Blog<![CDATA[Imperativeness of agile methodology in software development]]> 

There is a nice article on DevX about why to use Agile development.  This article starts with brief description of three main types software development methodologies [Waterfall, Cowboy Coding & Agile]

Further this article elaborates working of agile methodology. This includes sprint planning, execution using scrum, tight feedback loops etc.


Read complete article on http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/45368

]]><![CDATA[Get list of installed softwares on machines in your network]]>

I was looking for a way to get list of softwares installed in machines in our network for verifying something. I did not wanted to go & login in each machine & then collection list of softwares from add / remove programs. 

So I decided to write a small program that will do this for me.

This is how we can do it. List that you see in add remove program is stored in Machine registry at path SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall  under local machine.

So your program will connect to registry of each machine specified & read the list. Then compile that list by removing list items such as Updates / Fixes etc as per requirement.

Below function will enumerate the softwares installed in a text file & also will display it on console application.

private static void WriteSoftwareListToFile(string MachineName , string ReportFileName)

{

StreamWriter sw;

if (File.Exists(ReportFileName))

{

sw = File.AppendText(ReportFileName);

}

else

{

sw = File.CreateText(ReportFileName);

}

sw.WriteLine("\r\nSoftwares installed on " + MachineName +

" on " + DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() + " " + DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString());

//Registry path which has information of all the softwares installed on machine

string uninstallKey = @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall";

// using (RegistryKey rk = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(uninstallKey))

sw.WriteLine("\r\nSoftware Name \t Software Version");

try

{

using (RegistryKey rk =

RegistryKey.OpenRemoteBaseKey(RegistryHive.LocalMachine, MachineName).

OpenSubKey(uninstallKey))

{

foreach (string skName in rk.GetSubKeyNames())

{

using (RegistryKey sk = rk.OpenSubKey(skName))

{

string SoftwareName = string.Empty;

string SoftwareVersion = string.Empty;

try

{

SoftwareName = sk.GetValue("DisplayName").ToString();

SoftwareVersion = sk.GetValue("DisplayVersion").ToString();

}

catch (NullReferenceException exNull)

{

SoftwareName = string.Empty;

SoftwareVersion = string.Empty;

}

if (SoftwareName != string.Empty)

{

//Exclude Updates , Fixes

if (!(SoftwareName.Contains("Security Update for Windows") ||

SoftwareName.Contains("Hotfix for") ||

SoftwareName.Contains("Update for") ||

SoftwareName.Contains("Update for Windows")))

{

Console.WriteLine(SoftwareName + " " + SoftwareVersion);

sw.WriteLine(SoftwareName + "\t" + SoftwareVersion);

}

}

}

}

}

}

catch (Exception Ex)

{

sw.WriteLine("\r\n Exception :" + Ex.Message);

}

sw.Close();

}

 

You can call this functions for all require machines in your network like below. Please note if you are running the application your domain ID need to have registry read access for all the machines your are accessing.

 

static void Main(string[] args)

{

string[] Machines = new string[]

{

"MachineHostName1",

"MachineHostName2",

"MachineHostName3",

"MachineHostName4",

"MachineHostName5",

"MachineHostName6" };

string FILE_NAME = "SoftwareList_" + DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString().Replace("/", "") + ".log";

for (int i = 0; i < Machines.Length; i++ )

WriteSoftwareListToFile(Machines[i], FILE_NAME);

Console.ReadLine(); // To make the o/p readable.

}

]]><![CDATA[VMWare - Error - the vmware authorization service is not running]]>I have windows vista home premium on my laptop. One day suddenly my VMWare started giving error "the vmware authorization service is not running " while starting virtual machine. I googled on internet & found KB Item on VMWare site    http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1007131

It said, go to compute management & give admin rights to VMWare user & then reinstall the VMWare . Looks easy.  I started following steps . But wait.. where is familiar screen of user management.  Windows Vista Home Premium do not have provision to use GUI user management consol. Thats not fair !!

Google one more time & here you go. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/itprovistasecurity/thread/e3d50d7f-deba-4a79-b347-72ed3d14d940 

Lot of good information is mention on this thread about user management using command line. Use below command to list users on computer & get exact name of VMWareUser

> NET USERS  

Syntax for adding for adding or removing user from group is

NET LOCALGROUP <> <> {/ADD | /DELETE}

So below command should give admin right to VMWare user

>NET LOCALGROUP Administrators __vmware_user__ /add

But Ooops !! Got an error.

System error 5 has occurred.

Access is denied.

I am logged in as admin user still why would I get this error ?  Okey.. this is access error so my command line console is not having enough rights . Thanks to Windows Vista's User Account Control

Now right click on Command Prompt Menu & Run it as an Administrator. Now I was able to add VMWare user to administrators group from command line.  I have not yet reinstalled the VMware but I am still getting the same error. "the vmware authorization service is not running ". To to try something more , I right clicked VMWare Workstation & Ran it as administrator. I was able to start my workstation .

:) that was simple ..

 

 

 

]]><![CDATA[Add chart / graphs in ASP.net application / website]]>There are lots of commercial graph or chart controls for ASP.net. But if you are looking for free chart / graph components below mentioned components may be useful for your needs.

      There is a good tutorial available to use this component 
         http://www.codeproject.com/KB/graphics/zedgraph.aspx

         One simpler example for ZedGraph for ASP.net is available at Sailing Kay’s blog
            http://sailingkay.blogspot.com/2007/03/zedgraph.html

  • For very Simple HTML Graphs rendered via ASP.net.
    This is very simple horizontal bar chart. It dynamically creates html table with cells background color gives look of a bar chart.
    http://www.codetoad.com/asp.net_graph.asp

This article references to ASP.net 2.0 development.

 

]]><![CDATA[Microsoft Ramp Up]]>Ramp Up is free community based learning program recently started by Microsoft.

Microsoft offers various learning tracks in this program.

  • Web Development with ASP.NET
  • Learn ASP.NET: for PHP Developers
  • Move from ASP to ASP.NET
  • Develop Windows Mobile 6 Applications
  • SharePoint for Developers - Part 1
  • SharePoint for Developers - Part 2
  • Visual Studio 2008
  • For the VS 2002/2003 Developer: Learn VS 2005
  • For the VB 6.0 Developer: Learn VB 2005
  • For the Java Developer: Learn .NET
  • Developer Basics

One can opt for any track depending on their background & start learning new Micrsoft technologies.

URL for Ramp Up program is http://msdn.microsoft.com/rampup 

]]><![CDATA[Use your IT skills to earn money]]>Online Jobs , Freelancing  , and lot more

 

The On Demand Global Workforce - oDesk]]><![CDATA[How to write a message to MSMQ and read a message from MSMQ ( C# , .net )]]>This is a very very basic bare-bones tutorial on writing to and reading from an MSMQ queue.

The example methods are both using a private local queue and use the default XMLFormatter.

First create the private queue:
-Open the Computer Management Console
-Navigate to Message Queuing under Services and Applications
-Expand Message Queueing, right-click on Private Queues and create a new private queue.

If you don't see the Message Queueing option under Services and Applications, you don't have MSMQ installed on the machine. To install it, choose Add/Remove Windows Components and check Message Queueing and proceed with the installation.
  
To write to a queue:
1. Specifiy the path to the queue - for a local private queue, the path should be in the form ".\private$\" - replace with the actual queue name e.g. ".\private$\testqueue"

2. Create a message of the type you wish in a Message object.
3. Create the queue object, supplying the path to it as a parameter.
4. Call the Send method on the queue, supplying the Message object created as a parameter.

The code should look something like the method below:

public string InsertInQueue()

{
    string msg = "Test Queue Object"; //message contents

   string queuepath = ".\\private$\\testqueue"; //path to queue

    MessageQueue myQueue = new MessageQueue(queuepath); //create queue object

    Message myMsg = new Message(msg); //form Message object

   try

   {

     myQueue.Send(myMsg); //write message to queue

    return "Success";

   }

  catch(Exception ex)

   {

    return ex.Message;

   }

}

To read a message from a queue:

1. Specifiy the path to the queue
2. Create the queue object, supplying the path to it as a paramater.
3. Specify the formatter, either on the queue or by creating separate formatter object.
4. Read the message from the queue, by calling the Receive method on the queue.
5. Convert the message body as appropriate and return the value.

Sample code is shown below demonstrating how to read from a queue:

public string ReadFromQueue()

{

  string queuepath = ".\\private$\\testqueue"; //specify queue path

   MessageQueue myQueue = new MessageQueue(queuepath); //create queue

  //specify typenames - this is needed by the formatter, to enable it to read the message contents
  string[] typenames = {"System.String"};

  //The line below specifies the formatter on the queue
  //myQueue.Formatter = new XmlMessageFormatter(typenames);

  //read message from queue 
  Message myMsg = myQueue.Receive(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 5));

  XmlMessageFormatter fmt = new XmlMessageFormatter(typenames);

  //The line below is valid if the formatter is specified on the queue, as shown above
  //return myMsg.Body.ToString();

  //Since we've selected to specify a separate formatter, we need to read the contents
 //of the message using the formatter
  return fmt.Read(myMsg).ToString();

}


PS: You must reference System.Messaging for all this to work.

]]><![CDATA[Check free disk of your servers / computers on network]]>Since few days I was facing a problem that some of the servers were short of free space due to disk full.

I was looking for quick & simple way to monitor free space on server. I found some sripts on internet & modified it to suit my requirement .

Below script connects to all listed servers using WMI query , creates a report on c:\ . It can also email the report if you want.

How to use this script ?

  • Copy below code in notepad 
  • List names of computers / server in arrServers .
  • Set flag for email true / false & settings for email server
  • Save file as HDDSpaceCheck.vbs file. 
  • Double click vbs file . It shall show report in minute or so depending on number of servers.
  • You can use windows scheduled task to schedule this activity & get email notification .

 

' ******************** Start of Script *************

' Author : Rahul S Bagal  07/13/2009
' This Script Checks Free Disk space in servers defined in "arrServers "


' Define Names of servers to be checked for disk space
arrServers = Array("Server1","Server2","Server3","Server4")

' Email Settings

Const SendEmail = True    ' Turn this flag to false you you do not wish to receive the report in email
const DisplayReportOnScreen  =  True  ' Turn this flag if you do not want to open the created report file. 

strServer = "MailserverName"
intPort = 25
strFrom = "DoNotReply@domain.com"   ' Set from Email address for email reports
strTo = "YourName@domain.com"       ' Set to email address where you wish to receive email

' Report File defination
Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
Const ForAppending = 8

' This is the file name where email
strFilePath = "C:\HDDRerport" & Month ( now ) & Day(now) & year(now) & ".txt"


'The WMI query bit...
For i = LBound(arrServers) To UBound(arrServers)
 strBody = strBody & "Please find below a report on local disks for server : " & arrServers(i) & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
 On Error Resume Next
 Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & arrServers(i) & "\root\cimv2")
 Set colDisks = objWMI.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk Where DriveType=3")' Where DeviceID = '" & strDiskLetter & "'")
 If Err.Number = 0 Then
  For Each objDisk in colDisks
   strBody = strBody & "Drive " & objDisk.DeviceID & " - " & vbTab & "Total Size(MB): " & bytesToMB(objDisk.Size) _
    & vbTab & vbTab & "Free Space(MB): " & bytesToMB(objDisk.FreeSpace) & vbtab & " Free Space ( % ) : " & round( bytesToMB(objDisk.FreeSpace) / bytesToMB(objDisk.Size) * 100 , 2 ) & vbcrlf
  Next
 Else
  strBody = strBody & "!ERROR! connecting to " & arrServers(i) & ". " & Err.Number & " - " & Err.Description
  Err.Clear
 End If
 strBody = strBody & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
Next

' Write to File

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objTextFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile _
    (strFilePath , ForWriting , True)
objTextFile.WriteLine("Server Disk Space Report" & vbCrLf )
objTextFile.WriteLine(strBody )
objTextFile.Close
set objFSO = nothing

'email Section

if SendEmail = True then 
 On Error Goto 0
 Set objMail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
 With objMail
  .Subject = "Server Disk Space Report"
  .From = strFrom
  .To = strTo
  .TextBody = strBody
  .Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = 2 '2 = use a specified SMTP server, 1 = use local SMTP service
  .Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = strServer 'Your SMTP Server
  .Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = intPort 'Server port
  .Configuration.Fields.Update
  .Send
 End With
end if

Set objMail = Nothing
Set objWMI = Nothing
Set colDisks = Nothing
Set objNet = Nothing


' Display report if flag is set

if DisplayReportOnScreen = True then
 Dim WshShell
 Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
 WshShell.Run strFilePath
 Set WshShell = nothing
end if

Function bytesToMB(intbytes)
 bytesToMB = FormatNumber((intbytes / 1024) / 1024,,,,-1)
End Function

' ******************** End of Script *************

]]><![CDATA[Oracle 9i - PL/SQL Programming guide]]>Oracle is one of the most popular database in IT industry. From today, we are posting few basic but essential articles about programming using the Oracle PL/SQL.

Click here to goto Oracle index page.

]]><![CDATA[Application Security Tips]]>A series of new articles has been published on 24x7code.com regarding securing application against vulnarabilities. Articles are being published as tips on various subjects such as

How to Avoid SQL Injection attack 

Threats and Countermeasures: S.T.R.I.D.E 

Input Validation 

Session Management 

Authentication Mechanism 

Cross Site Scripting Vulnerabilities

Click here to goto index of these articles

 

]]>