Following the instruction here, I managed to install libxslt to my custom location.

Watch out, the link on http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/downloads.html is actually pointing to libxml2 which doesn’t include libxslt. You want to find the correct link from ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxslt/

The next problem is openssl support missing from ruby. I had to re-configure ruby to make it openssl ready. Instruction can be found here.

All aws samples passed, then.

With one minor issue left, I got warning when running ruby:

Invalid gemspec in [/home/me/.gems/specifications/openssl-extensions-1.2.0.gemspec]: invalid date format in specification: “2011-11-03 00:00:00.000000000Z”

Hope I can figure this out later.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<log4net debug="false">

  <appender name="SmtpAppender_WebTeam" type="log4net.Appender.SmtpAppender">
    <to value="goodguy@me.com" />
    <from value="log4net@me.ca" />
    <subject value="!!!Web Exception happened!!!" />
    <smtpHost value="mail.server.ds" />
    <bufferSize value="512" />
    <lossy value="true" />
    <evaluator type="log4net.Core.LevelEvaluator">
        <threshold value="ERROR"/>
    </evaluator>
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%newline%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] - %message%newline%newline%newline" />
    </layout>
 	<filter type="log4net.Filter.StringMatchFilter">
		<stringToMatch value="RequestManagement" />
 	</filter>
 	<filter type="log4net.Filter.StringMatchFilter">
		<stringToMatch value="VineOnLine" />
 	</filter>
	<filter type="log4net.Filter.DenyAllFilter" />
  </appender>
  <appender name="SmtpAppender_VSE" type="log4net.Appender.SmtpAppender">
    <to value="nice@me.ca" />
    <from value="log4net@mr.ca" />
    <subject value="!!!VSE Exception happened!!!" />
    <smtpHost value="mail.server.ds" />
    <bufferSize value="512" />
    <lossy value="true" />
    <evaluator type="log4net.Core.LevelEvaluator">
        <threshold value="ERROR"/>
    </evaluator>
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%newline%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] - %message%newline%newline%newline" />
    </layout>
	<filter type="log4net.Filter.StringMatchFilter">
		<stringToMatch value="VSE" />
	</filter>
    <filter type="log4net.Filter.DenyAllFilter" />
  </appender>

  <root>
    <level value="INFO" />

    <appender-ref ref="SmtpAppender_WebTeam" />
    <appender-ref ref="SmtpAppender_VSE" />

  </root>
  <logger name="NHibernate">
    <level value="ERROR"/>
  </logger>

</log4net>

HasMany( x => Details ).Fetch.Join();

It works fine at least for Session.Get<T>(id), we can see only one joined query instead of two separated ones.

But it seems  Session.Query<T>() keeps ignoring this join fetch setting, we always got two separated selects when using Session.Query<T>. A Bug?

We have tried SSI (Server side include) on IIS,  but it turns out it doesn’t work in Razor view. Spuriously, many people said SSI is dead, and by default IIS7 doesn’t turn SSI on, here is the doc how to install and configure SSI on IIS7. install it, configure it (if your included file is not named as shtm)

For now the best solution I found is putting this code in Razor view.

@MvcHtmlString.Create(File.ReadAllText(Server.MapPath(“/_shared/footer.htm”)))

    class ReportGenerator
    {
        string _reportTypeInString;
        enum ReportType
        {
            PDF = 0,
            EXCEL,
            HTML
        }

        void GetReport(ReportType reportType)
        {
            switch (reportType)
            {
                case ReportType.PDF:
                    _reportTypeInString = "PDF";
                    break;
                case ReportType.EXCEL:
                    _reportTypeInString = "EXCEL";
                    break;
                case ReportType.HTML:
                    _reportTypeInString = "HTML40";
                    break;

            }
            // logic to generate real report...
        }
    }

The problem here is: enum type in dotnet only supports integer, converting to string has to be done somewhere usually in a place different than the type define area, maintenance is problematic. Besides, the evil if/switch code smell.

Here is my way to do the same job:

        public class ReportFormat
        {
            public string ReportFormatString { get; private set; }

            public static ReportFormat HTML32 = new ReportFormat("HTML3.2");
            public static ReportFormat HTML40 = new ReportFormat("HTML4.0");
            public static ReportFormat EXCEL = new ReportFormat("EXCEL");
            public static ReportFormat CSV = new ReportFormat("CSV");
            public static ReportFormat PDF = new ReportFormat("PDF");
            public static ReportFormat MHTML = new ReportFormat("MHTML");

            ReportFormat(string reportFormatString)
            {
                ReportFormatString = reportFormatString;
            }
        }

//in my report generator class:
        public FileContentResult GetReport(string reportName, ReportFormat reportFormat, IList<ParameterValue> parameters)
        {...}
// how to use
        var fileContentResult = reportingServiceProxy.GetReport(ReportName, ReportingServiceProxy.ReportFormat.HTML40, parameters);

Work amount is almost same, the type maintenance is in same place, the biggest selling point, no evil if/switch statement anymore.

Which design pattern is used here?

The class diagram looks like this:

Instead of directly depending on HttpContext.Current.Response, we need to change the dependency to HttpResponseBase class, from which both HttpResponseWrapper (in production) and HttpResponseFake (in unit-test) are derived.

Code example:

    public class ReportingServiceProxy
    {
        private readonly HttpResponseBase _response;
        public ReportingServiceProxy()
            : this(new HttpResponseWrapper(HttpContext.Current.Response))
        {}
        public ReportingServiceProxy(HttpResponseBase httpResponse)
        {
            _response = httpResponse;
            //...
        }
        public FileContentResult GetReport(string reportName, ReportFormat reportFormat, IList parameters)
        {
            // ...
            _response.AddHeader("cache-control", "must-revalidate");
        }
    }

    public class HttpResponseFake : HttpResponseBase
    {
        public override void AddHeader(string name, string value)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Header {0} added with value: {1}", name, value);
        }
    }

        [Test]
        public void should_get_report_from_test_env()
        {
            var reportingServiceProxy = new ReportingServiceProxy(new HttpResponseFake());
            ...
        }

• auto-play-next-episode if available
• auto resume from the stop point last time stopped/pasued

By looking into the developers doc, the first one is easy to do, just observe the MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification:

-(void)playMovieAtURL:(NSURL*)theURL
{

	MPMoviePlayerViewController* mpvc =[[MPMoviePlayerViewController alloc] initWithContentURL:theURL];
	[self presentModalViewController:mpvc animated:NO];

	double stoppedPoint = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] doubleForKey:[mpvc.moviePlayer.contentURL absoluteString]];
	if (stoppedPoint > 0.0) {
		mpvc.moviePlayer.initialPlaybackTime = stoppedPoint;
	}

	[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
											 selector:@selector(myMovieFinishedCallback:)
												 name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
											   object:mpvc.moviePlayer];

	if (![self isOS5])
	{
		mpvc.moviePlayer.useApplicationAudioSession = NO;
	}

	self.mpvc = mpvc; //retain it
	[mpvc release];
	return;

}

// When the movie is done,release the controller.
-(void)myMovieFinishedCallback:(NSNotification*)aNotification
{

    if ([[aNotification object] isKindOfClass:[MPMoviePlayerController class]])
    {
        MPMoviePlayerController* theMovie=[aNotification object];
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
                                                        name:MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification
                                                      object:theMovie];

        [self  dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:NO];

        theMovie = nil;
        [theMovie release];
    }

    NSDictionary *userInfo = [aNotification userInfo];

    int reason = [[userInfo objectForKey:@"MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishReasonUserInfoKey"] intValue];
    NSLog(@"clip finished because %d. play next one if available.", reason);
    // ios 4 always return MPMovieFinishReasonPlaybackEnded even it's user exit it, a bug. don't provide play next feature for ios4 users then.
    if ([self isOS5] && reason == MPMovieFinishReasonPlaybackEnded)
    {
        [self playNextEpisodeIfAvailable];
    }
}

Notice the finished reason in iOS 4 (bug) is always MPMovieFinishReasonPlaybackEnded, I had to implement the same feature in MPMoviePlayerPlaybackStateDidChangeNotification for iOS 4 users:

-(void)myMovieStateChangedCallback:(NSNotification*)aNotification
{
    if ([[aNotification object] isKindOfClass:[MPMoviePlayerController class]])
    {
        MPMoviePlayerController* theMovie=[aNotification object];
        if (theMovie.playbackState == MPMoviePlaybackStateStopped && theMovie.currentPlaybackTime == theMovie.playableDuration) {
            NSLog(@"clip finished!");

            if ([self isOS5]) {

            }else{
                [self playNextEpisodeIfAvailable];
            }
        }

For second feature, saving stop point when movie exit, I also use the MPMoviePlayerPlaybackStateDidChangeNotification to catch the currentPlaybackTime, I’ve tried catch it in MPMoviePlayerPlaybackDidFinishNotification, the value is zero, too late.

The idea is neat, but finding a right STS is not easy.

ADFS 2.0 can handle LDAP user without any problem, the off-shelf features don’t cover extranet users.

The out-of-box WIF template provides a local STS for dev purpose only, and it’s using WS-Fe

WIF application is only talking to STS through WS-Federation protocol, (SAML 2.0 Protocol support can be downloaded here, I haven’t try it yet), while Oracle STS speaks WS-Trust, Web Service only?

Right now the solution is use ADFS as gateway between WIF app and 3rd-parth IDP.

Some difficulties we encountered:

Not getting home-realm discovery page from ADFS

This problem was caused by when importing claim provider trust federation metadata into ADFS, the endpoint was not imported, ADFS only accept https endpoint.

HTTP Error 503 on adfs/services/trust and get the service unavailable after STS login successfully

This happens to StarterSTS and CustomSTS, for StarterSTS, folloew this post to add relying party key into StarterSTS and export token decryption certificate. Note the original post missed a key name in configure demo code.

For CustomSTS (WIF test STS), the ADFS replyToAddress needs to set manually based on the Federation Service identifier, an example can be found here as well.

public class CustomSecurityTokenService : SecurityTokenService
{
    protected override Scope GetScope( IClaimsPrincipal principal, RequestSecurityToken request )
    {...
        foreach (var key in ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.AllKeys)
        {
            _logger.Debug(string.Format("checking [{0}] with [{1}]", scope.AppliesToAddress, key));
            if (string.Equals(scope.AppliesToAddress.ToLower(), key.ToLower()))

                scope.ReplyToAddress = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[key];
        }

  <appSettings>
    <add key="http://adfsserver/adfs/services/trust"
           value="https://adfsserver/adfs/ls/"/>
  </appSettings>

SP doen’st support urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:unspecified

This happens to OpenSSO, we finally used SAML Tracker addon in Firefox to figure out it’s in SAML token ADFS sending to IDP. Then followed this post to changed the default format from unspecified to something else.

1. Download WIF runtime and the WIF SDK – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd440951.aspx
2. Create a new MVC Project in VS 2010
3. On the project right-click, select “Add STS reference” and follow the same wizard steps as the WebForms application. (to add the WIF information to web.config file.)
4. Set the app pool to be able to load user profile in advanced settings panel.
5. Create self-signed SSL, make certificate accessable by app pool, as descirbed in https://identity.thinktecture.com/download/startersts/v1/StarterSTS_InitialSetup.wmv
6. DO NOT use “Add deployable dependencies” on MVC project when deploying webapp, otherwise the deployed webapp will be redirected back to /account/login from STS.

After tested with the local STS, we tried to switch to StarterSTS – http://startersts.codeplex.com/ as the 2nd test STS, then we can’t figured out how to add the customized claim type  into user profiles, claim type format like “http://schemas.myorg.ca/2011/10/OrganizationId”. Even though, the tutorial from startersts is still great helpful, http://identity.thinktecture.com/download/starterSTS/v1/StarterSTS_FederatingWebApps.wmv
Other useful tools like STSFederationMetadataEditor can be used to edit the WS-Federation of the STS on the fly.

NSPredicate

Before diving into TableView/SearchBar all those UI magic, get ready to NSArray basic filtering skill.
For fitlering NSString array: //[cd] means case and diacritic insensitive lookups according to doc.

     NSPredicate* p = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF contains[cd] %@", keyword];
     self.filteredList = [self.list filteredArrayUsingPredicate:p];

NSDictionary type Model lookup is also supported in NSPredicate. Given your model has key named ‘title’:

     NSPredicate* p = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"title contains[cd] %@", keyword];
     self.filteredList = [self.list filteredArrayUsingPredicate:p];

Now, back to UI magic.

UISearchDisplayController

From O’Reilly book Programming iOS4 by Matt Beuburg:

The first question is how to make the search filed (textbox) appear along with the table view, same as Apple’s own app such as the Contracts app. (Indeed, this is such a common arrangement that if you drag a UISerachBar onto a UITableView in a nib, the search field becomes the table’s header view and a UISearchDisplayController is created for you automatically.) Another feature of Apple’s standard interface is that the search field isn’t initially showing. To implement this, we scroll to the first actual row of data when the table view appears.

To create all of those by code:

    UISearchBar* b = [[UISearchBar alloc] init];
    [b sizeToFit];
    b.delegate = self;
    [self.tableView setTableHeaderView:b];
    [self.tableView reloadData];
    [self.tableView scrollToRowAtIndexPath:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:0 inSection:0]
                          atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop  animated:NO];
    UISearchDisplayController* c = [[UISearchDisplayController alloc] initWithSearchBar:b contentsController:self];
    [b release];
    self.sbc = c;  // property type of UISearchDisplayController
    c.delegate = self;
    c.searchResultsDataSource = self;
    c.searchResultsDelegate = self;
    [c release];

In UITableview datasource code, switch to

(tableView == sbc.searchResultsTableView)? [self.filteredList count] : [self.list count];

Implement searchBarSearchButtonClicked method:

- (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar
{
    [self filterArrayBy:searchBar.text];
    [self.sbc.searchResultsTableView reloadData];

}

- (void)searchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar textDidChange:(NSString *)searchText
{
    [self filterArrayBy:searchText];
}

- (void)filterArrayBy:(NSString*) keyword
{
    // title is a key in my ArrayListData(NSDictionary), for pure NSString filtering, use SELF instead
    NSPredicate* p = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"title contains[cd] %@", keyword];
    self.filteredList = [self.list filteredArrayUsingPredicate:p];
    [self.sbc.searchResultsTableView reloadData];

}

// to solve the problem of list becomes empty whenever user starts typing
- (void)searchDisplayControllerDidBeginSearch:(UISearchDisplayController *)controller
{
    self.filteredList = self.list;
}

// live search
- (void)searchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar textDidChange:(NSString *)searchText
{
    [self filterArrayBy:searchText];
}

Result:

Pictures are from this post, but the technology used here is a little bit different.