Cincinnati Coder

Threads in Android - ProgressDialog showing up all late

2010-11-18T13:27:00.001-08:00

If you need to display a progress bar and its not showing up and your code done executing, then you need to learn threads. You have to execute your long running code in a sperate thread (downloading data, saving user perferences, i.e., any long running process). However, you cannot update the UI in your new thread. You will have to create a 'Handler' and post messages from your new thread. The handler will hand the message off to the UI/calling thread. I learned all of this from here: simple progress bar dialog in android with thread

test

2010-10-19T18:41:00.001-07:00

test!

Android emulator reports unknown virtual device name

2010-10-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Android emulator reports unknown virtual device

Are you getting the following error:
emulator: ERROR: unknown virtual device name: 'Android21Device'
emulator: could not find virtual device named 'Android21Device'
----------

Well the emulator is C app and the android tool is a Java app so they
have slightly different ways to get your user profile directly.

Out of curiosity, if you do a "set" under a command-prompt, what is
your USERPROFILE variable?

Your best solution is to define a global environement variable ANDROID_SDK_HOME.

To do that: Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings

> Environment Variables. Create a new user one called

"ANDROID_SDK_HOME" and set it to the path where you want .android to
be created, e.g. maybe "d:\"

-----
Sources:
Google Groups
Stack Overflow

Receiving 'Validation of viewstate MAC failed' for sites migrated form .NET 1.1 to 3.5 IIS7

2010-07-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

The below saved me a lot of time!!

-----------------------------------

Validation of viewstate MAC failed after installing .NET 3.5 SP1
Tess Ferrandez 14 Apr 2009 8:04 AM
Comments 42
After installing .NET 3.5 SP1 you may get Validation of viewstate MAC failed exceptions when doing post backs on ASP.NET pages

Validation of viewstate MAC failed. If this application is hosted by a Web Farm or cluster, ensure that configuration specifies the same validationKey and validation algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: Validation of viewstate MAC failed. If this application is hosted by a Web Farm or cluster, ensure that configuration specifies the same validationKey and validation algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster.
Stack Trace:

[HttpException (0x80004005): Unable to validate data.]
System.Web.Configuration.MachineKeySection.GetDecodedData(Byte[] buf, Byte[] modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength) +289
System.Web.UI.ObjectStateFormatter.Deserialize(String inputString) +140

[ViewStateException: Invalid viewstate.
Client IP: 127.0.0.1
Port: 34562
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.2; WOW64; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.590; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; Zune 3.0; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; MS-RTC LM 8)
ViewState: /wEPDwUKMTc2NzE0NzA0NmRkmWc0SFS8H55FfURfpUekG2KhS8g=
Referer: http://localhost/MySite/Default3.aspx
Path: /MySite/Default.aspx]

[HttpException (0x80004005): Validation of viewstate MAC failed. If this application is hosted by a Web Farm or cluster, ensure that configuration specifies the same validationKey and validation algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster.]
System.Web.UI.ViewStateException.ThrowError(Exception inner, String persistedState, String errorPageMessage, Boolean macValidationError) +106
System.Web.UI.ViewStateException.ThrowMacValidationError(Exception inner, String persistedState) +14
System.Web.UI.ObjectStateFormatter.Deserialize(String inputString) +242
System.Web.UI.ObjectStateFormatter.System.Web.UI.IStateFormatter.Deserialize(String serializedState) +4
System.Web.UI.Util.DeserializeWithAssert(IStateFormatter formatter, String serializedState) +37
System.Web.UI.HiddenFieldPageStatePersister.Load() +207
System.Web.UI.Page.LoadPageStateFromPersistenceMedium() +105
System.Web.UI.Page.LoadAllState() +43
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +6785
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +242
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest() +80
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestWithNoAssert(HttpContext context) +21
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) +49
ASP.default_aspx.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) +4
System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +181
System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +75

Cause:

This will happen if you have specified an action on the forms element, and if the action is different than the page you are browsing to, i.e. in this case the page I am browsing to is Default3.aspx, but the action is set to Default.aspx (as you can see from the Path and Referer in the error message)

'

Stock Price Alerts - Applicaiton for Android

2010-05-04T04:19:00.001-07:00

Are you the type of person who watch the stock market closely? Then get Stock Price Alerts for Android. Its an awsome app that alerts you when a stock moves up or down.

Android:Great Android Application - Stock Price...

2010-05-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

Android:Great Android Application - Stock Price...

Android Stock Alerting Application - Update Released

2010-04-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

A new update has been released for Stock Price Alerts (app for the Android Market). The application now supports news headlines. The latest news headlines can be access from any stock in your stock list. Just "long press" any stock and the "More Actions" menu will appear. Then tap "Get latest news headlines"!

Code Sign error: Provisioning Profile cannot be found

2010-04-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

If you get this crappy message from XCode because you updated your provisioning profile, then do the following.

In XCode, in the "Groups & Files" pane, expand "Targets" and double-click on your app's target.

This will bring up the Info pane for your target. In the "Build" section, check the "code signing" section for any old profiles. I found that it was building to an old profile there.

Source: http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/iphone-sdk-development/21137-updated-3-0-now-provisioning-profile-cant-found.html

Android Stock Alerting Application

2010-03-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

AlienHive Labs just released its first application - Stock Price Alerts.

What is Stick Price Alerts?
Stock Price Alerts is a simple and easy to use application that notifies you when a stock has hit it's configured low or high price. How you ask? After you setup your stock list (ticker, low/high prices, and enable notifications) you can enable the alerting system to automatically update your stock list. The alerting system will run in the background pulling data from the Internet. A notification will be sent once a stock has hits its low or high price.

More information: http://sites.google.com/site/alienhivelabs/

Android Indicates whether the specified service is already started

2010-03-02T20:17:00.001-08:00

/**
* Indicates whether the specified service is already started.
* This method queries the activity manager for launched services that
* can respond to an binding with an specific service name.
* If no existed service is found, this method returns null.
*
* @param context The context of the activity
* @param className The service full name to check for availability.
*
* @return ComponentName if the service is already existed, NULL otherwise.
*/
public static ComponentName isServiceExisted(Context context, String className)
{
ActivityManager activityManager = (ActivityManager)context.getSystemService(ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List serviceList =activityManager.getRunningServices(Integer.MAX_VALUE);

if(!(serviceList.size() > 0))
{
return null;
}

for(int i = 0; i < serviceList.size(); i++)
{
RunningServiceInfo serviceInfo = serviceList.get(i);
ComponentName serviceName = serviceInfo.service;

if(serviceName.getClassName().equals(className))
{
return serviceName;
}
}

return null;
}

Android Notification Crashes App

2010-02-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

If you want to have a notification vibrate then you must add a permission in the manifest file.

Guy Barrette's Blog - SQL Management Studio – Saving changes is not permitted

2010-02-02T11:36:00.000-08:00

The following saved me for banding my head on the table!

Guy Barrette's Blog - SQL Management Studio – Saving changes is not permitted

Work around to install Microsoft's Expression Blend Trail Installation

2009-04-28T06:40:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I just sovled this problem too with the trail version of Expression Blend. Here is what I did:

If you can an error screen when installing Microsoft's Expressions Blend 2 Trail, then follow these instructions for a work around.

1. Start the Blend_Trail_en.exe

2. When it crashes, DO NOT CLOSE THE WINDOW. Let it sit there. Just move it to the side or out of your way.

3. Find on your hard drive where the setup executable extraced the files. It will be in a folder with a GUID as its folder name.

4. Open the GUID folder and open the Setup folder. You should see the Blend_en.msi.

5. Double click the Blend_en.msi to install.

6. It should install properly.

7. Close the previous error window.

8. Run Expressions from your start menu!

This worked for me. Not sure why we have to hack programs like this but at least it worked!

Let me know if you have any luck.

ADO for iPhone?

2009-03-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, it looks so. Core Data for iPhone 3.0 brings an object relation mapping framework like ADO does for .NET. Please read the following information: http://www.mobileorchard.com/getting-ready-for-core-data-in-30/

App store in trouble

2008-12-11T05:52:00.001-08:00

Looks like the $.99 pricing point of Apple's app store is cutting the competition so fierce that it may not allow developers to recoup the cost of making an app. More details using the following link: iPhone App Store Domed!

Pics of my new House

2008-11-03T06:04:00.000-08:00

Barack vs. McCain - Dance Off

2008-10-28T06:12:00.001-07:00

Folks, If you are like me, you are getting sick of all the campaign commercials on TV and the radio. All the candidates do is bash each other and its starting to makes me sick. At this point, I don't believe either side. But I found this campaign video that finally made me laugh.

Who would of though, Barack vs. McCain - dance off.

Now that is something to consider before going voting!

Halloween Party!

2008-10-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Here is a slide show of the Halloween Party from this past Saturday. Thank to all who made it. The rest; you miss a great time!

Samsung Instinct Phone Updates - MR4 Release

2008-10-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

Public Release Notes for Instinct Firmware Update MR4Version: BJ20Delivery: OTAProjected Release Date: 11/12 (BOTH client & network initiated) Projected Release Dates are best estimates and are subject to change with no notice.Notes: Instinct firmware BJ20 includes the resolution of 165 tickets open since the previous public firmware release, BH29, including:

5442 - links fail on smoking gun website

5872 - VVM Client is not able to make Data connection

5886 - Ebay login fails in standard mode browser

6015 - Voice notification speaks wrong contact name

6016 - Device UI locks when FUMO push is being received

6025 - Initial Mobile Sync can cause device to slow down until initial sync completes6036 - bestbuy.com soft-resets device

6039 - deleting ringers can soft-reset device

The release also provides the foundation for the first public release of the updated Sprint Mobile Email Work Calendar. The new work calendar, available OTA 11/21, syncs with one or more Exchange (OWA) based calendars, and allows for meeting creation, editing and alerting on the go.

Also included in MR4:* Java refit to better enable 4-way/OK and text input to LCDUI widget-based applications. Yes, this is the Java Keyboard you've been waiting for.* support for native document viewing for many popular office document types including .doc, .pdf, .ppt, .xls and othersIndividual application upgrades for the MR4 period are expected to go live the week of 11/21 (all dates are estimates and are subject to change with no notice). Exact go-live dates depend on application vendor.

Source: http://forums.buzzaboutwireless.com/baw/board/message?board.id=Samsung_Instinct&message.id=22487#M22487

Not Just Another Object-Relational Mapping Service

2008-10-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

All,

I wrote a blog post for my company's blog. You can read it my click this link: http://thefuturevalueofbusiness.com/not-just-another-object-relational-mapping-service.htm.

Happy Coding!

iPhone SDK and Xcode Tutorial

2008-10-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

This site: http://icodeblog.com/ has the best iPhone SDK and Xcode tutorials.

I tried googling and searching the Apple website and found nothing that was of help to a beginner Xcode developer. Apple has done a poor job with releasing good documentation of the iPhone SDK or How-Tos/code samples to help beginners learn to write applications on their iPhone platform.

The creator of http://icodeblog.com/ has done a super job at creating blog and video based Xcode development tutorials that are geared to the VERY BEGINNER. They are easy to follow and they build!!!!

Give them a try and let me what you think.

I am successfully writing iPhone apps thanks to this site.

Have a great weekend,
Steven McWhorter

Latest Give Back Cincinnati Event!

2008-09-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures from the latest GBC event I participated in. The organization helped clean up and paint different businesses and public places around the Norwood's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwood,_Ohio) business district. The pictures below are from the public pool that is on Montgomery road.

Give Back Cincinnati is a great organization that provides opportunity for young professionals to give back (pun intended) to the community. You can volunteer anytime with no pressure. Its all up to you.

Windows Without Walls

2008-09-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

The new Microsoft commercials are out and I for one love them. I like how Microsoft defends the PC but does not attack Apple directly. Do unto others as you have others do unto you, or something like that right? Apple makes PCs look boring, limiting, and flat out stupid. We all know that’s not true. You can do a lot with a PC. Heck, I do a lot with my PC every day.

I blog, email, watch videos, organize my pictures and music, pay my bills, and program and design web sites. My world connected by bits and bytes are not limited because I don't use an Apple. Apple is a sexier machine then a PC right now. I admit it; they do look better. That's not Microsoft's fault. Tell DELL or HP or any PC manufacturer to tell their suppliers to make sexy PC cases and laptop shells. That might make PC lose its stuffy shirt and tie! I ofter hear, "Apple's just works better." That maybe true too but they do not have every hardware vendor in the work running on their operating system. Apple also doesn't have every hacker in the world trying to break it. Come on; you got to give Microsoft a little credit.

Anywho, PC and Microsoft and synonyms and if one sucks so does the other. Let’s hope change can happen and they both become better. At least the commercials are good!

Just watch it!!!

Role Based Security for ASP.NET Content Management

2008-09-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

I found this article from the ASP.NET Daily Article blog and posting it on my site. Its a great solution for web application security down to the page element level. Please read!!!

"Designing a web based Information Management System poses a lot of challenges to developers. One of these challenges is how to provide the proper security to different users with different access to an application. Often times certain users will be allowed to update specific fields while others can only view them. It is essential to design for adequate security features in the presentation layer of your application." Source: http://microsoft.apress.com/asptodayarchive/74047/web-applications-and-role-based-content-rendering

Pictures of Local Ike Damage

2008-09-15T06:53:00.000-07:00

New Give Back Cincinnati Event

2008-09-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

Please click the following link http://www.givebackcincinnati.org/v3/events_details.asp?EventID=1220 and sign up for GBC's lastest and greatest event.

Norwood is a thriving and evolving part of Cincinnati which needs people to help her shine.

I will be there with bells on and so should you!

Cincinnati Code on Google Search

2008-09-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

All,

I finally made it to number 4 on Google's search results for search string "Cincinnati Coder"!

I am sooooo happy. It took about 3 weeks for this to happen.

Just needed to get that out there!

Sorry for the useless post.

.Steven_McWhorter

XML Serialization

2008-08-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

Nice article about how to Serialize and DeSerialize objects in XML.http://www.dotnetfunda.com/articles/article98.aspx. This is really handy when you want to make saving objects very versatile and not database dependent. Below is a list of additional reasons to use XML Serialization.

Storing user preferences in an object.
Maintaining security information across pages and applications.
Modification of XML documents without using the DOM.
Passing an object from one application to another.
Passing an object from one domain to another.
Passing an object through a firewall as an XML string.
Source (http://www.dotnetjohn.com/articles.aspx?articleid=173)

To make objects serializable, I create an XSD schema that represents my object. You know, contract first, then code last.

Then I use a code generator that will generate a .NET class that makes my object XML serializable. Its called XSD Object Generator which is a plug in for Visual Studio. You can download the tool from here: http://weblogs.asp.net/jdanforth/archive/2004/09/18/231209.aspx.

Then you can create a XML serializer and deserializer helper classes. These classes will take an object in memory and serialize it to an XML stream or hydrate a XML stream to an object. I usually hook in a Database helper class and save the XML string to the database for later use.

Have fun! Let me know if this makes sense.

Samsung Instinct Phone Updates

2008-08-13T06:09:00.000-07:00

All,

If any of you out there have the Samsung Instinct then you will be happy to here that Sprint is pushing updates to the Visual Voice Mail and Sprint TV applications today.

I don't know what the differences are yet. When I find out I will update this post.

Enjoy the Instinct. I know I am.

SQL 2008 is Released!!!!

2008-08-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

SQL Server 2008 is one of Microsoft's best products ever. Me personally, I love it. Its fast, scalable, developer friendly (unlike Oracle), and worry free.

For a comprehensive list of new features and changes read this blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/chadboyd/archive/2007/07/26/katmai-sql-2008-the-list-of-new-features.aspx.

To learn more about SQL Server 2008 visit the TechNet site: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc434690.aspx.

.NET DataTable Select Experssions

2008-08-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I like to get raw data from a database table and select information from it through .NET code. I use the SELECT() method and pass it an expression. The problem is I never remember what types of expressions are valid. So I am listing them here as I come across them. One thing to remeber. If your column names have spaces, use brackets around the column name.

*Column name with spaces
string filter = "[job grade] = '" + jobGradeRowsToUpDate[j]["JobGrade"].ToString() + "'";

* NOT IN (item 1,item 2,...)
DataRow[] jobGradeRowsToDelete = currentJobGradeData.Select("jobgrade NOT IN (" + newJobGradeID + ")");

* not equal <>
DataRow[] jobGradeRowsToDelete = currentJobGradeData.Select("jobgrade <> '1'");

Other
Expression Operators
The list of supported operators is somewhat small:

Math Operators:

+ (addition)
- (subtraction)
* (multiplication)
/ (division)
% (modulus, the remainder after division)
String Operator:

+ (concatenation, joining strings)
Comparison Operators:

< (less than) > (greater than)
<= (less than or equal to) >= (greater than or equal to)
<> (not equal to)
= (equal)
IN (compare to a list of items)
LIKE (pattern matching)
Scalar Functions:

Convert (change from one data type to another)
Len (return the length of the string)
IsNull (test for null)
IIf (Immediate If)
Trim (trim white space from string)
Substring (return a part of a string)
Aggregation Functions:

Sum (Sum)
Avg (Average)
Min (Minimum)
Max (Maximum)
Count (Count)
StDev (Standard deviation)
Var (Statistical variance)

**Source: http://home.hot.rr.com/graye/Articles/ADO_Expressions.htm

Edit Template in GridView Control

2008-05-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

Some times you may want to edit items in a GridView control but you don't want every column to be editable. To do this you need to set the READONLY property to false.

ex)asp:boundfield visible="false">"

The columns that you want to edit you need to create a
instead of using the and set the contorls (one to manage the data and one to enable the edit row index by postback) that will handle the edit in the . In the example below, I have a which will handle the edit and a to postback and edit the GridView.
EditIndex property. You will have to rebind the grid for the edit template to display. Below

Ex)
"

<asp:BoundField ReadOnly="true" DataField="PPemployeeid" HeaderText="EMPID" SortExpression="PPemployeeid" HeaderStyle-ForeColor="Black" HeaderStyle-Wrap="false" ItemStyle-Wrap="false" ItemStyle-Width="50px"/>

Functional Title

Edit

"

--Code Behind--

protected void lkbEditFT_OnClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.gvData.EditIndex = 2;
this.gvData.DataSource = myData.Tables[0];
this.gvData.DataBind();
}

The grid should look like this after postback

Installing MOSS B2TR

2007-08-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

Here are the following steps I used to install OSS B2TR

1. Start with a fresh installation of Windows Server 2003. Or uninstall all Office production from a machine with a B2 installation and clear out all Office related registry entries

2. Install OSS B2

3. Run the Configuration Wizard after the installation is complete

4. After the Configuration Wizard is done, make sure the SharePoint Central Administration tool loads. If the configuration is complete, do not add any Web Application or Site Collections. If you receive this error during the installation of Office SharePoint Server 2007:"The language is not supported on the server"It means that you have uninstalled a previous version (or the same version) of Office SharePoint Server on the server, and it has taken the Server Language reg value with it!In order to fix the problem, you need to restore the Server Language registry value by creating the following .reg file (open notepad and paste the following):Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\ServerLanguage]"1033"=""

5. Go into the Service node of the MMC and stop and disable the Office SharePoint Search and Window SharePoint Search.

6. Once the search services are stopped, starts the WSS B2TR installation (filename: WSSv3b2tr-kb000000-x86-fullfile-en-us.exe). Once that is complete, and if you have OSS installed, a dialog box should prompt the user to upgrade at least one more product on the server.

7. After completing the WSS B2TR then start the OSS B2TR installation (OfficeServerb2tr-kb000000-x86-fullfile-en-us.exe).

8. Once complete, the configuration wizard should start and reconfigure OSS. 9. Once complete, you should be able to setup a Default Web Application and the Default Site Collection as well as the Shared Service Provider.

Hope this helps!!!!