How-To Tutorials - Web Development

(For more resources on NetBeans, see here.) In Swing, an Action object provides an ActionListener for Action event handling, together with additional features, such as tool tips, icons, and the Action's activated state. One aim of Swing Actions is that they should be reusable, that is, can be invoked from a menu item as well as a related toolbar button and keyboard shortcut. The NetBeans Platform provides an Action framework enabling you to organize Actions declaratively. In many cases, you can simply reuse your existing Actions exactly as they were before you used the NetBeans Platform, once you have declared them. For more complex scenarios, you can make use of specific NetBeans Platform Action classes that offer the advantages of additional features, such as more complex displays in toolbars and support for context-sensitive help. Preparing to work with global actions Before you begin working with global Actions, let's make some changes to our application. It should be possible for the TaskEditorTopComponent to open for a specific task. You should therefore be able to pass a task into the TaskEditorTopComponent. Rather than the TaskEditorPanel creating a new task in its constructor, the task needs to be passed into it and made available to the TaskEditorTopComponent. On the other hand, it may make sense for a TaskEditorTopComponent to create a new task, rather than providing an existing task, which can then be made available for editing. Therefore, the TaskEditorTopComponent should provide two constructors. If a task is passed into the TaskEditorTopComponent, the TaskEditorTopComponent and the TaskEditorPanel are initialized. If no task is passed in, a new task is created and is made available for editing. Furthermore, it is currently only possible to edit a single task at a time. It would make sense to be able to work on several tasks at the same time in different editors. At the same time, you should make sure that the task is only opened once by the same editor. The TaskEditorTopComponent should therefore provide a method for creating new or finding existing editors. In addition, it would be useful if TaskEditorPanels were automatically closed for deleted tasks. Remove the logic for creating new tasks from the constructor of the TaskEditorPanel, along with the instance variable for storing the TaskManager, which is now redundant: public TaskEditorPanel() { initComponents(); this.pcs = new PropertyChangeSupport(this); } Introduce a new method to update a task: public void updateTask(Task task) { Task oldTask = this.task; this.task = task; this.pcs.firePropertyChange(PROP_TASK, oldTask, this.task); this.updateForm(); } Let us now turn to the TaskEditorTopComponent, which currently cannot be instantiated either with or without a task being provided. You now need to be able to pass a task for initializing the TaskEditorPanel. The new default constructor creates a new task with the support of a chained constructor, and passes this to the former constructor for the remaining initialization of the editor. In addition, it should now be able to return several instances of the TaskEditorTopComponent that are each responsible for a specific task. Hence, the class should be extended by a static method for creating new or finding existing instances. These instances are stored in a Map<Task, TaskEditorTopComponent> which is populated by the former constructor with newly created instances. The method checks whether the map for the given task already stores a responsible instance, and creates a new one if necessary. Additionally, this method registers a Listener on the TaskManager to close the relevant editor for deleting a task. As an instance is now responsible for a particular task this should be able to be queried, so we introduce another appropriate method. Consequently, the changes to the TaskEditorTopComponent looks as follows: private static Map<Task, TaskEditorTopComponent> tcByTask = new HashMap<Task, TaskEditorTopComponent>();public static TaskEditorTopComponent findInstance(Task task) { TaskEditorTopComponent tc = tcByTask.get(task); if (null == tc) { tc = new TaskEditorTopComponent(task); } if (null == taskMgr) { taskMgr = Lookup.getDefault().lookup(TaskManager.class); taskMgr.addPropertyChangeListener(newListenForRemovedNodes()); } return tc;}private class ListenForRemovedNodes implements PropertyChangeListener { public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent arg0) { if (TaskManager.PROP_TASKLIST_REMOVE.equals (arg0.getPropertyName())) { Task task = (Task) arg0.getNewValue(); TaskEditorTopComponent tc = tcByTask.get(task); if (null != tc) { tc.close(); tcByTask.remove(task); } } }}private TaskEditorTopComponent() { this(Lookup.getDefault().lookup(TaskManager.class)); }private TaskEditorTopComponent(TaskManager taskMgr) { this((taskMgr != null) ? taskMgr.createTask() : null); }private TaskEditorTopComponent(Task task) { initComponents();// ... ((TaskEditorPanel) this.jPanel1).updateTask(task); this.ic.add(((TaskEditorPanel) this.jPanel1).task); this.associateLookup(new AbstractLookup(this.ic)); tcByTask.put(task, this); }public String getTaskId() { Task task = ((TaskEditorPanel) this.jPanel1).task; return (null != task) ? task.getId() : ""; } With that our preparations are complete and you can turn to the following discussion on Actions.

(For more resources on Oracle, see here.) Target The term 'target' refers to an entity that is managed via Enterprise Manager Grid Control. Target is the most important entity in Enterprise Manager Grid Control. All other processes and subsystems revolve around the target subsystem. For each target there is a model of the target that is saved in the Enterprise Manager Repository. In this article, we will use the terms target and target model interchangeably. Major building blocks of the target subsystem are: Target definition: All targets are organized into different categories, just like the actual entity that they represent, for example there is WebLogic Server target, Oracle Database target, and so on. These categories are called target types. For each target type there is a definition in XML format that is available with the agent as well as with the repository. This definition includes: Target Attributes: There are some attributes that are common across all target types, and there are some attributes specific to a particular target type. The example of a common attribute is the target name, which uniquely identifies a managed entity. The example of a target type specific attribute is the name of a WebLogic Domain for a WebLogic Server target. Some of the attributes provide connection details for connecting to the monitored entity, such as the WebLogic Domain host and port. Some other attributes contain authentication information to authenticate and connect to the monitored entity. Target asociations: Target type definition includes the association between related targets, for example an OC4J target will have its association defined with a corresponding Oracle Application Server. Target Metrics: This includes all the metrics that need to be collected for a given target and the source for those metrics. We'll cover this in greater detail in the Metrics subsystem. Every target that is managed through the EM belongs to one, and only one, target type category. For any new entity that needs to be managed by the Enterprise Manager, an instance of appropriate target type is created and persisted in the repository. Out-of-the-box Enterprise Manager provides the definition for most common target types such as the Host, Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, Seibel suite, SQLServer, SAP, .NET platform, IBM Websphere application server, Jboss application server, MQSeries, and so on. For a complete list of out-of-the-box targetsOut-of-the-box Enterprise Manager provides the definition for most common target types such as the Host, Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, Seibel suite, SQLServer, SAP, .NET platform, IBM Websphere application server, Jboss application server, MQSeries, and so on.For a complete list of out-of-the-box targets please refer to the Oracle website. Now that we have a good idea about the target definition, it's time we get to know more about the target lifecycle. Target lifecycle As the target is very central to the Enterprise Manager—it's very important that we understand each stage in the target life cycle. Please note that not all the stages of the lifecycle may be needed for each target. However, to proceed further we need to understand each step in the target lifecycle. Enterprise Manager automates many of these stages, so in a real life scenario many of these steps may be transparent to the user. For example, Discovery and Configuration for monitoring stages are completely automated for the Oracle Application Server. Discovery of a target Discovery is the first step in the target lifecycle. Discovery is a process that finds the entities that need to be managed, builds the required target model for those entities, and persists the model in the management repository. For example, the discovery process executed on a Linux server learns that there are OC4J containers on that server, it builds target models for the OC4Js and the Linux server, and it persists the target models in the repository. The agent has various discovery scripts and those scripts are used to identify various target types. Besides discovery, these scripts build a model for the discovered target and fill in all of the attributes for that target. We learnt about target attributes in the previous section. Some discovery scripts are executed automatically as a part of the agent installation and therefore, no user inputs are needed for discovery. For example, a discovery script for the Oracle Application Server is automatically triggered when an agent is installed. On the other hand, there are some discovery scripts where the user needs to provide some input parameters. An example for this is the WebLogic server, where the user needs to provide the port number of the WebLogic Administration Server and credentials to authenticate and connect to it. The Enterprise Manager console provides interface for such discovery. Discovery of targets can happen in two modes—local mode and remote mode. In local mode, the agent is running locally on the same host as the target. In remote discovery mode, the agent can be running on a different host. All of the targets can be discovered in local mode and there are some targets that can be discovered in remote mode. For example, discovery of WebLogic servers can happen in local as well as remote mode. One important point to note is that the agent that discovered the target does the monitoring of that target. For example, if a WebLogic Server target is discovered through a remote agent it gets monitored through that same remote agent. Configuration for monitoring After discovery the target needs to be configured for monitoring. The user will need to provide some parameters for the agent to use to connect to the target and get the metrics. These parameters include monitoring credentials, host, and port information, using which, the agent can connect to the target to fetch the metrics. The Enterprise Manager uses these parameters to connect, authenticate, and collect metrics from the targets. For example, to monitor an Oracle database the end user needs to provide the user ID and password, which can be used for authentication when collecting performance metrics using SNMP protocol. Enterprise Manager Console provides an interface for configuring these parameters. For some targets such as Application server, this step is not needed, as all the metrics can be fetched anonymously. For some other targets such as Oracle BPEL Process Manager, this step is needed only for detailed metrics; basic metrics are available without any monitoring configuration, but for advanced metrics monitoring, credentials needs to be provided by the end user. In this case, monitoring credentials are the user ID and password, used to authenticate when connecting to BPEL Process Manager for collecting performance metrics. Updates to a target Over a period of time, some target properties, attributes, and associations with other targets change—the EM target model that represents the target should be updated to reflect the changes. It is very important that end-users see the correct model from Enterprise Manager to ensure that all targets are monitored correctly. For example, in a given WebLogic Cluster, if a new WebLogic Server is added and an existing WebLogic Server is removed—Enterprise Manager's target model needs to reflect that. Or, if credentials to connect to WebLogic Admin Server are changed—the target model should be updated with new credentials. The Enterprise Manager console provides UI interface to update such properties. If the target model is not updated there is a risk that some entity may not be monitored, for example if a new WebLogic server is added but the target model of domain is not updated, the new WebLogic server will not be monitored. Stopping monitoring of a target Each IT resource has some maintenance window or planned 'down-time'. During such time it's desirable to stop monitoring a target and collecting metrics for that resource. This can be achieved by putting that target into a blackout state. In a blackout state, agents do not collect monitoring data for a target and they do not generate alerts. After the maintenance activity is over, the blackout can be cleared from a target and routine monitoring can start again. Enterprise Manager Console provides an interface for creating and removing blackout state for one or more targets.

(For more resources on Agile, see here.) Iteration planning The goal of this iteration is to implement feature functionality in the Trackstar application to allow users to leave and read comments on issues. When a user is viewing the details of any project issue, they should be able to read all comments previously added as well as create a new comment on the issue. We also want to add a small fragment of content, or portlet, to the project-listing page that displays a list of recent comments left on all of the issues. This will be a nice way to provide a window into recent user activity and allow easy access to the latest issues that have active conversations. The following is a list of high-level tasks that we will need to complete in order to achieve these goals: Design and create a new database table to support comments Create the Yii AR class associated with our new comments table Add a form directly to the issue details page to allow users to submit comments Display a list of all comments associated with an issue directly on the issues details page Creating the model As always, we should run our existing test suite at the start of our iteration to ensure all of our previously written tests are still passing as expected. By this time, you should be familiar with how to do that, so we will leave it to the reader to ensure that all the unit tests are passing before proceeding. We first need to create a new table to house our comments. Following is the basic DDL definition for the table that we will be using: CREATE TABLE tbl_comment( `id` INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT, `content` TEXT NOT NULL, `issue_id` INTEGER, `create_time` DATETIME, `create_user_id` INTEGER, `update_time` DATETIME, `update_user_id` INTEGER) As each comment belongs to a specific issue, identified by the issue_id, and is written by a specific user, indicated by the create_user_id identifier, we also need to define the following foreign key relationships: ALTER TABLE `tbl_comment` ADD CONSTRAINT `FK_comment_issue` FOREIGN KEY (`issue_id`) REFERENCES `tbl_issue` (`id`);ALTER TABLE `tbl_comment` ADD CONSTRAINT `FK_comment_author` FOREIGN KEY (`create_user_id`) REFERENCES `tbl_user` (`id`); If you are following along, please ensure this table is created in both the trackstar_dev and trackstar_test databases. Once a database table is in place, creating the associated AR class is a snap. We simply use the Gii code creation tool's Model Generator command and create an AR class called Comment. Since we have already created the model class for issues, we will need to explicitly add the relations to to the Issue model class for comments. We will also add a relationship as a statistical query to easily retrieve the number of comments associated with a given issue (just as we did in the Project AR class for issues). Alter the Issue::relations() method as such: public function relations(){ return array( 'requester' => array(self::BELONGS_TO, 'User', 'requester_id'), 'owner' => array(self::BELONGS_TO, 'User', 'owner_id'), 'project' => array(self::BELONGS_TO, 'Project', 'project_id'), 'comments' => array(self::HAS_MANY, 'Comment', 'issue_id'), 'commentCount' => array(self::STAT, 'Comment', 'issue_id'),);} Also, we need to change our newly created Comment AR class to extend our custom TrackStarActiveRecord base class, so that it benefits from the logic we placed in the beforeValidate() method. Simply alter the beginning of the class definition as such: <?php/*** This is the model class for table "tbl_comment".*/class Comment extends TrackStarActiveRecord{ We'll make one last small change to the definitions in the Comment::relations() method. The relational attributes were named for us when the class was created. Let's change the one named createUser to be author, as this related user does represent the author of the comment. This is just a semantic change, but will help to make our code easier to read and understand. Change the method as such: /** * @return array relational rules. */public function relations(){ // NOTE: you may need to adjust the relation name and the related // class name for the relations automatically generated below. return array( 'author' => array(self::BELONGS_TO, 'User', 'create_user_id'), 'issue' => array(self::BELONGS_TO, 'Issue', 'issue_id'),); Creating the Comment CRUD Once we have an AR class in place, creating the CRUD scaffolding for managing the related entity is equally as easy. Again, use the Gii code generation tool's Crud Generator command with the AR class name, Comment, as the argument. Although we will not immediately implement full CRUD operations for our comments, it is nice to have the scaffolding for the other operations in place. As long as we are logged in, we should now be able to view the autogenerated comment submission form via the following URL: http://localhost/trackstar/index.php?r=comment/create

(For more resources on Agile, see here.) Introducing CWidget Lucky for us, Yii is readymade to help us achieve this architecture. Yii provides a component class, called CWidget, which is intended for exactly this purpose. A Yii widget is an instance of this class (or its child class), and is a presentational component typically embedded in a view file to display self-contained, reusable user interface features. We are going to use a Yii widget to build a recent comments portlet and display it on the main project details page so we can see comment activity across all issues related to the project. To demonstrate the ease of re-use, we'll take it one step further and also display a list of project-specific comments on the project details page. To begin creating our widget, we are going to first add a new public method on our Comment AR model class to return the most recently added comments. As expected, we will begin by writing a test. But before we write the test method, let's update our comment fixtures data so that we have a couple of comments to use throughout our testing. Create a new file called tbl_comment.php within the protected/tests/fixtures folder. Open that file and add the following content: <?phpreturn array('comment1'=>array( 'content' => 'Test comment 1 on issue bug number 1', 'issue_id' => 1, 'create_time' => '', 'create_user_id' => 1, 'update_time' => '', 'update_user_id' => '', ), 'comment2'=>array( 'content' => 'Test comment 2 on issue bug number 1', 'issue_id' => 1, 'create_time' => '', 'create_user_id' => 1, 'update_time' => '', 'update_user_id' => '', ),); Now we have consistent, predictable, and repeatable comment data to work with. Create a new unit test file, protected/tests/unit/CommentTest.php and add the following content: <?phpclass CommentTest extends CDbTestCase{ public $fixtures=array( 'comments'=>'Comment', ); public function testRecentComments() { $recentComments=Comment::findRecentComments(); $this->assertTrue(is_array($recentComments)); }} This test will of course fail, as we have not yet added the Comment::findRecentComments() method to the Comment model class. So, let's add that now. We'll go ahead and add the full method we need, rather than adding just enough to get the test to pass. But if you are following along, feel free to move at your own TDD pace. Open Comment.php and add the following public static method: public static function findRecentComments($limit=10, $projectId=null){ if($projectId != null) { return self::model()->with(array( 'issue'=>array('condition'=>'project_id='.$projectId)))->findAll(array( 'order'=>'t.create_time DESC', 'limit'=>$limit, )); } else { //get all comments across all projects return self::model()->with('issue')->findAll(array( 'order'=>'t.create_time DESC', 'limit'=>$limit, )); }} Our new method takes in two optional parameters, one to limit the number of returned comments, the other to specify a specific project ID to which all of the comments should belong. The second parameter will allow us to use our new widget to display all comments for a project on the project details page. So, if the input project id was specified, it restricts the returned results to only those comments associated with the project, otherwise, all comments across all projects are returned. More on relational AR queries in Yii The above two relational AR queries are a little new to us. We have not been using many of these options in our previous queries. Previously we have been using the simplest approach to executing relational queries: Load the AR instance. Access the relational properties defined in the relations() method. For example if we wanted to query for all of the issues associated with, say, project id #1, we would execute the following two lines of code: // retrieve the project whose ID is 1$project=Project::model()->findByPk(1);// retrieve the project's issues: a relational query is actually being performed behind the scenes here$issues=$project->issues; This familiar approach uses what is referred to as a Lazy Loading. When we first create the project instance, the query does not return all of the associated issues. It only retrieves the associated issues upon an initial, explicit request for them, that is, when $project->issues is executed. This is referred to as lazy because it waits to load the issues. This approach is convenient and can also be very efficient, especially in those cases where the associated issues may not be required. However, in other circumstances, this approach can be somewhat inefficient. For example, if we wanted to retrieve the issue information across N projects, then using this lazy approach would involve executing N join queries. Depending on how large N is, this could be very inefficient. In these situations, we have another option. We can use what is called Eager Loading. The Eager Loading approach retrieves the related AR instances at the same time as the main AR instances are requested. This is accomplished by using the with() method in concert with either the find() or findAll() methods for AR query. Sticking with our project example, we could use Eager Loading to retrieve all issues for all projects by executing the following single line of code: //retrieve all project AR instances along with their associated issue AR instances$projects = Project::model()->with('issues')->findAll(); Now, in this case, every project AR instance in the $projects array already has its associated issues property populated with an array of issues AR instances. This result has been achieved by using just a single join query. We are using this approach in both of the relational queries executed in our findRecentComments() method. The one we are using to restrict the comments to a specific project is slightly more complex. As you can see, we are specifying a query condition on the eagerly loaded issue property for the comments. Let's look at the following line: Comment::model()->with(array('issue'=>array('condition'=>'project_id='.$projectId)))->findAll(); This query specifies a single join between the tbl_comment and the tbl_issue tables. Sticking with project id #1 for this example, the previous relational AR query would basically execute something similar to the following SQL statement: SELECT tbl_comment.*, tbl_issue.* FROM tbl_comment LEFT OUTER JOIN tbl_issue ON (tbl_comment.issue_id=tbl_issue.id) WHERE (tbl_issue.project_id=1) The added array we specify in the findAll() method simply sets an order by clause and a limit clause to the executed SQL statement. One last thing to note about the two queries we are using is how the column names that are common to both tables are disambiguated. Obviously when the two tables that are being joined have columns with the same name, we have to make a distinction between the two in our query. In our case, both tables have the create_time column defined. We are trying to order by this column in the tbl_comment table and not the one defined in the issue table. In a relational AR query in Yii, the alias name for the primary table is fixed as t, while the alias name for a relational table, by default, is the same as the corresponding relation name. So, in our two queries, we specify t.create_time to indicate we want to use the primary table's column. If we wanted to instead order by the issue create_time column, we would alter, the second query for example, as such: return Comment::model()->with('issue')->findAll(array( 'order'=>'issue.create_time DESC', 'limit'=>$limit,));

(For more resources on Oracle, see here.) The top three things As we've just seen, the most common things you can do are these: Get content approved: This is the most obvious use of the workflow we've just seen. Get people notified: Remember when we were adding workflow steps there was a number of required approvers on the Exit Conditions tab in the Add New Step dialog. If we set that to zero we accomplish one important thing: Approvers will get notified, but no action is required of them. It's a great way to "subscribe" a select group of people to an event of your choice. Perform custom actions: And if that's not enough you can easily add custom scripts to any step of a workflow. You can change metadata, release items, and send them to other workflows. You can even invoke your custom Java code. And here's another really powerful thing you can do with custom workflow actions. You can integrate with other systems and move from the local workflow to process orchestration. You can use a Content Server workflow to trigger external processes. UCM 10gR3 has an Oracle BPEL integration built in. This means that a UCM workflow can be initiated by (or can itself initiate) a BPEL workflow that spans many systems, not just the UCM. This makes ERP systems such as Siebel, PeopleSoft, SAP, and Oracle e-Business Suite easily accessible to the UCM, and content inside the UCM can be easily made available to these systems. So let's look at the jumps and scripting. Jumps and scripting Here's how to add scripting to a workflow: In Workflow Admin select a step of a workflow we've just created. Click on the Edit button on the right. The Edit Step dialog comes up. Go to the Events tab (as shown in the following screenshot): There are three events that you can add custom handlers for: Entry: This event triggers when an item arrives at the step. Update: This happens when an item or its metadata is updated. It's also initiated every hour by a timer event, Workflow Update Cycle. Use it for sending reminders to approvers or escalating the item to an alternative person after your approval period has expired. Exit: This event is triggered when an item has been approved and is about to exit the step. If you have defined Additional Exit Conditions on the Exit Conditions tab then those will be satisfied before this event fires. The following diagram illustrates the sequence of states and corresponding events that are fired when a content item arrives at a workflow step: Great! But how do we can actually add the jumps and custom scripts to a workflow step? How to add a jump to a workflow step Let's add an exception where content submitted by sysadmin will bypass our Manager Approval workflow. We will use a jump—a construct that causes an item to skip the normal workflow sequence and follow an alternative path. Here's how to do it: Add a jump to an Entry event of our very first step. On the Events tab of the Edit Step dialog, click on the Edit button—the one next to the Entry event. The Edit Script dialog displays (as shown in the following screenshot): Click on the Add button. The Add Jump dialog comes up (as shown in the following screenshot): Let's call the jump Sysadmin WF bypass. You don't need to change anything else at this point. Click on OK to get back to the Edit Script dialog. In the Field drop-down box pick Author. Click on the Select… button next to the Value box. Pick sysadmin (if you have trouble locating sysadmin in the list of users, make sure that the filter check-box is un-checked). Click the Add button below the Value field. Make sure that your clause appears in the Script Clauses box below. In the Target Step dropdown pick Next Step. Once you have done so the value will change to its script equivalent, @wfCurrentStep(1). If you have more than one step in the workflow, change 1 to the number of steps you have. This will make sure that you jump past the last step and exit the workflow. Here's how the completed dialog will look (as shown in the following screenshot): Click on OK to close. You're now back to the Events tab on the Edit Step dialog. Notice a few lines of script being added to the box next to the Entry event (as shown in the following screenshot): OK the dialog. It's time to test your changes. Check in a new document. Make sure you set the Author field to sysadmin. Set your Security Group to accounting, and Account to accounting/payable/current. If you don't, the item will not enter our workflow in the first place (as shown in the following screenshot): Complete your check-in and follow the link to go to the Content Info page. See the status of the item. It should be set to Released. That's right. The item got right out of the workflow. Check in a new document again, but use some other author. Notice how your item will enter the workflow and stay there. As you've seen, the dialog we used for creating a jump is simply a code generator. It created a few lines of script we needed to add the handler for the Entry event. Click on the Edit button next to that code and pick Edit Current to study it. You can find all the script function definitions in iDoc Reference Guide. Perfect! And we're still not done. What if you have a few common steps that you'd like to reuse in a bunch of workflows? Would you just have to manually recreate them? Nope. There are several solutions that allow you to reuse parts of the workflow. The one I find to be most useful is sub workflows.

Let's begin by looking in the metadata. Exploring metadata In case you forgot, metadata fields are there to describe the actual data such as the file name, shooting date, and camera name for a digital picture. There're two types of metadata fields: Standard and Extended or Custom. Let's take a closer look at what they can do for us. Standard metadata Standard metadata is essential for the system to function. These are fields like content ID, revision ID, check-in date, and author. Let's take a quick look at all of them so you have a full picture. Lab 2: Exploring standard metadata Click on the Quick Search button on the top right. Yes, leave the search box blank. If you do that, you'll get all content in the repository. In the last column on the Search Results page click on the i icon on any of the result rows. That brings up a Content Info screen. From this screen there is no way to tell which fields are Standard and which are Extended. So how do you tell? Explore the database That's right. A Content Server uses a relational database, like Oracle or SQL Server to store its metadata, so let's look there. If you are using SQL Server 2005 as your database, then open SQL Server Management Studio, and if not then bring up your SQL tool of choice. Check the list of columns in the table called Revisions (as shown in the following screenshot): Most of the column names in Revisions are the standard metadata fields. Here's a list of the fields you will be using most often: dID: ID of the document revision. This number is globally unique. If you have a project plan with three revisions—each of the three will have unique dID and all of them will have the same Content ID. dDocName: this is the actual Content ID. dDocType: content type of the document. dDocName or Content ID is the unique identifier for a content revision set. dID is the unique identifier of each individual content revision within a set. Being able to identify a content revision set is very useful, as it shows and tracks (makes auditable) the changes of content items over time. Being able to identify each individual revision with dID is also very useful, so we can work with specific content revisions. This is one of the great advantages of the Content Server over other systems, which only store the changes between revisions. Full revision sets as well as individual revisions are managed objects and each one can be accessed by its own unique URL. Now run this SQL statement: select * from Revisions; This shows the actual documents in the system and their values for standard meta fields (as shown in the following screenshot): And now let's look at the all-important Content Types. Content Types Content Type is a special kind of meta field. That's all. UCM puts a special emphasis on it as this is the value that differentiates a project plan from a web page and a team photo from a vendor invoice. You may even choose to change the way your check-in and content info form looks —based on the type of the document. Let's look how UCM handles Content Types. Lab 3: Exploring content types In Content Server go to Administration | Admin Applets. Launch the Configuration Manager. Select Options| Content Types... (as shown in the following screenshot): The Content Types dialog opens. As you see, out of the box, Content Server has seven types—one for each imaginary department. This is a good way of segregating content. You can also go by the actual type of content. For instance, you can have one Content Type for Invoice and one for Project Plan. They will also have different meta fields. For instance, an Invoice will have a Contract Number and a Total Amount. A Project Plan will have a project name and manager's name. Now let me show you how to add content types. How to add a Content Type It's easy to add a new Content Type. Just click on Add..., fill in the type name and the description. You can also select an icon for the new type. What if you need to upload a new icon? Just make it into an 8-bit GIF file, 30x37 px, 96 dpi and upload it to: C:oracleucmserverweblayoutimagesdocgifs If your install path is different or you're not running on Windows then make appropriate corrections. How to edit or delete a Content Type The only thing to know about editing is that you can not really change the type name. All you can update is the icon or description. If you're ready to delete a type then make sure there is no content in the repository that's using it. Either update it all or delete. How would you go about doing a mass-update? I'll show you one of the ways in on using Archiver(Ways on archiever is out of the scope of this article). And now let's proceed to Custom Metadata.

(For more resources on Oracle, see here.) How to set up and change workflows First thing's first. Let's start by looking at the tools that you will be using to set up and configure your workflows. Discover the Workflow Admin application Go to Administration Admin Applets| and launch Workflow Admin. The Workflow Admin application comes up (as shown in the following screenshot): There are three tabs: Workflows: This tab is used for administering Basic or Manual Workflows. Criteria: This tab deals with Automatic or Criteria Workflows—the type we will be using most often. Templates: This is the place where you can pre-assemble Workflow Templates—reusable pieces that you can use to create new basic workflows. Let's create a simple automatic workflow. I call it automatic because content enters the workflow automatically when it is modified or created. If you will be using e-mail notifications then be sure to check your Internet Configuration screen in Admin Server. I'll walk you through the steps in using automatic workflows. Lab 7: Using automatic workflows Here's the process for creating a criteria workflow: Creating a criteria workflow Follow these steps: Go to the Criteria tab and click on Add. The New Criteria Workflow dialog comes up (as shown in the following screenshot): Fill in Workflow Name and Description. Pick the Security Group. Only items with the same security group as the workflow can enter it. Let's use the security group we've created. Select accounting. We're creating a Criteria Workflow, so let's check the Has Criteria Definition box. Now you can specify criteria that content must match to enter the workflow.For the sake of this lab, let's pick Account for the Field, and accounting/payable/current for the Value. Please note that a content item must match at least two conditions to enter the workflow: it must belong to the same security group as the workflow, and it must match the criteria of the workflow. As soon as a new content item is created with Security Group of accounting and Content Account value is set to accounting/payable/current, it will enter our workflow. It will not enter the workflow if its metadata is simply updated to these values. It takes a new check-in for an item to enter a criteria workflow. If you need it to enter a workflow after a metadata update then consider custom components available from the Fishbowl Solutions (www.fishbowlsolutions.com). You can use any metadata field and value pair as criteria for entering the workflow. But you can only have one condition. What if that's not enough? If you need to perform additional checks before you can accept the item in a workflow then keep your criteria really open, and do your checks in the workflow itself. I'll show you how, later in this article. The diagram next illustrates how a content item flows through a criteria workflow. You may find it useful to refer back to it as you follow the steps in this lab. OK. We have a workflow created but there're two problems with it: it has no steps in it and it is disabled. Let's begin by seeing how to add workflow steps. Adding workflow steps Here's how you add workflow steps: Click on the Add button in the Steps section on the right (as shown in the following screenshot): The Add New Step dialog opens. Fill in the step name and description (as shown in the following screenshot): Click on the Add User button on the right and select approvers for this step. Also add yourself to the list of approvers so you can test the workflow. Switch to the Exit Conditions tab (as shown in the following screenshot): You can change the number of approvers required to move the item to the next step. You can make all approvers required to advance a step or just any one as shown on the screenshot. And if you put zero in the text box, no approvers will be required at all. They will still receive notification, but the item will go immediately to the next step. And when the current step is the last the workflow will end and the new revision will be released into the system. What do I mean by that? Until workflow is complete, revisions that are currently in a workflow will not come up in searchers and will not show on the Web. You will still see them in the content info screen but that's it. OK the dialog. You now have a workflow with one step. Let's test it. But first, you need to enable the workflow.

(For more resources on Wordpress, see here.) Building a consumer review website will allow you to supply consumers with the information that they seek and then, once they've decided to make a purchase, your site can direct them to a source for the product or service. This process can ultimately allow you to earn some nice commission checks because it's only logical that you would affiliate yourself with a number of the sites to which you will be directing consumers. The great thing about using the WP Review Site plugin to build your consumer review website is that you can provide people with an unbiased source of public opinions on any product or service that you can imagine. You will never have to resort to the hard sell in order to drive traffic to the companies that you've affiliated yourself with. Instead, consumers can research the reviews posted on your website and,ultimately, make a purchase feeling confident that they're making the right decision. In this article, you will learn about the following: Present reviews in the most convenient way possible for visitors browsing your site Specify the ratings criteria that site visitors will use when reviewing the products or services included on your website Display informational comparison tables on your site's index and category pages Provide visitors with the location of local businesses using Google Maps Perform the additional steps required when writing a post now that the WP Review Site plugin has been introduced into the process Perform either automatic and manual integration so that you can use a theme of your own rather than either of the ones provided with this plugin Once this project is complete, you will have succeeded in creating a site that's similar to the one shown in the following screenshot:   Introducing WP Review Site With the WP Review Site plugin you will be able to build a consumer review site where visitors can share their opinions about the products or services of your choosing. The plugin, which can be found at WP Review Site, can be used to build a dedicated review site or, if you would like consumer reviews to make up only a subsection of your website, then you can specify certain categories where they should appear. This plugin gives you complete control over where ratings appear and where they don't since you can choose to include or exclude them on any category, page, or post. The WP Review Site plugin seamlessly integrates with WordPress by, among other things, altering the normal appearance and functionality of the comments submission form. This plugin provides visitors with a way to write a review and assign stars to the ratings categories that you previously defined. They can also write a review and opt to provide no stars without harming the overall rating presented on your site, since no stars is interpreted as though no rating was given. WP Review Site plugin makes it easy for you to present your visitors with concise information. Using the features available with this plugin, you can build comparison tables based upon your posts and user reviews. In order to accomplish this, you will need to configure a few settings and then the plugin will take care of the rest. Typically, WordPress displays posts in chronological order, but that doesn't make much sense on a consumer review site where visitors want to view posts based upon other factors such as the number of positive reviews that a particular product or service has received. The developer behind WP Site Review took that into consideration and has included two alternative sorting methods for your site's posts. The developer has even included a Bayesian weighting feature so that reviews are ordered in the most logical way possible. Right about now, you're probably wondering what Bayesian weighting is and how it works. What it does is provide a way to mathematically calculate the rating of products and/or services based upon the credibility of the votes that have been cast. If an item receives only a few votes, then it can't be said with any certainty that that's how the general public feels. If an item receives several votes, then it can be safely assumed that many others hold the same opinion. So, with Bayesian weighting, a product that has received only one five star review won't outrank another that has received fifteen four star reviews. As the product that received one five star review garners more ratings, its reviews will grow in credibility and, if it continues to receive high ratings, it will eventually become credible enough to outrank the other reviews. If you're planning to create a website where visitors can come and review local businesses, then you might consider this plugins ability to automatically embed Google Maps quite handy. After configuring the settings on the plugin's Google Maps screen you will be able to type the address for a business into a custom field when writing a post and then the plugin will take care of the rest. The WP Review Site plugin also includes two sidebar widgets that can used with any widget-ready theme. These widgets will allow you to display a list of top rated items and a list of recent reviews. Lastly, the themes provided with this plugin include built-in support for the hReview microformat. This means that Google will easily be able to extract and highlight reviews from your website. That feature will prove to be very beneficial for driving search engine traffic to your site. Installing WP Review Site Once you've installed WordPress you can then concentrate on the installation of the WP Review Site plugin and its accompanying themes. First, extract the wpreviewsite.zip archive. Inside you will find a plugins folder and a themes folder. Within the plugins folder is another folder named review-site. Since none of these folders are zipped, you will need to upload them using either an FTP program or the file manager provided by your web host. So, upload the review-site folder to the wp-content/plugins directory on your server. If you plan to use one of the themes provided with this plugin, then you will next need to upload the contents of the themes folder to the wp-content/themes directory. Setting up and configuring WP Review Site With the installation process complete, you will now need to activate the WP Review Site plugin. Once that's finished, a Review Site menu will appear on the left side of your screen. This menu contains links to the settings screens for this plugin. Before you delve into the configuration process you must first activate the theme that you plan to use on your consumer review website. Using one of the provided themes is a bit easier. That's because using any other theme will mean that you must integrate the functionality of WP Review Site into it. Now that you know the benefits offered by the themes that are bundled with this plugin, click on Appearance | Themes. Once there, activate either Award Winning Hosts, Bonus Black, or a theme of your choice. General Settings Navigate to Review Site | General Settings to be taken to the first of the WP Review Site settings screens. On this screen, Sort Posts By is the first setting that you will encounter. Rather than displaying reviews in the normal chronological order used by WordPress you should, instead, select either the Average User Rating (Weighted) or the Number of Reviews/Comments option. Either of these settings will provide a much more user-friendly experience for your visitors. If you want to make it impossible for site visitors to submit a comment without also choosing a rating, tick the checkbox next to Require Ratings with All Comments. If you don't want to make this a requirement, then you can leave this setting as is. This setting will, of course, only apply to posts that you would like your visitors to rate. On normal posts, that don't include rating stars in the comment form area, it will still be possible for your visitors to submit a comment. When using one of the themes provided with the plugin, none of the other settings on this screen need to be configured. If you would like to integrate this plugin into a different theme, then, depending upon the method that you choose, you may need to revisit this screen later on. No matter how you're handling the theme issue, you can, for now, just click Save Settings before proceeding to the next screen. Rating Categories To access the next settings screen, click on Review Site | Rating Categories. Here you can add categories for people to rate when submitting reviews. These categories shouldn't be confused with the categories used in WordPress for organizational purposes. These WP Review Site categories are more like ratings criteria. By default, WP Review Site includes a category called Overall Rating, but you can click the remove link to delete it if you like. To add your first rating category, simply enter its title into the Add a Category textbox and then click Save Settings. The screen will then refresh and your newly created rating category will now appear under the Edit Rating Categories section of the screen. To add additional rating categories, simply repeat the process that you previously completed. Once you've finished adding rating categories, you will next need to turn your attention to the Bulk Apply Rating Categories section of the screen. In the Edit Rating Categories area you will see all of the rating categories that you just finished adding to your site. If you want to simplify matters, and apply these rating categories to all of the posts on your site, tick the checkbox next to each of the available rating categories. Then, from the Apply to Posts in Category drop-down menu, select All Categories. This is most likely the configuration that you will use if you're building a website entirely dedicated to providing consumer reviews. Once you've finished, click Save Settings. If you, instead, want your newly added rating categories to only appear on certain categories, then bypass the Edit Rating Categories area for now and first look to the Apply to Posts in Category settings area. Currently this will only show All Categories and Uncategorized. The lack of categories in this menu is being caused by two things. First, you haven't added any WordPress categories to your site yet. Secondly, categories won't be included in this menu until they contain at least one post. To solve part of this problem, open a new browser window and then, navigate to Posts | Categories. Then, add the categories that you would like to include on your website. Now, click on Posts | Edit to visit the Edit Posts screen. At the moment, the Hello world! post is the only one published on your site and you can use it to force your site's categories to appear in the Apply to Posts in Category drop-down menu. So, hover over the title of this post and then, from the now visible set of links, click Quick Edit. In the Categories section of the Quick Edit configuration area, tick the checkbox next to each of the categories found on your site. Then, click Update Post. After content has been added to each of your site's categories, you can delete the Hello world! post, since you will no longer need to use it to force the categories to appear in the Apply to Posts in Category drop-down menu. Now, return to the Rating Categories screen and then select the first category that you want to configure from the Apply to Posts in Category drop-down menu. With that selected, in the Edit Rating Categories area, tick the checkbox next to each rating category that you want to appear within that WordPress category. Then, click Save Settings. Repeat this process for each of the WordPress categories to which you would like rating categories to be added. Comparison Tables If you wish, you can add a comparison table to either the home page or the category pages on your site. To do this, you need to visit the Comparison Tables screen, so click on Review Site | Comparison Tables. If you want to display a comparison table on your home page, then tick the checkbox next to Display a Comparison Table on Home Page. If you would like to include all of your site's categories in the comparison table that will be displayed on the home page, then leave the Categories To Display On Home Page textbox as is. However, if you would prefer to include only certain categories, then enter their category IDs, separated by commas, into the textbox instead. You can learn the ID numbers that have been assigned to each of your site's categories by opening a new browser window and then navigating to Posts | Categories. Once there, hover over the title of each of the categories found on the right hand side of your screen. As you do, look at the URL that appears in your browser's status bar and make a note of the number that appears directly after tag_ID=. That's the number that you will need to enter in the Comparison Table screen. If you want to display a comparison table in one or more categories, then tick the checkbox next to Display a Comparison Table on Category Page(s). Now, return to the Comparison Table screen. If you want a comparison table to be displayed on each of your category pages, leave the Categories To Display Comparison Table On textbox at its default. Otherwise, enter a list of comma separated category IDs into the textbox for the categories where you want to display comparison tables. The Number of Posts in the Table setting is currently set to 5, but you can enter another value if you would like a different number of posts to be included in each comparison table. When writing posts, you might use custom fields to include additional information. If you would like that information to be displayed in your comparison tables you will need to enter the names of those fields, separated by commas, into the Custom Fields to Display textbox. Lastly, you can change the text that appears in the Text for the Visit Site link in the Table if you wish or you may leave it at its default. With these configurations complete, click Save Settings. In this screenshot, you can see what a populated comparison table will look like on your website: Google Maps If you plan on featuring reviews centered around local businesses, then you might want to consider adding Google Maps to your site. This will make it easy for visitors to see exactly where each business is located. You can access this settings screen by clicking on Review Site | Google Maps. To activate this feature, tick the checkbox next to Display a Google Map on Posts/Pages with mapaddress Custom Field. Next, you need to use the Map Position setting to specify where these Google Maps will appear in relation to the content. You can choose to use either the Top of Post or Bottom of Post position. The Your Google Maps API Key textbox is next. Here you will need to enter a Google Maps API key. If you don't have a Google Maps API key for this domain, then you will need to visit Google to generate one. To do this, right-click on the link provided on the Google Maps screen and then open that link in a new browser window. You will then be taken to the Google Maps API sign up screen, which can be found at Google Maps API sign up. If you've ever signed up to use any of Google's services, then you can use that username and password to log in. If you don't have an account with Google, create one now. Take a moment to read the information and terms presented on the Google Maps API sign up page. After you've finished reviewing this text, if it's acceptable to you, enter the URL for your website into the My web site URL textbox and then click Generate API Key. You will then be taken to a thank you screen where your API key will be displayed. Copy the API key and then return to the Google Maps screen on your website. Once there, paste your API key into the textbox for Your Google Maps API Key. The Map Width and Map Height settings are next. By default, these are configured to 400px and 300px. If you would prefer that the maps be displayed at a different size, then enter new values into each of these textboxes. The last setting is Map Zoom Level (1-5), which is currently set to 3. This setting should be fine, but you may change it if you wish. Finally, click Save Settings. When you publish a post that includes the mappadress custom field, this is what the Google Map will look like on your site.

(For more resources on Telephony, see here.) Understanding the FreeSWITCH user directory The FreeSWITCH user directory is based on a centralized XML document, comprised of one or more <domain> elements. Each <domain> can contain either <user> elements or <groups> elements. A <groups> element contains one or more <groups> elements, each of which contains one or more <user> elements. A small, simple example would look like the following: <section name="directory"> <domain name="example.com"> <groups> <group name="default"> <user id="1001"> <params> <param name="password" value="1234"/> </params> </user> </group> </groups> </domain></section> Some more basic configurations may not have a need to organize the users in groups so it is possible to omit the <groups> element completely, and just insert several <user> elements into the top <domain> element. The important thing is that each user@domain derived from this directory is available to all components in the system—it's a single centralized directory for storing all of your user information. If you register as a user with a SIP phone or if you try to leave a voicemail message for a user, FreeSWITCH looks in the same place for user data. This is important because it limits duplication of data, and makes it more efficient than it would be if each component kept track of its users separately. This system should work well for a small system with a few users in it, but what about a large system with thousands of users? What if a user wants to connect his existing database to FreeSWITCH to provide the user directory? Well, using mod_xml_curl (download here-ch:1,ch:3), we can create a web service that gets the request for the entries in the user directory, in the same way a web page sends the results of a form submission. In turn, that web service can query an existing database of users formatted any way possible, and construct the XML records in the format that FreeSWITCH registry expects. mod_xml_curl returns the data to the module requesting the lookup. This means that instant, seamless integration with your existing setup is possible; your data is still kept in its original, central location. The user directory can be accessed by any subsystem within FreeSWITCH. This includes modules, scripts, and the FSAPI interface among others. In this article, we are going to learn how the Sofia SIP module employs the user directory to authenticate your softphone or hardware SIP phone. If you are a developer you may appreciate some nifty things you can do with your user directory, such as adding a <variables> element to either the <domain>, the <groups>, or the <user> element. In this element you can set many <variable> elements, allowing you to set channel variables that will apply to every call made by a particular authenticated user. This can come in very handy in the Dialplan because it allows you to make user-specific routing decisions. It is also possible to define IP address ranges using CIDR notation, which can be used to authenticate particular users based on what remote network address they connect from. This removes the need for a login and password, if your user always logs in from the same remote IP address. The directory is implemented in pure XML. This is advantageous for several reasons, not the least of which is the "X" in XML: Extensible. Since XML is, by definition, extensible, the directory structure is also extensible. If we need to add a new element into the directory, we can do so simply by adding to the existing XML structure. Authentication versus authorizationAuthentication is the process of identifying a user. Authorization is the process of determining the level of access of a user. Authentication answers the question, "Is this person really who he says he is?" Authorization answers the question, "What is this person allowed to do here?" When you see expressions such as "IP Auth" and "Digest Auth", remember that they are referring to the two primary ways of identifying (that is, authenticating) a user. IP authorization is based upon the user's IP address. Digest authentication is based upon the user supplying a username and password. SIP (and FreeSWITCH) can use either method. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digest_access_authentication for a discussion of how digest authentication works Working with the FreeSWITCH user directory The default configuration has one domain with a directory of 20 users. Users can be added or removed very easily. There is no set limit to how many users can be defined on the system. The list of users is collectively referred to as the directory. Users can belong to one or more groups. Finally, all the users belong to a single domain. By default, the domain is the IP address of the FreeSWITCH server. In the following sections we will discuss these topics: User features Adding a user Testing voicemail Groups of users User features Let's begin by looking at the XML file that defines a user. Locate the file conf/directory/default/1000.xml and open it in an editor. You should see a file like the following: <include> <user id="1000"> <params> <param name="password" value="$${default_password}"/> <param name="vm-password" value="1000"/> </params> <variables> <variable name="toll_allow" value="domestic,international,local"/> <variable name="accountcode" value="1000"/> <variable name="user_context" value="default"/> <variable name="effective_caller_id_name" value="Extension 1000"/> <variable name="effective_caller_id_number" value="1000"/> <variable name="outbound_caller_id_name" value="$${outbound_caller_name}"/> <variable name="outbound_caller_id_number" value="$${outbound_caller_id}"/> <variable name="callgroup" value="techsupport"/> </variables> </user></include> The XML structure of a user is simple. Within the <include> tags the user has the following: The user element with the id attribute The params element, wherein parameters are specified The variables element, wherein channel variables are defined Even before we know what much of the specifics mean, we can glean from this file that the user id is 1000 and that there is both a password and a vm-password. In this case, the password parameter refers to the SIP authorization password. The expression $${default_password} refers to the value contained in the global variable default_password which is defined in the conf/vars.xml file. If you surmised that vm-password means "voicemail password" then you are correct. This value refers to the digits that the user needs to dial when logging in to check his or her voicemail messages. The value of id is used both as the authorization username and the SIP username. Additionally, there are a number of channel variables that are defined for this user. Most of these are directly related to the default Dialplan. The following table lists each variable and what it is used for: Variable Purpose toll_allow Specifies which types of calls this user can make accountcode Arbitrary value that shows up in CDR data user_context The Dialplan context that is used when this person makes a phone call effective_caller_id_name Caller ID name displayed on called party's phone when calling another registered user effective_caller_id_number Caller ID number displayed on called party's phone when calling another registered user outbound_caller_id_name Caller ID name sent to provider on outbound calls outbound_caller_id_number Caller ID number sent to provider on outbound calls callgroup Arbitrary value that can be used in Dialplan or CDR In summary, a user in the default configuration has the following: A username for SIP and for authorization A voicemail password A means of allowing/restricting dialling A means of handling caller ID being sent out Several arbitrary variables that can be used or ignored as needed Let's now add a new user to our directory.

(For more resources on Agile, see here.) Introducing TrackStar TrackStar is a Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) issue management application. Its main goal is to help keep track of all the many issues that arise throughout the course of building software applications. It is a user-based application that allows the creation of user accounts and grants access to the application features, once a user has been authenticated and authorized. It allows a user to add and manage projects. Projects can have users associated with them (typically the team members working on the project) as well as issues. The project issues will be things such as development tasks and application bugs. The issues can be assigned to members of the project and will have a status such as not yet started, started, and finished. This way, the tracking tool can give an accurate depiction of projects with regard to what has been accomplished, what is currently in progress, and what is yet to be started. Creating user stories Simple user stories are a great way to identify the required features of your application. User stories, in their simplest form, state what a user can do with a piece of software. They should start simple, and grow in complexity as you dive into more and more of the details around each feature. Our goal here is to begin with just enough complexity to allow us to get started. If needed, we'll add more detail and complexity later. We briefly touched on the three main entities that play a large role in this application: users, projects, and issues. These are our primary domain objects, and are extremely important items in this application. So, let's start with them. Users TrackStar is a user-based web application. There will be two high-level user types: Anonymous Authenticated An anonymous user is any user of the application that has not been authenticated through the login process. Anonymous users will only have access to register for a new account or to log in. All other functionality will be restricted to authenticated users. An authenticated user is any user that has provided valid authentication credentials through the login process. In other words, authenticated users are logged-in users. They will have access to the main features of the application such as creating and managing projects, and project issues. Projects Managing the project is the primary purpose of the TrackStar application. A project represents a general, high-level goal to be achieved by one or more users of the application. The project is typically broken down into more granular tasks (or issues) that represent the smaller steps that need to be taken to achieve the overall goal. As an example, let's take what we are going to be doing throughout this book, that is, building a project and issue tracking management application. Unfortunately, we can't use our yet-to-be-created application as a tool to help us track its own development. However, if we were using a similar tool to help track what we are building, we might create a project called Build The TrackStar Project/Issue Management Tool. This project would be broken down into more granular project issues such as 'Create the login screen' or 'Design database schema for issues', and so on. Authenticated users can create new projects. The creator of the project within an account has a special role within that project, called the project owner. Project owners have the ability to edit and delete these projects as well as add new members to the project. Other users associated with the project—besides the project owner—are referred to simply as project members. They have the ability to add new issues, as well as edit existing ones. Issues Project issues can be classified into one of the following three categories: Features: Items that represent real features to be added to the application. For example, 'Implement the login functionality' Tasks: Items that represent work that needs to be done, but is not an actual feature of the software. For example, 'Set up the build and integration server' Bugs: Items that represent application behaviors that are not working as expected. For example, 'The account registration form does not validate the format of input e-mail addresses' Issues can have one of the following three statuses: Not yet started Started Finished Project members can add new issues to a project, as well as edit and delete them. They can assign issues to themselves or other project members. For now, this is enough information on these three main entities. We could go into a lot more detail about what exactly account registration entails' and how exactly one adds a new task to a project', but we have outlined enough specifications to begin on these basic features. We'll nail down the more granular details as we proceed with the implementation. However, before we start, we should jot down some basic navigation and application workflow. This will help everyone to better understand the general layout and flow of the application we are building. Navigation and page flow It is always good to outline the main pages within an application, and how they fit together. This will help us quickly identify some needed Yii controllers, actions and views as well as help to set everyone's expectations as to what we'll be building towards at the onset of our development. The following figure shows the basic idea of the application flow from logging in, through the project details listing: When users first come to the application, they must log in to authenticate themselves before accessing any functionality. Once successfully logged-in, they will be presented with a list of his current projects along with the option to create a new project. Choosing a specific project will take them to the project details page. The project details page will present a list of the issues by type. There will also be the option to add a new issue as well as edit any of the listed issues. This is all pretty basic functionality, but the figure gives us a little more information on how the application is stitched together and allows us to better identify our needed models, views, and controllers. It also allows something visual to be shared with others so that everyone involved has the same 'picture' of what we are working towards. In my experience, almost everyone prefers pictures over written specifications when first thinking through a new application. Defining a data scheme We still need to think a little more about the data we will be working with as we begin to build toward these specifications. If we pick out all the main nouns from our system, we may end up with a pretty good list of domain objects and, by extension of using Active Record, the data we want to model. Our previously outlined user stories seem to dictate the following: A User A Project An Issue Based on this and the other details provided in the user stories and application workflow diagram, a first attempt at the needed data is shown in the following figure. This is a basic object model that outlines our primary data entities, their respective attributes, and some of the relationships between them. The 1..* on either side of the line between the Project and User objects represents a many-to-many relationship between them. A user can be associated with one or more projects, and a project has one or more users. Similarly we have represented the fact that a project can have zero or more issues associated with it, whereas an issue belongs to just one specific project. Also, a user can be the owner of (or requester of) many issues, but an issue has just one owner (and also just one requester). We have kept the attributes as simple as possible at this state. A User is going to need a username and a password in order to get past the login screen. The Project has only a name Issues have the most associated information based on what we currently know about them. As discussed briefly in the user stories above, they will have a type attribute to distinguish the general category (bug, feature, or task). They will also have a status attribute to indicate the progress of the issue being worked on. A user in the system will initially create the issue, this is the requester. Once a user in the system has been assigned to work on the issue, they will be the owner of the issue. We have also defined the description attribute to allow for some descriptive text of the issue to be entered. Notice that we have not explicitly talked about schemas or databases yet. The fact is, until we think through what is really needed from a data perspective, we won't know the right tool to use to house this data. Would flat files on the filesystem work just as well as a relational database? Do we need a persistent data at all?   The answers to these questions are not needed in this early planning state. It is better to focus more on the features that we want and the type of data needed to support these features. We can turn to the explicit technology implementation details after we have had a chance to discuss these ideas with other project stakeholders to ensure we are on the right track. Other project stakeholders include anyone and everyone involved in this development project. This can include the client, if building an application for someone else, as well as other development team members, product/project managers, and so on. It is always a good idea to get some feedback from "the team" to help validate the approach and any assumptions being made. However, before we dive right into building our application, we need to cover our development approach. We will be employing some specific development methodologies and principles, and it makes sense to go over these prior to getting started with coding. Defining our development methodology We will be employing an agile inspired process of iterative and incremental development as we build this application. 'Agile' is certainly a loaded term in modern software development and can have varied meanings among developers. Our process will focus on the aspects of an agile methodology that embrace transparent and open collaboration, constant feedback loops, and a strong ability to respond quickly to changing requirements. We will work incrementally in that we won't wait until every detail of the application has been specified before we start coding. Once the details of a particular feature have been finalized, we can begin work on implementing that feature, even though other features or application details are still in the design/planning stage. The process surrounding this feature implementation will follow an iterative model. We will do some initial iteration planning, engage in analysis and design, write the code to try out these ideas, test the code, and gather feedback. We then repeat this cycle of design->code->test->evaluation, until everyone is happy. Once everyone is happy, we can deploy the application with the new feature, and then start gathering the specifications on the next feature(s) to be implemented in the next iteration. Automated software testing Gathering feedback is of fundamental importance to agile development. Feedback from the users of the application and other project stakeholders, feedback from the development team members, and feedback directly from the software itself. Developing software in a manner that will allow it to tell you when something is broken can turn the fear associated with integrating and deploying applications into boredom. The method by which you empower your software with this feedback mechanism is writing unit and functional tests, and then executing them repeatedly and often. Unit and functional testing Unit tests are written to provide the developer with verification that the code is doing the right things. Functional tests are written to provide the developer, as well as other project stakeholders, that the application, as a whole, is doing things the right way. Unit tests Unit tests are tests that focus on the smallest units within a software application. In an object-oriented application, (such as a Yii web application) the smallest units are the public methods that make up the interfaces to classes. Unit tests should focus on one single class, and not require other classes or objects to run. Their purpose is to validate that a single unit of code is working as expected. Functional tests Functional tests focus on testing the end-to-end feature functionality of the application. These tests exist at a higher level than the unit tests and typically do require multiple classes or objects to run. Their purpose is to validate that a given feature of the application is working as expected. Benefits of testing There are many benefits to writing unit and functional tests. For one, they are a great way to provide documentation. Unit tests can quickly tell the exact story of why a block of code exists. Similarly, functional tests document what features are implemented within an application. If you stay diligent in writing these tests, then the documentation continues to evolve naturally as the application evolves. They are also invaluable as a feedback mechanism to constantly reassure the developer and other project stakeholders that the code and application is working as expected. You run your tests every time you make changes to the code and get immediate feedback on whether or not something you altered inadvertently changed the behavior of the system. You then address these issues immediately. This really increases the confidence that developers have in the application's behavior and translates to fewer bugs and more successful projects. This immediate feedback also helps to facilitate change and improving the design of the code base. A developer is more likely to make improvements to existing code if a suite of tests are in place to immediately provide feedback as to whether the changes made altered the application behavior. The confidence provided by a suite of unit and functional tests allows developers to write better software, release a more stable application, and ship quality products. Test-driven development Test-driven development (TDD) is a software development methodology that helps to create an environment of comfort and confidence by ensuring your test suite grows organically with your application, and is always up-to-date. It does this by stipulating that you begin your coding by first writing a test for the code you are about to write. The following steps sum up the process: Begin by writing a test that will quickly fail. Run the test to ensure it does, indeed, fail. Quickly add just enough code to the class you are testing to get the test to pass. Run the test again to ensure it does, indeed, pass. Refactor the code to remove any repetitive logic or improve any corners cut while you were just trying to get the test to pass. These steps are then repeated throughout the entire development process. Even with the best intentions, if you wait to write your tests until after the code is completed, you probably won't. Writing your tests first and injecting the test writing process directly into the coding process will ensure the best test coverage. This depth of coverage will help minimize the stress and fear that can accompany complex software applications and build confidence by constantly providing positive feedback as additions and changes are made. In order to embrace a TDD process, we need to understand how to test within a Yii application.

(For more resources on Telephony, see here.) Some smaller businesses might be able to get away with just using Skype. As a software client, Skype can be easily installed on individual computers. Since most workstations these days have a microphone built in to the monitor, a simple headset should suffice in getting up and running with Skype, along with a nominal fee per month to set up an account with privileges to call regular telephones. One problem with this method, however, is the way that Skype can hog your bandwidth. Skype is a peer-to-peer application that not only uses your system’s bandwidth in order to make phone calls; it also acts as a node for other phone calls across its own distributed network. Essentially, Skype also has the capability in its peer-to-peer system that can cause it to inadvertently hog bandwidth, which could cause your office to experience traffic problems. There are a series of useful Active Directory group policies you can enact to try to such as using ListenPortPolicy to try to lock down ports as well as using DisableApiPolicy to block bandwidth-eating third party APIs, but having to manage this system may be a bit too tumultuous, especially if you have a large amount of machines on your system. In a network that has larger scale, using Skype is probably not feasible. Technology titans such as Cisco and HP have systems complete with phones and special switches that can be easily implemented into a network; although this option requires a lot more upfront expense and time, if your system is at such a scale for such a service the long-term cost savings will be immense. Because IP phones are just like devices that use Organizational Units in Active Directory, you’ll be able to better place policies on them. You’ll inevitably have bandwidth issues using VoIP, but the difference between an application like Skype and IP telephone hardware is that you’re dealing with separate devices that disparately use bandwidth instead of trying to use group policies to manage software that is on a workstation. That means using your network performance management system to be able to control things like jitter and packet loss by placing a priority on your VoIP traffic. Bottom line: depending on the size of your network, you have options on leveraging VoIP and Active Directory for your infrastructure. Either way you look at it, you’ll be able to save cash on phone calls by switching to an IP-based solution. Further resources on this subject: Setting Up OpenVPN with X509 Certificates [Article] Installing OpenVPN on Linux and Unix Systems [Article] Networking with OpenVPN [Article] Installation of OpenSIPS 1.6 [Article] Configuring sipXecs Server Features [Article]

IVR engine overview Unlike many applications within FreeSWITCH which are built as modules, IVR is considered the core functionality of FreeSWITCH. It is used anytime a prompt is played and digits are collected. Even if you are not using the IVR application itself from your Dialplan, you will see IVR-related functions being utilized from various other applications. As an example, the voicemail application makes heavy use of IVR functionality when playing messages, while awaiting digits to control deleting, saving, and otherwise managing voicemails. In this section, we will only be reviewing the IVR functionality that is exposed from within the ivr Dialplan application. This functionality is typically used to build an auto-attendant menu, although other functions are possible as well. IVR XML configuration file FreeSWITCH ships with a sample IVR menu are typically invoked by dialing 5000 from the sample Dialplan. When you dial 500, you will hear a greeting welcoming you to FreeSWITCH, and presenting your menu options. The menu options consist of calling the FreeSWITCH conference, calling the echo extension, hearing music on hold, going to a sub menu, or listening to screaming monkeys. We will start off reviewing the XML that powers this example. Open conf/autoload_configs/ivr.xml which contains the following XML: <configuration name="ivr.conf" description="IVR menus"> <menus> <!-- demo IVR, Main Menu --> <menu name="demo_ivr" greet-long="phrase:demo_ivr_main_menu" greet-short="phrase:demo_ivr_main_menu_short" invalid-sound="ivr/ivr-that_was_an_invalid_entry.wav" exit-sound="voicemail/vm-goodbye.wav" timeout="10000" inter-digit-timeout="2000" max-failures="3" max-timeouts="3" digit-len="4"> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="1" param="bridge sofia/$${domain}/[email protected]"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="2" param="transfer 9196 XML default"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="3" param="transfer 9664 XML default"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="4" param="transfer 9191 XML default"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="5" param="transfer 1234*256 enum"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="/^(10[01][0-9])$/" param="transfer $1 XML features"/> <entry action="menu-sub" digits="6" param="demo_ivr_submenu"/> <entry action="menu-top" digits="9"/> </menu> <!-- Demo IVR, Sub Menu --> <menu name="demo_ivr_submenu" greet-long="phrase:demo_ivr_sub_menu" greet-short="phrase:demo_ivr_sub_menu_short" invalid-sound="ivr/ivr-that_was_an_invalid_entry.wav" exit-sound="voicemail/vm-goodbye.wav" timeout="15000" max-failures="3" max-timeouts="3"> <entry action="menu-top" digits="*"/> </menu> </menus> </configuration> In the preceding example, there are two IVR menus defined. Let's break apart the first one and examine it, starting with the IVR menu definition itself. IVR menu definitions The following XML defines an IVR menu named "demo_ivr". <menu name="demo_ivr" greet-long="phrase:demo_ivr_main_menu" greet-short="phrase:demo_ivr_main_menu_short" invalid-sound="ivr/ivr-that_was_an_invalid_entry.wav" exit-sound="voicemail/vm-goodbye.wav" timeout="10000" inter-digit-timeout="2000" max-failures="3" max-timeouts="3" digit-len="4"> We'll use this menu's name later when we route calls to the IVR from the Dialplan. Following the name, various XML attributes specify how the IVR will behave. The following options are available when defining an IVR's options: greet-long The greet-long attribute specifies the initial greeting that is played when a caller reaches the IVR. This is different from the greet-short sound file which allows for introductions to be played, such as "Thank you for calling XYZ Company". In the sample IVR, the greet-long attribute is a Phrase Macro that plays an introductory message to the caller ("Welcome to FreeSWITCH...") followed by the menu options the caller may choose from. Argument syntax: Sound file name (or path + name), TTS, or Phrase Macro Examples: greet-long="my_greeting" greet-long="phrase:my_greeting_phrase" greet-long="say:Welcome to our company. Press 1 for sales, 2 for support." greet-short The greet-short attribute specifies the greeting that is re-played if the caller enters invalid information, or no information at all. This is typically the same sound file as greet-long without the introduction. In the sample IVR, the greet-short attribute is a Phrase Macro that simply plays the menu options to the caller, and does not play the lengthy introduction found in greet-long. Argument syntax: Sound file name (or path + name), TTS, or Phrase Macro Examples: greet-short="my_greeting_retry" greet-long="phrase:my_greeting_retry_phrase" greet-long="say:Press 1 for sales, 2 for support." invalid-sound The invalid-sound attribute specifies the sound that is played when a caller makes an invalid entry. Argument syntax: Sound file name (or path + name), TTS, or Phrase Macro Examples invalid-sound="invalid_entry.wav" invalid-sound="phrase:my_invalid_entry_phrase" invalid-sound="say:That was not a valid entry" exit-sound The exit-sound attribute specifies the sound, which is played when a caller makes too many invalid entries or too many timeouts occur. This file is played before disconnecting the caller. Argument syntax: Any number, in milliseconds Examples: exit-sound="too_many_bad_entries.wav" exit-sound="phrase:my_too_many_bad_entries_phrase" exit-sound="say:Hasta la vista, baby." timeout The timeout attribute specifies the maximum amount of time to wait for the user to begin entering digits after the greeting has played. If this time limit is exceeded, the menu is repeated until the value in the max-timeouts attribute has been reached. Argument syntax: Any number, in milliseconds Examples: timeout="10000" timeout="20000" inter-digit-timeout The inter-digit-timeout attribute specifies the maximum amount of time to wait in-between each digit the caller presses. This is different from the overall timeout.It is useful to allow enough time to enter as many digits as necessary, without frustrating the caller by pausing too long after they are done making their entry. For example, if both 1000 and 1 are valid IVR entries, the system will continue waiting for the inter-digit-timeout length of time after 1 is entered, before determining that it is the final entry. Argument syntax: Any number, in milliseconds Examples: inter-digit-timeout="2000" max-failures The max-failures attribute specifies how many failures, due to invalid entries, to tolerate before disconnecting. Argument syntax: Any number Examples: xx-xx="too_many_bad_entries.wav" xx-xx="phrase:my_too_many_bad_entries_phrase" max-timeouts The max-timeouts attribute specifes how many timeouts to tolerate before disconnecting. Argument syntax: Any number Examples: max-timeouts="3" digit-len The digit-len attribute specifes the maximum number of digits that the user can enter before determining the entry is complete. Argument syntax: Any number greater than 1. Examples: digit-len="4" tts-voice The tts-voice attribute specifes the specifc text-to-speech voice that should be used. Argument syntax: Any valid text-to-speech engine. Examples: tts-voice="Mary" tts-engine The tts-engine attribute specifies the specific text-to-speech engine that should be used. Argument syntax: Any valid text-to-speech engine. Examples: tts-engine="flite" confirm-key The confirm-key attribute specifes the key which the user can press to signify that they are done entering information. Argument syntax: Any valid DTMF digit. Examples: confirm-key="#" These attributes dictate the general behavior of the IVR. IVR menu destinations After defining the global attributes of the IVR, you need to specify what specific destinations (or options) are available for the caller to press. You do this with <entry > XML elements. Let's review the first five XML options used by this IVR: <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="1" param="bridge sofia/$${domain}/[email protected]"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="2" param="transfer 9196 XML default"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="3" param="transfer 9664 XML default"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="4" param="transfer 9191 XML default"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="5" param="transfer 1234*256 enum"/> <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="/^(10[01][0-9])$/" param="transfer $1 XML features"/> Each preceding entry defines three parameters—an action to be taken, the digits the caller must press to activate that action, and the parameters that are passed to the action. In most cases you will probably use the menu-exec-app action, which simply allows you to specify an action and parameters to call just as you would from the regular Dialplan (bridge, transfer, hangup, and so on.). These options are all pretty simple—they define a single digit which, when pressed, either bridges a call or transfers the call to an extension. There is one entry that is a bit different from the rest, which is the fnal IVR entry. It deserves a closer look.   <entry action="menu-exec-app" digits="/^(10[01][0-9])$/" param="transfer $1 XML features"/> This entry definition specifes a regular expression for the digits feld. This regular expression feld is identical to the expressions you would use in the Dialplan. In this example, the IVR is looking for any four-digit extension number from 1000 through 1019 (which is the default extension number range for the predefined users in the directory). As the regular expression is wrapped in parenthesis, the result of the entry will be passed to the transfer application as the $1 channel variable. This effectively allows the IVR to accept 1000-1019 as entries, and transfer the caller directly to those extensions when they are entered into the IVR. The remaining IVR entry actions are a bit different. They introduce menu-sub as an action, which transfers the caller to an IVR sub-menu, and menu-top, which restarts the current IVR and replays the menu. <entry action="menu-sub" digits="6" param="demo_ivr_submenu"/> <entry action="menu-top" digits="9"/> Several other actions exist that can be used within an IVR. The complete list of actions you can use from within the IVR include the following: menu-exec-app The menu-exec-app action, combined with a param field, executes the specified application and passes the parameterslisted to that application. This is equivalent to using <action application="app" data="data"> in your Dialplan. The most common use of menu-exec-app is to transfer a caller to another extension in the Dialplan. Argument syntax: application <params> Examples: <entry digits="1" action="menu-exec-app" param="application param1 param2 param3 ..."> <entry digits="2" action="menu-exec-app" param="transfer 9664 XML default"> menu-exec-api The menu-exec-api action, combined with a param feld, executes the specifed API command and passes the parameters listed to that command. This is equivalent to entering API commands at the CLI or from the event socket. Argument syntax: api_command <params> Examples: <entry digits="1" action="menu-exec-api" param="eval Caller Pressed 1!"> menu-play-sound The menu-play-sound action, combined with a param field, plays a specified sound file. Argument syntax: valid sound file <entry digits="1" action="menu-play-sound" param="screaming_monkeys.wav"> menu-back The menu-back action returns to the previous IVR menu, if any. Argument syntax: none Examples: <entry digits="1" action="menu-back"> menu-top The menu-top action restarts this IVR's menu. Argument syntax: None. Examples: <entry digits="1" action="menu-top"> Take a look at the XML for the sample sub-menu IVR and see if you can fgure out what it does. Also note how it is called above, when clicking 6 from the main menu. <menu name="demo_ivr_submenu" greet-long="phrase:demo_ivr_sub_menu" greet-short="phrase:demo_ivr_sub_menu_short" invalid-sound="ivr/ivr-that_was_an_invalid_entry.wav" exit-sound="voicemail/vm-goodbye.wav" timeout="15000" max-failures="3" max-timeouts="3"> <entry action="menu-top" digits="*"/> </menu>

(For more resources on Plone, see here.) Designing our intranet information architecture No one uses a knowledge system (such as our intranet) if the information stored in it is hard to find or consume. We will have to specially emphasize on thinking about not only a good navigation schema, but also a successful one for our intranet. The definition of success is different for every interested group, organization, enterprise, or any kind of entity our intranet will serve. There are a lot of navigation schemas we may want to implement, but it is our task to find out what will be more suitable for our organization. To achieve this, we will have to use both hierarchy and metadata taxonomy wisely. Obviously, the use of folders and collections will help achieve this endeavor. The first-level folders or sections are very important and we will have to keep an eye on them when designing our intranet. Also, we should not forget the next levels of folders, because they have a key role in a success navigation schema. The use of metadata, and specifically categorization of content, will also play an important role in our intranet. The continuous content cataloging is crucial to achieve a good content search and the users should be made aware of it. An intranet where the search of content is inefficient and difficult is an unsuccessful intranet, and with time, the users will abandon it. At this point, we should analyze the navigation needs of our intranet. Think about how the people will use it, how will they contribute contents to it, and how will they find things stored in it. In this analysis, it is very important to think about security. Navigation and security are closely related because most probably we define security by containers. There are some standard schemas: by organization structure, by process, by product, and so on. By organization is the most usual case. Everybody has a very clear idea of the organizational schema of an enterprise or organization, and this factor makes it easier to implement this type of schema. In this kind of schema, the first-level sections are divided into departments, teams, or main groups of interest. If our intranet is small and dedicated to one or few points of interest, then these must take precedence over the first level section folders. Keep the following things in mind: Our intranet will be more usable if we can keep our intranet sections clean and clear Fight against those people who believe that his (or her) department is more important than others and want to assault our intranet sections Let them know that maintaining a good intranet structure will be more useful and will help contribute to its success Second levels are also very important. They should be perdurable in time, interesting to users of all sections, and they should divide information and contents clearly. Two subsections shouldn't contain elements of the same subject or kind. For example, these might be a typical second level: Documentation Meetings Events News Forums, tracker, or some application specific to the current section All of these are very commonly seen in an intranet. It is a good practice to create these second-level sections in advance, so that people can adapt to them. Teach people to categorize content. This will help intranet searches incredibly and will help create collections and manage contents more effectively. If needed, make a well-known set of categories publicly available for people to use. This would prevent the repetition of categories and the rational use of them. Notice that there can be several types of categories: Subject: Terms that describe the subject of the content Process: Terms that identify the content with the organizational process Flags: Flags such as Strongly Recommended Products: Terms from the products, standards, and technology names that describe the subject matter of the resource Labels: Terms used to ensure that the resource is listed under the appropriate label Keywords: Terms used to describe the resource Events: Terms used to identify events which are recurrent with the content There are other metadata also which influence the improvement of the navigation and search abilities of the intranet such as: Title Description URL, the ID of each content Don't forget to teach your users about content contribution best practices before deploying the intranet. We and our intranet users will appreciate it a lot. Once we have settled down on some practices which are best for information architecture, we should know how to use some interesting Plone features that will help us build navigation and sort the information on our intranet.

(For more resources on Agile, see here.) Building themes in Yii In Yii, each theme is represented as a folder consisting of view files, layout files, and relevant resource files such as images, CSS files, JavaScript files, and so on. The name of a theme is the same as its folder name. By default, all themes reside under the same folder WebRoot/themes. Of course, as is the case with all other application settings, this default folder can be configured to be a different one. To do so, simply alter the basePath and the baseUrl properties of the themeManager application component. Contents under a theme folder should be organized in the same way as those under the application base path. For example, all view files must be located under views/, layout view files under views/layouts/, and system view files under views/ system/. For example, if we have created a new theme, called custom, and we want to replace the update view of our ProjectController with a new view under this theme, we need to create a new update.php view file and save it in our application project as themes/custom/views/project/update.php. Creating a Yii theme Let's take this for a spin to give our TrackStar application a little facelift. We need to name our new theme and create a folder under the Webroot/themes folder with this same name. We'll exercise our extreme creativity and call our new theme, new. Create a new folder to hold this new theme located at Webroot/themes/new. Also under this newly created folder, create two other new folders called css/ and views/. The former is not required by the theming system, but helps us keep our CSS organized. The latter is required if we are going to make any alterations to our default view files, which we are. As we are going to change the main.php layout file just a little, we need yet another folder under this newly created views/ folder called layouts/ (remember the folder structure needs to mirror that in the default Webroot/protected/views/ folder). Now let's make some changes. As our view file markup is already referencing CSS class and ID names currently defined in the Webroot/css/main.css file, the fastest path to a new face on the application is to use this as a starting point, and make changes to it as needed to implement a new design. Of course, this is not a requirement, as we could re-create every single view file of our application in the new theme. However, to keep things simple, we'll create our new theme by making a few changes to the main.css file that was auto-generated for us when we created the application, as well as the primary layout file, main.php. To begin with, let's make a copy of these two files and place them in our new theme folder. Copy Webroot/css/main.css to Webroot/themes/new/css/main.css and also copy Webroot/protected/views/layouts/main.php to Webroot/themes/new/views/layouts/main.php. Now, open the newly copied version of the main.css file remove the contents and then add all of the following: body{ margin: 0; padding: 0; color: #555; font: normal 10pt Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; background: #d6d6d6 url(background.gif) repeat-y center top;}#page{ margin-bottom: 20px; background: white; border: 1px solid #898989; border-top:none; border-bottom:none;}#header{ margin: 0; padding: 0; height:100px; background:white url(header.jpg) no-repeat left top; border-bottom: 1px solid #898989;}#content{ padding: 20px;}#sidebar{ padding: 20px 20px 20px 0;}#footer{ padding: 10px; margin: 10px 20px; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center; border-top: 1px solid #C9E0ED;}#logo{ padding: 10px 20px; font-size: 200%; /* HIDES LOGO TEXT */ text-indent:-5000px;}#mainmenu{ background:white url(bg2.gif) repeat-x left top; border-top:1px solid #CCC; border-bottom: 1px solid #7d7d7d;}#mainmenu ul{ padding:6px 20px 5px 20px; margin:0px;}#mainmenu ul li{ display: inline;}#mainmenu ul li a{ color:#333; background-color:transparent; font-size:12px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; padding:5px 8px;}#mainmenu ul li a:hover, #mainmenu ul li a.active{ color: #d11e1e; background-color:#ccc; text-decoration:none;}div.flash-error, div.flash-notice, div.flash-success{ padding:.8em; margin-bottom:1em; border:2px solid #ddd;}div.flash-error{ background:#FBE3E4; color:#8a1f11; border-color:#FBC2C4;}div.flash-notice{ background:#FFF6BF; color:#514721; border-color:#FFD324;}div.flash-success{ background:#E6EFC2; color:#264409; border-color:#C6D880;}div.flash-error a{ color:#8a1f11;}div.flash-notice a{ color:#514721;}div.flash-success a{ color:#264409;}div.form .rememberMe label{ display: inline;}div.view{ padding: 10px; margin: 10px 0; border: 1px solid #C9E0ED;}div.breadcrumbs{ font-size: 0.9em; padding: 10px 20px;}div.breadcrumbs span{ font-weight: bold;}div.search-form{ padding: 10px; margin: 10px 0; background: #eee;}.portlet{}.portlet-decoration{ padding: 3px 8px; background:white url(bg2.gif) repeat-x left top;}.portlet-title{ font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0; margin: 0; color: #fff;}.portlet-content{ font-size:0.9em; margin: 0 0 15px 0; padding: 5px 8px; background:#ccc;}.operations li a{ font: bold 12px Arial; color: #d11e1e; display: block; padding: 2px 0 2px 8px; line-height: 15px; text-decoration: none;}.portlet-content ul{ list-style-image:none; list-style-position:outside; list-style-type:none; margin: 0; padding: 0;}.portlet-content li{ padding: 2px 0 4px 0px;}.operations{ list-style-type: none; margin: 0; padding: 0;}.operations li{ padding-bottom: 2px;}.operations li a{ font: bold 12px Arial; color: #0066A4; display: block; padding: 2px 0 2px 8px; line-height: 15px; text-decoration: none;}.operations li a:visited{ color: #d11e1e;}.operations li a:hover{ background: #fff;} You may have noticed that some of these changes are referencing image files that do not yet exist in our project. We have added a background.gif image reference in the body declaration, a new bg2.gif image referenced in the #mainmenu ID declaration and a new header.jpg image in the #header ID declaration. These can be viewed, downloaded and used by viewing the site online or accessing the images directly from http://www.yippyii.com/trackstar/themes/new/css/background.gif, http://www.yippyii.com/trackstar/themes/new/css/bg2.gif, and http://www.yippyii.com/trackstar/themes/new/css/header.jpg. We need to place these new images into the same CSS folder we are using for this theme, namely Webroot/themes/new/css/. After these changes are in place, we need to make a couple of small adjustments to our main.php layout file in this new theme. For one, we need to alter the markup in the <head> element to properly reference our new main.css file. Currently the main.css file is being pulled in via this line: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo Yii::app()->request->baseUrl; ?>/css/main.css" /> This is referencing the application request baseUrl property to construct the relative path to the CSS file. However, we want to use our new main.css file located in our new theme. For this, we can lean on the theme manager application component, defined by default to use the Yii built-in CThemeManager.php class. We access the theme manager in the same way as we access other application components. So, rather than use the request base URL, we should use the one defined by the theme manager, which knows what theme the application is using at any given time. So, we need to alter the above line in /themes/new/views/layouts/main.php as follows: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo Yii::app()->theme->baseUrl; ?>/css/main.css" /> Once we configure our application to use our new theme (something we have not yet done), this baseUrl will resolve to a relative path to where our theme folder resides. The other small change we need to make is to remove the display of the application title from the header. As we altered our CSS to use a new image file to provide our header and logo information, we don't need to display the application name in this section. So, again in /themes/new/views/layouts/main.php, we simply need to change this: <div id="header"><div id="logo"><?php echo CHtml::encode(Yii::app()->name); ?></div></div><!-- header --> To the following: <div id="header"></div><!-- header image is embeded into the #headerdeclaration in main.css --> We have put in a comment to remind us where our header image is defined. One final change we need to make is to the other two layout files used in the application that we are not copying over to our new theme folder, namely protected/views/layouts/column1.php and protected/views/layouts/column2.php. These two layout files also use the main layout file via explicit calls to the beginContent() and endContent(). These files were auto-generated by the Gii code generation tool, and are explicitly referencing the main layout file in protected/views/layouts/ folder. We need to change the input specified to the beginContent() method so that, if available, our new theme layout will be used. Open both the column1.php and column2.php files and change the following line of code: $this->beginContent('application.views.layouts.main'); To be the following: $this->beginContent('/layouts/main'); Now, once we configure the application to use our new theme, it will first look for a main.php layout in the themes folder and use that file.

(For more resources on Java, see here.) Yet for all its powerful capabilities, JMX is greatly underutilized and few developers seem to take advantage of its power. I attribute this underutilization to two factors: the scope of the Java universe as well as JMX's complex development model. As a deep and wide universe composed of a seemingly infinite number of tools, frameworks, design patterns and a never ending stream of new thoughts and ideas, I believe that JMX rarely finds itself on the list of the next technologies a developer plans to explore. While other shiny objects steal the Java community spotlight, the benefits of JMX patiently wait to be discovered and seem to largely be the playing field of only seasoned Java veterans who have had the time or industry longevity to have already encountered it. In regard to its complex development model, JMX itself has an extremely low level, clumsy, and obtrusive API and that has directly hindered its adoption. While this complex development model is a fact of JMX life, the Spring framework, as with numerous other aspects of Java development, offers excellent JMX support that greatly simplifies and radically reduces the learning curve and time investment required to incorporate JXM into your application. Spring's JMX support transforms JMX from an obscure API into what could become a central component of your application's architecture. While all of this sounds great, a tangible example of how easy it is to incorporate Spring JMX (and therefore JMX itself) into your application will make things more concrete. The following code and configuration sample presents a classic example of the benefits of JMX and is a piece of functionality which has proven its usefulness dozens upon dozens of times within my career: the ability to dynamically change an application's Log4j log level at runtime. Example 1: package com.spiegssoftware.common.util.management.logging; import org.apache.log4j.Category; import org.apache.log4j.Level; import org.apache.log4j.LogManager; import org.apache.log4j.Logger; import org.springframework.jmx.export.annotation.ManagedOperation; /** * MBean exposing Log4j management operations. * <p> * This code is based on an example provided from http://uri.jteam.nl/?p=4 . */ public class Log4jJmxService { /** Logger for this class. */ private final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(Log4jJmxService.class); @ManagedOperation(description = "Set this Logger to the DEBUG level") public boolean activateDebug(final String category) { return adjustLogLevel(category, Level.DEBUG); } @ManagedOperation(description = "Set this Logger to the INFO level") public boolean activateInfo(final String category) { return adjustLogLevel(category, Level.INFO); } @ManagedOperation(description = "Set this Logger to the WARN level") public boolean activateWarn(final String category) { return adjustLogLevel(category, Level.WARN); } @ManagedOperation(description = "Set this Logger to the ERROR level") public boolean activateError(final String category) { return adjustLogLevel(category, Level.ERROR); } @ManagedOperation(description = "Set this Logger to the FATAL level") public boolean activateFatal(final String category) { return adjustLogLevel(category, Level.FATAL); } protected boolean adjustLogLevel(final String category, final Level level) { boolean result = false; Category cat = LogManager.exists(category); if (cat == null) { logger.error("Logger '" + category + "' does not exist"); } else { logger.info("Activating " + level + " for category: " + category); cat.setLevel(level); result = true; } return result; } }   Example 2: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xsi_schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.0.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-2.5.xsd"> <bean id="log4jJmxService" class="com.spiegssoftware.common.util.management.logging.Log4jJmxService" /> <bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter"> <property name="beans"> <util:map id="beans"> <entry key="com.spiegssoftware.common.util.management.logging:name=Log4jJmxService" value="log4jJmxService"/> </util:map> </property> </bean> </beans>   Based on code publicly available from Dev Thoughts, the class in Example 1 was decorated with Spring JMX annotations and the necessary Spring configuration was created in Example 2. To incorporate this functionality into your application, you will need to include this class (along with Spring JMX's dependencies) and the configuration into your project, rebuild, and deploy. Before starting your application server, you may need to enable its support for JMX; see the documentation for your specific application server for details. After your application server has started with JMX support enabled, any JMX console, such as the jConsole tool that ships with all recent JDK's, can be used to connect to the JVM the application is running within and the application's logging level can be adjusted without requiring a restart. The details of how to use jConsole are best left to its documentation, but for the impatient, jConsole can by be launched by opening a command window and issuing a "jconsole" command just as you would issue a "java -version". From there, select which JVM you wish to connect to; most likely you will want to connect to a local process. After selecting the MBeans tab, use the left hand navigation and find the Log4jJmxService under the key name you registered it under within your Spring configuration file; in Example 2 we chose to use a value of "log4jJmxService". After selecting the Log4jJmxService from the jConsole tree navigation and drilling down, you are presented with a screen that represents all of the public methods available on the Log4jJmxService. Simply clicking the invoke button next to each available public method results in the specified method on the Log4jJmxService being invoked just as if the bean's method had been invoked through traditional application user input; the application is unaware and indifferent as to the source of the invocation request and the normal execution flow takes place. You now have the ability to dynamically change the log level of your application at runtime. This JMX stuff is great, hu? With your toe now in the JMX waters, you're undoubtedly thinking of the numerous ways JMX can be incorporated within your applications: to inspect or alter application configuration, to access statistical data held within an application memory, or to manage an application by invoking application logic – all at runtime! JMX's uses are limited only by your creativity to incorporate it. JMX is so powerful and exposing your Spring based components through Spring JMX is so easy and convenient that it's likely you'll quickly find yourself wanting to expose every Spring bean throughout your entire application. While the two configuration strategies provided by Spring JMX (annotating classes or configuring beans in XML) are suitable for configuring a relatively low number of beans, when applied on a large scale each strategy has the disadvantage that it becomes tedious, verbose, and is the epitome of boilerplate; few would dispute that very quickly either your code or configuration becomes cluttered with JMX metadata. Having previously fallen into this advantageous trap of wanting to expose all Spring beans within an application multiple times before myself, it was time to take a step back and determine if this could accomplished in a better way.