Developement

All Subversion 1.5 Windows binaries are available!

David Vidmar — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:28:43 GMT

Finally, all three releases for Subversion 1.5 Microsoft Windows binaries are available.

CollabNet and VisualSVN were available since before, today I finally spotted Apache 2.0 or Apache 2.2 Tigris builds, so I can start upgrading servers!

Subversion 1.5 released

David Vidmar — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:47:03 GMT

If news of last weeks was Firefox 3, this week, for devs anyway, is Subversion 1.5.

Big new feature is Merge tracking which should significantly ease use of branching/merging.

Upgrade should be easy. Upgrade your clients first, those will upgrade working copies automatically. The upgrade the server, which will run on v1.4 repository until you manually upgrade it. Some new features will not be available just using new server, you'll have to upgrade repositories too. This is not done automatically, so v1.4 clients can access it. Once you are read, simply run "svnadmin upgrade" and you are done.

For more information I suggest you read through Subversion 1.5 Release Notes.

Right now, Windows binaries by Tigris or CollabNet are not available yet, will have to wait few more days. VisualSVN server 1.5 is available. I use Tigris binaries, so I'll wait few more days before upgrading both home and work servers.

Also, all clients where upgraded. I use TortoiseSVN and VisualSVN so don't forget to upgrade those too..

LINQ: Detecting if entity is already pending insert

David Vidmar — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:32:09 GMT

I ran into an issue with my latest project at work that uses LINQ. I was upserting some entities and when I encountered a duplicate, I queried the database, but not the pending inserts of my DataContext, so my import failed with "duplicate primary key" type of error.

It turns out it's fairly easy to query those pending inserts too.

Lets have a DataContext and do an insert of a new Color entity:

DataContext dc = new DataContext();

dc.Colors.InsertOnSubmit(new Color() { Code = "F0F8FF", Name = "AliceBlue" });

Since we didn't do dc.SubmitChanges(), the following query returns nothing:

var r = from c in dc.Colors where c.Code = "F0F8FF" select c;

Enter GetChangeSet(). Let's count inserts:

int allPendingInserts = dc.GetChangeSet().Inserts.Count();

But we can have pending inserts of different types/tables. Let's just count pending colors:

int colorsPendingInserts = dc.GetChangeSet().Inserts.OfType(Color).Count();

And now we are not very far from querying inserted records:

IEnumerable<Color> insertedColors = dc.GetChangeSet().Inserts.OfType<Color>();

Console.WriteLine(
    string.Format(
        "Q: Is color #F0F8FF already pending insert?\n" +
        "A: {0}",
        (from q in insertedColors where q.Code == "F0F8FF" select q).Count > 0));

Did I mention I really like LINQ? (except when crossing WCF, of course)

Save SQL query results with column names in MSSSMS

David Vidmar — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:32:42 GMT

Now this is so useful it's worth to repost!

If you need to copy query result in MS SQL Server Management Studio with column names, there is a checkbox in the options to do that. That should be really by turned on by default, imho.

Thanks you, Steven Smith:

A minor frustration I've had with SQL Server for years is that when copying the results to Excel, the column names are not included. Well, Brendan blogged about this yesterday, and in a great demonstration of the value of blogging, he received a comment with the answer to this problem within a couple of hours. It turns out this can be done by going to Tools - Options - Query Results - Sql Server - Results to Grid - Include column headers when copying or saving results. Beautiful. Here's a screenshot if you have problems finding it.

Be sure to check "Result to Text" to, since there is an option to include columns there too!

Java, Flash and Oracle developers wanted

David Vidmar — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:32:53 GMT

A friend of a friend asked me to post this job offers...

Great Position Openings for Ambitious People!

Who We Are

We are an international gaming/betting SW provider. We are in process of opening an office located in Ljubljana.

Position(s) Summary

We are offering positions in

Java development
Flash development
Database development (Oracle)

For detailed description see below.

Send your ENGLISH CV & Cover Letter to: matevz2008@gmail.com

We thrive in fast paced international environment with great attention to detail. We are searching for additional (international) members for our team who are high –achievers, articulate, multi-lingual, positive, self-driven, and highly conscious of producing excellent work. Ideal individual must have strong communication skills, both verbally/nonverbally and be able to work independently as well as within a team environment.

Students entering 4th year of IT university and/any Engineering University programmes are also ideal candidates.

Above all we support the right person who shows an eagerness to learn, strive to deliver results and to add value.

#1 - Java developer

Function:

Server-side (no GUI) Java SE development, responsible for business logic and/or framework development (design + program + JUnit test + document).

Profile:

Experience with object-oriented design & programming in Java
Willing to work in a fast-paced environment (adapt) and learn new things.
Self-sufficient (able to work under a minimal supervision), sense of detail, cooperative and team-minded plus excellent communication skills.
Language: English

Environment:

Java 6 SE + Oracle 11g + RedHat Linux

Beneficial experience for candidate (not mandatory):

ORM (Hibernate) / JPA, JTA, JMS
building modular & reusable components (e.g. middleware/framework libraries)
building distributed solutions (JCache, Oracle Coherence, et. al)
concurrent programming

#2 - Flash developer

Function:

Flash programming in ActionScript 3 (client framework, e.g. multiwindow support, inter-window communication + business logic (features)).

Profile:

Experience with object-oriented programming (not design) in AS3
Willing to work in a fast-paced environment (adapt) and learn new things.
Self-sufficient (able to work under a minimal supervision), sense of detail, cooperative and team-minded plus excellent communication skills.
Language: English

Beneficial experience for candidate (not mandatory):

Adobe Flex 3 + Blaze DS
experience with Java
HTML/XHTML, CSS

#3 - Database developer (Oracle):

Function:

Create and maintain (take ownership) of the physical data model (Oracle 11g on RedHat Linux).
Mentor application developers working with database (what to do, what not to do).
Build and/or optimize (review) database DML/DDL requested/built by application developers.

Profile:

Required experience with data modeling and SQL optimization.
Knowledge of database optimization (OLAP, DSS).
Willing to work in a fast-paced environment (adapt) and learn new things.
Self-sufficient (able to work under a minimal supervision), sense of detail, cooperative and team-minded plus excellent communication skills.
Language: English.

Beneficial experience for candidate (not mandatory):

PL/SQL, Java SE programming
JMS, ORM (Hibernate) / JPA, JTA technologies

Database of country names, numeric, alpha-2 and alpha-3 ISO codes in SQL

David Vidmar — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:13:05 GMT

Having spent WAY more time building this as appropriate for last hours of Friday, I decided to put this SQL script on the web for everyone.

This are SQL statements for filling countries table. Tables includes numeric, alpha-2 and alpha-3 ISO codes. Adjust table and column names to your standards and you're good to go. Script is tested on Microsoft SQL Server but it should run / be easily adjustable for any other database.

INSERT INTO Country (CountryID, ISO2, ISO3, Name) VALUES (4, 'AF', 'AFG', 'Afghanistan')
INSERT INTO Country (CountryID, ISO2, ISO3, Name) VALUES (248, 'AX', 'ALA', 'Aland Islands')
INSERT INTO Country (CountryID, ISO2, ISO3, Name) VALUES (8, 'AL', 'ALB', 'Albania')
INSERT INTO Country (CountryID, ISO2, ISO3, Name) VALUES (12, 'DZ', 'DZA', 'Algeria')
INSERT INTO Country (CountryID, ISO2, ISO3, Name) VALUES (16, 'AS', 'ASM', 'American Samoa')
INSERT INTO Country (CountryID, ISO2, ISO3, Name) VALUES (20, 'AD', 'AND', 'Andorra')
INSERT INTO Country (CountryID, ISO2, ISO3, Name) VALUES (24, 'AO', 'AGO', 'Angola')
...

(click for full script)

Compiled from Wikipedia ISO 3166-1 article, last updated on 23rd of May 2008.

Here is also "create table" script for for quick start.

create table Country (
   CountryID            int                  not null,
   Iso2                 char(2)              not null,
   Iso3                 char(3)              not null,
   Name                 varchar(100)         not null,
   constraint PK_COUNTRY primary key nonclustered (CountryID)
)

Technorati Tags: countries,iso,sql,script

GetSysinternals 1.3

David Vidmar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:36:29 GMT

I just published version 1.3 of GetSysinternals script to CodePlex.

Download:

GetSysinternals 1.3

Changes:

New tools:

Printing PDF documents in C#

David Vidmar — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:46:33 GMT

I never though about it, but printing (not creating!) PDF documents from code without user intervention is not a trivial task. Nearly everyone has Adobe Reader or an alternative PDF viewer installed doesn't help a lot.

Let's look at the options:

Adobe has Acrobat SDK, you can use ActiveX controls to view the document, but there is no stable COM, ActiveX or even command line interface for printing documents without user intervention. User at least has to print a button.
There are pricey commercial components that promise this, but nothing free and handy.
There claims on web that you can do that using Adobe Type Library, but that's only possible if a client has Adobe Acrobat (the real thing, but free reader) installed, which is of course a serious limitation, show stopper even.
Starting Adobe Reader with command line switch is only possible with very old version of the Reader and it doesn't work with current versions,

But if you dig deep enough you will find out that there is a way to automate printing. By using DDE, of all things (if you don't know what DDE is, you probably didn't use a phone with a rotary dial, either).

Here is a sample code I used to print PDF files:

bool tryStart = false;
bool connected = false;
do
{
    try
    {
        // Connect to the server.  It must be running or an exception will be thrown.
        client.Connect();
        connected = true;
    }
    catch (DdeException)
    {
        // try running Adobe Reader
        System.Diagnostics.Process p = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
        p.StartInfo.FileName = "AcroRd32.exe";
        p.Start();
        p.WaitForInputIdle();
        // try this once
        tryStart = !tryStart;                            
    }
} while (tryStart && !connected);

// sucessfully connected?
if (connected)
{
    // Synchronous Execute Operation
    client.Execute("[DocOpen(\"C:\\Test.pdf\")]", 60000);
    client.Execute("[FilePrintSilent(\"C:\\Test.pdf\")]", 60000);
    client.Execute("[DocClose(\"C:\\Test.pdf\")]", 60000);
    client.Execute("[AppExit]", 60000);
}

Since .NET doesn't natively support DDE, I used free .NET library that was published on GotDotNet, which was moved to MSDN Code Gallery. The sample was not ported so it isn't available for download, which is a real shame. There is another .NET DDE library on CodePlex, which will work too.

Next best thing is an C++ article on CodeProject that inspired the code above.

Technorati tags: .net, C#, PDF, printing, print, DDE

wapgUI

David Vidmar — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:42:26 GMT

I often create account (Jira, Subversion, FTP,...) so I need good password generator. For long time I used PC Tools Secure Password Generator web page with two presets and it worked. Except there was a lot of copy-pasting.

Lately I try to simplify my life so I had a "what if I could just..." moment and that instance the wapgUI was born.

It's a user interface for an ancient pronounceable password generator called APG, or in the case of Win32 port wapg.

Using AutoHotKey I can now press Win + S to start wapgUI which will display a list of 10 freshly generated passwords. I pick one (using enter or double click) and the password is copied on the clipboard for instant pasting where new password is needed.

Here is the AHK script I use for launching:

<#S::
    SetTitleMatchMode, 2
    IfWinExist, wapgUI
    {
        WinActivate
    }
    Else
    {
        Run, C:\Shared Folder\Tools\wapgUI\wapgUI.exe
        WinWait, wapgUI
        WinActivate
    }
    Return

The password strength, length and allowed characters parameters for wapg can be set in wapgUI.exe.file.

Includes wapg binaries by Adel I. Mirzazhanov and famfamfam silk icon.

Download:
wapgUI 1.0 (with wapg.exe)

Source code:
wapgUI 1.0 VS 2008 C# source code

History:
1.0 (12th April 2008) - Initial release.

Technorati tags: password generation, wapg, apg, UI, GUI, security, utility

[Book] LINQ in Action

David Vidmar — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:53:43 GMT

It's been a while since I reviewed a book on this blog. It's also been a while since I last read through a technical/software development book and wanted everyone know what I think about it. Last week I picked up a copy of LINQ in Action for my work and for three snowy morning I flipped pages.

When I first started reading about LINQ and playing with it I got a feeling LINQ is HUGE. That regular developer that doesn't have a lot of time to learn will need years to conquer the art of all that is LINQ.

But after reading LINQ in Action I realized this is not the case. The book systematically explains LINQ and since you probably already know something about LINQ fills the gaps. It's fast to red, has a nice flow. First it covers the basics, then explains about LINQ Objects, followed by LINQ to SQL and LINQ to XML and closes with a nice wrap-up. On books homepage you will find extra chapter dealing with LINQ to DataSet.

What I missed in the book is more about using LINQ in three-tiered designs. There are just a few statements about this in the book and few lines in sample code. What I would like to see is a chapter on how to use LINQ when there is WCF service in application design. I know it's a painful subject, but some guidelines would still be nice.

More info:

Book's homepage
Sample code
Bonus chapter 14 - Working with LINQ and DataSets (update: direct links to PDF don't work. Visit home page and access them from there)
Sample chapter 1 and chapter 3 (update: direct links to PDF don't work. Visit home page and access them from there)
Buy on Amazon.com
Buy on Amazon.de

Technorati tags: books, linq, linq in action