RSSMix.com Mix ID 582126

Get fast computers for your developers

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:42:52 -0400

I’ve just been through an office move at a client site and packing it up got me thinking about the choices that companies make for their staff when it comes to computer hardware. Most users can benefit in some way from having faster computers, with bigger screens, and better input peripherals. Corporations have a tendency [...]

Looking forward to PyCon 2010!

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:04:29 -0500

On Thursday I’m making the yearly pilgrimage to PyCon in Atlanta. This will be my third year and I’m sure it’ll be better than ever. For me the real highlights of this conference are the legendary open space sessions. The level of interaction and learning at these really sets it apart from other conferences. Last [...]

Ringin' In The New Year, MVP Style

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:03:00 -0500

Well, I got the email New Years Day that I was awarded the 2010 Microsoft MVP for SharePoint Services, which recognizes community leaders all over for their effort in sharing their knowledge and expertise with those in the community and Microsoft. An award like this is an honor to receive and validates all the work that I've been doing up to this point, and, well it's also just freakin' cool too :)

But, there's no sitting on my laurels here, look for continuing posts on SharePoint Technologies as well as talks at the local SharePoint Saturdays/Code Camps and Tri-State SharePoint User Group (formerly known as the Philly Office Geeks).

Happy New Year folks! 2010's already lookin' great! - M

The Cloud Scoop from Fedscoop

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:26:45 -0500

In this article,eWeekprovides a good summary of a Fedscoop cloud computing panel event. Below, are some of the soundbytes accompanied by my commentary. According to the experts, some benefits of Cloud Computing are:1. lower capital expenses 2. it’s scalable3. it’s real4. it’s a high-performance option for most agenciesCertainly #1 and #2 are valid. #3 depends [...]

Cloud Computing Characteristics: Flexible or Agile?

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:36:26 -0500

In promoting the benefits of cloud computing, it seems that some confuse flexible with agile. They are indeed distinct adjectives. Referring to Ms. Merriam:Flexible: capable of being flexed : pliant yielding to influence: tractable 3 characterized by a ready capability to adapt to new, different requirements (elastic)Synonyms: adaptable, adjustable, alterable, changeable, elastic, fluid, [...]

Neiman Marcus Fashion Faux-pas

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:51:03 -0500

Ive always promoted the notion that a Management Consultant (and her IT cousin, the Enterprise Architect) needs a bit of style, a soupon of panache, a dash of elegance in both presentation and deliverables. Further, I often fashion (i.e, build) a management consulting team after the Neiman Marcus brand an uber-luxurious (i.e., only the [...]

Apples sees the (cloud computing) light

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:16:41 -0500

ITunes: from desktop software to SaaS subscriptionTodays WSJ asserts that Apple is considering migrating its iTunes property to the cloud i.e., shifting from a desktop-based software version to a SaaS-based model via its Lala acquisition. As the article points out this makes sense on several fronts and perspectives (Apple and its customers): iTunes [...]

Need a New EA Vision this Christmas?

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:31:41 -0500

Does this look hauntingly familiar?What does the current state of your Enterprise Architecture look like? Does this lego landscape ring a sleigh bell?Take your architecture game to the next level this holiday season. Theres no need to re-invent the sleigh ski. Take a page out of your 10 year-olds Christmas wish list and pick up [...]

Googles Goggles - The Ultimate Weapon for the EA Sheriff

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:01:57 -0500

Google's goggles search utility is the Enterprise Architect's perfect weapon for tracking down rogue IT assets.

SharePoint 2010 and PowerPoint Themes

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:01:00 -0500

One of the enhancements to SharePoint was an "upgrade" to how it does Themes. Everyone remembers how Site Themes are handled now, right? Head into the Site Settings and under Look And Feel find the Site Theme link, which shows you the below image.

Now, when heading into the same area in SharePoint 2010 you see the following:

Note the additional information now available in the page: the color scheme is shown, the text backgrounds and foregrounds, accents and hyperlinks are shown as well. This aligns up perfectly with a PowerPoint Theme. Now, how can we create a PowerPoint Theme? Well, you can either open up PowerPoint 2007 and start playing there, or, enter: Theme Builder.

Theme Builder (currently a beta tool) allows you to create Microsoft Office 2007 Themes to be used throughout the Office suite. Utilizing a tool like this allows you to create Themes that can also be used in your SharePoint 2010 sites. Using the interface (see above) you can assign colors to the various areas that match those that SharePoint is looking for (accents, hyperlinks, etc). Once created, you can upload the Theme to the Gallery, and then reference it in the Theme Settings.

So, to create a custom Theme using Theme Builder

Open up Theme Builder
Assign different colors to the various accents and hyperlinks
Select the font of the major and minor fonts
- Major=Heading Font; Minor=Body Font in SharePoint
Test the Theme in Powerpoint
Save the Theme inside the PowerPoint interface
Open up the SharePoint 2010 Site you wish to play with
Navigate Site Actions --> Site Settings
Select Themes under the Galleries section
Upload the Theme created/saved in the steps above
Navigate back to the Site Settings page, then select Site Theme under the Look and Feel section
- You should now see your uploaded Theme as a choice in the list
Select the new Theme...the color scheme, accents, hyperlinks and fonts in the page will now reflect your Theme
Select the <Apply> button
Your site now has this new Theme throughout

Relatively simple, eh? It's not too bad for something automated. Now, you can experiment with different color schemes and see what looks best for your new theme.

Note: When trying to just save the Theme through the Theme Builder only, and then uploading it, SharePoint exceptioned, hence we need to save it through the PowerPoint interface.

Enjoy! - M

Are SOA and Agile a Good Match?

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:09:43 -0500

http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/ebizq_forum/2009/12/are-soa-and-agile-a-good-match.php

Is Enterprise Architecture Relevant Anymore?

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:52:03 -0500

As EA theorists, academics and practitioner learn and share more knowledge, the practice of EA will one day reach the theoretical vision i.e., the uber-business management paradigm.

SharePoint Server 2010 Beta Server Farm Installation: Go!

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:49:00 -0500

Let's set the stage:

Host	Guest
Dell XPS M1530	Intel CPU T9300 (Core 2 Duo) @ 2.5GHz
Intel CPU T9300 (Core 2 Duo) @ 2.5GHz	4GB RAM
8GB RAM	Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
VMWare Workstation 7

Initial Steps
The following prepare the virtual of a SharePoint Server 2010 Farm Installation. Note this install will use DOMAIN\Administrator for all access.

Rename your virtual server something sensible (instead of taking the funky looking name it is given when you install WS2K8R2)
Within the virtual server I took the IPCONFIG information and made it static in the properties of the network adapter (verify network/internet connectivity)
Next install the Active Directory Role and DNS
Next, install the Application Server and Web Server Roles (taking the defaults with these)
Install the WCF hotfix for SharePoint 2010 installation on Windows Server 2008 R2 (found here - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=166231)
Take a snapshot here, just in case we need to revert back.
Install SQL Server 2008 Standard + SP1 + Cumulative Update 2 (64-bit all the way here)
Snapshot #2

SharePoint Server 2010 Installation
Here's what we're all interested in...and with screenshots!

Fire up the beta, and the welcome screen appears...select Install Software Prerequisites.
The SharePoint 2010 Preperation Tools dialog appears...click <Next>
Accept the licensing agreement, click <Next>
The prerequisite software will now be installed
After a little time the prerequisite installation completes, click <Finish>
Next, select Install SharePoint Server
A little setup preperation happens...
Time to enter the Product Key for the Beta then click <Continue>
Accept the Terms of Agreement then click <Continue>
Next we'll choose the Server Farm installation
Select the Complete Server Type installation then click <Install Now>
Installation begins...
Applying updates...
Installation complete! You can run the Configuration Wizard next if you choose to do so (which we choose to do so!), click <Close>
Here we have the Configuration Welcome Screen, click <Next>
The service restart notification dialog appears, click <Yes>
Select Create a new server farm, click <Next>
In the Specify Configuration Database Settings page, enter the Database server, Database name, and the username/password of the access account
Enter and confirm the farm passphrase. This is new for SharePoint 2010 and is used to protect the farm's configuration data. Each server that joins the farm is required to enter this, so keep it handy! Click <Next>
Specify the port for Central Administration and the security configuration, click <Next>
Verify the configuration information then click <Next>
The configuration progress dialog...
Successful configuration! Clicking <Finish> takes you into Central Administration to continue with additional configuration of the farm
Upon entering CA you're asked if you want to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program. Pick yes/no then click <OK>
Continuing with configuration you are given the choice of following a wizard or configuring all yourself. We'll use the wizard for now. Click <Next>. (Click the image for a larger view)
The next screen configures the services that will run on this farm, along with the account that they will run under. Again, if you were following least privilege you'd have created additional/different accounts after installing AD (part of the initial steps above). Here we'll just use the DOMAIN\Administrator account again. Click <Next>. (Click the image for a larger view)
The system will now complete the configuration process of the farm. This part took a little time on my rig (then again, it is a 4GB virtual running on an external HDD)
Upon completion the system allows you to create a new site collection (so I did). Value the relevant fields with the information you wish, select the relevant template, and click <OK> (Click image for a larger view)
After the site collection is created a configuration details screen is displayed, with all of the relevant information for the farm. Click <Finish>. (Click image for a larger view)
And after all that, we now have a Team Site (created in the steps above). (Click image for a larger view)

Happy installing! - M

Hotfix Out For SharePoint 2010 On Windows 2008 Server R2

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:47:00 -0500

Link finally resolves to a download of files (x86, x64 and i64). Find it here.

Walkthrough of stand-alone setup forthcoming...

- M

SharePoint 2010 Links Dropping, But...UPDATE

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:17:00 -0500

Just after I hit <Submit> for the post...the Beta is available on the TechNet Partners site at least! Download at your heart's content!

~~So far, the links are "broken". We'll see how long it takes for them to wire up...~~

- M

EA - the perennial bridesmaid

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:41:26 -0500

Perhaps our EA forefathers led us down the wrong path?http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/ebizq_forum/2009/11/do-todays-enterprise-architecture-practitioners-get-at-all-close-to-the-original-vision-of-ea.php

SharePoint Saturday - Philly Was a Huge Success!

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:18:00 -0500

Huge props go out to Dave Mann and group for putting together a serious kick @$$ event this past Saturday. We had 20+ speakers, 8 hours of sessions, over 275 people, and it was just an overall awesome event. I personally had like 50 people in my talk Web Content Management in SharePoint Server 2010 (link to slides below). Thanks again to Dave Mann for putting this all together. Give the user group tons of love at Philly Office Geeks.

Web Content Management in SharePoint Server 2010

- M

The Day of Droid

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:32:10 -0500

“Today is the day, Judah.” (Messala)“Yes, today is the day.” (Judah Ben-Hur)(Just before the climactic chariot race in the 1959 film classic, “Ben Hur”)6 November, 2009. D-Day. Well, maybe not that dramatic, but pretty close. Today is the day that the Droid phone will be widely available on the Verizon network. For those who have [...]

A Good Enterprise Security Architecture Framework

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:00:33 -0500

For those enterprise architects looking for a good enterprise security model, check this out:http://www.sabsa-institute.org/the-sabsa-method/the-sabsa-model.aspx

Use Enterprise Architecture To Avert Fiscal Disasters

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:30:58 -0500

re: http://www.information-management.com/news/-10016459-1.htmlTechnology (and enterprise architecture) could have helped individual institutions understand their risk exposure. However, it was the aggregate risk that helped to cause the financial meltdown. So, Im not certain that EA could have given insight in the aggregation scenario. Certainly, theres still a lot of work for companies and governing bodies re: designing, [...]

What are the benefits of cloud computing?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:07:26 -0500

What are the benefits of cloud cover?According to answers.com and at the time of this blog post, nothing as of yet: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_benefits_of_cloudsWhat are the benefits of cloud computing?Several benefits associated with cloud computing are emerging and (thankfully) many involve quantifiable cost savings. There are also benefits on the revenue side of the equation (e.g., faster [...]

Hand to Hand Malware Combat

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:28:40 -0500

Does anybody else like to battle viruses and malware by hand? I use the free AVG Anti Virus and highly recommend it. But my kids play a lot of flash games that invariably come from sites designed to infect with the latest malware.The free AutoRuns utility from Sys Internals (now Microsoft) is my chief weapon [...]

Software History Books

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:50:00 -0500

It’s valuable for programmers to know the history of computer programming. One reason is to observe how ordinary people accomplished extraordinary things…creating software that’s part of our everyday existence. Another is to gain insight into how software development got to its current state and where the future lies. I find the stories of Internet start-ups, success or [...]

The CIO is accountable for SOA

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:46:07 -0400

Interesting question posed in the ebizq.net forum:In SOA Governance, Who Has the Authority?In my opinion, the short answer is the CIO is accountable for (service-oriented) architecture. The long answer involves first addressing 2 key buzzwords associated with the question: SOA and governance. I leverage MITs IT Governance model when defining SOA governance: SOA governance involves [...]

The CIO is accountable for SOA

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:46:07 -0400

Software Configuration Management Part II Branching strategies

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:30:57 -0400

BRANCHING STRATEGIESA sophisticated branching strategy can yield significant improvementsThe function of a branching strategy has several functional goals : Create better software (fewer bugs); deliver software faster; allow for flexible (agile?) deployments, where an intelligent choice can be made as to which features are released, giving you the ability to do time-based releases with a [...]

Thin & Green: The Desktop of the Future

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:37:58 -0400

Interesting question posed in the ebizq.net forum:If Everything Can Be Delivered by SaaS, How Many Desktop Applications Would a User Still Need?Feedback including my own:http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/ebizq_forum/2009/10/if-everything-can-be-delivered-by-saas-how-many-desktop-applications-would-a-user-still-need.php

A Critical Review of Gartners Emergent Architecture

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:45:16 -0400

Conceptually, enterprise architecture is a logical framework in which to align business intent with information technology assets. Decomposing a problem domain into smaller, yet more manageable sub-problems is an age-old solution approach. Indeed, most enterprise architecture solution methodologies decompose the enterprise (i.e., the problem domain) into some combination of business, application, data and infrastructure architectures [...]

Google will be the Enterprise Architecture Platform of the Future

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:24:34 -0400

Google is the future of enterprise architecture communication and organization.

Near-Term Forecast: a kinder, gentler cloud

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:04:50 -0400

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/10/22/a-kinder-gentler-cloud/?section=magazines_fortuneOutrageous claims like salesforce.coms Benioff, Software is Deadrally cryhelp drive revenue and new marketspaces such as cloud computing. However, there is more than ounce of truth in his slogan.In fact, with regards to the cloud computing phenomenon, I highly recommended the book, The Big Switch. The author draws an interesting and compelling analogy between the [...]

Cloud Computing: Not Your Fathers Power Plant

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:33:54 -0400

Cloud Computing: do we really need 22 definitions?Now that everyones tired of SOA, its time to rev up those advertising engines and promote a new technology metaphor: cloud computing (also, masquerading as utility computing, on-demand computing & grid computing). What is cloud computing you ask? Well, it depends on who you ask. Surprisingly, cloud computing [...]

SPC09 Day 2 Highlights

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:23:00 -0400

More info coming out of the conference. There's just waaaaaaaaay too much for one person to handle (I've met some folks that have 4 people from their businesses and they still say that there's too much info for them all to grasp). So, with that I wanted to hit the highlights of what I saw yesterday, and how they'll impact SharePoint work going forward.

SharePoint Development on Windows 7!
Yup, you heard it here first (well, not really first, but still). Matthew Burnett from Microsoft did a great session on this. SharePoint can now be installed on Windows 7 (and Vista SP1) machines. Couple that with Visual Studio 2010 (currently also in beta) and the other requisite tools, you can now do SharePoint development w/o the need for a Server OS. No more running through hoops to get development tools installed on servers. This is a really huge thing. Couple this with Window's virtualization technology, you can also create a .VHD (Virtual hard Disk) that Win7 can boot to, and have it run just like a host OS, with access to all resources (that means that if your machine/lappy has 8GB, the .VHD you booted from will have it). This is a HUGE step forward in SharePoint development. Yet another reason to move onto Windows 7. But you're already on it, right? Right?

SharePoint Online
This has been in the news for a bit, but the details coming out of this are great. At the highest level, for businesses/enterprises that don't want to have to deal with all of the effort for the care and feeding of the infrastructure, patches, health, etc. a hosted solution becomes very, very appealing. They announced a number of clients that are on this (one of them Coca-Cola) and more moving onto it. Now granted, there will be some limitations when you're on their Standard plan (shared hardware/infrastucture) like custom coding, branding initiatives, and the like. If you're on their Dedicated service you have more flexibility, but again, you'll be paying for that. The Standard plan starts for 5 users, the Dedicated starts at 5,000. But still, at a higher level, moving to the "cloud" for a SharePoint implementation just brings up all these new opportunites for those resources that are now freed up because of this.

More to come...enjoy! - M

SPC09 Day 1 Highlights

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:09:00 -0400

Well, a lot of information from a keynote and a couple tracks, so much so my head's going to explode. But check out what I believe is going to be big news...

1. SharePoint 2010 Public Beta: November! (11/1 or 11/30, who knows, I'm hoping earlier)
2. Development on Windows 7 (or Vista...64-bit client needed but no longer do you need a local server for development!)
3. RBS: Remote Blob Storage: Basically allowing you to store content in a place other than SQL. This is huge for media streaming
4. Access Services! Note just putting your .MDB up but converting forms and all of the other assets to SP ones...the possibilities of this one are pretty huge, given how prevalent Access is used is many enterprises

More details/info to come as the conference goes on!

- M

SharePoint Geeks Descend On Las Vegas!

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:07:00 -0400

Hey, you got your Las Vegas in my SharePoint...no, you got your SharePoint in my Las Vegas! Two great tastes that go great together have finally converged on Las Vegas (in fact, you can tell who the East Coasters are as they've been wandering around the hotel since like 5AM PST) for a week's worth of SharePoint geek! Registration started at 8am here today and is through this evening. There's over 7000 people attending so get your stuff early.

Also, AC's putting together what could probably be the largest SharePint event in history @ eyecandy in Mandalay Bay. See any/all of you there, or around the conference as well!

-M

Corporate IT Forecast: 100% cloudy with a chance of meaty cost savings

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:16:41 -0400

As the adage goes, history is bound to repeat itself. In his book, The Big Switch, Nicholas Carr presents an insightful summary of the evolution of the power-generation industry and draws discerning parallels with that of the information technology industry. First, he summarizes how the industrial power-generation business transitioned from the brawn of men and [...]

Corporate IT Forecast: 100% cloudy with a chance of meaty cost savings

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:16:41 -0400

Speaking at SharePoint Saturday - Philly!

michael.nospam@nospam.mukalian.com (mmukalian) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:08:00 -0400

Hey folks, fresh off of some much needed vaca and back in the swing of things. And, on that note, I'll be speaking at the SharePoint Saturday - Philly event on November 7th. This is a great opportunity for those that are looking to get into SharePoint, as well as be the place to be for all things SharePoint Server 2010 (well, after the SP Conference that is). It's 8 hours (including breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack) of all SharePoint goodness, including...

- Lots of SharePoint 2010 discussions!
- 8 hours
- Information Architect, Developer and Administration tracks
- 250 seats with tables (laptops welcome)
- Free breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack
- Raffles and prizes at 5:00
- Easy parking
- After hours party at the Shanachie pub in Ambler (network with speakers and attendees)

My talk will be entitled Web Content Management with SharePoint Server 2010 and it's from 10-11. Check out the list of Speakers and Sessions.

Registration's wide open, and word has it it's already half full. So have at it folks!

- M

The Adventures of a Not So Lucky Enterprise Cloud Pioneer

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:50:35 -0400

Why cant every CIO be as lucky as Jim Barton? The mythical man, with not one iota of technology expertise, is thrown into a seemingly inescapable trap of leading fictional IVK Corporation through data security breaches, web site denial-of-attacks and other corporate information technology maladies. Yet, somehow he manages to escape them all with only [...]

The Adventures of a Not So Lucky Enterprise Cloud Pioneer

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:50:35 -0400

Whats YOUR Definition of Enterprise Architecture?

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:44:11 -0400

In this September, 2009 Insurance & Technology article, the Harleysville Insurance CIO presents his definition.Hedraws upon the familiararchitecture as building a houseanalogy anddefines a4-tier Enterprise Architecture model embedded with sound architectural concepts. However, in my opinion the article could be strengthened in 3 ways. First, a more precise definition of the business architecture would be [...]

Integration Architecture Considerations: REST vs. SOAP

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:51:15 -0400

Introduction of latest integartion archtecture trend called Service Oriented Architecture, or SOA for shot, has stirred up quite a debate on what types of service architectures are best suited for enterprise wide adoption. Should the services be based on:REST or SOAP ? Before casting the final vote, one must understand these types of services and [...]

Integration Architecture Considerations: REST vs. SOAP

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:51:15 -0400

Application Portfolio Rationalization Prioritize dont Architect!

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:51:07 -0400

A common misconception is that application rationalization and optimization will somehow unlock the mysteries of your future IT architecture. Many believe that by analyzing the patterns in your technical architecture, assessing your teams skill-sets, and reading the tea leaves of future technology trends you can boldly stand up and say we will be an SOA [...]

Application Portfolio Rationalization Prioritize dont Architect!

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:51:07 -0400

Startup Interest Group

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:38:56 -0400

I’ve been attending a technology startup interest group, the Philly Startup Hackathons, for about two years now. I’ve met lots of interesting people, notably Gabriel Weinberg, the organizer. Gabriel’s always got too many interesting projects underway! One of his latest is an internet search engine called DuckDuckGo. He’s also well-connected in the area, and is [...]

Blog Comments

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:38:02 -0400

Comment Spam, Serial Posts, Long GapsWow, 95% of the comments posted to the blog articles here are spam. Through the spam, I’ve learned a lot about Pfizer’s flagship product…or is that flagstaff product? The comment spammers go to varying amusing lengths to make their posts look like legitimate comments, but they’re effortless to spot, so [...]

Introducing The Collaboration Center of Excellence

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:34:05 -0400

Collaboration can be framed in terms of how it impacts People, Business Processes and Organizational Knowledge. Processes address the methods, applications and rules which define and govern how work gets done. For example, order fulfillment, new account development, employee on boarding, web site publishing, product development, etc. Knowledge and knowledge management refers to the development [...]

Introducing The Collaboration Center of Excellence

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:34:05 -0400

Best Practices in The Real World: Square Peg/Round Hole?

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:45:24 -0400

In any collaborative platform implementation, SharePoint notwithstanding, there are different approaches to do different things. How does one install the tool within the current Enterprises environment? How does one configure the tool to meet the business need? Questions like these can be answered in many different ways. It is from these different approaches that Best [...]

Best Practices in The Real World: Square Peg/Round Hole?

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:45:24 -0400

The Enterprise Architect Role

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:00:19 -0400

This article does a good job at highlighting some of the key aspects of an Enterprise Architects role. Im particularly fond of the following concepts:1. Enterprise Blueprinting: An enterprise architect creates a model [blueprint] of how a company works which includes the business processes and the related technology. 2. Core Objective: A core objective [of [...]

Using CTE (Common Table Expression)

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:33:00 -0400

To create a collection of rows without querying a table or a repeating series of INSERT statements.

declare @seed int
select @seed = 8;

WITH RecurseTable(Id)
AS
(
SELECT @seed

UNION ALL

SELECT R.Id -1
FROM RecurseTable R
WHERE R.Id > 1
)

select *
from RecurseTable

Take 2: Is a BA a BA?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:33:11 -0400

To further detail on a previous post, below are role descriptions for both a business architect and analyst. A business architect is a business analyst. A business analyst is not necessarily a business architect. Business Architect Skills:o Document the business architecture for a particular business unit [i.e., business strategy map, organizational model, Level 0 [...]

Web Architect? Is there such a beast?

Tue, 26 May 2009 14:49:49 -0400

Of course, there is no industry standard definition of a web architect.Below is how I view the role.A Web Architect is a specific type of application architect*. A web architect is expert re: web-specific scenarios and technologies applying best practices, patterns, and reference architectures around delivering web-native experiences in one or more of 3 types [...]

Web Architect? Is there such a beast?

Tue, 26 May 2009 14:49:49 -0400

CIO = Chief Optimization Officer

Tue, 26 May 2009 11:19:14 -0400

Change. Its a hackneyed word. From rich-wooded corporate boardrooms to the Oval office, change is presented as essential to progress.But, is change really the optimal approach to transformation?Change is often cited as difficult because people tend to resist it. Well, change can be positive or negative depending upon the interests of the particular stakeholders. This [...]

Twitter to blog script

Sun, 24 May 2009 13:37:58 -0400

Based on an example provided with the Twitter library for Python I cobbled together the following script to add my latest tweets to this site. It’s called from a cron job that I run on an occasional basis. My script linkifies hashtags and @username tokens in tweets so that you can see search results or [...]

Keeping files in sync with Dropbox

Sat, 23 May 2009 18:25:49 -0400

When you use more than one computer on a daily basis, keeping files in sync between them is a constant problem. I’m familiar with tools like Subversion and Mercurial that make it relatively easy to keep code in sync between machines, but these require explicit actions that I often want to control. When it comes [...]

Ideal Transform Rule

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:19:31 -0400

Always work from ideal input.Developers familiar with the power of pipeline operations central to the UNIX operating system know how simple, modular tools can be chained together to accomplish a wide variety of complex tasks. The small-scope and single-purposed blocks of code that make up a pipeline maximize the ability to maintain the code. Even if [...]

Technology or marketing tool?

Thu, 07 May 2009 18:53:55 -0400

On April 22ndNationwide Insurance released an “Accident Toolkit”on the iPhone Storedesigned to “guide you through the steps to take after an accident.” The services the app provides include:Calls emergency servicesHelps you collect and exchange accident infoStores your insurance and vehicle info for easy lookupLocates Nationwide agents near youTakes and stores accident photosConverts your iPhone into [...]

Technology or marketing tool?

Thu, 07 May 2009 18:53:55 -0400

What is the Meaning of Life?

Mon, 04 May 2009 12:18:08 -0400

I thought it best to comeright out of the gate and try to tackle the big questions first.Get this one correctand future posts about thetechnology challenges faced by the insurance industry shouldseem trivial.Truthfully,my goalin writing this blog is notthatambitious, butthere are a lot of “big questions”for IT professionals serving the insurance industry to contemplate, such [...]

Meet the New Boss Same as the Old Boss?

Sat, 02 May 2009 09:04:01 -0400

The more things change, the more they stay the same… Or do they?Integration has been a key stumbling block between IT and Business stakeholders since the first modern computer systems began to be inter-connected. Throughout the days of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence (BI), and into the Internet age, getting (good) [...]

What is the Meaning of Life?

Fri, 01 May 2009 17:04:47 -0400

Its ok to be an Enterprise Architecture Twit.

Fri, 01 May 2009 13:47:42 -0400

What is Twitter?For those existingunder the proverbial rock, Twitter is a micro-blogging service. Messages, otherwise known as tweets are small, relatively byte-sized broadcast messages [i.e., 140 character maximum]. Anyone who subscribes to your feed [aka a "follower"receives them via the Web and/or mobile phone.What do I find interesting about Twitter?Mainstream media [e.g., newspapers, television broadcast, [...]

Integration Architecture or Enterprise Service Bus: The Chicken or The Egg?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:08:21 -0400

In the world of systems integration, which comes first: the Integration Architecture (IA) or the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)? Its true that IA is often driven by the ESB, but how you leverage ESB is driven by your IA. On the surface this might come across as a benign problem. But scratch the surface and [...]

Business Processes, Rules & Rulesets definitionsOH MY!

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:16:41 -0400

In the course of my business process consulting work, Ive been exposed to a plethora of client and software vendor interpretations of business processes and business rules. Some definitions are rather complex; some circuitous. So, until the world agrees on standard definitions, below are mine. A business process is a collection of sequenced activities in [...]

Recession = Managed Infrastructure Services

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:16:22 -0400

Hopefully the recession has bottomed out and we experience a relatively short period of “flat lining” before we ultimately begin to climb back to normalcy of a fully functioning economy. However, don’t think now is not an opportunistic time to sell IT services because it very much is! In particular, in this time of cost [...]

Querying Table Definitions

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:41:00 -0400

A query to return metadata about a table. This is useful for dynamic query building like in a SqlAdapter, for example.


SELECT C.COLUMN_NAME,
       C.DATA_TYPE,
       C.CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH,
       CASE WHEN PK.CONSTRAINT_NAME IS NULL THEN 0 ELSE 1 END IS_KEY,
       CASE WHEN IC.object_id IS NULL THEN 0 ELSE 1 END IS_IDENTITY
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS C
       LEFT OUTER JOIN
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE PK ON C.TABLE_NAME = PK.TABLE_NAME
                                      AND C.COLUMN_NAME = PK.COLUMN_NAME
       INNER JOIN
sys.tables T ON C.TABLE_NAME = T.name
            AND T.[type] = 'U'
       LEFT OUTER JOIN
sys.identity_columns IC ON T.object_id = IC.object_id
                       AND IC.[name] = C.COLUMN_NAME
WHERE C.TABLE_NAME = @TableName

Mama: dont let your EAs grow up to be failures!

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:41:00 -0400

An Enterprise Architecture initiative [i.e., project, program, programme, practice, etc] does not have to fail. However, to succeed it does require strong leadership as well as constant care and feeding. Like any strategic, cross-organization initiative, it requires incessant executive support and discipline at all levels of an enterprise. Below are common EA failure modes and [...]

Uh, what is Enterprise Architecture?

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:15:41 -0400

Why ask the question? Clearly, there are too many definitions of Enterprise Architecture. Wikipedia describes it as a a termthat refers to many things. I prefer to keep the definition as simple as possible. And, like any good Enterprise Architect, I will decompose the problem domain in order to solve it.According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, enterprise [...]

Is a BA a BA?

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:04:54 -0400

Traditionally, business analysts [BA] transform requirements into functional and nonfunctional specifications for system development and are primarily attentive to specific projects.Business architects [BA], a much more contemporary role, are integral constituents of the Enterprise Architecture team and are responsible for designing an organization’s business architecture. The enterprise business architecture [EBA] characterizes the key business processes, [...]

Moores Law Equivalent for Business Services?

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:23:04 -0400

Thirtyyears ago, Intels cofounder, Mr. Gordon Moore, predicted that computer processing power could be doubled every 18-24 months. This is measured by doubling the transistor counts in a microprocessor. This prediction is now known as Moores Law.Since then, others such as Eric Metcalfe, have predicted similar nonlinear technology trends.In this blog post, the author cites [...]

Unit Tests for FinQ

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:08:31 -0400

I’ve setup the FinQ library solution to support the unit testing framework NUnit. Here are a few of the guidelines I’ve used for setting up the project. Tests belong in a separate assembly.Place tests in the BaseName.UnitTests namespace.Break up tests into multiple classes and files by subject area.Tests should stand-alone and be single-purposed.Name tests clearly.Maximize [...]

FinQ Stats

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:57 -0400

I took too many statistics courses in college, or perhaps they took me. Hopefully I escaped with enough stats to implement the basics: mean, variance, and standard deviation for the FinQ library. LINQ stops with average, but standard deviation is etched into my mind as being genuinely useful…so I’ll go the extra few lines of [...]

Reduce Redux

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:29:47 -0500

Reduce is a powerful function pattern. In fact, it can be used as the base implementation for both Filter and Map. That’s what we’ll do to take our functional library to the next level of functional goodness. We initially had Reduce take a list of many values and produce a single value, an aggregate, but [...]

Lambda Functions

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:20:47 -0500

What about those predicate, conversion, and aggregation functions? Does this style of programming with higher order functions mean you have to write a bunch of tiny functions to pass around? Nope! We can use C# lambda functions. A lambda function is a function defined on-the-fly at the call site without a lot of declaration and [...]

FinQ Reduce

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:02:04 -0500

The Reduce function uses an initial value and an aggregation function to build a result value from a sequence. Taking the sum of a set of numbers is a reduction, a reduction by addition.public static R Reduce<T, R>(this IEnumerable<t> list, R init, Agg<T, R> agg){ R result = init; [...]

Software Configuration Management, part I

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:20:45 -0500

OverviewSoftware Configuration Management (SCM) is the art of both controlling and tracking changes in a software project. If software engineering is fundamentally concerned with producing quality software in a known and repeatable fashion, then SCM is the fundamental tool that drives the operation of software engineering.Why is Software Configuration Management important?The formal goal of a [...]

Essential Utility: htop

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:46:46 -0500

I’ve been rebuilding my Dell PowerEdge 830 server after a meltdown last week. This time I decided to go with Ubuntu Server 8.10 as the base operating system with Windows running under VMware Server 2.0.Since this is a pretty small server, I’m always checking up on resource usage and top is a useful tool for [...]

Add Business Architecture to ITs to-do list

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:36:39 -0500

Who is responsible for defining an organizations business architecture? Is the business or IT responsible for it?Many assume that the business is the ideal candidate to model the business architecture. Well, since it seems that most organizations lack a business architecture, lets challenge that assumption. But, first we should agree on the definition of business [...]

Innovate, Innovate baby.

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:39:22 -0500

Today, the Wall Street Journal indicated that Dell is preparing to dial into (the) Smartphone Marketplace. The article states that these new mobile phones will either have a touch screen or a slider-style. Wow. How innovative.Of course, Dells PC business is struggling as its share of the PC market slipped to 13.7% vs. 14.6% a [...]

SCRUM it up!

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:18:45 -0500

Agile development techniques and the Scrum process framework are hot. All the cool people are doing it. Not only has it been shown to increase programmer productivity, but it also fits well with today’s need for increased business velocity - deliver discrete value quickly!Agile teams succeed by intimately leveraging business experts throughout the process [...]

Avoid the Terminator; create The Estimator

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:53:55 -0500

IT management is still an immature discipline relative to other business administration functions such as finance, marketing and human resources. The latter functions have evolved over centuries; the former only since the advent of the ENIAC at the prestigious University of Pennsylvanias Moore School of Electrical Engineering in the early 1940s.One of the primary [...]

SOA [Marketing] Is Dead

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:12:09 -0500

Earlier this month, an eBiz discussion forum asked the question, Is SOA Dead? My response is simple. No. SOA was never novel. Its simply a 2001+ marketing veil for modular programming and distributed computing, both of which have existed for some time. In their discussion board posts, many contributors indicated [...]

Are We Running out of SOA book titles?

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:59:18 -0500

A November 2008 publication, The Zen of SOA: An Executive Blueprint to Web-Enable Your Organization with SOA, presents SOA blueprinting best-practices. Although little presented is new, the book does a respectable job in summarizing common SOA although many of them are really technology independent adoption guidelines. For example (point 5 below), in order [...]

Weekly Links #2

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:18:12 -0500

Microsoft InfoMesa Project Whiteboard for your dataFabric – like Capistrano but written in PythonA Visual Introduction to Screenretlang – Google CodeTim Sneath : The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secretsupdate-engine – Google Code

PowerShell and svnadmin dump/load

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:10:31 -0500

Recently I was migrating several Subversion repositories from a Windows server over to a Solaris one and ran into a rather frustrating issue. Actually it’s quite an interesting problem, but was frustrating due to the size of the repositories involved, and my fear that repositories were borked.It all started with my decision to fire up [...]

Use a Leadership Framework and SERVE your way to success

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:59:34 -0500

What is Leadership? In essence, leadership is about taking people from one place to another. A simple framework is the SERVE model which defines the five key practices of great leaders. This model is described by Blanchard and Miller in, The Secret: What Great Leaders Know And Do. Decomposing the acronym:1] [...]

Open Source Your Enterprise Architecture

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:01:12 -0500

Open source software (OSS) is a topic of strategic importance. No-cost licenses, access to a wide set of skills and hardware choices, and support options from various technology service providers make OSS an attractive choice for IT projects in many organizations. According to a recent IDC report, 82% of North American firms already are using [...]

Get Smart - Infuse Business Intelligence into Your Organization

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:07:42 -0500

In todays slow growth economy, its critical to attract new and retain existing customers. Business analytics helps companies reach unique insights into its target markets, competition and customer management operations. Often, firms with a strong analytics bent uncover business opportunities and exploit them before the competition. The challenge though is to identify business processes that [...]

Using Agile to Kick Start Your SOA Transformation

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:41:08 -0500

Despite a 5-year deluge of enterprise software vendor marketing propaganda, with few exceptions service-oriented architecture (SOA) has failed to deliver results. Or, more precisely, organizations havent quite mastered how to contemporize their enterprise architectures with service-oriented principles. SOA is a style of information technology architecture that leverages a set of engineering principles. [...]

When Its Hip to Be WACC

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:03:28 -0500

Today’s credit crisis directly affects IT organizations because technology is often a significant capital expenditure. The cost of financing capital expenditures has increased multifold due to the deterioration in the credit markets. For those familiar with corporate and project finance principles, this means that the after-tax, weighted-average cost of capital (WACC) is increasing due to [...]

CIOs need to measure and market the value of IT

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:50:20 -0500

With the economy in the throes of a severe recession, IT pundits are advising organizations to better align with the business and aggressively eliminate costs. Of course, when times are good, these same experts still tout the strategic alignment axiom, yet mistakenly de-emphasize the need to optimize costs. Independent of any economic environment, Chief Information [...]

First impressions of Windows 7 Beta 1

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:52:33 -0500

After a very quick install on a Dell XPS M1710 laptop, and a few hours of messing around, I have come to the conclusion that this is going to be the best release of Windows yet. At the same time, it’s not very exciting for the alpha geek in me. Perhaps it is good to [...]

Weekly Links #1

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:36:35 -0500

I manage my bookmarks using a Delicious Bookmarklet, and I’ll post some of the best on my blog each week.Hiring for an Agile Team: Possible Questions FontExplorer X – The new professional font management software TextMate Blog Working With History in Bash Using MVC to Unit Test WPF Applications Mole v4.2 For Visual Studio [...]

Return of the blog

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:49:22 -0500

Maybe this year will be the one where I get back on the path to regular blogging. Between 2002 and 2004 I was a fairly frequent blogger and then things got substantially busier when I moved to the US. The obligatory first post these days seems to be some background information on the blogger, but [...]

ActionScript for .NET Programmers

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:03:00 -0500

NOTE: These notes are based on my development efforts with Flash. If there are any incorrect statements, please let me know in the comments. Thank you.

DEBUGGER

The debugger is not tightly integrated into the IDE. It is a separate tool that you must invoke by selecting Control > Debug.

Once invoked, the project is in a paused state. Select Continue to debug.

Breakpoints are only allowed in the Actions window of the .fla file. You cannot set breakpoints in classes you've created.

The trace() method will become your best friend as the watches do not evaluate complex values like object.items[i]. Also, there is no Immediate window for interacting with the code.

CLASSES

ActionScript 2.0 supports classes in the traditional sense as objects with private and public members, inheritance and defined members. Earlier versions of ActionScript also support malleable objects similar to those defined in JavaScript. Those objects can have properties and methods stuck onto them at run time.

MovieClips are the base object similar to WinForms. Flash supports a form-based model of programming using components derived from MovieClips. This component of this type: mx.screens.Form.

Think of a form as a one frame movie clip.

Note that the forms appear to be inaccessible from code stored in class modules (.as) files. I have found that passing in the form reference to a private member gets the trick done.

PROGRAMMING MODEL

All server interactions are handled asynchronously using callbacks similar to Delegates.

XML

The XML object in ActionScript 2.0 is far less rich than the XMLDOM COM object or the .NET XmlDocument objects.

There is no select nodes or XPATH support for the nodes. Rather, every element, including a node's text is considered a node.

Iteration is done through arrays generated by the childNodes property.

If a node is XML, its nodeType property is 1, and the available propery is nodeName. If the nodeType property is 3, then it is a text node and the nodeValue property is used. Note that the nodeValue is not available to nodes of type XML.

Efficiently Rounding a SQL Server datetime

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:04:00 -0400

Truncates hours, minutes and seconds without messy string manipulation:

CAST(FLOOR(CAST(GETDATE() AS DECIMAL(8,2))) AS datetime)

SOA Performance Metrics

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:14:05 -0400

SOA performance measurement is important for two main reasons — requirements compliance and system planning. The first reason, requirements compliance is obvious, where you must prove that your system meets the overall performance requirements of whatever process you are running. The second reason, system planning, is necessary to get to a fully deployed [...]

Underdocumented SQL Server mail parameter

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:14:00 -0400

Due to popular demand, Microsoft added the @query_result_no_padding to the sp_send_dbmail stored procedure.

Sadly, you wont find this in the online help. It was added as part of a Service Pack.

Use this parameter to trim excess spaces from the query results attached to the email. Otherwise, the column output pads out to the length of the char OR varchar field.

For example:
declare @t TABLE (field varchar(10))

insert into @t
select 'hello'

When sent with @query_result_no_padding = 1
the result is:


field
-----
hello

otherwise


field
----------
hello

SOA performance part I : managed environments and garbage collection overhead

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:40:40 -0400

Automatic garbage collection is simultaneously the best and worst part of implementing programs in managed code. On the positive side, garbage collecting makes the writing of the program easier by freeing you from the need to explicitly manage memory and it thus makes the runtime more stable as it prevents most memory leaks (Self-referential [...]

Fixed Cost Software Development : Good for whom exactly?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:25:53 -0400

So I was reading the latest issue of Dr Dobb’s and got to the piece by Scott Ambler called “Is Fixed-Price Software Development Unethical?.” Mr. Ambler, as you may know, is the Agile Methodology guy at ddj. It is really a fascinating article, and something that I have been on about for some [...]

Decode HTML Strings in SQL Server

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:38:00 -0400

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

-- EXEC UrlDecode '%c3%a1'
-- EXEC UrlDecode '\\Tul1ciprmw1\RichMediaAssets\Open\Telemundo\Al Rojo Vivo con Mar%c3%ada Celeste\_derived_jpg_q90_172x128_m1\3ARValx05Mar%c3%ada Celeste Arrar%c3%a1s.jpg'
-- EXEC UrlDecode '%4D'

ALTER PROCEDURE UrlDecode
-- Add the parameters for the stored procedure here
@URL varchar(2000)
AS
BEGIN
-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
-- interfering with SELECT statements.
SET NOCOUNT ON;

DECLARE @Position INT,
@Base CHAR(16),
@High TINYINT,
@Low TINYINT,
@NewHigh INT,
@Pattern CHAR(21)

SELECT @Base = '0123456789abcdef',
@Pattern = '%[%][0-9a-f][0-9a-f]%',
@Position = PATINDEX(@Pattern, @URL)

SELECT @High = CHARINDEX(SUBSTRING(@URL, @Position + 1, 1), @Base) -1,
@Low = CHARINDEX(SUBSTRING(@URL, @Position + 2, 1), @Base) -1

WHILE @Position > 0
BEGIN

IF (@High & 15) = 12 -- xC0
BEGIN
SELECT @NewHigh = @Low * POWER(2, 6) --Shift Low 6 bits

SELECT @High = CHARINDEX(SUBSTRING(@URL, @Position + 4, 1), @Base) -1
SELECT @Low = CHARINDEX(SUBSTRING(@URL, @Position + 5, 1), @Base) -1

SELECT @URL = STUFF(@URL, @Position, 6, CHAR(@NewHigh | (16 * @High) | @Low))

SELECT @High = 0, @Low = 0, @NewHigh = 0

END
ELSE
BEGIN
SELECT @URL = STUFF(@URL, @Position, 3, CHAR(16 * @High | @Low))

END

SELECT @Position = PATINDEX(@Pattern, @URL)
IF @Position > 0
BEGIN
SELECT @High = CHARINDEX(SUBSTRING(@URL, @Position + 1, 1), @Base) -1,
@Low = CHARINDEX(SUBSTRING(@URL, @Position + 2, 1), @Base) -1
END
END

SELECT @URL

END
GO

Test Window

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 08:49:00 -0400

<root>
<users>
<user>Joe</user>
<user>Willie</user>
</users>
</root>

Results Here

Selecting XPath Nodes

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 08:52:00 -0500

To select a range of nodes based on their position, use the really cool position() function.

Using the code example below, this syntax will get the first two nodes:

var nodeList = xmlDoc.selectNodes("/root/items/item[position()<3]");

XPath Basics

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:28:00 -0500

When querying an XML Document with XPath syntax, there are two things you need to identify; the node(s) you want to return and the criteria that determines which nodes qualify.

In this XML document:


<root>
   <items>
      <item>One</items>
      <item>Two</items>
      <item>Three</items>
   </items>
</root>

To get the item nodes using MSXML
var nodeList = xmlDoc.selectNodes("/root/items/item");

To apply selection conditions, add brackets:
var nodeList = xmlDoc.selectNodes("/root/items/item[.='One']");

The "." in the brackets means "this node". So in plain English you're saying, "Give me all the item nodes where the value is "One".

You can also select nodes based on the values of child or parent nodes.

Let's make the simple example above a little more complicated:


<root>
   <items>
      <item>One</item>
         <type>Odd Number</type>
      <item>Two</item>
         <type>Even Number</type>         
      <item>Three</item>
         <type>Odd Number</type>
   </items>
</root>

To get all the nodes which have a type value of "Odd Number" you would use this syntax:

var nodeList = xmlDoc.selectNodes("/root/items/item[./type='Odd Number']");

Notice here that the select path still goes to the item level. However, the query references the type node. The XPath path symbols are nearly identical to directory structure navigation syntax.

/ = levels
. = current node
.. = parent node
./ = child of the current node

RSSMix.com Mix ID 582126

Get fast computers for your developers

Looking forward to PyCon 2010!

Ringin' In The New Year, MVP Style

The Cloud Scoop from Fedscoop

Cloud Computing Characteristics: Flexible or Agile?

Neiman Marcus Fashion Faux-pas

Apples sees the (cloud computing) light

Need a New EA Vision this Christmas?

Googles Goggles - The Ultimate Weapon for the EA Sheriff

SharePoint 2010 and PowerPoint Themes

Are SOA and Agile a Good Match?

Is Enterprise Architecture Relevant Anymore?

SharePoint Server 2010 Beta Server Farm Installation: Go!

Hotfix Out For SharePoint 2010 On Windows 2008 Server R2

SharePoint 2010 Links Dropping, But...*UPDATE*

EA - the perennial bridesmaid

SharePoint Saturday - Philly Was a Huge Success!

The Day of Droid

A Good Enterprise Security Architecture Framework

Use Enterprise Architecture To Avert Fiscal Disasters

What are the benefits of cloud computing?

Hand to Hand Malware Combat

Software History Books

The CIO is accountable for SOA

The CIO is accountable for SOA

Software Configuration Management Part II Branching strategies

Thin & Green: The Desktop of the Future

A Critical Review of Gartners Emergent Architecture

Google will be the Enterprise Architecture Platform of the Future

Near-Term Forecast: a kinder, gentler cloud

Cloud Computing: Not Your Fathers Power Plant

SPC09 Day 2 Highlights

SPC09 Day 1 Highlights

SharePoint Geeks Descend On Las Vegas!

Corporate IT Forecast: 100% cloudy with a chance of meaty cost savings

Corporate IT Forecast: 100% cloudy with a chance of meaty cost savings

Speaking at SharePoint Saturday - Philly!

The Adventures of a Not So Lucky Enterprise Cloud Pioneer

The Adventures of a Not So Lucky Enterprise Cloud Pioneer

Whats YOUR Definition of Enterprise Architecture?

Integration Architecture Considerations: REST vs. SOAP

Integration Architecture Considerations: REST vs. SOAP

Application Portfolio Rationalization Prioritize dont Architect!

Application Portfolio Rationalization Prioritize dont Architect!

Startup Interest Group

Blog Comments

Introducing The Collaboration Center of Excellence

Introducing The Collaboration Center of Excellence

Best Practices in The Real World: Square Peg/Round Hole?

Best Practices in The Real World: Square Peg/Round Hole?

The Enterprise Architect Role

Using CTE (Common Table Expression)

Take 2: Is a BA a BA?

Web Architect? Is there such a beast?

Web Architect? Is there such a beast?

CIO = Chief Optimization Officer

Twitter to blog script

Keeping files in sync with Dropbox

Ideal Transform Rule

Technology or marketing tool?

Technology or marketing tool?

What is the Meaning of Life?

Meet the New Boss Same as the Old Boss?

What is the Meaning of Life?

Its ok to be an Enterprise Architecture Twit.

Integration Architecture or Enterprise Service Bus: The Chicken or The Egg?

Business Processes, Rules & Rulesets definitionsOH MY!

Recession = Managed Infrastructure Services

Querying Table Definitions

Mama: dont let your EAs grow up to be failures!

Uh, what is Enterprise Architecture?

Is a BA a BA?

Moores Law Equivalent for Business Services?

Unit Tests for FinQ

FinQ Stats

Reduce Redux

Lambda Functions

FinQ Reduce

Software Configuration Management, part I

SharePoint 2010 Links Dropping, But...UPDATE