Paolo's Notes : NETnotifier

Whups. Maybe some source code would be nice, eh?

Pmarcucci — Tue, 18 Feb 2003 15:34:00 GMT

After posting the How To Create A Service For NETnotifier story, I remembered that I referenced some classes that would be quite difficult for you to just "invent" :)

So, here is the code you need to drop in your project folder. And here is the config file that goes with it, just copy & paste the key line and then modify it to point either to your internal server or to the official NETnotifier one.

How to create a Service Provider for NETnotifier

Pmarcucci — Mon, 17 Feb 2003 20:53:00 GMT

Now that you've installed NETnotifier and the WinForms client, you're probably wondering... "Well? Is something supposed to happen?". Not if you haven't subscribed to any service. And even in that case, the said service should provide you with some notifications.

First snag

Pmarcucci — Sun, 16 Feb 2003 00:46:00 GMT

Ok, it was too easy to work at the first try, right?

If you configure the server to use a SQL Server database, you have to modify the table DELIVERIES and set the field DELIVERY_IDX as an identity.

notifierClient v0.1 alpha installation notes

Pmarcucci — Sat, 15 Feb 2003 23:24:00 GMT

notifierClient

This is a sample WinForms implementation of a client application that connects to the NETnotifier server. To install it, just extract it to any folders, edit the notifierClient.exe.config file and comment as needed the lines

<add key="NETnotifierServer" value="http://www.netnotifier.net" />

The http://www.netnotifier.net server is the official server, but it's still in a 0.1 alpha version, so uptime is not really my main concern :)

NETnotifier Server configuration

Pmarcucci — Sat, 15 Feb 2003 23:17:00 GMT

NETnotifier

This is the actual server application. Extract the zip file into a folder, then web share that folder with the alias NETnotifier. Now you can access the WSDL interfaces by pointing your browser to http://localhost/NETnotifier.

You could of course, if you had a SQL Server 2000 database configured correctly. If you don't, there are two ways to get around this little snag:

Use the sample Access database included in the data subfolder. To have the server using that database, comment as needed the following lines in web.config:

<appSettings>


<add key= "conn"value="Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=NETnotifier;Integrated Security=SSPI;" />

</appSettings>

Of course, change c:\\myfolder\\ to the folder where you have extracted the zip file.

Configure a SQL Server 2000 database. Create a NETnotifier database in an instance of SQL Server 2000, then import the tables and data from the sample Access database. Remember to grant dbo_owner permissions to the ASPNET user.

To test if the application is correctly installed, point a browser to http://locahost/NETnotifier/user.asmx and call the Login method using test/test as username/password. If everything is configured correctly, you should receive back a return status and a GUID.

Congratulations, you have a copy of NETnotifier running.

NETnotifier version 0.1 alpha

Pmarcucci — Sat, 15 Feb 2003 23:15:00 GMT

That's kind of a mouthful, but I wanted to drive home the point that this is VERY experimental software, in the sense that it has huge margins of improvement :)

You can download executables and sources for both the server and the client here:

NETnotifier v0.1a - Sources (224Kb)
notifierClient v0.1a - Sources (556 Kb)
notifierClient v0.1a - Executable (41.5Kb)

More details about installation in the following posts.

Layered development

Pmarcucci — Wed, 12 Feb 2003 17:23:00 GMT

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last few days. I know that I promised a first release of NETnotifier by the past weekend, but I wanted the code to be of good enough quality not to be thrown away immediately :)

So, while the code is 95% complete and some beta testing is happening, I've started doing some code reviews. At the beginning of this project I laid down a vague plan and sketched the overall architecture and the database schema on a couple of pieces of paper. From there I figured out the class hierarchy, wote down the classes names in a text editor and started adding methods and properties in a hierarchical way. After a bit of manual refactoring, I had a pretty clear view of the class hierarchy and started implementing it.

Of course the first method of the first class is wonderfully documented, with comments on every line, each variable painfully described, etc etc...

The second method wasn't documented that good. I got into "the zone" and couldn't stop coding because I wanted to see this fairly involved application do something.

This means that the amount of documentation decreases in a hyperbolic function from the first method implemented to the last one. AKA, the classes from the third to the last one are pretty much non commented.

So I have to comment the code. While I'm at it, I thought it would be nice to be proactive and figure out security risks right from the beginning. Problem is, I've never done this and I have no idea where to start from. Is there a methodology to follow? Or is just pure talent and luck that make up a code reviewer?

Anyways, the system is looking good and it's going to be out in a matter of days. I suppose Valentine's out of the question, but by Sunday you will be able to subscribe to a couple of services and receive alerts directly on your desktops.

This, of course, if nothing really bad happens :)

NETnotifier getting close to a real release

Pmarcucci — Sat, 08 Feb 2003 10:37:00 GMT

It's 2.34am.

But NETnotifier has not been changed for four hours (that means it's working correctly, as excpected) and I only went forward finishing the client component.

This is very good news for my planned weekend release of the service and the client. Now I'm going to bed and tomorrow it will be documentation day :)

PS: the image here is the official NETnotifier logo...

Weblogs.com Monitoring

Pmarcucci — Thu, 06 Feb 2003 15:47:00 GMT

Matthew Langham wonders how to be notified of updates on weblogs.com. Well Matthew, that's what NETnotifier is being built for :)

I'm going to write a service provider that interfaces with weblogs.com and give it a try later today.

NETnotifier code

Pmarcucci — Tue, 04 Feb 2003 18:35:00 GMT

[Edited to remove obsolete links]

I've uploaded the source codes for NETnotifier v0.1 and a sample WinForms client. The data store used in this release is Microsoft Access, but that can be swapped out for SQL Server or other databases quite easily (using the OleDb classes).

Keep in mind that this is mostly proof of concept code, security roles are not implemented and I have to think about workflows a bit more in depth :)

If anyone is reading this, please get the code and let me know what you think.

NETnotifier

Pmarcucci — Tue, 04 Feb 2003 07:16:00 GMT

NETnotifier is, basically, a notification engine.

A notification engine (in my warped imagination) is a server side application that exposes two webservice interfaces towards service providers and clients. A message sent by a service provider to NETnotifier can be delivered to the clients subscribed to said service.

It sounds confusing (or it's just my prose), so let's see an example:

A web forum software could be the service provider. One of the services provided by the web forum could be a notification of replies to a thread where a user contributed. The user will be informed in (semi)real time of new posts.

How does this work?

The service provider requests an account to the mantainer of the NETnotifier node. It is then issued a unique code that will be used in all subsequent communications from the web forum software.

A user creates an account on the NETnotifier node and subscribes to the web forum service.

Whenever the service provider sends a message to NETnotifier, the message is forwarded to all the user subscribed to that service.

And after reading what I just wrote, I'll understand if you'll suddenly feel the need to take a break or something... the concept is awfully described. :)

But it works and has some definite advantages compared to, say, .NET Alerts or similar services. First of all, it's free, it can be federated and there are (planned) three different methods of delivery for notifications. I'm going to release some working code tomorrow night, so people out there can take a look and give me some feedback.