WAT080: Failed to locate the Windows Azure SDK. Please make sure the Windows Azure SDK v1.5 is installed.

This post documents the roller coaster ride I went through to solve the problem. If you are interested in just the solution then here it is:

Download the bits from this page and install them manually.

If you are interested in how I got to the solution then read on.

Before anything, let me clarify that I already had an older version of Azure SDK and tools on my machine. I used Web Platform installer to install the latest Azure SDK and Visual Studio Tools i.e. November update. Then a drama started.

The build error I got said that I should make sure that Windows Azure SDK v1.5 is installed. But I already installed v1.6. If the project files were changed between versions of tools then they should have been upgraded to latest version by Visual Studio. This did not happen. My first maneuver was to re-install Visual Studio tools. I downloaded just the standalone installer for tools and tried installing it. I got this error.

The log file showed me these errors:

[16AC:16B0][2012-02-07T07:21:21]: Error 0×80070643: Failed to install MSI package.
[16AC:16B0][2012-02-07T07:21:21]: Error 0×80070643: Failed to execute MSI package.
[1744:1748][2012-02-07T07:21:21]: Error 0×80070643: Failed to configure per-machine MSI package.
[1744:1748][2012-02-07T07:21:21]: Error 0×80070643: Failed to execute MSI package.

I was in no mood for looking into the details of errors in the log file. I just wanted to get going with Azure and not worry about installer logs. So I uninstalled the SDK, Authoring Tools and Visual Studio tools to get a clean Azure free environment.

After uninstalling Azure bits I fired up Web Platform Installer and installed Azure SDK and tools. Little did I know that this was not going to work. Here is a screenshot of the errors I got.

By this time I was annoyed (you may substitute “annoyed” with a more colorful word of your choice). Web Platform Installer should just do it, right? It should take care of dependencies, right? Well that was not the case.

By this time I gave up on Web Platform Installer and downloaded standalone Azure bits and decided to install them manually. Here is the download link:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28045

I downloaded and installed the ones highlighted below.

After installing Azure Emulator, Libs and SDK, I installed Visual Studio Tools and it installed correctly.

I opened the project which was giving me a build error. Visual Studio asked me to convert it to a newer format. I happily obliged. Finally I saw Build Succeeded.

Although not a big deal specially after the issue was resolved, I still feel that installer could have done a better job. Anyhow, I’m back in the cloud

WAT080: Failed to locate the Windows Azure SDK. Please make sure the Windows Azure SDK v1.5 is installed. is a post from: Therefore Systems

To clean up unnecessary language resources I found a utility called Monolingual. It removes files for languages you do not need. After running the utility, I gained 2.1GB of disk space.

Download Monolingual.

Remove langauge resources and clean up disk space on mac is a post from: Therefore Systems

Dash can be found on iTunes. http://itunes.apple.com/app/dash/id458034879

Best way to browse iOS documentation is a post from: Therefore Systems

The status now is that I have one laptop which is a Mac Book Pro. In all fairness this has been my main work machine for past 1.5 years. I am also using it as my main machine connected to a Dell 24″ monitor. Other than that there is a Windows machine connected to main TV set running XBMC. BTW: XMBC is the best media centre software out there. You must look at it.

Someone and I don’t know who said that “May the dreams of your past be the reality of your future”. With that in my mind I look forward to 2012 which shall be the year of revival for my home computing. But this time I am about to do things differently. After being influenced by Apple over last year and a half, I have decided to do without a desktop PC. So at some point in 2012 I plan to get a iMac. The model I am considering is the 27″. iMac is one of those machine which triggers love at first sight.

The configuration I have in mind is:

• 27-inch screen
• Intel Core i7 3.4GHz quad-core
• 16GB RAM because I alway run Windows in VM

iMac has the ability to hook up another monitor so I will also use my Dell 24-inch monitor as a secondary screen. This will be the main work horse at home.

In terms of portable computing I am thinking another iPad. The one I have now has been permanently hijacked by boss at home. And my Mac Book Pro which serves well both for Windows and Mac development.

The question now is of funding. I have a plan up my sleeves which shall be revealed if it works.

Till then dreaming and thinking about my iMac…

I see a new computer in 2012 is a post from: Therefore Systems

A bit about the API

Like other URL shorteners, Google API also takes in a long URL and gives you back a short one. When you click on the short URL, you end up at the same location on web as you did with your original long URL.

The API itself is implemented as a RESTful service and is very simple. You can read the overview and reference for API here.

.NET Wrapper

I wanted to use the API in my .NET application so I created a wrapper. I have made the source code available at code.google.com. Feel free to download and play with it.

There are three methods in Google Shortener API:

1. url.insert – Shrinks a Url.
2. url.get – Returns the long Url for a valid short url.
3. url.list – Returns a list of Urls shortened by an authenticated user. Analytics data is also returned by this method.

If you want analytics for your Url then you must invoke the methods by passing in an API key. You can get your API key from Google API Console.

Enough talk. Let me show you the code. The main class in the wrapper is called Shortener which contains two methods: GetShortUrl() and GetLongUrl(). An API key can be passed in to the constructor of Shortener and the API key will be used for all subsequent requests for that instance.

public Reply GetShortUrl(string longUrl)
{
  string data = "{\"longUrl\":\"" + longUrl + "\"}";
  string postUrl = googleShortenerUrl;
  string response = HttpHelper.HttpPOST(postUrl, data);
  return DeserializeJSON(response);
}

public Reply GetLongUrl(string shortUrl)
{
  string getUrl = googleShortenerUrl + "&shortUrl=" + shortUrl;
  string response = HttpHelper.HttpGET(getUrl);
  return DeserializeJSON(response);
}

The response received from Google is deserialized into a Reply class.

public class Reply
{
  public string kind { get; set; }

  public string id { get; set; }

  public string longUrl { get; set; }

  public string status { get; set; }
}

GET and POST are done by using HttpHelper class. Download the code to see this class.

Conclusion

Google Shortener API is as simple as it gets. The API also let’s you retrieve analytics data for URLs. I have created a .NET wrapper for the API and have implemented functionality to get short URLs and long URLs. Next steps for this little project are to implement list method, implement authentication support and make the API a bit more rich by enhancing Reply class to support strongly typed members rather than all strings.

One final time. Link to code.

Google Shortener API For .NET Written In C# is a post from: Therefore Systems

"operation failed, deepak is not a member of dba group"

The solution is to make myself a member of dba group. This can be achieved by following command.

sudo usermod -a -G dba deepak

I could now run Oracle database without any problem.

Issue Starting Oracle XE on Ubuntu is a post from: Therefore Systems

The way to resolve the issue is to install the libqt4-sql-sqlite package. The package can be installed from terminal using this command:

sudo apt-get install libqt4-sql-sqlite

I am writing this solution here for future reference. Hopefully it will help other Ubuntu users aswell.

Blogilo Error On Ubuntu: Cannot connect to database is a post from: Therefore Systems

Javadoc is not installed with Netbeans by default but can easily be installed. This is how it’s done.

First download documentation from this link. Get the documentation zip file and copy it to a folder. Next go to Tools –> Java Platforms in Netbeans. This brings up Java Platform Manager. On this screen select the environment e.g. JDk 1.6 and then click on Javadoc tab. Browse to the zip file and click close on Java Platform Manager.

Javadoc will now be available.

Add Javadoc to Netbeans is a post from: Therefore Systems

Java supports both Zip and GZip compression out of the box. You do not need any third party components.

import java.io.*;
import java.util.zip.*;

public class GzipCompressor
{

	public void Compress(String inputFile, String outputFile)
	{
		try
		{
			BufferedReader reader =
				new BufferedReader(new FileReader(inputFile));

			BufferedOutputStream output =
				new BufferedOutputStream(new GZIPOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(outputFile)));

			int b;
			while((b =reader.read()) != -1)
			{
				output.write(b);
			}

			reader.close();
			output.close();
		}
		catch(IOException e)
		{
			System.out.println(e.getMessage());
		}
	}
}

Compress File With GZip In Java is a post from: Therefore Systems

I created a new Force.com project in IDE and entered my username and password.

Things did not go well and I got the following message.

But I thought that I already have a security token. I’ve been logging into developer.force.com from this computer. However I decided to follow the suggestion in the message and logged into developer.force.com and went through the Reset Security Token process.

I got the token emailed to me and used is as per the instructions on Reset Security Token page. The instruction is to append the token to the password.

And finally I was connected.

I could now see my project in the project explorer.

Connecting to Force.com from IDE is a post from: Therefore Systems