Category Archives: 3rd party

3rd party software for ASP.NET

Pebble: How to load random string from resource

02/15/2015

There’s no doubt that Firefly is a greatest TV series in the history of all creation. That is why when I was learning resource handling in Pebble SDK I have decided to create a watchface that would display a random quote from Firefly. And thanks to Bill Hatcher of http://cubemonkey.net/quotes/ I obtained a plain TXT file with almost 500 quotes.

The file is in the format "quote1%quote2%quote3..." e.g. there is a “%” separator between the quotes, so I quickly wrote a small script that gives me a position of each percentage sign within the file, so I can create an array of the positions in my C code for Pebble:

#define NO_OF_QUOTES 472
int aQuotePointers[NO_OF_QUOTES] = {0, 206, 354, 417, 480, 554, 662, 695,... 88825}

which basically gave me position of each quote in the file and which I prepended with 0 and appended with filesize. Then I added the resource to my project (in CloudPeble environment it’s as easy as loading a BLOB resource and giving it a name). A Pebble watchface or watchapp can handle resources of up to 96K, fortunately file with quotes was less, otherwise some kind of string compression would have to be implemented.

After that it’s a trivial matter to generate random position, retrieve quote from that position and display it on a text layer:

// determining number of quote (that will give us address of begining and end)
srand(time(NULL));
int number_of_quote = rand() % NO_OF_QUOTES;
  
//determining size of quote and allocating memory
int size_of_quote = aQuotePointers[number_of_quote + 1] - aQuotePointers[number_of_quote] - 1;
uint8_t *quote = malloc(size_of_quote);

//loading quote, displaying and freeing memory
ResHandle rh = resource_get_handle(RESOURCE_ID_FIREFLY_QUOTES);
resource_load_byte_range(rh, aQuotePointers[number_of_quote] + 1, quote, size_of_quote);
quote[size_of_quote] = 0; //null terminating string
text_layer_set_text(s_textlayer_quote, (char *)quote);

Lines 2-3 generate random index for the array of quote pointers
Lines 6-7 calculate size of the quote (based on position of current and next quote) and allocate memory for the quote
Lines 10-11 load range from the resource based on index and size
Lines 12-13 0-terminate the loaded range and display data on the text layer.

It’s all pretty straightforward and works like a magic and the result you can see in published watchface: Blue Sun Quotes.

Some useful links:

Next time I will describe how I handled situation when loaded quote is too long to display on a text layer

WriteEndObject of JSON.NET ouptuts NULL literal

01/07/2015

JSON.NET is a very popular framework to process JSON data in .NET. We recently upgraded from v4 to v6 and noticed strange thing it started to output null to JSON strings created by JsonTextWriter object.

For example if JSON produced by v4 would look like this:

{"param1":"value1", "param2":"value2",
"someArray":[{"arrParam1": "arrValue1"}, {"arrParam2": "arrValue2"}]}

Same code, using v6, would prodcuce

{"param1":"value1", "param2":"value2",
"someArray":[{"arrParam1": "arrValue1"}, {"arrParam2": "arrValue2"}]null}

that extra “null” makes it invalid and unusable JSON.

The .NET function to create JSON writes it into a StringBuilder and is pretty straighforward.

It starts with call to WriteStartObject method of JsonTextWriter
Then it creates parameter name via WritePropertyName
Depending on whether primitive value or raw string needs to be written WriteValue or WriteRaw methods are used respectfully
Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed
Call to WriteEndObjectto finish writing.

This worked perfectly well when version 4 of Newtonsoft.Json.dll was used. After upgrading to version 6 last method – “WriteEndObject” began to output “null” to resulting JSON.

The solution is to use WriteRawValue method instead of WriteRaw – it still outputs raw string, but at the end WriteEndObject doesn’t output “null” anymore.

Access jQueryUI dialog buttons after dialog was created

10/16/2014

If you’re using jQuery UI Dialog, you know sometimes there’s a need to access dialog’s button objects after the dialog has already been created. This can be easily done via

$(dialogElement).dialog("option").buttons

command. One possible scenario where this can be useful – is executing specific button click function when user clicks [X] in dialog title. Imagine that buttons are set via array and the last object in this array is always something like CANCEL or NO or DISREGARD – and you want to simulate click of that last button whenever user clicks [X]. Using above command it’s pretty straightforward:

$(oDivDialog).dialog({
   //... some dialog parameters
   buttons: arrayOfButtonObjects,
   //... some more parameters
   close: function () {
      var buttons = $(this).dialog("option").buttons;
      buttons[buttons.length - 1].click();
   }
})

Line 5 begins close event which is called on dialog closing.
Line 6 retrieves array of buttons for the dialog
Line 7 calls click() function of the last button in the array

Compare 2 source files and add difference to 3rd

08/19/2014

Beyond Compare 3-way merge

Sometimes when you patch or update your current version of software there is a need to apply the same changes to a previous version. Ordinary it’s a pain – you need to painstakingly determine which changes from the current source should go to previous version (because current source has changed a lot, new features added etc).

Enter Beyond Compare – coolest tool to do all kind of compassion. One of the best features – “3 way merge”. It allows you to compare 2 files and apply the difference to 3rd.

In our case here is what it can do:

Select new patched version of source file and compare it to old unpatched version
In menu select “Session –> Merge Files” – a middle pane appears that allows you to select 3rd file
In the middle tab select new unpatched version

That’s it! Beyond Compare will compare new patched and new unpatched version. If there’s a difference – those lines will be applied to old unpatched version. Otherwise if both new versions are the same – old version keeps it lines, even though they’re different from new version.

It’s all performed automatically all you have to do in the bottom pane (where merge result appear) select the filename to save to and hit “Save”

Flipping pebbles

06/25/2014

As far as smartwatches go – Pebble is a lot of fun. But after playing around with Watchface Generator, Canvas for Pebble and numerous other apps I wanted something more, something that only Pebble SDK could provide. A coder in me wanted to code.

Enter CloudPebble – an amazing online development environment that runs in your browser, has a full-blown C compiler and connects to your watch to run/debug compiled apps. Plus your projects are stored on the cloud and available anywhere you can get online.

Yes you program Pebble in classic C – and it’s a lot of fun. And my first real attempt at custom watchface (pictured above) is old-style flip clock, you can get it here. It is based on amazing pebble bitmap library by Gregoire Sage

Display “Lose It!” data on Pebble watchface

06/04/2014

Original Lose It! Lose It! on Pebble

Lose It! is an excellent service that helps people lose weight by monitoring calories intake. It integrates with variety of devices so I was curious if I can display my user data on Pebble smartwatch (to make sure I can have another piece of cake or not).

Unfortunately LoseIt doesn’t have a public API. There had to be another way. Continue reading →

How to receive Stack Overflow notifications on your phone and smartwatch

02/19/2014

If this then that

As you may have gathered I am a frequent participant of Stack Overflow Q&A board for coders. On that site everytime somebody responds to your question or comments – a notification is displayed in the status bar. Ditto when your reputation points change.

I became curious whether I could receive these modifications on my phone. Stack Exchange released their own application on Google Play store that does send push notifications when a reply is received, but no notifications on reputation changes. Also it’s still a little rough around the edges and besides I realized I didn’t want a full blown Stack Overflow application (when I do use SO for questions/answers I prefer the full site on my laptop). There should be another way. Continue reading →

Solution for IE10 error: SCRIPT5022: Sys.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Value must be an integer

05/01/2013

If you’re testing your ASP.NET project in Internet Explorer 10, you may encounter following error:

SCRIPT5022: Sys.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Value must be an integer.
Parameter name: (x or y)
Actual value was (some floating point value)
ScriptResource.axd, line … character …

Often it come up when you use some 3rd party libraries, Telerik or Infragistics (in my case it happened in WebDataMenu control).

Here why it happens. Continue reading →

FusionCharts: Invalid Data when using javascript renderer (solved)

04/11/2013

If you’re using FusionCharts you may encounter a strange issue – chart renders correctly when Flash renderer is in use and displays “Invalid Data” error message when falling back (or forced) to JavaScript renderer.

In most cases culprit is invalid XML data passed to the engine. And while Flash is more forgiving, JavaScript requires strict valid XML. Most often the cause for the issue are characters invalid in XML. Check your data and if they contain following characters – replace them with their encoded values:

" (quote) --> " ' (apostrophe) --> ' < (less sign) --> < > (greater sign) --> > & (ampersand) --> &

And the error will disappear.

Happy charting!

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