Wardlaw Claims Service Company Blog: 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

Providing Default Values to Wijmo Tooltips

The Wijmo Tooltip widget has certain properties set to default values. Developers may find that these defaults are not appropriate for the web site we are using them in. In this post I will demonstrate how to provide your own default options for the Wijmo Tooltip widget without modifying the Wijmo source code. This will allow you to attach tooltips to your markup without needing to duplicate the options object you provide on every page.

By default the display of the tooltip will include a callout element. This is the wedge that points the tooltip bubble to the element the tooltip is associated with. Below is a screenshot of a tooltip which includes the callout.

If I want to omit the callout element I can do so by using the showCallout option and setting the value to false. Rather than include this option everytime the tooltip is used I can add a JavaScript file that will override the default options for the tooltip. Below is the content of the file.

jQuery(document).ready( function() {
 jQuery.extend( jQuery.wijmo.wijtooltip.prototype.options, { showCallout: false } );
});

Note that I have used jQuery's extend method to merge my default values into those used by the Wijmo tooltip.

Here is a screenshot of the tooltip without the callout.

I will need to include the file which includes my custom configuration after the Wijmo tooltip file is included. Below is the complete HTML code for the example. Note that the "custom-options.js" file is included after the usual jQuery and Wijmo files. This will cause any Wijmo tooltips included on the page to use the new default settings which will not display the callout element. I would include this JS file on every page of my site that uses Wijmo in order to set my own default values without modifying the Wijmo source code.

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
 <title>Wijmo Tooltip - Set Defaults</title>
 <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="jquery.ui.all.css">
 <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="jquery.wijmo-open.1.1.2.css">
 <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.4.4.min.js"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-ui-1.8.7.custom.min.js"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.wijmo-open.1.1.2.min.js"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="custom-options.js"></script> 
</head>
<body>

<h1>Weather Tooltip - Customized Defaults</h1>

<div>
 <ul id="cityList">
  <li data-zipcode="78701"><span class="x-tooltip">Austin, TX</span></li>
  <li data-zipcode="75210"><span class="x-tooltip">Dallas, TX</span></li>
  <li data-zipcode="76710"><span class="x-tooltip">Waco, TX</span></li>
 </ul>
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
 
 jQuery(document).ready(function() {

  jQuery("#cityList>li>span.x-tooltip").each(function() {

   var item = jQuery(this);

   item.wijtooltip({ content: item.parent().attr("data-zipcode") });

  });
    
 });

</script>

</body>
</html>

References

Wijmo - The Wijmo JavaScript and CSS files are available at the Wijmo website, as are the required jQuery files.
http://www.wijmo.com

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Create Linq To Entities Connection in Code

If you're like most people, you have several different database servers that you need to connect to and you want to be able to deploy an application to different environments while only changing configuration entries. Linq To Entities has a different connection string and offers a slightly different approach to configuring the connection.

First, the code...


private static EntityConnection connection() 
{    
     SqlConnectionStringBuilder sqlBuilder = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder();
     sqlBuilder.DataSource = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DataSource"].ToString();
     sqlBuilder.InitialCatalog = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["InitialCatalog"].ToString();
     sqlBuilder.IntegratedSecurity = false;
     sqlBuilder.UserID = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["UserID"].ToString();
     sqlBuilder.Password = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Password"].ToString();

     EntityConnectionStringBuilder entityBuilder = new EntityConnectionStringBuilder();
     entityBuilder.Provider = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Provider"].ToString();
     entityBuilder.ProviderConnectionString = sqlBuilder.ToString();
     entityBuilder.Metadata = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["MetaData"].ToString();

     EntityConnection entityConnection = new EntityConnection(entityBuilder.ToString());

     return entityConnection;
}

The explanation...
First, create a SqlConnectionStringBuilder object. Next, assign the DataSource, InitialCatalog, User and Pass from values stored in the app.config. If you choose not to use Integrated Security set that property to false.

Now, create an EntityConnectionStringBuilder object. Assign the provider and metadata values. Assign the ProviderConnectionString property to the SqlConnectionStringBuilder.ToString() value.

Finally, create a new EntityConnection object and pass it the EntityConnectionStringBuilder.ToString() and you have yourself a new EntityConnection.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Adding HTML Content to Wijmo Tooltip with AJAX

In this post I will demonstrate how the Wijmo Tooltip widget can be used to display HTML content retrieved using AJAX. Wijmo is a JavaScript widget library built on jQuery. Parts of Wijmo, including the tooltip, are free/open-source. This simple demo will display a list of cities. When the mouse is hovered over a city a tooltip containing the temperature will be displayed. The content of the tooltip is populated from HTML queried by jQuery's AJAX functions.

Here is a screen shot of the page viewed in the browser.

Next is the HTML markup, without the JavaScript used for the AJAX calls.

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Wijmo Tooltip AJAX Demo</title>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="jquery.ui.all.css">
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="jquery.wijmo-open.1.1.2.css">
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.4.4.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-ui-1.8.7.custom.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.wijmo-open.1.1.2.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

<h1>Weather Tooltip via AJAX</h1>

<div>
<ul id="cityList">
<li data-zipcode="78701"><span class="x-tooltip">Austin, TX</span></li>
<li data-zipcode="75210"><span class="x-tooltip">Dallas, TX</span></li>
<li data-zipcode="76710"><span class="x-tooltip">Waco, TX</span></li>
</ul>
</div>


</body>
</html>

This is pretty simple markup. Note that I have used HTML 5 data-* attributes to associate a zip code with each list item element. Also note that Wijmo has dependencies on jQuery JavaScript and CSS files which I have referenced in the head section.

Next is the JavaScript that is used to create the tooltips.

jQuery(document).ready(function() {
  jQuery("#cityList>li>span.x-tooltip").each(function() {

   jQuery(this).wijtooltip({

      ajaxCallback: function () {    

      var item = this;  // give this an alias so we can refer to it in scope of Ajax call below

      jQuery.ajax({
       url: "weather.aspx" 
       , data: { zipcode: item.parent().attr("data-zipcode")  } //get the zip code from the li wrapping the span
       , success : function(data) { item.wijtooltip("option", "content", data);  } 
       , dataType: 'html' 
       , type: "GET"
      });                  
                 } 
    });
  });
 });

The selector #cityList>li>span.x-tooltip is used to get the SPAN elements I wish to provide a tooltip for. The ajaxCallback function option of the wijtooltip function is used to specify the AJAX call used to retrieve the HTML content and populate the tooltip content when the tooltipis shown. The data option of jQuery's ajax method gets the desired zip code value from the parent list item's data attribute.

Here is an example of the HTML resulting from a call to the weather.aspx page.

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
 <title>Weather</title>
</head>
<body>
Currently <span id="temp">63</span>&deg;
</body>
</html>

References
Wijmo - The Wijmo JavaScript and CSS files are available at the Wijmo website, as are the required jQuery files.
http://www.wijmo.com

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Removing a Background in Adobe Photoshop

Open your picture in Photoshop. Copy the layer so that an original is kept safe, select the copied layer and press Q for Quick Mask mode.

Select the color black from the color pallet, then select the brush tool. Color in the portion of the image that you would like to keep. Just mark a small area around the hair. I will take out the background behind the hair stands later.

Select the Move tool, click on the unwanted portion of the image and press the Delete key. Deselect by choosing Select from the menu then click Deselect.

We can still see the background color through the stands of hair. It is time to get rid of that. Open the background eraser tool. With the Background Eraser selected, your mouse cursor will change into a circle with a small crosshair in the center of it. Click and hold the mouse down on the white portion around the hair and then run the mouse over the picture to get rid of the white color. Other colors of the image will not be affected.

The last step would be adding a background color. I’ve added a layer below the layer I have been working on and filled it with a gray color.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Can Scrum and Kanban Coexist?

There is much debate these days over which is better, Scrum or Kanban, but a better question would be how do you use the strengths of both to your advantage? To determine the answer we need to know the common elements of both concepts as well as the differences.

I talk about Scrum in some detail in an earlier entry, but Scrum in a nutshell is a way of breaking down complex problems into simpler solutions. Scrum uses self-organizing teams that make a commitment to stakeholders to create a unit of work that is shippable. Scrum teams are cross-functional and deal in iterations of shippable product.

Kanban is a Just-in-time concept originally developed by Toyota as a way to control production. Kanban is "pull-based" meaning that production is based on current demand and is usually based on a strict set of rules. An example of these rules from Toyota are as follows...

Do not send defective products to the subsequent process
Subsequent process only takes what it needs
Produce only the exact quantity withdrawn
Level the production
Use Kanban as a means of fine-tuning
Stabalize and Rationalize the process

I personally believe that Scrum and Kanban cannot only coexist, but can compliment each other well. For example, when an IT product is requested, Scrum is a good candidate for managing that creation. Use sprints to create shippable product and get customer feedback. Once the product is stable, the backlog tends to shrink, which is where I think Kanban comes in. As new requests are made, they can be handled in a just-in-time way. Dedicating a sprint to a simple feature request defeats the purpose of being agile. My Scrum master instructor mentioned that you don't always have to create a great meal, sometimes you just need to heat up some macaroni and cheese. So, if you're making macaroni, just make macaroni.

To recap, I like both Scrum and Kanban and we tend to use both here successfully. Generally, on larger projects we use Scrum, but that tends to evolve into Kanban over time as the project turns into a mature, finished product. Kanban is used as part of a continuous improvement process with a focus on quality.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Connecting to an Access 2007 Database Using ColdFusion

The 2007 version of Microsoft Office introduced new file formats for Word, Excel, and Access. If you need to connect to an Access 2007 database file, one with the "accdb" file extension, you will not be able to use the Access database drivers bundled with ColdFusion. These drivers are designed for the previous Access file format which used "mdb" as a file extension. In this post I will walk through creating a ColdFusion data source for an Access 2007 file. This process was tested on a Window 2003 server using ColdFusion 9.0.1 on a 32-bit machine.

Prerequisites

1. A ColdFusion installation which includes ODBC the optional services.

2. The Office 2007 System Driver package should be installed on your server. This will install the ODBC drivers for Access 2007. This may not be required if Office 2007 has been installed on the machine.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=7554f536-8c28-4598-9b72-ef94e038c891&displaylang=en

You must set up your data source twice. First an ODBC connection must be created in Windows, and second a data source must be created in the ColdFusion administrator.

Create the ODBC Connection in Windows

1. Open Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC).

2. Select the System DSN tab.

3. Click Add...

4. In the Create New Data Source window Select Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb), then click Finish.

5. In the ODBC Microsoft Access Setup window fill in the Data Source Name, then click Select...

6. In the Select Database window browse to the .accdb file you wish to use, then click OK.

7. In the ODBC Microsoft Access window click OK.

8. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator window click OK.

Create the Data Source in ColdFusion

1. Log into the ColdFusion administrator.

2. Open the Data & Services > Data Sources page.

3. Enter a Data Source Name and for Driver select ODBC Socket, then click Add.

4. On the Data & Services > Datasources > ODBC Socket page select your System DSN from the ODBC DSN list, then click Submit.

Conclusion
There a few caveats to be aware of. First, I have not tested this process with a password protected database. Second, Microsoft's Office 2007 drivers are not intended for use in a service or web application. I would not recommended the use of Access in a production system.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Sitemaps in XML Format and Submission

A sitemap is a way of organizing a website, identifying the URLs and the data under each section. Its intended use is to allow search engines to track URLs more efficiently.

urlset tag - Encloses the file and references the current protocol standard.

loc tag - Contains the URL of a file.

proiority tag - List the priority of this URL compared to the other URLs on your site.

Sample Sitemap - click on code to make larger

As you can see from the XML above, the parent tag goes first followed by the child tags.

Escape Codes must be used for the characters below.

Submitting a Sitemap

Google

www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps

To submit a sitemap to Google, to must first create a Google email account if you have not already done so.

Click the “Add a site…” button and add your url.

You will be asked to verify your site by either downloading a file and putting it in your wwwroot directory or by modifying your site index page by inserting a meta tag.

Once your site is verified by Google, click on the “Site configuration” link.

Click the Sitemaps link.

Click the “Submit a Sitemap” button, entered the name of the site map at your root directory and click the “Submit Sitemap” button.

Your status will show a clock for “pending”. The next day it will show a check mark for “ok”.

This does not mean that Google has indexed your site yet, just that your sitemap has been submitted and accepted.

Bing

Bing does not accept sitemaps. They expect their web crawler to find your site.

Ask

Ask does not have a sitemap submission form. To let Ask to know about your sitemap, you must use their ping service.

Type in http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http://www.NameOfSite.com/NameOfSitemap.xml in your browser.

Yahoo

Yahoo works much the same way that Google does. Go to https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit/

Enter your url (ex: www.wardlawclaims.com) and click the “Submit URL” button.

You will be asked to create a yahoo email account if you don’t already have one.

Click on the “Submit a Website or Webpage” link.

As with Google you will be asked to download a file to your wwwroot directory or insert a meta tag to your index page.

Once your website has been verified. Click the “Feeds” link, type the name
of you xml sitemap file and click the “Add Feed” button.

Your status will show pending until it has been submitted to Microsoft then a check mark will be (usually the next day) display when it has been processed.

Again this does not mean that Yahoo has indexed your site, just that your sitemap has been submitted and accepted.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Facade Pattern in C#

O'Reilly's modern classic Head First Design Patterns describes the Facade pattern as a unified interface to a set of interfaces in a subsystem. Facade defines a higher-level interface that makes the subsystem easier to use.

This pattern is nothing revolutionary and something that all programmers have done at some point, but it is good to have a common name to go by. Today I will demonstrate how to create and remove groups in Active Directory by building a facade.

First, start Visual Studio and create a new project using the class library template. Once created, add a reference to ActiveDs in the project. Next, add a new class named ActiveDirectoryFacade.cs and add Using System.DirectoryServices to that class. Now, add the following function to create a group...


   public static bool CreateGroup(string groupName, out string result)
      {
         bool returnValue = false;
         result = "";

         try
         {
             DirectoryEntry groups = new DirectoryEntry();
             groups.Path = "LDAP://ldap/OU=EmailGroups,DC=yourdomain,DC=com";
             groups.AuthenticationType = AuthenticationTypes.Secure;

             DirectoryEntry group = groups.Children.Add(String.Format("CN={0}", groupName), "group");
             group.Properties["groupType"].Value = ActiveDs.ADS_GROUP_TYPE_ENUM.ADS_GROUP_TYPE_GLOBAL_GROUP;
             group.Properties["mail"].Value = String.Format("{0}@yourdomain.com", groupName);
             group.CommitChanges();

             result = String.Format("Successfully created distribution list {0}", groupName);
             returnValue = true;
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
             result = ex.Message;
             returnValue = false;
         }

         return returnValue;
     }

...and add the following function to remove a group...


     public static bool RemoveGroup(string groupName, out string result)
     {
         bool returnValue = false;
         result = "";

         try
         {
             DirectoryEntry groups = new DirectoryEntry();
             groups.Path = "LDAP://ldap/OU=EmailGroups,DC=yourdomain,DC=com";
             groups.AuthenticationType = AuthenticationTypes.Secure;

             DirectoryEntry group = groups.Children.Find(String.Format("CN={0}", groupName));
             if (group != null)
             {
                 groups.Children.Remove(group);
                 group.CommitChanges();
             }

             result = String.Format("Successfully removed distribution list {0}", groupName);
             returnValue = true;
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
             result = ex.Message;
             returnValue = false;
         }
            
         return returnValue;
     }

We have just created a facade to add and remove Active Directory Groups with two functions. We can now use these functions in our applications.