The simplest way I’ve found to keep a node script running as a service is forever.js. If you’re new to node, I suggest checking it out. Otherwise, I’m sure you’ve heard of it.

I fired it up yesterday and it worked like a champ. That is, of course, until my VPS rebooted overnight for some reason and the call wasn’t made this morning. I found a handy little guide over at Hack Sparrow for creating a cron job to restart your node script with forever when the machine reboots.

First create a shell script like this one (I called mine app-starter.sh):

#!/bin/sh

if [ $(ps aux | grep $USER | grep node | grep -v grep | wc -l | tr -s "\n") -eq 0 ]
then
        export NODE_ENV=production
        export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
        forever start ~/example/app.js > /dev/null
fi

Then make the script executable:

chmod 700 ~/app-starter.sh

Now make cron run the script when the system is rebooted. Add this to your crontab (via crontab –e):

@reboot ~/app-starter.sh >> cron.log 2>&1

For the uninitiated like myself, use CTRL+K,X to save.

Thanks to Hack Sparrow for taking the time to share this.

via Hack Sparrow.

Generate the XML: (easy)

SELECT
  Column1,
  Column2,
  Column3,
  Column4,
  Column5
FROM FooTable Foo
FOR XML AUTO, ROOT('Root')

To create something like this:

<Root>
<Foo Column1="Value1" Column2="Value2" Column3="Value3" Column4="Value4" Column5="Value5" />
</Root>

But having to type this out has been the arthritic step. For larger tables, this can take a while.

SELECT
	a.value('@Column1', 'varchar(20)') Column1,
	a.value('@Column2', 'varchar(20)') Column2,
	a.value('@Column3', 'varchar(20)') Column3,
	a.value('@Column4', 'varchar(20)') Column4,
	a.value('@Column5', 'varchar(20)') Column5
FROM
	@XmlValue.nodes('/Root/Foo') T(a)

I know of nothing to automatically generate something like this, and yesterday I decided enough is enough (after coming to a table that was 65 columns wide). I wanted a way to quickly write the SELECT clause of something like this for me. Quick and easy was important, because if it were a chore to use I’d likely just write it out, grumbling the whole time.

The table definition is easy to generate via Management Studio. Right Click the window > Script Table As > Create To > New Query Window and you get something like:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[FooTable](
	[Column1] [varchar(20)] NULL,
	[Column2] [varchar(20)] NULL,
	[Column3] [varchar(20)] NULL,
	[Column4] [varchar(20)] NULL,
	[Column5] [varchar(20)] NULL,
//...[constraint and references]...

I settled on using the clipboard as the medium so I don’t need to deal with saving a file or using a form for input. With this pinned to my taskbar, I just copy the table definition text to my clipboard and click the icon. Voila! The result is ready to be pasted. There’s nothing fancy here. Just convenience.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace MasterShredder
{
    class Program
    {
        [STAThread]
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string contents = Clipboard.GetText();
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(contents))
            {
                Console.WriteLine("I'm expecting the column definition to be in your clipboard.");
                Console.WriteLine("Expected format:  [ColumnName] [ColumnType] [NULL or NOT NULL],");
                Console.Read();
            }
            else
            {

                string[] lines = contents.Split('\n');
                StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();

                foreach (string line in lines)
                {
                	//Strip new line and tab characters.
                    string cleanLine = line.Replace(Environment.NewLine, "").Replace("\t", "");
                    string[] parts = cleanLine.Split(' ');
                    if (parts.Length > 2)
                    {
                        string name = parts[0].Replace("[", "").Replace("]", "");
                        string type = parts[1].Replace("[", "").Replace("]", "");

                        // type definition was split. i.e. decimal(18, 6)
                        if(parts[2].EndsWith(")"))
                        {
                            type += parts[2];
                        }
                        string lineResult = String.Format(",a.value('@{0}', '{1}') {0}", name, type);
                        result.AppendLine(lineResult);
                        Console.WriteLine(lineResult);
                    }
                }

                if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(result.ToString()))
                {
                    Clipboard.SetText(result.ToString());
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Oh, and if this is crappy, fork and fix it on gist.

I found Mark Assad, who parsed the system layout files into raw XML. The led to the magic answer of TwoLineListItem widget. Finding this widget allowed me to write a simple ArrayAdapter of key/value pairs.

adapter = new ArrayAdapter(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_2,list){
        @Override
        public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent){
            TwoLineListItem row;
            if(convertView == null){
                LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater)getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
                row = (TwoLineListItem)inflater.inflate(android.R.layout.simple_list_item_2, null);
            }else{
                row = (TwoLineListItem)convertView;
            }
            BasicNameValuePair data = list.get(position);
            row.getText1().setText(data.getName());
            row.getText2().setText(data.getValue());

            return row;
        }
    };
listView.setAdapter(adapter);

Hope this saves someone else some time, as I spent an embarrassing amount of time determined to use the simple_list_item_2 layout.

I’ve been using Appcelerator’s Titanium Mobile SDK for the past few months. It’s kind of become my Shere Khan here in the jungle. Theoretically, using Titanium Mobile is easier and faster than writing native code. This might be true if I didn’t waste so much time deciphering their documentation.

I made a button to toggle my table view’s editable status. The object had a property called editable, so that seemed to be what I wanted. After testing, however, all this did was toggle whether or not swipe-to-delete worked. What I really wanted was the little red minus sign to appear, and have the contents of each row shifted to the right to make room. After 30 minutes of trial and error, looking through TableViewRow properties, and searching their Q&A section (because Appcelerator has no official forums) I found that TableView actually has two properties: editable and editing.

Even after discovering this other property, I still had to actually test each one to see what they did. Apparently, “editable” toggles the swipe-to-delete, whereas “editing” toggles the minus-button-on-the-left thing. The two are independent of each other.

Thanks for saving me time, web based application framework!

Signed,

Bitter in Bossier

The SQL:

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.GetXmlValue

AS

SELECT TOP 100
*
FROM sys.all_columns
FOR XML AUTO, ROOT('Root')

The Code:

Database db = GetDatabase();

DataSet set;

using (DbCommand cmd = db.GetStoredProcCommand("dbo.GetXmlValue"))
{
set = db.ExecuteDataSet(cmd);
}

In my application, it was this second table that tripped me a bit. The first only had a few changed rows, so the XML was only 500-1000 characters. The second table generated a much longer XML string – 3864 characters long. My initial plan was to return two tables, each 1 column and 1 row. When using Database.ExecuteDataSet to fetch the results, however, the second table yielded two rows. I backtracked, second guessed myself, and even grabbed a couple of guys in the hall to double check my code. No one could explain it. It seemed odd that this hasn’t come up before for someone here. I did a bit of Googling and only found a couple of results. This Microsoft Knowledgebase Article just says it’s “by design” and to use SQLCommand.ExecuteXmlReader.

The next question that came up was “Well, what does it do if I return a long XML value among other values in the same row?” I tested this out and everything worked as expected. All of the XML was in a single column value as it should be.

I still can’t exactly explain it. ExecuteScalar has a character limit of 2033 characters. I suspect that because each table in my result set is just a single column value, something somewhere is relying on ExecuteScalar.

My solution? In my stored procedure I just stored each of my table results as an XML typed variable, then returned the two together in the same row.

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.CalculateBarcodeGTIN12CheckDigit(@input CHAR(11))
RETURNS INT
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @evenDigitSum INT = 0
,@oddDigitSum INT = 0
,@i TINYINT = 0
,@result INT;

-- check if given Barcode is Numeric , if not return error status -1
IF(ISNUMERIC(@input) = 0
OR LEN(RTRIM(LTRIM(@input))) != 11)
RETURN -1

-- start the compute BarCode checksum algorithm
SET @i = 1
WHILE (@i <= 11)
BEGIN
--Add odd and even digits separately;
IF((@i % 2) = 0)
SET @evenDigitSum += CONVERT(TINYINT, SUBSTRING(@input,@i,1))
ELSE
SET @oddDigitSum += CONVERT(TINYINT, SUBSTRING(@input,@i,1))
SET @i += 1
END

--As per: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code
--Multiply odd sum by 3, add to even sum, and mod 10.
SET @result = ((@oddDigitSum * 3) + @evenDigitSum) % 10;
IF(@result = 0)
RETURN 0
ELSE
RETURN 10 - @result;

RETURN -1
END
GO

Scalar functions are killer, but I’ll only ever be using it for a single record.

So. Awesome.

Apartment:
http://www.occip.it/pyh2l87gj

Park behind apartment:
http://www.occip.it/pyh30sy9j
http://www.occip.it/pyh80z5ij

Nazi war crimes trial exhibit:
http://www.occip.it/pyh405w8j
http://www.occip.it/pyhsssgj

Outside the Nazi war crimes courthouse:
http://www.occip.it/pyh7em0j
http://www.occip.it/pyh20eo5j

Outside our Nuremburg hotel:
http://www.occip.it/pyh78bnj

Church in Nuremburg (half):
http://www.occip.it/pygy00nksj

Bridge in Nuremburg:
http://www.occip.it/pyh203r7j
http://www.occip.it/pyh40yluj

Medieval Dungeon:
http://www.occip.it/pyhsunvj

Christmas markets:
http://www.occip.it/pyhsec8j
http://www.occip.it/pyh30wfjj
http://www.occip.it/pygy0t15j
http://www.occip.it/pyh30sfbj

Random Subway Station:
http://www.occip.it/pygz0cvgj

Main train station (Berlin Hauptbahnhof)
http://www.occip.it/pyhs0jsxj

Church:
http://www.occip.it/pyh30zyej
http://www.occip.it/pyh3006qxj
Outside: http://www.occip.it/pygy0v67j

Crypt:
http://www.occip.it/pyh50u4zj

Charlottenburg Palace:
http://www.occip.it/pyh69zfj

Holocaust Memorial:
http://www.occip.it/pyh80z4rj
http://www.occip.it/pyh3066kj
http://www.occip.it/pyh7i82j

Brandenberg Gate:
http://www.occip.it/pyh30dfsj — kind of messed up

Tiergarten:
http://www.occip.it/pyhsvm2j
http://www.occip.it/pygy0fraj

KaDeWe Restaraunt:
http://www.occip.it/pygz0ygrj

Gedächtniskirche:
http://www.occip.it/pyh80f95j

East Side Gallery

Berlin Hauptbahnhof – the largest train station in Europe. It’s quite impressive in its size and feels much more like an airport.

Tiergarten – the park just in front of the Brandenberg gate. The parks are stunning when covered with fresh smooth powder like they were while I was there. The scenery was just as foreign to me as the culture. Here you see the first glimpse of how I promised Jen she would be with us:

Brandenburg Gate – Rain or shine, I think there are always people around this gate.

Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) – Walking through this place made you very uneasy. It was a bit disorienting at times while in the middle of it.

Christkindlmärkte (Christmas Market) – There were a lot of Christmas markets. We attended quite a few in Berlin and the famous large market in Nuremburg. These were a lot of fun. I ate lots of sausages and breads, the best hot chocolate in the world, guaranteed, and struggled to find a piece of chocolate that wasn’t loaded with rum.

das Essen – Food was a big target of mine while there. I hear Germans “only eat meat and potatoes” and frankly that generalization isn’t too far off the mark. My ideal cuisine!

die Geschichte – Spending time in a country with as much history as Germany is a clear reminder of how young the United States really is.

Lochgefängnisse – While in Nuremburg, we toured a medieval dungeon under what was once a monastery, then became City Hall in the mid 1300’s. This was genuinely the creepiest place I’ve been to in a while. It might’ve had little to do with the dungeon and more to do with the lady giving the tour only in German that sounded like she smoked twelve packs a day since she was 2.

There were too many paintings  to photograph at the East Side Gallery, but I took some shots of a few remarkable ones:

A quick list of impressions this trip has left on me:

1. I’d like to live in a big city some day.
2. Public transportation is abysmal in most of the United States.
3. Shreveport is a very dangerous city compared to Berlin.
4. Die Erfahrungen sind wertvoller als Besitz.

An opportunity like this has made a much greater impression on me than anything I’ve got sitting on my shelf or in a closet. Thanks to my friends that had me along. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Hayes for sharing their son with us while they were visiting. Most of all, thanks to my wife for encouraging and enabling me to take this trip.

Thanks, friends (including Ben and Elena, not pictured!)

NOTE: I’ve linked to all of the panoramas I took in a separate post here: Berlin – All Panoramas.