FireFox extension: ScrollUp

I've recently published a very simple but useful (at least it adds much comfort for me) FireFox extension.

The idea is simple and can be found integrated into some sites (vk.com, habrahabr.ru) and Opera Mini. Whenever you're reading a page deep down you'd probably want to quickly get to the page top (e.g. while reading Facebook News Feed). Most likely you'll have to use scroll wheel or aim a scroll bar. The easier option is to use a pop-up button (which pops at the right moment) to quickly scroll the page up. That's what the plug-in does.

Ripple, BB 10 WebWorks and 'Please enter a valid application id' error

You're developing an application for BB 10 using HTML5, Ripple emulator (for running & debugging your application in Chrome browser) & BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK (my version was 1.0.0.7).

Once you set up build settings and click 'Package' button to produce output you get the following error message:

Oh Snap! Build request failed with message: [ERROR] Error: Please enter a valid application id

 

Go to your application source directory and check the contents of config.xml file. Pay attention to the <widget> opening tag:

 <widget xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets" 
        xmlns:rim="http://www.blackberry.com/ns/widgets" 
        version="1.0.3" 
        rim:header="RIM-Widget:rim/widget"
        id="SketchPad">

Possible causes for the error:

1. Missing id tag
2. White spaces in id tag value (registered issue)

As it turned out, WebWorks samples had the id value missing which was leading to build error when using Ripple.

Ordered test execution error when using Test Manager/TFS

Background:

You've got TFS 2010 Server installed on a virtual machine and fully prepared for building and running automated tests (Build controller, Test Controller, Test Agent are installed and up&running, Build definition is created within TFS etc.).

You've got a test case which has associated automated ordered test. In Microsoft Test Manager this test case is added to a test plan which is set up for automated test runs (Test settings, Test Environment, Build are defined).



The associated with the test case ordered test file resides in a sub folder within the test project, not under root:



Issue:

When you run the test case from Test Manager (started on your work station & connected to remote TFS server) you get an 'Error' state (not 'Failed') for the test and the error message says: Cannot find the test ‘XXX’ with storage ‘..\bin\debug\YYY.dll’

The issue is due to Test Agent searching wrong folder for the tests DLL in case ordered test is not under root.

Resolution:

Put the ordered test file under project root and DLL folder will be resolved correctly.

ASP.NET MVC 3: Call Controller from external assembly

I've recently encountered a task to have pluggable controllers so that you could change web application behavior without source code recompilation. The idea was to update an assembly in the /Bin folder, possibly put/update some views under web application root folder and get new behavior in place.

As it turned out ASP.NET MVC 3 standard controller factory is pretty smart and may automatically search for controllers in all assemblies under /Bin folders (under web app root) and load them - for the simple case described there's no need to use any IoC container, MEF or other 3rd parties.

In order to obtain a working external assembly controller you have to:

• Create a class library and reference System.Web.Mvc
• Add controller class and fill in logic
• Put the outpy DLL to web application /Bin folder. Application will be restarted. While debugging you may reference the class library with the controller to get it automatically copied to /Bin folder.
  
• Put the view file(s) for action(s) defined in the controller to web application folder.
  

Views for the actions within external controller will be resolved according to standard ASP.NET MVC rules and searched under /Views folder (until you start defining full view paths in action methods).

In case you have 2 DLL's in the been folder which contain controller classes with same names then default routes will fail and upon request to action within controller name non unique an error will occur. In order to resolve conflicts you need to amend route table in global.asax and explicitly pass namespaces to be used for controller classes resolution (assuming we have same controllers in ExternalAssembly.Controllers and ExternalAssembly2.Controllers the first will take precedence):

        public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
      {
          routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

          routes.MapRoute(
              "Default", // Route name
              "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
              new { controller = "Default", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
              new[] {"ExternalAssembly.Controllers"}
          );
      }

Bilateral filter has been added to AForge.NET

Starting from version 2.2.4 AForge.NET contains Bilateral filter:
http://www.aforgenet.com/news/2012.02.23.releasing_framework_2.2.4.html

Use AForge.Imaging.Filters.BilateralSmoothing class.

Bilateral effect for Paint.NET

I've created and published Paint.NET effect plug-in implementing bilateral filtration. You may find it on Codeplex project page (so as installation instructions). Now you can easily use the filter while working with you photos and images.


More information on the filter and it's parameters can be found here.

Bilateral image filter: .NET implementation

UPDATE 24.02.2012: Starting from version 2.2.4 AForge.NET contains Bilateral filter:http://www.aforgenet.com/news/2012.02.23.releasing_framework_2.2.4.html.

In the previous post you may find an overview of bilateral image filtering and sample results it can produce. In this post you'll find out about my implementation and links to the files.

The first thing to mention is that my implementation relies on AForge.NET (version 2.2.3) framework which is a massive framework for image and video processing, solving AI and recognition tasks etc. One of the framework parts is dedicated to image processing and the filter fitted it pretty well.

If you don't use AForge.NET and don't want to download the full library then you may use an archive from here. Since only a small part of AForge.NET is used you'll need to reference 3 assemlblies:

• AForge.dll
• AForge.Math.dll
• AForge.Imaging.dll

The acrhive contains the following folders:

• FilterDemoExecutable - compiled demo of a filter. It's based on AForge.NET filter demo so it also has a large number of other AForge filters. The differences are: Bilateral filter, saving files, copy the processed image to clipboard.
• FilterDemo - source for the above application.
• Release - all assemblies required (as listed above)
  
• Sources - solution with AForge.Imaging.dll sources which includes Bilateral filter (class AForge.Imaging.Filters.Smooting.Bilateral). Other AForge.NET projects are not included so ignore the warning you'll get upon opening the solution.
  

If you are already using AForge.NET then simply add the following .cs file to your project and that would be enough.

If you'd like to play with a demo application only then go here.