Codewut Because Software Matters

While fighting some more problems with Sharepoint 2007 Variations "System" I had to write this comment in my code today:

// note: there is a bug in Sharepoint 2007 when using ", " within a page name - "foo, bar.aspx" for instance. 
// note: This will render the relationship list entry useless. A healthy object id attribute in a 
// note: relationship list's entry looks like this: 
// note: ows_ObjectID='http://mucskysp04:4711/DE/Seiten/Seite mit Sönderzeichen.aspx, /DE/Seiten/Seite mit Sönderzeichen.aspx' 
// note: once "broken" using the naming-"exploit", the relationship will be represented as:
// note: ows_ObjectID='http://mucskysp04:4711/DE/Seiten/variationsseite, mitkommaundleerzeichen.aspx' 
// note: note the missing relative path. There is no reason to work around this bug in this tool since the original
// note: entry in Sharepoint won't be functional anyway (no entries will be shown in the variations dropdown)

If you find yourself like me struggling with remote debugging using visual studio: here is a stupid easy way to get things running: READ THE FREAKIN' DIALOG MESSAGES!

So, here is the recipe:

• Download a copy of the Remote-Debugger from Microsoft (I got mine over here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=440ec902-3260-4... )
• Install it on the target machine
• Don't bother yourself with setting it up as a service, we'll be running the remote debugging application manually.
• Make sure the the username and password of your remote machine and the local machine are the same. Otherwise you might run into authentication problems when connecting to the remote host. Easiest way to achive that is being a part of a NT Domain and using the same account on both machines.
• Now, listen very closely: Remote debugging needs the debug symbols to be available to the remote machine. Here is a rather stupid but dead simple way to get this working: In visual studio head over to Tools->Options->Debugging->Symbols and set it to C:\temp
• Deploy your "to be debugged application" onto the remote host into C:\temp - include those funny .pdb files. Those are the debug symbols we'll need.
• See a pattern here? If not re-read the last 2 list items
• run the app on the remote host
• Debug-> Attach Process: Enter the hostname of the remote machine (labeled Qualifier), select managed code from "Attach to:", hit refresh and pick your process.
• Done.

And yes, I am pissed, mostly at myself because I did not pay attention to the debug symbols and was wondering why I could attach to a process but not set any breakpoints. Still a spoiled java coder I guess. No such headaches over there.

Almost there... Almost....

It's actually pretty simple, but many small things can go wrong. So, here is your small boilerplate code for a XUL overlay which renders a small canvas area in the status bar:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
 
<overlay id="myOverlay"
  xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"
  xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 
  <statusbar id="status-bar">
    <statusbarpanel>
      <box>
        <html:canvas id="myCanvas" width="15" height="15" style="border:1px solid black;"/>
      </box>
    </statusbarpanel>
  </statusbar>
</overlay>

and some simple painting in JS:

var canvas = window.document.getElementById("myCanvas");
var ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
ctx.fillStyle = "red";
ctx.fillRect(5,5,5,5);

If done right, you will get a result like this

CANVAS in XUL

Dear Diary

Today kicked off rather troublesome. After installing the developer edition of SQL Server 2008 I've decided to get rid of the SQL Server Express Edition. Why would I want to run multiple versions of SQL Server on the same machine? This turned out not to be a very good idea, especially when you are about developing ASP.NET applications using Visual Studio. Once you try to run an ASP.NET application which requires some kind of role management and/or personalization (Web Parts do), you will run into this pretty error:

IIS SQL Error

Yes, the local IIS is still referencing the SQL Server Express datasource. One would assume that you could change those settings somewhere within Visual Studio as you can change the Port of the ASP.NET application. Well… Don’t waste time as I did. It is not that easy, here is what you need to do:

Create a new Database dedicated to the IIS, for the sake of simplicity we’ll call it “IIS”:

Create a new IIS Database

Locate and run “aspnet_regsql.exe”. In my case it is "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regsql.exe". Here you want to stick with the first option (Configure SQL Server for application services) and point it to the freshly created database on the next and let the configuration tool initialize the empty db.

Initialize the new Database

Almost done, you still need to point the LocalSqlServer configuration not to use the SQLEXPRESS Server but the dedicated Database. Locate the machine.config and provide the connection string to the IIS Database:

Modify machine.config

Dear Diary:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc425499.aspx - specifications for the exchange protocol and other related "stuff" (cab-file format for instance) #specs #api #exchange

So, seems there is a HTTP REST-Like interface to Active Sync aaaaand a WEBDAVy way to access your Mailbox... Sounds cool, might be a handy solution to a problem we ran into at the office recently. Here is a small PHP Example: http://www.troywolf.com/articles/php/exchange_webdav_examples.php

Woohoo! SVN builds of XBMC are getting pretty smooooooooth and stable. I think that Acer Revo box I purchased some time ago will be able to replace the rockstabe Popcorn Hour A-100 in no time.

Oh, in case you have been wondering what's so special about this: What you see is an Intel Atom based SFF PC powered by the NVidia ION chipset. Yes, 1080p decoding on the GPU. And yes, It's running on Linux, the Windows version of XBMC is not doing a great job regarding offloading video decoding onto the GPU yet.

So far I have found 2 issues with the current build. The decoder uses 16-235 colorspace instead of 0-255, so you will be missing some contrast. Does not apply to all videos though, old DIVX files decode correctly. The other issue is really a minor one, XBMC won't run when you use compiz at the same time.

There is also a new feature in the current dev snapshot I could not give a try, XBMC does support some fancy SD upscaling on the GPU. Unfortunately the ION Chipset does not support the "VDPAU Featureset C" - only newer cards like the GT2XX series do.

And here is the updated video. A bit less blurry / shaky but still crappy.

tested version: xbmc_9.04.3+svn23321-jaunty1

Just in case you run into OutOfMemory Exceptions while requesting a large data chunk from the MySQL: the JDBC driver will load ALL (yes, ALL) rows before passing it to your fancy, agile and low-footprint routine. Tweaking the fetchSize property of a statement won't do any good either... well, not without some voodoo. So, here is how you can get the JDBC driver to get you a nice and tight StreamingResultSet:

Connection connection = dataSource.getConnection();
Statement st = connection.createStatement(java.sql.ResultSet.TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY, java.sql.ResultSet.CONCUR_READ_ONLY);
st.setFetchSize(Integer.MIN_VALUE); // Inter.MIN_VALUE <- and ONLY this value, 1,5 or 100 won't fix your problem.
ResultSet rs = st.executeQuery("select * from someREALLYHugeTable");

Reflection and me? Big friends. With all the love and hate a good friendship should have. A few days ago it was all about hate again. I had a bunch of service classes, some of them would implement a generic interface... Let's call it IHasAdorable - so a Service-Implementation could look like this:

public class MarketMerchant : IHasAdorable<CheeseBurger>, IProductSeller
{
  // defined in IHasAdorable
  CheeseBurger BuyAdorable() 
  { 
    return new AdorableCheeseburger(); 
  }
 
  // defined in IProductSeller
  IProduct Buy(String eanCode) 
  { 
    if (eanCode.equals("12345"))
      return this.bigStackOfSmellyFishburgers.Pop();
    else
      throw new IAmSoSorryException("We don't have any of these!");
  }
}

Now lets assume we want to browse through ALL market merchants and have a look if they have any adorable products. Let's skip the iteration process and pay attention to the probing of all market merchants in order to buy a adorable product from each of them. First attempt might be to use "is":

  IProductSeller merchant;
  // iteration goes here
  if (merchant is IHasAdorable<object>)
  {
    // this wont work. We are selling something very special, not just a stupid object!
    // Casting to IHasAdorable<> won't even compile.    
  }

  typeof(IHasAdorable<object>).IsAssignableFrom(merchant) 

  // `1 means there is 1 Generic parameter 
  Type adorableInterfaceType = merchant.GetType().GetInterface("IHasAdorable`1"); 
 
  if (adorableInterfaceType != null)
  {
    // yay, the merchant has adorable products, what whould those be!?
    Type adorableProductType = adorableInterfaceType.GetGenericArguments()[0];
 
    // here is the magic we need to get the correct IHasAdorable Type 
    // with "filled in" generic type.
    Type genericAdorableInterfaceType = 
      typeof(IHasAdorable<>).MakeGenericType(adorableProductType);
    MethodInfo mi = genericAdorableInterfaceType.GetMethod("BuyAdorable");
    myBagOfAdorableProducts.Add(mi.invoke(merchant,null));    
  }