Ramesh Subramanian's

How to use Cross Referencing Functoids in Biztalk

2010-08-15T06:31:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Biztalk,Map

From Silverlight development to Biztalk development, things have changed pretty soon.

Scenario

We are integrating two applications, where a particular field of the source maps to another field in destination. But their values aren’t so agreeable, for example, say we have a field called OrderStatus in Application1 which maps to a field named OrderStatus in Application2, but the list of possible values are different.

Field	Application1	Application2
OrderStatus	1	Delivered
OrderStatus	2	Pending

Table 1

How do you go about mapping them? Apparently there are a number of ways to solve the problem as briefly explained by Michael Stephenson. The pattern that was suggested to me was to use Cross Referencing Functions. Michael Stephenson’s post explains the underlying concept well, but it falls short of providing a complete example. The MSDN page stops at how to import data for cross reference functoids. What I needed was a simple example as to how to use it. So I decided to do one myself.

Solution

Lets take the above problem and solve it.

First we need to have all the data needed (as per Table 1) in our database. For this purpose we will set up the following xml files.

listOfAppType.xml

Contains a types of the applications.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<listOfAppType>
<appType>
 <name>Application1</name>
 <description/>
</appType>
<appType>
 <name>Application2</name>
 <description/>
</appType>
</listOfAppType>

listOfAppInstance.xml

Contains the instance names of the applications

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<listOfAppInstance>
<appInstance>
 <instance>Application1Instance</instance>
 <type>Application1</type>
 <description/>
</appInstance>
<appInstance>
 <instance>Application2Instance</instance>
 <type>Application2</type>
 <description/>
</appInstance>
</listOfAppInstance>

listOfIDXRef.xml

Contains the list of fields to be stored for mapping.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<listOfIDXRef>
<idXRef>
 <name>OrderStatus</name>
 <description>Status of the order</description>
</idXRef>
</listOfIDXRef>

listOfIDXRefData.xml

Contains the values of the fields in each application and the common values used to refer to them.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<listOfIDXRefData>
<idXRef name="OrderStatus">
 <appInstance name="Application1Instance">
   <appID commonID="D">1</appID>
   <appID commonID="P">2</appID>
 </appInstance>
 <appInstance name="Application2Instance">
   <appID commonID="D">Delivered</appID>
   <appID commonID="P">Pending</appID>
 </appInstance>
</idXRef>
</listOfIDXRefData>

SetupFiles.xml

A setup file containing the paths to all these xmls

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Setup-Files>
<App_Type_file>G:\Microsoft\Biztalk\Biztalk Server Examples\CrossReferenceFunctoids\listOfAppType.xml</App_Type_file>
<App_Instance_file>G:\Microsoft\Biztalk\Biztalk Server Examples\CrossReferenceFunctoids\listOfAppInstance.xml</App_Instance_file>
<IDXRef_file>G:\Microsoft\Biztalk\Biztalk Server Examples\CrossReferenceFunctoids\listOfIDXRef.xml</IDXRef_file>
<IDXRef_Data_file>G:\Microsoft\Biztalk\Biztalk Server Examples\CrossReferenceFunctoids\listOfIDXRefData.xml</IDXRef_Data_file>
</Setup-Files>

Now lets put them into the database. For this will will use the BTSXRefImport tool found in the biztalk directory. Use the following command to do this.

Lets do the mapping part. Drag and drop the Get Common ID functoid and configure its input as follows:

The first Input being the name of the common field, the second the name of the application instance and the third being the value for the application

Then drag and drop the Get Application ID functoid and configure its input as follows:

The first Input being the name of the common field, the second the name of the application instance and the third being the common id from the Get Common Id functoid.

Let test our Map. Given the following input:

<ns0:Root xmlns:ns0="http://CrossRefrence.Schema1">
<OrderStatus>1</OrderStatus>
</ns0:Root>

Our Map gives the following output:

<ns0:Root xmlns:ns0="http://CrossRefrence.Schema2">
<OrderStatus>Delivered</OrderStatus>
</ns0:Root>

String, string, Byte, byte, int, Int32....

2010-05-31T23:43:00.000-07:00

I have often wondered while typing “string” in Visual Studio (the IntelliSense shows string and String), what’s the difference between a string and String? NONE

Then why have two names for the same data type? One is the Base Class Library (BCL) name(String) and the other is a short form for it. Since these basic data types are frequently used we are given short forms which are much easier to use e.g. int for Int32.

For the compiler it doesn’t make any difference, whether you had used an int or Int32. Consider the IL (Intermediate Language) for the following piece of code:

IL Code:

Using the Command prompt to run C# program

2010-05-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

For those of us who had gone on the fast track to learn C# (remember I was into java before the leap to .NET) Visual Studio IDE does a great job in encapsulating the details. For a beginner it just looks great, just write your code, hit F5 (or) run. You are done! But as you move on you begin to wonder how do you do it the old fashioned way (Command Line)?

That's exactly what I discovered learning C# 4.0. You have this tool called csc.exe (like javac), Go to your Visual Studio command prompt, navigate to the folder that has you program and do this:

> csc.exe yourprogramname.cs

This compliles your code and generates an exe. You can run your code using:

> youprogramname.exe

Replace yourprogramname with the name of your program.

Silverlight DatePicker Validation States

2009-09-23T12:53:00.001-07:00

One of the cool features of silverlight is the error glyphs it automatically comes up with, when data validation for an input control fails. No coding required what so ever!

Silverlight Error Glyph

The Problem

I had to use DatePicker control and validate the selected date based on some business logic. Everything was was set up, and when I tested it there was no error glyph showing! So I started Debugging the application and found that there was nothing wrong with the logic, and the DatePicker is in fact being invalidated. Just that the DatePicker isn’t showing the error glyph like the other controls.

I did a quick Google search and ended up empty other than a few silverlight forum posts [1,2]. What I did learn from these posts is DatePicker does get invalidated but there are no view states associated with the DatePicker template.

The same could be confirmed from DatePicker’s Styles and Template Page (Though the table containing Visual States mention InvalidFocused and InvalidUnfocused states, the template doesn’t have them) of the MSDN.

Solution

Pretty Simple, edit the DatePicker’s template to support these states!

We need to have an error glyph similar to that of say the TextBox. So lets take a look at the Template of the TextBox and, we get the following validation states:

 <VisualStateGroup x:Name="ValidationStates">
     <VisualState x:Name="Valid"/>
     <VisualState x:Name="InvalidUnfocused">
         <Storyboard>
             <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ValidationErrorElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility">
                 <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                     <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                         <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                     </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                 </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
             </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
         </Storyboard>
     </VisualState>
     <VisualState x:Name="InvalidFocused">
         <Storyboard>
             <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ValidationErrorElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility">
                 <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                     <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                         <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                     </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                 </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
             </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
             <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="validationTooltip" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsOpen">
                 <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                     <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                         <System:Boolean>True</System:Boolean>
                     </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                 </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
             </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
         </Storyboard>
     </VisualState>

The Storyboard.TargetName Property of the Invalid states refer to an Border element named ValidationErrorElement.

 <Border x:Name="ValidationErrorElement" Visibility="Collapsed" BorderBrush="#FFDB000C" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="1">
     <ToolTipService.ToolTip>
         <ToolTip x:Name="validationTooltip" DataContext="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}" Template="{StaticResource ValidationToolTipTemplate}" Placement="Right" PlacementTarget="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}">
             <ToolTip.Triggers>
                 <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Canvas.Loaded">
                     <BeginStoryboard>
                         <Storyboard>
                             <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="validationTooltip" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsHitTestVisible">
                                 <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                     <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                         <System:Boolean>true</System:Boolean>
                                     </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                 </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                             </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                         </Storyboard>
                     </BeginStoryboard>
                 </EventTrigger>
             </ToolTip.Triggers>
         </ToolTip>
     </ToolTipService.ToolTip>
     <Grid Height="12" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="1,-4,-4,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="12" Background="Transparent">
         <Path Fill="#FFDC000C" Margin="1,3,0,0" Data="M 1,0 L6,0 A 2,2 90 0 1 8,2 L8,7 z"/>
         <Path Fill="#ffffff" Margin="1,3,0,0" Data="M 0,0 L2,0 L 8,6 L8,8"/>
     </Grid>
 </Border>

So we will customize our DatePicker’s template to include these. Here is our DatePicker template which will do validation states.

 <Style x:Key="DatePickerStyle" TargetType="controls:DatePicker">
           <Setter Property="IsTabStop" Value="False"/>
           <Setter Property="Background" Value="#FFFFFFFF"/>
           <Setter Property="Padding" Value="2"/>
           <Setter Property="SelectionBackground" Value="#FF444444"/>
           <Setter Property="BorderBrush">
               <Setter.Value>
                   <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint=".5,0" StartPoint=".5,1">
                       <GradientStop Color="#FF617584" Offset="0"/>
                       <GradientStop Color="#FF718597" Offset="0.375"/>
                       <GradientStop Color="#FF8399A9" Offset="0.375"/>
                       <GradientStop Color="#FFA3AEB9" Offset="1"/>
                   </LinearGradientBrush>
               </Setter.Value>
           </Setter>
           <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="1"/>
           <Setter Property="Template">
               <Setter.Value>
                   <ControlTemplate TargetType="controls:DatePicker">
                       <Grid x:Name="Root">
                           <Grid.Resources>
                               <SolidColorBrush x:Key="DisabledBrush" Color="#8CFFFFFF"/>
                               <ControlTemplate x:Key="DropDownButtonTemplate" TargetType="Button">
                                   <Grid>
                                       <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                                           <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
                                               <VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                                                   <VisualTransition GeneratedDuration="0"/>
                                                   <VisualTransition GeneratedDuration="0:0:0.1" To="MouseOver"/>
                                                   <VisualTransition GeneratedDuration="0:0:0.1" To="Pressed"/>
                                               </VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                                               <VisualState x:Name="Normal"/>
                                               <VisualState x:Name="MouseOver">
                                                   <Storyboard>
                                                       <ColorAnimation Duration="0" Storyboard.TargetName="Background" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)" To="#FF448DCA"/>
                                                       <ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="BackgroundGradient" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[3].(GradientStop.Color)">
                                                           <SplineColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#7FFFFFFF"/>
                                                       </ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                       <ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="BackgroundGradient" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[2].(GradientStop.Color)">
                                                           <SplineColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#CCFFFFFF"/>
                                                       </ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                       <ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="BackgroundGradient" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[1].(GradientStop.Color)">
                                                           <SplineColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#F2FFFFFF"/>
                                                       </ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                   </Storyboard>
                                               </VisualState>
                                               <VisualState x:Name="Pressed">
                                                   <Storyboard>
                                                       <ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="Background" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)">
                                                           <SplineColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#FF448DCA"/>
                                                       </ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                       <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="Highlight" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.Opacity)">
                                                           <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="1"/>
                                                       </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                       <ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="BackgroundGradient" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[1].(GradientStop.Color)">
                                                           <SplineColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#EAFFFFFF"/>
                                                       </ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                       <ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="BackgroundGradient" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[2].(GradientStop.Color)">
                                                           <SplineColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#C6FFFFFF"/>
                                                       </ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                       <ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="BackgroundGradient" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[3].(GradientStop.Color)">
                                                           <SplineColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#6BFFFFFF"/>
                                                       </ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                       <ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="BackgroundGradient" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[0].(GradientStop.Color)">
                                                           <SplineColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#F4FFFFFF"/>
                                                       </ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                   </Storyboard>
                                               </VisualState>
                                               <VisualState x:Name="Disabled">
                                                   <Storyboard>
                                                       <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="0" Duration="00:00:00.001" Storyboard.TargetName="DisabledVisual" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.Opacity)">
                                                           <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="1"/>
                                                       </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                   </Storyboard>
                                               </VisualState>
                                           </VisualStateGroup>
                                       </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                                       <Grid Height="18" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="19" Background="#11FFFFFF">
                                           <Grid.RowDefinitions>
                                               <RowDefinition Height="23*"/>
                                               <RowDefinition Height="19*"/>
                                               <RowDefinition Height="19*"/>
                                               <RowDefinition Height="19*"/>
                                           </Grid.RowDefinitions>
                                           <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                                               <ColumnDefinition Width="20*"/>
                                               <ColumnDefinition Width="20*"/>
                                               <ColumnDefinition Width="20*"/>
                                               <ColumnDefinition Width="20*"/>
                                           </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                                           <Border x:Name="Highlight" Margin="-1" Opacity="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="4" Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="4" BorderBrush="#FF6DBDD1" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="0,0,1,1"/>
                                           <Border x:Name="Background" Margin="0,-1,0,0" Opacity="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="4" Grid.Row="1" Grid.RowSpan="3" Background="#FF1F3B53" BorderBrush="#FFFFFFFF" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius=".5"/>
                                           <Border x:Name="BackgroundGradient" Margin="0,-1,0,0" Opacity="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="4" Grid.Row="1" Grid.RowSpan="3" BorderBrush="#BF000000" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius=".5">
                                               <Border.Background>
                                                   <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint=".7,1" StartPoint=".7,0">
                                                       <GradientStop Color="#FFFFFFFF" Offset="0"/>
                                                       <GradientStop Color="#F9FFFFFF" Offset="0.375"/>
                                                       <GradientStop Color="#E5FFFFFF" Offset="0.625"/>
                                                       <GradientStop Color="#C6FFFFFF" Offset="1"/>
                                                   </LinearGradientBrush>
                                               </Border.Background>
                                           </Border>
                                           <Rectangle StrokeThickness="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="4" Grid.RowSpan="1">
                                               <Rectangle.Stroke>
                                                   <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.48,-1" StartPoint="0.48,1.25">
                                                       <GradientStop Color="#FF494949"/>
                                                       <GradientStop Color="#FF9F9F9F" Offset="1"/>
                                                   </LinearGradientBrush>
                                               </Rectangle.Stroke>
                                               <Rectangle.Fill>
                                                   <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.3,-1.1" StartPoint="0.46,1.6">
                                                       <GradientStop Color="#FF4084BD"/>
                                                       <GradientStop Color="#FFAFCFEA" Offset="1"/>
                                                   </LinearGradientBrush>
                                               </Rectangle.Fill>
                                           </Rectangle>
                                           <Path Fill="#FF2F2F2F" Stretch="Fill" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="4,3,4,3" VerticalAlignment="Center" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="4" Grid.Row="1" Grid.RowSpan="3" Data="M11.426758,8.4305077 L11.749023,8.4305077 L11.749023,16.331387 L10.674805,16.331387 L10.674805,10.299648 L9.0742188,11.298672 L9.0742188,10.294277 C9.4788408,10.090176 9.9094238,9.8090878 10.365967,9.4510155 C10.82251,9.0929432 11.176106,8.7527733 11.426758,8.4305077 z M14.65086,8.4305077 L18.566387,8.4305077 L18.566387,9.3435936 L15.671368,9.3435936 L15.671368,11.255703 C15.936341,11.058764 16.27293,10.960293 16.681133,10.960293 C17.411602,10.960293 17.969301,11.178717 18.354229,11.615566 C18.739157,12.052416 18.931622,12.673672 18.931622,13.479336 C18.931622,15.452317 18.052553,16.438808 16.294415,16.438808 C15.560365,16.438808 14.951641,16.234707 14.468243,15.826504 L14.881817,14.929531 C15.368796,15.326992 15.837872,15.525723 16.289043,15.525723 C17.298809,15.525723 17.803692,14.895514 17.803692,13.635098 C17.803692,12.460618 17.305971,11.873379 16.310528,11.873379 C15.83071,11.873379 15.399232,12.079271 15.016094,12.491055 L14.65086,12.238613 z"/>
                                           <Ellipse Fill="#FFFFFFFF" StrokeThickness="0" Height="3" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="3" Grid.ColumnSpan="4"/>
                                           <Border x:Name="DisabledVisual" Opacity="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="4" Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="4" BorderBrush="#B2FFFFFF" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="0,0,.5,.5"/>
                                       </Grid>
                                   </Grid>
                               </ControlTemplate>
                           </Grid.Resources>
                           <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                               <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
                                   <VisualState x:Name="Normal"/>
                                   <VisualState x:Name="Disabled">
                                       <Storyboard>
                                           <DoubleAnimation Duration="0" Storyboard.TargetName="DisabledVisual" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity" To="1"/>
                                       </Storyboard>
                                   </VisualState>

                               </VisualStateGroup>
                               <VisualStateGroup x:Name="ValidationStates">
                                   <VisualState x:Name="Valid"/>
                                   <VisualState x:Name="InvalidUnfocused">
                                       <Storyboard>
                                           <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ValidationErrorElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility">
                                               <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                   <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                       <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                                                   </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                               </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                           </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                       </Storyboard>
                                   </VisualState>
                                   <VisualState x:Name="InvalidFocused">
                                       <Storyboard>
                                           <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ValidationErrorElement" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility">
                                               <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                   <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                       <Visibility>Visible</Visibility>
                                                   </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                               </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                           </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                           <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="validationTooltip" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsOpen">
                                               <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                   <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                       <System:Boolean>True</System:Boolean>
                                                   </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                               </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                           </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                       </Storyboard>
                                   </VisualState>
                               </VisualStateGroup>
                           </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
                           <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                               <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
                               <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
                           </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                           <System_Windows_Controls_Primitives:DatePickerTextBox x:Name="TextBox" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}" Grid.Column="0" SelectionBackground="{TemplateBinding SelectionBackground}"/>
                           <Button x:Name="Button" Margin="2,0,2,0" Width="20" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Foreground="{TemplateBinding Foreground}" Template="{StaticResource DropDownButtonTemplate}" Grid.Column="1"/>
                           <Grid x:Name="DisabledVisual" IsHitTestVisible="False" Opacity="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="2">
                               <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                                   <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
                                   <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
                               </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                               <Rectangle Fill="#8CFFFFFF" RadiusX="1" RadiusY="1"/>
                               <Rectangle Fill="#8CFFFFFF" RadiusX="1" RadiusY="1" Height="18" Margin="2,0,2,0" Width="19" Grid.Column="1"/>
                           </Grid>
                           <Popup x:Name="Popup"/>
                           <Border x:Name="ValidationErrorElement" Visibility="Collapsed" BorderBrush="#FFDB000C" BorderThickness="1" CornerRadius="1">
                               <ToolTipService.ToolTip>
                                   <ToolTip x:Name="validationTooltip" DataContext="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}" Template="{StaticResource ValidationToolTipTemplate}" Placement="Right" PlacementTarget="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}">
                                       <ToolTip.Triggers>
                                           <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Canvas.Loaded">
                                               <BeginStoryboard>
                                                   <Storyboard>
                                                       <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="validationTooltip" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsHitTestVisible">
                                                           <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0">
                                                               <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                                   <System:Boolean>true</System:Boolean>
                                                               </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame.Value>
                                                           </DiscreteObjectKeyFrame>
                                                       </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                                   </Storyboard>
                                               </BeginStoryboard>
                                           </EventTrigger>
                                       </ToolTip.Triggers>
                                   </ToolTip>
                               </ToolTipService.ToolTip>
                               <Grid Height="12" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="1,-4,-4,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="12" Background="Transparent">
                                   <Path Fill="#FFDC000C" Margin="1,3,0,0" Data="M 1,0 L6,0 A 2,2 90 0 1 8,2 L8,7 z"/>
                                   <Path Fill="#ffffff" Margin="1,3,0,0" Data="M 0,0 L2,0 L 8,6 L8,8"/>
                               </Grid>
                           </Border>
                       </Grid>
                   </ControlTemplate>
               </Setter.Value>
           </Setter>
       </Style>

Place this in the App.xaml and refer this style in your DatePicker Control.

 <controls:DatePicker x:Name="deliverlyDate" Style="{StaticResource DatePickerStyle}" VerticalAlignment="Top" SelectedDate="{Binding Date, Mode=TwoWay, NotifyOnValidationError=True, ValidatesOnExceptions=True}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0" Grid.Column="1"/>

Our DatePicker now behaves just like other controls during invalid states:

DatePicker with Validation States

Demo:

Technorati Tags: Silverlight,DatePicker,Validation

Silverlight DataGrid Control

2009-08-29T07:49:00.000-07:00

As I said in my previous post, that I would be blogging more about Silverlight, and other Microsoft technologies.

In this is post we will look at some basics of Silverlight DataGrid control. One of the chores of professional programmers working on business applications is to display data. And this is where DataGrid control comes into picture.

The Silverlights DataGrid control is highly flexibly and customizable control. But for now let’s look into the basics of it.

First create a new silverlight application. Name it DataGridDemo

Step 1: Right click the Silverlight application, add new Item and add a silverlight user control. Name it SimpleDataGrid.xaml or anything that pleases you. It generates a usercontrol, with a grid layout control.

Step 2: Now let’s add some rows to the Grid.

Step 3: Add a DataGrid from the toolbox or manually typing the xaml code for the same. If you are to do it manually ensure that the System.Windows.Controls namespace is added to the usercontrol.

Step 4: Now we need some data to populate the gird. Let’s define the class that defines the structure of this data. For this demo let’s assume that the grid holds dummy employee details information. Right click the DataGridDemo Application, and Add a class.

Step 4: Now set the AutoGenerateColumns property of the DataGrid to true. In the code behind of our Xaml we will take care of the binding. Our DataGrid will load the data when the DataGrid is loaded. So we will create an employee List with dummy employee details using the C# new collection initialize feature. And we will set the DataGrid’s ItemsSource property to this list.

Step 4: Build and view the output.

In real world applications we would have literally thousands of data to show. Which means our DataGrid would also grow making it difficult for the user. To overcome this issue the DataGrid comes with the height and width property that can be set, the vertical and horizontal scroll bars appear automatically when the DataGrid grows beyond what is specified in these properties.

Here is the final Mark up:

    1 <UserControl xmlns:data="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data"  x:Class="DataGridDemo.SimpleDataGrid"

    2     xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

    3     xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

    4     Width="400" Height="300">

    5     <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

    6         <Grid.RowDefinitions>

    7             <RowDefinition></RowDefinition>

    8             <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>

    9         </Grid.RowDefinitions>

   10     <data:DataGrid x:Name="grdEmployee" AutoGenerateColumns="True" HeadersVisibility="All" Grid.Row="0">

   12     </data:DataGrid>

   13     <data:DataPager Source="{Binding ItemsSource, ElementName=grdEmployee}" PageSize="5" Grid.Row="1"></data:DataPager>

   14     </Grid>

   15 </UserControl>

Here is the Code behind:

    1 using System;

    2 using System.Collections.Generic;

    3 using System.Linq;

    4 using System.Net;

    5 using System.Windows;

    6 using System.Windows.Controls;

    7 using System.Windows.Documents;

    8 using System.Windows.Input;

    9 using System.Windows.Media;

   10 using System.Windows.Media.Animation;

   11 using System.Windows.Shapes;

   12 using org.RameshSubramanian.DataGridDemo.Model;

   13 using System.Windows.Data;

   15 namespace DataGridDemo

   16 {

   17     public partial class SimpleDataGrid : UserControl

   18     {

   19         public SimpleDataGrid()

   20         {

   21             InitializeComponent();

   22             grdEmployee.Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(grdEmployee_Loaded);

   23         }

   25         void grdEmployee_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

   26         {

   27             List<Employee> empList = new List<Employee>{ new Employee{ EmpId = 1000, FirstName = "Ramesh", LastName = "Subramanian", DeptId = 10},

   28                                                          new Employee{ EmpId = 1001, FirstName = "Raja", LastName = "Ravanan", DeptId = 10},

   29                                                          new Employee{ EmpId = 1002, FirstName = "Jayanth", LastName = "Chintaparti", DeptId = 20},

   30                                                          new Employee{ EmpId = 1003, FirstName = "Prakash", LastName = "Sadhasivam", DeptId = 20},

   31                                                          new Employee{ EmpId = 1004, FirstName = "Smitha", LastName = "Koshy", DeptId = 30},

   32                                                          new Employee{ EmpId = 1005, FirstName = "Thamizh", LastName = "N", DeptId = 30}

   33                                                         };

   34             grdEmployee.ItemsSource = new PagedCollectionView(empList);

   35         }

   36     }

   38 }

Another alternative is to use the DataPager. Just add the DataPager and bind its ItemsSource to the DataGrid and ensure that the DataGrid’s ItemsSource property is assigned to collection that implements IPagedCollectionView. We will use the default implementation of IPagedCollectionView.

A gotcha you need to keep in mind is, the DataGrid and DataPager should be on different rows of the Grid Layout. It’s easy to miss this, as when 2 controls are on the same row we could see that one control overlaps the other. But with the DataPager, everything will look normal except that you can’t select your DataGrid. One of my projects required the use of DataGrid with DataPager. The DataGrid contained buttons, Textboxes, Combo Boxes that fired events. Once I added the DataPager none of them fired any events, the DataGrid was unselectable. Previously I was having problem with adding and deleting rows and maintaining the sate of information in the controls present the DataGrid. So I was looking into whether this had to do anything with problem I had faced previously. Only later did I realize that my DataPager was overlapping my DataGrid.

Back!

2009-08-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

I am back, after a long time!

And a lot has changed. My last post was about the release of Netbeans 6.1, now its in V. 6.7. its not the only thing that has changed. I finished my undergraduate program and got a job with Tata Consultancy Services!

One thing that I frequently blogged about was Java, now, that is going to change. I will be talking more about Microsoft technologies as that is what I am working on now. I was trained as a java programmer at my job (something I wanted to be). But recession meant we had very little opportunities, and you need to make the best out of what you get. And hence the transformation to Microsoft technologies.

Currently I am working on Silverlight 3.0, ASP .NET 3.5, C# 3.0:

Silverlight - Its a relatively new framework that is still evolving. Microsoft's shot at RIA.

Seems like I will be blogging a lot about Silverlight, & .NET 3.5!

NetBeans IDE 6.1 Released

2008-04-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

NetBeans IDE 6.1 has been released. I had posted that it was to be released on April 23rd, 2008, but it didn’t happen. The NetBeans site latter on updated its release road map for an April 28th release. Why wasn’t it released on April 23, 2008? The NetBeans release guidelines states that there must be at least one week between the last release candidate and the final release. NetBeans IDE 6.1 RC 2 was released on Arpil 21rd, 2008, so exactly a week after it they have released the final version.

Netbeans IDE 6.1 from tomorrow

2008-04-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

Netbeans IDE 6.1 should be available for download at their site on April 23rd, 2008 as per their roadmap.

According to the site, NetBeans IDE 6.1 release provides several new features and enhancements, such as rich JavaScript editing features, support for using the Spring web framework, tighter MySQL integration, and an improved way of sharing libraries among dependent projects. The acclaimed support for Ruby/JRuby has been enhanced with new editor quick fixes, a Ruby platform manager, fast debug support for JRuby, and many other new features and fixes. It also promises performance enhancement which includes 40% faster start up time!

Since, the Netbeans community has given a green signal to the release candidates, let’s hope Netbeans 6.1 is out on April 23rd, 2008.

No source files with Java EE

2008-04-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

I had installed JDK 6 that comes with Java EE, I wanted to have a look at the library source files (found as src.zip) in the JDK. But I couldn’t find it. I again downloaded JDK 6, and found the src.zip! So, sun doesn’t include the src.zip with the JDK that comes with Java EE. But why?

Automating Archiving

2008-04-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

The gmail blog published some 9 reasons as to why users should start archiving. People started to wonder why they should even bother, part of the concern due to them feeling the job repetitive. But it need not be. You can automate the process of archiving emails using filters!

After you enter into your mail account, find the “create filter” option near the search box, and click it.

The rest of the process is very simple that even a layman can figure it out, anyways, I will go through it. Now, you should have a yellow display asking you to “create a filter”. Here you define the criteria for the filter. I am going to enter “reports at sitemeter dot com” in the text box opposite to from, since I want to archive any mail sent from this mail address to me. Here I don’t want the reports from sitemeter to clutter my inbox neither do I want to delete it, as it may be useful as a future reference. There are also options to further refine your filter such as “subject” – which includes mails having the certain words in the subject to the filter.

Click “next step” after filling in the necessary parameters. This leads you to another set of options. Click “Skip the inbox(Archive it)” for archiving the mail. I also select “sitemeter” – a label I had already created, so that I can find all the mail from “reports at sitemeter dot com” in the “sitemeter” label. Click “create filter”.

A message displaying the parameters you choose and the actions that will take on those mails will be shown.

You have created a filter that will automatically archive your mails with certain parameters.

Archiving mail, whats that?

2008-04-19T04:15:00.000-07:00

…If that’s your answer to whether you archive your mail? (like me) or even if you did know what it is, but never cared to do so. Gmail blog, has come up with 9 reasons as to why you should archive your mail. Cut the crap out! What’s archiving? It just means moving mail out of your inbox and storing it for safekeeping. (Thanks to gmail blog for that short and simple definition!). So why should you do that? Here is why:

9. Phone numbers and addresses
You never know when you'll need a phone number someone emailed you or an address that was in a signature.

8. Procrastination
Sometimes you want to get a message out of your inbox, but you don't want to deal with organization, and you don't want to trash it.

7. Posterity
Just because you’re not famous now doesn’t mean that in forty years (or fifteen minutes) you won’t want to write your memoir.

6. Winning arguments
“But on May 5, 2005 at 8:43pm EDT you said….”

5. Mailing lists
Do you really need to know what Clintobamccain is doing every day? Auto-archive* their messages until you want to donate again.

4. Birthdays
Search for “grandma birthday” and voila, find the message you sent her last April. Aren't you glad you archived instead of deleted?

3. That guy
Remember that guy you thought you’d never need to get in touch with ever again?

2. Because you can
May as well use the free storage space. Plus, clean inbox = clean mind.

1. Fate-tempting is bad. You just never know
Thirty-one days after you send that message to the Trash and it gets permanently deleted, you're going to need it. Don't tempt the fates.

*To auto-archive, create a filter with the action "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)."

Reasons 9, 6 & 1 are something that I can really relate too. If not for anything you should give reason 7 a serious thought!

Why bother?

Some are confused as to why they should even bother to archive their mails, when Google offers you virtually unlimited space. If you ask me I can give you 2 reasons:

If you are one of those persons, who receive a lot of mails (which haven’t been attended to) which makes your inbox look really cluttered and drives you so mad, that it makes you feel that you rather sign out or delete them. Then, archiving helps you to keep you inbox clean. And also if you use labels, it is just repetitive to have your mails shown in the inbox too.

The next one is the most unlikely of the reasons. If you get so much mail that your (ever increasing) storage is almost full and you don’t want to delete the mails (I can’t figure out how that can be done!), you can make use of archiving and take full advantage of google’s free storage rather than deleting it.

Happy Gmailing!

Java for Space Technology

2008-04-18T04:08:00.000-07:00

Sun Microsystems has announced that engineering and manufacturing company ITT Corporation has selected the Sun Java Real-Time System 2.0 (Java RTS) and the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) as the software development platform for its Eglin Control and Signal Processing Upgrade (CSPU) program. The reasons for this according ITT:

…Sun Java RTS is an enterprise-class solution that addresses the issues of latency and unpredictable temporal performance of Java applications. It is compliant with the Real-Time Specification for Java and with Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE). The solution enables hard, soft, and non-real-time functions to be combined in one system, while keeping critical latencies down to 20 microseconds. It enables developers to differentiate processes based on their importance and determine when time-critical functions should be executed.

It must noted that Java has been used in the controlling of Mars Rover!

Is JVM platform independent or not?

2008-04-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

Though java is platform independent why is that I need to download a different JDK based on my Operating System was the question I was asking myself, for some time. The major difference in these different JDK seems to be the JVM. JVM interprets the bytecode into actions or Operating System calls that performs the required functions. It was said to me that these Operating System calls are specific to those Operating Systems and hence the JVM is not platform independent. I searched my web on this, just to get confusing answers.

These are some posts from the SDN forums:

MLRon writes:

JVM is not platform independent. The code you write to run on a JVM should be (unless you interface to native methods). If Microsoft comes up with an operating system that isn't compatible with Windows, then they (or someone) will have to make a new JVM for that new operating system. The Windows JVM is different from the Unix JVM or the Linux JVM. But, your Java code can run on all three without being changed or recompiled (again, unless you interface to native methods, or use other platform-specific stuff).

Herko_ter_Horst writes:

Java "the language" is platform-independent. To make it so, there is a platform-specific JRE that knows how to run the platform-independent Java code on a specific platform.

The JVM could be called platform-independent because it produces the same results running the same Java code on different platform(*). It is however (at least partially) implemented as a platform-dependent executable.

(*) assuming you don't try to use such things as Windows-specific file-names on Linux and all that

Jverd writes:

However, there are two big things here, both of which others have been trying to tell you:

1) With Java, you don't have to recompile. You pick up the .class file, move it over, without the source code, and it runs fine (provided you have a compatible VM on your target platform. The VM is not platform independent, but the Java source code is).

Arul writes:

[my comments: He says this replying to why JVM is not platform independent] Because the Java Virtual Machine is available on many different operating systems, the same .class files are capable of running on Microsoft Windows, the Solaris , Linux, or MacOS. Some virtual machines, such as the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine , perform additional steps at runtime to give your application a performance boost. This include various tasks such as finding performance bottlenecks and recompiling (to native code) frequently-used sections of your code. [my comments: these exact words are used in Sun's Java Tutorial]

a.java --> compiler --> a.class [class files do not have code native to your processor, it instead contain byte codes]

a.class --> Interpreter JVM for solaris --> Solaris
a.class --> Interpreter JVM for Windows --> Windows and son

Now to other sources:

Webopedia:

...JVM is a platform-independent execution environment that converts Java bytecode into machine language and executes it....

Wikipedia:

....Although Java programs are Platform Independent, the code of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that execute these programs are not. Every supported operating system has its own JVM.

The Java Virtual Machine Specification, Second Edition:

Sun's current Java virtual machine implementations, components of its JavaTM 2 SDK and JavaTM 2 Runtime Environment products, emulate the Java virtual machine on Win32 and Solaris hosts in much more sophisticated ways. However, the Java virtual machine does not assume any particular implementation technology, host hardware, or host operating system. It is not inherently interpreted, but can just as well be implemented by compiling its instruction set to that of a silicon CPU. It may also be implemented in microcode or directly in silicon.

So what does it mean, is JVM platform independent or not?

System.arraycopy vs. Iterative loops for copying arrays

2008-04-16T05:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I must say I am totally bewildered. Reading into “Java 2: The Complete Reference” by Herbert Schildt, I stumbled upon a method called “arraycopy()”, defined by the class System. This method is supposed to copy one array into another. This what the book says about the method:

The arraycopy( ) method can be used to copy quickly an array of any type from one place to another. This is much faster than the equivalent loop written out longhand in Java....

A quick search in the web about the method conformed this, a website recommending the use of arraycopy() over iterative method says:

….Besides accomplishing the same result with less code, this approach has the added advantage of being faster, since arraycopy is implemented as a native method, and will generally execute faster than equivalent code written in Java. This advantage can be particularly significant with large arrays or where many arrays are being copied.

So, I decided to try out how much quicker is System.arraycopy over iterative loops. So, I wrote a java code to test it out:

public class TimeCompare {

/**
* @param args the command line arguments
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO code application logic here
int a[] = new int[1000000];
int b[] = new int[1000000];
int c[] = new int[1000000];
long start, end;

for(int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++){
a[i] = i;
c[i] = i;
b[i] = i+1;

}

start = System.currentTimeMillis();
for(int i = 0; i < a.length; i++){
a[i] = b[i];
}
end = System.currentTimeMillis();

System.out.println("Time taken to copy in milliseconds: " +
(end - start));

start = System.currentTimeMillis();
System.arraycopy(b, 0, c, 0, c.length);
end = System.currentTimeMillis();

System.out.println("Time taken to copy in milliseconds: " +
(end - start));

}

}

The logic is to get the start time, end time of the iterative way of copying and thereby calculate the total time it takes to complete the operation. Similarly, I also find the time taken by System.arraycopy and print it out both (iterative method followed by System.arraycopy). I am at loss to explain what I saw when I ran the program.

During my first execution, I got an output along the expected lines (iterative method takes more time to run):

Just out of curiosity, I ran the program using command prompt to see if it takes lesser time than using the IDE. This is what I got!

Iterative way, takes far less time than arraycopy!

Bewildered, I ran it two more times. Thankfully, the arraycopy method faired better, though the iterative method clocked different times – that is expected considering the load of the CPU during the execution.

But then, I returned to Netbeans IDE and ran the program again. This is what I got!

Both have taken almost the same time (I say almost in spite of both being 0, because the difference might have been subtle to be displayed in scale of milliseconds).

I ran it again. System.arraycopy() takes more time than iterative method!

So why is there so much discrepancy each time I run the program? How faster is System.arraycopy() , than the iterative method? If you know the answer please do write it down as a comment.

How to rename file extension

2008-04-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

You may occasionally want to rename the extension of your files. For instance, once I downloaded a “.chm” file – HTML help file, which didn’t have an extension. So, I had to add the extension my self. I made an error by renaming it to a “.pdf” file. Now I wanted to correct it, but the extension is not visible when you try to change it. If something like this has happened to you it is because the windows, is configured to hide the extensions of known file types.

Now lets consider the file “SSHClientHelp” for example. It doesn’t have an extension visible, for the file to work properly it must be a HTML help file, but now it is a PDF file.

To enable the extension, go to tools –--> folder options, click the view tab and uncheck “Hide the extensions of known file types”

Now the extension must be visible, rename as usual.

Windows will ask you to verify your action, click yes. You are done!

Adding Digg button to blog posts

2008-04-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

Finally, added the Digg button to the blog. But I still didn’t manage to change the template.

Tips-for-new-bloggers, has tutorial on how to add the dig button to the template. It asks to find the following line of code in the template:

And then asks to add the following code on top of that line or below it depending on whether you need your dig at the top or bottom of your post.

When I do this, blogger takes me to a error page.

I searched the web for some other way, but almost all of them have got the same way of adding the Digg button. Failing in my attempts to add Digg button through a template fix, I decided to add it in each and every post.

First, publish your post. Then add the following code to the beginning of your post, by editing it:

Replace WEBSITE_URL with the URL of your blog post. Voila! You should see the Digg button!

But there is one trivial problem, the Digg button may seem out of place from your post. The text and button may be disjoint.

You can fix it easily by borrowing from the previous template fix discussed. Place the <div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> before the script tag and close it at the end. Like this:

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'>
<script type="text/javascript">
digg_url = 'WEBSITE_URL'
</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</div>

You should see a digg button that seems to merge with your post.

Remember, you still need to change WEBSITE_URL with the URL of your post. Otherwise you will be digging your blog rather than a specific blog post.

But there is one disadvantage with this method, you need to do this for every post, unlike the template fix.

If anyone is aware of a working template fix please do mention it, in the comment section.

Why not outlook?

2008-04-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

This is my first post, and let me get to the issue straight away.

I was going through “Java 2: The Complete Reference” by Herbert Schildt, there is this chapter on java.lang, in which there is a discussion of the methods of a class called Runtime.

A method called exec() is introduced which can call other programs. It seems similar to what happens in when you type notepad in Start ----> Run. In here, if you pass notepad as an argument to the method it would invoke the program. Here is the example program that the book gives:

public class ExecDemo {

/**
* @param args the command line arguments
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO code application logic here
Runtime r = Runtime.getRuntime();
Process p = null;

try {
p = r.exec("outlook");
p.waitFor();

} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Error Opening outlook.");
}

System.out.println("Outlook Returned: " /*+ p.exitValue()*/);
}
}

It seems to work fine, but when I replace notepad with outlook.

p = r.exec("outlook");

It doesn’t work anymore. This is what I get in the output screen of my IDE (NetBeans):

So I commented off p.exitValue(), which is supposed to return 0 if the process (called) terminated normally or else it is supposed to return 1. The program degraded gracefully by calling on the exception:

The problem seems to be with the call to outlook. Does anyone know why it is unable to call outlook?