Digital Development, Poly-technical Noise

Pages From 99% I liked

2011-10-11T09:54:00.001-07:00

This piece on the power of uncertain times was a good read:

http://the99percent.com/tips/7014/The-Power-of-Uncertainty

This one about 25 insights on how to be a better writer was also worth a read:

http://the99percent.com/tips/7082/25-Insights-on-Becoming-a-Better-Writer

And this about how a talented executive learned to lead:

http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/09/how-i-learned-to-run-a-company.html

And last but not least, 12 attributes of a really great place to work:

http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/09/the-twelve-attributes-of-a-tru.html

Android Application Trouble with "android.hardware.screen.landscape"

2011-10-06T18:15:00.000-07:00

The Problem:

When you upload your APK to the Android Market it is flagged with an awful and mysterious permisison called "android.hardware.screen.landscape" and this limits your devices to a very small number.

The Issue:

You have a landscape application that does not support portrait. However, your application will run on many devices that are rotated even if they do not specifically have the landscape hardware (ie, no portrait mode?)

The Solution:

Add the following line to your AndroidManifest.xml and everything will be fine.

Notes

At some point Google added this as a filter during upload. It came on and off for a while depending on what SDK you use. Various people have posted / Tweet'd that it can be fixed with an SDK upgrade. That may or may not be true on your platform or at the time you read this.

Trese Brother's Software: Cyber Knights RPG Reaches 50,000 Downloads

2011-07-25T01:33:00.000-07:00

Trese Brother's Software: Cyber Knights RPG Reaches 50,000 Downloads: "Andrew and I wanted to write a quick blog post and say 'Thank You, thank you' to everyone who has downloaded, played and rated Cyber Knights..."

Android Development on Windows

2011-07-23T11:12:00.001-07:00

If you are doing any Android development on Windows 7 OS you should install these Codecs:

http://www.xiph.org/dshow/downloads/

They will really help you get around inside the media that Android APK are packaging, like OGG files.

Follow me on Twitter @corytrese

Android Java on Code Google

2011-07-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

Another useful code pile for Android research:

http://code.google.com/p/apps-for-android/source/browse/trunk/SpriteMethodTest#SpriteMethodTest%2Fsrc%2Fcom%2Fandroid%2Fspritemethodtest

Tutorial I used to Star CyberKnights

2011-06-28T11:50:00.001-07:00

I started with this tutorial on game loops:

http://p-xr.com/android-tutorial-how-to-make-a-basic-game-loop-and-fps-counter/

Used the Android documentation on databases.

We also used TileEd (www.mapeditor.org) and Excel / Google Docs

Codedependent: Android Rendering Options

2011-06-27T23:12:00.000-07:00

Codedependent: Android Rendering Options: "I've given some talks about Android graphics recently, and the same questions keep coming up: What is Renderscript appropriate for? Is it a ..."

Android ADT Eclipse: Unknown error: java.lang.NullPointerException

2011-06-03T09:56:00.001-07:00

Do you have this error?

[2011-06-03 09:52:51 - AndroidSamNinteen] Unknown error: java.lang.NullPointerException

If you have this error, GIVE UP NOW.

This error cannot be fixed.

Eclipse is corrupted in a way that cannot be recovered.

the only solution I have ever found (sixth time) is the second you see this error, remove everything, delete all files and start over.

1. New install of Eclipse

2. New install of ADT

3. Recreate project by hand (import source files)

4. Now it will build

Eclipse Android

2011-06-02T20:21:00.001-07:00

#Eclipse ADT for #Android and Windows XP -- a match made in heaven. They both need to be restarted about 27 times a day.

Questions I should have Asked at Google IO

2011-06-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

@AndroidDev Questions I should have asked #io2011:

Why 9-patches, why not XML?

Why is /tools/ so bad?

Does Google use any of these tools?

Working From Home

2011-06-01T12:55:00.001-07:00

I'm stuck working from my house a lot due to the fact that they re-assigned my desk at work to a contractor. (Seriously.)

http://blog.intuit.com/trends/4-tips-for-improving-your-home-office-environment/

There are some good tips from our friends over at GoPayment.

Class for Creating Bold Text in Android

2011-05-25T15:19:00.001-07:00

This class has saved me TONS of time ...

public class StyleableSpannableStringBuilder extends SpannableStringBuilder {

public StyleableSpannableStringBuilder appendWithStyle(CharacterStyle c, CharSequence text) {

super.append(text);

final int startPos = length() - text.length();

setSpan(c, startPos, length(), 0);

return this;

}

public StyleableSpannableStringBuilder appendBold(CharSequence text) {

return appendWithStyle(new StyleSpan(Typeface.BOLD), text);

}

public StyleableSpannableStringBuilder appendItalic(CharSequence text) {

return appendWithStyle(new StyleSpan(Typeface.ITALIC), text);

}

Building Blocks for Saved Game Export

2011-05-22T16:24:00.001-07:00

You can export a game with these links:

Use ExternalFile Storage ...

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html

There is a permission you'll need here:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html#WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE

Dealing with the "gen" folder in Android -- Clean, Error, Clean, Build, Etc

2011-05-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

From StackOverflow:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3820517/clean-in-eclipse-temporarily-destroys-android-project-with-error-message-missing

So valuable I needed to repost it

We have finally tracked the last problem regarding this bug.
The "clean" action used to always delete the "gen" folder which was wrong. This was fixed in ADT 8 or 9, I can't remember.
However, if the "gen" folder is marked as derived it still gets deleted which leads to the error.
When the "New Project Wizard" is run, the gen folder is created normally, without the "derived" flag, so this is fine.
The following scenario however is broken:
delete manually gen, or
check in the source code in a repository (git/svn/...) and don't put the "gen" folder in there, then do a check out on another computer.
This leads to ADT recreating automatically the "gen" folder during build, this time enabling the "derived" flag, which will trigger the wrong behavior on "clean".
The temporary solution is to:
right click "gen"
choose "Properties"
uncheck "Derived"
as long as the "gen" folder doesn't get deleted you'll be able to clean your project without side effect.
I just checked in a fix to: - never mark the folder as "derived" - during clean, first remove the "derived" flag from "gen" so that it doesn't get deleted in the case of older projects. Patch is visible at:https://review.source.android.com/#change,22410

Bookmarks and Reading for 5/13

2011-05-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Artificial Intelligence

Anyone who is trying to build compelling single player games will be faced with the need to create a compelling second player -- the AI.

http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2009/06/designing-emergent-ai-part-1.html

IDE vs. Command Line

For those of us who are building in Eclipse for our Android projects, there is another way if you are willing to work at it.

http://realmike.org/blog/2010/10/31/android-development-without-eclipse/

Why the HTML5 vs. Flash Debate Is Already Over

2011-05-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

This is a battle of one vs. many.

Adobe vs. Google/Apple/Microsoft/Opera

JavaScript and HTML5 cannot help but win because they have numbers.

Maybe not browser numbers yet -- but Adobe doesn't even make a browser.

Much Needed In Eclipse: Keyboard Shortcut Master

2011-05-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

If you are using Eclipse fast then you are a keyboard shortcut master. There is always a new trick to learn tho -- here are some of the basics:

http://rayfd.wordpress.com/2007/05/20/10-eclipse-navigation-shortcuts-every-java-programmer-should-know/

http://www.allapplabs.com/eclipse/eclipse_shortcuts.htm

Trese Brother's Software: Star Traders RPG v3.6.13 Released

2011-05-06T01:27:00.000-07:00

Trese Brother's Software: Star Traders RPG v3.6.13 Released: "Another bugfix release of our Android game, Star Traders RPG is available on the Android Market! Just point your browser or Android handset..."

Trese Brother's Software: Star Traders RPG v3.6.9 Released

2011-04-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

Trese Brother's Software: Star Traders RPG v3.6.9 Released: "The newest version of Star Traders RPG has been released to the Android Market! You can download the free to play edition also available f..."

Another release of my Star Traders RPG game, a from-scratch one-man development project using Java and Eclipse.

Trese Brother's Software: Star Traders RPG v3.6.8 Released

2011-04-14T02:49:00.000-07:00

Trese Brother's Software: Star Traders RPG v3.6.8 Released: "Full Screen Option Better Honeycomb Support Improved Game Skins Added First 4 Backgrounds for Game Screens Improved Map Movement Performance..."

Bad Idea

2011-04-08T17:37:00.001-07:00

Geeking out reading old backstory of The Ur-Quan Masters on Wiki pages when I should be coding

Refactoring Tools: Eclipse v. Visual Studio 2010

2011-04-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

After coding with both Visual Studio 2010 Professional and Eclipse Basic 3.6 I can honestly say, Visual Studio sucks at refactoring.

The basic "change method signature" tool in Eclipse -- which is free -- is honestly at least 5 times better than the Visual Studio version which cost me -- literally -- thousands of dollars.

It seems that the best way to get Visual Studio to refactor at roughly the same level as Eclipse is to purchase ANOTHER commercial product -- ReSharper to plug into Visual Studio and bring up the refactoring. Really?

Telerik RadControls

2011-04-05T09:07:00.001-07:00

I would not trust anything they say about the capabilities of this application component outside of our own ability to verify and test it.

I have opened over 10 tickets with TELERIK regarding these controls and not a single one of them has been resolved with "the documentation was correct, here is the configuration parameter you need."

Resolutions are most often are "You do not understand ASP.net" or "none of our other clients use load balancers."

Short answer -- don't trust Telerik any farther than you can throw them.

2011-04-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Android Market for Publishers has been up and down for days/weeks ... I press reload every 10 or 15 minutes and push updates the moment it shows me something that works. Sometimes the updates, work, sometimes they don't. Pretty random, but you always get something like this at the end:

Google Android Market User Interface

Android Market Stability Down to 50%?

2011-04-03T12:55:00.001-07:00

We're into the second week of nasty Android Market problems right now

Problems range from:
1) Getting 404 on the page
2) Not loading any applications in the console
3) Being told your applications don't belong to you
4) Statistics off by an order of magnitude
5) Data not updating
6) Google Checkout skipping a day in payments

7) Updates Failing to Publish

Amazon Android Developer App Market Is Terrible Right Now

2011-03-31T21:17:00.001-07:00

Starting to regret the Amazon AppStore choice! I really feel cheated and I'm considering taking my applications down. @amznappstoredev

Uploadify and ASP.Net with jQuery for File Upload using HttpModule

2011-03-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

If you are managing any type of content management system using ASP.Net you are probably using jQuery in some respects. One useful browser-side plugin for jQuery uses Flash to upload files. This plugin is called Uploadify and ships with a PHP server side component. There is a great post on ASP.Net snippets about replacing the File Upload Server Side component with a C#/.Net HttpModule for IIS.

http://www.aspsnippets.com/Articles/Multiple-File-Uploads-Gmail-Style-using-JQuery-and-ASP.Net.aspx

Amazon Android Developer App Market Is Terrible Right Now

2011-03-03T00:21:00.001-08:00

Today (March 2011) the Amazon.com Android App Market is a total mess.

They are using insecure and out of date technology like FTP, failing to provide basic documentation on DRM and pretty much ignoring all requests for information.

It took (not a joke) more than 2 weeks to get the "I have found a technical person to ask" level response from the sales contact at http://twitter.com/#!/amznappstoredev

I really hope that they work on getting it together soon, because right now it's a total joke.

Flipping Views in Android

2011-03-01T09:16:00.001-08:00

Here is a great blog post about the two types of animated view flipping UX in the Android OS:

http://android-journey.blogspot.com/2009/12/android-viewflipper-and-slidingdrawer.html

ViewFlipper

and

SlidingDrawer

Eclipse Android Autocomplete Hangs

2011-02-28T12:02:00.001-08:00

Here is the solution to that terrible 1.2 second pause during autocomplete in the Android ADT API:

http://envyandroid.com/archives/66/slow-android-autocomplete-eclipse-helios-36

Hot Swap AHCI Bay Rocks Socks

2011-02-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

OK guys this Super-Micro AHCI hot-swap SATA enclosure rocks socks. I am super happy.

Today is boxing day for my huge collection of external drives. I am no longer a slave to your crappy firewire interface, stupid power bricks or extreme heat generation and low quality fans!

Now I use a fully backed AHCI hotswap 8-bay and buy the SATA drives internal and on the cheap!

I'm backing Google on this one

2011-02-22T23:33:00.000-08:00

Guess what? A loose alliance of hardware and software manufacturers are going to create an ecosystem that topples Apple tech-monotone

Adding EULA or Introduction Screen to Android App

2011-02-17T12:16:00.000-08:00

Have some important text that always needs to be displayed and approved by the user when it changes? Common use case includes compliance notifications, license text or tutorials.

This useful Android development blog post outlines an excellent pattern for adding an EULA to your Android Java application:

http://blog.donnfelker.com/2011/02/17/android-a-simple-eula-for-your-android-apps/

Android Disappointment

2011-02-16T19:12:00.001-08:00

Shouldn't Android / Java have a CORE SDK / Language feature like "File.IO.File.Copy()" because it really seems obvious to me.

I am totally shocked that I spent 30 minutes trying to determine the optimal way to copy a file and it is like 30 lines long and looks dangerous.

Why not make it simple? Write once, run anywhere. What happened to that?

Servers Direct

2011-02-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

I have been having a wonderful time working with the system integration Servers Direct.

After more than five years of upgrading, extending and repairing a pair of workstations from earlier in the decade I decided to upgrade.

The two machines I was using were AMD x64 CPU systems and were built around gaming motherboards from DFI and NVidia. Never really intended as gaming boxes, I suffered a lot from expandability, heat and space issues using essentially consumer grade components for workstation grade work.

So this time I decided to make sure that it got done, and got done right. To that end I selected only workstation class components to build a machine that is certain to last comfortably for several long years of hard service.

For me, when I think about workstation class motherboards I think about Tyan and SuperMicro.

In the 1990s I was a die-hard Intel user and made the switch to AMD around the time of the Tyan Tiger and the Opteron (around 2003.) I ended up settling on Athlon64 processors in the end, but the Intel components were retired.

Now, in 2011 I have returned to my roots with the Xeon and Intel chipsets. Thank you Super Micro and Servers Direct.

More to come in future posts about the new computer experience ...

Windows 7 x64 Woes

2011-02-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

I am having some small issues as I work towards adjusting to the new operating system.

One issue that hurts me is that I cannot seem to make PreviewExtractor.exe (x86) like the Windows 7 environment, even with XP SP2 compatibility turned on.

If you are not using Windows 7, I suggest you take a look at this:

http://drchung.new21.net/previewextractor/

Really useful if you need fast JPG of NEF or RAW files.

Chrome MailTo: Links in Windows 7 x64

2011-02-15T13:24:00.001-08:00

Windows 7 seems to have a lot of configuration issues. It doesn't come with (at least my disk) mapping for the MailTo: URL type.

I installed this Google Chrome Extension to make it work in my browser.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgkkmcknielgdhebimdnfahpipajcpjn#

Robotium Enables Black Box Unit Testing with Android Mobile Applications and Games

2011-02-14T17:56:00.001-08:00

JUnit is the unit testing framework that really started it all and has a great number of mature features and add-on projects. One such project is Robotium which enabled wonderful black box testing of your Android application:

http://code.google.com/p/robotium/

You can even control it with the very friendly Selenium Remote-Control:

http://seleniumhq.org/projects/remote-control/

While I was searching Twitter for real-time updates to these subjects that I could include in this blog, I found a reference to RoboGuice which is an Android DI / IOC container. I did not know it existed, but I do like Guice:

http://code.google.com/p/roboguice/

Perhaps something to look at for an upcoming complex application ...

G-Mail Tasks Day #1

2011-02-14T16:55:00.000-08:00

I am going to start a few day adventure based on using Google Tasks to keep track of my to do issue list.

Email To Tasks

I will make use of the "Add E-Mail to Tasks" feature found under the "More Actions" button.

Tasks To Email

I will make use of the "E-Mail Tasks to Me" to have a list on my phone or when I need a summary on a big screen.

Interesting Android UI Study

2011-02-14T11:29:00.001-08:00

This interesting Android mobile UI study includes side-by-side comparisons of several popular social media applications running on Android.

http://mobile-patterns.com/

Why I am not Publishing on Amazon.com Android App Store

2011-02-14T10:56:00.001-08:00

Dear Amazon,

I am still trying to find someone to talk to about the DRM system! I've been poking around on Twitter and reading blogs but have had little success.

Most of the information I've been able to locate is regarding how to remove the DRM protection, which seems to be more detailed than Amazon's own docs.

Any feedback or explanation on the lack of details? Seems like a pretty big miss. Here is what I get from Google.

Documentation, Source Code and Reference Implementations:

http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/licensing.html

I would really like to use your Amazon Application Store, but you are making it very hard to entrust my APK and hard work to your DRM system.

Blocking E-Freedom

2011-01-25T00:02:00.000-08:00

EFreedom.com is an annoying StackOverflow clone.

You can block is by adding "-site:efreedom.com" to your Google searches.

Best way to do this using Chrome:

1> Options

2> Default Search Providers -> Click "Manage"

3> Add "-site:efreedom.com" to your Android search customs OR all Google searches

Or you could use use it ad-hoc

Use This In Games

2011-01-22T12:29:00.000-08:00

http://oudomvilla.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/create-icon-with-text-using-gridview-and-layout-inflater/

with this

http://securitymusings.com/article/2039/encrypt-stored-data-in-android

Make Google Chrome Search Twitter

2011-01-10T17:49:00.003-08:00

Options > Default Search > Manage

Select "Add" in the Mange Search Providers dialog

Field1: Twitter

Field2: tw

Field3: http://twitter.com/#!/search/%s

now just type "tw Star Traders" into Google Chrome to search twitter for Star Traders

Make Google Chrome Search Checkout

2011-01-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

Options > Default Search > Manage

Select "Add"

Field1: Checkout

Field2: Checkout

Field3: https://checkout.google.com/sell/searchResults?searchField=%s&searchSubmit=Search&ordersTable=1&backToSearch=false&backToInbox=1&showClosed=false

Make Chrome Search Android Documentation

2011-01-10T17:38:00.001-08:00

Open: Options

In the "Default Search" section of "Basics" configuration, find the "Manage" button for Search Providers.

To add a Google Android search provider, in the Search dialog, press "Add"

Field 1: Android

Field 2: Droid

Field 3: http://developer.android.com/search.html#q=%s&t=0

Now you can type "Droid View" to search the Android documentation for the word 'View'

Try it out!

WTF

2010-12-15T15:33:00.001-08:00

12-15 15:32:45.037: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ADD_SYSTEM_SERVICE in package com.android.phone

12-15 15:32:45.057: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.ACCESS_DRM to package com.htc.fm (protectionLevel=2 flags=0xbe65)

12-15 15:32:45.067: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.RECEIVE_SYNC_DM_NOTIFICATION in package com.htc.android.futuredial

12-15 15:32:45.067: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.providers.htccdma.Specific in package com.htc.android.futuredial

12-15 15:32:45.067: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.FOTA_UPDATE in package com.htc.android.futuredial

12-15 15:32:45.077: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.QUERY_DRM in package com.htc.android.mail

12-15 15:32:45.087: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.google.android.providers.gmail.permission.READ_GMAIL in package com.htc.android.mail

12-15 15:32:45.087: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.RECEIVE_EMAIL_NOTIFICATION in package com.htc.android.mail

12-15 15:32:45.097: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.READ_ACCOUNT in package com.htc.htcmailwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.097: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.WRITE_ACCOUNT in package com.htc.htcmailwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.097: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.READ_MAIL in package com.htc.htcmailwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.097: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.WRITE_MAIL in package com.htc.htcmailwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.107: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.ACCOUNT_MANAGER to package com.htc.htctwitter (protectionLevel=2 flags=0xbe45)

12-15 15:32:45.117: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_ASSISTED_GPS in package com.htc.htclocationservice

12-15 15:32:45.117: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_LOCATION in package com.htc.htclocationservice

12-15 15:32:45.117: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION in package com.htc.htclocationservice

12-15 15:32:45.117: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_GPS in package com.htc.htclocationservice

12-15 15:32:45.137: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.RAISED_THREAD_PRIORITY in package com.android.mms

12-15 15:32:45.137: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.FULLSCREEN in package com.android.mms

12-15 15:32:45.137: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.google.android.providers.gmail.permission.READ_GMAIL in package com.android.mms

12-15 15:32:45.147: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.Manifest.permission.BLUETOOTH in package com.google.android.fieldtrial

12-15 15:32:45.147: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.ACCESS_DRM to package com.android.htccontacts (protectionLevel=2 flags=0xbe45)

12-15 15:32:45.147: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.providers.im.permission.READ_ONLY in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.157: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.providers.im.permission.WRITE_ONLY in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.157: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.157: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_LOCATION in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.167: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.socialnetwork.plurk.permission.useprovider in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.167: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.permission.SOCIAL_NETWORK in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.167: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.READ_ACCOUNT in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.167: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.WRITE_ACCOUNT in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.167: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.READ_MAIL in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.167: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.WRITE_MAIL in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.167: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.providers.htccdma.Specific in package com.android.htccontacts

12-15 15:32:45.167: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_DOWNLOAD_DATA in package com.android.updater

12-15 15:32:45.167: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.FOTA_UPDATE in package com.android.updater

12-15 15:32:45.187: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.launcher.permission.READ_SETTINGS in package com.android.settings

12-15 15:32:45.187: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.launcher.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS in package com.android.settings

12-15 15:32:45.197: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.FULLSCREEN in package com.htc.pdfreader

12-15 15:32:45.197: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_ASSISTED_GPS in package com.htc.android.locationpicker

12-15 15:32:45.197: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_LOCATION in package com.htc.android.locationpicker

12-15 15:32:45.197: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION in package com.htc.android.locationpicker

12-15 15:32:45.207: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_GPS in package com.htc.android.locationpicker

12-15 15:32:45.207: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.READ_ACCOUNT in package com.htc.htccontactwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.217: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.WRITE_ACCOUNT in package com.htc.htccontactwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.227: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.webkit.permission.PLUGIN in package com.adobe.flashplayer

12-15 15:32:45.247: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.providers.im.permission.READ_ONLY in package com.google.android.apps.maps

12-15 15:32:45.247: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_GPS in package com.telenav.app.android.sprint

12-15 15:32:45.247: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION in package com.telenav.app.android.sprint

12-15 15:32:45.247: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.DEVICE_POWER to package com.telenav.app.android.sprint (protectionLevel=2 flags=0xbe45)

12-15 15:32:45.267: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.providers.htccdma.Specific in package com.google.android.epst

12-15 15:32:45.277: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.ACCESS_CHECKIN_PROPERTIES to package com.google.android.apps.googlevoice (protectionLevel=3 flags=0xbe44)

12-15 15:32:45.277: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.google.android.apps.googlevoice.REMOTE_INTENT in package com.google.android.apps.googlevoice

12-15 15:32:45.277: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.INSTALL_PACKAGES to package nextapp.systempanel (protectionLevel=3 flags=0xbe44)

12-15 15:32:45.287: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.providers.htccdma.Specific in package com.htc.android.htcsetupwizard

12-15 15:32:45.287: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.VzWBackupAssistantClient.PROVISION in package com.htc.android.htcsetupwizard

12-15 15:32:45.297: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.google.android.providers.gmail.permission.WRITE_GMAIL in package com.qo.android.htc

12-15 15:32:45.297: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.google.android.providers.gmail.permission.READ_GMAIL in package com.qo.android.htc

12-15 15:32:45.297: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.email.permission.ACCESS_PROVIDER in package com.qo.android.htc

12-15 15:32:45.297: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.email.permission.READ_ATTACHMENT in package com.qo.android.htc

12-15 15:32:45.297: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.DEVICE_POWER to package com.htc.android.teeter (protectionLevel=2 flags=0xbe45)

12-15 15:32:45.307: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.permission.SOCIAL_NETWORK in package com.htc.album

12-15 15:32:45.317: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.google.android.providers.gmail.permission.READ_GMAIL in package com.htc.album

12-15 15:32:45.317: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.INJECT_AUDIO_VOLUME_SETTINGS in package com.htc.album

12-15 15:32:45.317: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.READ_ACCOUNT in package com.htc.calendar

12-15 15:32:45.317: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.WRITE_ACCOUNT in package com.htc.calendar

12-15 15:32:45.327: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.READ_MAIL in package com.htc.calendar

12-15 15:32:45.327: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.htc.android.mail.permission.WRITE_MAIL in package com.htc.calendar

12-15 15:32:45.327: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.CLEAR_APP_USER_DATA to package com.htc.htcsettingwidgets (protectionLevel=2 flags=0xbe45)

12-15 15:32:45.337: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION in package com.htc.htcsettingwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.337: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_ASSISTED_GPS in package com.htc.htcsettingwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.337: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_LOCATION in package com.htc.htcsettingwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.337: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_GPS in package com.htc.htcsettingwidgets

12-15 15:32:45.357: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.SET_PREFERRED_APPLICATIONS to package com.htc.HtcNaviPanel (protectionLevel=2 flags=0xbe45)

12-15 15:32:45.357: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_ASSISTED_GPS in package com.htc.HtcNaviPanel

12-15 15:32:45.357: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_LOCATION in package com.htc.HtcNaviPanel

12-15 15:32:45.357: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION in package com.htc.HtcNaviPanel

12-15 15:32:45.357: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_GPS in package com.htc.HtcNaviPanel

12-15 15:32:45.357: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.providers.htccdma.Specific in package com.android.htcdialer

12-15 15:32:45.367: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.email.permission.READ_ATTACHMENT in package com.google.android.apps.uploader

12-15 15:32:45.377: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_UPDATES in package com.layar

12-15 15:32:45.377: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.launcher.permission.READ_SETTINGS in package com.htc.Weather

12-15 15:32:45.397: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.SEND_DOWNLOAD_COMPLETED_INTENTS to package com.android.vending (protectionLevel=2 flags=0x2be85)

12-15 15:32:45.397: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.SEND in package com.android.vending

12-15 15:32:45.397: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.google.android.voicesearch.AUDIO_FILE_ACCESS in package com.google.android.gm

12-15 15:32:45.407: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.INJECT_AUDIO_VOLUME_SETTINGS in package com.android.camera

12-15 15:32:45.407: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.launcher.permission.READ_SETTINGS in package com.metago.astro

12-15 15:32:45.407: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission com.android.launcher.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS in package com.metago.astro

12-15 15:32:45.447: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Not granting permission android.permission.SHUTDOWN to package com.htc.android.worldclock (protectionLevel=2 flags=0xbe45)

12-15 15:32:45.447: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.READ_SETTINGS in package com.htc.android.htcime.misc

12-15 15:32:45.447: WARN/PackageManager(12002): Unknown permission android.permission.RUN_INSTRUMENTATION in package com.htc.android.htcime.misc

How To Make TextView, Button or Other Android Control Bold or Italic

2010-10-09T00:47:00.000-07:00

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:typeface

You will need it eventually.

How Do You Know Which Android API To Develop Against

2010-08-28T23:21:00.001-07:00

If you are building any Android Applications you already know that you must declare a http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:uses-sdk@android:minSdkVersion in your application, like this in XML:

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" />

But how do you know which version to use? Heck, how do you even know what version your current application code supports?

Google says to just keep backing it off until you find a bug:

Selecting a platform version and API Level
When you are developing your application, you will need to choose the platform version against which you will compile the application. In general, you should compile your application against the lowest possible version of the platform that your application can support.
You can determine the lowest possible platform version by compiling the application against successively lower build targets. After you determine the lowest version, you should create an AVD using the corresponding platform version (and API Level) and fully test your application. Make sure to declare a android:minSdkVersion attribute in the application's manifest and set its value to the API Level of the platform version.

Google also maintains a very, very useful resource here that shows the current state of the Android ecosystem (or as some people call it, fragmentation!)

Basically the idea is, declare an absolute bare minimum in your Android manifest so you can penetrate the market as much as possible.

I am using minSdkVersion = 3, but I can see 4 being another logical choice. If you are minSdkVersion=7 you must have a really good reason -- like you are using some API7 and above only features.

Otherwise, you are just missing out on customers.

FILL_PARENT was renamed to MATCH_PARENT will cause String types not allowed (at 'layout_height' with value 'match_parent')

2010-08-28T23:15:00.001-07:00

Having "Error: String types not allowed (at 'layout_height' with value 'match_parent'). Android AAPT Problem" in Eclipse?

Check what API Level you are using.

FILL_PARENT was renamed to MATCH_PARENT in API Level 8 (Android 2.2)

I personal think "FILL_PARENT" makes more sense, but I was using them both thinking they did different things. Probably best to just use "FILL_PARENT" for everything for now.

API 8 is pretty new.

Lets Talk about TabHosts and ActivityResult, finish() and so on

2010-08-26T12:28:00.001-07:00

If you are using TabHosts and Activities in your application, you should read http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2497205/how-to-return-a-result-startactivityforresult-from-a-tabhost-activity

The is a quick stackoverflow question that everyone should read if you intend to use TabHosts and Activities. If you have Activities returning results and Intents from inside the tab, or tab group, you will need to use the methods discussed.

There is even a nice paste of some Android 1.6 source code that helps explain finish(). It is really impressive how light the Android framework really is.

- Cory

I Love Numbers, Especially Random Ones

2010-08-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/738629/math-random-versus-random-nextintint

TextView and NewLine in Java

2010-08-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

One way to save on the number of nodes in your UI is to use the '\n' newline in TextView as show in this page.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2840608/how-do-i-add-a-newline-to-a-textview-in-android

2010-08-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice Visual Guide to Android 2.0 UI Widgets. An IBM hosted page about working with XML in Android.

Here are some partially answered questions about SQLite database paths. Regarding SQLite database paths and Android, here is a very widely read page about Using your own SQLite database in Android applications.

I really like the Intent and Intent Filters system in Android 2.0

Some applications people are creating are crazy impressive and amazingly complex. LIke OSMDroid! Before you publish, you have to Sign Your Android Applications and you had better Test your Application on an Android Device before you put it on the Market! Whatever you publish, don't publish NotePadv2.

I tried to use Android Google Map View but my experience with the v2 and v3 JavaScript Google Map API has poisoned me. I struggle.

Getting Eclipse to ignore your SVN folders (you are using SVN I hope) is a good idea and is critical to do before you try to publish to the Market. How Do I get Eclipse to Ignore my .SVN Folders?

TableLayouts are fun, but they are even more fun when you can add rows to them! Adding Dynamic Rows to an Android TableLayout. Oh man, Icon Design scares me. I can load Bitmaps with the best of them, but I can't make them to save my life. I guess my applications will always sport that "I hate my users" stock icon look from the Google Android Free Icon Basics and Icon Packs.

Android Run-Down, Tuesday August 17th

2010-08-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

I have been building the Google Android applications using Eclipse, ADT and my HTC Sprint EVO phone. Started by installing the Android SDK Starter Package.

While working on a number of application projects, I have created a few public domain sample projects, like AndroidDemoViewTrain, which is hosted on CodePlex and contains a number of coded, commented and clarified (I hope!) Google samples.

Once I was done with basic TextView and Button demos, I moved onto more complex tasks -- the so called Common Tasks in Android list. You can tell from Google that Android is pretty new -- a lot of unanswered questions on the boards -- maybe just a reflection of the community or whatever, but the information on solving Android issues and error messages is scant compared to C# or Apache. Also, I found a lot of bad information out there as well -- lots of posts full of bad assumptions or incorrect statements, so take what you read back to the Google documentation and test laboratories.

One of the first things that I needed to do was include two database tables in a single Android application database. I will blog about that later, it was harder to find the real-deal info than you might imagine. Got it done though.

Next thing I needed to do was populate a Spinner with an SQLite database query. If you have two tables in your database, one of those tables is probably a "Type" table and you need drop downs to select types.

Populating an Android Spinner Control from Database is pretty similar to populating an Android Spinner Control from XML. This dcPages story has a good write up of the database process here at Android Tutorial: Populating Spinners - Populate Spinner using Database Query

Then I discovered that you have to be very careful trying to feed Int or Long java primitives to the Android API because it assumes that they're keys for special resource collections. Instead of passing in TextView.setText(i) you need to use TextView.setText(Integer.toString(int i))

Now, all that was well and good -- I was populating Spinner controls and using setText() on integers to put database state onto the screen. Then I realized that Spinner controls were no good for me if I could not figure out what had been selected and then I was off again -- reading about Retrieving Selected Spinner Values on Android -- an important question if you are going to spend time populating them from the database. I blogged about that part earlier here, at How to Know What is Selected in Android Spinner.

Once I started calling lots of additional Android Activities and exploring the advanced features of the Android Application Manifest file, I became aware of a strong need to reach a full understanding of Intents and Intent Filters. To that end, I read a series of lectures by Victor Matos (PPT of Google Docs, basically) here at CSUOhio.edu: http://grail.cba.csuohio.edu/~matos/notes/cis-493/lecture-notes/Android-Chapter12-Intents-1.pdf

Also, another good page on Using Intents to Transfer Data between Android 2.0 Activities. Very similar information to this page about Passing Bundles Around Activities but still good reading.

Soon after that I needed to create Dialog Boxes in Android and therefore, I went back to Google for more searching and ended up playing with Scrollable CellMaps instead. SurfaceHolder is a hell of a class, my friends! Then I started back on Displaying Alert Dialog in Android. Any type of alerting is bound to contain concerns about modality so here is Modal Dialogs in Android for your reading pleasure.

After getting the advanced use of system events (Intents, Activities and Intent Filters) I moved onto the Handling of UI Events in Android. A critical topic for any serious developer, Android events are managed very differently than the three-type event engine (jQuery, WCF and BI) I am familiar with.

Event Listeners
An event listener is an interface in the View class that contains a single callback method. These methods will be called by the Android framework when the View to which the listener has been registered is triggered by user interaction with the item in the UI.

Event Handlers
If you're building a custom component from View, then you'll be able to define several callback methods used as default event handlers. In the document on Building Custom Components, you'll learn see some of the common callbacks used for event handling.

After that I started adding some visual styles of my applications and read the Icon Design Guidelines for Android 2.0 which, I admit, did put the fear into me. I'm looking for a graphic artist now. However, that somewhat daunting trip down pixel lane did clear up a number of pressing concerns I had with my application's resources and the file structure in Eclipse.

First was -- "In Android Eclipse, what are all these mdpi and hdpi folders for? Which one do I use and what does it mean?" Well the answer can be found here where Google outlines The Android 2.0 UI Guide's Best Practices for Supported Screens. Here are the physical examples of the device screens and how they sort out by Density and diagonal: Range of Android Screens Supported by the OS.

Still too complicated? Yah, I know. How about this link? What Size Do I Make My Icons and What Folder Do I Use in Android 2.0 with Eclipse? Another one is How do I make Android Icon Packs and get Free Android Icons? I hope you have mad Photoshop CS3 skills that I don't posses if you are thinking about creating Icons.

Then, soon after that, I discovered TableLayouts. A few days later, I read this guy's blog post Android Nuts and Bolts IV where he also discovered TableLayouts. He might like them a little too much, but the blog is good.

Once you have tables, you will need Menus! http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/menus.html

This guy's question claims that he has a bug with TextView, but when I read it saw how his "bug" is actually exactly how it needs to work and what valuable feature "Hint" is: Android 2.0 TextView Automatically Adjusts Width when Configured.

I started using a SeekBar. Nice UI: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/SeekBar.OnSeekBarChangeListener.html

Once I had the SeekBar in place I started looking at the rest of the controls and reading a few Android 2.0 GUI Examples blogs helped me get a visual idea of what they all look like. Another Android 2.0 GUI Example Blog with TextView and TableLayout. Did I mention TableLayout is really very valuable? Android has a great TableLayout control, once you learn how to make it work. It is not CALS-Model SGML / XHTML tables, but it works on your phone.

I started looking at Android 2.0 UI Themes but only found this incomplete Android 101 blog entry about defining XML themes.

READ THE ANDROID DEVELOPER BLOG
Was that aggressive enough? Reading the blog taught me a lot -- and today I learned about Back Button, Hard Keys and Long Press in Android 2.0 UI.

Rotating Bitmap with Bitmap.createBitmap and Matrix objects -- you will find the details in someone's code on this page: http://www.anddev.org/resize_and_rotate_image_-_example-t621.html

How do I center text horizontally and vertical in a TextView in Android?

Very soon after that I was adding additional tables to my DbAdapter class and once you have 4 or five tables, you need to have JOIN! SQLite Join Syntax

Another Good Blog About Android Views and ViewGrous

2010-08-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

http://mobiforge.com/designing/story/understanding-user-interface-android-part-1-layouts

After I have made about 50 Android Views and used all the ViewGroups, I figured it was time to go read about what the heck I have been up to and see if I could make sense of the hacking I had been using.

Found a number of good blogs and went back over the Google documentation. I am still struggling to do things that are immediate and easy for me in XHTML and CSS. Maybe what I am missing is the CSS? I guess it is another X-format to memorize and learn. At least there is only one "browser" the Android API Level 8 for me.

Passing Around Serializable Objects

2010-08-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

http://lyle.smu.edu/~coyle/cse7392mobile/handouts/Intent.DataPassing.ZomDroid.pdf

Seems very well written, but I hate giving up method calls like that. Public? I hate it ... but I want my Androids to be very fast ... bummer? Or just life on the edge?

Knowing What is Selected In Android Spinner

2010-08-13T12:31:00.001-07:00

You have getSelectedXXX methods from the AdapterView class from which the Spinner derives:

getSelectedItem()

getSelectedItemPosition()

getSelectedItemId()

These are really good methods. You get the row_id back!!!

Visual Guide to Android Widets

2010-08-11T16:01:00.001-07:00

http://www.droiddraw.org/widgetguide.html

This is a nice visual guide to Android widgets.

The page is very straightforward -- a basic table containing screenshots of the widget plus the XML and Java to put one in your application.

Android Activity Lifecycle

2010-08-10T22:52:00.000-07:00

The Android mobile operating system has a well-defined life cycle for Activities and application components running in the OS.

Lifecycle events can happen even if the current component is not handing off control to another Activity explicitly -- the mobile OS is a very busy place and things happen constantly that you, as the developer a single application, cannot control.

For example, perhaps a call comes in to the handset. If this happens, and your Activity is running, it will be swapped out while the call Activity takes over. What is an Alarm goes off? What if the task killer elects to eliminate your package?

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html#lcycles

Blog About Android

2010-07-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

I was doing random searching today about Android View implementations -- which is, I assume, how a lot custom graphic UI are being built in Android.

While this blog The Android Competency Center did not help me with my question, I do feel much more competent with Android after having read the archives.

http://www.androidcompetencycenter.com/

Good Luck with Your Projects!

Understanding Android Applications -- Start with the Manifest

2010-07-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

One of the most important files in an Android Application is the application manifest.

Understanding the application manifest's format is critical for any application developer.

Read more about the Android Application Manifest File Format Here:

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/manifest-intro.html

MapView Google Development Tutorial Context Bugs

2010-07-08T17:51:00.001-07:00

There are some bugs in the code that Google supplies to demonstrate the Google Maps API.

The original Google Tutorial is here:
http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-mapview.html

There is a useful Google Groups post regarding the major bug / confusion with this tutorial:
http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners/browse_thread/thread/9d175c71b8b6825d

The differences are shown below

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.map);
MapView mapView = (MapView) findViewById(R.id.mapview);
mapView.setBuiltInZoomControls(true);

List mapOverlays = mapView.getOverlays();
Drawable drawable = this.getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.dot_bar);
DefaultItemizedOverlay itemizedoverlay = new DefaultItemizedOverlay(drawable,this);

GeoPoint point = new GeoPoint(19240000,-99120000);
OverlayItem overlayitem = new OverlayItem(point, "Hola, Mundo!", "I'm in Mexico City!");

itemizedoverlay.addOverlay(overlayitem);
itemizedoverlay.ReadyOverlay();
mapOverlays.add(itemizedoverlay);

}
}

Changing the code in onCreate to supply 'this' as a Context for the ItemizedOverLay is critical, otherwise you will get a NullReferenceException on the mContext field when onTap(int) attempts to create a Alert Dialog.

Google Android Development "Hello, Views" and Tips for API 7

2010-07-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

final CheckBox checkbox = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.checkbox);
checkbox.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(View v) {
// Perform action on clicks, depending on whether it's now
// checked
if (((CheckBox) v).isChecked()) {
Toast.makeText(HelloFormStuff.this, "Selected",
Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
} else {
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Not selected",
Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
}
});

The text in Green Worked for me, the text in Red did not work for me.

Google Android Development "Hello, Views" and New Eclipse Project Template

2010-07-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

I have been working on the Google Android Development samples located here:

http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/index.html

This is the "Android Views" tutorials/example code and I have been reading and trying out the examples and various modifications.

One thing that I have noticed is that the Tutorials all refer to "res/drawable" as if it was a single folder. Does that mean that the tutorials were created before Android 1.5 allowed drawable to be a three part folder structure?

Does anyone have a clear best practice (I did Google) for where to put your icons and if you want to make different copies or just included them all in ldpi?

HTC Evo Android Tips, Tricks and Setup Guide Links

2010-07-02T08:02:00.001-07:00

I am a new owner of an Android Phone (a Sprint phone, the HTC Evo, to be exact) and as a new Android user I have been reading tons of how-to and setup documents.

Here is a great post on a popular forum that some people have done major work to collect, edit and post.

The Good

D. When your phone is ringing, if you flip it over, it will silence the ringer.

C. If you want to change the default action that occurs when you select a contact from the Favorites widget: (Thanks Companyman)
1. Go into the People application and select your contact
2. Click on the Menu button near the bottom of your phone
3. Select the "More" option
4. Click on the "Set widget action"
5. Select whatever action you want.

The Bad

This one does not bother me but it seems like a miss... But I like the robot!

Q. Does anyone know how to turn off/change the "green Android Robot" picture that pops up when you're trying to make a phone call?
A. The way to change the Android pic is to assigned the person your calling a picture in your contacts. If the number is not from a contact then I am afraid you are stuck with the little green monster unless you root and someone builds a rom without him.

The Ugly

I hate this problem, and I'm sad to see that it is a universal one...

Q. When sending text messages, is there a way to send the text from the message window without having to hit the button to make the keyboard disappear and then hit the send button?
A. The send button should be to the right of the text window even if the keyboard is up, at least in Portrait mode. In Landscape you either have to hit menu and send or just minimize the keyboard.

This is also pretty unfortunate...

Q. Is it possible to have a different wallpaper on the lockscreen from your home screen?
A. Seems that is not available in this build of 2.1. In others I have used you could. If you or anyone else finds this to not be true let me know. As of right now it seems the same wallpaper for the home screen works for the lock screen as well.

For more details, read the full article here: http://androidforums.com/tips-tricks-evo-4g/90404-tip-how-do-i-settings-android.html

I Love C# Debuggers

2010-05-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

Fun Information about C# Debuggers I read today:

Perhaps an insight into my link following practices. Take note, robots.

Using (and Abusing) The var C# 3.5 Keyword

2010-01-15T08:23:00.001-08:00

The quote from this MSDN article (Implicitly Typed Local Variables) below (emphasis mine) spells out how I feel about the var keyword, which is defined in the var (C# Reference,) also on MSDN.

"Overuse of var can make source code less readable for others. It is recommended to use var only when it is necessary, that is, when the variable will be used to store an anonymous type or a collection of anonymous types."

I use var as Microsoft's C# design team intended -- in cases where I need it and nothing else will work. There is no reason to go crazy and look at "var" as a shortcut or simplification of the language.

I have reviewed (and rejected) code from var happy C#s (CodePlex) ... it just isn't worth it down the road. If the compiler has to infer the type, so does the maintainer.

Furthermore, overuse of the var keyword has some nasty side effects, which have been blogged about:

Implicit Typing Can Make TDD Harder
Can the C# 'var' Keyword be Misused?
Unclear Use of C# var Keyword
Var Keyword in C# [Somewhat Positive, Read the Comments]

No process is associated with this object.

2009-11-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

This Error, "No process is associated with this object."

you forgot to set the .File property. Nothing to execute!

RadUpload, ASP.net AJAX Upload -- Telerik Controls Are Obsolete and Low Quality!

2009-09-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

ASP.Net AJAX: Upload is rapidly becoming obsolete.

I have stopped recommending this product to clients and for our own internal projects.

Unless there are plans (real serious plans) to add Web Farm and Load Balancing support to ASP.Net AJAX: Upload by enabling a database or shared file system location for buffering and progress management, I will be abandoning ASP.Net AJAX: Upload.

I have spoken to a number of other users who are in the same boat. The long-term problem we face is what to do with our Telerik subscriptions after we have stopped using the primary components.

Replacing things like drop-downs with Open Source and paying for a one-component (but high quality) Upload widget seems like a better option.

Thoughts? Does Telerik have enough resources to produce high quality individual control feature sets? Or is the goal many pretty components with so-so features?

LINQ to SQL In Action Story

2009-05-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.sqlmag.com/Article/ArticleID/101721/sql_server_101721.html

Good Stuff from SQL Server Magazine, LINQ to SQL in Action: Joining and Grouping

Cory Trese
ph#: 937-609-9644
e-m: cory.trese@gmail.com
www: http://www.corytrese.com/

---

California Wedding Photography
http://www.corytrese.com/wedding.html

jQuery Goodness -- 137 Amazing jQuery Examples and Downloads

2009-02-16T13:26:00.001-08:00

No, this is not an update on my quest to write 137 sweet jQuery plugins (although I have made it to 3, up from 2!)

http://www.noupe.com/jquery/50-amazing-jquery-examples-part1.html

http://www.noupe.com/ajax/37-more-shocking-jquery-plugins.html

http://www.developersnippets.com/2009/01/15/bookmark-50-stunning-jquery-applications/

Sweetness jQuery demos. Go MVC!

---

California Wedding Photography
http://www.corytrese.com/wedding.html

Subversion, WebDAV, Windows and Microsoft Office

2009-02-05T21:33:00.001-08:00

Let me start by saying that I love Subversion and find Tortoise-SVN and SVN.exe very, very easy to use and if you read this entire article, I can help you make it really easy for your business users to love Subversion as much as your developers.

I have used CVS on Windows entirely in the CLI for years and have never felt the overpowering need to have a more graphical client.

However the interface that you offer your users has an incredible impact on there love, or lack of love, for a particular tool.

Subversion, with a programmer-friendly CLI and excellent Windows Explorer (and Visual Studio via Anhk 2.0!) integration usually makes a big splash with developers and engineers. Easy, simple and it just works right.

The question, "How do my users interface with Subversion and is it effective for them?" does have an easy answer for developers writing source code.

The advantage is that these users have is that they are comfortable with SVN because they are comfortable with revision control systems in general. They have used SVN, CVS, PVCS, ClearCase, Vault or BitKeeper at some point in their careers and they are comfortable with concepts like "Commits" and "Working Copies." Sure, some of the SVN-specific features (interactive merges, properties and versionable renames) may take some getting used. Their really are not that many core (from the client) differences between the actual functionality provided by these different systems.

However these same features, familiar advantages for developers, are foreign and frustrating for many "normal" business users. They are familiar with Groove, UNC fileshares and Windows Explorer's basic features. They will be baffled by working copies, SVN adds, commits, updates and history logs. Documents won't get checked in. Files will not be added. Bad things will happen when people do updates and get conflicts. Your wonderful Subversion server will be a problem, not a solution. Revolt is just around the corner. What can we do?

And then, the solution appears, bright and clear -- WebDAV! WebDAV is great, right? WebDAV uses the HTTP protocol so no firewall trouble. It supported by Apache2 hosting on both UNIX and Windows. Wikipedia even says that Windows XP and Windows 2000 have a built in WebDAV client! Sounds like it will be really easy, no?

Here are the problems:

Windows WebDAV Client Does Not Work for Non-IIS Hosts
Windows WebDAV Client not supported on 64bit machines
WebDAV Client does not fully support HTTPS
Windows WebDAV Clients Are Incompatable with most applications

Microsoft Office Mostly Works -- Word Opens Everything Read-Only
Notepad.exe and Paint.exe don't

So the WebDAV solution looks less perfect, but still very promising. Using the following Apache2 configuration, we can enable NT DOMAIN backed authentication, WebDAV and require users to authenticate on both read and write operations.

<Location /svn/office>
      DAV svn
1)    SVNPath D:/Subversion/office_repo
2) SVNAutoversioning on
3)    ModMimeUsePathInfo on
      AuthType SSPI
      SSPIAuth On
      SSPIAuthoritative On
      SSPIDomain MY_DOMAIN
4)    Require valid-user
</Location>

SVNPath ties this Apache2 location to a SVN Repository you created on the server.
SVNAutoversioning configures this repository to support WebDAV clients who create new versions with MKCOL
ModMimeUsePathInfo configures this repository to automatically guess at MIME type based on the extension. This setting greatly improves Subversion's ability to recognize binary files on the server
This require valid-user ensures that all WebDAV writes come with a valid NT DOMAIN (or if not using SSPI other) authenticated token

Apache2 is configured. WebDAV is working great from your UNIX clients. Everything seems good and now all we have to do is find a Windows WebDAV Client that works with Subversion without creating too much trouble for our SVN repository and users of other SVN clients. For example, if we get a lock-happy WebDAV client then we won't have happy Tortoise SVN users.

So lets round up the Usual Suspects from the WebDAV mafia and see how they perform.

We don't have any extra money (who does) so price is going to be a major factor on selecting our WebDAV client.

Data Freeway
This application seems very nice. Currently supports SSH (SSH1 and SSH2), WebDAV, common FTP and secure SFTP protocols. From using it and reading the site, I can tell that it was not designed with a Subversion user in mind, but it does work and seems to work very well. Microsoft Office documents open without trouble but when saving them in Windows XP on 32bit machines, I get a SEGFAULT every single time. Everything was great with this until I ran into that defect it was a show stopper. I put in a request with the maintainer of the application but could not wait.

SolutionBox NetDrive
This application is a clone (with defects fixed and a new theme) of Novell's NetDrive product. This product works very well with WebDAV Subversion repositories and allows Microsoft Office AND non WebDAV compatible applications to work. Free for home use -- too bad it is so expensive for a corporate customer.

Novell NetDrive
This application is an old UNIX interop platform component that Novell sold as part of the Netware stack. It is no longer supported or distributed by Novell but you can use it if you download it from somewhere else. There are open issues with it and there are constant questions and misinformation (from Novell and others) about the legality of using it.

AnyClient WebDAV
This application is billed "Free No-Install FTP, FTPS, SFTP and WebDAV Client" and it is all of those things. It works like an FTP client and does not really give you the WebDAV-mounted-as-a-UNC-share magic that the other tools give you. However, I owe AnyClient WebDAV a great deal of credit for finding it's more-function, highly stable predecessor RedDrive.

RedDrive WebDAV Client
This is our solution. Discontinued, undocumented but my god it really works. I mean, it really really works.
http://www.jscape.com/reddrive/

Supports WebDAV
Supports Integrated Authentication
Sends authentication tokens with MKCOL (Security Requirement)
No Licensing Cost, No Commercial Use Restrictions
Mounts WebDAV over HTTPS into "My Computer"
All Windows Applications Work (everything we've tested)

Cory Trese
ph#: 937-609-9644
e-m: cory.trese@gmail.com
www: http://www.corytrese.com/

---

California Wedding Photography
http://www.corytrese.com/wedding.html

Subversion (SVN) WebDAV and Microsoft Windows XP

2009-02-05T19:08:00.001-08:00

Subversion, a wonderful open-source revision control technology can revolutionize the way your organization stores files.

Developers, especially those who have used CVS or SourceSafe before tend to pick up and love Subversion.

Things that recommend Subversion for Windows-based Developers

Command Line Interface (svn.exe) that works like CVS
Windows Explorer Integrated Shell Extension, Tortoise SVN
Visual Studio 2008 Integration, Ankh SVN
Support In Other Tools -- Nant, MSBuild, CruiseControl.Net, CodeDemon
Hosted in Apache or Standalone Server
Read-Only HTTP Interface (with Apache)

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and BizTalk Server 2009

2009-01-31T07:30:00.001-08:00

I have spent time week and last working on doing bottom-up evaluations of BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and BizTalk Server 2009.

BizTalk Server 2006 R2

Easily Installs on XP without a VPC
Installation Procedures on 2003 Server are same as R1
Compiles, Deploys & Runs "SMW BizTalk" and "Order Master" without new errors
Provides some minor bug fixes in the UI
Minor Changes in Admin and Config Tools
Existing XML formats work for binding
MSBuild (SDC) Extensions Function Perfectly for R2
Faster
WCF Adapters Integrated
BAM Interceptors Allow WCF and WF services OUTSIDE of BizTalk to participate in BAM
New Enterprise SSO Services (4.0)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb743854.aspx

BizTalk Server 2009 BETA

Installs and Runs in 2003 Advanced Server VPC
Allows for an In-place upgrade WITH deployed applications (SMW BizTalk)
Deployed Applications are upgraded
The production version will (they say) have cluster-upgrade-without-stoppage support
Integrates with Visual Studio 2008 SP1
Supports Source Control Features in Visual Studio (SVN/Ankh)
Some improved UI in development (faster, less bugs)
Administrator Tools are Improved by not radically different
Build System does not work right (yet)
Probably due to missing MSBuild / SDC Support for VS 2008 as the BTS compiler
Compiles, Deploys & Runs "SMW BizTalk" and "Order Master" without new errors

Cory Trese
ph#: 937-609-9644
e-m: cory.trese@gmail.com
www: http://www.corytrese.com/

---

California Wedding Photography
http://www.corytrese.com/wedding.html

BizTalk Server 2006 BTSTask An invalid value for property "DestinationFolder".

2009-01-30T17:07:00.001-08:00

I was fighting with a BizTalk Server 2006 error with bindings imports.

These binding files were being generated by an XML preprocessing system and then loaded into BizTalk 2006 Server using BTSTask.exe

This error is mentioned in a Microsoft BizTalk KB / Hot Fix, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923733, but that only applies (and only installs) if you have installed a LOB Adapter pack, but we did not have the LOB Adapter pack on this server.

The error is the exact same, however. The exception we got during binding import (both in the UI and in the CLI) is:

 ===================================

Failed to update  binding information. (mscorlib)

===================================

Could not validate  configuration of Primary Transport of Send Port 'portname' with SSO  server.
An invalid value for property "DestinationFolder".  (Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM)

------------------------------
For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47400&ProdName=Microsoft+BizTalk+Server+2006&ProdVer=3.5.1602.0&EvtSrc=Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM.Resources&EvtID=IDS_ERR_TRANSPORTINFO_INVALID_TRANSPORT_DATA

===================================

An invalid value  for property "DestinationFolder".

------------------------------
Program Location:

   at  Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM.IPersistPropertyBag.Load(IPropertyBag propertyBag,  Int32 errorLog)
   at  Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM.Helper.ValidateTransportProps(String  transportTypeData, String transportAddress, String publicAddress, IProtocolType  transportType, Boolean IsTransmit)
   at  Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM.TransportInfo.Microsoft.BizTalk.ExplorerOM.IBaseObject.ValidateObjectData()

The solution for us was to make changes to the content of our bindings file by removing all whilespace and line breaks from the contents of the <Address /> and <PhysicalAddress /> elements. These line breaks were being added to some bindings files by our XML preprocessor and could not, for some reason, be imported to BizTalk.

The "with SSO Server" junk is actually some type of mask for the real error, which I found out by disassembly BizTalk assemblies and checking out some of the error handling around a bit of unmanaged code that was getting invoked.

--
Cory Trese
e-m: cory.trese@gmail.com
www: http://www.corytrese.com/
---
California Wedding Photography
http://www.corytrese.com/wedding.html

WCF, .Net 4.0 and Dublin + A Big Kickin the Teeth for BizTalk users

2009-01-16T08:22:00.001-08:00

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.01.net40.aspx

WCF And WF Services In The .NET Framework 4.0 And "Dublin"

And I quote...

What about BizTalk Server?

Another common question is how "Dublin" relates to BizTalk Server. In a lot of ways, BizTalk Server inspired many of the features you see in "Dublin" today. Although both technologies provide similar management capabilities, there's a big difference between the two in terms of their focus. "Dublin" adds hosting and management extensions to Windows Server designed specifically for WCF and WF applications, whereas BizTalk Server is focused on application integration with non-Microsoft systems using a variety of different message formats, transports, and mapping techniques.
The primary focus of BizTalk Server has always been and will continue to be integration with non-Microsoft systems (line-of-business applications, legacy systems, RFID devices, and business-to-business protocols). BizTalk Server will remain focused on these core strengths in the years ahead. In general, you'll want to continue using BizTalk Server when you're focused primarily on these types of enterprise application integration (EAI) scenarios.
However, since many WCF and WF apps don't need these kinds of integration capabilities, BizTalk Server can often feel like overkill. This is precisely where "Dublin" fits into the picture—as a simpler alternative that provides similar management capabilities. In the end, "Dublin" will be more cost-effective for these scenarios than BizTalk Server since the "Dublin" extensions will ship as a core part of Windows Server and won't require you to buy integration adapters you don't need. It's likely that a future version of BizTalk Server will build upon the "Dublin" extensions in order to leverage the core management investments being made to Windows Server.

A special thanks to Eileen Rumwell, Mark Berman, Dino Chiesa, Mark Fussell, Ford McKinstry, Marjan Kalantar, Cliff Simpkins, Kent Brown, Kris Horrocks, and Kenny Wolf for their helpful assistance with this article.

SQL Server 2005 Database Diagrams After RESTORE Operation

2009-01-13T11:46:00.001-08:00

Sql 2005 Database diagram support objects cannot be installed because this database does not have a valid owner

Problem

After a RESTORE of a database with SQL Server 2005 database diagram creation & access is often disabled, with the following error message.

Database diagram support objects cannot be installed because this database does not have a valid owner. To continue, first use the Files page of the Database Properties dialog box or the ALTER AUTHORIZATION statement to set the database owner to a valid login, then add the database diagram support objects.

Solution

1. Right Click on your database, choose properties
 2. Goto the Options Page
3. In the Dropdown at right labeled "Compatibility Level" choose "SQL Server 2005(90)"
 4. Goto the Files Page
5. Enter "sa" in the owner textbox.
6. Hit OK

Blogs!

2009-01-09T10:43:00.001-08:00

Steve is a cool guy and very, very smart. Read his blog!

http://blogger.forgottenskies.com/

It will make you ... wonder what a "Forgotten Skies" is but you will forget once you see all the software engineering goodness.

Microsoft MVC Beta Upgrade

2009-01-09T09:09:00.001-08:00

I was having a lot of problems with

Html.ActionLink("LinkText", "Action", "Controller")

after I upgraded from Microsoft MVC Preview 5 to Microsoft MVC Beta 1.

The error message I got was

Compiler Error Message: CS1928: 'System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper' does not contain a definition for 'ActionLink' and the best extension method overload 'System.Web.Mvc.Ajax.AjaxExtensions.ActionLink(System.Web.Mvc.AjaxHelper, string, string, System.Web.Mvc.Ajax.AjaxOptions)' has some invalid arguments

This partially related discussion brought to my attention changes between Preview 5 and Beta.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/211493/asp-net-mvc-beta-1-where-is-html-renderpartial

I had to add this to my web config instead of what I started with from Preview 5.

            <namespaces>
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc"/>
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax"/>
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html"/>
                <add namespace="System.Web.Routing"/>
                <add namespace="System.Linq"/>
                <add namespace="System.Collections.Generic"/>
            </namespaces>

CodeDemon -- Open Source Code Reviews -- Collaborative & Web Based

2009-01-07T10:46:00.001-08:00

I have a new CodePlex project!

It is called CodeDemon and is open source.

CodeDemonis a collaborative, web-based code review system that enables online reviews of changes made in Subversion or other revision control. Integration with other SCM and Issue Trackers planned.

Using CodeDemon for your reviews eliminates paper work, ensures that defects, comments and decisions are recorded in an audit-friendly database, and provides a high performance (AJAX) workspace for actually performing code inspections.

Important Blog I Used Today for Apache2 Configs and SSPI / LDAP

2008-12-22T06:16:00.001-08:00

http://pteropus.blogspot.com/2008/04/securing-subversion-via-ldap.html

Google Getting P0WN'D By PWO

2008-12-14T15:37:00.000-08:00

Google's News, Alerts and E-Mail systems are getting totally pown'd on by a French company called "PWO" or PotterWorldOnline.

I am getting spammed like crazy via all my alerts by a company that Google knows distributes spyware.

I am this close to disabling Alerts because I cannot find a way to get Google to understand they've been tricked/hacked/beaten.

SlickSpeed, From The Makers of MooTools

2008-10-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

It compares the performance of various CSS selector implementations found in the various JavaScript web development libraries of the day (jQuery, ExtJS, MooTools, ect.)

http://mootools.net/slickspeed/

Good Blog To Read

2008-10-29T12:40:00.001-07:00

http://blog.objectmentor.com/

Could not load type 'System.Web.Routing.StopRoutingHandler' from assembly 'System.Web.Routing, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'.

2008-10-29T11:01:00.001-07:00

If you have upgraded from ASP.Net MVC Preview 3 to ASP.Net MVC Preview 5 and are recieving this error:

Could not load type 'System.Web.Routing.StopRoutingHandler' from assembly 'System.Web.Routing, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'.

The solution I found was from this ASP.Net Forums Post, about a Runtime error after upgraded to preview 5

Solved!

I had to remove and re-add the updated DLLs to my GAC:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET MVC CodePlex Preview 5\Assemblies>gacutil -if System.Web.Routing.dll
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET MVC CodePlex Preview 5\Assemblies>gacutil -if System.Web.Abstractions.dll 

NYT Covers GMail Integration Gadgets

2008-10-28T14:32:00.001-07:00

This article on the NYT about Google offering GMail users access to Google Office/Documents and Google Calendar without leaving GMail.

You can unify search, browse your documents and get Calendar reminders without leaving GMail.

SWEET.

Cheap Dell Workstations

2008-10-25T08:41:00.001-07:00

Refurbished Workstations Workstation, 2+ Ghz, 3GB RAM

Refurbished Monitors

I love Dell refurbished and I especially love lots of cheap workstations.

Cory Trese
ph#: 937-609-9644
e-m: cory.trese@gmail.com
www: http://www.corytrese.com/

Code Cohesion, Inappropriate Intimacy and Other Dirty Sounding Architecture Principals

2008-10-22T07:31:00.001-07:00

Who said software architecture wasn't exciting?

Take a look at this great MSDN article that my boss at work linked me to, Patterns in Practice: Cohesion and Coupling and another one, I found on my own with Google, about Inappropriate Intimacy, which is defined by the author as "classes become far too intimate and spend too much time delving in each others' private parts."

Software Organization, a common topic of discussion among my technical architect peers, is a critical important component of good implementations. The platform's future capabilities for reuse, refactorability and maintainability are all set down early in the design and development as cohesion and coupling are either defeated, accepted or ignored completely.

Apache 2.0 Configuration Redux

2008-10-16T12:41:00.001-07:00

I was also reading this related post about creating secure Apache configurations. Some background on my "Limit 0" is bad.

Security is paramount with public web servers and this article will give you a head start locking down your Apache2 config.

Error "XML request body is larger than the configured limit of 1000000" -- Subversion 1.5, Apache 2.0 and LimitXMLRequestBody 0

2008-10-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

Recently, I started getting this error when doing Subversion "update" on a large folder in my repository called "branches"

XML request body is larger than the configured limit of 1000000

This is following up Subversion 1.5.2 upgrade and is occurring in Apache 2.0

The fix, for me, was to remove the limit on the XML request body by setting the following:

LimitXMLRequestBody 0

and the error was fixed. Limit XML Request Body should not be set to 0 for public web servers, as that will open you up to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, however, my SVN system is private to my development team and this setting was appropriate for my deployment.

Host Name:                 *** SUBVERSION SERVER ***
OS Name:                   Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Server 2003, Standard Edition
OS Version:                5.2.3790 Service Pack 1 Build 3790
OS Manufacturer:           Microsoft Corporation
OS Configuration:          Member Server
OS Build Type:             Multiprocessor Free
Registered Owner:          Distributed Computing
Original Install Date:     8/4/2005, 2:50:21 PM
System Up Time:            225 Days, 13 Hours, 26 Minutes, 37 Seconds
System Manufacturer:       HP
System Model:              ProLiant DL380 G4
System Type:               X86-based PC
Processor(s):              2 Processor(s) Installed.
                           [01]: x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~3400 Mhz
                           [02]: x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~3400 Mhz
Input Locale:              en-us;English (United States)
Time Zone:                 (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Total Physical Memory:     2,047 MB
Available Physical Memory: 295 MB
Page File: Max Size:       876 MB
Page File: Available:      1,606 MB

ASP.Net Development Link Fest For October 13

2008-10-13T19:44:00.001-07:00

.Net 3.5 SP1

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc533447.aspx

jQuery ['jQuery Rocks']

jQuery How To Site: http://jquery.open2space.com/
jQuery and ASP.Net AJAX Indicators:

http://encosia.com/2008/10/04/using-jquery-to-enhance-aspnet-ajax-progress-indication/

Microsoft ASP.Net MVC (Model-View-Controller)

Samples

ScottGu, The Leader of the Band

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/default.aspx

Existing ASP.Net MVC Starter Kits

2008-10-10T05:11:00.001-07:00

Starter Kits I've Been Reading:

ASP.Net MVC Starter Kit Ideas Of Mine

2008-10-10T05:08:00.001-07:00

A short list of ASP.Net MVC Starter Kit Ideas of mine:

ASP.Net MVC AJAX with Pure jQuery

Page Regions

On Load
On Click

Modal / Normal AJAX Dialogs
AJAX Form POST to MVC Controller

ASP.Net MVC AJAX -- The Three Approaches (Postbacks Do NOT Count)

XHTML
XML
JSON

ASP.Net MVC ITEM Starter Kit
ASP.Net MVC LMS Starter Kit

Some AJAX Items On Bugzilla

2008-10-09T18:48:00.001-07:00

I was looking at this page (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bugzilla:UE) and thinking about the improvements I deploy with Bugzilla and how they might be generally useful to all Bugzilla users.

A lot of this is inspired by my obsession with AJAX and jQuery, but more so, with the fact that I have deployed Bugzilla to hundreds, if not thousands, of users in my career and I have always been pleased -- both with the system as a platform and with my ability to customize it.

Client-Side Table Sorting -- Many tables today in Bugzilla cannot be sorted and are not Zebra'd

Bug List
User List
Classification / Product / Component Lists
Request Queue
Flags
Custom Fields

AJAX Content Hovers

These can replace links to "fields.html" and allow the user to get immediate information about products, components, resolutions and status

Search-As-You-Type and Revise Search From Search Results with an AJAX 'ctype'
AJAX Hovers for "Defect #" or "Bug #" auto-linking. Dynamic, beautiful and far more informative AJAX hover could display assignees, current status and (configurable?) information
Replace attachment iFrames with jQuery .ajax()

General Stuff I Change

Switching "Saved Searches" Into Drop-Down Menus to support large numbers of shared queries
Many Additional Bug Entry Templates
Customized Index.cgi

Include Index of Saved Searches
Canned Reports
Links To New Defect Forms

Add "Clone Defect With Same Product" Link
Reverse Blocks/Depends On for Clones
Add "Clone Defect To Same Product" Link to All Dependency Tree Bug Tree Nodes
Add a Knob "Assign & Accept This Defect Into My Queue"

This may be a function of my SVN and CVS hook scripts that require this state for defects to be used for commits. This feature is probably only as useful as the Assigned/Accepted status is for the user

Increase the Whiteboard to a Textarea

ASP.NET MVC CodePlex Preview5 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1

2008-10-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

As you have read in the Release Notes for ASP.Net MVC CodePlex Preview 5
the new release of MVC is not compatible with Service Pack 1 Beta. You must install SP1 (a long process) starting with a download from Microsoft.

The Preview 5 Release Notes say that you must install SP1 before you install ASP.Net MVC Preview 5, however, I found that installing SP1 on top of Preview 5 seems to work as well.

I am not certain that this is just the machines I was upgrading or all machines, but it did work for me.

jQuery'd Bugzilla

2008-10-09T14:26:00.001-07:00

I have been working on re-doing Bugzilla's UI and my AJAX enhancements in jQuery.

Is anyone else working on this?

Upgrading From ASP.Net MVC Preview 3 to Preview 5

2008-10-09T11:13:00.001-07:00

As you know, ASP.net MVC Preview 5 is on the streets.

Busy using Preview 3 to produce awesome web applications, I missed the upgrade to Preview 4.

I am upgrading two big MVC application built on Preview 3. Here are the issues I found:

Html.ActionLink() Behavior Changed

On This ActionLink and Preview5 Forum Post I found a Solution
The fix is to change this:

Html.ActionLink("Title", "Action", "Controller", new { id = this.ObjectID } );
to this:
Html.ActionLink("Title", "Action", "Controller", new { id = this.ObjectID }, null );

Html.Hidden() Behavior Changed

On this MVC UI Helper Article I thought I found a Solution, but no such luck
My fix was to change this:

Html.Hidden("ReviewId", this.ID);

to this

Html.Hidden("ReviewId", this.ID.ToString());

TDD: Test-Driven Development with Visual Studio 2008 Unit Tests

2008-08-13T13:27:00.001-07:00

Test driven development is a powerful concept and once you get it (aka, "Test Infected" [no, not like zombies!]) you'll never go back.

Nice page here with a break-down on how to get it running for Visual Studio 2008. I am not exactly in love with MSTest so I'm really glad they're supporting NUnit (for the time being [it is Microsoft] at least.)

http://weblogs.asp.net/stephenwalther/archive/2008/03/19/tdd-test-driven-development-with-visual-studio-2008-unit-tests.aspx

Programming Environment, Now In Color

2008-08-13T11:24:00.001-07:00

Theming and fonting your Visual Studio 2008 environment is very important to being a happy and productive programmer.

Here is some help for you ...

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VisualStudioProgrammerThemesGallery.aspx

Digital Development, Poly-technical Noise

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Hot Swap AHCI Bay Rocks Socks

I'm backing Google on this one

Adding EULA or Introduction Screen to Android App

Android Disappointment

Servers Direct

Windows 7 x64 Woes

Chrome MailTo: Links in Windows 7 x64

Robotium Enables Black Box Unit Testing with Android Mobile Applications and Games

G-Mail Tasks Day #1

Interesting Android UI Study

Why I am not Publishing on Amazon.com Android App Store

Blocking E-Freedom

Use This In Games

Make Google Chrome Search Twitter

Make Google Chrome Search Checkout

Make Chrome Search Android Documentation

WTF

How To Make TextView, Button or Other Android Control Bold or Italic

How Do You Know Which Android API To Develop Against

Selecting a platform version and API Level

FILL_PARENT was renamed to MATCH_PARENT will cause String types not allowed (at 'layout_height' with value 'match_parent')

Lets Talk about TabHosts and ActivityResult, finish() and so on

I Love Numbers, Especially Random Ones

TextView and NewLine in Java

Android Run-Down, Tuesday August 17th

Another Good Blog About Android Views and ViewGrous

Passing Around Serializable Objects

Knowing What is Selected In Android Spinner

Visual Guide to Android Widets

Android Activity Lifecycle

Blog About Android

Understanding Android Applications -- Start with the Manifest

MapView Google Development Tutorial Context Bugs

Google Android Development "Hello, Views" and Tips for API 7

Google Android Development "Hello, Views" and New Eclipse Project Template

HTC Evo Android Tips, Tricks and Setup Guide Links

I Love C# Debuggers

Using (and Abusing) The var C# 3.5 Keyword

Implicit Typing Can Make TDD Harder

Can the C# 'var' Keyword be Misused?

Unclear Use of C# var Keyword

Var Keyword in C# [Somewhat Positive, Read the Comments]

No process is associated with this object.

RadUpload, ASP.net AJAX Upload -- Telerik Controls Are Obsolete and Low Quality!

LINQ to SQL In Action Story

jQuery Goodness -- 137 Amazing jQuery Examples and Downloads

Subversion, WebDAV, Windows and Microsoft Office

Subversion (SVN) WebDAV and Microsoft Windows XP

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and BizTalk Server 2009

BizTalk Server 2006 BTSTask An invalid value for property "DestinationFolder".