How-To Tutorials

There are many exciting changes and additions to Domino Designer 8.5. We will begin with the introduction of the Eclipse based integrated development environment. Domino Designer 8.5, which is also known as Domino Designer on Eclipse or DDE, takes advantage of Eclipse technology to deliver a more powerful developer environment. The look and feel is more consistent with Notes client version 8.x. The new UI will be examined at a high level. The next major feature addition that will be covered is XPages. XPages are a new type of design element being introduced in the 8.5 release that will revolutionize Domino Web Applications. XPages enable application developers to quickly and easily create rich Domino web applications with a Web 2.0 look and feel. Finally, we will review improvements to CSS support, enhancements to HTML generation, JavaScript controls, a new method related to ID Vault: ResetUserPassword, and changes to web services. Domino Designer on Eclipse Now in 8.5 the Domino Designer client is based on Eclipse, as the Notes client was in 8.x. Eclipse is an award-winning, open source platform for the construction of powerful software development tools and rich desktop applications. This architectural change allows the new designer client to become an open source pluggable environment. By allowing the use of plugins, objects can be built, re-used, and shared. Some of the differences in the new 8.5 Designer client can be seen when examining the processes associated with Domino Designer. It is useful to know how they relate to one another and what component each controls. Prior to release 8.5 designer clients, when you launched designer.exe, nlnotes.exe would be spawned. This is the process in which pre-8.5 Domino Designer ran. Now in the 8.5 Designer client, designer.exe loads and spawns nlnotes.exe. On faster machines, designer.exe shows up briefly, and may not be seen at all. Then the notes2.exe process spawns and designer.exe quits. notes2.exe is the Java process that corresponds to the Eclipse shell. Finally, nlnotes.exe spawns ntaskldr.exe after DDE opens. Some other things you may notice are that launch and exit take longer than in previous versions. This is due to the Eclipse startup and shutdown sequences. This can lead to problems on exit or launch. If you experience a problem with launch or exit, it may be due to one of the following issues. Due to the longer exit time, the user may have initiated launch before all prior processes had been killed, or the user may have initiated the launch sequence multiple times. It is also possible that, on prior exit, the client did not shut down all processes. With a few exceptions, the launch process will be able to compensate for these errors. However, if you still can't launch or exit the 8.5 designer client, you can try the following, manually. Kill the nlnotes.exe and notes2.exe processes with the task manager, or if the client still will not launch or exit, log off the system to completely kill all process threads. The new Eclipse-based GUI Now that the 8.5 Designer client is Eclipse based, there is a new UI. The default perspective in 8.5 is the Domino Designer perspective. There are other perspectives available in Domino Designer 8.5, each suited to a particular task. You can select a different perspective from the menu, select Window | Open Perspective | Other, as seen in the following screenshot: Not all perspectives have a corresponding layout in the UI. Perspectives can be customized to suit individual preferences. One way is by resizing the views and editors. You can resize views and editors in one of two ways. Click the Maximize/Restore button located in the title bar of the view or editor. Or, click and drag the border of a view or editor. Views and editors can also be hidden by clicking the view Close button. Use the menu pick Window | Show Eclipse Views to reopen closed views. You can use this menu pick to open any Eclipse view, including those from other perspectives. To return to the current perspective's default layout use the menu pick Window | Reset Perspective.... XPages For a while now it has been difficult to create elegant web applications for Notes/Domino. XPages are a new type of design element being introduced in the 8.5 release, that will allow application developers to quickly and easily create rich Domino web applications with a Web 2.0 look and feel. Applications built using XPages are supported for web use only, for the 8.5 release. To enhance the appearance and functionality for web use, existing applications can be extended to utilize XPages. The standard design elements must be included in the database for use in the Notes client and the application. If a new application is targeted for both Notes client and web users, then you can also include XPages for use on the Web. XPages are built on top of JSF, or Java Server Faces, technology. XPages also have built-in Ajax support, which allows application developers to take advantage of Ajax features such as type-ahead and partial page refresh. They are created in pure XML markup. When the application developer adds controls to XPages using drag and drop, the XML is generated automatically. XPages does not require any additional steps to install on a Domino server. When you create a new XPage in an application, you start with a blank page similar to what you see when a new form or page is created. You then build the XPage by dragging and dropping controls onto the XPage to add functionality. A wide array of controls is available out of the box, which enables application developers to quickly and easily get a web application up and running. Some examples of the controls available are a pager, rich text editor, date picker, tabbed panel, and many more. Controls can also be combined into a single object, called a custom control. Custom controls are similar to sub-forms, as they can be used in other XPages in the current application or copied into other applications for reuse. Just like with sub-forms, if a change is made to a custom control in an application, that change is propagated out to all other instances of that custom control in that application. There is a default system template in the 8.5 release that uses XPages. The discussion template has been enhanced to include XPages in 8.5. Improvements to CSS Support Now in Domino Designer 8.5 you can edit and create CSS. Previously, you would have to use an external editor to do this. Not only can you create custom stylesheets, but you can import existing ones. You can also group your favorite stylesheets and script resources into a theme to provide a common look and feel in your application and map style classes to UI controls. This will save developer time and effort when adding CSS to applications. To create a new stylesheet: Click File | New | Style Sheet Resource from the main Eclipse menu. In the New Style Sheet dialog box, do the following: In the Name field, type the name of the stylesheet. By default, Domino Designer adds a CSS file extension to this name In the Application field, select an application for the stylesheet. Click OK Another method of creating a stylesheet, is by double-clicking Resources | Style Sheets in the Applications navigator and then clicking New Style Sheet in the editor.

With the addition of composite applications to the development strategy of Notes/ Domino 8, there are a number of changes required to Domino Designer 8 to allow for composite applications design, development, and use. Some additional new tools were also required. These changes augment existing functionality. They were made without sacrificing supportability of existing applications. They allow legacy applications as well as new applications to play a part in an SOA by providing a platform that permits multiple technologies to be combined into a single application, side by side. Composite applications support New Domino Designer 8 features that support composite applications include the Property Broker Editor and the Composite Application Editor. Property Broker Editor One of the first things you will notice in Domino Designer 8 is the new support for composite application design elements. These design elements store the WSDL and XML files for wiring properties and applications. You can see these new design elements by selecting the Composite Applications item in the view. The Wiring Properties view is where Domino Designer stores the WSDL that defines the properties, types and actions for the application. These design elements are edited with the Property Broker Editor, which is new in Domino Designer 8. To edit wiring properties, select the wiring property from the new Notes 8 mail template and click the Open File button. This will bring up the Property Broker Editor. The Property Broker Editor allows you to create or edit the Properties , Types, or Actions for your applications. Once the Property Broker Editor has saved the WSDL as a design element, you will be able to associate the defined properties and actions with other design elements. Composite Application Editor Also within the Composite Applications view within Domino Designer 8, is the Applications listing. These design elements store the XML that defines the makeup of the composite applications and their associated wiring. However, launching the Composite Application Editor is not done via the Domino Designer interface and may confuse new composite application developers. To launch the Composite Application Editor, open Notes and then select Actions | Edit Application. Once the Composite Application Editor is open, you can select a component and then edit the wires for this component. The illustration above shows the wiring properties for the Notes Calendar Navigator component. Web service consumers Web services were supported starting with Notes/Domino 7. However, the web services supported with Domino 7 could only be web service providers. They could be called as a normal web service from a remote computer and return information from Domino databases, or perform other Domino-related functions. It was also possible in release 7 to write web service consumers and have them hosted by Domino, but there was no specific support for web service consumers within Domino and creating them was a matter of Java development. With the release of Notes and Domino 8, Domino-based web service consumers are supported. Notes/Domino applications can now call web services hosted on remote computers. Notes/Domino 8 makes it simple to call web services. Domino Designer will even import the WSDL and create the code required to use the web service for you. Unlike web service providers in Domino, which are stored in special design elements, web service consumers in Domino 8 are stored in a special type of script library. This script library can be written in either Java or LotusScript. Just as with other script libraries, code that wants to use the web service consumer must use the script library that contains it. Consuming a web service in Notes/Domino 8 is very simple. The high level steps are: Locate a web service that you would like to consume and acquire its WSDL file. Create a new script library to contain the web service consumer. Import the WSDL file into the new script library. Have your application call the script library so as to consume the web service. For this example, we have selected a free stock quote web service that retrieves 20-minute-delayed quotes from Yahoo. The web service description and its WSDL file are located here: http://www.webservicelist.com/webservices/f.asp?fid=37722 We will create a script library to contain the web service, create a form with a simple button to prompt the user for a company symbol, and then call or consume the web service and display the resultant stock quote. Once you have selected a web service to consume and have its WSDL file, you need to create a new script library to contain the web service code. Create a new application, and select Create | Design | Script Library. Select either LotusScript Library or Java Library depending on your language of choice. For this example, we will create a LotusScript Library. Save the script library and provide a name for it when prompted. For this example, we called the script library stockquote. Keep this script library open. You now have a new, empty script library. At the bottom of the code window in Domino Designer, you will see a button labeled WSDL. This button will allow you to import the WSDL file that describes the web service that you are going to consume and also generate the code for consuming this web service. This will save you a lot of time going through the WSDL file and crafting your classes! Import the WSDL file that you downloaded for your selected service. Notice that Domino Designer generates the class required to consume the web service. For the free stock quote service selected, the generated LotusScript code looks like this: Notice that Domino Designer did the hard work of decoding the WSDL file to create a class with functions to consume the web service. If you like, you may even decide to modify the generated code so as to make it a bit more readable—for example, by changing the class name. It is a good idea at this time to inspect the code that was generated and become familiar with it. In this example, we can see the generated LotusScript created a class called NetxmethodsservicesstockquoteStockQu_n0 and a function called getQuote. Domino Designer got these values from the WSDL file that was imported. We will use the class name and the function name later within our button that will call the script library that consumes the web service. Now, all we need is some code to consume the web service via the special web services enabled script library that we just created. To keep things simple, let's create a button on a form that will prompt the user for a stock symbol and then display the results. Create a blank form. Within the Globals section of the form, place the following code, which disallows implicit variable declarations (a good practice) and identifies the script library stockquote as used within the form: Option PublicUse "stockquote" On the same form, create a new button. Give the button a clever label like Get a stock quote, and then insert the code (as seen in the previous screenshot) into the button: Save the form, and then open the application. Create a new instance of the form that contains the button. Now click on the button to invoke the code within it. You will be prompted to enter the stock symbol whose quote you would like to retrieve via the web service. For this example, we selected my favorite hamburger chain. When you click on OK, Notes will execute the code so as to invoke and consume the web service. Once that has been done, Notes will then process the Messagebox call so as to present the results. This is obviously a very simple example of consuming a web service, but it should open your mind to the possibilities. There are web services available for almost anything you can imagine. Some are free and others are available for a fee. You can use web services to retrieve grocery items by UPC number, perform credit card transaction processing, and even track packages shipped with FedEx or UPS. Now that Notes/Domino 8 can consume web services, you have another data integration tool at your disposal. Domino IBM DB/2 integration The ability to use DB/2 as an alternative backend storage system for Domino was available in Domino 7 as a trial feature and also via a limited availability program. With the release of Notes/Domino 8, the integration with DB 2 will be generally available on certain Windows, IBM AIX, and Linux operating systems. Using this integration, you can make data within your Domino databases available for use by relational database tools and show external relational data within Notes/Domino views and embedded views. View enhancements Domino Designer 8 view enhancements include new column number formats, extended to use available window width, defer index creation until first use, and show default items in right-mouse menu. New column number format There is a new number format for number columns that will display the column contents in kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes, which makes it much easier to determine the relative size of the number represented in the column. In this example, the size of file attachments is used. When displayed in Notes 7, the column shows just the size of the attachment for each document. However, when the same column is displayed in Notes 8 with the Bytes (K/M/G) number format, the column displays a much friendlier format. Extending to use available window width In Notes 8, you can select which column within a view will expand to utilize the available width of the window. In previous releases, this option was only available for the last column in a view. For this option to work, the view level option Extend last column to window width takes precedence and must be deselected. In addition, the column to be extended must be marked as Resizable. Multiple columns can be designated to extend to use the available window width. However, only the first column, which has this attribute set, will expand. Defer index creation until first use Index creation can now be deferred for Click on column header to sort view columns. Using this option, the view index won't be created until a user first clicks on the column to sort it. Only views that users click to sort will have their indexes built. This can help reduce the load on servers, as not all column indexes will be created automatically. They will only be created when they are used. Note that the deferred index creation feature requires the database to be using the new ODS (On-Disk Structure) for Notes/Domino 8. By default, Notes/Domino 8 still creates databases with ODS 43, which was introduced in release 6 and used through releases 7 and 8. To enable the creation of databases in ODS 48 format, use the Create_R8_Databases=1 Notes.ini parameter on the Domino 8 server or the Notes 8 client. Show default items in right-mouse menu Developers have been able to add custom actions to the right-mouse menu with previous versions of Notes/Domino. With release 8, you can choose not to have the default right-mouse menu items shown in the menu, allowing just the menu items you select to be displayed. The default is to show just default items. The picture above shows that we have deselected the option, allowing only the actions that we select to be shown in the menu. This will make it easier for the end user of the application to find the actions we have defined for the view or folder.

In this article by Audra Hendrix, Bogdan Brinzarea and Cristian Darie, authors of AJAX and PHP: Building Modern Web Applications 2nd Edition, we will discuss the usage of an AJAX-enabled data grid plugin, jqGrid. One of the most common ways to render data is in the form of a data grid. Grids are used for a wide range of tasks from displaying address books to controlling inventories and logistics management. Because centralizing data in repositories has multiple advantages for organizations, it wasn't long before a large number of applications were being built to manage data through the Internet and intranet applications by using data grids. But compared to their desktop cousins, online applications using data grids were less than stellar - they felt cumbersome and time consuming, were not always the easiest things to implement (especially when you had to control varying access levels across multiple servers), and from a usability standpoint, time lags during page reloads, sorts, and edits made online data grids a bit of a pain to use, not to mention the resources that all of this consumed. As you are a clever reader, you have undoubtedly surmised that you can use AJAX to update the grid content; we are about to show you how to do it! Your grids can update without refreshing the page, cache data for manipulation on the client (rather than asking the server to do it over and over again), and change their looks with just a few keystrokes! Gone forever are the blinking pages of partial data and sessions that time out just before you finish your edits. Enjoy! In this article, we're going to use a jQuery data grid plugin named jqGrid. jqGrid is freely available for private and commercial use (although your support is appreciated) and can be found at: http://www.trirand.com/blog/. You may have guessed that we'll be using PHP on the server side but jqGrid can be used with any of the several server-side technologies. On the client side, the grid is implemented using JavaScript's jQuery library and JSON. The look and style of the data grid will be controlled via CSS using themes, which make changing the appearance of your grid easy and very fast. Let's start looking at the plugin and how easily your newly acquired AJAX skills enable you to quickly add functionality to any website. Our finished grid will look like the one in Figure 9-1:   Figure 9-1: AJAX Grid using jQuery Let's take a look at the code for the grid and get started building it. Implementing the AJAX data grid The files and folders for this project can be obtained directly from the code download(chap:9) for this article, or can be created by typing them in. We encourage you to use the code download to save time and for accuracy. If you choose to do so, there are just a few steps you need to follow: Copy the grid folder from the code download to your ajax folder. Connect to your ajax database and execute the product.sql script. Update config.php with the correct database username and password. Load http://localhost/ajax/grid to verify the grid works fine - it should look just like Figure 9-1. You can test the editing feature by clicking on a row, making changes, and hitting the Enter key. Figure 9-2 shows a row in editing mode:     Figure 9-2: Editing a row Code overview If you prefer to type the code yourself, you'll find a complete step-by-step exercise a bit later in this article. Before then, though, let's quickly review what our grid is made of. We'll review the code in greater detail at the end of this article. The editable grid feature is made up of a few components: product.sql is the script that creates the grid database config.php and error_handler.php are our standard helper scripts grid.php and grid.class.php make up the server-side functionality index.html contains the client-side part of our project The scripts folder contains the jQuery scripts that we use in index.html   Figure 9-3: The components of the AJAX grid The database Our editable grid displays a fictional database with products. On the server side, we store the data in a table named product, which contains the following fields: product_id: A unique number automatically generated by auto-increment in the database and used as the Primary Key name: The actual name of the product price: The price of the product for sale on_promotion: A numeric field that we use to store 0/1 (or true/false) values. In the user interface, the value is expressed via a checkbox The Primary Key is defined as the product_id, as this will be unique for each product it is a logical choice. This field cannot be empty and is set to auto-increment as entries are added to the database: CREATE TABLE product( product_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', price DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0.00', on_promotion TINYINT NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', PRIMARY KEY (product_id)); The other fields are rather self-explanatory—none of the fields may be left empty and each field, with the exception of product_id, has been assigned a default value. The tinyint field will be shown as a checkbox in our grid that the user can simply set on or off. The on-promotion field is set to tinyint, as it will only need to hold a true (1) or false (0) value. Styles and colors Leaving the database aside, it's useful to look at the more pertinent and immediate aspects of the application code so as to get a general overview of what's going on here. We mentioned earlier that control of the look of the grid is accomplished through CSS. Looking at the index.html file's head region, we find the following code: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="scripts/themes/coffee/grid.css" title="coffee" media="screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="themes/jqModal.css" /> Several themes have been included in the themes folder; coffee is the theme being used in the code above. To change the look of the grid, you need only modify the theme name to another theme, green, for example, to modify the color theme for the entire grid. Creating a custom theme is possible by creating your own images for the grid (following the naming convention of images), collecting them in a folder under the themes folder, and changing this line to reflect your new theme name. There is one exception here though, and it affects which buttons will be used. The buttons' appearance is controlled by imgpath: 'scripts/themes/green/images', found in index.html; you must alter this to reflect the path to the proper theme. Changing the theme name in two different places is error prone and we should do this carefully. By using jQuery and a nifty trick, we will be able to define the theme as a simple variable. We will be able to dynamically load the CSS file based on the current theme and imgpath will also be composed dynamically. The nifty trick involves dynamically creating the < link > tag inside head and setting the appropriate href attribute to the chosen theme. Changing the current theme simply consists of changing the theme JavaScript variable. JqModal.css controls the style of our pop-up or overlay window and is a part of the jqModal plugin. (Its functionality is controlled by the file jqModal.js found in the scripts/js folder.) You can find the plugin and its associated CSS file at: http://dev.iceburg.net/jquery/jqModal/   In addition, in the head region of index.html, there are several script src declarations for the files used to build the grid (and jqModal.js for the overlay): <script src="scripts/jquery-1.3.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="scripts/jquery.jqGrid.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="scripts/js/jqModal.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="scripts/js/jqDnR.js" type="text/javascript"></script> There are a number of files that are used to make our grid function and we will talk about these scripts in more detail later. Looking at the body of our index page, we find the declaration of the table that will house our grid and the code for getting the grid on the page and populated with our product data. <script type="text/javascript">var lastSelectedId;$('#list').jqGrid({ url:'grid.php', //name of our server side script. datatype: 'json', mtype: 'POST', //specifies whether using post or get//define columns grid should expect to use (table columns) colNames:['ID','Name', 'Price', 'Promotion'], //define data of each column and is data editable? colModel:[ {name:'product_id',index:'product_id', width:55,editable:false}, //text data that is editable gets defined {name:'name',index:'name', width:100,editable:true, edittype:'text',editoptions:{size:30,maxlength:50}},//editable currency {name:'price',index:'price', width:80, align:'right',formatter:'currency', editable:true},// T/F checkbox for on_promotion {name:'on_promotion',index:'on_promotion', width:80, formatter:'checkbox',editable:true, edittype:'checkbox'} ],//define how pages are displayed and paged rowNum:10, rowList:[5,10,20,30], imgpath: 'scripts/themes/green/images', pager: $('#pager'), sortname: 'product_id',//initially sorted on product_id viewrecords: true, sortorder: "desc", caption:"JSON Example", width:600, height:250, //what will we display based on if row is selected onSelectRow: function(id){ if(id && id!==lastSelectedId){ $('#list').restoreRow(lastSelectedId); $('#list').editRow(id,true,null,onSaveSuccess); lastSelectedId=id; } },//what to call for saving edits editurl:'grid.php?action=save'});//indicate if/when save was successfulfunction onSaveSuccess(xhr){ response = xhr.responseText; if(response == 1) return true; return false;}</script>

Streams is all about the rules; literally. The action context that a Streams process takes is governed by the rule conditions. When you create a rule, Oracle generates system conditions, and evaluation contexts, that are used to evaluate each LCR to determine if the action context for the process should be accomplished. We have already addressed a number of these system conditions during our TAG discussion; for instance INCLUDE_TAGGED_LCR=FALSE generates a system evaluation for theLCR$_ROW_RECORD_TYPE :dml.is_null_tag='Y' subprogram. For more information on LCR Types, reference Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference manual. You can control what system evaluations are included in the rule by the parameter values you specify, as well as add user-defined evaluations with the AND_CONDITION parameter. There is a lot going on under the calm surface water of rules. Understanding how this activity flows together will help you become more advanced in creating rules to manipulate your Streams throughout your current environment. So, let's grab our snorkels and masks, and stick our heads under the surface and take a look. Rule components Rules have three components: conditions, evaluation context, and action context. These components coordinate with the "when", "what", and "how" of the LCR being processed. The conditions tell the Streams process "when" the LCR should be processed, the evaluation context defines "what" data/information the Streams process uses to process the LCR, and the action context tells the Streams process "how" to handle the LCR. Rule conditions The rule condition is essentially the "where clause". The conditions are evaluated against the properties of the LCR and return either TRUE or FALSE The conditions can contain compound expressions and operators (AND, OR, NOT, and so on).The final evaluation returned from the condition (TRUE or FALSE) is the final result of all the compound expressions. An example of a system-generated condition would be that of our good friend :dml.is_null_tag = 'Y' (generated by the INCLUDE_TAGGED_LCR=FALSE parameter of the DBMS_STREAMS_ADM.ADD_*_RULE procedures). On rule creation, the condition is passed in as a string (so make sure to escape any single quotes within the string). ':dml.get_object_owner() = ''OE'' and :dml.get_tag() =HEXTORAW(''22'')' It is important to remember that you want to keep your rule conditions as simple as possible. Complex rule conditions can have a significant impact on performance. The rule condition created by our Sub-Setting example is an example of a complex rule as it includes a PL/SQL call to a function. Also, rule conditions that contain NOT, or != can also impact performance. Rule Evaluation Context The rule evaluation context defines data external to the LCR properties that can be referenced in the rule conditions. This is comparable to the SQL statement from clause. This reference is a database object that contains the external data. The evaluation context provides the rule conditions with the necessary information for interpreting and evaluating the conditions that reference external data. If the evaluation context references objects, the rule owner must have the proper privileges to reference the object (select and execute) as the rule condition is evaluated in the schema of the evaluation context owner. Information contained in an Evaluation Context might include table aliases used in the condition, variable names and types, and/or a function to use to evaluate the rules to which the evaluation context is assigned. Evaluation Context structure can get a bit confusing. To get a better feel of it, you may want to start by looking at the following database views: DBA/ALL/USER_EVALUATION_CONTEXT_TABLES: table alias used DBA/ALL/USER_EVALUATION_CONTEXT_VARS: variable types used DBA/ALL/USER_EVALUATION_CONTEXTS: functions used Streams system created rules (created using DBMS_STREAMS_ADM) will create rules using the standard Oracle-supplied SYS.STREAMS$_EVALUATION_CONTEXT rule evaluation context. This evaluation context is composed of a variable_types> list for the :dml and :ddl variables, and the evaluation function SYS.DBMS_STREAMS_INTERNAL.EVALUATION_CONTEXT_FUNCTION as seen in the previous DBA views. You can create your own evaluation context using the DBMS_RULE_ADM.CREATE_EVALUATION_CONTEXT procedure: DBMS_RULE_ADM.CREATE_EVALUATION_CONTEXT(evaluation_context_name IN VARCHAR2,table_aliases IN SYS.RE$TABLE_ALIAS_LIST DEFAULT NULL,variable_types IN SYS.RE$VARIABLE_TYPE_LIST DEFAULT NULL,evaluation_function IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,evaluation_context_comment IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL); If you create a custom Evaluation Context that uses the SYS.DBMS_STREAMS_INTERNAL.EVALUATION_CONTEXT_FUNCTION, it must include the same variables and types as in the SYS.STREAMS$_EVALUATION_CONTEXT (a.k.a. :dml and :ddl). Variable_types> can be defined using SYS.RE$VARIABLE_TYPE_LIST, which in turn accepts individual variable types defined using SYS.RE$VARIABLE_TYPE. Similarly, if you create a custom function to use as the evaluation function, it must have the following signature: FUNCTION evaluation_function_name(rule_set_name IN VARCHAR2,evaluation_context IN VARCHAR2,event_context IN SYS.RE$NV_LIST DEFAULT NULL,table_values IN SYS.RE$TABLE_VALUE_LIST DEFAULT NULL,column_values IN SYS.RE$COLUMN_VALUE_LIST DEFAULT NULL,variable_values IN SYS.RE$VARIABLE_VALUE_LIST DEFAULT NULL,attribute_values IN SYS.RE$ATTRIBUTE_VALUE_LIST DEFAULT NULL,stop_on_first_hit IN BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE,simple_rules_only IN BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE,true_rules OUT SYS.RE$RULE_HIT_LIST,maybe_rules OUT SYS.RE$RULE_HIT_LIST);RETURN BINARY_INTEGER; Where the returned BINARY_INTEGER value must be one of the following: DBMS_RULE_ADM.EVALUATION_SUCCESSDBMS_RULE_ADM.EVALUATION_CONTINUEDBMS_RULE_ADM.EVALUATION_FAILURE For more information on creating custom Evaluation Contexts and evaluation functions and Rule Types, refer to the Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference manual, and The Oracle Streams Extended Examples manual. Once an Evaluation Context is created it can be assigned to a rule or a rule set using the evaluation_context parameter of the appropriate DBMS_RULE_ADM procedure. The Evaluation Context for a Rule can be different than the Evaluation Context for a Rule Set to which the Rule might be assigned. The bottom line is that a Rule must be able to associate itself with an Evaluation Context at some level. We will revisit this concept as we discuss Rule Creation a little later on this section. Action Context The rule action context is just that, the action information that the rule evaluation engine returns to the client application, to be acted upon by the client application, when the rule evaluates to true. This is not the action itself, but values to be used by the action code that are specific to the rule. The action context is of the SYS.RE$NV_LIST type, which contains an array of name-value pairs and is associated to a rule condition. A rule condition can only have one action context. The action context itself is optional and can contain zero to many name-value pairs. The SYS.RE$NV_LIST has the following construct: TYPE SYS.RE$NV_LIST AS OBJECT(actx_list SYS.RE$NV_ARRAY); Subprograms are: ADD_PAIR (name IN VARCHAR2,value IN ANYDATA);GET_ALL_NAMES ()RETURN SYS.RE$NAME_ARRAY;GET_VALUE (name IN VARCHAR2)RETURN ANYDATA;REMOVE_PAIR (name IN VARCHAR2); For more information on creating and populating Action Contexts types, refer to the Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference manual. For more information on Rule components refer to the Oracle Streams Concepts and Administration manual.

N-way replication refers to a Streams environment where there are multiple sources. In this article, we will still use the STRM1 and STRM2 databases but with a little twist; making both databases the source. By making both STRM1 and STRM2 sources, we need to first consider a couple of unique situations and do a little more pre-planning, specifically for N-Way replication. The concepts and techniques used to configure a 2-way replication can then be used to scale to N-way replication. We all need to crawl before we run, the better you crawl (understand) this article, the easier it will be to scale up to N-way replication. Pay close attention and learn the technique so that you can implement it well. We need to repeat this—Streams is not Failover. We need to repeat this—Streams is not Failover. No, that is not a typo. The authors are passionate about Streams and want to see you successfully implement it. To successfully implement Streams, you need to know not to step into the trap of using it for Failover. Both authors have done some work where Failover was the requirement. Streams is not a Failover solution. Failover is handled by Oracle Data Guard, NOT Oracle Streams. Streams is about distributing the data to multiple locations. On more than one occasion, Streams was used as a Failover technology because it can distribute data to multiple locations. Do not fall into the trap of using the wrong tool for the wrong job. Streams distributes (replicates) data. As such, there will always be some difference between the databases in a Streams environment. All replication technology has this problem. The only time where all of the databases are in sync is, when there is no activity and all replication has been applied to all target locations. If you need Failover, then use the proper tool. Oracle Data Guard is for Failover. It has the necessary processes to guarantee a different level of failover from a primary site to a secondary site, whereas Streams is a Replication tool that distributes data. Just remember the following, when there is a discussion of Replication and Failover that comes up: Streams distributes data, it is built for replication Data Guard is built for Failover Pre-planning for N-way replication When we set up N-way replication, we must consider the possibility of a collision of data. Since we have multiple sources of data, it is possible for the exact same data to be inputted on any or all of the sources at the exact same time. When this happens, it is a conflict. This example is just one type of conflict that can happen in N-way replication environments. The types of conflict that can occur are as follows: Update conflict: When transactions from different databases try to update the same row at nearly the same time. Delete conflict: When one transaction deletes a row and the next transaction tries to update or delete the row. Transactions originate from different databases. Unique conflict: When transactions from different databases violate a primary or unique constraint, the first transaction is accepted. The second transaction obtains the conflict. Foreign key conflict : This happens when a transaction from a Source tries to insert a child record before the parent record exists. The good news is that Oracle has provided built-in conflict resolution in Streams that solves the most common situations. The built-in solutions are as follows: OVERWRITE DISCARD MAXIMUM MINIMUM We will provide an example of conflict resolution after we build our N-way replication. In our case, we will use MAXIMUM. As part of the pre-planning for N-way replication, we highly suggest creating a simple table such as the Setup Table. Avoiding Conflict As conflict requires additional pre-planning and configuration, one begins to wonder, "Are there techniques so that we can configure N-way replication without the possibility of conflict?" The simple answer to the question is "Yes". The not-so simple answer is that there is some configuration magic that needs to be done and the devil is in the details. Limiting who and what can be updated is one method of avoiding conflict. Think of it this way— there is no conflict if we agree to who and what can update the specific data. User 1 can only update his specific data and no one else can do that. Similarly, user 2 can only update his specific data. So, user 1 and user 2 can never cause a conflict. Now this may be a little bit difficult depending on the application. This can be implemented with the use of offset sequences. One sequence produces only odd values, and another produces only even values. We could also use a combination of sequence and some unique characteristics of the database.

Weblog clients There are times when logging into your Roller weblog to post a new entry can be a tedious process, especially when you have two or more weblogs about different subjects. Let's say that you have to write stuff in your company's blog, and you also write in your personal Roller blog. You can open two web browser windows and log into each blog separately, but it would be better to use a weblog client, as I'll show you in the next exercise. Time for action – using Google docs as your weblog client In this exercise, you'll learn to use Google docs as your weblog client to post entries in your Roller weblogs without having to log in: Open your web browser, go to http://docs.google.com, log in with your username and password (if you don't have a Google account, this is your chance to get one!), then click on the New button, and select the Document option: Your browser will open a new tab for the new Google docs document. Type This is my first post to my Roller weblog from Google Docs! in the word processor writing area, as shown in the following screenshot: Now click on the File menu and select the Save option to save your draft in Google docs: Google docs assigns the title for your document automatically, based on its content. To change the title of your post, click on it: Type Posting to Roller from Google Docs in the dialog that will show up next, and click on OK to continue: Google docs will show the new title for your post: Now click on the Share button and select the Publish as web page option: The Publish this document dialog will appear. Click on the change your blog site settings link to enter your Roller weblog information: The Blog Site Settings dialog will appear next. Choose the My own server / custom option and select MetaWeblog API in the API field. In the URL field you need to type the complete path to Roller's web services—http://alromero.noip.org/roller/roller-services/xmlrpc, in my case. You just need to replace the alromero.no-ip.org part with your dynamic hostname. Then type your Roller username, password, and weblog name, and select the Include the document title when posting option, as shown in the following screenshot: Click on the OK button to save your weblog settings, and then click on the Post to blog button in the Publish this document dialog: A confirmation dialog will pop-up, asking if you want to post the document to your blog now. Click on OK to continue: Google docs will show the This document has been published to your blog success message: Click on the Save & Close button at the upper-right part of the screen to save your document and return to the Google docs main page, then click on Sign out to exit Google docs. Now go to your Roller weblog's main page, to see the post you published from Google docs: What just happened? See how easy it is to use a weblog client, so that you don't need to log into your Roller weblog to post a new entry? And if you want to post to a different Roller weblog, you just need to change your username, blog ID, or URL. There are several other weblog clients available that you can use, depending on your operating system, but all weblog clients work in a similar way. Have a go hero – try out other weblog clients Go and try out some other weblog clients, to see which one is best for you. In Windows, you can use Windows Live Writer (http://download.live.com/writer) and w.bloggar (http://bloggar.com/). In Linux, you can try out BloGTK (https://launchpad.net/blogtk/).

Rendering images using content elements Content elements offer a variety of ways for editors to include images. We will examine these here. Here is a typical selection menu that editor is presented with: A great way to start is to assemble pages from the Regular text element and the Text with image elements Getting Ready Make sure Content (default) is selected in Include static, and the CSS Styled Content template is included in the Include static (from extensions) field of the template record of the current page or any page above it in the hierarchy (page tree). To verify, go to the Template module, select the appropriate page, and click edit the whole template record. How to do it... Create the Text with image element. Under the Text tab, enter the text you want to appear on the page. You can use the RTE (Rich Text Editor) to apply formatting, or disable it. We will cover RTE in more detail later in this article. Under the Media tab, select your image settings. If you want to upload the image, use the first field. If you want to use an existing image, use the second field. Under Position, you are able to select where the image will appear in relation to the text. How it works... When the page is rendered in the frontend, the images will be placed next to the text you entered, in the position that you specify. The specific look will depend on the template that you are using. There's more An alternative to the Text with images is an Images only content element. This element gives you similar options, except limits the options to just a display of images. The rest of the options are the same. You can also resize the image, add caption, alt tags for accessibility and search engine optimization, and change default processing options. See the official TYPO3 documentation for details of how these fields work, (http://typo3.org/documentation/document-library/). See also Render video and audio using content elements and rgmediaimages extension Embedding images in RTE Rich Text Editor is great for text entry. By default, TYPO3 ships with htmlArea RTE as a system extension. Other editors are available, and can be installed if needed. Images can be embedded and manipulated within the RTE. This provides one place for content editors to use in order to arrange content how they want it to appear at the frontend of the site. In this recipe, we will see how this can be accomplished. The instructions apply to all forms that have RTE-enabled fields, but we will use the text content element for a simple demonstration. In the Extension Manager, click on htmlArea RTE extension to bring up its options. Make sure that the Enable images in the RTE [enableImages] setting is enabled. If you have a recent version of DAM installed (at least 1.1.0), make sure that the Enable the DAM media browser [enableDAMBrowser] setting is unchecked. This setting is deprecated, and is there for installations using older versions of DAM. How to do it... Create a new Regular text element content element. In the RTE, click on the icon to insert an image as shown in the following screenshot: Choose a file, and click on the icon to insert it into the Text area. You should see the image as it will appear at the frontend of the site. Save and preview. The output should appear similar to the following screenshot: How it works... When you insert an image through the RTE, the image is copied to uploads folder, and included from there. The new file will be resampled and sized down, so, it usually occupies less space and is downloaded faster than the original file. TYPO3 will automatically determine if the original file has changed, and update the file used in the RTE—but you should still be aware of this behaviour. Furthermore, if you have DAM installed, and you have included an image from DAM, you can see the updated record usage. If you view the record information, you should see the Content Element where the image is used:

Enabling weblog pings Now that you have a Technorati account, let's enable your Roller weblog so that it can ping Technorati automatically each time you post a new entry or edit a previously posted entry. Time for action – enabling automatic pings in your weblog This exercise will show you how to enable automatic pinging in your weblog, so that every time you post a new entry or update some entry you posted before, Technorati will receive a ping and will update your blog status: Go to the Front Page: Weblog Settings tab in your web browser, click on the Preferences tab to see your weblog's configuration page, and click on the Pings link: The Configure Automatic Weblog Pings page will appear next. Scroll down the page until you locate the Technorati row under the Common Ping Targets section: Click on Technorati's Enable link to enable automatic pinging for your weblog, so it can send automatic pings to Technorati: Click on the Send Ping Now button to test whether everything works correctly. Roller will show the following success message: Now you just have to wait until Technorati grabs your blog's most recent information, as shown in the following screenshot: What just happened? Now Technorati will keep your weblog information updated every time you post a new entry in your weblog. Once you register with an aggregator, it's very easy to configure automatic pinging in Roller, as you saw in the previous exercise. Now all you need to do is configure all the pings you can to other aggregators and blog search engines, so that people from everywhere can see your weblog! Have a go hero – configure more ping targets Now that you learned how to configure automatic pings to Technorati for your Roller weblog, check out the other ping targets available in the Common Ping Targets list. Go on and enable all the ping targets that you can in order to promote your weblog in all the available blog search engines and aggregators. You can also register with Digg, StumbleUpon, and the other popular aggregators/blog search engines and add new ping targets for them if you click on the Custom Ping Targets link in the Configure Automatic Weblog Pings page. So what are you waiting for? Go and promote your new Roller weblog! Google webmaster tools Now that you have a cool weblog, it would be great if the weblog would show up in Google every time someone searches for a subject related to the things you're writing, don't you think? That's why Google invented the webmaster tools—a great resource to help you find out how your weblog is interacting with the Google bot. With these tools you can get detailed information about broken links, popular keywords, and basically, all the stuff you need to have a successful weblog! Time for action – enabling Google webmaster tools This exercise will show you how to configure Google webmaster tools for your Roller weblog, so you can start receiving important information about visitors and how your weblog interacts with Google: Open your web browser and type https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools to go to the Google webmaster tools website: If you created a Gmail account when installing Roller, you can use it to sign in to Google webmaster tools. Or you can create a new Gmail account in case you don't have one already. Click on the Sign In button when ready. The Google webmaster tools Home page will appear next. Click on the Add a Site button at the bottom to add your Roller weblog: Now enter your weblog's URL in the pop-up box and click on Continue: Google will show you a Meta tag that you need to copy and paste in your Roller weblog. Select the meta tag, right-click on it, and click on Copy: Now open a new tab in your web browser, log into your Roller weblog, and go to the Design tab. The Weblog Theme page will appear. Click on the Custom Theme option and then on the Update Theme button: Roller will show the Successfully set theme to – custom message. Click on the Templates link and then select the Weblog template: Scroll down the page until you locate the </head> HTML tag and paste the Google webmaster tools meta tag right before it, as shown in the following screenshot: Scroll down the page until you locate the Save button and click on it. Roller will show the Template updated successfully message. Return to the Google webmaster tools tab in your web browser and click on the Verify button to verify your weblog: If all goes well, Google will verify your weblog and take you to the Dashboard:

Rendering links to files using <media> tags Imagine, for a second, a dark world of web development without content management systems. You have a simple website with some text and links to files to be downloaded. Now, imagine that you need to move the files into a different folder. You would have to go through each page, and update the links to point to the new location of the file. In DAM, the physical file is separate from the record describing the file. Thanks to this separation, the pages can link to the DAM record, instead of the physical file. If the file is moved, only the DAM record will need to be updated (which happens automatically if you move the file within DAM modules), and all links will automatically update. We will now explore how the <media> HTML tag can be used to take advantage of this feature. Getting Ready Make sure both DAM and htmlArea RTE extensions are installed. In the Extension Manager click on the DAM extension to get an overview of enable configuration. Make sure that the media tag option is enabled. How to do it... Create a new Regular text element on a page. Enter the HTML mode in the RTE: Type in <media 1234>Link text</media>, replacing 1234 with the UID of the DAM record, and link the text with the text you want to appear inside the link. You can find the UID of the record in the information panel. Save and preview. How it works... The advantage of the <media> tag is that instead of linking to a file, you're linking to a DAM record. The record, in turn, points to the physical file—so if you move the files around, all links will be updated automatically. There's more It may be possible that after enabling all the options in the Extension Manager, the <media> tags are encoded by RTE, and appear in the frontend unparsed. In that case, you need to enter the following options in Page TSconfig: // Add txdam_media to RTE processing rulesRTE.default.proc.overruleMode = ts_css,txdam_media // Use same RTE processing rules in FERTE.default.FE.proc.overruleMode = ts_css,txdam_media // RTE processing rules for bodytext column of tt_content tableRTE.config.tt_content.bodytext.proc.overruleMode = ts_css,txdam_mediaRTE.config.tt_content.bodytext.types.text.proc.overruleMode = ts_css,txdam_mediaRTE.config.tt_content.bodytext.types.textpic.proc.overruleMode = ts_css,txdam_media Accessing Page TSconfig To access Page TSconfig, right-click on a page in the page tree, and choose Edit page properties: Alternatively, you can browse to the page in the Page module, and click the Edit page properties button either in the module body, or in the docheader —the bar across the top of the module housing the control buttons. From there, the Page TSConfig, is available under the Options tab: Creating a gallery using ce_gallery There are multiple galleries available for TYPO3. Each has its own advantages, and an entire book can be dedicated to comparing the various extensions. We will install and configure only one as an example. ce_gallery has an advantage that it is very easy to set up and customize, and relies completely on DAM for content and organization. Getting Ready Make sure you have the extensions DAM and dam_catedit installed. Create a root category, and a few categories under it. Assign a few JPG images to each category How to do it... Install ce_gallery. Accept database and filesystem changes. In a template record, include the static template Photogallery (CSS) (ce_gallery). Add a Plugin content element of type Photogallery to a page. In the General tab, uncheck the Slimbox (pmkslimbox needed) checkbox. In the Categories tab, select the root category and check the box that says Recursive: Save and preview. The output should appear similar to the following screenshot: How it works... ce_gallery treats DAM categories as albums, which in turn, contain pictures. If you want to add more photos to an album, just assign them to a category, and clear cache on the page where you added the Photogallery plugin.

So let's get on with it. Managing group blogs Suddenly, your boss bursts into your office and shouts: "Well, let's give Roller a try for our company's blog!" And now, you have to enable group blogs in your Roller installation. Time for action – creating another user The first thing you need to do in order to enable group blogging is create another user, as shown in the following exercise: Open your web browser and type your Roller's dynamic hostname in the Address bar (for example, mine is http://alromero.no-ip.org). Now click on the Login link on your weblog's main page: The Welcome to Roller page will appear. Instead of logging in, click on the Register link in order to create a new user: The New User Registration screen will show up next. Fill in the fields for your new user, as shown in the following screenshot: Click on Register User when finished. If all goes well, you'll be taken back to the Welcome to Roller screen, and the following success message will appear: Select the Click here link to continue. Type your new Username and Password, and click on the Login button. The Main Menu page will appear: Click on the Create new weblog link, under the Actions panel. Roller will take you to the Create Weblog page. Fill in the required fields to create your new weblog. Use the following data for the Name, Description, and Handle fields: The Email Address field will already contain the e-mail address you used when creating your new user. Leave the default values for Locale, Timezone, and Theme, and click on the Create Weblog button to continue. The following page will appear indicating that your weblog was successfully created: Now click on the New Entry link in order to create the following new entry in your weblog: Scroll down the page and click on the Post to Weblog button to post your entry. What just happened? Well, now there's another user in your Roller server, how about that? Your boss is going to be proud of you and very happy, because your company will have a multiuser blog! The next step is to invite other people to create user accounts and weblogs in the Roller blog server. If you're using Roller in your office, just start spreading the word to your colleagues. Or if you're experimenting with Roller in your home, you can invite some friends to blog with you, create a family group blog, and so on. Have a go hero – inviting members to write in your weblog Now that you've learned how other people can register and get a user account in Roller, it would be a good idea to start exploring the Preferences: Members page, where you can invite other Roller users to collaborate in your weblog by posting entries. Roller has three user levels: Administrator: Can create/edit weblog entries and publish them in your weblog. An administrator can also change the Roller theme and templates, and manage weblog users. Author: Can create/edit weblog entries and upload files, but cannot change themes or templates, and cannot manage users. Limited: Can create/edit entries and save them as drafts, but cannot publish them. Go on and create several test user accounts, and try out the three Roller user levels by inviting the test users to collaborate in your weblog. To invite a user, use the Invite new member link under the Actions panel in the Preferences: Members page. Enabling a front page blog Up until now, you've been using your main weblog as the front page for your Roller blog server. Now that you've enabled group blogging, each user can promote his/her weblog(s) individually, or you can create a community front page to show recent posts from all of your user's weblogs. The next exercise will show you how to create and use a front page blog to show posts from all the other weblogs in your Roller blog server. Time for action – enabling a front page blog In this exercise, we're going to create a new weblog to serve as the front page of your entire Roller weblog server. The front page blog will show a list of recent entries from all your other weblogs, and from all the other users' weblogs in your Roller blog server. Log into Roller (in case you're not already logged in) with your administrator account, go to the Main Menu page, and then click on the Create new weblog link under the Actions panel: Type My Roller Community in the Name field, The best Roller blog community in the Description field, and frontpage in the Handle field: Scroll down the page until you locate the Theme field, select the Frontpage theme, and click on the Create Weblog button: The following page will appear, indicating that your frontpage weblog was created successfully: Now click on the Server administration link located in the Actions panel. The Roller Configuration page will show up. Scroll down until you locate the Handle of weblog to serve as frontpage blog field, and replace its contents with frontpage. Then click on the Enable aggregated site-wide frontpage option to enable it: Scroll down the page until you locate the Save button and click on it to save your changes. Now click on the Front Page link in Roller's menu bar:

Getting recent Flickr photos The Flickr API is very powerful and gives access to just about everything a user can do manually. You can write scripts to automatically download latest pictures from a photostream, download photos or videos tagged with a certain keyword, or post comments on photos. In this recipe, we will make use of the phpFlickr library to perform some basic listing functions for photos in Flickr. Getting ready Before you start, you should sign up for a free Flickr account, or use an existing one. Once you have the account, you need to sign up for an API key. You can go to Your Account, and select the Extending Flickr tab. After filling in a short form, you should be given two keys—API key and secret key. We will use these in all Flickr operations. We will not go through the steps required for integration into extensions, and will leave this exercise to the reader. The code we present can be used in both frontend plugins and backend modules. As was previously mentioned, we will be using the phpFlickr library. Go to http://phpflickr.com/ to download the latest version of the library and read the complete documentation. How to do it... Include phpFlickr, and instantiate the object (modify the path to the library, and replace api-key with your key): require_once("phpFlickr.php");$flickrService = new phpFlickr('api-key'); Get a list of photos for a specific user: $photos = $flickrService->people_getPublicPhotos('7542705@N08'); If the operation succeeds, $photos will contain an array of 100 (by default) photos from the user. You could loop over the array, and print a thumbnail with a link to the full image by: foreach ($photos['photos']['photo'] as $photo) { $imgURL = $flickrService->buildPhotoURL($photo, 'thumbnail'); print '<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/' . $photo['owner'] . '/' . $photo['id'] . '">' . '<img src="' . $imgURL . '" /></a><br />';} How it works... The Flickr API is exposed as a set of REST services, which we can issue calls to. The tough work of signing the requests and parsing the results is encapsulated by phpFlickr, so we don't have to worry about it. Our job is to gather the parameters, issue the request, and process the response. In the example above, we got a list of public photos from a user 7542705@N08. You may not know the user ID of the person you want to get photos for, but Flickr API offers several methods for finding the ID: $userID = $flickrService->people_findByEmail($email);$userID = $flickrService->people_findByUsername($username); If you have the user ID, but want to get more information about the user, you can do it with the following calls: // Get more info about the user:$flickrService->people_getInfo($userID);// Find which public groups the user belongs to:$flickrService->people_getPublicGroups($userID);// Get user's public photos:$flickrService->people_getPublicPhotos($userID); We utilize the people_getPublicPhotos method to get the user's photostream. The returned array has the following structure: Array( [photos] => Array ( [page] => 1 [pages] => 8 [perpage] => 100 [total] => 770 [photo] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 3960430648 [owner] => 7542705@N08 [secret] => 9c4087aae3 [server] => 3423 [farm] => 4 [title] => One Cold Morning [ispublic] => 1 [isfriend] => 0 [isfamily] => 0 ) […] ) )) We loop over the $photos['photos']['photo'] array, and for each image, we build a URL for the thumbnail using the buildPhotoURL method, and a link to the image page on Flickr. There's more... There are lots of other things we can do, but we will only cover a few basic operations. Error reporting and debugging Occasionally, you might encounter an output you do not expect. It's possible that the Flickr API returned an error, but by default, it's not shown to the user. You need to call the following functions to get more information about the error: $errorCode = $flickrService->getErrorCode();$errorMessage = $flickrService->getErrorMsg(); Downloading a list of recent photos You can get a list of the most recent photos uploaded to Flickr using the following call: $recentPhotos = $flickrService->photos_getRecent(); See also Uploading files to Flickr Uploading DAM files to Flickr Uploading files to Flickr In this recipe, we will take a look at how to upload files to Flickr, as well as how to access other authenticated operations. Although many operations don't require authentication, any interactive functions do. Once you have successfully authenticated with Flickr, you can upload files, leave comments, and make other changes to the data stored in Flickr that you wouldn't be allowed to do without authentication. Getting ready If you followed the previous example, you should have everything ready to go. We'll assume you have the $flickrService object instantiated ready. How to do it... Before calling any operations that require elevated permissions, the service needs to be authenticated. Add the following code to perform the authentication: $frob = t3lib_div::_GET('frob');if (empty($frob)) { $flickrService->auth('write', false);} else { $flickrService->auth_getToken($frob);} Call the function to upload the file: $flickrService->sync_upload($filePath); Once the file is uploaded, it will appear in the user's photostream. How it works... Flickr applications can access any user's data if the user authorizes them. For security reasons, users are redirected to Yahoo! to log into their account, and confirm access for your application. Once your application is authorized by a user, a token is stored in Flickr, and can be retrieved at any other time. $flickrService->auth() requests permissions for the application. If the application is not yet authorized by the user, he/she will be redirected to Flickr. After giving the requested permissions, Flickr will redirect the user to the URL defined in the API key settings. The redirected URL will contain a parameter frob. If present, $flickrService->auth_getToken($frob); is executed to get the token and store it in session. Future calls within the session lifetime will not require further calls to Flickr. If the session is expired, the token will be requested from Flickr service, transparent to the end user. There's more... Successful authentication allows you to access other operations that you would not be able to access using regular authentication. Gaining permissions There are different levels of permissions that the service can request. You should not request more permissions than your application will use. API call Permission level $flickrService->auth('read', false); Permissions to read users' files, sets, collections, groups, and more. $flickrService->auth('write', false); Permissions to write (upload, create new, and so on). $flickrService->auth('delete', false); Permissions to delete files, groups, associations, and so on. Choosing between synchronous and asynchronous upload There are two functions that perform a file upload: $flickrService->sync_upload($filePath);$flickrService->async_upload($filePath); The first function continues execution only after the file has been accepted and processed by Flickr. The second function returns after the file has been submitted, but not necessarily processed. Why would you use the asynchronous method? Flickr service may have a large queue of uploaded files waiting to be processed, and your application might timeout while it's waiting. If you don't need to access the uploaded file right after it was uploaded, you should use the asynchronous method. See also Getting recent Flickr photos Uploading DAM files to Flickr Uploading DAM files to Flickr In this recipe, we will make use of our knowledge of the Flickr API and the phpFlickr interface to build a Flickr upload service into DAM. We will create a new action class, which will add our functionality into a DAM file list and context menus. Getting ready For simplicity, we will skip the process of creating the extension. You can download the extension dam_flickr_upload and view the source code. We will examine it in more detail in the How it works... section. How to do it... Sign up for Flickr, and request an API key if you haven't already done so. After you receive your key, click Edit key details. Fill in the application title and description as you see fit. Under the call back URL, enter the web path to the dam_flickr_upload/mod1/index.php file. For example, if your domain is http://domain.com/, TYPO3 is installed in the root of the domain, and you installed dam_flickr_upload in the default local location under typo3conf, then enter http://domain.com/typo3conf/ext/dam_flickr_upload/mod1/index.php You're likely to experience trouble with the callback URL if you're doing it on a local installation with no public URI. Install dam_flickr_upload. In the Extension Manager, under the extension settings, enter the Flickr API key and the secret key you have received. Go to the Media | File module, and click on the control button next to a file. Alternatively, select Send to Flickr in the context menu, which appears if you click on the file icon, as seen in the following screenshot: A new window will open, and redirect you to Flickr, asking you to authorize the application for accessing your account. Confirm the authorization by clicking the OK, I'LL AUTHORIZE IT button. The file will be uploaded, and placed into your photostream on Flickr. Subsequent uploads will no longer need explicit authorization. A window will come up, and disappear after the file has been successfully uploaded. How it works... Let's examine in detail how the extension works. First, examine the file tree. The root contains the now familiar ext_tables.php and ext_conf_template.txt files.The Res directory contains icons used in the DAM. The Lib directory contains the phpFlickr library. The Mod1 directory contains the module for uploading. ext_conf_template.txt This file contains the global extension configuration variables. The two variables defined in this file are the Flickr API key and the Flickr secret key. Both of these are required to upload files. ext_tables.php As was mentioned previously, ext_tables.php is a configuration file that is loaded when the TYPO3 framework is initializing. tx_dam::register_action ('tx_dam_action_flickrUpload', 'EXT:dam_flickr_upload/class.tx_dam_flickr_upload_action.php:&tx_dam_flickr_upload_action_flickrUpload'); This line registers a new action in DAM. Actions are provided by classes extending the tx_dam_actionbase class, and define operations that can be performed on files and directories. Examples of actions include view, cut, copy, rename, delete, and more. The second parameter of the function defines where the action class is located. $GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['EXTCONF']['dam_flickr_upload']['allowedExtensions'] = array('avi', 'wmv', 'mov', 'mpg', 'mpeg','3gp', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'tiff', 'gif', 'png'); We define an array of file types that can be uploaded to Flickr. This is not hardcoded in the extension, but stored in ext_tables.php, so that it can be overwritten by extensions wanting to limit or expand the functionality to other file types.

Magento's base structure The fundamental knowledge of Magento's architecture begins with its file structure. It's important to know what goes where by default, so that we may position our new files accordingly, especially in terms of ensuring that our development doesn't overwrite core files. Base directory The default installation contains the following files and directories in the base directory: .htaccess .htaccess.sample 404 (directory) app (directory) cron.php downloader (directory) favicon.ico index.php index.php.sample js (directory) lib (directory) LICENSE_AFL.txt LICENSE.txt media (directory) pear pkginfo (directory) report (directory) skin (directory) var (directory) Each of these files and directories has a different purpose. We'll go through them to ensure that we understand the function of each. This will help us later, if ever we need to find something specific, or when developing. It will also be helpful when we'll be looking to place the files coming out of our new module into the appropriate directory. The function of each of the files in the base directory The following is a run through of all the files in the base directory, to show us what they do: .htaccess—This file controls mod_rewrite for fancy URLs and sets configuration server variables (such as memory limit) and PHP maximum execution time, so that Magento can run better. .htaccess.sample—Works as a backup for .htaccess, so that we know the default .htaccess file (if ever we edit it and need to backtrack). cron.php—The file that should be executed as a cron job every few minutes to ensure that Magento's wide caching doesn't affect our server's performance. favicon.ico—Magento's default favicon; it's the small icon that appears in the toolbar of our browser. index.php—The main loader file for Magento and the file that initializes everything. index.php.sample—The base template for new index.php files, useful when we have edited the index.php file and need to backtrack. LICENSE_AFL.txt—It contains the Academic Free License that Magento is distributed under. LICENSE.txt—It contains the Open Software License that Magento is distributed under. pear—This controls all automatic updating via the downloader and SSH. This file is initialized and handles the updating of each individual module that makes up Magento. php.ini—A sample php.ini file for raw PHP server variables recommended when setting up Magento on our server. This should not be used as a complete replacement, but only as a guide to replace certain lines of the php.ini server file. It is useful when overriding these variables when .htaccess isn't enabled on our server. The function of each of the folders in the base directory The following is a run through of all the folders in the base directory to show us their contents: 404—The default 404 template and skin storage folder for Magento. app—All code (modules), design (themes), configuration, and translation files are stored in this directory. This is the folder that we'll be working in extensively, when developing a Magento powered website. Also contained in this folder are the template files for the default administration theme and installation. downloader—The web downloader for upgrading and installing Magento without the use of SSH. js—The core folder where all JavaScript code included with the installation of Magento is kept. We will find all pre-compiled libraries of JavaScript here. lib—All PHP libraries used to put together Magento. This is the core code of Magento that ties everything together. The Zend Framework is also stored within this directory. media—All media is stored here. Primarily for images out of the box, this is where all generated thumbnails and uploaded product images will be stored. It is also the container for importing images, when using the mass import/export tools. pkginfo—Short form of package information, this directory contains text files that largely operate as debug files to inform us about changes when modules are upgraded in any way. report—The skin folder for the reports that Magento outputs when any error occurs. skin—All assets for themes are stored within this directory. We typically find images, JavaScript files, CSS files, and Flash files relating to themes, in this directory. However, it can be used to store any assets associated with a theme. It also contains the skin files for the installation of skins and administration templates. var—Typically where we will find all cache and generated files for Magento. We can find the cache, sessions (if storing as files), data exports, database backups, and cached error reports in this folder. The template system architecture The template architecture is broken into three areas—two for development of the theme and one for the containment of the assets: /app/design/frontend/default/<template_name>/ layout/—For all the XML files declaring which module tied functions should be called to which template files template/—For all the templates processing the output that is passed from functions called from layout/ and structured into the final output to the user. /skin/frontend/default/<template_name>/—For the containment of all assets relating to our template, images, CSS, Flash, and JavaScript. Structural blocks and content blocks Each theme contains structural and content blocks. Structural blocks are the ones that lay out the theme into sections. Let's take a look at a three-column layout. The following are the structural blocks in a three-column layout: header left content right footer Here's a visual representation of those structural blocks laid over the Magento demo store: In each of the structural blocks, we then have content blocks that give each structural block its content for output to the browser. Let's take the right column; our content blocks set for this column on a standard theme could be: mini cart recently viewed products newsletter subscription block poll

Modules and how they work within the system Magento primarily works on a base of modules. All functionality is divided up into modules that make up the system overall. It's important to understand what each module does and how to go about adding modules to the system, in order to understand the architecture of modules themselves. Distribution of the modules between directories All modules are located within the /app/code/ directory. Directories are commonly referred to as codePools. There are three possible locations for all modules that relate to the system. They are all split by type to prevent any confusion: community—For community-distributed extensions, usually those that we have installed through Magento Connect or have downloaded from a source, other than our own. Anything installed through Magento Connect will be installed here automatically. core—Reserved for core Magento modules, so that we cannot directly overwrite or interfere with them. We keep our modules out of core to avoid any conflict with the core modules or any future updates. Anything from a Magento upgrade or any new Magento modules will go into this directory. Local—This is where we should be placing our modules when they are either under local development or are not distributed among the community. It's best to keep anything that we develop in this directory, so as to not interfere with the core or community modules. Nothing will be automatically installed here, unless we have physically uploaded it. Modules included with Magento Included modules in the core folder of default Magento installation are as follows: Mage_Admin Mage_AdminNotification Mage_Api Mage_Backup Mage_Bundle Mage_Catalog Mage_CatalogIndex Mage_CatalogInventory Mage_CatalogRule Mage_CatalogSearch Mage_Checkout Mage_Cms Mage_Contacts Mage_Core Mage_Cron Mage_Customer Mage_Dataflow Mage_Directory Mage_Downloadable Mage_Eav Mage_GiftMessage Mage_GoogleAnalytics Mage_GoogleBase Mage_GoogleCheckout Mage_GoogleOptimizer Mage_Install Mage_Log Mage_Media Mage_Newsletter Mage_Page Mage_Paygate Mage_Payment Mage_Paypal Mage_PaypalUk Mage_Poll Mage_ProductAlert Mage_Rating Mage_Reports Mage_Review Mage_Rss Mage_Rule Mage_Sales Mage_SalesRule Mage_Sendfriend Mage_Shipping Mage_Sitemap Mage_Tag Mage_Tax Mage_Usa Mage_Weee Mage_Wishlist Setting up the folder structure of a module Let's presume that we want to set up a module's folder structure, ready for development. Our module's core folders will be placed in /app/code/local/Book/Example/. These folders will primarily be used for storing our code that makes the module work. The folder structure breaks down as follows: Block/ controllers/ etc/ Model/ Mysql4/ Book/ sql/ book_setup/ Typically, developers will pick or choose each folder, depending on whether or not they're going to use it within their module. Note that Model/Mysql4/Book/ has its first letter in uppercase, whereas sql/book_setup/ does not. We must be sure to keep this the same way throughout our development. Template files for the frontend of our module will be stored as follows: XML files will be stored in /app/design/frontend/<interface>/<theme>/layout/example/ Output files will be stored in /app/design/frontend/<interface>/<theme>/template/example/ Any admin template files for the frontend of our module will be stored as follows: XML files will be stored in /app/design/adminhtml/<interface>/<theme>/layout/example/ Output files will be stored in /app/design/adminhtml/<interface>/<theme>/template/example/ Here's a breakdown of what each folder is for: Block/—For processing of all display blocks called by the system for the module. These are controllers that will be called in the XML layout files within a theme, in order to display something. controllers/—Our controllers that support the application and structurally keep things together. etc/—Configuration files for the module, for declaring things such as the default options when installed and declaring all blocks, models, and install/upgrade actions. Model/—For placement of all models to support controllers in the module. sql/—SQL actions when the module is installed/upgraded/uninstalled. Zend Framework and its role within Magento Magento (at its raw PHP base) is built on the Zend Framework. From the database class to the handling of URLs, Magento is in its raw form, with Zend Framework doing all the work. Alongside this, Varien has built several core modules on top of the Zend Framework, in order to tie it altogether into the system as we know it. What is Zend Framework Zend Framework's official site best describes the framework as follows: Zend Framework (ZF) is an open source framework for developing web applications and services with PHP 5. ZF is implemented using 100% object-oriented code. The component structure of ZF is somewhat unique; each component is designed with few dependencies on other components. This loosely coupled architecture allows developers to use components individually. We often call this a "use-at-will" design. While they can be used separately, Zend Framework components in the standard library form a powerful and extensible web application framework when combined. ZF offers a robust, high performance MVC implementation, a database abstraction that is simple to use, and a forms component that implements HTML form rendering, validation, and filtering so that developers can consolidate all of these operations using one easy-to-use, object-oriented interface. Other components, such as Zend_Auth and Zend_Acl, provide user authentication and authorization against all common credential stores. Still others implement client libraries to simply access to the most popular web services available. Whatever your application needs are, you're likely to find a Zend Framework component that can be used to dramatically reduce development time with a thoroughly tested foundation. How Zend Framework works The Zend Framework (at its core) is designed to be used as a package or separate modules. This (among other features) makes it unique, as most other frameworks are designed to be used plainly as frameworks or not at all. However, the Zend Framework comes with classes that allow us to use it as a standalone framework and develop with it as one. Instead of being delivered with a preset amount of directories and layout for developers, it only suggests a layout for our files. This means that we can adapt the framework to meet our current workflow and choose how much we adapt the workflow to fit the framework. It's role and effect in Magento The Zend Framework allows Magento to focus on the core issues at hand. It removes a lot of the work on the database and core structural classes and puts the work towards fixing and adding to core modules of Magento. Most importantly it gives developers a standard approach to development that they can move across and apply to Magento. The standard development practices help greatly in adopting Magento as a platform and make it easier for developers having experience with Zend Framework to adapt to Magento. More information on learning the Zend Framework and resources can be found at the back of this book in the Appendix attached. Its official site is located at: http://framework.zend.com/. Backing up Magento's data It's important to know how to back up our site, to ensure that our installation's data is not lost (if ever things go bad). It is recommended to back up our Magento installation: Regularly as a base to ensure that there are incremental backups of our system Before installing new modules or themes from Magento Connect When developing modules Before upgrading our system

Overview of the Joomla! Media Manager The Media Manager is a useful file management tool, which is included in the Joomla! CMS. The Media Manager tool is located within your administration area and can be accessed by using the "Quick Link" icon on your Control Panel, or by going to the Menu: Site | Media Manager: One of the main purposes of the Media Manager is to easily allow site administrators, and frontend users with permissions, the ability to upload and manage files for their Joomla! site. In circumstances where you do not have FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to your web server, the media manager might be the only available tool with which you can add new images, videos, documents, and other files to your website. Uploading media using the Media Manager During initial site development, there are usually regular requirements to upload new files to your Joomla! site. Depending on the content for your website, this process can decrease as you move into the maintenance stages, or stay as a requirement for sites which are updated often. Media Manager settings As with all software applications, the Media Manager tool contains a set of predefined settings. Before using the Media Manager for the first time, it is recommended that you take a look at these as they offer the ability to customize media handling for your website. Depending on your file requirements, adjusting the media configuration settings now may save you time and effort down the line. Your Joomla! site Media Settings can be found by going to Site | Global Configuration. Once the page has loaded, you will then need to click on the link named System. The Media Settings area not only allows you to adjust settings related to the Media Manager, but also contains general settings for the media used throughout your Joomla! website. Information regarding each setting is as follows: The fields are: Legal Extensions (File Types)This field is a comma-separated list of file types that you want to allow to be uploaded to your Joomla! website. This setting applies to the frontend of your site, as well as the backend which includes the Media Manager tool. Maximum Size (in bytes)This field holds the maximum size of the file (in bytes) to be uploaded. This can be set to "0" if you do not wish to restrict your file upload sizes. Most web servers will have their own file size limit that is usually configurable for the server by adjusting the server information file. Path to Media FolderBy default, Joomla! has a media folder called <joomlaroot>/images. This is the area where all files will be uploaded to when using the Media Manager. You can change this value to a different directory if you wish, creating a default path for managing your media. The majority of Joomla! projects would probably leave this value as default. If you do decide to use another folder name for your media directory, it is important to leave the current /images directory on the server as this can often be used by other components. Path to Image FolderThis is generally a path where you put your images for your Joomla! Content Articles. By default, it is set to <joomlaroot>/images/stories. You can change this to be what you wish. If you want to access this folder from the Media Manager, then make this a subfolder of the "Media Folder" previously mentioned. For example, <joomlaroot><mediafoldername>/<imagefoldername>. If you do decide to use another folder name for your image directory, it is important to leave the current /images/stories directory on the server as this can often be used by other components. Restrict UploadsThis feature restricts uploads by user type. The default is set to Yes, which means that users below the status of a "Manager" will only get one folder option to upload files into. That folder is your main "Media Folder". If you set this option to No, then users will also be allowed to upload to subdirectories within your main media folder. Check MIME TypesThis is a security feature, and uses MIME Magic or Fileinfo to verify your uploaded file types. By checking the MIME file information, you help ensure users don't upload malicious files to your site. Further information about Fileinfo can be found at http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.fileinfo.php. Legal Image Extensions (File Types)This is a list of legal image extensions that you and other users are allowed to upload to your Joomla! site. The default list includes bmp, gif, jpg, and png files. Adjust, if you require further image extension types. Ignored Extensions This setting checks the file types which should be ignored for MIME checking. By default, this is left blank so all files would be included if MIME checking is turned on. Legal MIME TypesThis sets the list of legal MIME types for uploading. By default, this setting includes some file types, and it is recommended that you do not adjust this setting unless you know what you are doing. Illegal MIME TypesThis sets the list of illegal MIME types for uploading. As with the legal MIME types, it is recommended that you do not adjust this setting unless you know what you are doing. Enable Flash UploaderThe Media Manager contains an integrated Flash uploader tool. If enabled, this allows you to upload multiple files at once. The default setting is No. If you do decide to enable the Flash uploader and receive uploading issues, then disable this feature again. Issues can arise from incompatible Adobe Flash settings. If you have made adjustments to the default Joomla! Media Settings, then you will need to save these by clicking on the Save button at the top right-hand side of the page in the Global Configuration section. A confirmation message to inform you that these settings have been saved should show on the following page. Now that we have configured our site's Media Settings, let's head over to take a detailed look at the Media Manager upload feature. The Media Manager tool is located within your administration area and can be accessed by using the "Quick Link" icon on your Control Panel, or by going to the Menu: Site | Media Manager.

Oracle SQL Developer Tool is a stand alone graphic database developer tool that connects to Oracle as well as third-party databases which can be used to perform a variety of tasks from running simple queries to migration of databases from third party vendor products to Oracle. This article by Dr. Jayaram Krishnaswamy, shows how the reader may use Oracle's most recent tool, the Oracle SQL Developer 1.5 to work with the MySQL database. An example of migrating a table in MySQL to Oracle 10G XE is also described. The Oracle SQL Developer Tool has steadily improved from its beginnings in version 1.1. The earlier versions are briefly explained here. The latest version, SQL Developer 1.5.4 released in March 2009 was described in this article. The SQL Developer tool[(1.5.4.59.40)] bundle can be downloaded from Oracle's web site, Oracle Technology Products. When you unzip the bundle you are ready to start using this tool. You may get an even more recent version of this tool as it is continuously updated. It is assumed that you have a MySQL Server that you can connect to and that you have the required credentials. The MySQL server used in developing this article was installed when the XAMPP bundle was installed. Reader will benefit by reading earlier MySQL articles 1, 2, 3 on the Packt site. Connecting to MySQL Out of the box Oracle SQL Developer 1.5.4 only supports Oracle and MS Access. The product documents clearly says that it can connect to other database products. This article will show how this is achieved. In order to install products from Oracle you must have username and password for the Oracle web Account. Bring up the Oracle SQL Developer application by clicking the executable. The program starts up and after a while the user interface gets displayed as shown. Right click on Connection, the New Connection page opens as shown displaying the default connection to the resident Oracle 10G XE server. Click the menu item Help and choose "Check for Updates". This brings up the wizard displaying the Welcome screen as shown in the next figure. Click Next. The "Source" page of the wizard shows up as shown. The updates for Oracle SQL Developer is already chosen. Place a check mark for "Third Party SQL Developer Extensions". You can choose to install looking for updates on the internet or from the downloaded bundle, if it exists. First try the internet and click Next. This brings up the "Updates" page of the wizard as shown in the next figure. Read the warning on this window. The extensions are not evaluated by Oracle but available. The details of available extensions are as follows: OrindaBuild Java Code Generator version 6.1.20090331 shown in the next figure. The JTDS DBC Driver version 11.1.58.17 shown in the next figure. The MYSQL JDBC driver shown in the next figure: The last one is a patch for the Oracle SQL Developer to fix some of the import, LDAP and performance issues as shown. For this article only the JTDS JDBC driver for MS SQL Server and the MySQL JDBC options were checked. The License agreements are for the JTDS drivers. Click Next. The License agreements must be accepted. Click I Agree. Click Next. This is the download step of the wizard. To proceed further you must have the Oracle Web Account username and password. Here you have the option to signup as well. After a while the new extensions are downloaded as shown in the next figure. Click Finish to close the wizard. You need to restart SQL Developer to complete the installation of the extensions. Click Yes on the "Confirm Exit" window that shows up. Now, when you click New Connection to create a new connection you display the "New / Select Database Connection" as shown. You can now see that other 3rd party databases are added to the window. Choose the tab for MySQL. Fill in the required details as shown in the next figure appropriate for your MySQL installation. You must provide a name for the connection. Herein the connection is named, My_MySQL. The credentials must be provided as shown or that which is appropriate for your installation. The port is the default designated for this server when you install the product. You may accept the other defaults on this page and click Test. The word "success" gets displayed in the status label at bottom left. The connection name and connection details gets added to the page shown above.