Does it MATTer??

MonoTouch with JSON using ASP.Net MVC

2011-03-23T06:10:00.000-07:00

I feel like I am in the Monotouch zone @ the moment so this blog is a follow up to MonoTouch and the Event Aggregator.

In this post, I wanted to focus on a simple way to communicate using Json using ASP.Net MVC. The sample code at github contains a number of projects. Firstly there is a MVC app that has a ServiceController, which uses a JsonResult to expose a simple service that can be consumed. There is no need to spin up a WCF service here. The data is pretty simple as it returns a person entity.

[HandleError]
public class ServiceController : Controller
{
    public JsonResult GetData ()
    {
        var people = new List<Person>();
        people.Add(new Person{FirstName="Joe", Surname ="Smith"});
        people.Add(new Person{FirstName="Larry", Surname ="Jones"});
        people.Add(new Person{FirstName="Amy", Surname ="Johnston"});
        
        return  Json(people); 
    }
}

Secondly we have an IPad app created in MonoTouch/MonoDevelop. This uses TinyIoC and TinyMessenger (thanks @GrumpyDev) to inject any dependencies and pass messages relating to the success of a rest client call. Behind the scenes the web service call plumbing is achieved using ported versions of RestSharp and Json.Net. There is a repository that is going to do the service call, which publishes a message on a successful result.

public class WebRepository : IRepository
    {

        public WebRepository (ITinyMessengerHub messageHub)
        {
            _messageHub = messageHub;
        }

        private ITinyMessengerHub _messageHub;

        private IRestClient _client;
        
        private IRestClient Client {
            get {
                if (_client == null) {
                    _client = new RestClient ("http://127.0.0.1:8080/");
                    _client.Timeout = 20000;
                }
                return _client;
            }
        }
        
        public void GetPeople()
        {
            var request = new GetPeopleRequest ();
            
            Client.ExecuteAsync (request, x =>
            { 
                var people = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Person>> (x.Content); 
                _messageHub.PublishAsync(new PeopleMessage(this, people));
            });
        }
    }



    public class GetPeopleRequest : RestRequest
    {
        public GetPeopleRequest () : base("service/getdata", Method.GET)
        {
            RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;
        }
    }

Lastly, there is a subscription made and an UIAlertView is wired up to show the response content.

public partial class AppDelegate : UIApplicationDelegate
    {
        public override bool FinishedLaunching (UIApplication app, NSDictionary options)
        {
            BootStrap ();
            
            //This could be done in any UIViewController
             MessageHub.Subscribe<PeopleMessage>((m) =>{
         
                Dispatch(()=>{
                    
                    var message = "People message received @ " + DateTime.Now; 
                    message += ": " + m.Content
                        .Select(p=> p.Surname)
                            .Aggregate((text, item) =>
                                text + " Surname: " + item);
         
                    UIAlertView alert = new UIAlertView();
                    alert.Title = "Service Call returned";
                    alert.AddButton("Ok");
                    alert.Message = message;
                    alert.Show();         
                });
            });

            //Fire the method to get the data from the service
            Repo.GetPeople();
            
            window.MakeKeyAndVisible ();
            return true;
            
        }

        public TinyIoC.TinyIoCContainer Container { get; private set; }

        private IRepository Repo 
        { 
            get { return Container.Resolve<IRepository>();}
        }
        
        private ITinyMessengerHub MessageHub
        {            
            get{ return Container.Resolve<ITinyMessengerHub>();    }
        }
        
        private void BootStrap ()
        {
            Container = TinyIoCContainer.Current;
            Container.Register<ITinyMessengerHub, TinyMessengerHub> ().AsSingleton();
            Container.Register<IRepository, WebRepository> ();        }    }

Please note that this implementation does not take into consideration Authentication/Authorisation or any other cross cutting concerns. At another time, I will post about possible implementation options similar to the OAuth Miguel has in TweetStation.

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Monotouch and the EventAggregator

2011-03-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

Monotouch along with MonoDevelop is a great tool set that allows developers familiar with the .Net stack to create IPhone and IPad applications in a short amount of time.

In doing various forms of development patterns fly around and often get mixed up with specific implementations. One pattern that I came quite fond of when doing WPF and Silverlight development is the Event Aggregator. This is often wrapped up in UI frameworks such as Caliburn Micro, Prism and MVVM Light.

After using this pattern over a number of different implementations, I have come to admire its ability to decouple UI components whilst letting them "opt in" to key events that occur in the application. Very similar to a mini service bus an Event Aggregator lets components publish and subscribe to events that are relevant to that components context.

In doing a significant amount of Monotouch development lately I realised the need for a similar implementation. Many MonTouch samples utilise the Application Delegate as a big global bucket of variables. I have not been too comfortable with that approach so here goes...

Firstly I have taken the EventAggregator and its surrounding infrastructure from the Caliburn Micro Project (Thanks @EisenbergEffect). Then with a few tweaks to cater for slight differences in the environments and a Dispatch method which represents the Caliburn Execute.OnUIThread we have a similar implementation.

I created a quick UI View that allows an element to be dragged around the view. On release of the touch, this then uses the Event Aggregator to publish an event.

I have two subscribers firstly a ConsoleHandler.

public class ConsoleHandler :IHandle<MovementFinished>
{
    private readonly IEventAggregator _aggregator;
    
    public ConsoleHandler (IEventAggregator aggregator)
    {
        _aggregator = aggregator;
        _aggregator.Subscribe(this);
    }
    
    public void HandleEvent(MovementFinished message)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Movement finished" + message.FinishDateTime.ToLongDateString());
    }
    
}

And secondly, the ApplicationDelegate itself, which updates a label when an event is published.

public partial class AppDelegate : UIApplicationDelegate,IHandle<MovementFinished>
{
    protected IEventAggregator EventAggregator {get;set;}
    
    private ConsoleHandler Handler {get;set;}
    
    public override bool FinishedLaunching (UIApplication app, NSDictionary options)
    {
        //Initialise the aggregator
        EventAggregator = new EventAggregator();
        Handler = new ConsoleHandler(EventAggregator); 
        EventAggregator.Subscribe(this);
        
        ///Create a ui view 
        var img = new MerblaImageView(EventAggregator,  new RectangleF(64,64,64,64));
        img.UserInteractionEnabled = true;
        img.BackgroundColor = UIColor.Red;
        img.Hidden = false;

        window.AddSubview(img);
        window.MakeKeyAndVisible ();
        
        return true;
    }

    
    public void HandleEvent(MovementFinished message)
    {
        this.outputLabel.Text += Environment.NewLine + message.FinishDateTime.ToShortTimeString();
    }

The code can be found @ https://github.com/merbla/merblasamples

I am going to upload a short video covering this post as an experiment into video blogging.

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IFilterProvider using Autofac for MVC 3

2011-02-10T05:25:00.001-08:00

Recently I had to extend some of the filter functionality for MVC3 using the IFilterProvider and some custom Action Filters. In my instance I was already using Autofac as an IoC container so I wanted to leverage my existing work. As there was not a lot of resources out there I thought I would knock up a quick post. Let’s set the scene Firstly a simple class that does something, in this case it does some logging.

public interface IMerblaService
{
 void Log(string message);
}   

public class MerblaService : IMerblaService
{
 public void Log(string message)
 {
  //Log it
 }
}

Next we have an custom Action Filter that we want to use to log all executing actions on controllers. This may be a different custom controller that does some authorisation.


public class MerblaActionFilter : IActionFilter
{
 private readonly IMerblaService _merblaService;
 
 public MerblaActionFilter(IMerblaService merblaService)
 {
  _merblaService = merblaService;
 }   
 
 public void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
 {
  _merblaService.Log("Executing");
 }   
 
 public void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
 {
  _merblaService.Log("Executed");
 }   
}

Now we want something that can inject any dependencies into the action filter, in this case the filter provider receives an Autofac container to resolve any dependencies.

public class MerblaFilterProvider : IFilterProvider
{
 private readonly IContainer _container;   public MerblaFilterProvider(IContainer container)
 {
  _container = container;
 }   
 public IEnumerable<Filter> GetFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, 
 ActionDescriptor actionDescriptor)
 {
  var merblaActionFilter = _container.Resolve<MerblaActionFilter>();
  yield return new Filter(merblaActionFilter, FilterScope.Global, order: null);
 }
}

Lastly we need to wire up the container at the application level. This can be done inside the Global.asax file

protected void Application_Start()
{
 var builder = new ContainerBuilder();
 builder.RegisterType<MerblaService>().As<IMerblaService>();
 builder.RegisterType<MerblaActionFilter>().As<MerblaActionFilter>();
 builder.RegisterControllers(typeof (MvcApplication).Assembly);

 var container = builder.Build();
 DependencyResolver.SetResolver(new AutofacDependencyResolver(container));

 var provider = new MerblaFilterProvider(container);
 FilterProviders.Providers.Add(provider);
 
 //Other app bootstrapping.....
}

There you have it, nice clean IoC using Autofac and MVC3 Action Filters, goodbye attribute declarations Get Amongst It!!!!

Azure, AppFabric Service Bus and F#

2010-11-15T03:16:00.001-08:00

I have been doing quite a bit of work recently within the Microsoft cloud space. In that piece of work I have covered all of the offerings including AppFabric and Windows Azure. The tooling is still a little raw however it does allow you to apply know concepts and patterns to application running or integrating with the cloud.

As a bit of fun (and the fact there is not much out there in the Blogosphere) I thought I would write up a quick example that showed these technologies working with F#. I am slowly getting my head around F# however certainly not super comfortable yet.

The example will illustrate the following concept. Firstly an app sends a message to the queue, this queue is then processed regularly and any messages on sent to any subscribing clients via the service bus.

Firstly the queue console app.

open System
open System.Collections.Generic
open System.Diagnostics
open System.Linq
open System.Net
open System.ServiceModel;
open Merbla.Azure.FSharp.Contracts
open Microsoft.ServiceBus
open Microsoft.WindowsAzure
open Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient

let write( message:string) =
Console.WriteLine(message)

//Create the queue client
let queueClient = CloudStorageAccount.FromConfigurationSetting("MyBlobConnection").CreateCloudQueueClient()
let queue = queueClient.GetQueueReference("MyQueue")
let traceInfo message = Trace.TraceInformation(message)

write "Starting Queue Console app"

write "Sending message to queue"

//Add message to queue
let message = String.Format("My Message {0}", DateTime.Now)
let cloudMessage = new CloudQueueMessage(message)
queue.AddMessage(cloudMessage)

write "Message Sent"

Then the worker role to process the queue

open System
open System.Collections.Generic
open System.Diagnostics
open System.Linq
open System.Net
open System.Threading
open Microsoft.WindowsAzure
open Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics
open Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime
open Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient
open Microsoft.ServiceBus;
open System.ServiceModel;
open Merbla.Azure.FSharp.Contracts

type WorkerRole() =
inherit RoleEntryPoint()

    let log message kind = Trace.WriteLine(message, kind)
    let queueClient = CloudStorageAccount.FromConfigurationSetting("MyBlobConnection").CreateCloudQueueClient()
    let queue = queueClient.GetQueueReference("MyQueue")
    let traceInfo message = Trace.TraceInformation(message)

    let sendMessage( message:string) =
        ServiceBusEnvironment.SystemConnectivity.Mode <- ConnectivityMode.AutoDetect;
        let credential = new TransportClientEndpointBehavior()
        credential.Credentials.SharedSecret.IssuerName <- "MyOwner"
        credential.Credentials.SharedSecret.IssuerSecret <- "MySecret"
        let channelFactory = new ChannelFactory<IService>(new NetEventRelayBinding(), new EndpointAddress("MyServiceBusAddress"))
        channelFactory.Endpoint.Behaviors.Add(credential)
        let channel = channelFactory.CreateChannel();
        channel.SendMessage(message)

    let processQ =
            let message = queue.GetMessage()
            if message=null then
                traceInfo "No items in the queue"
                Thread.Sleep(5000)
            else
                traceInfo "Message being processed"
                sendMessage "Send message using F#"
                queue.DeleteMessage(message)
                Thread.Sleep(5000)

    override wr.Run() =
        traceInfo "F# Worker Role Starting"
        while(true) do

processQ

Thread.Sleep(10000)
traceInfo "F# Worker Role Starting"

override wr.OnStart() =

        ServicePointManager.DefaultConnectionLimit <- 12
        DiagnosticMonitor.Start("DiagnosticsConnectionString") |> ignore
        RoleEnvironment.Changing.Add(fun e ->
            if e.Changes |> Seq.exists (fun change -> change :? RoleEnvironmentConfigurationSettingChange) then
                e.Cancel <- true)

base.OnStart()

Lastly the console client to listen for any messages sent via the bus

open System
open System.Collections.Generic
open System.Diagnostics
open System.Linq
open System.Net
open System.ServiceModel;
open Merbla.Azure.FSharp.Contracts
open Microsoft.ServiceBus

let write( message:string) =
Console.WriteLine(message)

write "Starting Client Console app"

//Represents the service that will listen for messages sent from the service bus
type RelayService() =
    interface IService with
        member this.SendMessage(message:string) =
            write message

//Create host
ServiceBusEnvironment.SystemConnectivity.Mode <- ConnectivityMode.AutoDetect;
let credential = new TransportClientEndpointBehavior()
credential.Credentials.SharedSecret.IssuerName <- "MyOwner"
credential.Credentials.SharedSecret.IssuerSecret <- "MySecret"
let serviceAddress = ServiceBusEnvironment.CreateServiceUri("sb", "MyServiceNamespace", "MyServiceName");
let host = new ServiceHost(typeof<RelayService>, serviceAddress)
let serviceEndpoint = host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof<RelayService>, new NetEventRelayBinding(), String.Empty)
serviceEndpoint.Behaviors.Add(credential)

host.Open()
write(String.Format("Connected - {0}", serviceAddress.ToString()))
write "Hit Enter to exit, or wait for messages"
System.Console.ReadLine()
host.Close()

Code is available at http://code.google.com/p/merbla/

I would be interested to see a number of cloud service bus offerings working together, say Azure, Rabbit MQ and Amazon?

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MVVM Light & Strongly Typed RaisePropertyChanged

2010-11-01T04:52:00.001-07:00

I have been using MVVM Light recently for a Silverlight project I have been working on, its a great light weight framework that helps you quickly build up WPF & Silverlight applications using the MVVM UI pattern

At the core of the framework is the ViewModelBase class, and it comes with a number of overloaded methods that help implement INotifyPropertyChanged. On thing I have found however is the lack of strong typing when using these methods. With a technique I learnt from OJ, here is some code that will surely help you.

First of all, we need an extension method. This is going to do the hard work of getting the name of the property we want.

public static class ExpressionExtensions
{  
   public static string GetPropertyNameString<TOwner, TProperty>(
            this Expression<Func<TOwner, TProperty>> propertyGetter)
   {
      var expression = 
        propertyGetter.Body as MemberExpression 
             ?? (MemberExpression) ((UnaryExpression) propertyGetter.Body).Operand;
        return expression.Member.Name;
   }

}

Then we can implement the method possibly using a type that inherits ViewModelBase

public class MerblaViewModeBase<TViewModel> : ViewModelBase
{
    public void RaisePropertyChanged(Expression<Func<TViewModel, object>> propertyGetter)
        {
            RaisePropertyChanged(propertyGetter.GetPropertyNameString());
        }
}

Finally, we can utilise this in a View Model like so…

public class TestViewModel :MerblaViewModeBase<TestViewModel>
    {
        private string _testProperty;
        public string TestProperty
        {
            get { return _testProperty; }
            set
            {
                if(_testProperty!=value)
                {
                    _testProperty = value;
                    RaisePropertyChanged(vm=> vm.TestProperty);
                }
            }
        }
    }

The code can be found @ http://code.google.com/p/merbla/

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CI with TeamCity using Mercurial as a local Repo

2010-10-12T05:04:00.001-07:00

It’s been some time since my last post so I thought I better “Get Amongst It”. I recently had the need to set up a development environment and went for Mercurial as the DVCS. As a build server I have always been fond of TeamCity, the fact its free for a small team of developers is always a plus.

I have been using DVCS such as Git and Mercurial for some time now, however always hosted them on a provider such as Google Code, BitBucket or CodePlex. In my recent situation, I needed to have the repository internal and not public facing. Here is one solution.

First of all, you will the following

TeamCity - http://www.jetbrains.com/teamcity/index.html
Mercurial - http://mercurial.selenic.com/downloads

Install Mercurial (some people have issues with naming so for the purposes of this post I installed to C:\Mercurial. Then Install Team City. I then created a folder where my source repo was going to be located. In my case C:\Source. Then from a command prompt (you can use TortoiseHg if you are GUI inclined).

Initialise the repository on the server (make this a UNC share so other machines can view it)

C:\Source>hg init

You can now enable a web server to view the source

C:\Source>hg serve

Now, from your development machine, clone the repo, create your source code and commit as normal

C:\Source>hg clone \\MERLBA-CI\Source\

C:\Source>hg add

C:\Source>hg commit -u "merbla" -m "Initial Commit"

C:\Source>hg push

Now you have a working repo, its time to set up TeamCity, first create a project.

Then create a VCS Root using the command path to where you installed Mercurial and direct TeamCity to the UNC share that you set up for your repo.

Then create a Build Configuration

Choose the version control created (eg.VCS Root)

Choose the build Runner. Depending on you development needs, choose the appropriate build runner. In this case, this is a simple .Net 4 console app. As such I have no build file, so I will use the sln option.

Configure the remaining setting of the TeamCity project such as triggers and dependencies. Then when the project is triggered (manual or otherwise) your build will kick off using Mercurial as the repo.

Hopefully for you its Kermit (Green)

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Bridge to Brisbane 2010

2010-06-08T13:29:00.001-07:00

Its that time again for the old Bridge to Brisbane fun run. I have done it a few times in the past few years and it will be interesting to test a theory.

The last two years, I have been in much better shape however have had events (30th Birthday’s and Bucks) the night before. This year, I am going to keep the eve of the run clear from big events however the preparation in the weeks leading up to the race will be less than ideal for running. (Tasting many types of beer from UK, Belgium, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic).

So the question is will I perform better when I am less fit and have a good nights sleep, or fitter and have a big night out.

Previous Results

2008
2009

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Yeah, I know it’s not an IPad

2010-06-07T04:35:00.001-07:00

Well, the overseas trip is getting ever closer, and the organising continues. In that vain we have been looking for a device that will stack up against the following requirements

Small
Plays video
Plays audio
Good battery life
Can withstand being handled by a 2 1/2 yr old
Good value for money

I know the IPad has just been released, and the PSP is a good portable gaming device however the net result was the IRiver P7. At a price of $247 (snagged some $ off for a $220 price tag) and with the simplicity of adding files via a simple USB connection (sorry no ITunes here), at early stages it seems a reasonable purchase.

It has a nice touch screen, which is responsive (as contrary to some reviews). It provides support for some decent codec's for video and audio whilst also providing a FM Radio tuner.

Time will tell how it stacks up to the heat of Dubai, the rush of London and the Metro in Paris….

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Panasonic DMC-TZ10 Review

2010-06-02T04:04:00.001-07:00

With the overseas trip fast approaching, it was time to get a new point and shoot travel camera. After a bit of research it was a battle between Sony DSCHX5V and Panasonic DMZ-TZ10. I have previously had a Panasonic camera that was fantastic for my last overseas trip so I went with the gut instinct.

The DMZ-TZ10 is at the high end of the point and shoot range. It has a range of features (much of which the sony also provides), The main feature I was interested in was the manual mode, so that I can learn some more about photography with out the price tag of an SLR. Other neat items are GPS, HD Video (1280 x 720 vs the Sony full HD - 1920 x 1080). Below is a quick picture taken using some of the macro settings.

All in all, it seems a nice pocket size companion to ensure the holiday has some great memories. More to come when I go overseas….

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Windows Workflow in C# 4.0 && VB??

2010-05-03T04:39:00.001-07:00

I have been playing with .Net 4.0 recently, in particular Windows Workflow. It has taken some leaps towards Model Driven Architecture and the type of development that a business user can understand. There is one strange thing that I have found. Below is a screen shot of a new C# 4.0 Workflow console application, and with is a simple if statement in a workflow.

Wait a second.. I thought it was a C# project. I know VB has been a part of IDE such as Reporting Services and previous versions of Windows Workflow, but I thought the Visual Studio team could have easily used the text editor for a normal C# project here.

Its not the end of the world I know, however these little touches are what makes a product shine that little more.

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WPF Frameworks - Using Caliburn to wrap CAB (Prism)

2010-04-27T23:17:00.001-07:00

Recently I created a post on using the MVVM presentation pattern with Unity and CAB (aka Prism). At the time I was researching other similar frameworks in this space. One in particular that caught my eye was the Caliburn framework. After looking through the documentation and reading some blogs, I was interested to see that the framework had a hook for Prism. So I thought I would put it to the test.

Using the module from my last post, I created a similar WPF shell structure. Using the default conventions of Caliburn initially to get things going. The app class in nearly a one to one with the previous example. The XAML for the shell (hosting the CAB regions) is identical.

public partial class App  
{
    protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnStartup(e);
        var bootstrapper = new BootStrapper(this);
        bootstrapper.Run();
    }
}

In the bootstrapper, the code is very similar to that in the samples of Caliburn with the exception of some changes to use Unity as the IOC container and settings for my app.

public class BootStrapper
{
    private Application _application;
    private readonly UnityAdapter _unityAdapter;
    public BootStrapper(Application application)
    {
        _application = application;
        _unityAdapter = new UnityAdapter(new UnityContainer());
    }
    public void Run()
    {
        RegisterDependencies();
                  
        CaliburnFramework
           .ConfigureCore(_unityAdapter)
           
           .AfterStart(() =>
           {
               var binder = (DefaultBinder)ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IBinder>();
               binder.EnableMessageConventions();
               binder.EnableBindingConventions();
           })
           .WithPresentationFramework()
           .WithCompositeApplicationLibrary(CreateShell )
           .WithModuleCatalog(new ModuleCatalog().AddModule(typeof(FootballModule)))
           .Start();
    }
    private void RegisterDependencies()
    {
        //Register dependencies with Unity
    }
    private DependencyObject CreateShell()
    {
        ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IWindowManager>()
            .Show(ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<ShellPresenter>(), null, ExecuteShutdownModel);
        return _application.MainWindow;
    }
    private void ExecuteShutdownModel(ISubordinate subordinate, Action completed)
    {
        completed();
    }
}

From there the application runs the modules as per normal, with a Caliburn wrapper. As per normal, code is @ MerblaSamples on Codeplex.

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Design by Contract and C# Optional Parameters

2010-04-19T04:24:00.001-07:00

With the release of VS2010 also came the update to C# 4.0. Along with this came a new feature in C# called Optional Parameters. This allows for a developer to make a parameter optional rather than providing an overloaded method. Below is an example…

public class Service : IService
{
    public void DoSomething(string thingA)
    { 
    }
    public void DoSomething(string thingA, [Optional] string thingB)
    {
    }
    public void DoSomething(string thingA, string thingB, bool isSomeThing = false)
    {
    }
}
public interface IService
{
    void DoSomething(string thingA);
    void DoSomething(string thingA, [Optional] string thingB);
    void DoSomething(string thingA, string thingB, bool isSomeThing = false);
}

The example gives two usages, one using and attribute and another with a default parameter. This then allows the following usage.

This does concern me slightly in that I think it will detract from the concept of self documenting code. Given the example above, I would not necessarily know which method is being called simply by glancing at a code base. In addition, the ability to create meaningful test such as those promoted by BDD and TDD practices could get muddied by this approach. Lastly, it might be the large amount of SOA/Service interface type development I have done however I also believe detracts from the design by contract concept. In particular, the idea that as a developer I know the behaviour of a particular interface starts to look like code/design smell. However given the rise and rise of dynamic languages, this style of development could be on the increase. I might just have to suck it and see.

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Go Get PLINQ’ed

2010-04-14T04:51:00.001-07:00

With Visual Studio 2010 going RTM this week, I thought it might be a good chance to to bang out a post re: some of the features I am keen to make use of within .Net 4.0.

One of the areas developers do seem to focus a lot of attention is multi threaded applications. We have had the hardware for some time however for whatever reason, the uptake has been slower than I expected. One of the features that have been released as a part of .Net 4.0 is Parallel API (PLINQ). This has been in development for some time as a research project and has now made its way to mainstream .Net.

Given the following, a simple Person class


public class Person


{


    public string FirstName { get; set; }


    public string Surname { get; set; }


    public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }

Then a method that take an enumerable collection and filters according such as...

public IQueryable<Person> FilterPeople(IList<Person> people)
{ 
    var filteredPeople = people.Where(x => x.BirthDate > DateTime.Now);
    return filteredPeople.AsQueryable();
}

The PLINQ API lets you make use of a multithreaded environment with a simple extension method.

public IQueryable<Person> FilterPeopleAsParallel(IList<Person> people)
{ 
    var filteredPeople = people.AsParallel<Person>().Where(x => x.BirthDate > DateTime.Now);
    return filteredPeople.AsQueryable();
}

Pretty straight forward…. Now for a bit of proof on my aging laptop. Using MSTest, I have the following tests. I ensured the test data is setup prior to the tests so that they are not affected.

[TestMethod()]
public void FilterPeople()
{
    //Arrange
    PersonFilter target = new PersonFilter();   
    //Act
    IQueryable<Person> actual = target.FilterPeople(_people);
    //Assert
    Assert.AreEqual(500000, actual.Count());
}
[TestMethod()]
public void FilterPeopleAsParallel()
{
    //Arrange
    PersonFilter target = new PersonFilter();
    //Act
    IQueryable<Person> actual = target.FilterPeopleAsParallel(_people);
    //Assert
    Assert.AreEqual(500000, actual.Count());
}

Below are the results,

So next time someone asks you about how you make use of multi threading apps, tell them to go get PLINQ’ed.

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Software Development and Professional Sport

2010-03-31T04:20:00.001-07:00

In the past I was a reasonably successful semi-professional sports person. In that time I was fortunate enough to be coached and mentored by a myriad of professional players and coaches. I played semi-pro (not Will Ferrel Semi-Pro) for over 10 years, a similar timeframe to what I have spent professionally developing software. Although that is a significant period of time, it has taken me that long to realise the similarities between software development and professional sport.

Let’s think about some successful coaches, sports people and teams. Maybe Leigh Matthews, Michael Voss and the Brisbane Lions,or perhaps Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls or lastly for those rugby league die hards, Wayne Bennet, Darryn Lockyer and the Brisbane Broncos.

In all these examples, there was a fantastic coach (perhaps Zen master). There was a star, a person that could take things into their own hands when things were not so good and right the ship. Finally, there was a great supporting cast that did the hard work and shone in their own right.

In my experience software development can be quite similar. There might be a project manager or an architect who might envisage where things need to go. A lead dev who know his or her stuff inside out and finally a team of devs, testers, maybe analyst or many other combinations that gets the grunt work done.

Software development also suffers from similar issues seen in professional sport, maybe an architect who holds the designs in their heads where only they can access them, similar to a star who just wants to be the focus of attention. Perhaps a team of devs that can’t deliver well due to lack of synergy or guidance on how work should be done. Not too far removed from a set play that cannot be executed.

Maybe you have experienced a single point of failure when one resource holds too many dependencies, much like a team that relies too heavily on the scoring out put of a star. Maybe you have experienced a situation where there was no rudder to the ship and it took a new PM or lead dev to right the course, not too far removed of the appointment of a new coach.

All in all, when I have been in a successful environment, it resembled when I was in a successful team. (aka John Blair, David Lillico and the Morningside Panthers)

Just a thought…I like my sport and I like my code.

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My favourite places to visit – Entrevaux (France)

2010-03-29T03:04:00.001-07:00

Recently I have been getting organised for our trip over to Europe/UK in June. Its always a tough but fun task working through the areas you think might be good to visit and the itinerary that might support it. It got me to thinking of my travels and some of the places I enjoyed.

Entrevaux is a little gem of a place, it shares lots of traits I find intriguing in rural Europe. As soon as you walk over the draw bridge to enter the old town you are greeted by laneways and little pockets to explore. It also has an impressive citadel that towers over the town below, the walk up and exploring the ruins is a great way to spend a couple of hours.

Taken from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Entrevaux_Alpes_de_Haute_Provence_France.jpg

View looking back to the town.

I won’t get back to the French Riviera this trip, but I know I certainly will at some stage. I can truly recommend a visit.

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Mocking Frameworks.. Quick Peek @ Moq, Rhino Mocks, NMock2

2010-03-28T03:35:00.001-07:00

Mocking is increasingly becoming a standard tool in more and more developers toolkits. I have done my share of mocking and covered a variety of frameworks. Rhino Mocks has been the framework I have used most extensively however recently I revisited other frameworks I have not used for a while. That got me thinking, for those developers who have not had been exposed to mocking, choosing a mocking framework could be quite tough. There are a multitude of options out there, so I thought I would give a one liner on the ones I knew the most.

Here goes…..

Below is the class under test, quite simple. The method in question is Delete, and I want to ensure the logger logs correctly.

    public class Manager
    {
        private readonly ILogger _logger;
        private readonly IRepository _repository;
        public Manager(IRepository repository, ILogger logger)
        {
            _repository = repository;
            _logger = logger;
        }
        public bool Delete(string thingToDelete)
        {
            bool successfull = _repository.Delete(thingToDelete);
            if (successfull)
                _logger.Log("The thing was deleted");
            return successfull;
        }
        public bool Save(string thingToSave)
        {
            bool successfull = _repository.Save(thingToSave);
            if (successfull)
                _logger.Log("The thing was saved");
            return successfull;
        }
    }

Using a simple implementation of Context Specification, below is the code for the frameworks Moq, Rhino Mocks and NMock2

Moq

    public class When_a_thing_is_deleted_using_the_manager : ContextSpecification
    {
        private Mock<ILogger> _loggerMock;
        private Manager _manager;
        private Mock<IRepository> _repositoryMock;
        [Fact]
        public void it_should_log_with_logger()
        {
            _loggerMock.Verify(x => x.Log("The thing was deleted"), Times.Exactly(1));
        }
        public override void Because()
        {
            _manager.Delete(string.Empty);
        }
        public override void EstablishContext()
        {
            _repositoryMock = new Mock<IRepository>();
            _repositoryMock.Setup(x => x.Delete(string.Empty)).Returns(true);
            _loggerMock = new Mock<ILogger>();
            _manager = new Manager(_repositoryMock.Object, _loggerMock.Object);
        }
    }

Rhino Mocks

 public class When_a_thing_is_deleted_using_the_manager : ContextSpecification
    {
        private ILogger _loggerMock;
        private Manager _manager;
        private IRepository _repositoryMock;
        [Fact]
        public void it_should_log_with_logger()
        {
            _loggerMock.Expect(x => x.Log("The thing was deleted"));
        }
        public override void Because()
        {
            _manager.Delete(string.Empty);
        }
        public override void EstablishContext()
        {
            _loggerMock = MockRepository.GenerateStub<ILogger>();
            _repositoryMock = MockRepository.GenerateStub<IRepository>();
            _repositoryMock.Stub(x => x.Delete(string.Empty)).Return(true).Repeat.Once();
            _manager = new Manager(_repositoryMock, _loggerMock);
        }
    }

NMock2

 public class When_a_thing_is_deleted_using_the_manager : ContextSpecification
    {
        private ILogger _loggerMock;
        private Manager _manager;
        private IRepository _repositoryMock;
        [Fact]
        public void it_should_log_with_logger()
        {
            Expect.On(_loggerMock)
                .Method("Log")
                .With("The thing was deleted")
                .Will(Return.Value(true)); 
        }
        public override void Because()
        {
            _manager.Delete(string.Empty);
        }
        public override void EstablishContext()
        {
            var mockery = new Mockery();
            _repositoryMock=  mockery.NewMock<IRepository>();
            _loggerMock= mockery.NewMock<ILogger>();
            Stub.On(_repositoryMock)
                .Method("Delete")
                .With(string.Empty)
                .Will(Return.Value(true));
            Stub.On(_loggerMock)
                .Method("Log")
                .With("The thing was deleted");
            _manager = new Manager(_repositoryMock, _loggerMock);
        }
    }

Overall, the APIs are quite close in the application of their interfaces. Moq and Rhino seem to be slightly more strongly typed and lend themselves to a more Lamda style of development (up to you to choose if this is good for you or not). NMock attempts to be a fluent interface however still has some way to go. For me, I am moving to Moq, until I give the frameworks and other look.

This is in no way an exhaustive list of framework or features, more a peek at a simple example

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WPF Frameworks - CAB(Prism) with MVVM and IOC

2010-03-23T03:36:00.001-07:00

I did a little searching around recently to find an example of the combination of the Composite Application Block/Guidance for WPF, using an IOC container (eg. Unity/Structure map) wrapped up with Presentation Model (MVVM more explicitly)

Brian from Elegant Code had an example however there are not a plethora out there. I thought I would put my spin on it. Using the logical architecture of the CAB with a shell, infrastructure and related module assemblies I created a simple app. For this I wanted to use a topic that I knew well. So this app relates to a sport I know quite a lot about…. Australian Rules Football (Aussie Rules).

Quite Lesson on Aussie Rules – Scoring

The scoring system in Aussie Rules is made up of two parts. Firstly goals, worth 6 points and Behinds worth 1 point. Therefore a score line might be written 10-1-61 eg. (10 x6) + (1x1) = 61

So using that model, I have the following.

The module that contains the view model can then control the dependencies as follows

public class FootballModule : IModule
    {
        private readonly IUnityContainer _container;
        private readonly IRegionManager _regionManager;
        public FootballModule(IUnityContainer container, IRegionManager regionManager)
        {
            _container = container;
            _regionManager = regionManager;
        }
        #region IModule Members
        public void Initialize()
        {
            RegisterViewsAndServices();
            var presentationModel = _container.Resolve<IScoreboardViewModel>();
            IRegion mainRegion = _regionManager.Regions[Infrastructure.RegionNames.MainRegion];
            mainRegion.Add(presentationModel.View);
            presentationModel.Initialise();
        }
        #endregion
        private void RegisterViewsAndServices()
        {
            _container.RegisterType<IFootballService,FootballService>();
            _container.RegisterType<IFootballViewModel, FootballViewModel>();
            _container.RegisterType(typeof(FootballView));
            _container.RegisterType<IScoreboardViewModel, ScoreboardViewModel>();
            _container.RegisterType(typeof(ScoreBoardView)); 
        }
    }

The view is injected into the model, along with any other dependencies.

 public class ScoreboardViewModel : IScoreboardViewModel
    {
        private readonly IFootballService _footballService;
        private readonly ScoreBoardView _view;
        private MatchResult _matchResult;
        public ScoreboardViewModel(IFootballService footballService, ScoreBoardView view)
        {
            _view = view;
            _footballService = footballService;
        }
        public string HomeTeamName
        {
            get { return _matchResult.HomeTeam.TeamName; }
        }
        public string AwayTeamName
        {
            get { return _matchResult.AwayTeam.TeamName; }
        }
        public int HomeGoals
        {
            get { return _matchResult.HomeTeamScore.Goals; }
        }
        public int HomeBehinds
        {
            get { return _matchResult.HomeTeamScore.Behind; }
        }
        public int HomeScore
        {
            get { return _matchResult.HomeTeamScore.ScoreTotal; }
        }
        public int AwayGoals
        {
            get { return _matchResult.HomeTeamScore.Goals; }
        }
        public int AwayBehinds
        {
            get { return _matchResult.AwayTeamScore.Behind; }
        }
        public int AwayScore
        {
            get { return _matchResult.AwayTeamScore.ScoreTotal; }
        }
        #region IScoreboardViewModel Members
        public UserControl View
        {
            get { return _view; }
        }
        public void Initialise()
        {
            _matchResult = _footballService.GetMatchResult();
            _view.DataContext = this;
        }
        #endregion
        public void GetLatestMatchResult()
        {
            _matchResult = _footballService.GetMatchResult();
        }
    }

The result is a simple app to display the scoreboard.

My example can be found @ Codeplex.

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Do Hackers use TDD or BDD

2010-03-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

Developers often get caught up with the particulars of our work. We have all seen it, a dev more worried about the framework they are using than the product being delivered. I know, I have been guilty of it. Given that premise and that most of the time developers strive for a better outcome, I pose this question.

Do hackers use BDD or TDD?? Do they spend hours working on their User Stories? Do they stub their tests such as....

GIVEN the account exists

AND I have the password

WHEN the application starts

THEN do some bad stuff

Just a thought.... ;)

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Get Amongst it….. with Anton’s Lane

2010-03-08T03:05:00.001-08:00

My amazing wife’s new label Anton’s Lane is featured in the latest issue of Peekaboo Magazine. A fantastic effort and great milestone for her.

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Quick peak at VS2010 Performance Profiling

2010-03-05T04:28:00.001-08:00

Ok… I have been bagging VS2010 recently in relation to the dependency components of the Architecture features. I will say however overall I am quite pleased with the RC. One feature that seems to have got a tweak is the performance profiling. Below is a quick peak.

I created a quick console app and ran the profiling, in particular the new concurrency option.

There are some great reports that come from this area. For example a detailed view of CPU usage, marks, the split of cores and the usage of threads over the timeline of the profile.

View Full Album

Unlike the VS2010 dependency features these tools were responsive and quick to use. Have I used them to solve an indepth problem…. no but at least I might check these tools out next time I have an issue.

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VS2010 RC vs NDepend v3 RC – Dependency Matrix

2010-03-05T04:01:00.001-08:00

Recently I posted about the VS2010 RC and its new feature of tracking dependencies through an application. I also made mention of NDepend and what it brings to the table in this space.

At the time, I was also looking at a related feature called the dependency matrix. Unfortunately VS2010 crashed a number of times when analysing the latest version of the Enterprise Library Blocks (v5 Beta). So I decided I would cut the analysis down to the core libraries for the purposes of this post.

So, after creating a solution with the Common project, I created a dependency graph as shown below. This shows the high level view of the dependencies of the Common library. Also shown below is the “Quick Clusters” view of a dependency graph. This helps to represent the core item that is at the heart of the assemblies being analysed.

Following this, there is the ability to view the current graph as a matrix. Look for the following toolbar item. The output is below, however this is where I started loosing interest in the current VS2010 tool set. It took 3 attempts for the following matrix (due to VS2010 not responding aka 18 mins).

The reason this is unreadable is that all items (types, members etc) are on by default, giving you the most coarse grained view. After drilling down via the Architecture Explorer, I was able to generate a another matrix showing the members within the Common.Utility namespace (see below) however by then I was well and truly over it.

So… I then went over to NDepend V3 RC and followed a similar process. First creating the dependency graph and then moving to the dependency matrix. (Pardon the pun but there are no dependencies in creating a graph prior to a matrix in NDepend).

This is where NDepend comes into its own. From a quick glace I can glean that there is a circular dependency between the instrumentation and configuration namespaces. Also, by simply hovering over the cells, a quick summary is displayed representing the items being compared.

There is also a multitude of options to change the view of the matrix such as the weighting on cells (see below), view direct and indirect dependencies and expand selected areas to view information at a finer grained level. Also you can create CQL that you can later run in a continuous integration build to ensure that problem issues are flagged early.

A favourite feature of mine is the ability to work back to a dependency graph for a particular problem section. For example the pic below displays a graph generated from the matrix for the dependencies of the Instrumentation classes on the System.Configuration assembly.

Lastly, there is absolute power in using the dependency graph and matrix side by side. This lets you look at dependencies in your preferred view and have the other view highlight and describe what you are looking at.

Either I am not sure how to drive the VS2010 dependency model or it is simply not up to RTM. In any case it has a long way to go to provide the insight of NDepend. It is great that Microsoft has recognised the importance of this area of development however it might be a release or two away before it is a serious day to day tool for use within an enterprise or any serious development shop.

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NDepend v3 RC vs VS2010 RC Dependency Graph – A quick glance

2010-02-22T02:57:00.001-08:00

Not long ago many .net developers jumped and downloaded Visual Studio 2010 RC. Some of the new features of the VS 2010 IDE include functionality that is available in a tool that I have used for sometime now - NDepend.

As is the case with a lot of Microsoft product releases, the intent is there but the execution for the first cut has not quite hit the mark. This is not suprising when comparing a V1 release to V3 release.

In the flavour of looking at new products, I thought I would use the Microsoft Patterns and Practices Enterprise Library Blocks v5.0 Beta to compare some of the dependency features of the products. It has 25 projects and is a little more representative than the traditional hello world app.

Visual Studio 2010 – Dependency Graph

To create a dependency graph, its quite a simple process.

The default output below, is not the most enlightening view.

However with some quick changes (Left to right and zoom to 50%), it becomes a little clearer that this is quite a well architected set of assemblies considering the 25000 + lines of code.

Hovering over an assembly gives a summary of the compiled assembly

Clicking on the arrows allows a drill down look at what makes up the assembly in question.

A further right click gives a context menu that allows some further investigation such as “Show Content”.

Also, once an assembly or class is highlighted, you have the option of inspecting the dependencies by once again drilling down.

Overall, its nice that Microsoft has realised the importance of understanding assembly and code dependencies. It is sure to take leaps and bounds in future releases.

NDepend

NDepend has been around for some time however the latest release has focused heavily on integration with the Visual Studio IDE. It seems wherever you go there is some sort of context menu related to the product. For example, to start a NDepend project in an existing solution, simply hover over the NDepend icon at the bottom right of the IDE and add a new project.

Once it processes you can view the dependency diagram. Immediately you have quite a different experience compared to VS2010’s dependency diagram. The first thing that is noticeable is the size of the assemblies derived by the lines of code. Similar to VS2010 hovering over an assembly gives a snapshot of the assembly including dependencies, lines of code, number of IL instructions and cyclomatic complexity.

The right click context menu on an assembly gives many options, one of which is to drill down or view the internal dependencies. The result is many times quicker than the VS2010 drill down.

NDepend also makes strong use of CQL (Code Query Language) which can then used to find related dependency issues. This can then be used to enforce rules and constraints similar to FxCop or other code analysis tools.

Quick Summary

Forgetting functionality, the most apparent difference in the tools are their speed of processing. The guys @ NDepend certainly have their rendering nailed as they are quicker than VS2010 by a rate of at least 4/1.

Overall, both these products are tools to give you a glimpse of what dependencies you have within your application. Something we all should take more note of.

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Resharper NUnit Gotcha

2010-02-16T02:08:00.001-08:00

Recently I was authoring some tests in NUnit. I had some settings in an application configuration file and it was growing large. I decided to move this to the top of the app.config above the configSections group.

As opposed to throwing an exception, the Resharper test runner showed the tests as grey. I should have known better, but I was hoping my tests would have told me I was wrong.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
 <appSettings>
    <add key="Test" value="Test"/>
  </appSettings>
  <configSections>
  </configSections>
  
</configuration>

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IDrive & Windows 7 Installations

2010-02-06T21:35:00.001-08:00

Recently I have been upgrading a few tools for VS 2008/2010. As expected this involved a number of installs/re-installs. However on a number of occasions, I received the error Error writing to file: C:\Config.Msi. It took sometime to understand what was going on before I realised my online backup IDrive was causing the issue. I also remembered encountering this issue once before.

Simple fix was disabling IDrive whist doing the installs, now all is sweet.

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2010 on the rise

2010-01-07T03:25:00.001-08:00

This time last year I had a quick post to start 2009. I was quite happy say that two of the three are done and dusted.

My amazing wife’s venture into Organic Nursery Bedding has launched has launched. Check it out www.antonslane.com
Her private practice where she practices Paediatric Neuropsychology is back in action. www.pdlc.com.au
Lastly, the third item on our list is at a respectable (65%), Coffee Conspectus is on its way…

Who knows what 2010 will bring.

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Testing frameworks you depend on

2009-12-10T00:19:00.000-08:00

I have been working on a side project recently that makes use of a number of open source projects. In a number of cases I have been burnt by confirmed bugs in the frameworks. It got me thinking to what extent I should be testing external components. I have previously relied on testing integration points of frameworks, often with a simple interface. It highlighted a flaw in some of my code that expected certain results (aka Liskov Substitution Principle).

So what is the appropriate level of testing needed when using a piece of code (or framework) that you have not created. Would you consider testing the .Net framework, Rails?

I have settled for a case by case basis, however it does make you think hard about who and what (company/organisation) has developed the libraries you depend on.

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IOC Containers – Who do they depend on?? (Part II – more NDepend)

2009-11-26T04:39:00.001-08:00

I recently posted about IOC containers and their dependencies. I was using NDepend in that post as an example tool to extract quick information relating to assemblies that are inherited when you add a framework to your project.

Patrick of NDepend was nice enough to point out some other features that can aid this process. As per his blog post, you can you the build comparison tool to check two sets of assemblies.

In this case, Unity vs Structure Map

Build Comparison

Output when searching for differences. (also available are searching by Method, Field, Type and Namespace)

As you can see, there are a number of assemblies used by Structure Map that are not used by Unity. (Unfortunately this seems to only be a one way view, eg. I cannot seem to search for the assemblies that have been introduced. Then again, you probably care more about the new build.). On a similar note you can also search for items that are used differently. The output also gives an overview of the changes. I have found this quite useful on my own builds and major open source projects updates. (eg. Fluent NHibernate recent upgrade to consume the latest version of NHibernate)

As I become more familiar with NDepend, I am finding new ways to apply its tooling to improve all facets of my code base.

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NHibnernate & Data Services

2009-11-23T03:18:00.001-08:00

Just a quick note on how to expose data services (aka REST) from your NHibernate repository or any other business logic. Say you have an entity like the one below. Then if you mark you entity with attributes from the System.Data.Services.Client assembly you can expose the entities from a business layer that exposes IQueryable.

  1: using System;
  2: using System.Data;
  3: using System.Data.Services.Common;
  4: namespace FluentlyDo.Entities
  5: {
  6:     [DataServiceKey("Id")]
  7:     public class Person
  8:     {        
  9:         public virtual int Id { get; set; }
 10:         public virtual string FirstName { get; set; }
 11:         public virtual string Surname { get; set; }
 12:         public virtual int? Age { get; set; }
 13:     }
 14: }

Then add a Data Service that exposes your IQueryable interface property

  1: public class FluentDataService : DataService<ServiceAdapter>
  2:     {
  3:         // This method is called only once to initialize service-wide policies.
  4:         public static void InitializeService(IDataServiceConfiguration config)
  5:         {
  6:              config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("People", EntitySetRights.AllRead);            
  7:         }
  8:     }    
  9:     public class ServiceAdapter
 10:     {
 11:         private PersonRepository _personRepository;
 12:         public ServiceAdapter()
 13:         {
 14:             SessionManager manager = new SessionManager();
 15:             _personRepository = new PersonRepository(manager.CreateSessionFactory());
 16:         }
 17:         public IQueryable<Person> People
 18:         {
 19:             get
 20:             {
 21:                 return _personRepository.GetAll(); 
 22:             }
 23:         }       
 24:     }

Feed

There it is…

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Locks, locks go away.

2009-11-04T11:55:00.001-08:00

Recently we had some team members leave our project, unfortunately they still had some exclusive locks on files within Team Foundation Server (TFS). To get around this you need to use the TF.exe tool.

The syntax is as follows.

tf.exe LOCK "$/PathToTheFile/FileInQuestion.cs" /LOCK:NONE /WORKSPACE:WorkspaceOfTheUserWhoHasTheLock;UserWhoHasTheLock

tf.exe UNDO "$/PathToTheFile/FileInQuestion.cs" /WORKSPACE:WorkspaceOfTheUserWhoHasTheLock;UserWhoHasTheLock

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IOC Containers – Who do they depend on??

2009-11-04T01:32:00.001-08:00

I am a big fan of Inversion of Control (IOC) containers. I strongly believe when used correctly they clean up your code by at least 30% . They also help you understand your dependencies much better.

There are many options for developers when choosing an IOC, of which most have extensive material, samples and documentation available. Recently I was wondering what are the dependencies of an IOC container. After all, they help apply the dependency injection pattern, but what do they in turn rely on. To help with this exercise, I am using a tool called NDepend. This is similar to the dependency mapping available in the Beta of VS2010 but on steroids.

I took two containers that I am familiar with. The Microsoft Patterns and Practices implementation Unity, and the popular open source project StructureMap.

The first thing we notice about both frameworks is that they have little need to go outside the basics of the .Net framework. As such they are both great candidates for any type of application, be it Web, WPF or services.

Unity	Structure Map

Delving a little further, we find that both frameworks are similar in the namespaces they consume. Both making strong use of generics (to be expected), however Structure Map has some a fluent configuration options and so makes use of Linq. It also has some specific implementations (Pipelines) that cover specific lifecycles such as ASP.Net.

Unity	Structure Map

Comparing components in this way gives you a better understanding of what is under the hood. This is just a quick overview of looking at frameworks and their dependencies. Next time that you use a framework, it might be worth considering what other components and dependencies you are inheriting.

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Merlba Samples

2009-10-20T04:17:00.001-07:00

Over my time as a dev, I seem to constantly need old snippets and code for quite simple tasks. Some people use snippets, some templates however I have decided to add all mine to an open source project.

Currently hosted on Codeplex (this will be changing shortly) is http://merblasamples.codeplex.com/. Over time I am going to use this as a bit of a dumping ground for ideas and samples that I have collated.

Case in point, I needed a simple method to allow for converting a legacy apps string representation to Title Case. So I have added to the utilities.

public static string AsTitleCase(this string s)
{
         var textInfo = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.TextInfo;
         var result = textInfo.ToLower(s);
         result = textInfo.ToTitleCase(result);

return result;
}

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Telerik TFS Project Dashboard

2009-10-05T03:10:00.001-07:00

The project I am currently on uses TFS 2008 (Team Foundation Server) and I am always on the look out for new add ins and tools to make life easier. One I have mentioned in the past is Conchango’s Scrum Process Template. We are also using Telerik’s suite of ASP.Net controls within the web app we are building. These two tools now have something in common…

TFS Work Item Manager & TFS Project Dashboard

Set out as a showcase for their WPF tools, it seems to be a combination of the current dashboards available and the Office integration.

Kanban like??

Who broke the build

It’s not quite Team City build intergration, however its could make the TFS experience all the more palatable.

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FIFA 10 GOALLL!!!!!

2009-10-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't played the Xbox in a while, so to have this as my first goal was pretty cool.

Pitty it was not Timmy Cahill.

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EA Sports: Everton 1 - 0 Darlington

Fluent NHibernate HasOne Mappings

2009-09-21T04:15:00.001-07:00

Every now and then you might work with a system that needs to represent a one to one mapping. This does not occur too often, something that was evident when I did a quick search on Fluent NHibernate’s HasOne mapping action.

Say you have something like the following relationship.

You might have a mapping like the following

public class NutMap : ClassMap<Nut>
{
    public NutMap()
    {
        Id(x => x.Id)
            .GeneratedBy
            .Identity();

        HasOne(x => x.Bolt)
            .ForeignKey("FK_Bolt_to_Map")
            .Cascade.All();

}
}

public class BoltMap : ClassMap<Bolt>
{
    public BoltMap()
    {
        Id(x => x.Id)
            .GeneratedBy
            .Identity();

        HasOne(x => x.Nut)
           .ForeignKey("FK_Bolt_to_Map")
           .Cascade.All();

}
}

It all works as expected. One situation I ran into was when a two tables were using the same identifier. In that case the following code may help. This is especially helpful in legacy systems which may have normalised tables and when a foreign key represents this one to one link .

Id(x => x.Id).GeneratedBy.Foreign("Property on the entity being mapped who’s id the entity being mapped should use")

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WCF & IIS Metadata

2009-09-09T03:22:00.001-07:00

The other day I was wondering why a new set of WCF services could not be accessed via an AJAX Web site. These were REST endpoints and all I was receiving in JavaScript was a cryptic error message.

First thing was to ensure the trusty old setting in WCF to ensure the faults were reported through to the client. This can be done in either the service behaviour or the debug settings for the endpoint.

No luck :(

After further investigation, I realised that IIS and WCF was not registering the correctly for ISAPI. It was then a case of running the install for WCF for IIS (ServiceModelReg.exe) and all was great.

Thinking back now, I was screwing with some handlers and settings in IIS.

Get Amongst It!!!

Install WCF for IIS

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms732012.aspx

Include Exceptions

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.servicemodel.servicebehaviorattribute.includeexceptiondetailinfaults.aspx

B2B 2009

2009-09-09T03:04:00.001-07:00

Well the 2009 Bridge to Brisbane is done and dusted and results are in. Unfortunately a little over a minute on last time. I guess there is always next year and hopefully no more 30th Birthdays the night before

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Linq 2 Twitter

2009-08-26T03:44:00.001-07:00

I decided to have a play the other day with LinqToTwitter. I know that it has been around for some time however I had not had a good look at it.

The code base available on Codeplex, shows the ins and outs as well as two nice demos for a console app and a web site.

I created a small console app within 5 minutes of downloading the source. The code below shows a quick snippet of how to use this API

Joe Mayo has done a great job on this.

Get amongst it!!!

Damn you double hop

2009-08-26T02:47:00.001-07:00

Recently I came across the ‘old’ double hop authentication issue with IIS. I have solved this numerous times in the past at previous roles, however it always took longer than needed.

In this case I was saved by a colleague that knew of the Authentication and Access Control Diagnostics tool. Quite simply it helps diagnose these exact issues. With a nice clean interface, it helped us on our way in no time.

Link for the x86 version, x64 is also available.

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=e90fe777-4a21-4066-bd22-b931f7572e9a&displaylang=en

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B2B

2009-07-16T01:19:00.001-07:00

Well its that time of the year again for the Bridge to Brisbane. I am not as fit as I was back in the days of the Mighty Morningside Panthers, however I will give it another go.

Last year was a reasonable time running in the Yellow Group and I hope to improve on that.

This year I’m in the red group (above yellow) so I am hoping I can cut it. Results to follow.

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NHibernate Schema Export

2009-07-01T05:42:00.001-07:00

In my experience developers normally fit into two categories in relation to developing applications that interact with a database.

Data Up - Build the database, then work from up from the schema to relate domain objects and their relationships

Domain Down - Build the domain model, then work down to the schema ensuring the data from the domain is persisted.

Both have their pros & cons. NHibernate is just one tool that helps fill the void no matter which type the developer is. However there is one feature of this tool that I find useful and saves a lot of time

Using the code example (Examples.FirstProject) from the Fluent NHibernate source we have the following domain.

By using the fluent configuration code below we can build up the mappings and export the schema (check the mapping files in the Examples.FirstProject)

Configuration configuration
    = Fluently.Configure()
        .Database
            (MsSqlConfiguration.MsSql2005
                .ConnectionString(conn => conn.FromConnectionStringWithKey("ExampleConnectionString")))
        .Mappings(m => m.FluentMappings.AddFromAssemblyOf<Program>())
        .BuildConfiguration();

new SchemaExport(configuration).Create(true, true);

When this is run, the following schema is created

Guess which type of developer I am.

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CodeRun Application Samples

2009-06-18T14:28:00.001-07:00

I came across this site recently, it provides examples across a range of technologies but with a difference. It shows an IDE and allows for compilation etc. Check it out, imagine this combined with StackOverFlow.

http://www.coderun.com/

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Test Data and NBuilder

2009-06-18T04:51:00.001-07:00

Test Data is a strange beast. Good tests need good data. I am sure most developers have bashed away with classes and other methods to provide meaningful and reliable test data. Some times its easy, sometimes is hard.

I have been using a little gem of a interface called NBuilder for some time now and think its a good tool to have in a developers bag. I am not sure what other frameworks are out there but this is a good starting point.

Lets say you had the following classes with some rules around certain properties.

public class Team
{
    public Team()
    {
        Players = new List<Player>();
    }

    public int TeamId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public IList<Player> Players { get; set; }

    public int CountOfCrazyOldLeftHanders
    {
        get
        {
            return Players.Where(x => x.Type == PlayerType.CrazyOldLeftHander).Count();
        }
    }

    public void AddPlayer(Player player)
    {
        Players.Add(player);
    }
}

public class Player
{
    public int PlayerId { get; set; }
    public bool IsRightHanded { get; set; }
    public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }
    public int Height { get; set; }

    public PlayerType Type
    {
        get
        {
            var type = PlayerType.Normal;
            if (!IsRightHanded && BirthDate <= DateTime.Today.AddYears(-100))
                type = PlayerType.CrazyOldLeftHander;

            return type;
        }
    }
}

public enum PlayerType
{
Normal,
CrazyOldLeftHander
}

Then you wanted to test this for many variations. NBuilder can help.

Below are some samples (there are more on the wiki)

var generator = new UniqueRandomGenerator();

var reallyOldPlayers = Builder<Player>
    .CreateListOfSize(20)
    .WhereTheFirst(10)
        .Have(x=> x.IsRightHanded = false)
        .And(x=> x.BirthDate = DateTime.Today.AddYears(-200))
        .And(x => x.Height = generator.Next(1,200))
    .AndTheNext(10)
        .Have(x => x.IsRightHanded = true)
        .And(x => x.BirthDate = The.Year(1980).On.July.The26th.At(2,00))
    .Build();

var teams = Builder<Team>
    .CreateListOfSize(10)
        .WhereAll()
        .HaveDoneToThem(x=> x.AddPlayer(Pick<Player>.RandomItemFrom(reallyOldPlayers)))
    .Build();

I am sure you get the idea. Check it out, have a look and never have to setup huge test data ever again.

Get Amongst It!!!!!!

WPF vs Silverlight

2009-06-12T00:32:00.000-07:00

Wintellect just realeased their guidance re WPF and Silverlight, worth a read.

http://wpfslguidance.codeplex.com/

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Fluent NHibernate with Stored Procedures Mark II

2009-05-28T05:38:00.000-07:00

Recently I updated the configuration in one of my apps that was using stored procedures along with Fluent Mappings. Still not sure if the stored procs can be done another way

This is my new session factory code

Configuration cfg = new Configuration().Configure();

ISessionFactory sessionFactory = Fluently.Configure(cfg)

//Do the SQL Server Stuff

.Database

(MsSqlConfiguration.MsSql2005

.ConnectionString(conn => conn.FromConnectionStringWithKey("MyKillerApplication"))

.Cache(c => c.UseQueryCache()

.ProviderClass()

.UseMininmalPuts())

)

//Add the fluent mappings

.Mappings(

m => m.FluentMappings.AddFromAssembly((typeof (MySessionManager).Assembly))

//Table convention, great when you have some sort of coding standard in the dbase

.ConventionDiscovery.AddFromAssemblyOf())

//Add traditional xml mappings

.Mappings(xml=> xml.HbmMappings.AddFromAssembly(typeof (MySessionManager).Assembly))

//Build it up buttercup

.BuildSessionFactory();

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When Agile Goes Wrong

2009-05-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

Someone sent me this link the other day. I have seen similar ones before with Xbox live and other content however I had to laugh as the other day I added ignore to some tests that were failing due to data.

New Phone

2009-05-22T16:21:00.001-07:00

Well I got around to getting a new phone. I was initially not convinced with windows mobile however now I am thinking differently.

I ended up with the HTC Touch Diamond2. Its an update on the orignal with a better camera, battery life and looks and feels very similar to the HD. Running windows mobile 6.1 should be interesting however with the touch flo style of the HTC you hardly know its there.

Next is finding some good apps and changing phone companies.

New Developer PCs

2009-05-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

Today we upgraded our development PCs, its been a while coming however it should be a nice performance increase to help our productivity.

Current Developer Environment

Developer VM

Window 2k3 Server
Single Core 2 @1.86 Ghz
1.48GB RAM
10 GB HD

Running on

Windows XP Pro
Single Core 2 @1.86 Ghz
3 GB RAM
20 Gig HD

New Developer PCs

Windows Vista x64
Core 2 Quad Core@ 3 Ghz
8GB RAM
60 Gig hD

Resharper 4.5 Shortcuts

2009-05-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

Resharper 4.5 has been out for some time. And the shortcuts guides have been updated.

Get amongst it!!!

http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/documentation/documentation.html

Talk Time

2009-05-08T16:51:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday I had my phone in my pocket and knocked into a table rendering the screen useless. So its now time to find a new phone. Question is.... what phone.

Here is a current shortlist, are there any others out there worth looking at in the Aussie market.

IPhone (of course, but it is getting dated??)
Sony Ericson Xperia (Windows mobile, not sure about that)
LG KM 900 Arena
HTC Diamonnd
Nokia N85, N96

By the way great review website - http://youcompare.com.au/mobilephones

NHibernate and WCF

2009-05-07T03:25:00.000-07:00

I came across a bit of a peculiar issue the other day. I have been working with NHibernate for some time and had little to know issues (especially with mapping with Fluent NHibernate).

However recently I hit an issue with serialisation of my POCO classes. I had a particular class that was being used across a WCF service (wsHttp) however when I added the persistence layer the service call no longer worked. It ended up being the proxy class that was being created by NHibernate and inheriting from my POCO class. It had some non serialisable properties.

Next time you are using NHibernate, set a break point on your POCO class and check out what is under the hood. You can learn a lot.

Being an Architect is not always about being an Architect

2009-04-08T16:35:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine sent me this link which was poignant in current circumstances. As I learn more over time, truly being an architect is less about technology.

Ask and you shall receive

2009-03-18T15:03:00.001-07:00

Just like all developers, I have hacked around with problems always thinking I will solve it quickly. Yesterday I had an issue with FluentNHibernate, so after a while I though I would give StackOverflow a go. After all its got some great noise lately.

What I love about this site, is its ease of use and the fact even the guru's use it. I ask my question then ~~12hrs~~ 3 hrs later the guy that wrote Fluent answers my question.

More Extension Methods

2009-03-16T23:59:00.001-07:00

Here are some more extension methods I have created recently. I am trying to make my code as readable as possible as well as self documenting.

Below are two extension methods and examples of their use when using Linq & Lambda.

Updated Code(thks Tim.Bellette.Net)

   1: public static bool isLessThanOrEqualTo(this DateTime d, DateTime dateTimeToCompare)

   2: {

   3:     bool isLessThanOrEqualTo = false;

4:

   5:     if (d <= dateTimeToCompare)

   6:     {

   7:         isLessThanOrEqualTo = true;

   8:     }

9:

  10:     return isLessThanOrEqualTo;

  11: }

12:

  13: public static bool isGreaterThanOrEqualTo(this DateTime d, DateTime dateTimeToCompare)

  14: {

  15:     bool isGreaterThanOrEqualTo = false;

16:

  17:     if (d >= dateTimeToCompare)

  18:     {

  19:         isGreaterThanOrEqualTo = true;

  20:     }

21:

  22:     return isGreaterThanOrEqualTo;

  23: }

24:

  25: public void Test()

  26: {

  27:     IList<Journal> journals = new List<Journal>();

28:

  29:     //Lambda

  30:     journals.AsQueryable().Where(x => x.DateEntered.isGreaterThanOrEqualTo(DateTime.Now));

31:

  32:     //Linq

  33:     var a = from j in journals.AsQueryable()

  34:             where j.DateEntered.isGreaterThanOrEqualTo(DateTime.Now)

  35:             select j;

  36: }

Fresh Technical Resources

2009-03-03T15:41:00.001-08:00

I have never been a super strong in design patterns and recently thought I should brush up on some content. Many developers would have been exposed to the Gang of Four patterns and possibly Mr Fowler’s Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture.

So looking for some new fresh resources I have picked up the following

Dino Esposito’s book from MS, this is a good example of Fowler’s patterns applied to .Net
DoFactory’s Pattern’s examples (specific to .net 3.5 including MVVM)

I also picked up the NHibernate in Action as a reference to sit by my desk.

So far they have been a nice refresher on things I have not used for a while.

My Extension Method of the Day

2009-02-25T17:03:00.001-08:00

Following Dazza's post here is my extension method. Similar to his its on the good old string class. Now... what about the Damo method

Version Helper

2009-02-16T21:51:00.001-08:00

I was doing some work and was needing the version and name of assemblies all over the place.

So to instead of writing code like typeof etc I wrote a set of simple extension methods.

Below is a quick example.

public static class Extensions

    public static string AssemblyName(this object o)

        string name = o.GetType().AssemblyQualifiedName;

        return name;

public class MyClass

    public string GetInfo()

        string info = this.AssemblyName();

        return info;

Fluent NHibernate with Stored Procedures

2009-02-11T22:37:00.001-08:00

In one of my projects we are looking to use Fluent NHibernate, on occasion we will need to use stored procedures for data access.

As Fluent NHibernate does not yet support stored procs I was working on a way around this. Our situation is an 80/20 rule, most of the time the fluent mapping will do the job. I just wanted to make sure that we could cover both bases.

People familiar with NHibernate will know the .hbm.xml file. An embedded resource that is used to map the classes to the repository. This is effectively what the Fluent framework replaces. So in my case I need both Fluent and traditional NHibernate. This is the current method (possible a hack) I have.

//Create the config
NHibernate.config.Configuration config = new Configuration().Configure();

//Add Fluent Mapping
var persistenceModel = new FluentNHibernate.PersistenceModel();
persistenceModel.addMappingsFromAssembly((typeof(SessionManager).Assembly));
persistenceModel.Configure(config);

//Add Traditional NHIbernate Mapping
//This method as per doco "Adds all of the assembly's embedded resources whose names end with .hbm.xml."
config.AddAssembly(typeof(SessionManager).Assembly);

//Build the session
return config.BuildSessionFactory();

Entity Framework…. How I love thee (not really)

2009-02-11T15:17:00.001-08:00

Daz just posted about his challenges with Microsoft’s Entity Framework. I have recently experienced similar issues, and as such I am in the process of evaluating a number of data access and ORM tools.

At number one is NHibernate. I never really liked NHibernate with all its crappy XML configuration. Things have changed thanks to Fluent NHibernate and Linq to NHibernate.

So… following on from my posts on Inversion of Control and Dependency Injection, I am going to continue in a similar vain combining the Fluent NHibernate and Unity/Structure Map.

Here is a quick look.

A Fluent NHibernate mapping file with the following

a table name different to a class
SQL identity column
simple text field.
utilising the Fluent NHibernate mapping quick start infrastructure (eg. IMapGenerator)

public class ShopMap : ClassMap<Shop>, Mapping.Helpers.IMapGenerator
{
    public ShopMap()
    {
        // For when the table name is different to a class
        WithTable("Shop");
        //Identity Column SQL Server
        Id(x => x.Id)
            .GeneratedBy
            .Identity();

//Simple text field
Map(x => x.ShopName);

}

#region IMapGenerator Members

    public XmlDocument Generate()
    {
        return CreateMapping(new MappingVisitor());
    }

#endregion
}

System.DateTime & BC

2009-02-08T21:55:00.001-08:00

I have been doing development for some time, however never come across the following.

Representing a BC date and time.

How is this best done?? Thoughts??

Gotta Love 10 HD

2009-02-05T12:43:00.001-08:00

I am just loving the early signs of Channel 10’s HD sport channel. Earlier this week was the Super Bowl after the NBA Pistons v Cavaliers.

Today they are showing the NBA Finals rematch of Lakers v Celtics.

I can’t wait until April when they go 24/7.

Technical Spike Source Code

2009-02-04T16:32:00.001-08:00

I am about to start a technical spike and was creating an area to place it within my source code structure. One thing that I dislike when some people do technical spikes is they throw away the code base.

DON’T!!!!!!

Its intellectual property, and when you are working for a company it is valuable to back up any design decisions that stem from the spike.

After all, its not your IP, its the companies.

Rant complete

IOC/DI – Part 2 of n

2009-02-04T02:30:00.001-08:00

After my first post I was thinking about the syntax of using Unity and Structure Map.

In a previous role, chaining was thought of to be the devil , as such the syntactical differences of the two framework are interesting to compare.

Simply Registering of Types

In this case, I don’t see too much of an issue

Structure Map

ForRequestedType<IMyObject>().TheDefault.Is.OfConcreteType<MyObject>();

Unity

Container.RegisterType<IMyObject, MyObject>();

However when you get into more complex situations e.g. Singletons, I believe Structure Map has an edge for readability.

Singletons

Structure Map

ForRequestedType<IRouteConfigurer>()
.AsSingletons()
.TheDefault.Is.OfConcreteType<RouteConfigurer>();

Unity

Container.RegisterType<IMyObject>
(MyObject, new ContainerControlledLifetimeManager());

Thoughts???

WCF Tools

2009-02-01T22:44:00.001-08:00

One of my mates recently asked me a WCF question, I used to get a lot of these questions in my last role as I seemed to become the guy to talk to re: WCF.

When I initially started working with WCF, I was often hacking around in the Web.Config. I soon found the tools that make your life so much easier. These tools can be found when using a vanilla Visual Studio install in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin\. VS 2008 has the editor on the tools menu however the other you might need to create your own shortcut. Below are screenshots of the respective tools.

WCF Configuration Editor (SvcConfigEditor.exe)

WCF Trace Viewer (SvcTraceViewer.exe)

The viewer is a great diagnostic tool when WCF goes wrong. Here is a quick example of how to use it. I created a new WCF Project with a console client, added a service reference and code to wire up the client. Firstly opening the web.config in the editor I turned on the tracing capabilities of WCF. This can be done by clicking on the Diagnostics item, then enabling tracing. (In this example, I set it to Verbose)

After running the console app, the service logs to a trace file located in the root of the service. Then using the trace viewer you can open up the file and view the output.

I have found this very helpful when things like authentication issues, and timeouts occur.

TFS - Workspaces

2009-01-26T20:45:00.001-08:00

I have been working with TFS lately and come across an issue when creating a new build for one of my projects. As the build server runs under a server account the mapped workspace is under that users name. After I created a new build I was receiving the "The workspace is already mapped....."

I had solved this one before however could not remember the command line syntax. So here it is.

Firstly, open VS command prompt and using tf.exe

List all workspaces for all owners

tf workspaces /owner:*

Delete unneeded workspace

tf workspace /delete /server:[servername] [workspacename];[ownername]

IOC/DI - Part 1 of n

2009-01-21T21:55:00.001-08:00

Recently I have been doing a lot of work lately in relation to Inversion of Control (IOC) and dependency injection. As I go, I am having many Aaaha moments. So I thought that I might start blogging about my experiences.

The two main frameworks I have working with are Structure Map and Unity. Both have their strengths and weaknesses (IMO).

I am working using the IOC within two scopes, firstly a service layer and secondly a UI (ASP.Net Web Forms). I would have loved to try the ASP.Net MVC however third party control requirements meant that it was not to be the case.

One thing that I have been thinking about is where the IOC container should live. This became apparent when contrasting Structure Map and Unity.

Structure Map has the ObjectFactory object, a static class and as such is quite accessible.

Structure Map

In Structure Map you just register your types against Object Factory.

public class MyRegistry : Registry
{
    protected override void configure()
        {
            ForRequestedType<IObject>()
                    .TheDefault.Is.Object(new Object())

}
}

public class BootStrapper
{

ObjectFactory.Initialize(x =>
            {
                x.AddRegistry(new MyRegistry());
            }); Unity
}

Unity

Unity, so far that I am aware of does not have an equivalent object. As such you need to implement your own, perhaps something like the following

public class IoC
{
private static IUnityContainer _container = null;

    public static IUnityContainer Container
    {
        get
        {
            if (_container == null)
                CreateContainer();
        }
    }

    private static CreateContainer()
    {
        _container = new UnityContainer;

_container.RegisterType<IObject, Object>();
}
}

I like both IoCs so far, and I am sure I will find many more interesting quirks as I go.

Tools for the trade

2009-01-19T12:41:00.001-08:00

In my previous post I mentioned the Scrum for Team system template for Team Foundation Server. Another forgotten gem is the Team Foundation Server Web Access Power Toy, previously from Team Plain.

Its a great little tool that provides the same functionality as Team Explorer through a web interface. I have found great use for it when you are not at your machine (say a Sprint planning meeting).

And what’s more, when you use a custom template like Scrum, it can cater for the new terminology and you can create, edit your Sprint plan with ease.

2009 Here we come

2009-01-08T17:40:00.001-08:00

Well its 2009 and the world is awaiting. Lots of stuff on the horizon, look out for Anton’s Lane, the return of PDLC and a new venture “Coffee Conspectus”

Best wishes to all and I hope you have a safe and prosperous 2009

Merry Christmas

2008-12-14T02:10:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to all… and to all a gute nacht

Conchang Who?

2008-12-11T21:33:00.001-08:00

I can not say enough for the Scrum for Team System add in by Conchango. Implementing a base version of TFS can be tough, the install is clunky (especially when you are splitting the data and application tier) and base MSF Agile can be quite daunting when you first look at it.

Me, I like scrum. The add in relates all TFS work back to terms you know and love. Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Retrospectives etc.

The reports are great, the task board (just need a 50” LCD), burn down charts etc etc etc.

My hats off to Conchango and their edition for TFS 2008 is a great improvement

Like he said x 2

2008-12-08T14:07:00.001-08:00

It seems that I have been chasing Daz recently in relation to posts. However I must concur with his post re Dan Roam’s book - The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures.

I picked up this book about 6 months ago and enjoyed the read. In fact I have it sitting at my desk where I work. Its a great way to look at communication, hopefully that allows you to convey your message to any audience. I think I will read it again soon to refresh my memory.

Just remember to carry your Swiss army knife of Visual Thinking

New Wheels

2008-12-01T02:36:00.001-08:00

It has taken some time however we finally bought a new car to let us do the things we wanted to do and help Ramona with little Anton.

Now for a new surfboard……….

Like he said….

2008-11-29T13:39:00.001-08:00

Following on from my last post, Darryn made mention of the P&P’s new pocket guides. I discovered these last week and have already handed them to the lead developer and the enterprise architect.

These are a cut down version of the more meaty guides, and are a little easier to digest. I just wish Mr Meier and his crew released it earlier than last week as I have just finished reading the full cut versions

Quality Reference Material

2008-11-27T14:20:00.001-08:00

With the ever changing landscape of application development, it is often hard to keep up with the latest trends, another aspect that can be quite daunting is to keep up with best practice.

Microsoft have done some good work in this space with the Patterns and Practices guys doing their bit for the developers. On of my colleges also put me on to Windows Server System Reference Architecture (WSSRA). When you are building a system from scratch and there is a lot of scrutiny, its nice to have the vendor backing up your design.

Both these resources tell you how to build scenario based solutions, simply understand your business requirements and find the related reference. Most of the time the solution you are thinking of has been implemented before.

Training it..

2008-11-25T21:44:00.000-08:00

I recently started a new role and as a result I am talking the train more and more. The psychology of sitting on a train amazes me.

Previously I used the City Cat for the most part of two years. It is a great way to get home following a tough day at the office, people are friendly, smiling and generally having a good time. You might think the high number of tourists is the reason for this jovial escapade, however most commuters are actually locals.

Below is a list of five behaviours that I love to observe when on trains (and sometime buses).

The reluctance to make eye contact
A person sits on the aisle seat as to ensure no on sits beside them
The rush both when getting on and off trains
The awkard silence
Watching someone's face when they overhear a conversation that may be a little off putting (normally when different social economic backgrounds are present)

Asus Eee PC 901

2008-11-22T12:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I got an Asus Eee PC so far it is fantastic. I got the solid state drive with wireless n. It already came with Open Office which I have been using for some time on my Vista laptop. Its light (1.1 kg with battery) and quick to boot.

Currently loading express versions of Visual Studio so it will be interesting to see how that performs.

Hearing vs Listening

2008-11-12T18:36:00.000-08:00

I had a situation today that a college asked for help. Of course I jumped at the chance. After about twenty minutes of discussion we had developed an entirely new solution to his problem and had not addressed what he actually asked.

It reiterated the difference between hearing and listening. I was eager to help however I actually did quite the opposite.

Exit Mode

2008-11-12T02:34:00.000-08:00

I start a new role next week. However something has been on my mind for some time. How best do I ensure that the IP I have gathered (if any) is most effectively passed on to the people that might pick up my work.

Is code enough? What about screen casts? What is the best form of communication to ensure what I have tried to achieve is clear to other developers. Secondly is that different to the best form of communication to other team members eg BAs?

I have always liked the saying "Horses for courses" however what if I have just chosen the wrong horse.

Good old XAML

2008-11-07T14:25:00.001-08:00

The last couple of years I have been developing UI primarily in Windows Forms. I have also dabbled a little with WPF and Silverlight. I have never really had a passion for windows forms finding them often ugly and just not a good user experience.

Recently I had a sqiz at the Composite Application Guidance and came across an example for the extensions that have been created by the community.

In one of the samples, they use the new HierarchicalDataTemplate, just one of many new templates in WPF. What intested me was the power of the markup. Below is a quick peek at what I am getting at.

Say I have a simple WPF application. In it I have a stackpanel with a tree view inside it. It makes reference to a static xml provider and a HierarchicalDataTemplate.

The result is a simple tree view.

However if you add some styles, templates and animation you get the following.

As developers we now have no reason to build mindless apps that mimic the look and feel of circa 1990.

Check out the WPFQuickstartWithCAL example here .

Come one, come all

2008-11-06T13:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I promised myself when I got things "in order" I would start a blog.

Here it is..... I am sure I will cop some flak from a couple of colleges (Pearso, Dazz, Tim.Bellette.Net) if this gets stale. I am not sure what sort of content there will be but I hope its a palatable mix of tech and life.