My life among 1s and 0s

Implementing a Data Access Layer in C#.Net

2009-10-02T12:22:00.003+05:30

Today I started doing some coding using C#.Net to build a simple windows application which needs database access. Since I haven't used .Net for a very long time (more than 1 year) I found it hard to code the classes that accessed the database. So I did the thing that most Engineers do which is Googling :). I found the following article which I referred to implement the layer. It's really interesting and the writer has made it database independent, which means you can switch database servers (SQL server, MySQL etc) without a glitch. The article can be found here.

Data Integrity Module for OpenMRS - Weeks 6-9 progress

2009-06-22T20:07:00.002+05:30

During the past four weeks, I managed to cover a lot of ground in my project. I am now totally at ease with the OpenMRS module structure and managed to implement some of the requirements without much of a problem.

I managed to finish the admin page which allows a user to upload a new integrity check into the system. The user will have to provide the check's name, SQL query and base for failure as inputs. The user can also edit already existing checks as well as delete obsolete tests via the admin page.

The 'Run single integrity check' feature was added during these weeks as well. From this page the user can select one of the added checks and run that to check data integrity. After a successful execution, the results page will provide some information to the user which include the number of records that failed the check as well as the records themselves and the status of the check (whether it passed or not). The user is also given the opportunity of running the check again from the results page for convenience.

I also implemented the 'Run multiple checks' feature which allows the user to run several checks at one go. The results page lists the results of each and every execution in a tabular format which provides a good insight to the user about the integrity of the data.

In the coming weeks I hope to provide another page through which the user can upload a XML file which has the information to create a new integrity check.

Data Integrity Module for OpenMRS - Week 5 progress

2009-05-25T20:34:00.002+05:30

After a brief discussion with Ben Wolfe of OpenMRS I was told the next step to take would be to create an Admin page which lists things that a user can perform on the system. The 'things' can include activities like adding new tests to be run, editing the existing tests or even deleting the tests.

So this week I worked on getting this done. I also update the wiki page for the Data Integrity module so that it gave information about the requirements, project plan etc. This would help the community to track my progress during the coming months.

Data Integrity Module for OpenMRS - Week 4 progress

2009-05-25T20:18:00.004+05:30

After my self learning on Spring and Hibernate last week I thought it is high time that I developed a simple JSP page which read some data from the database via Hibernate and displayed them in that page. I also thought of going a bit further and allow the user to enter some data to a database table via the above mentioned page.

To do this first of I created a JSP page which had a simple form through which the user can enter some data to the database. I also added a table which displayed data from the database. Then I coded the necessary mappings in the moduleApplicationContext.xml and the config.xml files.

After a bit of trial and error methods I finally got the page up and running and it successfully read from the database and wrote to it as well. So the 4th week of my GSOC project was fruitful and at the same time very eventful. :)

Data Integrity Module for OpenMRS - Week 3 progress

2009-05-25T20:12:00.002+05:30

This whole week was spent on learning Spring and Hibernate to a lengthier extent. Last week I got a basic understanding about these technologies and this week I tried out some examples to get to know them a little bit better.

I followed an excellent Hibernate tutorial which taught me all I knew. I guess it would be a wonderful reference for any beginner like me.

I also looked at the Form entry, Id cards and Hello world modules of OpenMRS to get to know how Spring and Hibernate have been used. I noticed that the usage was fairly similar in all 3 and decided to structure my module such that it followed the same pattern.

Data Integrity Module for OpenMRS - Week 2 progress

2009-05-07T13:48:00.003+05:30

After an empty module was created the next job was to get myself familiarized with Spring and Hibernate. Both these technologies are used extensively in OpenMRS modules. Therefore I decided to do some self learning to get my self exposed to Spring and Hibernate.

Using some online tutorials I learnt the basics of using the Spring and Hibernate frameworks. After that I mapped my learnings to the OpenMRS modules to see how everything is functioning. I also managed to implement a few lines of code in my empty module from my findings.

Data Integrity Module for OpenMRS - Week 1 progress

2009-04-26T10:45:00.004+05:30

Though this was the very first week of GSOC 2009, I certainly was very busy indeed. I contacted my mentor and asked how I should proceed. He asked me to first create an empty module. I managed to get this done using the OpenMRS Develoment Studio. I was also instructed to look at the existing modules 'idcards' and 'formentry' to get to know how things worked.

Furthermore I received svn repo space for the module and the files can be downloaded via the URL http://svn.openmrs.org/openmrs-modules/dataintegrity. I also started a wiki page for the module this week.

So the first week of GSOC was fine and I really enjoyed myself. Looking forward to the future challenges. :)

GSOC 2009 Results Announced

2009-04-21T19:07:00.005+05:30

Google announced accepted proposals for Google Summer of Code 2009 and I was very happy to find out that my proposal for implementing a data integrity module for OpenMRS has got selected as well. This was very welcoming indeed because the proposal I sent for the last year's programme got rejected. I should thank three special people who are behind my success.

First of all my friend and batchmate Chathuri. She told me that OpenMRS is a java project and the project ideas given were interesting. It's because of her that I checked them out and decided to apply for one idea. So many thanks to you Chathuri. :) Next two more of my friends and batchmates Thilina and Namal. Thilina gave me his winning proposal for the last year's programme and gave me some tips on how to write an effective proposal. Namal directed me towards the necessary Google Groups that I should be a part of in order to participate in the programme. He also gave me some tips that came very helpful indeed. Thanks a lot bros. :)

I am also very pleased to know that 5 more of my batchmates got selected for the programme. More information about their proposals can be found in Nimal's blog.

Best of luck to all the participants!! :)

Getting Ready for GSOC 2009

2009-03-27T19:38:00.004+05:30

Google Summer of Code is a wonderful project carried out by the internet search giant Google and GSOC 2009 is here. This project gives students the chance to contribute to open source projects and learn a lot by doing so.

I hope to take part in this programme this year and I am hoping to send a few proposals to the OpenMRS project. OpenMRS is a system which provides help to developing countries to fight major life threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS. I got involved with the OpenMRS community for the past couple of days and I found it very interesting and exciting. I also provided a patch to fix one of their issues in the system.

I certainly hope my proposal will be selected because I want to be a part of this major project that is of immense service to the world. :)

Exams finally came to an end...

2008-10-02T22:35:00.005+05:30

After three weeks of studying and sitting in huge exam halls while raking my brains to find the answers to the papers that were set, I am now a free man again. There were a total of 8 papers and they were really tough. This is the one before the last exam I am doing at the university and I am glad its over now.

I managed to get through my previous exams at university fairly well but this time it was a different story. I screwed up almost all of the papers and it was a pitynbecause the subjects were not that tough. I was unprepared and paid the price.

I am glad that it's over now and we have a 2 week vacation which I am hoping to spend in style. I just hope that my results will not be too bad!!! :(

Connect MySql with .Net

2008-08-10T08:44:00.005+05:30

Recently I started working on a new project and the clients wanted to use MySql database server because it is free. I had dealt with the MS Sql 2000 and 2005 servers from .Net and that was a breeze. I had a hell of a time trying to figure out how I can connect MySql and .Net and finally after lots and lots of googling and with lots of common sense I managed to get this done. So I thought of writing this post to help all those who have this requirement and don't want to go through the entire WWW to find this out. :)

Step 1
First of all you must download and install the connector that is needed to connect with the MySql database. You can get the driver here free of charge. (It's open source ;)) At the time of writing version 5.0 was the stable and newest version. Get that and not 1.0 because to install 1.0 you need the .Net framework 1.1.

Step 2
Then go tour project in Visual Studio. (I am using Visual Studio Professional 2005) Right click your project and select Add Reference, and select MySQL.Data as shown in the figure below.

Step 3
Now you are ready to go. Everything is set and hopefully will work out. :) Just type some code like below to check whether everything is in order. (I am using an ASP.Net page to check connectivity)

public void Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string conString = "SERVER=localhost;DATABASE=Infinity;UID=root;PASSWORD=test123;";
MySqlConnection connection = new MySqlConnection(conString);
MySqlCommand command = connection.CreateCommand();
command.CommandText = "select * from Room";
connection.Open();

MySqlDataReader Reader;
Reader = command.ExecuteReader();
while (Reader.Read())
{
string row = "";
for (int i = 0; i < Reader.FieldCount; i++)
{
row += Reader.GetValue(i).ToString() + ",";
}
Response.Write(row);
}
connection.Close();
}

If everything works fine your aspx page should show all the data of the table you queried.

A Forced Vacation

2008-08-09T09:24:00.004+05:30

Universities in Sri Lanka have this strange habit of being closed down while in the middle of the academic year due to various reasons. University of Moratuwa was closed down last Thursday (6th August) because of a student clash that took place at the hostels on the 5th of August.

The university premises are out of bounds for us at the moment and the date of reopening has not been declared yet. I guess it won't be closed for more than a week and normal academic work will start again in the coming week.

However as this is sort of a vacation for us students, I plan to finish off the assignments that are due in the coming weeks and most importantly watch plenty of movies. I have a huge collection which I downloaded recently and had no time to watch any of them during the past couple of weeks.

I hope that uni will reopen soon because it's great to be with friends than being stuck at home all alone.

Speak Olympiad 2008

2008-08-08T19:50:00.007+05:30

University of Moratuwa is proud to house an energetic Gavel Club which is affiliated to the Toastmasters International. This club is dedicated in improving the speaking and presentation skills of university students with the noble motive of producing excellent public speakers who can go in front of any audience and speak their hearts out.

Gavel club annually organises a speech contest in which any student of the university can take part. The competition is called Speak Olympiad and it is one of the most wonderful events in the university calendar. When this year's competition was announced 50% of me wanted to participate, and the remaining 50% was reluctant because of the high preparation needed and not being a member of the Gavel club, I wondered whether I can even go into the 2nd round.

Finally I decided to take part and chose the topic "Pillars of My Life" in which I talked about three life values; Identifying your strengths and weaknesses, Prioritizing life and Grabbing the first opportunity, while giving real life experiences to support the facts. The competition was held in three rounds and I got selected to the finals.

All the finalists were really great speakers and the finals of the SO 2008 was a delightful event. The judges who were famous toastmasters of the country praised the efforts of each and every speaker. I got ranked as the first runner up and that day was one of the most happiest days of my life. The only thing that I had to regret was not being a member of the Gavel club. I felt that if I was a member I could have done something more and I could have been a better speaker. Anyway I am really happy that I took part and I hope and wish that the Gavel club will hold this event in each and every year that is yet to come.

Before I end this post I think it would be nice if I thank few people who were behind my victory.

Dilini, who is the President of the Gavel Club and one of my closest friends at uni. She is the one who pushed me to participate, helped me select a topic for the speech, proof read and corrected my speech, gave feedback after listening to my speech, and encouraged me until the very end. So thanks a lot Dili.

Next another of my closest friends and member of the Gavel club, Nuwanpriya. He also helped me to get my speech prepared, gave me feedback after listening and helped me to get through the impromptu speech sessions. I couldn't have done it without you bro. Many thanks to you!!

I would also like to thank all the members of the Gavel club specially Aravinda, Bodul, Erangi, Lakshitha and Dulini for all their efforts and encouraging words.

Finally I would like to thank all of my friends who came to the watch me speak and encourage me all the way. Thanks a lot you guys and gals! :)

P.S.
This post should have appeared a long time a go. SO 2008 was held in the first three weeks of June. I am very sorry for being lazy and delaying this post... :)

Playing Topspin Vs. Losing Guts

2008-08-02T20:18:00.006+05:30

Tennis has always being a favourite past time of mine since I was very small. Those days when I went for my regular coaching classes on Sundays I remember how my coach emphasized the point that we should play flat shots instead of spinning the ball. The handshaking grip was used to grip the racket thus giving no chance of brushing the ball to make it spin. This was back in the years of 1994 and things have highly changed now.

I am a member of the University of Moratuwa Tennis team and we have a very experienced coach helping us. One of the very first things he changed in my way of playing is how I played the forehand shot. He asked me to change my grip and brush the ball instead of playing flat.

Brushing the ball and playing topspin certainly have a bunch of advantages. Most often the tendency of hitting the ball out of the court is reduced. Secondly the ball bounces very high when it lands on the ground. Finally you have more control over the shots that you play.

Nothing comes for free in this world and the same goes for playing topspin. The main problem is the frequency of broken guts. As the ball is brushed when the shot is played, the guts of the racket rub against one another and they tend to break very quickly. I have been playing flat shots for many years and not a single string broke in any of the rackets that I have played with. However I switched to playing topspin not very long ago (one or two months back) and today at practices for the very first time in my life a string broke.

The topspin shot involves more wrist work as well and I am catching up the shot these days. I will continue to use this instead of playing flat which is the old fashion of playing. As for breaking guts... I'll have to live with it I guess. As I mentioned earlier, nothing comes for free in this cruel world!!!! :)

My Second Traffic Ticket...

2008-06-30T17:08:00.003+05:30

I got late to go to campus today for my daily lectures and had to speed up a little bit to make up for the lost time. When I was on the Panadura bridge, a jeep was traveling before me and he was moving like a tortoise. The jeep was barely driving at 40 km/h I guess and I had to overtake it inspite of the double lines that stretched along the bridge. After a careful maneuver I overtook it and lo and behold a cop appears and asks me to stop.

I tried to put on an innocent face and told lots of stories including "I'm still a student, Late for lectures" etc etc, but the cop didn't budge. He wrote me a ticket and asked me to come to the police station to collect the license. The real story begins from there.

When I got to the police station, I found that I have to collect the actual ticket from there, go to the post office and pay the fine, and then finally come back to the police station to collect the license. The fine was 500/=, but I guess I burned petrol worth more than that just for the trips between the police station and the post office. Anyway, I was in the wrong and can't blame anyone else. Must be more careful next time.....

Breaking into a Maruti... Step by step istructions :)

2008-06-08T11:29:00.005+05:30

Yesterday my uncle came to visit us. When he was about to leave he couldn't find his car key anywhere. Finally he saw that he had locked it inside the car. The mission to open the lock begins from there. :)

First of all my uncle popped out the beading which runs along side the shutter. After this was removed we could see the metal rod of the lock. Then I took a a bicycle spoke and bent the end to make a little hook. Through the gap which was created by removing the beading, I saw that the rod curved slightly before going into the depths of the door. So I inserted the spoke through the gap and caught the curved placed of the rod with the hook and pulled it upwards. The lock jumped up instantly. :)

That's how I broke into the Maruti. Guess I can find a job at Darley road in Colombo even if I don't graduate from uni. :D

Untraceable

2008-06-04T18:17:00.004+05:30

Last Sunday I had nothing to do in the evening which made me decide to watch a movie. I went through the list of movies that I downloaded recently and thought of watching 'Untraceable' because it had good rankings in the imdb chart.

The movie is about a killer who goes on killing innocent people randomly (so it seems at the beginning) and the killings are broadcast live over the internet through his own web site. Two cyber crime fighters of the FBI are working very hard to track the killer, but their efforts are in vain because the killer really knows what he's doing.

That is how the story goes and it is a real thriller indeed. I loved the movie from the start, but I felt that the ending could have been more 'puffy'. If you asks me, the movie ends too abruptly. Untraceable is directed by Gregory Hoblit. Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks and Joseph Cross give life to the main characters of the movie.

Hit The Grounds 2008

2008-06-01T12:59:00.005+05:30

Hit The Grounds 2008, the annual cricket carnival organised by the Computer Science and Engineering Society (CS&ES) of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, was held for the 5th time on the 24th of May. Teams from many leading IT firms, undergraduate teams and a team from the staff participated in this event.

I was one of the event managers and had a ball of a time organising this event with Shanaka (the other event manager). Zone 24x7 came forward to sponsor the event.

We had a spot of trouble from the MIT team because they refused to play on the pitch that was allocated to them and the team from Batch 05, to play the quarter finals. In that particular pitch bowlers didn't bowl from either side because the boundary lines overlapped with another. As a result the pitch was in favour to the left handed batsmen. MIT refused this pitch because most of their batsmen were right handed. They wanted to use both sides of the pitch. However rules are rules and me along with the rest of the organising committee didn't allow MIT to go ahead with their request. So after fussing for more than 45 minutes they agreed to play and the match went underway. MIT went on to score 100+ runs in just 7 overs in the pitch they said that was not suitable for their batsmen :P This huge delay prevented the finals from being played and MIT and WS02 went home as joint winners.

The best batsman was from MIT and the man of the series and woman of the series awards went to WS02. Zone 24x7 bagged the best bowler award. As I ran around the ground carrying a Zone 24x7 banner, I was awarded the best entertainer award. :)

The event was major fun for all who participated and I can't wait for Hit The Grounds 2009 to take place.

(Photos of the event are available here)

My Very First Traffic Ticket..

2008-06-01T12:15:00.004+05:30

Yesterday me and my family went to Ahangama (A small town which is a about 10km from Galle) to participate in an alms giving and I played the role of the driver. It is a very famous fact that the galle road is flooded with traffic cops almost everyday, and I took great care to avoid doing all the 'bad things' while driving :)

As we were just passing Galle, I was stopped by a cop who jumped to the road from behind a well hidden Coconut tree. I stopped the car and tried to think of what I did wrong. My father also got down and the both of us went to have a chat with the cops. When I asked them what my wrong doing was they said I drove beyond the speed limit. It seems that the limit was 56km/h and I have been driving at 61km/h. Can you believe it?? Being stopped for driving at 61km/h??

Then this guy asks me to come to Galle to collect my license during the coming week. I half begged him to let me go because I have lectures all week and a trip to Galle would surely take half of the day (Excluding the official stuff that will have to take place at the Police station). After showing him my university ID he wrote a small ticket for 500/= that read "Overtaking in a wrong manner" instead of speeding which costs 1000/= and asked me to pay the money to the Galle post office. So I turned the car around, went back to the Galle post office, payed the fine and finally came back to the place where the cops were and collected my driving license. Finally I was on my way home and I took care not to drive too fast and collect my second ticket for the day (and for my driving career)... :)

Using the Struts Framework for Validations

2008-05-20T18:45:00.007+05:30

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I started learning about Struts last week. Today I had to do some validations in the forms of the jsp pages and the first option that came to my mind was to use javascripts. However the people for whom I am doing this project, asked me to use the Struts framework instead. So after a healthy breakfast I set to get things done and opened google and typed "validations using struts". :)

After a couple of hours and some common sense later, :) I rigged up an application that used the struts framework for validations. I didn't find one single tutorial that provided the basics. So I thought of combining what I got from many of them and put it here so that someone else like me can use this article to get the concept of validations under the belt and thank me whole heartedly. :D

Well to start off with you need the jsp. The code below is of a sample jsp page.

The "s:head/" tag is quite important. It took me quite some time to understand the importance of it because I couldn't get anything to work without that tiny little tag.

The next thing is the validations xml file. The struts framework uses xml files to do the validations. For each jsp there is an action class which handles the related business logic. An xml file should be created at the same location of the action class bearing the name action class name-validation.xml. For example if your action class' name is SignInAction.java then your xml file should be named SignInAction-validation.xml. The code for the xml file is given below.

In the xml file the field-validator type is used to inform the struts framework what type of validations are required. For example if you put "email" there, the framework will check whether the entered email address is a valid one.

So that's all folks. When you run the application try submitting the form without entering anything in the text boxes. The validations should pop up instantly. :) Good luck!!!

Vesak at 36/2, Sir James Peiris Mw, Panadura

2008-05-19T21:46:00.002+05:30

Vesak is something my family celebrates lovingly. I remember the effort I put to create lanterns, paste them and finally light up them when I was young. Now as I don't have a lot of time to spend on creating lanterns we buy them from shops and paste them. For this vesak my mother brought 3 lanterns and my sister did the pasting. I handled the electrical department.

To make a difference this year, I thought of running a set of 5W bulbs alongside the roof and to do this I had to climb to the roof and drive nails to the side of it under the scorching sun. I had to wear two shorts because the heated roof sheets were scorching my bum when I sat on them. :) After many hours of hard work we finally got everything running and the house looked pretty nice I must say.

Looking forward to next year's vesak... :)

Enter Struts

2008-05-16T20:49:00.002+05:30

During this time last year I was hugging and kissing .Net technologies. I couldn't get enough of it, and that's why I went to do my internship at Eurocenter DDC. During my internship I had to deal with a java project which gave me quite a good exposure to the technology.

These days I am learning Struts, which is an open source java framework that deals with providing MVC (Model View Control) architecture for applications. We can easily build applications on top of this framework that works according to a MVC type of design. I am using this article and this one as my teaching guides. They are really good and I recommend it for any beginner like me. Of course you have to have some knowledge in java.

Last Day at Eurocenter DDC

2008-05-09T17:12:00.000+05:30

Today is my last day at EC. After 7 months of working at this company, I feel so sad to leave it behind me. EC has about 70 employees and I got friendly with almost all of them. Tears nearly came to my eyes at the farewell party and I had to put a lot of effort to keep a straight face. :'(

I loved the company culture and fitted in well with the rest of the folks. I think that's the main reason behind my forcefully backed off tears. Maybe I'll get the chance to come back after my degree is complete, who knows??

4 other batch-mates worked with me at EC and each of us were gifted 120GB portable hard drives for our excellent work during the internship.

Thank you very much EC.. I got a lot from the company and I hope I gave a lot back in return..

Sri Sumangala College Junior OBA Get-Together

2008-05-03T11:09:00.003+05:30

The annual get-together of the Junior Old Boys' Association of Sri Sumangala College will be happening tonight at the Wadduwa Holiday Resort. Loads of fun are to be expected at this event because it's a place where school pals will meet after a long time.
I will be participating in this get-together and I hope to meet my school friends. It has been some time since I met them and I am really looking forward to the event.

May 1st - A holiday in Sri Lanka :)

2008-05-01T11:05:00.004+05:30

Sri Lanka, a land like no other, celebrates May 1st in grand style. Most of the shops and malls are closed today. As it's a mercantile holiday I get to stay at home because I don't have to go to my training place for work. I was thinking of taking tomorrow off as well and go on a trip with my university pals but one of them ruined our plans by announcing that he has a funeral to attend to. (Sucks to you Mr. Nafran Shiraz :P)

Anyway I am hoping to make the best of today by watching some movies and reading the book I am reading these days, Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. :)

Vista is incomplete??

2008-04-30T14:46:00.005+05:30

Microsoft Vista, the latest operating system released by Microsoft, hit the market with a big bang. Vista was so beautiful and rich in graphics but I really found it a pain in the ass. This was because I had to endure many "are you sure" messages which was really really very troublesome.

I found the following article in which it explains that Vista is incomplete. I think it's quite interesting. Check it out at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/18/ballmer_vista_incomplete/

DNN Headache

2008-04-30T14:40:00.002+05:30

DNN or Dot Net Nuke is an open source framework for portal development in ASP.Net. One of the headaches of doing DNN development with SQL Express databases is that you won’t be able access the web site while the mdf file (SQL express DB) is being opened from visual studio or sql management studio for any db management work. This is very troublesome and something which is really unwanted.

This article explains how to achieve this and I think it will help us to reduce a lot of development overhead when we use the DNN/SQLExpress combination for portal development.

ASP.Net FAQs

2008-04-30T14:12:00.000+05:30

The .Net platform has made software development a breeze but there are still places where you need a helping hand. I went through several problems when I worked with ASP.net and these FAQs helped me to understand what I was doing wrong. Check them out at http://www.syncfusion.com/FAQ/aspnet/default.aspx