Beer Dashboard == Kick Ass Awesome!

A good friend of mine, Eric Sterling, has put together the most ultimate Dashboard EVER! A beer dashboard at Bailey’s Taproom. It even has foursquare integration so you know who the mayor is! Represent!

He put this together using Silverlight and worked with Jeff & team at Bailey’s to get it rendering perfectly on a giant flat screen. So now when you go to Bailey’s, you can see with a mere glance the state of every beer on tap!

The Oregon Live even had an article by John Foyston posted “Bailey’s New Electronic Beer Menu” on the new “beer screen” (I prefer “beer dashboard”).

A TimePiece of C# and JavaScript

I put together a little project on Github, partially because I’ve been making headway learning the intricacies of JavaScript, and partly because I wanted something that would parse a string that represents a time value. So here’s the TDD I went through. In the process I pulled in QUnit and used that as my testing framework for the JavaScript example. I’d love input on either of these, so feel free to gimme some heat, tell me what I’ve done wrong, and especially how I ought to be doing this. 🙂

The first thing I did was put together the C# Library. I started two projects, one for the tests and one for the actual library. In the tests project I added a class file and removed the default using statements and replaced them with the following by way of Nuget:

[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
using NUnit.Framework;
using Shouldly;
[/sourcecode]

After adding these references I jumped right into setting up the test fixture. Since I know I want to have something to parse the hour for military time also I’ve setup two test variables.

[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
[TestFixture]
public class with_static_parsing_of_time
{
protected string sampleTimeOne = "10:12am";
protected string sampleTimeTwo = "2:30pm";
[/sourcecode]

The first test I then dived into was to test the hour.

[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
[Test]
public void should_return_a_time_piece_with_correct_hour()
{
var timePiece = TimePiece.Parse(sampleTimeOne);
timePiece.Hour.ShouldBe(10);
}
[/sourcecode]

I then fleshed out the object and implemented enough to get this test to pass.

[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
namespace TimeSlicer
{
public class TimePiece
{
public TimePiece(string time)
{
ParseTime(time);
}

private void ParseTime(string time)
{
SetHour(time);
}

private void SetHour(string time)
{
Hour = Convert.ToInt32(time.Split(Convert.ToChar(":"))[0]);
}

public int Hour { get; set; }
[/sourcecode]

I then continued back and forth writing tests and implemented each. For the complete code check out the Github Repository. This example is really simple. I’d love any thoughts on adding to it or what you might think is a better way to test the object.

For the JavaScript I downloaded QUnit. Again I stepped into the testing, which is a whole different ballgame than in C#.

[sourcecode language=”javascript”]
<link rel="stylesheet" href="qunit/qunit.css" type="text/css" media="screen"/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.6.2.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="qunit/qunit.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="TimeSlicer/TimePiece.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

var timeValueOne = "1:30am";
var timeValueTwo = "8:15pm";

$(document).ready(function() {

module("Parse hour from value.");

test("Should parse hour from value.", function() {
TimePiece(timeValueOne);
equal(TimePiece.Hour(), 1, "The appropriate hour value is returned for AM meridian value.");
});
[/sourcecode]

For the full test file with other JavaScript libraries and CSS check out the code file on github.

…and directly into implementation. With the caveat that I’m extremely unfamiliar with actual psuedo/pretend/faux object creation in JavaScript. In this realm I’m still reading up on best ways to do this.

[sourcecode language=”javascript”]
TimePiece = function(time) {
TimePiece.Hour = function () {
return time.toString().split(":")[0];
}
return time;
};
[/sourcecode]

I went on from here writing tests and implementing as I did with the C#. The JavaScript was interesting. I’ve also noticed that I get a lot of strings back versus the number values that I’d actually want, thus the addition of the “parseInt” in the final version.

Check out the overall project on Github at: https://github.com/Adron/Time-Slice

Widgetz SQL Server DB + ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Application Scaffolding

This is a quick walk through of how to setup a database, create some model objects, and build a scaffold for CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) all using ASP.NET MVC 3 and Visual Studio 2010.

Open Visual Studio 2010 and start a database project as shown.

SQL Server 2008 Database Project in Visual Studio 2010 (Click for full size image)

Next create an ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Application in this solution.

ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Application (Click for full size image)

Now open the Server Explorer in Visual Studio 2010 (You might have to click on View to find it if it isn’t already available in the main IDE). Right click on the Data Connections node in the Service Explorer Tree. Select Create Database and provide a name for the database.

Next in the Server Explorer, right click on the newly created database and select New Query. Then in the query window paste this SQL create script in and run it by right clicking and selecting execute.

[sourcecode languag=”sql”]
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Widgetz] (
[Id] UNIQUEIDENTIFIER NOT NULL,
[Name] NVARCHAR (50) NOT NULL,
[Description] NTEXT NULL,
[Created] DATETIME NOT NULL,
[Terminated] DATETIME NULL,
[Addon] BIT NOT NULL,
[Active] BIT NOT NULL,
[Cost] MONEY NULL,
[ChildWidgetz] INT NULL
);

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Widgetz]
ADD CONSTRAINT [PK_Widgetz] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([Name] ASC) WITH (ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, PAD_INDEX = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF);

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Widgetz]
ADD CONSTRAINT [DF_Widgetz_Created] DEFAULT (getdate()) FOR [Created];

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Widgetz]
ADD CONSTRAINT [DF_Widgetz_Active] DEFAULT ((1)) FOR [Active];

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Widgetz]
ADD CONSTRAINT [DF_Widgetz_Addon] DEFAULT ((0)) FOR [Addon];
[/sourcecode]

Once the table is created bring to focus the Solution Explorer and right click on the Database Project, selecting the Import Database Objects and Settings.

Next select the correct database connection, and leave everything else as it is set.

Selecting the appropriate database, options, and click next... (Click for the full size image)

Next the wizard will finish importing the database objects.

If you look through the folder tree of the project you’ll find individual files for the table, defaults, and other object settings.

Now right click on the Models directory of the ASP.NET MVC 3 Project that was created earlier. Select add and then new item. In that dialog add a new ADO.NET Entity Data Model.

Yup, just when you think it had gone away... ADO.NET (Click for full size image)

A dialog will appear, select the option to Generate from database and click next.

Entity Data Model Wizard (Click for full size image)

Next select the correct database connection again, then click on Yes to save the sensitive data (which if you’re using windows authentication it isn’t really going to save anything dangerous). Make sure the entities are named appropriately and click Next.

Options for Creating the ADO.NET Entity Model

The next screen, which may take a moment or two to display the list of tables and objects, will appear. Select the table that has been created and click on

Once done and finish is clicked, the entity model file will show the display view of the entity that was just created.

Now right click on the controller folder and select to create a new controller.

Add Controller (Click for full size image)

Be sure to click the advanced options and select the layout page.

Advanced Options (Click for full size image)

Now click on Ok and then Add. Visual Studio 2010 will not generate the scaffolding for the controller and views around CRUD operations.

This might seem like an absurdly easy thing to do, and you’d be right. There are however many steps to turn this into a feasible, well design user interface, and provide a solid and intelligent user experience (UX) to the end user. Also, this is arguably a not so maintainable bit of work. If the end user ONLY wants to operate on the data with CRUD, then this is great. But the minute something else is needed a very different, testable, and maintainable architecture should be utilized instead of this generated scaffolding. Which in coming blog entries I will be covering some of the ways to create testable, maintainable, and better designed architecture around more than CRUD. 🙂

CODE: All the code for this project is available in the Lesson 1 – ScaffoldGeneratedWidgetz.

Service & Scheduler: Using Topshelf, Quartz, & Other OSS Bits Part 2

In the previous entry in this series I setup a service using TopShelf. Now it is time to jump into scheduling with Quartz. I’ve started an entirely new service to work through an example of this service functionality.

To read more about Quartz.NET from the source, check out the Quartz.NET Project Site or the Github Repo.

Open up Visual Studio and create another Windows Console Project. Next add a reference to Quartz.NET with Nuget.

Next add a class called SomeJob as shown.

[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
using System;
using Quartz;

namespace quartz
{
public class SomeJob : IJob
{
public SomeJob() { }

public void Execute(JobExecutionContext context)
{
Console.WriteLine("DumbJob is executing.");
}
}
}
[/sourcecode]

Next add and change the code in Program.cs to the code below.

[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
using System;
using Quartz;
using Quartz.Impl;

namespace quartz
{
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
var schedFact = new StdSchedulerFactory();

var sched = schedFact.GetScheduler();
sched.Start();

var jobDetail =
new JobDetail("myJob", null, typeof(SomeJob));

var trigger = TriggerUtils.MakeSecondlyTrigger(5);
trigger.StartTimeUtc = DateTime.UtcNow;
trigger.Name = "myTrigger";
sched.ScheduleJob(jobDetail, trigger);
}
}
}
[/sourcecode]

NOTES: Working code available on Github under my Quartz Repo.

Service & Scheduler: Using Topshelf, Quartz, & Other OSS Bits Part 1

This how-to entry will detail the steps for getting Topshelf installed, running, and a schedule integrated and timed appropriately using Quartz. Once that is complete I’ll go over how to get custom schedules added to the service.

Topshelf

To get Topshelf up and running open up Visual Studio, start a Windows Console Project, and then use Nuget (if you don’t have Nuget installed, I suggest doing that ASAP, you’ll need it to follow along with any reference additions).

Once you have Topshelf and associated references added via Nuget create a new class file called StatusCheckIn and add the following code.

[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
using System;
using System.Timers;

namespace Sample.Services
{
public class StatusCheckIn
{
readonly Timer _timer;

public StatusCheckIn()
{
_timer = new Timer(5000) { AutoReset = true };
_timer.Elapsed += TimeHappened;
}

static void TimeHappened(object sender, EventArgs eventArgs)
{
Console.WriteLine("Status Time: {0} checking in.",
DateTime.Now);
Console.WriteLine("Sender Type: {0}",
sender.GetType());
Console.WriteLine("Event Argument Type: {0}",
eventArgs);
}

public void Start()
{
_timer.Start();
}

public void Stop()
{
_timer.Stop();
}
}
}
[/sourcecode]

After adding the StatusCheckIn Class, open up the Program.cs file and add or change the following code.

[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
using Topshelf;

namespace Sample.Services
{
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
HostFactory.Run(hostConfigurator =>
{
hostConfigurator.Service<StatusCheckIn>(
serviceConfigurator =>
{
serviceConfigurator.SetServiceName("TS");
serviceConfigurator.ConstructUsing(
name => new StatusCheckIn());
serviceConfigurator.WhenStarted(tc => tc.Start());
serviceConfigurator.WhenStopped(tc => tc.Stop());
});

hostConfigurator.RunAsLocalSystem();
hostConfigurator.SetDescription("Sample Host");
hostConfigurator.SetDisplayName("Display Name");
hostConfigurator.SetServiceName("Topshelf Service");
});
}
}
}
[/sourcecode]

If you run into an odd reference error, it is likely that VS2010 has determined you want the client profile of .NET 4.0 again. If anyone at MS on the VS2010/.NET 4.0 reads this, we DO NOT want this to be the default. It’s ridiculous that it gets set as default without some type of manual change. But I digress, open up the properties of the console/service project and set it under the dialog as shown.

Setting the appropriate .NET 4.0 Version in the Properties Dialog

NOTES: Working code available on Github under my Topshelf Repo.

Category: .NET Bits

Beer Dashboard == Kick Ass Awesome!

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A TimePiece of C# and JavaScript

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Widgetz SQL Server DB + ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Application Scaffolding

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Service & Scheduler: Using Topshelf, Quartz, & Other OSS Bits Part 2

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Service & Scheduler: Using Topshelf, Quartz, & Other OSS Bits Part 1

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Topshelf

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