Bryan Sampica

{ T }rite - Source Code Release

2008-05-20T14:20:00Z

I've had a few ask for the source control to this project, and amidst my objections, I tried to come up with a good reason not to release it and couldn't find one. :)

The goal of this project was really to push through the app and get a working model up. There are some things that still aren't implemented, or known bugs.

The refresh button does nothing!
Update gives no notification
160 char limit vs 140 (the API says 160!)
No startup notification
Weak threading model (background worker)
No friend interaction
No timeline interaction
I could go on forever on this...those are the big ones
Oh yea, no settings window at all. :)

So without further ramblings by the estranged coder....here's the source. You'll need to modify the settings to reflect your own, if you aren't sure how to do that, read the Twitter documentation on the API.

This is a source code release - this is not a finished, nor a working product and is not intended for end users.

This release includes a precompiled version of FluidKit - more information on FluidKit is available HERE.

If you modify this source, and release something of your own, I only ask that you keep the name the same and add your own spin - such as { T }rite | by Johnson or { T }rite | by Freakyuno....etc

You will need Visual Studio 2008 AND / OR Microsoft Expression Blend March 2.5 Preview installed to work with this project, and knowledge of WPF (XAML) and C#.

Source Code HERE

Good luck, feel free to get in touch with questions.

Bryan Sampica (freakyuno)

{ T }rite - Alpha Release

2008-05-16T14:08:00Z

UPDATE: The files have been reposted - you will need to make the configuration file changes in two places. The Trite.vshost.exe.xml and the trite.exe.xml file:

Ok, so I've been playing with this twitter front-end as a way to keep my skills sharp in WPF (and blend). I have to say that I'm feeling pretty good at the speed at which something can be developed.

I've done some pretty hackish things in the code itself, but I've done some pretty cool things too. At the moment I wont be releasing source code - because it's embarrassing, but I will post the app for download.

I must give credit to FluidKit for a truly AWESOME library of 2d / 3d transform animations.

IMPORTANT: Few things to address before you download and fire up this easily breakable software. :)

You'll need to manually edit the configuration file. It's located in the directory and it's called Trite.exe but listed as an XML Configuration File.

The settings you'll need to change are all typed in CAPS inside the file. You should just be able to open it with notepad, if you have problems getting it to run with your edited config, let me know and I'll help you out.

Source Code: DOWNLOAD

Have fun!

Bryan Sampica (Freakyuno)

{ T } rite - twitter toys

2008-05-14T03:19:00Z

Just a quick post tonight. I'm working on a little app (mainly for practice), that some have requested a screenshot of, so here it is:

It uses a coverflow system for the people you're following, and a very up2date look for the tweets of the people on your timeline. It's a work in progress. Take a look.

Happy coding -

Bryan ( Freakyuno )

Iowa Code Camp Pictures available

2008-05-07T18:16:00Z

I've compressed them all to 800 x 600, if you'd like a larger file, please feel free to email me, and include the 800 x 600 version so I know which to pick.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26369281@N04/

Solving LINQ's N-Tier Issues

2008-05-07T16:44:49Z

Ok, so maybe solving is somewhat of a misnomer, but we certainly can combat them with strength and conviction. A little background on the subject first; LINQ has proven to be somewhat of a booger when attempting to work with it in a streamlined development environment when incorporating any sort of N-Tier pattern.

Why you ask should it be a problem...the common answer I've heard many many times is, why should it be any different? You have at the essence of it some pretty simple logical and physical layer guidelines right? It's well known in the industry at this point to create N-Layer app's to solve things like SOC (separation of concerns) and physical or network boundaries.

But what about LINQ....how does it change anything we've done before? Here's the tricky part: LINQ objects, created outside a context are considered unattached - which works great...but the moment you have to refer to an object in relation to it's context you run into major issues. That object is then tied to that context and believe it or not; there's no easy or reliable way to detach it.

Not such a big deal right...statefull objects are a good thing! Not really...

Imagine the very common scenario below:

You use LINQ to query for a customer reference
You add an order to the reference of that customer
You try to put the customer back with the order now attached...

BOOM....head-shot - unless you've got the original context that you queried for the customer under...there is no way to get that customer back into the database. Keep in mind that a DataContext is not serializeable, so if your response is to pass the datacontext around, you'd be right as soon as you enter an SOA pattern.

Now, before you go off the deep end, I realize that this problem is CAUSED by the Utilization of LINQ itself. Because we are passing objects around - we run into the very real situation that the object is carrying a reference to it's context. Rick Strahl has done quite a few posts as of late on this same topic.

The typical solution, and usually one of the first answers on forums, blogs, and otherwise is...pass messages, not objects. Ok, I can concede to that. In true N-Layer applications we can very well send messages. This achieves the whole "loosely coupled" layers, and enables easily things like a provider model, a stateless BLL, an application aware server...etc. My response usually is: I don't need all that...what I need to be able to do is pass the objects back and forth. LINQ was nice enough to generate them for me, so why should I recreate each and every one of my objects (about 300 of them), in a serialized or class object format - just to overcome LINQ being a pain in the ass.

If you read Rick's blog, you'll see a very complete example of creating a set of business objects wrapping the LINQ functionality, where he abstracts out things like the context creation, the submit changes, and attachment of objects. That's pretty cool stuff...but yet even a little to big for my project.

Without you as the reader knowing specifically the scope of my project - it's hard to get behind this article...so let me help you out a little:

Our physical boundary is the SQL state machine, which we can overcome with SQL Protocols
We are working in a thick client, 1 to 3 user environment without a lot of need for initial scalability
Our application state will be managed individually by the client. They don't need to be sentient to other running app's.
We will maintain database concurrence through a first write wins methodology.

Ok, so now that you have the basic layout - you can see that we aren't truly trying to build an N-Layer application. Our use for N-Layer would have been to separate concerns between business logic, and data access. These would be logical layers with little or no need to exist outside the maintainability in our programming model.

Ok, so on to what I'll call the X-Layer pattern. ;) It's always nice to invent something new huh. Maybe it will catch fire. Keep in mind, that the representation of this is only as a "prototype" pattern. I don't have security, object state, or validation included. Those things snap easily into the datacontext though through the extension of the LINQ partial classes.

I could describe the project all day long, but it's just as easy to look at it. So I'll include it for your review:

Download Source

Iowa Code Camp Marked by Success

2008-05-05T14:57:06Z

Well, here I sit Monday morning at work, reflecting on Saturdays events. For those reading out of context, the first ever Iowa Code Camp was held Saturday May 3rd at the University of Iowa.

For me, there's always a certain amount of nostalgia involved in this kind of thing. The months of setup, preparation, conference calls and hundreds if not thousands of emails between the organizers, sponsors, volunteers and attendees - all for the culmination of the event itself. Getting Started with an "O'Dark Thirty" wake-up call, and proceeding to the conference center to run around like your hair is on fire for the next 12 to 14 hours, and then....just like that it's done. You shake the last hand and retire to your vehicle for the drive home, or to the hotel room and it's done and gone.

I suppose that eventually people get used to this sort of thing. As a programmer it's somewhat of a unique situation to run an event like this. Our day jobs tend to carry on endlessly. There's always the next patch, update, revision or feature...not so often do we get such a clean break to mark completion of something large scale, or such a finite way to measure our success or failure.

Ok, ok...I know it's getting thick - the event was a HUGE ringing success after-all right? Absolutely...

Rough check-in numbers were quoted somewhere around 120, and we maintained about 95% of our audience throughout the entire conference....until the prizes and giveaways, what's up with that?! We gave away 2 Zunes, 4 360 Xbox games, some very expensive software, some really nice laptop backpacks and a slew of books, shirts and messenger bags...why would you want to leave before that!

We managed to feed everyone Breakfast, Lunch AND dinner, give away prizes, give everyone a free t-shirt and allow them to participate in a beautiful facility for an entire days of events...all at no charge to attendees.

The content was just amazing. We pulled speakers from as far away as Ohio (Columbus?) and Minneapolis which just rocks. I got the "opportunity" to speak twice (the only one on the docket to do so...thanks Greg Wilson), and I can honestly say that our presentation topics were so good I'd have rather been sitting in the audience than at the podium.

I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate the other organizers involved. We actually got the comment at one point from someone I wont name...but they'd know "The bar has been raised for Code Camps" and "This is the highest class no cost event I've ever been to"

Greg Sohl and Chris Sutton - awesome job on logistics and organization. Everything ran perfectly smooth all day long

Greg Wilson - Very nice job on the speaker lineups and scheduling. 5 tracks at a code camp! Rockin'

Javier Lozano - Sponsors....sponsors...sponsors. Very nice job man.

Bryan Sampica - What did I do again? :)

Anyway, a big thanks to everyone that participated. Organizers, Volunteers, Sponsors and Attendees alike...you all played a part in making the first ever Iowa Code Camp one of the most successful code camps in the genre and for that I personally thank you.

Bryan Sampica -

Countdown.To! Iowa Code Camp

2008-03-10T17:31:42Z

I'm VERY pleased to announce that the Iowa Code Camp has become a real thing. This is an Iowa first which is very exciting.

Organizers Include

Javier Lozano

Greg Wilson

Chris Sutton

Greg Sohl

Details are available on the web site, additionally Javier made a great post about it here.

That's right! The University of Iowa:ITS, CRIneta and Iowa .NET user groups are joining forces to bring the first code camp to Iowa on 5/3/2008 at the University of Iowa Conference Center in Iowa City, IA!!

You might be asking, what is a code camp? Well, here are some of the basic ideas:

Its for and by developers
Free (for attendees)
All about code, not PowerPoint presentations
What you present on should be available to share with people who attend
Never during work hours, hence usually on Saturday

What a code camp is not:

Corporate product placement
Marketing
Powerpoint centric

We are looking for developers who want to tell other developers about cool developer things they are doing. Topics they really care about. If you are working with .Net, Ruby, PHP, Java, Rails, Python, <fill in the blank> and you want to tell other people about it, then consider submitting a speaking proposal.

If you want to be a speaker, Greg Wilson is who you need to talk to greg-at-solidrockstable-dot-com. Just so you know we are already almost 1/2 full for speakers already.

If you want to help sponsor, contact me at javier-at-lozanotek-com.

Let me know if you have any other questions at christophersutton-at-yahoo-dot-com or you want to help out in any other way.

Our site is IowaCodeCamp.com if you want to keep up with what happens. If you have a twitter account you can follow us at @iowacodecamp!

Remember this an event FOR developers BY developers, so we need you to help us make it succeed!

Please feel free to paste that information in your Blog, or send emails to your friends. This is a great opportunity to interface with your community.

Bryan Sampica

A Better way to Query RSS

2007-12-12T16:56:00Z

Recently Scott Guthrie posted a really good article on querying an RSS feed with LINQ to XML. After an initial run through of the article, I felt like something was missing. A good buddy of mine (Dave Yancey), were working on an RSS control and we didn't like having to query the RSS twice. Not to mention we really wanted the Title, description and link of the parent RSS - not just each of the items. our initial query looked something like this:

Dim rssFeed = XDocument.Load(http://weblogs.asp.net/bryansampica/rss.aspx)
        Dim feedData = From post In rssFeed.Descendants("channel") _
                       Select post

        Return feedData

For the project we were working on, it was important that we have the top level channel information, like Title, Description, Link...etc. In the query above, we ended up with an impossible to query result set, a collection of items under the main IEnumerable that couldn't be gotten. I sent an email off to Scott Guthrie about this, whom provided an excellent example by Amanda Silver. (Thanks Amanda and Scott!!)

The key is to requery for the second collection, inside the first query. Much like Nested SQL used to be (which essentially what was happening.)

Dim rssFeed = XDocument.Load("http://blogs.msdn.com/vbteam/rss.xml")


 Dim entries = From post In rssFeed.<rss>.<channel> _
 Select Description = post.<description>.FirstOrDefault.Value, _
 Link = post.<link>.Value, _
 Channel = post.<title>.Value, _
 Items = From item In post.<item> _
 Where item.<pubDate>.Value > #11/10/2007# _
 Select item.<title>.Value, item.<pubDate>.Value, item.Value


 For Each post In entries
 Console.WriteLine("Channel: " & post.Channel)
 For Each item In post.Items
 Console.WriteLine("Title: " & item.title)
 Console.WriteLine("Value: " & item.Value)
 Next
 Next

 Console.ReadLine()

This worked perfectly!

There was also a really really good suggestion about enabling the XML intellisense by including the Schema from XML tool - which is available here.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/bb840042.aspx

I gotta tell ya, if you are working with XML - this will make your life ALOT easier.

-Happy Coding

Bryan Sampica

AuctionSite Starter-kit Update

2007-12-02T22:49:00Z

I've done an update to the starterkit today, and figured it might be a good idea to get some screenshots in front of people, as well as a demo site up - so I've done both. :)

The demo site is available at

http://ask.proessent.com/default.aspx

Feel free to register a username and look around. If you don't want to register a username you may use

Username: Testing

Password: testing!

note: the website may be going up and down as I make changes and perform updates. Please be patient. :)

AuctionSite Starterkit Alpha Release

2007-12-02T02:46:00Z

Just a quick plug to the community. I've gotten to the Alpha release of my AuctionSite Starterkit and have published a release on Codeplex

http://www.codeplex.com/auctionsk

It's designed and produced in .net 3.5 utilizing some cool features like LINQ, the new Listview, the .NET membership, full CSS design and some other goodies like some Ajax sections. It's freely available for download, take it - use it - abuse it. Its designed to give users a good start in the LINQ world, with a real world application on a smaller scale. It's database is extensible, and pages have been intentionally kept simple and straight forward, so they can be modified, tailored.

I'll be continuing to update it it through a stable release, then refactoring some of the "goofier" sections.

Have Fun!

Converting Sql.LINQ.Binary to Byte()

2007-11-29T14:35:18Z

Just a real short entry today. I had some trouble with this one - took me a little bit to figure out so I figured I would post a quick note about it. Mostly to remind myself how I did it next time I need to.

I'm working in a starterkit that I'm designing. It's not ready for general public publicity yet - but I can tell you that I have a database storing images, and typically in .net 2.0 I'd create an imagehandler.ashx for this and just use the querystring to parse out and grab the binary using a Datareader.

It'd typically look like this: (hijacked from http://www.123aspx.com/redir.aspx?res=36098)

public class ImageHandler : IHttpHandler {
    
    public void ProcessRequest (HttpContext context) {
        string imageid = context.Request.QueryString["ImID"];
        SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection
        (ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings
        ["connectionString"].ConnectionString);
        connection.Open();
        SqlCommand command = new 
        SqlCommand("select Image from Image where ImageID="+imageid, connection);
        SqlDataReader dr = command.ExecuteReader();
        dr.Read();
        context.Response.BinaryWrite((Byte[])dr[0]);
        connection.Close();
        context.Response.End();              
        
    }

I however am in a LINQ .net 3.5 project, and I didn't want to use SQL commands and data readers, I wanted to do it the new fan dangled way.

It turns out that it's not straightforward to grab an SQL.Linq.Binary field and convert it to a byte array. It's not hard mind you, but there really isn't any clue on how to make it work. So I fiddled around with it and here's what I came up with.

Sub ProcessRequest(ByVal context As HttpContext) Implements IHttpHandler.ProcessRequest
        If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString("imageID")) Then
            Dim imageID = HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString("imageID")
            Dim db As New AuctionsDataContext
            Dim result = From img In db.Images _
                         Where img.imageID = imageID _
                         Select img.image


            HttpContext.Current.Response.BinaryWrite(CType(result.First.ToArray, Byte()))
            context.Response.End()
        End If
    End Sub

The key line being the BinaryWrite portion towards the bottom. result.first.toArray didnt make a lot of sense to me, but it seems to work, and pretty quickly. :)

Good luck!

DLINQ + Solving the Many to Many problem

2007-11-26T15:42:17Z

A while back, Scott Guthrie posted in the comments, that LINQ didn't support, or had trouble with Many to Many relationships. I'm not sure if the code-base has changed, or I haven't considered a full scope, but I've managed to get it to work, and it's slick! I'll jump straight to the magic here.

I've created a Web Project, and added an SQL Database. I'm keeping this example simple, so for this example, we have Products, and Categories. Products can be a member of multiple categories, so lets get started!

I'm using the standard many to many method of using a interim table between the two tables, using a 1 to many on each side. Here's my LINQ diagram to illustrate:

It's important to note, that for this to work, your interim table MUST have an identity field defined. In this case I just called it RowID

I've loaded up my tables with some example data to test with, you can create your own, or follow my example.

1	Hotdog's
2	Soda
3	Tea
4	Beer
5	Hamburgers
6	Chips
7	Dip
8	Meat Cake

1	Food
2	Beverage

1	1
2	2
2	3
2	4
1	4
1	5
1	6
1	7
2	8
1	8

Ok, from this set of data, we can see that most things only have one category, but both Beer and Meat Cake are both a beverage, and a food! Right on! Ok, so now to test the functionality, lets jump into a class

First we need to try a simple select that's meaningful. In this case, lets select all the products that are beverages, and all the products that are food. :)

Food:

Public Class TestMany
    Public Shared Function Testing()
        Dim db As New ManyToManyDataContext
        Dim query = From p In db.ProductCategories _
                    Where p.Category.CategoryName = "Food" _
                    Select p.Product.ProductName



    End Function
End Class

The important thing to note here, is we START at the linking table between the two

Beverage:

Public Class TestMany
    Public Shared Function Testing()
        Dim db As New ManyToManyDataContext
        Dim query = From p In db.ProductCategories _
                    Where p.Category.CategoryName = "Beverage" _
                    Select p.Product.ProductName



    End Function
End Class

Now - you're saying, but what if I want the products that are JUST in the food AND beverage category. Here's where it gets a little tricky, but yes my good friend, it can be done!

Dim db As New ManyToManyDataContext
        Dim prod1 = (From c In db.ProductCategories _
                     Where (c.Category.CategoryName = "Beverage") _
                     Select c.Product.ProductName, c.Category.CategoryName)

        Dim prod2 = (From c In db.ProductCategories _
                     Where (c.Category.CategoryName = "Food") _
                     Select c.Product.ProductName, c.Category.CategoryName)

        Dim result = (From c In prod1 Join d In prod2 On c.CategoryName Equals d.CategoryName _
                      Select c.ProductName)

And there you have it. LINQ's inline ability to query a result set, and JOIN right in code, creates a listing of only products that are in both the food and beverage category.

Have fun!

Bryan Sampica

Thoughts from the flip side

2007-11-26T02:12:50Z

I'm a little bit off topic this evening, but after all, it's thanksgiving weekend, I think I'm still burping turkey on Sunday night, and I guarantee I'll wage a war worthy of a movie called 400 trying to put my pants on tomorrow morning for work. Just no give in dress slacks, did polyester stretch? I just finished watching 60 minutes, first I'd like to say: I felt the High Tech - Heist article was grossly misrepresented. Why is it, that you can take any highly intelligent reporter, ask them to talk about technology, and they turn into blithering idiots. If I had to listen to her say "The WPA Code" one more time, I was going to trip my TV off it's stand and launch it.

Anyway, on to the meat of this post. Watching the monologue got me thinking a little bit abstractly, and of course that lead me to T.V idiosyncrasies.

Tune in: I'm wondering how long it will be, before this reference is completely gone. Referring of course to the rabbit eared set, and a complicated method of picking up a broadcast signal, utilizing dials and knobs and antenna's (antenni?) in the perfectly correct position for static free viewing. - Prediction: 1 generation

I suppose the digital methodology is similar, there is 400 channels broadcast over the same wire, and there's a signaling decibel and frequency over that wire of some sort, that a digital box looks for a specific IO stream on. But it's not quite the same.

Turn the Channel: This one is a little ambiguous, but it refers to the "dials" that used to be on TV sets, before there were fancy LED's (and even sometimes then). Saying "turn" the channel these days gets us what we want, it's 100% understood, how long I wonder before the meaning and origin are completely lost in modern day culture.

Intermission: I suppose I'm asking a lot, considering that 8 out of 10 people can look at a picture of the current president (whoever it is, spare me the Bush jokes) - and mistake him David Letterman or Jay Leno.

Feel free to add to this list - It's a work in progress. Once and a while I have these random interludes, come along for the ride, or get off at the next stop. I wont miss ya. :)

Conference Internet is not an option!

2007-11-08T00:14:36Z

This subject is sure to spawn hate mail abound. I'm sure that there's an entire camp that will tell me that I'm at a conference or convention, for the conventions subject material - and to get the most out of it, I should leave work, family, friends, interests...<put your item here> behind. You see, I already know what you're going to say, so save it. I'm attending DevConnections - In Las Vegas. With the MVP Discount I believe it cost me somewhere around 1100 dollars to be here and attend sessions. Another 500+ for my hotel room for a week, meals, plane tickets, not to mention a week of work that continues to go on back at the office.

Don't get me wrong - I do realize that It's my choice to be here. That when I make that choice I am giving certain things up, but as a professional, and a developer - IS IT REALLY TO MUCH TO ASK, to have RELIABLE INTERNET access at a DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE? - Heartland Developers Conference was plagued by the same issues, 3 years in a row now, they've come back half way through the conference and told us they had it working again, removed security...etc, only to have it break hours later. At Dev Connections, arguably one of the biggest conferences of the year, the Internet access is completely broken. The vendors (sponsors) stands were high and dry limping along at a 64k connection, and the wireless hasn't worked a single day.

What are my options? $500.00 per computer / per day for Internet access. Yes you read it correctly. Mandalay Bay charges 500.00 dollars per day, per computer to access the internet. I assume this is because they don't want you on your computer, they want you in their lounges gambling. It's their right. But conference organizers need to realize, that there are issues that come up, situations that need handled, family that needs communicated with. If we are going to attend a 4 day conference, miles from home Internet access isn't an option, it's required. I'd even pay some extra associated fee (which is what I do through my cell phone company now, for these stupid situations), or jump through some extra hoops if I had to, but make it work.

Ok, I'm done, back to ADO.NET Performance tuning - given by the wonderful speaker Don Kiely.

Leaving...on a jet plane

2007-11-05T23:26:33Z

A little John Denver anyone? I'm sitting here in the Denver Airport thinking that thus far, my luck has been really good. No weather issues, no flight problems - Even a situation that would normally spell disaster for the wayward traveler was victoriously avoided somehow.

In Cedar Rapids, 2 minutes after boarding they decided they needed to "Reboot" the plane. The captain even made a reference to CTRL + ALT + DEL and the jet we were sitting on. My stomach rolled over and I hunkered down for an 8 hour marathon of plane sitting. The thoughts of a windows 3.11 (because this is the airlines after all) machine, sitting in the first officers lap humming away as the chicken-scratch sound of the hard drive wafted back to our waiting ears, filled my head.

Amazingly enough, they did basically just what they said they did. They rebooted the plane, the lights went off for a little while, the air stopped blowing and the plane got a little smelly and kind of hot, and 8 and a half minutes later they were starting the engines again. The rest of the flight went without a hitch.

So on to Las Vegas for DevConnections.

I just got a really funny look from the gate attendant because I jumped up to "knock on wood" and couldn't find any.

See you all there!