I have been a huge fan of jQuery ever since I started working on IdeaPipe about 10 months ago. Mostly because of its simplistic DOM access using standard CSS syntax that we all have to learn anyways in the modern Web 2.0 world. In addition to the ease of finding elements on your page, it also works very nicely with other frameworks, I have used it in combination with Microsoft AJAX, Google’s GData JavaScript, and TinyMCE.
Personally I found this to be amazing news, because Microsoft is shipping an Open Source project, licensed under MIT License, with its flag ship developer tool, Visual Studio. Maybe if we play our cards right, we can start seeing other projects like NUnit and Moq start to ship with Visual Studio. I have my fingers crossed.
Microsoft is looking to make jQuery part of their official development platform. Their JavaScript offering today includes the ASP.NET Ajax Framework and they’re looking to expand it with the use of jQuery. This means that jQuery will be distributed with Visual Studio (which will include jQuery intellisense, snippets, examples, and documentation).
We will also extend Microsoft product support to jQuery beginning later this year, which will enable developers and enterprises to call and open jQuery support cases 24×7 with Microsoft PSS.
This is probably some of the most exciting, because it means that jQuery will be a supported stack in some of the more rigid enterprise development environments that won’t install anything that isn’t supported by Microsoft. I also beleive this is great news for MVC, because jQuery makes MVC just that much more useful for the average developer.
About a month ago I was experimenting with different ways to optimize my LINQ queries against the IdeaPipe database, in order to improve the read times. I wanted to improve the read times because our new Facebook Application was being launched and I anticipated an increase in our traffic to the server, which is used to host IdeaPipe and the Facebook Application component.
Whenever I am trying to optimize SQL queries I fire up SQL Server Profiler and take a look at how the queries are performing. This helps me identify queries that are taking a longer time to execute and probably need to be looked at or re-thought. One of the queries that I identified as needing improvement was the following LINQ query:
Old Query
from i in source
join xgl in GroupIdeaLinks on i.IdeaId equals xgl.IdeaId into groupLinksGroup
from gl in groupLinksGroup.DefaultIfEmpty()
let visibility = (gl == null ? 'O' : gl.Group.VisibilityPermission)
let groupId = (gl == null ? -1 : gl.GroupId)
where visibility == 'O' || GroupMembers.Count(m => m.GroupId == groupId && m.IsApproved && m.UserId == userId && (visibility == 'G' || (m.RoleId & (int)Role.Manager) == 0)) == 1
select i;
That produced this monster of a SQL statement:
SELECT [t5].[IdeaId], [t5].[CategoryId], [t5].[UserId], [t5].[IsPopular], [t5].[PopularOn], [t5].[Title], [t5].[SafeDescription], [t5].[Description], [t5].[Path], [t5].[Score], [t5].[Rank], [t5].[ExternalLink], [t5].[VideoLink], [t5].[BumpUpCount], [t5].[BumpDownCount], [t5].[TotalBumpCount], [t5].[TotalCommentCount], [t5].[CreatedOn], [t5].[rowversion]
FROM (
SELECT [t4].[IdeaId], [t4].[CategoryId], [t4].[UserId], [t4].[IsPopular], [t4].[PopularOn], [t4].[Title], [t4].[SafeDescription], [t4].[Description], [t4].[Path], [t4].[Score], [t4].[Rank], [t4].[ExternalLink], [t4].[VideoLink], [t4].[BumpUpCount], [t4].[BumpDownCount], [t4].[TotalBumpCount], [t4].[TotalCommentCount], [t4].[CreatedOn], [t4].[rowversion], [t4].[value],
(CASE
WHEN [t4].[test] IS NULL THEN @p1
ELSE [t4].[GroupId]
END) AS [value2]
FROM (
SELECT [t0].[IdeaId], [t0].[CategoryId], [t0].[UserId], [t0].[IsPopular], [t0].[PopularOn], [t0].[Title], [t0].[SafeDescription], [t0].[Description], [t0].[Path], [t0].[Score], [t0].[Rank], [t0].[ExternalLink], [t0].[VideoLink], [t0].[BumpUpCount], [t0].[BumpDownCount], [t0].[TotalBumpCount], [t0].[TotalCommentCount], [t0].[CreatedOn], [t0].[rowversion], [t2].[test], [t2].[GroupId],
(CASE
WHEN [t2].[test] IS NULL THEN @p0
ELSE CONVERT(NChar(1),[t3].[VisibilityPermission])
END) AS [value]
FROM [Ideas].[Ideas] AS [t0]
LEFT OUTER JOIN (
SELECT 1 AS [test], [t1].[GroupId], [t1].[IdeaId]
FROM [Groups].[GroupIdeaLink] AS [t1]
) AS [t2] ON [t0].[IdeaId] = [t2].[IdeaId]
INNER JOIN [Groups].[Groups] AS [t3] ON [t3].[GroupId] = [t2].[GroupId]
) AS [t4]
) AS [t5]
WHERE (UNICODE([t5].[value]) = @p2) OR (((
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM (
SELECT
(CASE
WHEN ([t6].[GroupId] = [t5].[value2]) AND ([t6].[IsApproved] = 1) AND (([t6].[UserId]) = @p3) AND ((UNICODE([t5].[value]) = @p4) OR (([t6].[RoleId] & @p5) = @p6)) THEN 1
WHEN NOT (([t6].[GroupId] = [t5].[value2]) AND ([t6].[IsApproved] = 1) AND (([t6].[UserId]) = @p3) AND ((UNICODE([t5].[value]) = @p4) OR (([t6].[RoleId] & @p5) = @p6))) THEN 0
ELSE NULL
END) AS [value]
FROM [Groups].[GroupMembers] AS [t6]
) AS [t7]
WHERE [t7].[value] = 1
)) = @p7)
So I started playing around with the LINQ statement until I reduced the size of my SQL query significantly. The following is the result of that optimization:
New Query
var groupMembership = (from gm in GroupMembers
let visibility = gm.Group.VisibilityPermission
where visibility == 'O' || (gm.IsApproved && gm.UserId == userId && (visibility == 'G' || (gm.RoleId & (int)Role.Manager) == 0))
select gm.GroupId).Distinct();
from i in Ideas
join xgl in GroupIdeaLinks on i.IdeaId equals xgl.IdeaId into groupLinksGroup
from gl in groupLinksGroup.DefaultIfEmpty()
where gl == null || groupMembership.Contains(gl.GroupId)
select i;
Which outputs the following SQL query:
SELECT [t0].[IdeaId], [t0].[CategoryId], [t0].[UserId], [t0].[IsPopular], [t0].[PopularOn], [t0].[Title], [t0].[SafeDescription], [t0].[Description], [t0].[Path], [t0].[Score], [t0].[Rank], [t0].[ExternalLink], [t0].[VideoLink], [t0].[BumpUpCount], [t0].[BumpDownCount], [t0].[TotalBumpCount], [t0].[TotalCommentCount], [t0].[CreatedOn], [t0].[rowversion]
FROM [Ideas].[Ideas] AS [t0]
LEFT OUTER JOIN (
SELECT 1 AS [test], [t1].[GroupId], [t1].[IdeaId]
FROM [Groups].[GroupIdeaLink] AS [t1]
) AS [t2] ON [t0].[IdeaId] = [t2].[IdeaId]
WHERE ([t2].[test] IS NULL) OR (EXISTS(
SELECT NULL AS [EMPTY]
FROM (
SELECT DISTINCT [t3].[GroupId]
FROM [Groups].[GroupMembers] AS [t3]
INNER JOIN [Groups].[Groups] AS [t4] ON [t4].[GroupId] = [t3].[GroupId]
WHERE (UNICODE([t4].[VisibilityPermission]) = @p0) OR (([t3].[IsApproved] = 1) AND (([t3].[UserId]) = @p1) AND ((UNICODE([t4].[VisibilityPermission]) = @p2) OR (([t3].[RoleId] & @p3) = @p4)))
) AS [t5]
WHERE [t5].[GroupId] = [t2].[GroupId]
))
As you can tell the second query is much more compact and it does the exact same thing as the first query. I was pretty proud of my self and riding high on my genius, until this happened:
Well this didn’t really happen, but you get the point. I quickly came down from my high when I tested the performance of the new query in SQL Server Profiler, and received these results from the two queries:
OLD QUERY (Reads 130, Durration 5)
NEW QUERY (Reads 218, Durration 28)
That is right my optimization increased the number of times SQL has to read the table by 68% and time it takes to execute by 460%. So I reversed all my changes and learned a lesson on how not to optimize a LINQ statement.
The moral of the story is you probably don’t need to optimize your SQL query through LINQ, just keep it simple and optimize your LINQ statement and leave the rest up to the professionals at Microsoft who created the LINQ to SQL expression query generator.
Creating a modern, web 2.0, application with MVC and jQuery with a focus on doing this in a RESTful manor. My goal is for the developers in attendance to learn how to create a RESTful website design using MVC and implement that RESTful design on the front end with some simple jQuery. These principals will be demonstrated by creating a simple Twitter like application for sharing messages. All the source code will be available via my website at http://www.coderjournal.com after the presentation.
If you think you might attended the meeting please make sure to register, so that Bill has an accurate count for the food order.
User Group News
* Please distribute this notice throughout your development community!
We have some great meetings lined up for the next few months. Please take a look at the upcoming schedule on the web site.
September 17
ASP.NET Dynamic Data, MVC & Web 2.0
Wednesday
Malvern, PA
Our monthly meeting will be held at the Microsoft Greater PA Office in Malvern, PA on Wednesday, September 17 from 5:30-8:30. Refreshments are provided courtesy of Vovéo Marketing Group. Please register on our web site. Detailed directions are on the Microsoft Greater PA web site.
5:30
Rachel Appel, Appel Consulting An Introduction to ASP.NET Dynamic Data
If you are tired of the same old ASP.NET webforms, GridViews, and ADO.NET data access code that make up your current applications, then you’ll want to take a closer look at ASP.NET Dynamic Data. ASP.NET Dynamic Data is Microsoft’s new technology that provides a template infrastructure for your application, page and fields based on your application’s data model. In this session you will learn concepts and use of application templates to create ASP.NET dynamic data web application. We’ll then create customizations at the application and page levels showing how easy website maintenance is when using ASP.NET Dynamic Data. We’ll also cover field level customizations by supplying data display formats, custom field types, and data validation based on the application’s data model.
Rachel Appel lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania and is the senior technology consultant at Appel Consulting. Rachel is an MVP and a member of ASPInsiders, and holds the MCT MCAD & MCSD certifications. She has been working as an instructor, software developer, architect and DBA for a wide variety of organizations. She is the Vice President and a regular speaker of the dotNetValley user’s group, as well as an active member in other local user groups of Northeastern Pennsylvania and the tri-state area. Rachel’s expertise lies within developing solutions that align business and technology using the Microsoft .NET family of products.
6:45 Q&A
Rob Keiser & Dani Diaz, philly.net co-leaders, ask questions, get answers from your peers!
Nicholas Berardi, Vovéo Marketing Group MVC & Web 2.0
Creating a modern, web 2.0, application with MVC and jQuery with a focus on doing this in a RESTful manor. My goal is for the developers in attendance to learn how to create a RESTful website design using MVC and implement that RESTful design on the front end with some simple jQuery. These principals will be demonstrated by creating a simple Twitter like application for sharing messages. All the source code will be available via my website at http://www.coderjournal.com after the presentation.
Nicholas Berardi works for Vovéo Marketing Group in Malvern, PA as a Software Architect. He is the co-author of ASP.NET MVC Website Programming, Problem, Design, Solution published by Wrox and will be released early 2009. He received his BS in Information Science and Technology from The Pennsylvania State University in 2003. Nick has been using C# and the .NET framework since its beta and has over 10 years of experience in web development and related technologies. He helped to develope one the first websites on the internet to use the ASP.NET MVC framework, in a production environment, at http://www.ideapipe.com. He blogs at http://www.coderjournal.com.
LifeHacker has a first look at iTunes 8.0. As of right now iTunes can be downloaded from Apple, but not through Apple Update yet. Doesn’t look as revolutionary as many people have been saying but it seems to be a logical update for Apple. I will update in a little bit if it works with Windows Vista x64, but I imagine given iTunes 7.0 that it will.
BEWARE!
Everything went find with the iTunes on Windows 64-bit except for the fact that iTunes turned on 1-Click buying for the iTunes store for some reason. If this is not your current setting you probably want to specifically check for this under. Edit - Preference - Store in iTunes. I don’t know if this is a plan for Apple to get extra revenue or if the settings just got reset because of the install of iTunes 8, but I have never had this happen before. Luckily for me I was just buying some of their Free HD Episodes.
So when Google announced they had a new browser that was going to break down all the barriers of the internet and the desktop I got excited at the prospects of what they were going to do and what this new user interaction would be. Well today they finally announced the release of the browser and made it public at:
However after a quick inspection of the user-agent I soon realized that they didn’t create a new browser just a slight modification of Apple Safari.
It is Safari with just a more standard Windows interface, something Apple should have really done. They even copied it all the way down to the great XML support that Safari has.
Here are some more of the screen shots from Chrome.
I honestly would wait and not give this any air time, but I know that won’t be the case because everybody is already fawning over it. Now thanks to Google and the slight modifications they made we now have a 5th browser that us developers now have to support.
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So when Google announced they had a new browser that was going to break down all the barriers of the internet and the desktop I got excited at the prospects of what they were going to do and what this new user interaction would be. Well today they finally announced the release of the browser and made it public at:
