Web Development: Using WURFL to identify the Clients’s device

Sometimes in web-development, it is needed to identify the connecting device, if it is a mobile phone, a tablet or a normal desktop browser.

This is possible by inspecting the HTTP_USER_AGENT parameter -part of the HTTP header- which has some information about the client’s browser, connecting device and operating system.

Anyway; the HTTP_USER_AGENT parameter is a mess, there are no specifications about how the browser should formulate the HTTP_USER_AGENT string and you can never tell from the string signature the supported features on the connecting device. Sometimes it is needed to know if  the connecting device support HTML5 and J2ME? , does this device have a QWERTY keyboard …etc.

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SOAP in 100 minutes

If you are an enterprise developer, then you must have came across SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).

When you are first introduced to it, you drown in a ocean of terms and jargon that eventually kills the purpose of it (Simple).

In this this 100 minutes tutorial I try to introduce the reader to SOAP jargon without being stuck in the Jargon Quick sand. I try to introduce terms naturally and gradually as they are needed and as much as possible try to provide visual exhibits to reduce the number of words.

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XML tutorial in 100 minutes

Time for another tutorial: XML in 100 minutes.

XML today is a vital technology in contemporary organizations, it is widely used to transfer data between applications and other uses.

Knowing XML for today’s IT Gurus is as important as Unix and SQL skills. Many Applications requires XML know-how.

This short guide to XML is only an fast introduction to XML, later tutorials will follow about the individual subjects in XML, like XSLT, SOAP …etc.

The tutorial is available here in PDF, HTML and Adobe-Flash Formats

One of the slides has an overview of XML technologies:

XML at a glance

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Oracle Virtual machine “OTN Developer Days” appliance.

If you are a developer and need your own Oracle environment to try out and test ideas without disrupting your main development environment, then I propose using a Virtual Machine with Developer Days appliance.

Choose what type of environment you want from this link and start following the instructions. I prefer the Developer Days appliance , since it requires reasonable resources and more related to my work. This virtual Machine contains:

• Oracle Enterprise Linux 5
• Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Enterprise Edition
• Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Cache
• Oracle XML DB
• Oracle SQL Developer
• Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler
• Oracle Application Express 4.0
• Oracle JDeveloper
• Hands-On-Labs (accessed via the Toolbar Menu in Firefox)

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Visualize your Data with GraphViz

Ever wanted to visualize your  database information ?

here is a quick answer:

SQL –> XML –> XSL trasnformation–> DOT –> GraphViz –> JPEG/PDF

I work theses days with Siebel CRM system.  It is very configurable in how you want to store your data and display them.

One thing about Siebel Configuration, is that you can overload one table with multiple entities.  Each Siebel customization could be different in how you organize your entities into tables. So I had a problem in really understanding how the system was developed. Cases like which type of records link to which entities in the same table or other tables.

I was looking for someway to visualize Entity relation based on the data that is there in the Database -I’m not talking about Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)- I’m talking about how certain customers relate to each others and to their addresses.

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