This is quite late information but could be useful. ASP.Net Ajax control toolkit is updated with three new controls.
Now we don’t need to depend on FreeTextBox kind of controls for Html WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) editors.
Then an extender on textbox can get windows like combo box with advanced options like enter and append to filter etc.
Then we get a built-in color picker. Personally I am no so impressed with this, but it is now available. Find link here
This is one of eye opening keynote. Just compiled some of the highlights from my twitter.
How S/W developers code programs has dramatic impact on power consumption in Data centers.
Loop vs Service has big impact on power.
It is time S/W professionals understand hardware chages taking place in hardware side of industry.
Dual Core to Multi Core to Many Core. Wether modelling to webservices everone need to optimise for sake of conserving power.
Visual Adernline, Intel Parallel Studio performance Tools from Intel to take advantage of hardware advances. Most of the tools are developed like VS2010 plug-ins and thus bring lot of value with simplied learning curve.
www.intel.com/go/parallel, www.intel.com/software and Intel Certified Solution Program
Resul Pookutty's Key note session mesmerized everyone there. He is so impressive that session just got extended on and on.
He is so well prepared and organized with content. It is really unique of its kind.
Following is one of the clipping that were played at session. This one is from Oscar winning SDM.
Xcerion XML internet OS/3. I posted this when I got beta my beta account. It is released last month.
icloud is a service based on the Xcerion Internet Operating System /3 (XIOS/3).
XIOS is the technical solution behind the service. It offers “A free online computer with desktop, applications and storage.”
icloud consists of a desktop with applications and files that you run through your web browser. Because it's running in the cloud (the internet) it can offer you impressive features such as easy sharing and rich collaboration.
Some of the feature include
It is available in three forms. Check this link. Also check link for applications made available by default.
I came across a requirement to have linked DropdownLists in insert mode of DetailsView bound to EntityDataSource.
In insert mode of DetailsView one of the fields is bound to a dropdownlist’s selected value. But the requirement here is values of dropdownlist vary depending on where condition bound to selected value of another dropdown list.
As shown above TaskID is one of the fields. But tasks vary based on project selected. This is achieved by converting TaskField to TemplateField. I have pasted below code for EditTemplate, InsertTemplate and ItemTempalte. In this only TaskID is bound column while project is added manually.
Without doing modifications shown below I was getting error
This is because upon postback DetailsView control is not re binding to selected value SelectedValue='<%# Bind("TaskID") %>'
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="TaskID" SortExpression="TaskID">
<EditItemTemplate>
<asp:Label ID="Label3" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("TaskID") %>'></asp:Label>
</EditItemTemplate>
<InsertItemTemplate>
<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList5" runat="server" AutoPostBack="True"
DataSourceID="EntityDataSource5" DataTextField="ProjectName"
DataValueField="ProjectID" Width="100%">
</asp:DropDownList>
<asp:EntityDataSource ID="EntityDataSource5" runat="server"
ConnectionString="name=MyEntities" include="Tasks"
DefaultContainerName="MyEntities" EntitySetName="Projects">
</asp:EntityDataSource>
<br />
<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList4" runat="server"
DataSourceID="EntityDataSource6" DataTextField="TaskDescription"
DataValueField="TaskID" Width="100%">
</asp:DropDownList>
<asp:EntityDataSource ID="EntityDataSource6" runat="server"
ConnectionString="name=MyEntities"
DefaultContainerName="MyEntities" EntitySetName="Tasks"
Where="it.ProjectID==@ProjectID" >
<WhereParameters>
<asp:ControlParameter ControlID="DropDownList5" Name="ProjectID"
Type="Int32" PropertyName="SelectedValue" />
</WhereParameters>
</asp:EntityDataSource>
</InsertItemTemplate>
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:Label ID="Label3" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("TaskID") %>'></asp:Label>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
Also observe highlighted portions where autopostback is set for project dropdownlist and its selectedvalue is bound to DetailsView in where condition of Tasks Dropdownlist. But here TaskID selected value is not bound to TaskID field of DetailsView.
This binding is made in OnItemInserting event handler of DetailsView as shown below
<asp:DetailsView ID="DetailsView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateRows="False" CellPadding="4"
DataKeyNames="ResourceID" DataSourceID="EntityDataSource2" ForeColor="#333333"
GridLines="None" Height="50px" Width="125px" OnItemInserted="DetailsView1_ItemInserted"
DefaultMode="Insert" OnItemInserting="DetailsView1_OnItemInserting">
with page behind file containing handler like
protected void DetailsView1_OnItemInserting(object sender, DetailsViewInsertEventArgs e)
{
String TaskID = ((DropDownList)(DetailsView1.FindControl("DropDownList4"))).SelectedValue;
e.Values.Add("TaskID", TaskID);
}
Here inserting event is handled to add TaskID field to values based on selected value of TaskID’s DropDownlist.
Today one of my colleagues expressed difficulty in ensuring uniqueness for certain columns in a table.
Characteristics of these columns are
What could have been done so easily with Unique Key became so difficult because of lack of referential integrity.
These columns could have been defined in a different table and referenced with a foreign key relationship to primary table.
Such a simple thing could not be corrected as we are so tightly coupled with its structure. Awful! a classic example of making life miserable by knowingly living with self made mistakes.
Many a times, we end up spending lot of time doing something that made available to us just due to lack of awareness.
Today I spent 30 minutes to get date as string from datetime column in database. Doing this from code is quite a trivial task.
But here I want to bind a source to UI control. DATENAME function solved my problem just like that. It is built-in function of SQL.
Here are some more references for built-in functions from MSDN
Aggregate Functions (Transact-SQL)Configuration Functions (Transact-SQL)Cryptographic Functions (Transact-SQL)Cursor Functions (Transact-SQL)Date and Time Data Types and Functions (Transact-SQL)Mathematical Functions (Transact-SQL)Metadata Functions (Transact-SQL)Ranking Functions (Transact-SQL)Replication Functions (Transact-SQL)Rowset Functions (Transact-SQL)Security Functions (Transact-SQL)String Functions (Transact-SQL)System Functions (Transact-SQL)System Statistical Functions (Transact-SQL)Text and Image Functions (Transact-SQL)Ramoji Film City, the largest film studio complex in the world as certified by Guinness World Records, is an ultimate leisure destination for holidays in Hyderabad. Following photograph taken before the start of the show. It is just a part of complete set.
This particular show is so realistic and really makes you watch again and again.
Low bandwidth option of MSDN is really worth giving a try. Its much better than regular one.
Find some of the low bandwidth options for MSDN.
Low bandwidth
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.arraylist(loband).aspx
This option is really good.
Mobile/PDA
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.arraylist(pda).aspx
Not quite there. Option to choose language is desired.
Printer-friendly
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.arraylist(printer).aspx
Familiar one. But not so inviting
MSDN Inside the (IDE)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.arraylist(ide).aspx
Useful, though can’t understand why feedback banner hides content at top. MSDN folks to correct this.
Identifying differences between two tables can become quite a daunting task.
Using SQL set operations like {UNION,INTERSECT,EXCEPT} can greatly simply this is process.
Any attempt to use compare operations on .Net runtime turns out to be very costly affair for these operations.
I tried creating a set operations. Here my intention is to pass two tables which share same schema, then pass on ID field which
is anchor. This results a single table specifying Addedd/Changed/Deleted/UnChanged records. That makes whole set.
SELECT t1.*, 'Added'FROMTable1 t1
LEFT JOINTable2 t2 ONt1.ID = t2.ID
WHEREt2.ID IS NULL
union
SELECTt1.*,'Changed'
FROMTable1 t1
INNER JOINTable2 t2 ONt1.ID = t2.ID
except
SELECTt2.*,'Changed'
FROMTable1 t1
INNER JOINTable2 t2 ONt1.ID = t2.ID
union
SELECTt2.*, 'Deleted'
FROMTable1 t1
RIGHT JOINTable2 t2 ONt1.ID = t2.ID
WHEREt1.ID IS NULL
union
SELECTt1.*,'UnChanged'
FROMTable1 t1
INNER JOINTable2 t2 ONt1.ID = t2.ID
INTERSECT
SELECTt2.*,'UnChanged'
FROMTable1 t1
INNER JOINTable2 t2 ONt1.ID = t2.ID
ORDER BY XX
I tried this with two tables each having 100 columns and 5000 rows. I could detect above mentioned changes like Added/Changed/Deleted/UnChanged within 18 seconds.
Thus I believe set operations can offer much cleaner and simpler solution in such scenarios.
“For people who are stupid, we say that they lack a brain. Figuratively, we associate a condition with an organ and say that that organ is missing. So if someone is weak and pliable, we say that they lack a spine or a backbone. Someone cruel and inhuman, we refer to as heartless. With the lack of courage, we associate gutlessness. Emasculation has obvious connections. So I was wondering: which organ or part of the body is there an association with ethics? If someone lacks all sense of morality and ethics, what part of the body are they missing?”
Though the context of original article is different, these words carry much broader meaning.
In my sense dealing with a cruel person is far easier than dealing with unethical person. Moral consciousness is the ability by means of which we perceive what is good and what is bad. In my opinion those who lack sense of morality are deaf and those who lack ethics are blind.
We we are placed in a situation to judge based on arguments from either side we are expected to show morality. That is why I feel lack of morality is like being deaf.
Similarly ethics are intangible. They are just perceived. But only those with an eye can perceive them. Thus in my opinion those who lack ethics are blind.
Often I get confused about kind of task to pickup while adding tasks in project. More than confusion it is like self-contradiction.
Today I thought of making my own notes about ‘Fixed Type’, ‘Fixed Duration’, Fixed Work’ kind of tasks with “Effort Driven” option. This is very much subjective in nature and differs in different contexts. But having a context as a reference can help making better judgment.
Let us assume a scenario
Need following kind of resources to perform a task
1) Architect - 1 - 50%
2) Development Lead - 1 - 100%
3) Full-time developers - 2 - 100%
4) Test Lead - 1 - 100%
5) Full-time testers - 2 - 100%
6) Tech writer - 1 - 50%
7) Designer - 1 - 25%
Initial estimate to complete this task is 10 days.
After 4 days, team realizes that it actually takes 2 additional days(total of 12 days) to complete the task.
Without "effort driven" option
All resources will be charged for 12 days as per units (%), thus increasing cost of the task. Even adding additional resources will not help in completing task within 10 days.
With "effort driven" option
There is a possibility to add resources in order to complete task within 10 days. However the total cost of the task will be same as above.
These are such tasks where we hard-lock resources and monitor duration. As task progresses and understanding of task improves, "effort driven" option can be exercised to meet schedules by adding more resources. But this is not commonly practiced for this kind of tasks.
Here cost of task and duration(within permissible period) is dynamic but resource availability is constrained. Normally core team is assigned with Fixed unit kind of tasks.
In this mode "Effort Driven" option is default and can not be changed.
These are such types of tasks where know-how is well known but resource availability is not fixed. Moreover these type of tasks can span across comfortable durations. If target date gets postponed, resources become free accordingly. For some reason if work-effort increases or work-units reduce, duration increases accordingly.
Here cost of task is fixed but duration is dynamic (within acceptable period). Duration can be minimized based on resource availability.
These are time constrained tasks. Where we start with experts and try to demystify complications as soon as possible. Then exercise "Effort Driven" option to meet target dates by adding additional resources.
Here duration is fixed but cost and resources are not constrained. Theses are like “support” kind of tasks where business continuity is involved.
ABB has inaugurated its green field automation products facility near Bangalore, India, to manufacture automation products.
Spread over 18 acres, the factory will manufacture products such as air circuit breakers, switch fuse units, molded-case circuit breakers, low- and medium-voltage drives and systems, high-power rectifiers, static excitation systems and main and auxiliary traction converters, among others.
Commending ABB’s growth in the last six to seven years, Sjoekvist notes that the virtual debt-free status and a healthy order backlog will help ABB tide over the global economic crisis. “Improving energy efficiency and focus on renewable energy were key factors in adding value,” he says
“Shoo. You can’t attend this meeting. We are going to discuss things here that you will tell me I shouldn’t do. I don’t want that on the record and you can’t stop me.”
ABB has signed a frame agreement with BMW Group to deliver 2,100 industrial robots over five years, beginning in 2010
The robots will be applied in parts handling, gluing and spot welding on car-body assembly lines for BMW's 1-series, 3-series, X5-series and Mini models.
On April 2 GMail turned 5. I switched to GMail on 8/30/04. Since then it is serving as my primary web mail ID.
When I started it offered me 1 GB free space and on today it offers 7GB+. I still trying catching up my 1 GB.
GMail made possible easy to archive and label. Also kind of never delete a mail is a reality now.
Search within mail is awesome. Stars, filters, key short cuts. More to that it offers authentication to blogger and many other services. One feature that I feel like having is auto archive the ones that are labeled after configured time span.
Anyway it wonderful journey with GMail so far and I assume that GMail will stay for ever and ever.
Following registry keys hold default browser’s application path
1. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\http\shell\open\command
As expected there is no consistency here. We tested following browsers
First options works for all browsers except Safari. Second option is not very much recommended. Following code snippet extracts browser path from open command.
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using Microsoft.Win32;
RegistryKey regKey = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(@"\http\shell\open\command");
string[] valnames = regKey.GetValueNames();
string val0 = (string)regKey.GetValue(valnames[0]);
Regex regex = new Regex("[\\w\\W\\d]*.exe\"",RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
Match match = regex.Match(val0);
MessageBox.Show(match.Value);
Quoted from
Mastering the Art of Teams and Team-Building: 10 Tips for Top-Quality Teamwork by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
http://www.quintcareers.com/printable/top_quality_teamwork_tips.html
Working in teams is inevitable. For years now, organizational leaders have recognized the added value that comes from having employees work in formal or informal teams, but over the last two decades even greater emphasis has been placed on work teams. Several studies indicate that more than 80 percent of organizations employ multiple types of workplace teams.
Team-building and teamwork skills are essential in the workplace and highly desirable skills to possess when seeking a new job or promotion. Teams working at their potential generate more productivity and better solutions than if all the individual members had worked independently.
How can you be a better team member? How can you get your team to work more effectively as a team? How can you lead your team to success? Here are 10 tips for creating better teams.
1. Foster Open Communications. The best teams are those in which every member shares their thoughts and opinions with the group, and where decision-making is based on dialogue and not dictatorship. But open communication is not just about having an atmosphere in which people can talk freely -- it's also about team members listening to each other and valuing each other's opinions. If your team lacks open communications, bring it up at your next team meeting.
2. Build Trust. Trust is the cornerstone of all effective teams. Without trust, there really is no team, just a collection of individuals working together. Teams need to develop to a point where every member trusts that every other member will do the work required and be an active member of the team. One of the trendy methods of trust-building is having team participate in a ropes-challenge course, where teams work together to solve problems.
3. Set Clear Goals. A team without specific goals will not nearly be as effective as a team with goals. Goals should be specific, including a deadline for completion. But goals should not necessarily always come from the leader of the team; all goals should be discussed by the entire team, especially in situations in which deadlines will be tight.
4. Review Progress. Once goals have been set, the team frequently goes off to complete all the tasks to achieve its goal. This scenario is perfectly fine, except that in too many instances, new information or actions can affect the goal's completion. Thus, teams benefit from conducting regular check-ins with all team members -- perhaps something as often as weekly -- to review progress and iron out any wrinkles or overcome obstacles that have arisen.
5. Encourage Cooperation, not Competition. Despite being placed in teams with co-workers competing with you for your next promotion, you must find a way to collaborate with every member of the team. One of the worst labels in the workplace is that of “not being a team player.” You will be plenty of time to showcase your personal accomplishments, but without your cooperation, your team may not succeed. Collaboration is a must.
6. Focus on Professionalism. The reality of life is that we all have certain types of personalities that clash with our own, but for teams to work, you have to put aside these petty differences and focus on the positive aspects of all team members. Remember that you are not forging lifelong friendships with your team, you simply need to work together to achieve your goals. Downplay people's negative traits and focus on their positives – just as they will yours.
7. Celebrate Differences/Diversity. One of the best trends in society, as well as the workplace, has been a growing diversity of people -- by race, ethnicity, gender, and age. Diversity introduces new ways of thinking and leads to new ideas and better decisions. Rather than feeling uncomfortable that most of the team does not look or act like you, celebrate their individual differences and the value that each brings to the team.
8. Be Enthusiastic. Even if you generally prefer to work by yourself, the reality you are face is that teams in the workplace are here to stay. One way to make the best of the situation is to jump into the team experience with as much enthusiasm as possible. Enthusiasm is contagious, so not only will your enthusiasm help you feel better about being a team member, it will lead other team members to also become more enthusiastic.
9. Share the Work/Do the Work. The best teams are those in which each member plays a vital part in work that results in superior performance; thus it is imperative that each member not only feels he or she plays a vital role, but actually does so. But sharing the work is only part of the equation. The other part is that once the work has been assigned, each team member must be accountable to complete the tasks. Much as been written about the “free-rider” problem within teams, but with individual accountability within the team, people cannot hide from their team responsibilities.
10. Clarify Responsibilities to the Team. Often one of the main causes of team members not completing their work is not because they are “slackers,” but because they simply do not understand their role on the team -- or the importance that their work will lend to the team. The key here is that each team member must totally understand his or her role on the team and responsibility to the team so the team can succeed.
Final Thoughts
Your work life will include individual and team projects and assignments, and as you move up the organization, the importance of working well in teams -- and leading teams to success -- will gain more and more value. If you take these 10 tips to heart, your satisfaction with teamwork and your performance on the team will improve greatly.
For some reason FxCop still points to a stylesheet from gotdotnet which is broken.
Today we had a requirement to generate static code analysis report in a simple tabular form.
Following snippet did the job. You can apply any css on this for better look. Or even set style for table, tr and td.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body >
<table>
<xsl:for-each select="//Issue">
<tr>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@Certainty"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@File"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@Line"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="../@FixCategory"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="@Level"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="."/></td>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
While qualifying one of our projects for X64, we encountered issue with Program Files folder.
We use Wix for building msi package.
Wix could get %PROGRAMFILES% variable from OS and place files appropriately at C:\Program Files (x86)\
But our product was looking at C:\Program Files.
I prefer picking up any paths from app.config files and delegate task to Wix to update application specific configuration files during installation. This makes life so simple when moving between x86 and x64.
Here I am referring to running x86 stuff as is on x64. Rules change when we compile code for X64.
Microsoft Released Internet Explorer 8 today. Its app 17 MB download and took 8 minutes to install.
And recommends to restart system after reboot. Compatibility mode, developer tools, quick search in address bar are few impressive things. Private browsing is just like any other new age browser feature. It is supported on
Find release notes at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/dd441788.aspx
Java 6 update 11 is recommended version for viewing Java Applets.
Smartclient is a nice concept for occasionally connected applications. A windows forms application or a WPF application can be made available for easy deployment from a webserver, file share etc.. Not only that it can also serve as an update server too.
Though Wix ClickThrough is another concept for similar use, both got unique advantages. And I feel clickonce is the option for today while and clickthrough is evolving.
In this post I would like describe some of the basic concepts of clickonce. I feel this would be useful for anyone starting with clickonce. Let us start with a bit basic theory then move on to infrastructure required to do this and then to an example.
The core ClickOnce deployment architecture is based on two XML manifest files –Application manifest and Deployment manifest.
The application manifest describes the application itself, including the assemblies, the dependencies and files that make up the application, the required permissions, and the location where updates will be available.
The deployment manifest describes how the application is deployed, including the location of the application manifest, and the version of the application that clients should run.
Following diagram shows how versions will be maintained in webserver. Each version will have its own Application Manifest file.
At any time deployment manifest points to one of the versions. Deployment manifest contains an URI which client tries to access from web browser. Click once infrastructure sends pointed version to client. If client contains that version previously then download doesn’t takes place, rather application is launched in client. Else assemblies of that version will be copied to client.
In Client each version is stored in separate directory in application cache which is typically at “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Apps\2.0\<xx>”. In addition click once application gets added to add/remove programs (if install option is selected in deployment manifest). In such case application automatically gets added to start menu also. Applications also run under Code Access Security purview. By default click once application gets deployed with Full trust permissions. However this can be tuned in application manifest.
Also click once applications can be updated automatically. Assume that client has 1.0.0.0 version installed. Click once applications can be configured to check for new updates during start up (Other options are also available like, after start up, periodically etc.). During start up if application detects if deployment manifest is pointing to new version. If so then it prompts user to update to new version. If user prefers to update new version is downloaded and made as default version. Incase user is not comfortable with updated version, he or she can prefer to un-install latest update and rollback to previous version. This roll back can be done as many times till lower version is available.
In case of large applications downloading entire application in one lot may not be very much acceptable. For such scenarios click once offers optional group mechanism. With this initial download happens for required assemblies only. Options groups will be downloaded on demand.
With this background let us move to infrastructure needed for this.
Click expects .Net 3.0 to be available in target applications. If your application depends on higher version of .Net framework, then that becomes as necessary pre-requisite. Pre-requisites can be handled using bootstrapper. I will not cover bootstrap here. Let us assume required .Net framework version is available in client machine.
As mentioned above clickonce installation is nothing but “target assemblies + application manifest” + “deployment manifest”. Assemblies are built by developer. Then manifests can be built using mage.exe or mageui.exe. This is part of Windows SDK. Thus if you have Visual Studio 2005/2008 installed on your machine then you have both of these tools.
Apart from these developer also needs a “Personal Information Exchange (.pfx)” file to sign manifests. Signing manifests is mandatory. You may find this post useful to create a pfx file.
Thus to summaries this section. We need following set of files to create click once installation setup
Now let us start on example.
Let us take a forms application. As a first step let us try to create a clickonce installation setup for this forms application.
Just start Visual Studio and create a forms application by name “MyWebForm”. Just change Form title to “MyWebForm”. That is it nothing else. Build Release version. So MyWebFormApp.exe is the only file we want to create clickonce installation setup.
In IIS create a virtual directory by name MyWebForm. Under that create a subdirectory by name “1.0.0.0”. And copy MyWebFormApp.exe to that folder.
Now start mageui.exe from “C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\<v6.0A>\Bin\”.
Open browser and browse to “http://<webserver>/MyWebForm/MyWebForm.application”
A window pops us prompting to install. Click on install. Application starts automatically and form is shown
You can also observe a new start menu short cut and an entry in Add/Remove programs.
So that is quite simple. Now let us add an optional package.
Before we proceed uninstall application installed in last step from Add/Remove programs.
Now let us create another form project to solution file by name “MyWebFormOptional1”.
Add reference of this project to main project.
Also add a button to main form MyWebFormApp. In button click event add code to launch second form.
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
MyOptionalForm1 opt1 = new MyOptionalForm1();
opt1.ShowDialog();
}
Idea here is to make MyWebFormOptional1 as optional group. Thus when click once application is downloaded first time only MyWebFormApp gets downloaded. Upon clicking on button “MyWebFormOptional1.exe” gets downloaded.
In order to this we use Application.LoadFile method. Copy paste following code in MyWebForm.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Deployment.Application;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using System.IO;
using MyWebFormOptional1;
namespace MyWebFormApp
{
public partial class MyWebForm : Form
{
Dictionary<String, String> DllMapping = new Dictionary<String, String>();
[SecurityPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, ControlAppDomain = true)]
public MyWebForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
DllMapping["MyWebFormOptional1"] = "MyWebFormOptional1";
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += new ResolveEventHandler(CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve);
}
/// <summary>
/// Use ClickOnce APIs to download the assembly on demand.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sender"></param>
/// <param name="args"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
private Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
Assembly newAssembly = null;
if (ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed)
{
ApplicationDeployment deploy = ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment;
//MessageBox.Show(args.Name);
// Get the assembly name from the Name argument.
string[] nameParts = args.Name.Split(',');
string assemblyName = nameParts[0];
string downloadGroupName = DllMapping[assemblyName];
try
{
deploy.DownloadFileGroup(downloadGroupName);
}
catch (DeploymentException de)
{
MessageBox.Show("Downloading file group failed. Group name: " + downloadGroupName + "; Assembly name: " + args.Name);
throw (de);
}
// Load the assembly.
// Assembly.Load() doesn't work here, as the previous failure to load the assembly
// is cached by the CLR. LoadFrom() is not recommended. Use LoadFile() instead.
try
{
if (File.Exists(Application.StartupPath + @"\" + assemblyName + ".exe"))
newAssembly = Assembly.LoadFile(Application.StartupPath + @"\" + assemblyName + ".exe");
else if (File.Exists(Application.StartupPath + @"\" + assemblyName + ".dll"))
newAssembly = Assembly.LoadFile(Application.StartupPath + @"\" + assemblyName + ".dll");
}
catch (Exception e)
{
throw (e);
}
}
else
{
//Major error - not running under ClickOnce, but missing assembly. Don't know how to recover.
throw (new Exception("Cannot load assemblies dynamically - application is not deployed using ClickOnce."));
}
return (newAssembly);
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
MyOptionalForm1 opt1 = new MyOptionalForm1();
opt1.ShowDialog();
}
}
}
Build application and copy MyWebFormApp.exe and MyWebFormOptional1.exe to 1.0.0.0 folder.
Open MyWebFormApp.exe.manifest file from 1.0.0.0 folder in MageUI.exe.
Select ‘Files’ from list box then populate files again. Now “MyWebFormOptional1.exe ” gets added.
Click on checkbox to select this file as optional. And enter “MyWebFormOptional1” as group. Save application manifest.
Then open deployment manifest. Select ‘Application Reference’ from listbox and click on ‘Select Manifest’. Select same manifest again and save manifest once again.
Now let us target on auto updating application to new version. Don’t un-install previous application.
Now launch application from start menu. This time user will be prompted with following dialog.
Hope you found this post useful.
Online forums are always helpful. But sometimes you end up with paid solutions like experts exchange to get a more closure solution. During last year I was in similar situation and paid for a premium service for a month. And I used my credit card to pay it.
But unfortunately EE stored my cc details and charged my card every month since then. As it is small amount it went un-noticed.
Today I just cancelled. I am sure there is no where I selected for a recurring payment on monthly basis. Be watchful about EE.
In recent past I am not using shell scripts and thus lost touch with powerful search replace options for patters.
As Windows Find replace options doesn’t support much of regex stuff, I resorted to VIM.
My intention to fix an XML file in structured format.
I have an xml file with elements like following (it is just a snippet of big file)
<PolicyNo>012345678</PolicyNo>
<DateOfCommencement>03DEC1983</DateOfCommencement>
<Plan_Term>579-60</Plan_Term>
<SumAssured>2,00,000</SumAssured>
<GrievanceRedressalOfficer>011-57293184</GrievanceRedressalOfficer>
And I wanted it in the format of
<DataPoint PolicyNo=”012345678”></DataPoint>
<DataPoint DateOfCommencement=”03DEC1983”></DataPoint>
<DataPoint Plan_Term=”579-60”</DataPoint>
<DataPoint SumAssured=”2,00,000”></DataPoint>
<DataPoint GrievanceRedressalOfficer=”011-57293184”</DataPoint>
Following expression did the trick. I got to tweak second back reference little a bit for different cases where non special characters are present.
And I could also prefix line numbers to confine operations to limited set of lines
like
:9,26s…..
:s/<\(\w\+\)>\(.\+\)<\/\(\w\+\)>/<Detail \1=”\2”><\/Detail>/gc
As usual this is a simple search replace syntax in the format of :s/<find string>/<replace string>/<options in this case gc>
Here find string is formatted as
Now replace string is
And the options include
g – all occurrences in a line
c – seek confirmation
Following links might be useful
And my favorite regex site Regular Expressions Reference
Sometimes we tend to find questions rather than finding answers to questions. We tend do that to introspect ourselves.
But what do we really intend to do with those questions? Are we supposed to find answers for them? Actually NO, I mean not for all of them. Then, why should we collect those questions? Because we want a change the course of life. How can we do that?
According to philosophers, answers are required to execute something but questions are required to change the execution.
Right, next time when something bothers you, formulate a question out of it and add it your collection. Probably when you revisit your collection you may get a clue for a change that you can bring in your life.
Sample what can you do collection goes like this…
What can you do when you are
Today I installed OCM 2007 R2 on my mobile. I guess my organization hosts OCM 2007 server not R2. But earlier I was not able to connect to server using server specified configuration. But with OCM 2007’s Auto configuration feature it just connects in 10 seconds and brings status of contact quickly. I even tried sending couple of messages. I use Asus P320, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. This is very useful for Windows mobile users.
We are using beta version of wix. Though it offers everything that is needed at this moment; we are waiting for Wix 3.0 just to be with release product. According to this post Wix 3.0 will be included in VS2010.
Its a really tool for installation needs where module developers can have closure interaction with packaging team.
And for exclusive packaging teams promising way ahead is Wix.
Gmail user base grew 39%, from 18.8 million to 26 million between September 2007 and September 2008 period.
During the same period, Windows Live Hotmail dropped 4% 46.2 million to 44.6 million.
Yahoo continues to lead at 11% growth rate with 91.9 million visitors in December 2008.
Parsing a comma separated file. This task sounded so simple for this till the time I received couple of bugs.
Initially I attempted with a simple approach as shown below.
using (StreamReader csvFile = new StreamReader(filePath, Encoding.Default))
{
//First line must contain columns
string csvHeader = csvFile.ReadLine();
//Comma seperated values
csvColumns.InsertRange(0, csvHeader.Split(','));
}
Due to these bugs I educated myself about rules of CSV. I can quote couple of references here.
Wiki Comma-separated values and CSV standard.
Important point to note here is that each value in CSV can contain a comma or newline or quotes embedded in itself.
This simple point changes rules of games very much. Normal stream operations to read line are of no use here. As well split functions are of no use. So only option left out is to parse byte by byte watching for characters to skip and add.
Here is the code using which I managed to parse a Csv and resolved bugs. It is too primitive but works.
namespace CsvUtilities
{
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data;
using System.IO;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Globalization;
public sealed class CsvParser
{
//constants
private const int quote = '"';
private const int comma = ',';
private const int carrierreturn = '\r';
private const int linefeed = '\n';
//File Name
private string fileName;
/// <summary>
/// File name propery
/// </summary>
public string FileName
{
get { return fileName; }
set { fileName = value; }
}
//shared reader
FileStream reader;
//Flag to signal end of line
private bool endofline;
#if DEBUG
public TimeSpan timeSpan;
#endif
/// <summary>
/// Default parameter less constructor
/// </summary>
public CsvParser()
{
}
/// <summary>
/// Constructor to set file
/// </summary>
/// <param name="fileName">File name to parse</param>
public CsvParser(string fileName)
{
//Input validation
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(fileName))
throw new ArgumentException("File name can not be null");
if (File.Exists(fileName) == false)
throw new FileNotFoundException(fileName);
this.fileName = fileName;
}
/// <summary>
/// Parses Csv and return a data table
/// </summary>
/// <param name="headerIncluded">If header is not included colums will be named Column(x)</param>
/// <returns>Data table with rows populated from Csv file</returns>
public DataTable Parse(bool headerIncluded)
{
DataTable dataTable = new DataTable();
dataTable.Locale = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
DataRow dataRow;
//Input validation
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(fileName))
throw new ArgumentException("File name can not be null");
#if DEBUG
Stopwatch stopwatch = new Stopwatch();
stopwatch.Start();
#endif
using (reader = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open))
{
string value;
int idx = 0;
//Header handling
while (reader.Position != reader.Length)
{
value = GetValue();
if (headerIncluded == false)
{
value = "Column" + idx++;
if (endofline)
reader.Position = 0;
}
try
{
dataTable.Columns.Add(value);
}
catch (DuplicateNameException dnex)
{
throw;
}
if (endofline) break;
}
//Initialization
dataRow = dataTable.NewRow();
idx = 0;
endofline = false;
//Row handling
while (reader.Position != reader.Length)
{
value = GetValue();
dataRow[idx++] = value;
if (endofline)
{
dataTable.Rows.Add(dataRow);
dataRow = dataTable.NewRow();
idx = 0;
endofline = false;
}
}
}
#if DEBUG
stopwatch.Stop();
timeSpan = stopwatch.Elapsed;
#endif
return dataTable;
}
private string GetValue()
{
char currentByte; // Current Byte
char nextByte; // Next Byte
Boolean withinQuote = false; // Is current position within a quote
List<char> bytes = new List<char>();
long position = 0;
//If stream is null throw exception
if (reader == null)
throw new ArgumentException("CSVDataset: stream can not be null");
if (reader.CanRead == false)
throw new ArgumentException("CSVDataset: Can not read stream");
while (reader.CanRead)
{
currentByte = (char)reader.ReadByte();
position = reader.Position;
//If at last position terminate
if (position == reader.Length)
break;
//peek next character
nextByte = (char)reader.ReadByte();
//As ReadByte moved cursor ahead bring cursor back
reader.Seek(position, SeekOrigin.Begin);
//Current character is within the quote
if (withinQuote)
{
//Is this character a terminating quote
if ((currentByte == quote) && (nextByte == comma))
{
reader.Seek(position + 1, SeekOrigin.Begin); //jump comma
break;
}
if ((currentByte == quote) && (nextByte == quote))
{
continue;
}
else
{
bytes.Add(currentByte);
continue;
}
}
if (currentByte == quote)
{
withinQuote = true;
continue;
}
if (currentByte == comma) break;
if ((currentByte == carrierreturn) (currentByte == linefeed))
{
if ((nextByte == carrierreturn) (nextByte == linefeed))
{
reader.Seek(position + 1, SeekOrigin.Begin); //jump CR+LF
}
endofline = true;
break;
}
bytes.Add(currentByte);
}
//Reading value completed. Return
return new string(bytes.ToArray());
}
}
}
Hope this is useful to start with. Advanced parsers can be found at codeproject http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/CsvReader.aspx
Of late I am observing that my laptop takes long time to boot up. I am hunting in event log to to find probable reason.
One thing that I observed today is about vmware disk images. Because these are huge file Mcshield takes long time to scan those file for virus.
Actually I got these files in D drive. But still upon boot up these these files are being scanned causing delay in boot up time
“A thread in process C:\Program Files\McAfee\VirusScan Enterprise\Mcshield.exe took longer than 90000 ms to complete a request.
Build VSCORE.13.3.2.128 / 5300.2777
Object being scanned = \Device\HarddiskVolume2\xxxxx-x86.tar.bz2”
Any ideas on how to overcome this issue.
Updated to new google maps for windows mobile.
Though street view is not so much facinating for Indian users, there are couple of things that are interesting.
1) Now application can be installed on storage card. Thus even application data can be stored on Storage card. No more limitation of phone memory.
2) My location can be triggered from map itself. No need to go to Menu.
I am more happy for first point.
MSDN Magazine January 2009 edition published first article in Service Station column about building WCF services using REST.
Article is titled An Introduction To RESTful Services With WCF by Jon Flanders.
In this article Jon mentioned about “Why Should You Care about REST?” as
“In my mind, there are two main reasons. First, REST offers some significant features and benefits over RPC technologies in many cases. Second, Microsoft is moving many of its own implementations away from RPC technologies (such as SOAP) and toward REST. This means that even if you aren't convinced or motivated to use REST to build your own systems, as more frameworks and technologies from Microsoft (and others) move to REST, you'll need to know how to interact with them.”
With that it is quite obvious that Microsoft/WCF is moving towards REST in year 2009.
In this post I would like to collect some of the good links to start on REST.
Updated to live writer 14 which is part new live update pack.
Notable changes
1) Preview
2) Segeo font
Click once deployment requires CLR to be present on target machine to verify manifest. Following snippets help in detecting the same.
Snippets work with IE5+ and Firefox 3+ only. They fail with Chrome.
Server Side:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
bool clrOK = Request.Browser.ClrVersion > new Version(3, 0);
if (clrOK)
Response.Write("CLR Version : " + Request.Browser.ClrVersion);
else
Response.Write("This machine does not have Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 SP1. Install and try again.");
}
Client Side:
<script type="text/javascript">
function DetectCLR(targetVersion) {
//Gets CLR version on IE5+ and Firefox 3+
var uagent = navigator.userAgent;
//Form regular expression
var clrRegExp = new RegExp(".NET CLR \\d.\\d.\\d{5}", "g");
//Get Matches
var clrversions = uagent.match(clrRegExp);
//Is CLR present
if (clrversions == null)
document.write("Please install Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 and try again");
//Possible .NET CLR versions for v2 and above
//.NET CLR 2.0.50727
//.NET CLR 3.0.04506
//.NET CLR 3.5.21022
//.NET CLR 3.5.30729
var arraylength = clrversions.length;
var clrversiondetected;
for (var i = 0; i < arraylength; i++) {
//document.write(clrversions[i] + "</br>");
clrversiondetected = (clrversions[i] == targetVersion);
}
if (!clrversiondetected)
document.write("Please install Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 and try again");
else
document.write("CLR Version : <b>" + targetVersion + "</b>");
return clrversiondetected;
}
</script>
I just came across BOSS.
BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) GNU/Linux distribution developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) derived from Debian for enhancing the use of Free/ Open Source Software throughout India. BOSSGNU/Linux - a key deliverable of NRCFOSS has crossed another milestone by releasing version 3.0. BOSS GNU/Linux Version 3.0 is coupled with GNOME and KDE Desktop Environment with wide Indian language support & packages, relevant for use in the Government domain. Currently BOSS GNU/Linux Desktop is available in almost all the Indian Languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bodo, Urdu, Kashmiri, Maithili, Konkani, Manipuri , which will enable the mainly non-English literate users in the country to be exposed to ICT and to use the computer more effectively.
Explicit interface methods are prefered to instance members for following reasons
a) They are accessible only through interface
b) They support multiple levels of inheritance chain
Some insight. Take this example.
a) Take simple console application
b) Add an interface
c) Implement interface
d) Create Object of the class and try to access interface method
e) Cast it with interface and access
f) Call another explicit method method
g) Call another explicit methos by casting this object with interface
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
namespace ClassMonitorLibrary
{
public class Program
{
//Entry point
public static void Main(String [] args)
{
#region Not accessible directly
//Object is accessible
//IFile im = (IFile)(new InterfaceMethods());
#endregion
InterfaceMethods im = new InterfaceMethods();
im.GetFile("Data.txt", 10);
}
}
//Simple interface
interface IFile
{
bool GetFile(string fileName, int length);
bool IsFileExists(string fileName);
}
//Interface implementation
class InterfaceMethods : IFile
{
bool IFile.GetFile(string fileName, int length)
{
#region how to access method
//if (((IFile)this).IsFileExists(fileName))
#endregion
if (IsFileExists(fileName))
Console.WriteLine("FileExists");
return true;
}
bool IFile.IsFileExists(string fileName)
{
return true;
}
}
}
Register quickly as limited seats available for focused event on Software + Services.
Back up and swap files that vim creates are sometimes frustrating; that too when you are working on source tree in version controlled directory.
Setting them off is desirable for such environments. Today I updated my Vim profile to do this and also found consolas font more appealing font for Vim editing on windows. Just thought of sharing profile file if anyone else interested in it.
C:\Program Files\Vim\_Vimrc file
set nobackup "Set off backup files"
set noswapfile "Set off swap files"
"Fonts"
set guifont=Consolas:h12:cANSI
"Tabs"
set stal=2
"GUI Options"
set guioptions-=T "No Toolbar"
set guioptions-=r "No right scroll "
set guioptions-=m "No menu "
"Color scheme"
colorscheme wombat "tried zellner, now wombat suits me best"
AutomationFederation.org is conducting and online survey on Issues in the Manufacturing Environment.
Survey results will be published in Microsoft's forum.
During April 2-4, 2008, Microsoft will be hosting a forum specifically addressing issues in the Manufacturing environment. The Microsoft Manufacturers User's Group (MsMUG) has been working side-by-side with Microsoft in preparation for this event.
