TECH TALK – Can I Automate my DTO? Simpler Development- ASP.NET/MVC with Entity Framework

Over the years of development time on a number of small and big projects, I personally have always found myself in a position of asking myself “Do I use DTO’s?”.

I wrote this article to share a blog post from  SamsCode.com 

Link is : http://samscode.com/index.php/2010/06/entity-framework-v4-end-to-end-application-strategy-part-2-data-layer/

For those that are not tech-heads or geeks and are not sure what a DTO is; A DTO is the acronym for Data Transfer Objects, and they aid in making a web or software experience lighter, faster and easier to implement new features straight from your Database storage model.

So when Microsoft brought out the new paradigm of Database to -> Object & Object to -> Database mapping techniques called LINQtoSQL and LINQtoEntities a lot of people stopped creating DTO’s and started using the direct Entity Database object straight from your Data Access Layer….

Over time myself and other users have realised that this is a BAD! BAD! BAD!, Yes BAD! way of moving data around, due highly to these little boxes of data being transferred around your Web applications or Software applications and clogging up your memory allocation.

 What made me ask myself the question of using DTO’s again was in Development of a project on the ASP.NET MVC With Entity Framework 4.1 platform was being stuck with the dreaded Error Exception of “Unable to serialize and object, as there is a circular reference“.

What Entity Framework does is it maps out your Database Structure tables and creates a persistent class for each table and the constraints and associations each table has from each other.

For example in a database you might have a Table called “Employee” and you then have another table called “JobRole” and there is a linke between these two tables to show that an Employee can have multiple Job Roles. Entity Framework in .NET will create an object called Employee and create a Property on Employee with the name JobRoles, and this for each record in the Employee list will state an Employees Job Roles list.

So as I am personally a passionate .NET Developer, and I also love the idea of some automation, when used correctly if stumbled across maybe one of the best articles of the past 3 years in Database Object Mapping.

http://samscode.com/index.php/2010/06/entity-framework-v4-end-to-end-application-strategy-part-2-data-layer/

In this article from SamsCode.com he gives you some amazing and time saving approached to Entity Framework Templates & object classes to automate your whole Data Transfer Object Model directly from your Entity Framework Model. But more importantly his concepts are “Real World” and there is not one template that he talks about that won’t help you out with making your Data Layer & Business Layers of Web Applications and Software clean and nice. 

 

Vodafone Ireland: Christmas Laser Graffiti

Vodafone Ireland  have launched a  creative and innovative campaign this year in conjunction with the Christmas Season. The campaign looks to combine social media, projection mapping and street art, in an attempt to take the brand’s Facebook community offline and onto the streets.

The campaign is a nice extension and  ties in nicely with Vodafone’s social voice this year which is all about encouraging their community  to ‘Make someone happy’ with Random acts of kindness.

Local Irish artists, took to the streets, creating light displays from messages submitted to the Vodafone Playgroup Facebook wall. Using new laser graffiti technology, these were showcased on the sides of buildings in three cities across Ireland.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all back in Ireland

Think Insights with Google, research tool for marketers

*Quick pop quiz…

1. How many hours of video were uploaded to YouTube in 2010?

2. What percentage of smartphone owners, use their device while shopping?

3. What Australian state most frequently searches for the weather forecast?

As a planner, I’m always chasing that one research tool to bring them all together, and while Think Insights with Google attempts to do just that, it does fall short in a few areas. It’s missing the core search functionality that is the cornerstone of Google’s business. After all, the nirvana of a planner research tool would provide just that, a simple way to intelligently search and prioritise, facts, stats and behavioural trends based on a simple question, such as: ‘How many Australian’s use their laptop in the kitchen while cooking?’

On the flip side, this is a good resource if you are looking for general information on search and mobile related topics, particularly for Google brand related products. And, it does include over 100 custom reports, so you can certainly pop it on the list of go-to resources for all things digital.

My personal favourite resources on the site are: Our Mobile Planet tool (though the data is a little shady for the emerging markets such as India and China) and the Research Library finder.

Ultimately, Think Insights with Google is the perfect tool for media planners, and a useful resource for digital strategists too. Despite it’s downfalls it is one of the best free resources that I have found.

@mariagioffre

 

*Answers

1. 13 million hours

2. 70%

3. Victoria

Track your retail shoppers with Kinect

We have seen a lot of different uses for Kinect and more and more useful things have slowly come around (e.g. this mobile armchair )

Now there is another way of using Kinect – this time to track your customers in a retail environment. It’s called Shopper Tracker.

The sensor sits on top of the shelf and tracks the shopping behavior of the customers underneath. It then creates a heat map of the shelf so you can tell what your best selling items are. As far as I can tell it is not commercially available yet and no price has been announced, but that might change soon.

Check out their video below.

 

maniac13

Nokia & DJ/Producer deadmau5 lights up London with awesome 4D projection

As a massive fan of the DJ deadmau5 and an ex-Londoner this footage of the recent Nokia product launch was always going to excite me.

That said you certainly don’t have to be a supporter of either to appreciate the sheer awesomeness of this video. Well executed and totally awe inspiring. Nokia successfully bring together the world’s most advanced 4D technology with great music to create an amazing free light show at Millbank Tower in London.

What happened?

“Each of the 120 metre high building’s 800 windows were covered with vinyl as 16 powerful projectors, stationed 300 metres away on the other side of the river, beamed 3D images onto the structure. Huge butterflies flew across the London skyline and the tower was twisted, pulsated and even fell down. Billed as the “future of live events” the spectacular show was accompanied by music from super producer deadmau5, who created exclusive remixes for the performance — adding the 4th dimension.”

Prepare yourself this is a light show like never before!

@lottienorman

Sex Sells! This works even for bottled water

or in the case of the French bottled water company Contrex a fun ad campaign using a Neon Male Stripper.

This ad was broadcasted in October and it features pink exercise bikes in front of a, what seems to be, historic building in Paris and when some curious ladies start pedalling Neon lights come to life and reveal a male stripper starting to undress.

At the end the girls are told that they just burnt 2000 calories which falls in line with Contrex “My Contrexperience” digital campaign which says that we all would lose more weight if the process was funnier and these ladies definitely look like they had a good time.

Interestingly there are a few rumours online that claim that this is fake as nobody recognizes the building and citizens of Paris claim they never heard of it.

I think it is still a great campaign – tell me what you think in the comments.

@maniac13