Recently, I have been doing lots of SQL Server stuff so decided to add a few bits and pieces on here. 

First up, finding objects within your stored procedures. In this case, specifically views and tables.

This query is useful to find out if you have tables or views that aren't in any stored procedures. It gives you the object name, type of object and the number of stored procedures it appears in.

;with q as
(
Select   t.Name as [ObjectName],
       t.type_desc as [ObjectType],
      p.Name as [ProcedureName]
        
From sys.tables t
Left Join sys.procedures p on object_definition(p.object_Id) Like '%' + Replace(t.name, '_','!_')  + '%' ESCAPE '!'

    Union
Select  v.Name,
       v.type_desc,
      p.Name
   
From sys.views v
Left Join sys.procedures p on object_definition(p.object_Id) Like '%' + Replace(v.name, '_','!_')  + '%' ESCAPE '!'

)
Select    ObjectName,
       ObjectType,
       Count(ProcedureName) as [NumberOfOccurrences]
From q
Group by ObjectName, ObjectType

To list the names of the procedures that the object appears in you would change it to the following:

;with q as
(
Select   t.Name as [ObjectName],
       t.type_desc as [ObjectType],
      p.Name as [ProcedureName]
         
From sys.tables t
Left Join sys.procedures p on object_definition(p.object_Id) Like '%' + Replace(t.name, '_','!_')  + '%' ESCAPE '!'

    Union

Select  v.Name,
       v.type_desc,
      p.Name

From sys.views v
Left Join sys.procedures p on object_definition(p.object_Id) Like '%' + Replace(v.name, '_','!_')  + '%' ESCAPE '!'

)
Select    ObjectName,
       ObjectType,
       ProcedureName
From q
Where ObjectName = 'YOUR_OBJECT_NAME'

For reasons completely unknown I find it *really* difficult to remember the syntax in Git to push a new local repository to a remote destination.

So to stop from scratching my head about it, I am going to put it here. Two reasons:

1. so I know I can find it

2. it might help someone else looking for it

So, you've create a local git repository on your machine and what to push it to a remote server? (In this example I am going to use http://BitBucket.org)

Firstly, log in to BitBucket and create a new blank repository.

Once that is done, using git bash in your local repository execute the command

git remote add origin git@bitbucket.org:{BITBUCKET_USERNAME}/{REPO_NAME}.git

Obviously, replacing {BITBUCKET_USERNAME} & {REPO_NAME} with the real values!

This will add the the BitBucket URL as a local remote alias called "origin" to your local repo.

Now you need simply need to push your local repository (usually called master) to your remote repository. Which is called origin as we have just given it that alias!

To be clear, you can call your remote alias anything you like it doesn't have to be origin. In this instance calling your alias bitbucket would make sense.

git push origin master

And that is all you need to do! Really simple but for some reason I can never remember it.

As a side note, there is also a really handy git reference guide on GitHub

Bit of a cryptic title I know, but let me explain.

There have been a number of occasions on Twitter when a tweet has wandered in to my timeline along the lines of:

"What's the keyboard shortcut in GMail to send a message to Archive? #lazyweb"

Ok so that question may be a bit too simple but it is generally "How can I get [Web App] to do [some specific task]" If I don't know the answer then a quick search normally brings up the answer.

But I'm not immediately switching to Google for my searching, oh no boys and girls... I'm searching here first:

Now just to get one small and tiny detail out of the way, I am a Moderator on this site, so it's natural that I am going to say how brilliant it is! But here is the thing, it really is brilliant!

That Trello thing everyone is talking about? Well a question was asked about Trello on Web Applications waaay back in September 2011. And there are plenty more really awesome questions lurking about.

I would bet that if you have a query about anything Trello related, it has probably already been asked.  If by some miracle it hasn't, then you should ask it. The Trello Developers actively use Web Applications and answer any queries you may have. Pretty cool huh?

Moving on to Google. I don't know a single person who doesn't use Google in one form or other.  Web Applications is an Aladdin's cave full of nifty little Google tricks and tips.

Did you know that Google adds a load of JavaScript nonsense to your search results? Want to get rid of it? Well, here is the answer.

Have you ever wondered what the query string parameter `shva` means when logging in to GMail? Well, wonder no more!

Are you trying to work out how to automatically post your Google+ posts to your Facebook? Well, conserve your brain power and check out this answer.

Another nice Web Application that is getting a lot of attention at the moment is, If This Then That. This super simple Web App is all about Triggers, Actions & Channels. If this happens then do that. This could be you posting on Google+, the that could be your post automagically making it's way to your Facebook. 

This is a simple example but there are lots of Channels available (The Google+ and Facebook in this example) such as Email, SMS, Calendar and many more. Want to get an email if the weather forecast for tomorrow is raining? IFTTT can do that.

In short, Web Applications is an awesome place to ask questions about erm... Web Applications! 

But wait, there are some things that you should know. Web Applications is not the place to ask for alternatives or Web App requests. Questions like this:

Is there a Web App that will do [x] for me?

This is a bad question!

So what can you do? Well, you do some research yourself! Yes, the community is here to help you but they're not here to just spoon feed you. The same principle applies across the Stack Exchange network, we aren't just being nasty :)

A better question would be:

I am looking for a Web App that will do [x] for me.

I have done some research and the following Web Apps are almost suitable:

But here are the sticking points:

Can anyone recommend a solution to these problems? I would really like to use Web App A but the fact that it doesn't do E is really putting me off

Yes, you have had to put some effort in but this is a much better question and will more than likely get some awesome answers!

If you aren't sure you can always test the water in Chat or even post a question on the Web Apps Meta site.

By browsing through the questions on Web Applications you will find so many useful apps & services out there that you probably didn't know existed! You might even know how to answer a few questions to!

So next time you have a question about a Web Application, instead of immediately searching through no end of useless websites via Google, give Web Applications a try and see if we can help you.

P.S The answer is typing `e` when in the message ;-)

Pretty much every developer in the world knows about Stack Overflow, searching for a solution to a development problem in Google will almost certainly throw up a pretty damn good answer on Stack Overflow.

Along will many other Q&A sites that are now available on Stack Exchange there is a Careers site too.

Careers 2.0 is a place to show off your awesomeness. And I don't mean your awesomeness on Stack Overflow - I mean everywhere! 

As Careers 2.0 is tied to Stack Overflow there are certain aspects of it which are designed to promote your activity on Stack Overflow.

Such as the tags you are active in:

Your Stack Exchange accounts:

Along with any "top answers" you feel that are exceptionally good you need to show them off.

And that is it - the rest of your profile is up to you.

 

I will go through and show you some of the main sections that are on your Careers 2.0 Profile to demonstrate that most of this is nothing to do with Stack Overflow.

A personal statement

Add whatever you like here - it's entirely up to you. Just make it good!

Add the technologies you are interested in and if you want, the technologies you aren't interested in.

A number of the sections that relate to technology allow you to choose the same tags that Stack Overflow uses when you post a question. I am guessing this makes it easier for Employers to search through candidates who like a particular technology.

Experience & Education

Fairly self explantory to be honest. You add your previous roles along with a short description, time frames and the technology you used.

This is where it can get interesting. You are able to to add links to any open source projects that you have worked on. This allows you to put your real projects out there on display and make it easy for potential Employers to find and immediately see how you would normally write code. Remember, this is code that you have written properly, not some pseudo crap that you have quickly knocked together so you can earn a quick 20 or 30 rep on Stack Overflow.

Again more opportunities for you to show off your real acheivements.

Writing & Reading

The Writing section allows you to link to Amazon for any books that you may have written and also to any articles or blog posts you may have written that you feel will make you stand out from everybody else.

The Reading section is pretty similar and lets you link to Amazon for any books you have read and again any blog posts that you have read.

Obviously, you should pick and choose the relevant books that you have read. I'm pretty sure potential Employers do not need to know that you have read the "Shoot Annual" from 1983 :)

 

There are other sections that you can complete on your profile along with some other nice pieces of functionality but I don't want to spoil all of the surprises!

I get the impression that a lot of people think that Careers 2.0 is very closely tied to Stack Overflow and more specifically to the reputation that you have on Stack Overflow. This is simply not the case and I hope you can now see why your reputation on Stack Overflow is a pretty small factor when it comes to your Careers 2.0 profile.

It seems I am in good company as Joel Spolsky blogged about why reputation on Stack Overflow isn't what Careers 2.0 is about.

Oh, and here is a link to my Careers profile should you wish to have a look :)

SQL Server 2008 has a neat feature that allows you to script out an object. Not really ground breaking so far. However, where this differs from SQL 2005 is that you can script out:

• the schema
• the data
• the schema & data

You would think this option is available to you by right clicking directly on the object (typically a table for scripting out data and schema) but it isn't - you have to start on the database.

Right click on your database and select Tasks >Generate Scripts...

This will fire up a wizard to generate the scripts for you. 

Click Next and you will be prompted to select the objects you want to script out. I am going to choose one table for this purpose as it's easier.

Click Next

This is the important part, by default SSMS defaults to Schema Only to amend this to include the data you need to click Advanced

Now scroll down to the proprty named Types of data to script and select an option from the drop down.

Click OK and follow the rest of the wizard.

And there you have it, a simple way to script out your schema and data via SSMS 2008.

Note: If you are on SQL Server 2005 then I would recommend using an add-on such as SSMS Tools Pack as it includes this type of functionality which isn't available pre SQL 2008.

This is a short follow up to my previous post, on how to setup an environment so that you can connect to GitHub or BitBucket on the same machine using different user accounts.

A few people have asked how they can create multiple user on one machine that point to the same host e.g. BitBucket.org

Well, you will be pleased to know it is really simple!

You need to follow the same steps as my previous post, apart from some small changes in the Config file.

So you need to:

1. Create a new SSH key pair remembering to give each key pair unique names
2. Add the SSH Key to your BitBucket account
3. Add the SSH Key to the SSH Agent

And now for the Config file!

I will assume that you have created one SSH Key pair called id_rsa_work and one SSH Key pair called id_rsa_personal and both of these accounts are held on BitBucket.

Last time we used the config file to ensure that Git used the correct Key file depending on whether we were connecting to GitHub or BitBucket. We will do pretty much the same here but we will assign different Host names so that Git knows which Key file to use.

# Work user account for BitBucket
Host bitbucket.org
 
HostName bitbucket.org
  
PreferredAuthentications publickey
 
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_work
  
  
# Personal user account for BitBucket
Host bitbucket-personal
 
HostName bitbucket.org
  
PreferredAuthentications publickey
  
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_personal

See how we have used change the Host value to bitbucket-personal, it works pretty much the same as changing the hosts file on your PC.

So now if we wanted to clone a Git repo from BitBucket using our Work account we use this:

git clone git@bitbucket.org:MY_WORK_USER_NAME/MY_WORK_REPO_NAME.git

And now, I want to clone a repo from my personal BitBucket account...

git clone git@bitbucket-personal:MY_PERSONAL_USER_NAME/MY_PERSONAL_REPO_NAME.git

All you need to do is change the host from bitbucket.org to bitbucket-personal - Git will work out which key file to use.

Note: This approach will also work for GitHub.

This post should hopefully help you setup multiple user profiles when using Git on Windows.

I had already set up my Git installation to connect to GitHub using my personal email address. I then wanted to add another profile to connect to BitBucket using my work email address.

So, how did I do it?

Create a new pair of SSH Keys

The first step was to create a new pair of SSH keys using my work email address so I can connect to BitBucket. I am going to backup my current SSH keys just incase anything goes wrong. So open up your Git Bash console and type:

cd ~/.ssh
mkdir key_backup
cp id_rsa* key_backup

This will copy any SSH keys in the the "key_backup" directory we just created.

Now we need to create a new SSH key pair for my work email 

ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "MyWorkEmailAddress"

It will prompt you to give the key file a name:

Enter file which to save the key (/c/documents and settings/USERNAME/.ssh/id_rsa):

You need to specify a new name or it will overwrite your existing keys - which you don't want.

Enter a name of your choice - I used

id_rsa_work

You will then be prompted to enter a passphrase and your new key will be created.

Adding the Key to your BitBucket account 

You will need add the newly created SSH Key to your BitBucket account.

Naviagte to your /.ssh/ directory and open up the newly created key file in a text editor. It will be called what ever you name you gave it in the last step, so in my case it is called id_rsa_work.pub

Copy the entire line as it is, to your clipboard.

Log in to your BitBucket account and navigate to your "Account > SSH Keys" section.

Paste your key in to the text box and click Add Key

Adding the SSH keys to the SSH Agent

Now we need to add to the SSH Agent so it knows about the new key pair we have just created.

Still in your Git Bash console type:

ssh-agent.exe bash

Then type

ssh-add.exe ~/.ssh/id_rsa_work

I called my new key pair id_rsa_work but if you have given it a different name then use that one here.

Then type

exit

Configuring your config

In Windows Explorer navigate to your .ssh directory (usually in your profile directory)

Edit the file named "config" in a text editor. (If there isn't one there just create one)

You then need to add the following details to the file:

# Default GitHub user
Host github.com
  HostName github.com
  PreferredAuthentications publickey
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

# Work user account
Host bitbucket.org
  HostName bitbucket.org
  PreferredAuthentications publickey
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_work

This will tell Git that when I connect to the host github to use the id_rsa key pair but when I connect to bitbucket to use my id_rsa_work key pair.

Save and close the config file.

That is all that you should need to do. Now if I try to clone a repo from Github like this:

git clone https://github.com/MY_USER_NAME/MY_REPO_NAME.git

It will use my GitHub credentials and the SSH Keys created using my personal email.

However, cloning a repo from BitBucket like this:

git clone git@bitbucket.org:MY_USER_NAME/MY_REPO_NAME.git

It will use my BitBucket credentials and the SSH keys created using my work email.

Note:

This post is a bit rushed as I wanted to get out as soon as possible whilst still fresh in my mind!

I use the uBlogsy blog package for Umbraco for my blog, whilst looking at my blog posts in Google Reader I noticed that all formatting, images, links etc where being stripped out.

So after a bit of digging around on the Umbraco forums, it appears the uBlogsy strips out any HTML. This was easy to resolve but it was then pointed out to me by Rik Helsen that my RSS 2.0 feed would be invalid.

So, with a bit of tinkering I re-wrote the Razor file to use the Atom 1.0 format rather than RSS 2.0, with the advantage that you can include HTML in Atom.

The Razor file you need to amend is located in the Developer section under:

/ScriptingFiles/uBlogsyRSS.cshtml

There are certain sections that I have hard coded which you will have to change for your own site.

If you have any questions feel free to drop me an email or post a comment on this post. 

@{
     /*  RSS  FEED  */
}

@using  System.Linq
@using  System.Xml.Linq
@using  umbraco.MacroEngines
@using  uBlogsy.Web.Extensions
@
     //  get  all  posts
     DynamicNodeList  postList  =  Model.AncestorOrSelf(1).DescendantsOrSelf("uBlogsyPost");
     var  posts  =  postList.Items.OrderByDescending(x  =>  x.GetProperty("uBlogsyPostDate").Value);

     string  lastPubDate;
     if  (posts.Count()  ==  0)
     {
         lastPubDate  =  DateTime.Now.ToString();
     }
     else   
     {   
         lastPubDate  =  posts.FirstOrDefault().GetProperty("uBlogsyPostDate").Value;   
     }   
     //  get  landing  page   
     var  landing  =  Model.AncestorOrSelf(1).DescendantsOrSelf("uBlogsyLanding").First();   
     <feed  xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">   
         
             <title>@landing.uBlogsyRssTitle</title>   
             <link  rel="self"  href="{http://YOUR RSS FEED ADDRESS/}">   
             </link>   
             <author>   
               <name>{YOUR NAME}</name>   
               <email>{YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS}</email>   
             </author>   
             <updated>@lastPubDate.FormatDateTime("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'")</updated>   
             <id>{http://YOUR BLOG ADDRESS/}</id>   
   
   
             @foreach  (var  p  in  posts)   
             {   
                     <entry>   
                             <id>@p.Url</id>   
                             <title>@p.GetProperty("uBlogsyContentTitle").Value</title>   
                             <author>   
                                  <name>@p.GetProperty("uBlogsyPostAuthor").Value</name>   
                             </author>   
                             <rights>@landing.uBlogsyRssCopyright</rights>   
                             <link  href="@p.Url"></link>   
                             <content  type="html">   
                                   @Html.Raw(@p.GetProperty("uBlogsyContentBody").Value)   
                              </content>                             
                             <updated>@p.GetProperty("uBlogsyPostDate").Value.FormatDateTime("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'")  </updated>   
                     </entry>   
             }   
     </feed>   
}

I'm not afraid to admit it - I've been doing it all wrong.

I thought that I had been writing some decent code. I've just finished reading Clean Code and it turns out that I haven't. As it happens I've been writing some terrible code.

I was recommended this book by Paul Stack (@stack72). So I popped down to the nearest Waterstones (other stores available) and picked up the last copy. Trudging back to work, I skimmed the back page and have to admit I thought it would be a bit of a dull read.

How wrong could I be?! After the first chapter I was hooked, I read the whole book - yesterday. Yes one day! I couldn't put it down.

The thing that strikes me as odd is that not one person I have worked with has ever mentioned this book. Which means they are probably doing it wrong too. This book is an absolute must! I wish I could go back in time and make this the first development book I ever read. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure we haven't quite mastered time travel just yet. So I will have to make do with looking at all the code I have written and quietly sobbing.

Don't get me wrong, the code I've been writing is probably not that bad and after all it does actually work.  But that is the point - that's all it does, it works.  You can tell by looking at it that once it was finished and working I left it. I left it to move on to other things, to work on other code that had deadlines looming. 

Reading Clean Code has made me realise that 99% of any comments that I have ever written in code are worthless. Complete nonsense that need not be there. If I had taken the time and care to really look at what I was writing then I wouldn't have needed to put a comment.

Time and care. These are words that are not normally associated with coding. Most of us don't have or don't believe we have, the time to spend refactoring code. But this book has convinced me to make time. This is my work, my profession. Why am I not caring about my code? If a carpenter didn't care about their work then they would produce shoddy products. Sure they would probably work but they wouldn't look pretty or have a nice finish.

Clean Code highlights lots of different scenarios that should be setting off alarms bells. The bells are ringing and they are ringing loudly.

Simple things like only allowing functions to do one thing. I haven't been doing and the code gets messy. It's a quick and easy fix to add a little piece of code in to a function. Job done. Bug resolved. But alas, you have just planted the seed to something that if left alone will destroy your whole code base!

The ideas and recommendations that this book provides are not difficult - they may be difficult to master but to implement they are simple. If you see a piece of code that could potentially be modified to make it easier to read or to be re-used then do it. Don't hold back - potentially fixing something counts for nothing if you aren't actually going to fix it.  We are also afraid to use the delete key - preferring to comment out huge swathes of code. Just delete it. Source control will remember it - you don't have to.

I can't explain how much this book had changed my view of writing, refactoring and taking care of my code. From now on, every estimate for any development will allow for time to refactor and properly test the code I am creating and/or extending.  It seems absurd that I haven't been following the practices in this book from the outset.

For me this book is a massive game changer, it's made me realise that you won't always write perfect code and you certainly won't write perfect code the first time. It can always be improved. Your codebase is always growing, evolving, and what seemed to be a perfect function or class a few months/weeks/days ago no longer applies. Changes have been made and refactoring can be done.

It's also opened my eyes that getting other people to review and modifiy your code isn't a bad thing. It's not a personal slur on you - it's just that they will see things differently. They will pick up on mistakes, or should that be improvements, that you will miss.

From now on, I will be trying to craft my code like stories. And that is exactly what it is - a craft. Piecing things together, rearranging, amalgamating and splitting code until it describes exactly what you are trying to achieve. No more comments - the code should speak for itself. The reader should enjoy the experience of opening your source files, not recoil back in horror.

To quote a paragraph from the book:

"If we all checked-in our code a little cleaner than when we checked it out, the code simply could not rot. The cleanup doesn't have to be something big. Change one variable name for the better, break up one function that's a little too large, eliminate one small bit of duplicationm clean up one composite 'if' statement"

This isn't about refactoring 1000's of lines of code in one go - it's about making those little changes that we always (or should always) notice but never actually modify.

This book has inspired me, I am planning to refactor and add proper tests to my FilterMe plugin for Seesmic and then hopefully make it open source. Previously, I wouldn't have dreamt of doing this, of putting my code out there on the internet for anyone to review. I have changed though. I am looking forward to correcting my previous mistakes, allowing other developers (potentially people I have never met) to review my code. I want them to highlight the errors, to pose the question "Why have you done x like that? Why not do it like this?"

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to refactor some code, one variable name at a time.

Next up on the book list .... The Art of Unit Testing

Recently, I just passed the 10K mark on Stack Overflow. This gives you some additional privileges and well.... it's pretty cool! Agreed, I am miles away from being in the league of Jon Skeet or Marc Gravell but it's a little victory for me!

So, in my excitement I fired off a tweet of this geeky milestone.  I received a tweet back from Rory Becker, congratulating on me and pointing me in the direction of this page on the DevExpress site.

No need to refresh your page, it really does say that.

 DevExpress is proud to offer you a free license to  DXperience Enterprise subscription package

Now that is cool! Just because I have taken some time out to help other  developers they are helping me  out.

The timing of this is even better, as in the next month, I am due to start a new ASP.NET MVC3 project so these controls will come in very handy. I'm also looking forward to using CodeRush. After talking to Rory at DDD SouthWest at the weekend I was about to install the trial version to see how I got on - no need for that now :) I am assured by Rory that CodeRush rocks so I shouldn't have any troubles.

So, once installed and my new project is underway I shall write another post with my thoughts.

In the meantime, I just want to thank DevExpress for this amazing offer. They really don't have to do this but they do - so kudos to them.

Bored of seeing FourSquare everywhere? FilterMe is now available!

On the back of my ConversationView plugin for Seesmic Desktop 2, I have created another one called FilterMe.

I'd like to say this was all my brilliant idea but unfortunately not.  @blowdart sent me this tweet and said something similar had been done before by @adkinn but @blowdart wanted to configure it himself.

And so the first version of FilterMe is now available for you to try out and give me some feedback on it.

You can configure FilterMe to block Tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts or all of them.  This can be done by hiding a particular user or by hiding items based on their content.

To hide a user you right click an item in your timeline and select 'Hide this user':

It will then ask you to confirm that you want to hide the user:

You can remove this filter by going to the plugin settings.

And in the Usernames section clicking the remove button next to the user you no longer want to hide. As you can see the plugin filters a user based on the feed that they come from.  So blocking Nathans posts from LinkedIn won't block his posts from Twitter :)

If you navigate to the Filter by Word tab you can specify words and a feed that you want to block items from.

So in this example I am hiding posts

• from LinkedIn that contain the word agency
• from Twitter with the hashtag #dddsw
• from Any feed that contain the word http://4sq.com

It should be noted that the filter is case insensitive.

Click Save and you are all set.  Any future posts that match a filter will be hidden from your timeline.  If you want to hide items immediately then you will have to restart Seesmic Desktop 2 for the filters to take effect.

At the moment it isn't possible to filter by Application.  I'm hoping that I can add this funtionality in a bit later on.

In the meantime, I would be most grateful if you could download a copy of the plugin from here, install it, use it and then provide some feedback.  You can send your feedback by email  or posting a comment on this blog post.

Thanks in advance!

A new updated version of my ConversationView plugin for Seesmic Desktop 2 has been released to the marketplace.

New Features

A "Loading Conversation" placeholder is now displayed while the initial conversation is being loaded.

The formatting of the tweets displayed in the Conversation View column has been improved.

Formatting improvements include:

• Clicking on the username that sent the tweet will open their user profile on Twitter.com
• Clicking on a username mentioned in the tweet will auto populate the Update box. Note: This will create a new conversation.
• Clicking on the time that the tweet was posted will open the tweet on Twitter.com
• Clicking on a hashtag will execute a search query for the hashtag on Twitter.com

You can now Reply, ReplyToAll and Direct Message to users via the Quick Actions. Quick Actions can be seen by hovering over the avatar.

These actions are all available by right clicking on the body of the tweet.

The new version of the plugin can be downloaded from the Seesmic Marketplace 

If you have any questions or comments then drop me a mail or post a comment on this blog post.

And finally, commiserations to @stack72, who didn't get to test this version, he is busy with GiveCampUK at the moment.  Luckily for me, he has been replaced by @blowdart, who I thank for his help.

Enjoy!

I don't know why but this question or slight variants of it, regularly appear on Stack Overflow.  I'm not sure why because I always found it fairly simple to navigate my way around the Crystal Reports runtime.  I guess a lot of people don't. 

So, enough idle chit chat lets just get on with it shall we?

First we need to set up the Report Object

//Declare an instance of a Crystal Report
ReportDocument _crystalReport = new ReportDocument();
 
//Set the FileName for the report
_crystalReport.FileName = @"C:\CrystalReports\MyCustomReport.rpt";

Ok, now time for the Parameters

if (parameters.Count > 0)
                {
                    //Add the params here
                    ParameterValues currentParameterValues = new ParameterValues();
                    foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> param in parameters)
                    {
                        ParameterDiscreteValue paramDV = new ParameterDiscreteValue();
                        paramDV.Value = param.Value;
                        report.ParameterFields[param.Key].CurrentValues.Clear();
                        report.ParameterFields[param.Key].DefaultValues.Clear();
                        report.ParameterFields[param.Key].CurrentValues.Add(paramDV);
                    }
                }

You may be wondering what is going on here, well let me explain.

The parameters object is of Dictionary<String,String> which I use to store my parameters in. The key being the parameter name and the value ... well... being the value.  The nice thing about doing it this way is that you can reuse the same code for any report. Which is good! But you knew that already.... right?

So, all we do is

• loop through each value in our parameters Dictionary. 
• we then create a new ParameterDiscreteValue object and set its value. 
• we then use the parameters.Key to find the corresponding Parameter in the Crystal Report. 
• then we clear any Current or Default Values that may be stored in the report 
• finally we add our Parameter Discrete Value to the current parameter

It's that simple! You just need to ensure that the Key value is exactly the same as the parameter name within the Crystal Report.

Now for the data source.....

TableLogOnInfo logOnInfo;
                foreach (CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.Table tbCurrent in report.Database.Tables)
                {
                    logOnInfo= tbCurrent.LogOnInfo;
                    logOnInfo.ConnectionInfo.DatabaseName = "MyDatabaseName";
                    logOnInfo.ConnectionInfo.UserID = "UserId";
                    logOnInfo.ConnectionInfo.Password = "secretpassword";
                    logOnInfo.ConnectionInfo.ServerName = "SQLServer";
                    logOnInfo.ConnectionInfo.Type = ConnectionInfoType.SQL;
                    tbCurrent.ApplyLogOnInfo(logOnInfo);
                }

So what are we doing here?

• we declare a TableLogOnInfo object
• then we loop through each Table that exists in the report and grab the current LogOnInfo.  
• we apply our new Data Source details.  If you are using Windows Authentication then you can take out the UserId & Password.  
• We then apply the new data source information to the current table that we are on.

So thats it - really simple to do and yet the question keeps popping up all the time.

As promised in my previous post, I have modified the JavaScript to re-arrange the Badges for a User Profile on Stack Overflow.

Currently it is a bit of a mess (I believe they are displayed in date received order.)

Again, just drag Arrange User Badges on to your browsers toolbar and let the magic happen:

This was slightly trickier to achieve as I couldn't simply use next() or prev() to iterate through the badges.

Javascript:(function() {
 
$("#tags-table").next().append("<div id='customBadges' class='user-stats-table' style='float:left;'><div>");
 
$("#customBadges").append("<table id='goldbadges'><tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'><b> Gold Badges</b><hr /><span class='item-multiplier'></span></td><td></td></tr></table><br>");
$("#customBadges").append("<table id='goldtags'><tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'><b> Gold Tag Badges</b><hr /><span class='item-multiplier'></span></td><td></td></tr></table><br>");
$("#customBadges").append("<table id='silverbadges'><tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'><b> Silver Badges</b><hr /><span class='item-multiplier'></span></td><td></td></tr></table><br>");
$("#customBadges").append("<table id='silvertags'><tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'><b> Silver Tag Badges</b><hr /><span class='item-multiplier'></span></td><td></td></tr></table><br>");
$("#customBadges").append("<table id='bronzebadges'><tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'><b> Bronze Badges</b><hr /><span class='item-multiplier'></span></td><td></td></tr></table><br>");
$("#customBadges").append("<table id='bronzetags'><tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'><b> Bronze Tag Badges</b><hr /><span class='item-multiplier'></span></td><td></td></tr></table><br>");
 
$(".user-stats-table").find("table").each(function(){
 
    $(this).find(".badge-col").each(function(){
 
    var current = $(this).html();
    
    while (current.length > 1)
    {
        var link = current.slice(0, current.indexOf("<br>",0));
 
        current = current.replace(link + "<br>", "");
 
        var newRow = "<tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'>";
 
        newRow = newRow + link;
 
        newRow = newRow + "</td><td></td></tr>";
        
        
        if (link.indexOf("badge1") > 0)
        {
            if (link.indexOf("badge-tag") > 0)
            {
                $(newRow).appendTo('#goldtags');
            }
            else
            {
                $(newRow).appendTo('#goldbadges');
            }
        }
        if (link.indexOf("badge2") > 0)
        {    
            if (link.indexOf("badge-tag") > 0)
            {    
                $(newRow).appendTo('#silvertags');
            }
            else
            {
                $(newRow).appendTo('#silverbadges');
            }
        }
        if (link.indexOf("badge3") > 0)
        {
            if (link.indexOf("badge-tag") > 0)
            {
                $(newRow).appendTo('#bronzetags');
            }
            else
            {
                $(newRow).appendTo('#bronzebadges');
            }
        }
                
    }
    $(this).remove();
    
    });
});
 
})();  

A quick explanation of what I'm doing:

1. Retrieve each table cell
2. Extract from the start of the string up to the next <br>. This will extract the hyperlink, the span that displays the badge & text and where applicable the multiplier span.
3. Remove this from the original string (otherwise we'll get stuck in never ending while loop)
4. Construct a new table row and add the badge
5. Check to see what type of badge it is Gold, Silver or Bronze
6. Additional check to see if this is a Tag Badge or not
7. Add the new row to the relevant new table.
8. Finally when we have processed the table cell remove it from the DOM

Again, I don't know whether this is particularly good code or not but it works!

Enjoy!

As much as I love Stack Overflow, there are certain things that irritate me.

One of those things is the order of the badges.

They are displayed in alphabetical order which usually would be fine but the different levels of badge (gold, silver and bronze) are all muddled together.  So I knocked up some JavaScript to sort them out.

Drag this  Arrange Badges on to your toolbar to arrange them nicely!

I'm going to look at doing the same for the User page.  This is slightly trickier as the badges are not in nice neat rows.  They are a bunch of hyperlinks and spans boshed together with some line breaks

In the meantime - enjoy!

I'm not sure whether this code is good, bad or mediocre but it does what I want so I'm happy.

Javascript:(function() {
  
$(".page-description").insertBefore("div#mainbar");
  
$("div#mainbar").prepend("<table id='bronzebadges'><tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'><b> Bronze Badges</b><span class='item-multiplier'></span></td><td></td></tr><hr /></table>");
$("div#mainbar").prepend("<table id='silverbadges'><tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'><b> Silver Badges</b><span class='item-multiplier'></span></td><td></td></tr><hr /></table>");
$("div#mainbar").prepend("<table id='goldbadges'><tr><td class='check-cell'</td><td class='badge-cell'><b> Gold Badges</b><span class='item-multiplier'></span></td><td></td></tr><hr /></table>");
 
  
$("div#mainbar").find("span").each(function(){
     
  
     if ($(this).hasClass("badge1"))
     {
         var goldRow = $(this).parent().parent().parent();
         $(goldRow).appendTo('#goldbadges');
     }
     
         if ($(this).hasClass("badge2"))
     {
         var silverRow = $(this).parent().parent().parent();
         $(silverRow).appendTo('#silverbadges');
     }
     
         if ($(this).hasClass("badge3"))
     {
         var bronzeRow = $(this).parent().parent().parent();
         $(bronzeRow).appendTo('#bronzebadges');
     }
     
 });
  
 })(); 

And so we move on, from my boring life on to something else - Behaviour Driven Development. 

I was meandering along the internet a few weeks ago and found a .NET User Group that met up close to where I live.  They seemed to host regular events and had some good reviews - so I signed up to the Canary Wharf Dot Net User Group.  The next event scheduled was Software that Matters! An introduction to BDD with Liz Keogh and the following nonsense is my interpretation of what BDD is and how it can help your projects.

It's not all about testing….

Reading about BDD it seems that one of the most common mistakes is to think at BDD is all about testing.  Although BDD in theory replaces TDD, ATDD and such like; the big idea is about Deliberate Discovery.

Deliberate discovery is about always questioning the outcome of any context until all possible outcomes have been exhausted.  If the stakeholder can 100% say that given this scenario then these are the possible outcomes then you are on the right track.

Don't stop there though, once you have done this you may think "Hey, I've gone through everything I can think of and we know all of the possible outcomes"  Well that is true to a point, however it is only the things that YOU can think of.  You will always assume that you know everything - when in actual fact you don't.  What you should then do is go and talk to another developer about it or a business analyst basically anyone who will listen and give you their opinion.  The more people you talk to the more questions you will get and more importantly;  questions that you may not have thought of.

BDD is really about having has many conversations and bouncing ideas off as many people as possible.  It's about discovering and learning about the software you are about to write BEFORE you start writing it.  You should use plain English as much as possible as it makes it easier for everyone to understand in the chain.  When presenting you should try to prompt the users to provide as much feedback as possible.  Tell them that you know what you are presenting is not 100% correct and ask THEM how THEY would make it better, what other constraints or workflow should be integrated?

Now for a quick example:

Given that I visit a cash machine

When I request that it gives me £20

Then it should give me £20

Simple right? But if we question the context then we realise that there could be many different outcomes.  What if I don't have £20 in my account?

So, now we have two outcomes.  If I have enough money in my account then it will dispense the £20.  If I don't then it won't dispense any money.  So, what happens if I have an overdraft - we get yet another outcome.  We eventually end up with several outcomes - so our job is done…..Well not quite.  After we have taken the money we still need to debit the account!

By questioning a rather simple scenario we have ended up with lots of different outcomes that could have potentially been lost.  Because we have caught them at the very beginning of the process we can code for these eventualities straight away - rather than amending our code later on.

So how does way of things help? Well writing a traditional TDD Test could look like this:

Using BDD your test could look like this:

It's clear to see that by using BDD anyone can read your test and point out any errors or omissions.  There is no real code to read or understand and the flow of the process can be easily followed.

Driven by behaviour

In order to collate as much information as possible you need to ask the following questions:

• What should this do?
• Why should this do it?
• Who or what needs this?
• If we didn't do this, then who would care? Would anyone miss it?
• What value does it provide?

If something doesn't add value or no one would care if it didn't exist then there is no point in doing it.  It's a waste of time and money developing a feature that users aren't even going to use.

Prioritise!

In BDD you should identify the high risk items and concentrate on these first.  High risk items are  features that are brand new. No one has done these before so you can't say how long they are going to take or what problems you are going to encounter.  Hard code items that you know how to do and you know how long it is going to take - things that have been done many times before e.g login screen, drop downs with users in etc.

Unknown Unknowns - These are areas that are new to us.  We don't know anything about them.

Known Unknowns - These are areas that we have explored and identified as risky.  We know about them but we can't say for certain how long they will take to complete.

Known Knowns - These are areas that we have built.  We can present these back to the business for feedback

Unknown Knowns - These are complete.  They have been stabilised, tested and realised in to the wild. We can forget about them.

BDD Cycle

Typical BDD process

When do you jump out of the BDD Cycle?

• When the code passes the test
• When the feature is usable
• When the stakeholders goal is met
• When the vision is complete
• When the vision is delivering value

The best feedback that you can get on your code is when it's released.  If users don't complain then that is good feedback - if they thank you for the code you have released; then that really is the best feedback you can get.

There was one particular quote that Liz said which really stuck in my mind

It doesn't matter how good your software is - if it's the wrong software

And with that ringing in your ears - I am done.

Links

• WipFlash - A WPF Application created by Liz Keogh to demonstrate BDD Testing.
• Dan North - Introducing BDD
• Skills Matter - Podcast on how you can introduce BDD to the Business

Disclaimer: The content (ideas and information) of and any views expressed on any part of this Website or blog are my personal views and does not officially represent my employer's view, past or present, in anyway.

The Past

Monday 11th October 1999 was the first day of the rest of my working life.  I was a scrawny, shy, gawky looking 16 year old boy who'd just spent the summer of '99 dicking around with my mates.  Suddenly, they had all left me and gone back to school. Yes, school.  They had gone back to the hell hole we had just spent 5 years slagging off and to really stick the knife in they'd gone back of their own bloody accord. I didn't know what I was going to do and quite frankly, I was shitting it.

So with cash quickly running out, I decided to get a job, imaginative I know.   I applied for some jobs and got 2 interviews, one at Natwest and another at a Private Bank.  I asked  the adults around me (you know , the people who seemingly know everything) and every single person I asked said "Go with the Private Bank - they are solid as a rock and they pay well"  as it turns out - every single one of them was talking utter bollocks…

Fast forward to 2008,  I had blagged my way through a few Banking positions and ended up in IT, I had also miraculously managed to wangle a move down to London. I was finally earning some decent cash, as those clever dicks had predicted almost 9 years earlier.  However, there was one thing that they didn't predict…. the Company going tits up.  Yes, the safe and "solid as a rock" Company that everyone had seemingly urged me to join, was well and truly fucked.  And to top it all off, Natwest, the company I almost joined was given squillions of cash to stay a float.  The jammy bastards.

It was Wednesday, when they told us all.  Contractors were fleeing their desks, squawking on their 'phones, trying to get themselves a new job.  They knew they weren't getting any cash, most didn't wait until the end of the announcement.  Strange people that none of us knew, were in and out of the building, carrying boxes of documents, muttering between themselves.  Rumours spread like wild fire - we owe billions, we are all getting sacked and the furniture is getting picked up that afternoon, Jenny from accounts is actually a John.  Well, alright I made the last one up but you get the idea.  Some of the new employees, still green behind the ears, just walked out.  Probably numb with the realisation that they could have been safe at another job, far away from this chaos and confusion. A job that a little over a week ago they told to shove it. That was going to be an embarrassing phone call…

And so to the rest of us. A few went home. A few went rather pale and started tapping on their keyboards with more vigour and enthusiasm that had not been seen for years.  Most of us though, went to the pub and got completely hammered. The landlord of the local pub must have thought Christmas had come early. We drank that place dry and spent a fortune. Probably quite a silly thing to do considering the events that had happened just hours earlier. We didn't care though, we took the following day off and watched daytime TV. Now that's what I call a hard days work.

The Present

And so here I am, still at the "rock solid" Private Bank, the masses of staff that once roamed the office have been whittled down to just a select few. There are no deadlines, no pressure, no bollockings for having an hour and half for lunch.  We still get paid, a pension, holidays there is even a training budget available. Overtime is scarce these days though…..

Sounds like heaven? It isn't.

The boredom sets in quicker than you'd think.  If you don't try to keep busy then you will end up doing nothing for days.  You find yourself struggling to get up to go to work let alone do any work when you are there.  I know it sounds like a normal job but it's much worse.  You know that anything you build or maintain is going to get the chop.  What is the point in putting your heart and soul in to a new application when it is going to be on the scrap heap within the next 12 months?

Some people have given up, patching things together in the hope they'll last a bit longer. Pride in your work is virtually non-existent, people take weeks to complete a task that would have previously taken them a day at most. I'm not saying things don't get done but lets just say the enthusiasm for doing a job well done isn't really there. Why spend more time doing it really well when no-one cares as long as it works?

The thing is, it's different for me, I'm a Software Developer.  Technology moves too fast for me to sit about doing nothing for a couple of years.  I'm trying to keep up but I'm already behind.  It takes a lot of effort to stay at work and read about Unit Testing and Test Driven Development when the rest of your work mates are off down the pub for an impromptu afternoon session.

Don't get me wrong, if the shit hits the fan then it gets fixed quickly. Probably quicker than when we weren't broke.  People are eager to do work but only when the work finds them. It is similar to that age old saying - If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well no one is going to start any work unless there is good reason to. Especially when there is a nice friendly pub down the road.

I don't expect your sympathy. To be honest, I'm expecting a barrage of abuse. Depending on which way you look at it, it is either right place right time or wrong place wrong time.  Either way, I'm in some kind of place and I don't intend on leaving it…..not yet anyway.

The Future

This section will be short for obvious reasons - I cannot see into the future. And let's be honest, if I could, I'm doing a pretty poor job of it so far.

I've managed to get myself involved in an Open Source Project so I'm hoping that will keep me busy.  It's all new technology to me so I'm on a learning curve that is so steep Everest is getting pissed off at the size of it.  I've started attending Developer Days and meeting other Developers. They all have proper jobs whereas I don't really.  Some would say that  when discussing this an awkward silence slams in to the conversation but it's an ice-breaker if anything.

I'm hoping that I can keep myself busy, keep myself up to date and I might even make some good friends along the way.

A few people have asked if I worry about what I'm going to do when I finally get the boot. The honest answer? No, I don't - what's the point.  No one really knows what the future has in store but lets be honest, it's not as if we don't have a say in how it works out.