Quick, a little snippet on adding client side scripts (javascript) in a web part or ASP.NET page. And the link to [MSDN](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms948916.aspx “Creating a Web Part with Client-side Script”) where I found this wonderful information. My script was small, basically an alert to tell the user he/she is stupid. So I embedded the script in the Web Part. It worked. Here is my code snippet, since the one on MSDN was using old function to register the client script.

	private const string ByeByeIncludeScriptKey = "myByeByeIncludeScript";
    private const string EmbeddedScriptFormat =
          "<script language=javascript>alert('Bye Bye');</script> ";

    public WebPart_ClientScript()
    {
       this.PreRender += new EventHandler(WebPart_ClientScript_PreRender);
    }

    private void WebPart_ClientScript_PreRender(object sender , System.EventArgs e )
    {

          	if (!Page.ClientScript.IsClientScriptBlockRegistered(ByeByeIncludeScriptKey))
              Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptBlock(typeOf(WebPart_ClientScript), ByeByeIncludeScriptKey, EmbeddedScriptFormat);
    }

Note that [James.ToString()](http://blogs.ipona.com/james/archive/2006/10/03/6710.aspx “Don’t user GetType()”) says not to use this.GetType but rather typeOf(ControlName) where control name is the web part. So the above just tosses up an alert that happens when the page loads. Although, if you did want a function in there, to have it be called, you add the OnClientClick attribute to the asp tag.

	<asp:Button runat="server" Text="Oh, Click me.." OnClientClick="ShowAlert()" />

And that “ShowAlert()” can be any function name. Simple enough.

There are a bunch of tutorials out there that use C# to create a class library and the put that in the GAC (Windows assemblies folder) etc. I could not get those to work for the life of me. The best way I have found to develop, test, and then deploy a custom SharePoint Web Part to the production server is with Visual Studio SharePoint Extensions, for VS 2005 or VS 2008. Except it seems you can only install this if you have Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 installed. And you can only install WSS 3.0 on Windows Server 2003 SP1. Sorry, no free download for that.

(more…)

At work we are trying to develop some ways to visualize data. Since game engines are great at making complicated math look cool, we are trying to use them to visualize data-sets. We wanted to test how many “dimensions” we could represent (x, y, z..size, direction, color, etc). So I made a little proof of concept with Unity3d, SQLite, and AIR. (The AIR part of will not be covered in this tutorial; but I basically used it as a simple form to input data-points, nothing crazy.)

Unity3d uses Mono which has an SQLite Library which I then modified to javascript (for some reason it worked better in javascript than C#).

In this tutorial, I will assume you already have a basic understanding of databases, scripting, and even Unity.

So the first thing we’ll do is create a new project in Unity. Then create an Empty Game Object, place it at (0,0,0), and name it 3DGraph. To create an axis, simply create a Cube, make it a child of 3DGraph by dragging it onto 3DGraph in the Hierarchy view. Lets name this X-Axis and place it at (0,0,0) and scale it (100,0.5,0.5). This should give us a nice long bar on the x axis. Repeat these steps for Y-Axis and Z-Axis, scaling the respective axis by 100 and the other by 0.5.

Once that is complete, we should have a nice X,Y,Z graph. Feel free to get fancy and add materials and colors, and add a point light or some other light source, but I will not cover how to do that. With that done, lets take a moment to go over our database.

I used SQLite Database Browser to create and manipulate the SQLite DB. Create a new table called points and save the SQLite DB file in the same directory as the Unity project, name the DB file “SqliteTest.db” or something. Here is the SQLite CREATE statement for tabel points.

CREATE TABLE points (
	id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
	name VARCHAR,
	x NUMERIC,
	y NUMERIC,
	z NUMERIC,
	scale NUMERIC,
	r NUMERIC,
	g NUMERIC,
	b NUMERIC,
	timeMod date
)

The name is whatever name the point has, x,y,z are the coordinates, scale is how much to scale the point (size), r,g,b are the color values, and timeMod is the date it was last modified. These are the 7 dimensions that we will visualize in this tutorial. Since it is SQLite, a TRIGGER is needed to keep the timeMod up to date when data is updated or inserted. Here is the TRIGGER statement.

CREATE TRIGGER insert_point_timeMod AFTER INSERT ON points
BEGIN
	UPDATE points SET timeMod = DATETIME('NOW') WHERE id = new.id;
END;

CREATE TRIGGER update_point_timeMod AFTER UPDATE ON points
BEGIN
	UPDATE points SET timeMod = DATETIME('NOW') WHERE id = new.id;
END;

Now that the DB is all setup perfectly, quit the SQLite Database Browser (or else you will get an error when Unity tries to access the DB). Now we need to create the script in Unity to access the DB (Project view…Create JavaSctipt). You will have to rename it to something useful, like “MySqlite” or “SQLiteUpdater”. Here is the code.

	import System;
	import Mono.Data.Sqlite;

	var pointObject : Transform;

	private var childArray : Array = new Array();
	private var graphClone : Object;

	function Start()
	{
		var connStrn : String = "URI=file:SqliteTest.db";

		var dbcon : SqliteConnection = new SqliteConnection(connStrn);
		dbcon.Open();

		GetTable(dbcon);
		//GetLatest(dbcon);

		dbcon.Close();
		dbcon = null;
	}

	function Update ()
	{
		var connStrn : String = "URI=file:SqliteTest.db";

		var dbcon : SqliteConnection = new SqliteConnection(connStrn);
		dbcon.Open();

		var rowCount : int = GetRowCount(dbcon);
			//DestroyPoints();
		if((rowCount != transform.childCount - 3) || NeedUpdate(dbcon))
		{
			DestroyPoints();
			//graphClone = Instantiate(transform,Vector3.zero,Quaternion.identity);
			GetTable(dbcon);
		}
		//Debug.Log("children: " + transform.childCount);

		dbcon.Close();
		dbcon = null;
	}

	function GetRowCount(dbcon) : int
	{
		var dbcmd : Object = dbcon.CreateCommand();
		dbcmd.CommandText = "SELECT count(*) as count FROM points";

		var reader : Object;
		try
		{
			reader = dbcmd.ExecuteReader();
		}catch(err)
		{
			Debug.LogError("cmd failed:" + err.Message);
		}
		reader.Read();
		var rowCount : int = reader.GetInt32(0);

		reader.Close();
		reader = null;
		//dbcmd.Close();
		//dbcmd = null;

		return rowCount;
	}
	private var lastUpdated : DateTime;

	//If no update needed, don't redraw everything
	//Format 2008-01-30 15:38:41
	//       0123,56,89,1112,1415,1718
	//DateTime(Int32, Int32, Int32, Int32, Int32, Int32) constructor
	function NeedUpdate(dbcon) : Boolean
	{
		var latest = false;
		var dbcmd : Object = dbcon.CreateCommand();
		dbcmd.CommandText = "SELECT timeMod FROM points ORDER BY timeMod DESC LIMIT 1;";

		var reader : Object = dbcmd.ExecuteReader();
		reader.Read();

		var timeMod = reader.GetString(0);
		//Debug.Log("timeMod: " + timeMod);

		var tempYear = parseInt(timeMod[0].ToString()+timeMod[1].ToString()+timeMod[2].ToString()+timeMod[3].ToString());
		var tempMonth = parseInt(timeMod[5].ToString()+timeMod[6].ToString());
		var tempDay = parseInt(timeMod[8].ToString()+timeMod[9].ToString());
		var tempHour = parseInt(timeMod[11].ToString()+timeMod[12].ToString());
		var tempMinute = parseInt(timeMod[14].ToString()+timeMod[15].ToString());
		var tempSecond = parseInt(timeMod[17].ToString()+timeMod[18].ToString());

		var sqlUpdate  = new DateTime(tempYear,tempMonth,tempDay,tempHour,tempMinute,tempSecond);

		if(DateTime.Compare(sqlUpdate,lastUpdated) > 0) //sqlUpdate > lastUpdated
		{

			lastUpdated = sqlUpdate; //new DateTime(tempYear,tempMonth,tempDay,tempHour,tempMinute,tempSecond);
			latest = true;
		}

		//var timeInt : int = parseInt(timeMod);
		//var timeDivided : Array = timeMod.Substring(" ");
		//var timeDate : Array = timeDivided[0].split("-");
		//var timeTime : Array = timeDivided[1].split(":");
		//Debug.Log(timeDivided.ToString());// + timeDate.ToString() + timeTime.ToString());
		//pareInt

		reader.Close();
		reader = null;
		//dbcmd.Close();
		//dbcmd = null;

		return latest;
	}

	function GetTable(dbcon) : void
	{
		var dbcmd : Object = dbcon.CreateCommand();
		dbcmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM points;";

		var reader : Object = dbcmd.ExecuteReader();

		while(reader.Read())
		{

			var pos : Vector3 = new Vector3(reader.GetFloat(2),reader.GetFloat(3),reader.GetFloat(4));
			var scale : Vector3 = new Vector3(reader.GetFloat(5),reader.GetFloat(5),reader.GetFloat(5));
			var colour : Color = new Color(reader.GetFloat(6),reader.GetFloat(7),reader.GetFloat(8),1);

			var newChild : Transform = Instantiate(pointObject,Vector3.zero,Quaternion.identity);
			newChild.parent = transform;
			newChild.localPosition = pos;
			newChild.localScale = scale;
			newChild.renderer.material.color = colour;

			childArray.Push(newChild);
			//result += reader.GetInt32(0) + " " + reader.GetString(1) + " " + reader.GetString(2) + ", ";
			//http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.data.idatareader_methods.aspx
		}

		reader.Close();
		reader = null;
		//dbcmd.Close();
		//dbcmd = null;
	}

	//Erase them all so we can draw all the new ones and we won't get duplicates
	function DestroyPoints() : void
	{

		//Destroy(graphClone);
		//Can't remove Transform because MeshFilter, SphereCollider, MeshRenderer depend on it!
		//var points = GetComponentsInChildren(typeof(pointObject));
		while(childArray.length > 0)
		//for(var child : Object in points)
		{
			var child = childArray.Pop();

			var meshFilters = child.GetComponentsInChildren (MeshFilter);
			for (var meshF : MeshFilter in meshFilters) {
				DestroyImmediate(meshF);
			}

			var sphereColliders = child.GetComponentsInChildren (SphereCollider);
			for (var sphere : SphereCollider in sphereColliders) {
				DestroyImmediate(sphere);
			}

			var meshRenderers = child.GetComponentsInChildren (MeshRenderer);
			for (var meshR : MeshRenderer in meshRenderers) {
				DestroyImmediate(meshR);
			}

			DestroyImmediate(child);
			//Debug.Log("Children after destroy: " + transform.childCount);
		}
	}

Change the URI to point to your SQLite DB.

	var connStrn : String = "URI=file:SqliteTest.db";

Drag this script from the Project view onto the 3DGraph game object. All that is left is to create a point object. Lets just use a sphere, so create a new sphere object, call it GraphPoint, click on 3DGraph and drag GraphPoint onto the Point Object under the script settings. You should disable the source point object so its not confused with the ones created by the script. That should be all you need. The graph should plot the points in 3D space! Yay!

To make it more appealing, we added some controls, like zooming and flying the camera around with an XBOX360 controller. Maybe I will do that in Part 2, after I get back from Hawaii!!

Yesterday we interviewed some kids for our summer pilot “Game Academy.” We are basically trying to teach kids how to make games, and specifically make games on XNA (for XBOX 360).

The first girl was not interested at all. So Jeff was all bumbed. The second one, Del, comes in and immediates says, “Hey, why do you have an XBOX controller?” He’s on board from the get go! Next were 3 more girls, uh oh.

Courtney comes in, nervous and with Grandpa needing to go to work. We quickly gauge she enjoys using computers and let her grandpa get back to work. Melissa is next. She is a cheerleader and skateboarder, who likes Mattalica and Grand Theft Auto (just like Candace!). Brittany is the last one of the day, and she is very nervous. Once we told her what we wanted to do, she couldn’t stop smiling!

In conclusion, 4 out of 5 students super excited to learn how to make games. Score! Now I need to learn how to do it!

P.S. I just finished combining a chase camera, and split screen. Meaning: 2 players can fly separate planes around the screen with the camera following their own plane! I will post it a little tutorial when I clean it up, but here is the ChaseCamera and SplitScreen examples I combined.

At work we have our passwords expire every 90 days, but some people are off-site and do not get the friendly Windows log-on reminders that your password is expiring in, say, 14 days. So my boss thought, “Hey, it would be cool if AD could send out a email to everyone saying their password will expire! Sam, make one!”

So after googling around, I found some posts at CodeProject and some other places I can’t remember, and made a little Windows console app that reads in an XML file for the settings (AD server, email, etc) and sends an email to those whose passwords are expiring in the given number of days. And here is the C# Studio Express Solution…

ad_passexp_notifier.zip