed do run "cd #{current_path}; RAILS_ENV=#{default_stage} bundle exec rake db:seed" end end namespace :bundler do desc "Symlink bundled gems on each release" task :symlink_bundled_gems, :roles => :app do run "mkdir -p #{shared_path}/bundled_gems" run "ln -nfs #{shared_path}/bundled_gems #{release_path}/vendor/bundle" end desc "Install bundled gems " task :install, :roles => :app do run "cd #{release_path} && bundle install --deployment" end end namespace :deploy do task :start, :roles => :app do run "touch #{current_path}/tmp/restart.txt" end desc "Restart the app" task :restart, :roles => :app do run "touch #{current_path}/tmp/restart.txt" end desc "Start the workers" task :stop_workers do run "cd #{current_path}; RAILS_ENV=#{default_stage} bundle exec rake resque:stop_workers" end desc "Restart Redis server" task :restart_redis do "/etc/init.d/redis-server restart" end desc "Start the workers" task :start_workers do run "cd #{current_path}; RAILS_ENV=#{default_stage} bundle exec rake resque:start_workers" end end

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• What free space thresholds/limits are advisable for 640 GB and 2 TB hard disk drives with ZEVO ZFS on OS X?

  - by Graham Perrin

  Assuming that free space advice for ZEVO will not differ from advice for other modern implementations of ZFS … Question Please, what percentages or amounts of free space are advisable for hard disk drives of the following sizes? 640 GB 2 TB Thoughts A standard answer for modern implementations of ZFS might be "no more than 96 percent full". However if apply that to (say) a single-disk 640 GB dataset where some of the files most commonly used (by VirtualBox) are larger than 15 GB each, then I guess that blocks for those files will become sub optimally spread across the platters with around 26 GB free. I read that in most cases, fragmentation and defragmentation should not be a concern with ZFS. Sill, I like the mental picture of most fragments of a large .vdi in reasonably close proximity to each other. (Do features of ZFS make that wish for proximity too old-fashioned?) Side note: there might arise the question of how to optimise performance after a threshold is 'broken'. If it arises, I'll keep it separate. Background On a 640 GB StoreJet Transcend (product ID 0x2329) in the past I probably went beyond an advisable threshold. Currently the largest file is around 17 GB –  – and I doubt that any .vdi or other file on this disk will grow beyond 40 GB. (Ignore the purple masses, those are bundles of 8 MB band files.) Without HFS Plus: the thresholds of twenty, ten and five percent that I associate with Mobile Time Machine file system need not apply. I currently use ZEVO Community Edition 1.1.1 with Mountain Lion, OS X 10.8.2, but I'd like answers to be not too version-specific. References, chronological order ZFS Block Allocation (Jeff Bonwick's Blog) (2006-11-04) Space Maps (Jeff Bonwick's Blog) (2007-09-13) Doubling Exchange Performance (Bizarre ! Vous avez dit Bizarre ?) (2010-03-11) … So to solve this problem, what went in 2010/Q1 software release is multifold. The most important thing is: we increased the threshold at which we switched from 'first fit' (go fast) to 'best fit' (pack tight) from 70% full to 96% full. With TB drives, each slab is at least 5GB and 4% is still 200MB plenty of space and no need to do anything radical before that. This gave us the biggest bang. Second, instead of trying to reuse the same primary slabs until it failed an allocation we decided to stop giving the primary slab this preferential threatment as soon as the biggest allocation that could be satisfied by a slab was down to 128K (metaslab_df_alloc_threshold). At that point we were ready to switch to another slab that had more free space. We also decided to reduce the SMO bonus. Before, a slab that was 50% empty was preferred over slabs that had never been used. In order to foster more write aggregation, we reduced the threshold to 33% empty. This means that a random write workload now spread to more slabs where each one will have larger amount of free space leading to more write aggregation. Finally we also saw that slab loading was contributing to lower performance and implemented a slab prefetch mechanism to reduce down time associated with that operation. The conjunction of all these changes lead to 50% improved OLTP and 70% reduced variability from run to run … OLTP Improvements in Sun Storage 7000 2010.Q1 (Performance Profiles) (2010-03-11) Alasdair on Everything » ZFS runs really slowly when free disk usage goes above 80% (2010-07-18) where commentary includes: … OpenSolaris has changed this in onnv revision 11146 … [CFT] Improved ZFS metaslab code (faster write speed) (2010-08-22)

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• Windows 7 Samba issue

  - by abduls85

  We have a strange samba issue affecting only one user. Our samba setup is as follow : Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.4 (Tikanga) - Samba Server Samba version 3.0.33-3.14.el5 - Samba version Domain Controller WIN2008R2 Standard - Windows DC Windows 7 64 bit - Client PCs User mentioned that he faced this problem after he force shutdown his PC few weeks ago. By right, for all users when we access \\sambaservername in windows it will show all the shares in the samba server but for this user once he startup his PC he will not be able to access \\sambaservername, Error message Windows cannot access \\sambaservername Current workaround to solve the problem : Try to access one share in \\sambaservername for instance \\sambaservername\sharedfolder1. But even when doing so, it will first prompt an error in the beginning, error message is as follows Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password. user need to enter the credentials again and he can access the share. Thereafter, he will be able to access \\sambaservername without any issues. But once he reboots his computer the problem will persists. Troubleshooting done so far: Ensure the following settings: Go to: Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Local Security Policy Select: Local Policies → Security Options "Network security: LAN Manager authentication level" → Send LM & NTLM responses "Minimum session security for NTLM SSP" → uncheck: Require 128-bit encryption Advise user to reset his password and try again but problem still persists Tried my account on users' PC, there is no issues. Tried user account on serveral other Windows 7 PC including mine but problem still persists. Windows XP does not have this problem. Ensure that there is no stored crendentials on the windows 7 PC. Checked the credentials manager in Control Panel as well as typing this command rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr Restart winbindd daemon on samba server but to no avail. I suspect this is due to some caching issue but not sure where is the issue. Whenever the user has error accessing \\sambaservername, the following errors will be logged in the samba server : [2012/10/10 17:10:26, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! [2012/10/10 17:10:27, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! [2012/10/10 17:10:27, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! [2012/10/10 17:10:27, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! [2012/10/10 17:10:27, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! [2012/10/10 17:10:27, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! [2012/10/10 17:10:27, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! [2012/10/10 17:10:27, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! [2012/10/10 17:10:27, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! [2012/10/10 17:10:27, 1] smbd/sesssetup.c:reply_spnego_kerberos(316) Failed to verify incoming ticket with error NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE! But after workaround, there will be no more errors. I suspect after reading the article listed below some amendments need to be made to the \var\samba\cache directory : http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-server-73/getent-passwd-dont-show-ad-groups-and-users-745829/ http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/tdb.html http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/2010-May/155521.html http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/2011-March/161912.html http://lzeit.blogspot.sg/2009/10/samba-shares-inaccessible-after-power.html There are several users using the samba server and i would like to solve this problem without any impacts. I saw the following article : http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/manpages-3/smb.conf.5.html#WINBINDCACHETIME "winbind offline logon (G) This parameter is designed to control whether Winbind should allow to login with the pam_winbind module using Cached Credentials. If enabled, winbindd will store user credentials from successful logins encrypted in a local cache. Default: winbind offline logon = false Example: winbind offline logon = true " Any idea on how to delete the entry for one user in the local cache ?

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• Dual head setup for Ubuntu 10.04.1 and Windows XP Pro with same hardware configuration

  - by mejpark

  Hello. I have a Dell OptiPlex 360 workstation at work, with 2 x ATI RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] graphics cards installed, which are attached to two identical 19" HII flat panel monitors. I'm using the open source Radeon driver with Ubuntu, and the proprietary drivers with Windows. The good news is that dual head configuration works for both OSes. The bad news is, I have to use a different hardware configuration for each OS to achieve this. Hardware config #1: Dual monitors work for Windows XP Pro like this: First display -> external VGA port Second display -> DVI input on gfx card Hardware config #2: Dual monitors work for Ubuntu 10.04.1 like this: First display -> VGA port on gfx card Second display -> DVI input on gfx card I connected up the displays according to Config #2 and booted up Windows, which resulted in a mirror image on both screens. I was unable to login, as the login box was not visible. I unplugged the VGA lead from gfx card and plugged it into the external VGA port (Config #1) - Windows dual head works again, but the VGA-connected screen is not recognised by Ubuntu and remains in standby mode. Is it possible to configure a dual head setup for Ubuntu using Config #1, or am I missing something? I tried setting up dual monitors using Config #1, this morning which didn't work. By default, there is no xorg.conf file in Ubuntu 10.04.1, so I generated one using: $ sudo X :2 -configure X.Org X Server 1.7.6 Release Date: 2010-03-17 X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0 Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.24-27-server i686 Ubuntu Current Operating System: Linux harrier 2.6.32-24-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 20 14:24:04 UTC 2010 i686 Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=a34c1931-98d4-4a34-880c-c227a2936c4a ro quiet splash Build Date: 21 July 2010 12:47:34PM xorg-server 2:1.7.6-2ubuntu7.3 (For technical support please see http://www.ubuntu.com/support) Current version of pixman: 0.16.4 Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org to make sure that you have the latest version. Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting, (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational, (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown. (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.2.log", Time: Mon Sep 13 10:02:02 2010 List of video drivers: apm ark intel mach64 s3virge trident mga tseng ati nouveau neomagic i740 openchrome voodoo s3 i128 radeon siliconmotion nv ztv vmware v4l chips rendition savage sisusb tdfx geode sis r128 cirrus fbdev vesa (++) Using config file: "/home/michael/xorg.conf.new" (==) Using config directory: "/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d" (II) [KMS] No DRICreatePCIBusID symbol, no kernel modesetting. Xorg detected your mouse at device /dev/input/mice. Please check your config if the mouse is still not operational, as by default Xorg tries to autodetect the protocol. Xorg has configured a multihead system, please check your config. Your xorg.conf file is /home/michael/xorg.conf.new To test the server, run 'X -config /home/michael/xorg.conf.new' ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log $ sudo X -config /home/michael/xorg.conf.new Fatal server error: Server is already active for display 0 If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again. Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help. ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log I then booted Ubuntu in failsafe mode, dropped into root shell, and executed $ X -config /home/michael/xorg.conf.new again. The screen went blank and turned off, so I reset the machine. There must be a way round this. Any help to set up a dual head config for Ubuntu using Config #1 would be hugely appreciated. TIA, Mike

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• Why can't I build Deluge?

  - by hugemeow

  Deluge is a BitTorrent Client. I am trying to build it from source, since I don't have privilege to install it as root. I am using python setup.py build. But, it failed following message, why? copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/gray/slider/slider-v-thumb.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/gray/slider copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/gray/slider/slider-thumb.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/gray/slider copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/gray/panel/top-bottom.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/gray/panel copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/gray/tabs/tab-strip-bg.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/gray/tabs copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/window/right-corners.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/window copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/window/left-corners.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/window copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/window/left-right.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/window copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/window/top-bottom.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/window creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/slider copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/slider/slider-v-thumb.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/slider copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/slider/slider-thumb.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/slider copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/slider/slider-bg.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/slider copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/slider/slider-v-bg.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/slider copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/panel/top-bottom.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/panel copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/grid/hmenu-lock.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/grid copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/grid/hmenu-unlock.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/grid copying deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/tabs/tab-strip-bg.png -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/ui/web/themes/images/yourtheme/tabs running build_ext building 'libtorrent' extension gcc -pthread -shared -L/usr/lib64 -L/opt/local/lib -lboost_filesystem -lboost_date_time -lboost_iostreams -lboost_python -lboost_thread -lpthread -lssl -lz -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.4/deluge/libtorrent.so /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lboost_filesystem collect2: ld returned 1 exit status error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1 [mirror@innov deluge-1.3.5]$ echo $? 1 Edit 1: gcc version and os information $(which gcc) --version gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-52) Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. cat /etc/issue CentOS release 5.7 (Final) Kernel \r on an \m Edit 2: boost is referenced by setup.py in deluge 114 if OS == "linux": 115 if os.path.exists(os.path.join(sysconfig.get_config_vars()['LIBDIR'], \ 116 'libboost_filesystem-mt.so')): 117 boost_filesystem = "boost_filesystem-mt" 118 elif os.path.exists(os.path.join(sysconfig.get_config_vars()['LIBDIR'], \ 119 'libboost_filesystem.so')): 120 boost_filesystem = "boost_filesystem" 121 if os.path.exists(os.path.join(sysconfig.get_config_vars()['LIBDIR'], \ 122 'libboost_date_time-mt.so')): 123 boost_date_time = "boost_date_time-mt" 124 elif os.path.exists(os.path.join(sysconfig.get_config_vars()['LIBDIR'], \ 125 'libboost_date_time.so')): 126 boost_date_time = "boost_date_time" 127 if os.path.exists(os.path.join(sysconfig.get_config_vars()['LIBDIR'], \ 128 'libboost_thread-mt.so')): 129 boost_thread = "boost_thread-mt" 130 elif os.path.exists(os.path.join(sysconfig.get_config_vars()['LIBDIR'], \ 131 'libboost_thread.so')): 132 boost_thread = "boost_thread" 133 134 if 'boost_filesystem' not in vars(): 135 boost_filesystem = "boost_filesystem-mt" 136 if 'boost_date_time' not in vars(): 137 boost_date_time = "boost_date_time-mt" 138 if 'boost_thread' not in vars(): 139 boost_thread = "boost_thread-mt" 140 141 elif OS == "freebsd": 142 boost_filesystem = "boost_filesystem" 143 boost_date_time = "boost_date_time" 144 boost_thread = "boost_thread" 145 else: 146 boost_filesystem = "boost_filesystem-mt" 147 boost_date_time = "boost_date_time-mt" 148 boost_thread = "boost_thread-mt" 149 150 librariestype = [boost_filesystem, boost_date_time, 151 boost_thread, 'z', 'pthread', 'ssl', 'crypto']

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• Ubuntu 9.10 and Squid 2.7 Transparent Proxy TCP_DENIED

  - by user38400

  Hi, We've spent the last two days trying to get squid 2.7 to work with ubuntu 9.10. The computer running ubuntu has two network interfaces: eth0 and eth1 with dhcp running on eth1. Both interfaces have static ip's, eth0 is connected to the Internet and eth1 is connected to our LAN. We have followed literally dozens of different tutorials with no success. The tutorial here was the last one we did that actually got us some sort of results: http://www.basicconfig.com/linuxnetwork/setup_ubuntu_squid_proxy_server_beginner_guide. When we try to access a site like seriouswheels.com from the LAN we get the following message on the client machine: ERROR The requested URL could not be retrieved Invalid Request error was encountered while trying to process the request: GET / HTTP/1.1 Host: www.seriouswheels.com Connection: keep-alive User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/5.0.307.11 Safari/532.9 Cache-Control: max-age=0 Accept: application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,/;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch Cookie: __utmz=88947353.1269218405.1.1.utmccn=(direct)|utmcsr=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __qca=P0-1052556952-1269218405250; __utma=88947353.1027590811.1269218405.1269218405.1269218405.1; __qseg=Q_D Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.8 Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.3 Some possible problems are: Missing or unknown request method. Missing URL. Missing HTTP Identifier (HTTP/1.0). Request is too large. Content-Length missing for POST or PUT requests. Illegal character in hostname; underscores are not allowed. Your cache administrator is webmaster. Below are all the configuration files: /etc/squid/squid.conf, /etc/network/if-up.d/00-firewall, /etc/network/interfaces, /var/log/squid/access.log. Something somewhere is wrong but we cannot figure out where. Our end goal for all of this is the superimpose content onto every page that a client requests on the LAN. We've been told that squid is the way to do this but at this point in the game we are just trying to get squid setup correctly as our proxy. Thanks in advance. squid.conf acl all src all acl manager proto cache_object acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/32 acl to_localhost dst 127.0.0.0/8 acl localnet src 192.168.0.0/24 acl SSL_ports port 443 # https acl SSL_ports port 563 # snews acl SSL_ports port 873 # rsync acl Safe_ports port 80 # http acl Safe_ports port 21 # ftp acl Safe_ports port 443 # https acl Safe_ports port 70 # gopher acl Safe_ports port 210 # wais acl Safe_ports port 1025-65535 # unregistered ports acl Safe_ports port 280 # http-mgmt acl Safe_ports port 488 # gss-http acl Safe_ports port 591 # filemaker acl Safe_ports port 777 # multiling http acl Safe_ports port 631 # cups acl Safe_ports port 873 # rsync acl Safe_ports port 901 # SWAT acl purge method PURGE acl CONNECT method CONNECT http_access allow manager localhost http_access deny manager http_access allow purge localhost http_access deny purge http_access deny !Safe_ports http_access deny CONNECT !SSL_ports http_access allow localhost http_access allow localnet http_access deny all icp_access allow localnet icp_access deny all http_port 3128 hierarchy_stoplist cgi-bin ? cache_dir ufs /var/spool/squid/cache1 1000 16 256 access_log /var/log/squid/access.log squid refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080 refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440 refresh_pattern -i (/cgi-bin/|\?) 0 0% 0 refresh_pattern (Release|Package(.gz)*)$ 0 20% 2880 refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320 acl shoutcast rep_header X-HTTP09-First-Line ^ICY.[0-9] upgrade_http0.9 deny shoutcast acl apache rep_header Server ^Apache broken_vary_encoding allow apache extension_methods REPORT MERGE MKACTIVITY CHECKOUT cache_mgr webmaster cache_effective_user proxy cache_effective_group proxy hosts_file /etc/hosts coredump_dir /var/spool/squid access.log 1269243042.740 0 192.168.1.11 TCP_DENIED/400 2576 GET NONE:// - NONE/- text/html 00-firewall iptables -F iptables -t nat -F iptables -t mangle -F iptables -X echo 1 | tee /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3128 networking auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 142.104.109.179 netmask 255.255.224.0 gateway 142.104.127.254 auto eth1 iface eth1 inet static address 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0

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• Setting up RADIUS + LDAP for WPA2 on Ubuntu

  - by Morten Siebuhr

  I'm setting up a wireless network for ~150 users. In short, I'm looking for a guide to set RADIUS server to authenticate WPA2 against a LDAP. On Ubuntu. I got a working LDAP, but as it is not in production use, it can very easily be adapted to whatever changes this project may require. I've been looking at FreeRADIUS, but any RADIUS server will do. We got a separate physical network just for WiFi, so not too many worries about security on that front. Our AP's are HP's low end enterprise stuff - they seem to support whatever you can think of. All Ubuntu Server, baby! And the bad news: I now somebody less knowledgeable than me will eventually take over administration, so the setup has to be as "trivial" as possible. So far, our setup is based only on software from the Ubuntu repositories, with exception of our LDAP administration web application and a few small special scripts. So no "fetch package X, untar, ./configure"-things if avoidable. UPDATE 2009-08-18: While I found several useful resources, there is one serious obstacle: Ignoring EAP-Type/tls because we do not have OpenSSL support. Ignoring EAP-Type/ttls because we do not have OpenSSL support. Ignoring EAP-Type/peap because we do not have OpenSSL support. Basically the Ubuntu version of FreeRADIUS does not support SSL (bug 183840), which makes all the secure EAP-types useless. Bummer. But some useful documentation for anybody interested: http://vuksan.com/linux/dot1x/802-1x-LDAP.html http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/8021X-HOWTO/#confradius UPDATE 2009-08-19: I ended up compiling my own FreeRADIUS package yesterday evening - there's a really good recipe at http://www.linuxinsight.com/building-debian-freeradius-package-with-eap-tls-ttls-peap-support.html (See the comments to the post for updated instructions). I got a certificate from http://CACert.org (you should probably get a "real" cert if possible) Then I followed the instructions at http://vuksan.com/linux/dot1x/802-1x-LDAP.html. This links to http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/8021X-HOWTO/, which is a very worthwhile read if you want to know how WiFi security works. UPDATE 2009-08-27: After following the above guide, I've managed to get FreeRADIUS to talk to LDAP: I've created a test user in LDAP, with the password mr2Yx36M - this gives an LDAP entry roughly of: uid: testuser sambaLMPassword: CF3D6F8A92967E0FE72C57EF50F76A05 sambaNTPassword: DA44187ECA97B7C14A22F29F52BEBD90 userPassword: {SSHA}Z0SwaKO5tuGxgxtceRDjiDGFy6bRL6ja When using radtest, I can connect fine: > radtest testuser "mr2Yx36N" sbhr.dk 0 radius-private-password Sending Access-Request of id 215 to 130.225.235.6 port 1812 User-Name = "msiebuhr" User-Password = "mr2Yx36N" NAS-IP-Address = 127.0.1.1 NAS-Port = 0 rad_recv: Access-Accept packet from host 130.225.235.6 port 1812, id=215, length=20 > But when I try through the AP, it doesn't fly - while it does confirm that it figures out the NT and LM passwords: ... rlm_ldap: sambaNTPassword -> NT-Password == 0x4441343431383745434139374237433134413232463239463532424542443930 rlm_ldap: sambaLMPassword -> LM-Password == 0x4346334436463841393239363745304645373243353745463530463736413035 [ldap] looking for reply items in directory... WARNING: No "known good" password was found in LDAP. Are you sure that the user is configured correctly? [ldap] user testuser authorized to use remote access rlm_ldap: ldap_release_conn: Release Id: 0 ++[ldap] returns ok ++[expiration] returns noop ++[logintime] returns noop [pap] Normalizing NT-Password from hex encoding [pap] Normalizing LM-Password from hex encoding ... It is clear that the NT and LM passwords differ from the above, yet the message [ldap] user testuser authorized to use remote access - and the user is later rejected...

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• Apache not booting, no error messages

  - by EricR

  Apache isn't booting on our production server (all of a sudden) and there are no error messages. Can anyone help me fix this or help me start debugging? init.d fails: /etc/init.d/httpd restart Stopping httpd: [FAILED] Starting httpd: [FAILED] Configtest Syntax OK Apache: Server version: Apache/2.2.3 Server built: Nov 12 2012 08:48:46 Server: CentOS release 5.8 (Final) Booting with debug: /usr/sbin/httpd -e debug -X [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module auth_basic_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module auth_digest_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authn_file_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authn_alias_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authn_anon_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authn_dbm_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authn_default_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authz_host_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authz_user_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authz_owner_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authz_groupfile_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authz_dbm_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authz_default_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module ldap_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module authnz_ldap_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module include_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module log_config_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module logio_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module env_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module ext_filter_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module mime_magic_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module expires_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module deflate_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module headers_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module usertrack_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module setenvif_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module mime_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module dav_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module status_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module autoindex_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module info_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module dav_fs_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module vhost_alias_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module negotiation_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module dir_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module actions_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module speling_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module userdir_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module alias_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module rewrite_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module proxy_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module proxy_balancer_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module proxy_ftp_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module proxy_http_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module proxy_connect_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module cache_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module suexec_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module disk_cache_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module file_cache_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module mem_cache_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module cgi_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module version_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module ssl_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module perl_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module php5_module [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [debug] mod_so.c(246): loaded module proxy_ajp_module <At this point it exits> /var/log/httpd/error_log [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [notice] suEXEC mechanism enabled (wrapper: /usr/sbin/suexec) [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [info] Init: Seeding PRNG with 256 bytes of entropy [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [info] Init: Generating temporary RSA private keys (512/1024 bits) [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [info] Init: Generating temporary DH parameters (512/1024 bits) [Sun Dec 16 20:10:16 2012] [info] Init: Initializing (virtual) servers for SSL

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