A (Not So) New UI Front-End Alternative

When we're going to start a new project, we're accustomed to the standard 3-tier architecture, and although most of us will probably choose the same frameworks for our data and logic tiers, it's because these frameworks gives us everything we expect them to.

But what about our most important tier, the one that will make people buy our products - the UI tier? it looks like we don't have that kind of luxury of choosing a framework and we'll probably use ASP.Net.

And don't get me wrong - I really like ASP.Net and there are many splendid Ajax tool-kits\frameworks out-there that really are great,
But at the end of the day its basically HTML, and HTML is no fun - its too abstract, requires us to use Scripting languages which are hard to maintain and develop, not Object-Oriented, insecure, platform-dependent (each browser has its own engine) and many other cons.

So after cussing for a couple of days we'll probably use ASP.Net and be happy with it, because there is no other option...

Isn't there?


Adobe Flex Flash Developer
For most of us, Flash still sounds like a kids app for funny videos and games.
But apparently its a fully compliant Object-Oriented language!
So here are 3 facts you didn't know about flash:

1. Cross-Platform: Flash is supported for over 10 platforms amongst them are: Windows, Linux, Mac, Nokia (*), Solaris, Palm OS, BeOS and more.

2. Performance: From results of a benchmark done a few weeks ago, (See Benchmark Here) Flash is faster than Microsoft's new alternative - WPF\E, and on certain circumstances even faster than WPF!

3. IDE: Since mid 2004, Flash has a fully featured IDE based on the open-source Eclipse.

The most amazing thing about Flash is that it's absolutely server-side agnostic.
You could build a fully managed .Net back-end and connect your Flash GUI smoothly to it by WebServices or even directly call to your .Net methods.

Yep that's right using Macromedia's Remoting MX technology you can directly call your .Net methods from the flash code (Here's how)


Conclusion:
Before you start developing you next project, you should check reall good if ASP.Net is really the best way...

Sternr's Complete Programmer Tutorial

Many people ask me, "sternr, how can one be like you - such a brilliant, funny yet good looking programmer???" ,

Well my friends, I decided to do my duty to man kind, and reveal my 10 steps to become a hardcore programmer!

Sternr's Complete HowTo Tutorial for Becoming a Hardcore Programmer

1. You're not a programmer, you're a Software Engineer.
And a damn good one if I might say.

2. There is no combination of upper-case letters you haven't heard of.
You simple know it by its earlier code name.

3. The Dual Buzzword Principle - Use as many buzzwords as you can.
but beware - there is a small and extincting specie of bold programmers who might ask you to explain what it means.
But even these rare few will not dare to ask twice - and here comes the duality principle: always save a backup buzzword to explain the buzzword.

4. Every design\idea that is not yours has a flaw.
If you cant find it, than it's a security hole - and besides, you would've done it differently...

5. NEVER argue with the Sysadmin - unlike the programmer next door, he really know what he's talking about.

6. Your code is NOT complex and hard to maintain.
It's simply flexible. very flexible.

7. The future is here - advice and talk as much as you can about technologies & products that still have no release date.
You cant be contradicted, yet no hard question can be asked - the design is not final...

8. Install a Linux on at least one of your computers.
You don't have to study, like or use it. but you must have one.
Note: It is recommended to say once a day (don't overdue else you'd be asked questions you cant answer) why you prefer Linux

9. Command Line - Use it as much as you can.
Everyone knows its stupid, but it looks impressive.

10. This is the last, but most important.
In the Hi-Tech industry - and IT especially, people are measured by 2 things and 2 things only: Self Confidence, and Experience.

It is very unfortunate (one might notice that this has nothing to do with how smart or good one is...) but true.

And because of it, it doesn't matter how much or what mistakes you do, its simply how you react to them, its how you react in meetings, and especially under pressure.

So simply stay cool.

Like me ;)

IIS 6.0 & "Connection Dropped" HTTP.sys Error

If you're an IIS (6.0) admin, you're probably quite familiar with the HTTP.sys error log, and even more with the "Connection Dropped" mysterious error.
Charis Ad has a great post explaining everything about this apparently not so dangerous error, here's his explanation.

Thanks Chris!

Whats Behind W3WP Number Three?

Why?
I mean, they've got different names, different id's maybe even different users, so why on earth does IIS 6.0 makes it so hard to know which w3wp.exe process is running which Application pool?!

Although Microsoft offers us the IISApp.vbs script - which does exactly what I want (and even allows you to do certain actions like pool recycling etc.), this script works only on the current machine and has no support for remote servers.

The quickest - yet dirtiest solution would be to run the script remotely - whether it's by using PSEXEC, or through telnet - it's all the same, but not really recommended, especially not on production...

So, what can we do?

WMI to the Rescue!

After some work, I've found out that each w3wp process hosting an Application pool has some very interesting command-line arguments, I'll discuss these arguments in the future but right now the important thing is - the last argument w3wp gets is - hold your breath - the AppPool name it runs! hooray!

Here's a little code sample on how to implement this using .Net:

using System.Management; // Add reference to System.Management

/* A simple Value Object representing one Application Pool */
public class AppPool()
{
    public int ProcessId;
    public string Name;
    public long UsedMemory;
}

/* Gets remote server's name, returns list of all AppPools */
private List<AppPool> getAppPools(string serverName)
{
    ManagementScope scope;

    /* Change the query to select * if you want more details */
    SelectQuery query = new SelectQuery(
"SELECT ProcessId, CommandLine, WorkingSetSize FROM Win32_Process Where Name = 'w3wp.exe'");

    ManagementObjectSearcher searcher;
    List<AppPool> appPools = new List<AppPool>();

    /* If you do not have sufficient rights, impersonate */
    ConnectionOptions options = new ConnectionOptions();
    options.Username = @"MyDomain\admin";
    options.Password = "pwd";
    options.EnablePrivileges = true;

    scope = new ManagementScope(
        @"\\" + serverName + @"\root\cimv2", options);
    scope.Connect();

    searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query);

    foreach (ManagementObject mob in searcher.Get())
    {
      AppPool appPool = new AppPool();
      PropertyData property = mob.Properties["CommandLine"];

      int pos;

      /* Now we parse the AppPool name from the args */
      appPool.Name = property.Value.ToString();
      pos = appPool.Name.Length - 1;
      appPool.Name = appPool.Name.Substring(0, pos);
      pos = appPool.Name.LastIndexOf("\"") + 1;
      appPool.Name = appPool.Name.Substring(pos);

      /* And find the processId for this AppPool */
      property = mob.Properties["ProcessId"];
      appPool.ProcessId = Convert.ToInt32(property.Value);

      /* General process info, i.e: memory usage */
      property = mob.Properties["WorkingSetSize"];
      appPool.UsedMemory = int.parse(property.Value.ToString());

      /* Convert from Bytes, to MBs */
      appPool.UsedMemory = appPool.UsedMemory / 1048576;

      appPools.Add(appPool);

    }

    return appPools;

}

Although I've written this code in .Net 2.0, except for the Generics, I think it should work on 1.x too...

T From Type Generics #2

Generics are fun. but from the first day I started playing with it, I was intrigued by one main question: how to really make it dynamic.

The hole problem lays in T - how the hell, do I create an instance of a generic type???

To be more clear, I'll give an example:


Lets say I have the following class:

public class GenericChild
{ /* Some Code Here */ }

Now, I want to be able to create GenericChild objects dynamically - at runtime, like the following:

public static void Main()
{
  object child = CreateChild(Type.GetType("System.Collections.ArrayList");

How will you implement the "CreateChild" method?


Type.MakeGenericType
Thanks to Oliver Sturm, I found out, that the Type object has been quite extended,
Take a look at the answer:

public static object CreateChild(Type t)
{
  Type origType = typeof(GenericChild<>);
  Type genType = origType.MakeGenericType(childType);
  return genType.Assembly.CreateInstance(genType.FullName);
}

Ah, the wonders of Generics ;)