Tech Review SQL: "The 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0' provider is not registered on the local machine."

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/adodotnetdataproviders/thread/b5a79958-5bce-4229-a69f-75589b6240a8

• The problem is that the application I built was 64 bit and Jet and ACE OLEDB only have x86 versions.
• An x64 process cannot load x86 components.
• Office 2010 provides a Beta 2 version of ACE OLEDB.

Tech Review Software: Wednesday, February 15, 2012

xml namespace example

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_namespaces.asp

• Name conflicts
• <table>
• <tr>
• <td>Apples</td>
• </tr>
• </table>
• <table>
• <name>Stan</name>
• </table>
• Solving name conflict using a prefex
• <h:table>
• <h:tr>
• <h:td>Apples</h:td>
• <f:table>
• <f:name>Stan</f:name>
• XML Namespaces - the xmlns attribute
• namespace for prefix must be defined
• defined by xmlns attributes in the start tag of an element.
• xmlns:prefix="URI"
• when a namespace is defined for an element, all child elements with the same prefix are associated with the same namespace.
• The namespace URI is not used by the parser to look up information.
• URI - Uniform Resource Identifier
• identifies an Internet Resource
• URL - uniform resource locator
• identifies an Internet domain address
• URN - uniform resource name
• default namespace for an element
• saves using prefixes in all child elements

http://www.w3schools.com/schema/schema_example.asp

• root element
• xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
• tells the XML parser that the document should be validated against a schema.
• xsi:noNamespaceSchemLocation="shiporder.xsd"
• specifies where the schema resides.
• local to xml in this instance
• XML Schema Definition (XSD)
• <xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
• ...
• </sx:schema>
• Standard namespace above is (xs)
• URI associated with namespace is the Schema language definition
• standard value of "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
• Define all element and attributes first and than refer to them
• ref="name"
• Can use named types

http://www.w3schools.com/schema/schema_intro.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa468547.aspx

• XML - eXtensible Markup Language
• XML parser
• XML Document Object Model (DOM)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms752838(v=vs.85).aspx

• XSD schemas or Document Type Definitions (DTDs) to verify validity
• XmlLite vs System.XML
• XmlLite does not schema validation
• use MSXML.exe

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms752816(v=vs.85).aspx

• XmlLite Security
• Denial of Service (DoS)

Tech Review Windows: Monday, February 13, 2012

Outlook and finding unread messages

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/find-all-my-unread-messages-HP001123379.aspx

• {Outlook should have a sort option that let's you select unread, but they don't.}
• To see unread message:
• Select the Search Format folder
• select Unread
• close folders you are not interested.
• Finally, another something simple made hard courtesy of MicroSoft.

Strong Name Doesn't work

Learned a couple things for the MS learning experience.  First, 'sn' work or it doesn't.  There is no need to log out or reboot. Second, a 64 bit MS will point to the 32 bit 'sn.exe' application.  Everything will look like it work, but it didn't.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shitals/archive/2008/05/01/8446582.aspx

• talk about the 64 bit issue
• My 64 bit was located in a different location:

Using Assert function for debugging.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa326827(v=vs.71).aspx

• example code:

[C#]  // Create an index for an array.  int index;    // Perform some action that sets the index.    // Test that the index value is valid.   Debug.Assert(index > -1);   

Was missing the following line:

using System.Diagnostics;

http://dotnetdud.blogspot.com/2010/04/debugprint-and-debugassert-in-c.html

• told me the missing line.

Tech Notes Software: Friday, February 10, 2012

SVN Checkout

SVN seems to be a little inconsistant in how it works.

Checkout seem to create the last in the list is created.  This is not what I expected.

svn co source/last_folder

At the location where the command is run the folder 'last_folder' will be created.

C# Using Statement

The using statement.

using (type obj = initializer)

{

   // use obj

}

The 'type' must evaluate to an object that implements the System.IDisposable

When the block concludes, the Dispose() method will be called on 'obj' created.

Tech Review Software: Thursday, February 9, 2012

Auto generating Entity classes with xsd.exe for XML Serialization and De-Serialization

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/yojoshi/archive/2011/05/14/xml-serialization-and-deserialization-entity-classes-with-xsd-exe.aspx

• Entity classes
• xsd.exe
• serialization and de-serialization
• using the schema and XML file, xsd generates the corresponding C# code.

Uniform Resource Name (URN)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_resource_name

• what is a URN?
• A uniform resource identifier (URI) that uses the urn scheme and doesn't imply availability of the identified resource.
• used for identification
• uniform resource characteristic (URC)
• for including meta-data 
• uniform resource locator (URL)
• used for locating of finding resources

XML Namespaces

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_namespaces.asp

• Name conflicts
• xmlns attribute
• URL or URN

XML Elements

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_elements.asp

• everything from and including the element's start tag and element's end tag.

What is IDL?  (interface description language)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.idl

• a specification language used to describe a software component's interface.
• COM

Subversion Cheat Sheet

http://www.abbeyworkshop.com/howto/misc/svn01/

• Some things not mentioned in the article
• Important to know that a intermediate folders must exists.
• Don't forget to specify name of the folder on the receiving end or it 
• The naming a example need to be improved.

Sample Hello C Program

http://www.math.utah.edu/computing/compilers/c/cprogs/hello.html

/* hello.c: display a message on the screen */  #include <stdio.h>  main() { 	printf("hello, world\n"); }

• Nice, clean and simple

Branching in SVN

http://www.igorexchange.com/node/89#branches

• copies

https://www.forge.funambol.org/scdocs/ddUsingSVN_command-line

• svn mkdir PATH
• this is the command I should have used to create the branch directory structure
• svn copy SRC DST -m "Type your message here"

http://pointbeing.net/weblog/2009/04/command-line-subversion-tutorial-part-2.html

http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-dug-branchtag.html

• using TortoiseSVN to create a branch

Find command man page

http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?find

Where is the Application Data Folder?

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/5ae36d5d-cb29-49ae-a379-a8be0dde0abc/

• Article seems to miss using %APPDATA% to find where it is.
• C:\Users\[user]\application data
• not accessible
• windows junctions
• C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming
• What is the 'Roaming' about?

Tech Review HCI: Friday, February 3, 2012

Ribbon Design Process

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc872781.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc872782.aspx#standardribbontabs

http://www.computerbeginners.co.uk/article.php?id=53

• Ribbon bar
• light blue area at the top of the Word scrren
• 7 tabs
• groups of interrelated functions
• large customer survey before designing
• "extremely useful ... for novice user"

Tech Review Software Development: Friday, February 3, 2012

XML Schema Tutorial

http://www.w3schools.com/schema/

XML Schema

• XML Schema Definition (XSD)
• what is an XML Schema?
• defines elements that can appear
• defines attributes that can appear
• defines which elements are child elements
• defines order of child elements
• defines number of child elements
• defines if empty or can include text
• defines data types for elements and attributes
• defines default and fixed values for elements and attributes
• Can reference schema in XML doc
• XML Schema built-in data types
• xs:string
• xs:decimal
• xs:integer
• xs:boolean
• xs:date
• xs:time
• if an elements has attributes it is considered complex
• Can add restrictions or 'facets' to a element or attribute

D:\\test>xsd webSearch.xml

Microsoft (R) Xml Schemas/DataTypes support utility

[Microsoft (R) .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.42]

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Writing file 'D:\\test\\webSearch.xsd'.

D:\\test>

D:\\test>xsd webSearch.xsd /CLASSES /language:vb

Microsoft (R) Xml Schemas/DataTypes support utility

[Microsoft (R) .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.42]

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Writing file 'D:\\test\\webSearch.vb'.

D:\\test>xsd webSearch.xsd /CLASSES

Microsoft (R) Xml Schemas/DataTypes support utility

[Microsoft (R) .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.42]

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Writing file 'D:\\test\\webSearch.cs'.

Path to XML Help files:  C:\Users\Public\Public XPlan AppData\FalconView\config

An example of how to use XML Schema validation:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307379

An example of reading and writing using XML in C#:  

• http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/mahesh/ReadWriteXMLTutMellli2111282005041517AM/ReadWriteXMLTutMellli21.aspx
• http://forum.codecall.net/csharp-tutorials/31315-c-tutorial-reading-writing-xml-files.html#post286608

Generating a schema from an XML file using xsd.exe:

• http://www.codingday.com/xml-c-class-generator-for-c-using-xsd-for-deserialization/

Generating the XML Schema using VB code:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/04x694fe(v=vs.71).aspx

XML serialization with discussion:

• http://forums.asp.net/t/1424663.aspx/1
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.serialization.xmlserializer.aspx

XML Tutorial

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

• self-describing syntax
• first line is XML declaration
• version (1.0)
• encoding (ISO-8859-1...)
• root element
• child elements

<root>

<child>

<subchild>.....</subchild>

</chiuld>

</root>

• elements
• <root> <child><subchild>textcontent</subchild>
• child is an element of root
• subchild is an element of child
• text content
• <root> <child><subchild>textcontent</subchild>
• attributes
• <book category="COOKING">
• must have closing tags.
• tags are case sensitive
• opening and closing tags
• equal to start and end tags
• must be properly nested
• must have one root element
• all attributes must be quoted.
• entity references
• &lt; < less than
• &gt; > greater than
• &amp; & ampersand 
• &apos; ' apostrophe
• &quot; " quotation mark
• only "<" and "&" are strictly illegal
• XML declaration
• <?xml verison.....?>
• comments in XML
• <!-- comment -->
• new lines are store as line feeds (LFs)
• XML naming rules
• letters, numbers, and other characters
• cannot start with number or punctuation
• cannot start with xml, XML or any combination that spells xml
• cannot contain spaces
• Naming practices

How do I read and write XML in C#?

• attribute
• provides additional info about element
• may want to avoid attributes in XML
• mete data
• data about data
• store as attribute
• data
• store as elements
• DTD
• defines structure of XML
• XML Schema
• defines structure of XML
• In XML errors are not allowed
• can use CSS (Casading Style Sheets) to display info to an XML document
• XSLT is recommended to display XML
• SOAP
• exchanges XML between applications

XML Definition:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XAML

What is the format of the XML files we need to read in?

Nice Opensource XML tool:

• http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/