So I got a list of things to do for work and play… Of course, the line between these is so think one couldn’t tell what is for work and what is for play!
- Get various rules based engines setup for testing and features list ready for ecision to be made on usage.- Get a full Community Server Personal Edition installed, setup, and running for modifications and additions.- Get a Windows 2003 Server installation configured. Figure out what my VMs are setup as.- Download Microsoft’s test VMs for testing various scenarios. Research what else is available for use.
So I have a new assignment at work along with moving from team Häschenhetterzufuhren (A) to team Arrogant Bastards (B). My purpose in moving is to bring some CAB/SCSF experience building MVP/MVC Application Code to balance the teams. Right off though I have a major task to acheive, a rules engine for the corporations payroll garnishments. This is very interesting to me, being I’m of a not so average tilt in political alignment, that I am now trying to simplify and make sense of what boils down to Government regulation. Egads I say.
The components that I will however focus on, sense the regulations are often nonsensical and often confusing (even to the officials who wrote them) I will trying to make the rules engine as flexible as can be for the hard workers of Labor Ready to meet the demands and still get those checks out to all those hard working people of the company!
With that below are a zillion notes to myself in regards to my initial research and observations on the rules engine I will need to build.
The first thing that came up was iLog’s business rules engine software. This package(s) looks promising but am not sure what kind of funding is to be placed into this part of the software solution. I will definately research this further to identify where the cost point is. I also need to figure out how easily the implementation and integration of iLog’s software to the existing product build would be. One thing that looks like a definate positive for this package is there exists a .NET implementation! Yeeehaaaw!
The C# Source site has some good stuff. One is a simple rules engine and one (I’m assuming) more complex engine. Both are open source so I’ll be checking those out, but will have to also research the licensing to see if I can use them in a Corporate environment. The first one linked from this site is the NxBRE, the first .NET Rules Based Engine for open source. The second one linked from this site is the “SRE” or Simple Rules Engine. Both look ok, the NxBRE being a little more than the other. I’ll find out in the coming days.
The last two links I got from Google where over at the Code Project website. I’ve used this site a dozen or more times for good reference material. This topic also leaves me with some good starting points. I don’t think either of the linked projects are as thorough as the above described projects. As always though, any reference is welcome when it comes to developing solutions. The first link was for an “Event Based Rules Engine” by Darren Pruitt. The second was “Using a Rules Engine to Seperate Business Rules from the Application” by Jeff Bramlett.
I also found some cool stuff at the website The Server Side. If anything this site has an interesting and in my IMNSHO (in my not so humble opinion) I think it has a really snazzy layout and graphic design to it. It seems to work well with the amount of data presented on the screen. For most sites it would NOT work well, but this site is for geeks and we like our information by the train load!
…and thus, for now, my research ends until later in the day…
A quick how-to. I’ve done this a dozen times and figured I might as well make an entry in relation to it since I always have to look up where that blasted SQL file is or a step here or there. So with that, a quick and dirty how to on setting up ASP.NET 2.0 Membership, Roles, and Users in SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005.
- First thing, get an empty database setup on the database server. It really doesn’t matter what it is named, how it is configured or anything like that. You just need a database. You can even have other objects in the database; tables, stored procedures, etc. but they’ll be deleted.
- Next find the aspnet_regsql.exe executable. This file is usually located in the C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 folder. Once you find the file, execute it.
- The next screen that pops up will be a standard wizard. Now at this point all the reminders needed have been provided. Pick which database you want to install the tables and procs on and continue on through to the end of the wizard.
So that’s it. Now you’re ready to setup users, roles, properties/membership information and even extend the data, classes, or other API functionality.
I dug up the following info searching around for this information my last go round.
I know, I know. Most people I know would hear me say “Web 2.0 site” and give me that look of, “you do know that’s basically arbritrary and superficial marketing hype for the new startup sites?” Yeah, I know. But it’s a good descriptive word for exactly what a lot of these AJAX enabled, responsive, custom content, custom to user needs, based web sites are. I’m sure there is some specific defintion out there for Web 2.0 sites but right now I’m just going with the above description. Web 2.0 sites based on the features I listed are awesome sites.
With that I’m gonna stick a list of sites below that I’ve found recently. Each of these sites has Web 2.0 Criteria.
LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a great website for keeping your business (and friends/psuedo business) contacts together, but also connecting past them into their networks. View Adron Hall’s profile.
- meebo– Meebo is an online instant messenger client. Basically go to their page, sign up with a Meebo account, then register each of your current instant messenger accounts (MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Jabber, ICQ, and Google). When you go to the page and login it logs you into each of your accounts. No more need for downloaded clients, reconfiguring the clients on each seperate machine, etc. Just go to the site, on whatever machine, wherever your at, and login!
- jobburner – Job Burner is a site that has affiliate links to the jobs and pays out to link ins from other sites. Right off the bat it has some really nice AJAX implementations that add to the functionality of the site. It also detects your location and states how far you currently are from the job listing.
That’s it for now. I’ll be commenting on new sites as they pop up.
I’ve been working dilligently this week to get a deadline met for x amount of functionality. So far, the team is well over 50%, most likely past 80% without much doubt, and nearing 90%+ of the functionality done. But with all this working, I’ve already knocked out over 50 hours and Thursday isn’t even over, and I’m feeling a little rough around the edges. With that in mind I decided to drop my dilligence for a few hours, play some WOW, and dig up some research on web CSS layouts.
In the past I’ve used a couple different sites for layout and graphic design for pages I’ve put together. The primary sites include;
I decided this time I wanted to know more and to really dig into some of the specific differences between browsers and such. I wanted to be able to complete a layout off the top of my head without looking back and sample sites. Not that it is a bad idea, but I wanted something custom.
With that I hit up ole’ trusty Google. Of course with just a few variations of the words, “CSS”, “layout”, “graphics”, “design”, and others I plummeted into a plethora of sites that have awesome examples and tutorials.
All in all it was a good 30 minute break from endless hours of troubleshooting, coding, refactoring, and general brain usage. Now I just need that next 30 minutes fix to put something together that I’ll like.
Back to work, back to work!