A simple class that saves and retrieves messages from MSMQ. This allows you to save objects in the message. Just send the object along with the key. Then get by the key and the type of object : Get("myKey",typeof(string}).

001 public class MyMessageQueue
002     {
003         private static MessageQueue mq;
004         private static log4net.ILog log = log4net.LogManager.GetLogger("MyMessageQueue");
005         private static string QUEUE_NAME = @".\Private$\mymessagequeue";
006         private static object lockObject = new object();
007         private static MessageQueue MQ
008         {
009             get
010             {
011                 if (mq == null)
012                     Init();
013                 return mq;
014             }
015         }
016  
017         private static void Init()
018         {
019             try
020             {
021                 if (!MessageQueue.Exists(QUEUE_NAME))
022                 {
023                     mq = MessageQueue.Create(QUEUE_NAME);
024                     log.Info("Queue created :" + QUEUE_NAME + " path :" + mq.Path);
025                 }
026                 else
027                 {
028                     mq = new MessageQueue(QUEUE_NAME);
029                     log.Info("Queue connected :" + QUEUE_NAME + " path :" + mq.Path);
030                 }
031             }
032             catch (Exception ex)
033             {
034                 log.ErrorFormat("myMessageQueue.Init(): {1}", ex.Message);
035             }
036         }
037  
038          
039  
040         public static object Get(string key, Type t)
041         {
042             lock (lockObject)
043             {
044                 try
045                 {
046                     object reply = null;
047                     using (MQ)
048                     {
049                         mq.MessageReadPropertyFilter.CorrelationId = true;
050                         using (MessageQueueTransaction trans = new MessageQueueTransaction())
051                         {
052                             Message msg;
053                             if (mq.Transactional)
054                             {
055                                 trans.Begin();
056                                 msg = mq.ReceiveByCorrelationId(getCoorId(key), trans);
057                             }
058                             else
059                             {
060                                 msg = mq.ReceiveByCorrelationId(getCoorId(key));
061                                 // get message given type
062                                 msg.Formatter = new XmlMessageFormatter(new Type[1] { t });
063                                 reply = msg.Body;
064                             }
065                         }
066                     }
067                     return reply;
068                 }
069                 catch (Exception ex)
070                 {
071                     log.ErrorFormat("myMessageQueue.Get(): {1}", ex.Message);
072                     return null;
073                 }
074             }
075         }
076  
077         public static bool Send(string key, Object o)
078         {
079             bool success = false;
080  
081             try
082             {
083                 Message msg = null;
084                 msg = new Message();
085                 msg.Body = o;
086                 msg.Label = key;
087                 msg.Recoverable = true;
088                 msg.TimeToBeReceived = new TimeSpan(5,0,0,0);
089                 msg.AcknowledgeType = AcknowledgeTypes.PositiveReceive | AcknowledgeTypes.PositiveArrival;
090                 msg.CorrelationId = getCoorId(key);
091  
092                 using (MQ)
093                 {
094                     using(MessageQueueTransaction trans = new MessageQueueTransaction()){
095                         if (mq.Transactional)
096                         {
097                             trans.Begin();
098                             mq.Send(msg, trans);
099                         }
100                         else
101                         {
102                             mq.Send(msg);
103                         }
104                         success = true;
105                     }
106                 }
107             }
108             catch (Exception ex)
109             {
110                 log.ErrorFormat("myMessageQueue.Send(): {1}", ex.Message);
111             }
112             return success;
113         }
114  
115         private static string getCoorId(string key)
116         {
117             string rst = new Guid() + @"\"+ key;
118             return rst;
119         }
120     }

Happy Cinco de Mayo

There was as discussion at work about Cinco de Mayo. It was said that it celebrates Mexico's Independence from Spain. This was corrected to 'from France'. Then it was corrected again that Mexico's Independence day is actually September 16th. Someone said that Cinco de Mayo was created by the beer companies to sell beer. This one is most believable.

After a little googling, I came across http://www.mexonline.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm , this should be reputable, it is from mexonline. ;)

According to this article,

Mexico's Independence day is September 16th.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862.

Ok, so Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence day. It is a day which the people of Mexico fought and won against the occupying French.

So this is a victorious day which deserves to be celebrated.

So Cheers to Mexico on both May 5th and September 16th.


Note to self: Add September 16th to Holiday List.

Easter Sunrise Service at Sea World

We went to the Easter Sunrise Service at Sea World with Ellis and Tylor from Z88.3, Lisa Whelchel (Blair on Facts of Life) and Big Daddy Weave.

God provided another great service to celebrate Resurrection Day! Lisa was great sharing her personal relationship with Jesus and His role in her life with us. Big Daddy Weave was awesome! What a great band!

Here are some photos of the event.

The Stage, pre service



The hosts from Z88.3 (Ellis and Tyler) introduce Big Daddy Weave


Waiting for the sun.



Big Daddy Weave performing. What a great band!



Hello Sun.




Big Daddy Weave performing after the sun rise.


Signing autographs

Easter BMX Classic

We got to check out the 2009 Easter BMX Classic. It was pretty cool. There were a ton of ridders and a ton of heats. Riders from 5 to 17+, boys and girls.



Here you can see the track and all the tens in the background.




Here is one of the many heats, with the leader way out in front.





Here someone just took a spill over turn 3, ouch!




Here is one of the girl heats. I couldn't believe some of them were racing in jeans.




And a shot of the first table top.

Mini Tractor Pull!!!!

We decided to go down by the lakefront to see what the Rotary Club was putting on. Besides fair booths and rides,they had mini tractor pulls! Yes, mini tractor pulls! I did not know this excited. I like regular tractor pulls, but this was better, another use for the riding lawnmower. I have seen the ridding mower races, I thought they were very red neck, but this, this was brilliant! So I took some photos and video to share with my dad, who loves tractor pulls. So enjoy!


Note: click on the picture for full size


The mini-Tractors


The Sled!


The Pulls!


Full Pull!!!! by 01LittleNut


Pull Videos

Note:turn volumn down before playing videos

Web applications on 64-bit Windows

If you have developed a web application and are concerned if your users will have any issues with your web app on a 64-bit Windows machine, you might find this helpful.

I needed to do this research for the web applications I have written and maintain.

If your application uses PDF to deliver content, then the 64-bit user should be using Adobe Acrobat 8.1+. According to Adobe “Adobe Acrobat 8.0 was not developed for the Windows XP x64”, but 8.1+ versions do support 64-bit machines. The latest version is 9.x, which supports 64-bit.

If your application uses Java Plug-in, then the 64-bit user needs to use a 32-bit browser and they will be good. According to www.java.com “Currently Java Plug-in, Java Web Start, and Java Control Panel are not available for 64-bit systems. However you can still download 32-bit version of JRE, in order to use Java Plug-in and Java Webstart on 64-bit systems.

Note: Make sure to have 32-bit version of browser installed on your 64-bit machine as the Java plug-in works only with 32 bit version of browser.”

So if you are using Adobe Acrobat or the Java Plug-in, you will not have any code changes! It just falls on the Help Desk to verify that the users follows the vendor's recomended configuration.

That's good news to me!

Read XML files to List of XML Strings Dynamically

I needed to dynamically get XML files into a list of strings for load testing a web service. To improve performance this list needed to be static, but I wanted it to also be random. So here is what I came up with:

A class to load and contain the list of xml string from xml files:

public class TestXMLFiles
{
private static List _xmlStrings;
public static List XmlStrings
{
get
{
if (_xmlStrings == null)
{
try
{
// get files
string[] _files = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles("../../../WebService_LoadTest/TestXMLFiles", "*.xml");
// create list for strings
_xmlStrings = new List(_files.Length);

System.IO.StreamReader _stream;
// cycle through files
foreach (string _file in _files)
{
// open stream to file
_stream = System.IO.File.OpenText(_file);
using (_stream) // this will dispose of stream when done
{
// read from steam to list
XmlStrings.Add(_stream.ReadToEnd());
}
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
throw e;
}

}
return _xmlStrings;
}
}
}

Now to call it from the webTest inside of the GetRequestEnuberator().

To get the string for FormPostParameters, I create a string like this:

String _xml = TestXMLFiles.XmlStrings[getRandomXML()];

And here is the random method:

private int getRandomXML()
{
Random rand = new Random();
return rand.Next(0, TestXMLFiles.XmlStrings.Count);
}

This will allow you to just drop xml files into the directory "TestXMLFiles" and they will be randomly put into your load test. I think it's cool. ;)

Javascript and complex field names

If your web form has need for a more complex naming structures for the field names like "user.first_name" instead of the basic "firstName". Then you might have run into issues trying to access these fields for a javascript form validation.

For the basic field name like "firstName":
<input type="text" name="firstName" value="">

You could access this by using the following:
_form.firstName.value

But if you are using the more complex naming structure like "user.first_name":
<input type="text" name="user.first_name" value="">

The _form.user.first_name.value will not work. You need to access it like this:
_form["user.first_name"].value

For more consistent style of code when using complex field names you should go ahead use the style _form["blah"].value for all of the elements in your javascript.

Have a great Day!