My Weblog - Pat Ramadass - emediaIT

What's new in LLBLGen Pro v4.0

Venketash Ramadass — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 11:23:19 +0200

LLBLGen Pro v4.0 has just been released and is packed with awesome new features.

They have also introduced LLBLGen Pro Lite, a free edition which is limited to 8 entities per model. Lite doesn't come with support.

V3.x users can upgrade at a 30% discount, by logging into the customer area.

You can also get an entry into a raffle to win a free license. How?

- Like LLBLGen Pro on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LLBLGenPro and share the latest post there about the release.

- Retweet the following on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/LLBLGenPro/status/320537522776195073

What is LLBLGen Pro?

LLBLGen Pro is a data-access solution.
You use the LLBLGen Pro Designer to create the entity/domain model, define the mappings and generate source-code for one of the four supported O/R mapping frameworks: Entity Framework, NHibernate, Linq to SQL or the LLBLGen Pro Runtime Framework.
You use the generated code combined with the O/R mapping framework of your choice to access your database and consume the data in that database.

What's new in LLBLGen Pro v4.0?

Designer

Visual studio integration (2010/2012). The designer is now fully integrated in VS.NET 2010 and VS.NET 2012. The stand-alone designer is also available so you can choose in which environment you want to use the designer.
Table Valued Functions support. The designer now supports Table Valued Functions, which allows you to map an entity or typed view on the resultset of the Table Valued Functions.
Action suggestions window. The designer now offers an action suggestions window, which shows what actions are recommended, given the last action of the user and the state of the project / designer. The action suggestions window helps with navigating the designer in common tasks, in case a particular feature might be hard to find.
Custom type shortcuts now have default length/precision/scale. A type shortcut can now have a default length, precision and/or scale value which is automatically used when the type shortcut is used as a field type. This allows type aliasing and easier modeling: e.g. one could define a type shortcut called 'Email' which is a type shortcut to string with a length of 150.
Rule based .NET Additional Interfaces / Namespaces. It's now possible to specify a rule using fine-grained expressions with an additional interface or additional namespace to define which elements of a given type will receive the additional interface or additional namespace. Rules can be assigned to additional interfaces / namespaces on the project level, to make it even easier to define attribute definitions in bulk for many elements in the project.
Update / Delete rules for FK constraints. It's now possible to define update / delete rules (Cascade rules) for relationships and Foreign Key constraints in both database first and model first.
SQL Server 2012 Sequence support. The SQL Server driver now retrieves Sequence definitions from SQL Server 2012 databases, and allows you to use them in mappings. You can also create new sequences for SQL Server 2012 from within the designer, like you can for Oracle, DB2, Firebird and PostgreSql.
Char <-> String system type converter. The list of system type converters has been extended with a new char <-> string system type converter which allows you to map a char typed model element onto a DB element with type string of length(1). This is useful if you have char(1) fields in the database, which are often converted as 'string' by ADO.NET providers.
Re-scan of enum .typeimport files. It's now possible to re-scan the folders which have .typeimport files for changes to import enum types while the designer is open. This makes importing enum types much easier as the designer doesn't have to be closed and re-opened again.
The designer is now a .NET 4.0 application. No more .NET 4.0 runners needed.
Various small changes and additions. See for the full list of smaller changes and additions the online documentation.

LLBLGen Pro Runtime Framework

50% faster entity fetches. An extensive refactoring of the internal storage of values inside an entity instance resulted in up to 50% faster entity fetches. As entity instances don't have Entity Field instances to store their values anymore (though from the outside it will appear they will, so no code will break), memory footprints are smaller too. See http://pastebin.com/AdsKitr3 for a benchmark of how much faster the fetches are compared to v3.5 and other ORMs.
Extensible Query Result Caching. It's now possible to specify (in Linq or QuerySpec, and with minor effort also with low-level API calls) a query result cache directive to tell the runtime to cache the results for that particular query for a given amount of time. The caching system is built around an easy interface, making it easy to extend it with own cache providers for cache systems like Redis. More information...
Table Valued Function support. It's now possible, using Linq and QuerySpec, to fetch entities and typed views which are mapped onto a table valued function resultset. Linq, QuerySpec
DataScopes. The runtime framework now offers DataScopes which greatly help managing data in memory in desktop applications. More information...
Runtime Libraries are now compiled against .NET 3.5. The minimum .NET version supported by the runtime framework is now .NET 3.5.
LinqSupportClasses and QuerySpec assemblies are now merged into ORMSupportClasses. The 3 assemblies are now merged into one, SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses.dll. This makes referencing assemblies simpler.
Inlining of Value Type Definitions in the designer. It's now possible to in-line value type definitions in the designer, which makes modeling LLBLGen Pro projects simpler. More information...
SQL Server 2012 sequences support The runtime framework now supports SQL Server 2012 sequences in insert queries.
TypedLists can now be fetched using QuerySpec. Before, the low-level API had to be used to fetch typedlists. In v4.0 we made it possible to fetch TypedLists using the more powerful QuerySpec query API.
True skip/offset support. It's now possible to skip n rows in a fetch without the requirement that the number of rows fetched is a multiply of n. This is in line with how Skip works in Linq. QuerySpec now has a new operator, Offset(n) which offers the same functionality.
Char <-> String(1) built-in type converter. The runtime framework now has a built-in type conversion for char <-> string(1), to make it possible to have a DB field of type char(1) be used as a .NET char typed field.
Support for OData v3. The ODataSupportClasses now support OData v3 and are now compiled against WCF Data Services v5.3.
QueryExecution Tracer. A new tracer has been added, to trace the actual query being executed. This information was already available through other tracers, but as these also emitted other information it could lead to a lot of data just to see which query was actually executed. This tracer solves that.
All low-level query API elements, including UnitofWork2, are now XML Serializable. All low-level query API classes, like predicates, relation collection, groupby collection but also the Unit of Work classes, are now serializable to XML, and as such passable to e.g. a WCF Service. This is for Adapter only.

Entity Framework support

In v4.0 of LLBLGen Pro, Entity Framework support has been updated to support Table Valued Functions on Entity Framework v5 on .NET 4.5.

Linq to Sql support

In v4.0 of LLBLGen Pro, Linq to Sql support has been updated to support Table Valued Functions.

Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Exchange & Lync 2013 Released to Manufacturing

Venketash Ramadass — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 15:03:42 +0200

The following products…

Microsoft Office (including Visio, Project & Project Server) 2013
Microsoft SharePoint 2013
Microsoft Exchange 2013
Microsoft Lync 2013

…have all been released to manufacturing. This link sums it up quite well, but in terms of getting your hands on it...

"We will begin rolling out new capabilities to Office 365 Enterprise customers in our next service update, starting in November through general availability.
Volume Licensing customers with Software Assurance will be able to download the Office 2013 applications as well as other Office products including SharePoint 2013, Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 through the Volume Licensing Service Center by mid-November. These products will be available on the Volume Licensing price list on December 1.
IT professionals and developers will be able to download the final version via their TechNet or MSDN subscriptions by mid-November."

Exciting times ahead, lots of planning and assisting with upgrades for the above, Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 to be done!

emediaIT is now a Dell Preferred Partner

Venketash Ramadass — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:56:28 +0200

emediaIT is committed to growing our relationships with our strategic partners and we have now achieved Dell Preferred Partner status.

This further certifies our skills, expertise and experience in terms of delivering products and services from Dell.

To achieve Dell Preferred Partner status emediaIT was required to complete both sales and technical training and certifications. We are now able to provide even more to our customers through a closer relationship with Dell. Benefits to our customers include highly competitive pricing, comprehensive solutions analysis and design as well as enhanced technical support.

Day 1 - Using an Exercise Ball as a Desk Chair

Venketash Ramadass — Sun, 20 May 2012 15:25:57 +0200

I spend quite a lot of time at my desk over the course of the week (and weekends) and find myself slouching even with chairs which have decent lumbar support. I have looked into the concept of a standing workstation before and although it's something that I would like to try in the future, I decided to go ahead with replacing my desk chair with an exercise ball as an initial step.

There are various opinions on whether or not this has any positive effect on posture, calories burnt, core strengthening etc, but as they say, change is as good as a holiday (sometimes).

Before:

After:

I am not the tallest so I decided to go ahead with the 65cm Trojan Burst Resistant option. I have spent about 3 hours working on it today and so far so good. I seem to be sitting more upright, moving around more and stretching a bit. As per other articles read and videos on YouTube hooking your ankles in under the front of the ball definitely helps.

Will see how the next few days go, but wont be getting rid of the chair just yet!

Western Digital Velociraptors SATA HDDs vs Corsair Force 3 Series SSDs in RAID 0

Venketash Ramadass — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:03:51 +0200

I have been putting off the move to SSDs for ages now, mainly due to cost, but the disk I/O on my machine was becoming an increasing bottleneck from what I could tell and there is more multi-tasking and juggling of responsibilities at work. I have been running 2x Western Digital Velociraptors in RAID 0 for the last few months and apart from one drive failure I was really pleased with the performance, especially coming from a RAID 0 7200 RPM laptop hard drive configuration on my soon to be retired Dell XPS M1730 (Almost 4 awesome years of service and still under full warranty from Dell!).

I decided to take the plunge into the SSD world yesterday (Early Christmas present to myself and well timed as I will be working through the holidays) and with it being a choice between the Intel 510s and the Corsair Force 3 Series (OCZ Vertex 3 is not that easily available around here), I opted for the latter due to comparable performance in most areas and much smaller cost. Installation into my Thermaltake Level 10 GT chassis was simple enough once I ditched the 3.5" brackets the SSDs came with and just used the GTs own removable brackets which have support for 2.5" drives. I also decided to stick with RAID 0 despite there not being TRIM support on the SSDs in RAID currently, but this is seemingly going to be there in a future Intel RST Driver release from what I have seen online and there are conflicting opinions on how much of an issue it actually is if a machine is left to idle/garbage collect etc. Below are the benchmarks in ATTO and also the WEI results (Ignore the CPU and Memory, it's a result of different overclocking settings on the i7 2600k) used.

Drives used…

2x Western Digital Velociraptor 450GB 10k RPM SATA HDDs - WD4500HLHX
2x Corsair Force 3 Series MLC 120GB 2.5" - F120GB3-BK

…with the SSDs obviously being far smaller (Which is not an issue as I will keep the Velociraptors in a RAID 1 config for important data/archiving etc) but both have full SATA III 6Gb/s support.

Velociraptors:

Force 3 Series:

So from a straight benchmark point of view, the SSDs obviously run away with it by some way, but it will be interesting to see what a difference it will be for real world/general productivity when it comes to day to day activities including general applications, Visual Studio etc.

Quick Office Braai

Venketash Ramadass — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:36:47 +0200

Unified Communications - Increase Productivity - Presentation

Venketash Ramadass — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:31:29 +0200

emediaIT - Unified Communications - 2011.09.01

View more presentations from Venketash (Pat) Ramadass.

Building "Windows 8" - Video #1

Venketash Ramadass — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:16:43 +0200

emediaIT is Hiring! - Advanced Systems Engineers

Venketash Ramadass — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:36:00 +0200

We are looking for an Advanced Systems Engineer to join our fast-moving team. They will work alongside our sales team, technical team, partners, suppliers and will be involved in pre-sales, support (client facing), internal systems and research & development including project management. They will be able to work in a team or alone and have the drive for continuous improvement and on-going skills development including certifications (Microsoft, Cisco etc) in key areas.

We need someone who is intelligent, hardworking, highly presentable, well-spoken, hugely ambitious, committed and looking for a career rather than a step along the way. Our company is fast paced, leading edge and we only want the best. We reward performance and results.

The candidate will need to be flexible, have the ability to learn quickly and adapt to different environments and services, products and technologies. We need someone who is as passionate about our services and products as we are.

It is expected that within the first 3 months of the candidate being employed they will:

Complete handover from person they will be replacing (Initial Month)
Familiarise themselves with processes and products/services
Take full ownership of specific responsibilities assigned to them
Advise on areas where they feel there can be improvement
Completed initial assessments and exams required by the company (Microsoft based)

Understanding of IT Products and Services. Familiarity/Experience (Minimum 2-3 years) with most/all of the following:

Software Development

Networking
- IP addressing, routers, ADSL, firewalls, DNS, DHCP, Dynamic DNS, port forwarding, shared/networked printers, drive mapping, VPNs, wireless
Hosting
- Web
- Email
Connectivity
- ADSL
- VPN
Unified Communications
- Asterisk
- Microsoft OCS/Lync
Hardware
- Servers/Workstations
- Dell preferably
Microsoft Server Products
- Windows Server 2003/2008
- SQL Server 2005/2008
- Exchange Server 2007/2010
- etc
Microsoft SharePoint 2007/2010
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0/2011
Virtualisation (Hyper-V etc)
Active Directory
Certificates
Cabling

Related and up to date Microsoft certifications will be a big advantage. Click here for more information.

Mobility Solutions - Work Anywhere, Anytime - Photos

Venketash Ramadass — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:23:40 +0200

Below are photos taken at our recent Mobility Solutions event held with Microsoft and K2.