libGLES_CM.dll (I placed it as a “Content” file inside the project)

The funny thing is the error varies from one deployment to another, top error messages are:

“An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket.”

“Connection has been closed gracefully”

“Connection forcibly closed by remote host”

No search brought a solution to this bug, till after some “testing” (I used my DPD = drinking/programming/drinking method again ).
If you switch from “Copy if newer” to “Copy always” the errors are gone.

The flight booking process
The user of an online travel agency calls the appropriate website and enters his flight details on that page.  Then a search for possible flights, hotels and events taking place during the stay starts, which calls different web services. The Results are then finally displayed on the site.

This simple process is modeled in the following activity diagram:

Mock-up GUI

This GUI is used to feed the simulation with the user data and to present the results of a search to the user.

Web Services
To illustrate this process, the following Web Services are needed. However, this Web Services are only implemented to some extent.  The level of the implementation is quite sufficient for the demonstration purpose of this example:

EventService: Implements the method EventList, which displays all available events at a given time. In this example, every time the same events are described. It is enough for the demo.

[WebMethod]

public string EventList()

{

return “International film festival \n Rock konzerte  \n Music festival”;

}

FlightService: Implements the method FlightInfo, which displays the flights available from one location to another at a given time.

[WebMethod]

public string FlightInfo(string from, string to, DateTime departureDate,DateTime returnDate)

{

return from.ToUpper() + “–” + to.ToUpper() + ” HG8010 ” + departureDate + ” 08:15 \n” +to.ToUpper()+”-”+from.ToUpper()+” HG8011 “+returnDate+” 11:55 \n —————————————————– \n Rate:200€”;

}

HotelService: The method HotelInfo displays all available hotels during the stay

[WebMethod]

public string HotelInfo()

{

return ” Grand Hotel(4 Stars) \n Rate per night 59€”;

}

InputValidationService:  The method ValidateInputData should check the data entered by the users to their validity. For demonstration purposes I have implemented the method in a way that it in one case it returns “true” and in another case it returns”false”.

[WebMethod]

public bool ValidateInputData(string from, string to, bool oneWay, bool returnFlight, DateTime departureDate, DateTime returnDate, string numAdult,string numChildren,string numInfant)

{

if (from.Equals(to))

return false;

else

return true;

}

I added this web services to the Simulation, all external dlls. In order to pursue a more detailed and systematic approach, see Simons post .

The flight booking process modeled as a state machine

Demo
You can download the entire sample and try it yourself during the video.

Play Video

Download video: AMUSE web service orchestration

Today I want to show how we can create a generic “GridBaseController for our jqTGrid that we don’t have to implement the “DynamicGridData” controller method in every controller.

For that reason I created a new generic class called “GridBaseController”:

public class GridBaseController<T> : Controller where T : class,new () {
  [HttpPost]
  public ActionResult DynamicGridData(string sidx, string sord, int page,
                                      int rows) {
    var context = new GridEntities<T>();
    return (context.GenericType.ToList().AsQueryable().AsJqGridResult(sidx, sord,
                                                                      page, rows));
  }
}

Here you can see that I changed the “HaackOverflowEntities” to “GridEntities”. This class extends the existing “HaackOverflowEntities” and holds a GenericType which creates an “ObjectSet”
based on the passing data object.

  public class GridEntities<T> : HaackOverflowEntities where T : class,new (){
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the objectset for the generic data type
    /// </summary>
    public ObjectSet<T> GenericType {
      get {
        if ((_genericType == null)) {
          _genericType = base.CreateObjectSet<T>();
        }

        return _genericType;
      }
    }
    private ObjectSet<T> _genericType;
  }

The only thing we have to do now is inherit our controllers from the ”GridBaseController”.

public class SimpleController : GridBaseController<Question> {         
  //`
  // GET: /Simple/           
  public ActionResult Index() {                   
    return View();
  }
}

I think with the use of the “GridBaseController” we can create now very fast and simple jqGrids.

Here is the new source code if you are interested.

The first step what I did for that was to change Linq2Sql to the Entity Framework.

That is actually not a big deal and I was surprised that everything worked so straight but when I saw the page I figured out that there are new columns.

As you can see there are now -“EntityState” and “EntityKey”.Where do they come from? Ya right if you look at the HaakOverflowModel.designer.cs you can see that the entities have a base class “EntityObject” which contains the two properties.

As you can see we need to hide these columns because otherwise if we use EF we always would have these columns in our grid. My idea was to make use of the DataAnnotations where you have the “ScaffoldColumnAttribute” and the “DisplayNameAttribute”.

So I ended up making a class called “Question.cs” which extends the EF-Question class and a second class “QuestionMetaData” to associate the DataAnnotation attributes.

[MetadataType(typeof(QuestionMetaData))]
public partial class Question
{
}
public class QuestionMetaData
{
[ScaffoldColumn(true)]
[DisplayName("My Id column")]
public int Id { get; set;
}

First I thought I will check with reflection if there are any attributes and just hide the columns but then I remembered that Microsoft uses the DataAnnotation also for the HtmlHelper to create the form elements:

<%:Html.EditorForModel(Model) %>

So I downloaded the ASP.NET MVC source code and found following lines to check if the data gets rendered or not:

metadata.ShowForDisplay
&& metadata.ModelType != typeof(EntityState)
&& !metadata.IsComplexType

The next step was now to check our metadata model if there are such properties and based on it show the columns or not. For that I used the “GetMetadataForProperty”method:

ModelMetadata metadata =
ModelMetadataProviders.Current.GetMetadataForProperty(() => null, objType, property.Name);

if (Guard.IsValidColumn(metadata)) {

if (metadata.DisplayName != null)

displayName = metadata.DisplayName;

sb.AppendFormat(“‘{0}’,“, displayName);

}

After that I thought how we can configure the column width. So I came up with the idea to create an own “JqTGriddAttribute” – this is really easy – you just have to inherit from the “Attribute” class and give the properties you want – in our example “ColumnWidth”.

The bigger challenge was now to read the attributes because we are passing the “Question” class which is associated with the “QuestionMetaData” class and which holds the data annotiations.

But I found a great post from David Ebbo where he shows how to access access the attributes:

TypeDescriptor.AddProvider(new AssociatedMetadataTypeTypeDescriptionProvider(objType),objType);

var propertyList =
TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(objType).Cast<PropertyDescriptor>().Where(w=>w.Name==propertyName).Single();

With the usage of the “DataAnnotations” you have now the full control of your data model and the rendering of the grid.

Here is the new source code to play around.

My next idea is now to have a base controller which implements already the controller method for the grid so that you only would need to place the grid on the page! – You can find that here.

<script type="text/javascript">
    jQuery(document).ready(function () {
        jQuery("#list").jqGrid({

            url: '/Home/GridData/',
            datatype: 'json',
            mtype: 'GET',

            colNames: ['Id', 'Votes', 'Title'],
            colModel: [
          { name: 'Id', index: 'Id', width: 40, align: 'left' },

          { name: 'Votes', index: 'Votes', width: 40, align: 'left' },

          { name: 'Title', index: 'Title', width: 200, align: 'left'}],

            pager: jQuery('#pager'),
            rowNum: 10,
            rowList: [5, 10, 20, 50],

            sortname: 'Id',
            sortorder: "desc",
            viewrecords: true,

            imgpath: '/scripts/themes/coffee/images',
            caption: 'My first grid'
        });
    });

</script>

So I came up with the idea, why not just pass the data model class and let the grid create itself based
on the model!

So here is my solution.

First of all I wanted an easy syntax to create the Grid – for that reason I created a HtmlHelper extension
which takes the data model class.

    public static Grid<T> Grid<T>(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string name)
     where T : class {

      return new Grid<T>(name, htmlHelper.ViewContext.Writer);
    }

Now you can create a grid simple like in the following example:

<%=Html.Grid<Question>("MyDynamicGrid")%>

Looks nice or? So what about the ajax data?

The data has to come as a JsonResult – for that I created a GridExtension where you pass the data
and the information for sorting and paging.

So the only thing you have to call in the controller is the extension method AsJqGridResult.

Here is an example:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult DynamicGridData(string sidx, string sord,
                                    int page, int rows){

      var context = new HaackOverflowDataContext();
      return (context.Questions.AsQueryable()
                     .AsJqGridResult(sidx, sord, page, rows));

    }

Every time you change the DataModel it will create the columns based on it and you
don’t have to change the jqGrid column definitions.

One of the next steps to make everything even better would be to create DataViewModel classes
where you can define the ModelMetadata so that you have more control over which columns you
want to show and to have nice column names. – You can see this is in my second post.

If you are interested in the code or want to use it – here is the source code.

Never seen it bevor

Just checked witch file was responsible for this,… seems like VS doesn’t like the embedded MDG Technology file (XML) of Enterprise Architect.

I must say it’s pretty hard to find something on the web, on how to check installation or version of Silverlight (for Wix or other deployment projects).

But Alex and I found the solution.

If Silverlight is installed you will find the following Registry Entry:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AgControl.AgControl\CurVer]

@=”AgControl.AgControl.x.x”

The “AgControl.AgControl.x.x” part contains the current installed version (Silverlight 3.0 = AgControl.AgControl.3.0)

As a little extra here the “Condition” check for Wix:

<Property Id="SILVERLIGHTVERSION">
  <RegistrySearch Id="SilverLightSearch" Type="raw" Root="HKCR" Key="AgControl.AgControl\CurVer"/>
</Property> 

<Condition Message="Please install Silverlight 3.0 or higher, available at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&amp;v=3.0.40818.0">
  <![CDATA[Installed OR SILVERLIGHTVERSION >= "AgControl.AgControl.3.0"]]>
</Condition>

Kaum gepostet ist “Mäxchen” auch schon getestet! Saijo George hat in seinem Bestwindowsmobileapps – Blog “Mexican” einen Review über unser neuestes Machwerk geschrieben.

Und um uns Arbeit zu ersparen auch ein kleines Video gemacht.

Den gesamten Review gibt es unter Mexico 1.0 – Mexican dice game on windows phone | Best Windows Mobile Games / Windows Phone Apps Review

Since none of us carries dices with them all the time (just in case we’r in the mood to play with some friends) I descided to make a new game.

Because “we” don’t leave the house without our WM Smartphones

Mexico (en)

http://www.lore-and-saga.co.uk/html/dice.html

aka. Mäxchen (at) aka. Meier (de)

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mäxchen

You can play it with and without your G-Sensor and I also included a small Tutorial and HowTo, I hope you have fun with it.

Here the download:  MexicoSetup

PS.: Für die Österreicher einfach im Installationsverzeichnis den “de-DE” Folder löschen und ihr habt “Mäxchen” statt “Meier”

Wir freuen uns, dass SparxSystems LieberLieber AMUSE geprüft hat uns in die 3rd Party Tool Liste aufgenommen hat! (und das sowohl auf der australischen als auch auf der deutschen Seite).

Details – SparxSystems Europe

Somit ein weiterer Meilenstein in der LieberLieber AMUSE Erfolgsgeschichte!

Bei dieser “kleinen” Aktion wurde auch gleich der Handelskai gesperrt, wie man auf den beiden Fotos eindrucksvoll sieht.

Zum glück war es gerade Zeit zum Mittagessen und nur ein paar Stunden später konnten wir auch schon in unser Büro zurück.

Andi B. (Name der Redaktion bekannt) meinte hierzu nur: “Es ging alles so schnell, ich konnte nicht mal fertig builden, geschweige denn einchecken. Panisch versuchte ich eine Entscheidung zu treffen, was brauch ich mit, Geld, Notebook, Jacke,… also schnappte ich mir kurz entschlossen mein Fotohandy und rannte.”

LD4200tm 42-inch Widescreen LCD Interactive Digital Signage Display overview – HP Small & Medium Business products

This size will allow to implement some real nice interactive Digital Signage Applications for retail, trade fairs, banks, ….

 

With a recommended price of USD 1.999,-  for the Display HP obviously tries to get marketshare

The most promising Hardware I found so far is a Consumer Solution from Medion the X9613 on sale right now.

Notebookcheck: Test Medion The Touch X9613 All in One Touch PC

Anybody experience with one of these or an alternative recommendation?

Problem:

We have a XML File with a List<Base> and we wanted to generate Enterprise Architect Elements out of them.
So we needed to check if the Base element is of type: Class1, Class2,… to get all our attributes and some class specific functions called.

We used 200 elements and 15 derived classes and run through each test about 10 times,
here are the results on how to do this really fast:

Slowest:

public void test()
{
foreach (Base baseClass in baseList)
{
Class1 class1 = baseClass as Class1;
if (!object.Equals(class1, null))
{
class1.Create();
}
Class2 class2 = baseClass as Class2;
if (!object.Equals(class2, null))
{
class2.Create();
}
}
}

took about: 0.0001404 – 0.0001719 seconds

public void test()
{
foreach (Base baseClass in baseList)
{
if (baseclass is Class1)
{
((Class1)baseClass).Create();
}
…

}
}

took about: 0.0001234 – 0.0001668 seconds

public void test()
{
foreach (Base baseClass in baseList)
{
switch (baseClass.GetType().Name)
{
case (“Class1″):
((Class1)baseClass).Create();
break;
…
}
}

took about: 0.0000843 – 0.0001367  seconds

And the winner is:

1. Create an interface:

public interface IBase
{
void Create();
}

2. implement the interface in Base, Class1, Class2,….

public class Class1: Base, IBase
{
public new void Create()
{
}
}

3. and:

public void test()
{
foreach (IBase baseClass in baseList)
{
baseClass.Create();

}
}

took about: 0.0000571 – 0.0000652  seconds