Signs on the Sand

And the winners are Dave Pawson and Leon Bambrick. Both of them are getting Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite with 1 year MSDN Premium Subscription. Congrats guys! I hope it will help with your work and so benefit the community. Sorry to the rest - I only have 2 cards ...

XslCompiledTransform implements the following useful MSXML extension functions. But what if you need to use them in XPath-only context - when evaluating XPath queries using XPathNavigator? ...

Function	Signature and description
ms:string-compare	number ms:string-compare(string x, string y[, string language[, string options]]) Performs lexicographical string comparison.
ms:utc	string ms:utc(string time) Converts the prefixed date/time related values into Coordinated Universal Time and into a fixed (normalized) representation that can be sorted and compared lexicographically.
ms:namespace-uri	string ms:namespace-uri(string name) Resolves the prefix part of a qualified name into a namespace URI.
ms:local-name	string ms:local-name(string name) Returns the local name part of a qualified name by stripping out the namespace prefix.
ms:number	number ms:number(string value) Takes a string argument in XSD format and converts it into an XPath number.
ms:format-date	string ms:format-date(string datetime[, string format[, string locale]]) Converts standard XSD date formats to characters suitable for output.
ms:format-time	string ms:format-time(string datetime[, string format[, string locale]]) Converts standard XSD time formats to characters suitable for output.

Here is a quick sketch on how to leverage XslCompiledTransform implementation of these functions to create custom XslContext class. The code above implments only ms:string-compare(), but other functions can be added in a similar way. Here is how you use it:

string xml = "ABCDEFGH";
XPathExpression expr = 
    XPathExpression.Compile("ms:string-compare(value[1], value[2])");
MsXsltContext ctx = new MsXsltContext();
ctx.AddNamespace("ms", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt");
expr.SetContext(ctx);
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(xml);
XPathNavigator nav = doc.DocumentElement.CreateNavigator();
Console.WriteLine(nav.Evaluate(expr));

And here is sample MsXsltContext implementation:

using System;
using System.Xml.Xsl;
using System.Xml.XPath;
using System.Xml;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Xml.Xsl.Runtime;
using System.Globalization;

public class MsXsltContext : XsltContext
{
    // Function to resolve references to my custom functions.
    public override IXsltContextFunction ResolveFunction(string prefix, 
        string name, XPathResultType[] argTypes)
    {
        string namespaceUri = this.LookupNamespace(prefix);
        if (namespaceUri == "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt")
        {
            switch (name)
            {
                case "string-compare":
                    return new MsExtensionFunction(name, 2, 4,
                        new XPathResultType[] { XPathResultType.String, 
                        XPathResultType.String, XPathResultType.String, 
                        XPathResultType.String },
                        XPathResultType.Number);
            }
        }

        return null;
    }

    public override IXsltContextVariable ResolveVariable(string prefix, 
        string name)
    {
        return null;
    }

    public override int CompareDocument(string baseUri, string nextBaseUri)
    {
        return 0;
    }

    public override bool PreserveWhitespace(XPathNavigator node)
    {
        return true;
    }

    public override bool Whitespace
    {
        get
        {
            return true;
        }
    }
}

public class MsExtensionFunction : IXsltContextFunction
{
    private XPathResultType[] argTypes;
    private XPathResultType returnType;
    private string name;
    private int minArgs;
    private int maxArgs;
    private MethodInfo method;

    public int Minargs
    {
        get
        {
            return minArgs;
        }
    }

    public int Maxargs
    {
        get
        {
            return maxArgs;
        }
    }

    public XPathResultType[] ArgTypes
    {
        get
        {
            return argTypes;
        }
    }

    public XPathResultType ReturnType
    {
        get
        {
            return returnType;
        }
    }

    public MsExtensionFunction(string name, int minArgs, 
        int maxArgs, XPathResultType[] argTypes, XPathResultType returnType)
    {
        this.name = name;
        this.minArgs = minArgs;
        this.maxArgs = maxArgs;
        this.argTypes = argTypes;
        this.returnType = returnType;
    }

    public object Invoke(XsltContext xsltContext, object[] args, 
        XPathNavigator docContext)
    {
        switch (name)
        {
            case "string-compare":
                if (method == null)
                {
                    method = typeof(XsltFunctions).GetMethod("MSStringCompare");
                }

                object[] fullArgs = new object[maxArgs];
                fullArgs[0] = ConvertToString(args[0]);
                fullArgs[1] = ConvertToString(args[1]);
                fullArgs[2] = args.Length > 2 ? ConvertToString(args[2]) : "";
                fullArgs[3] = args.Length > 3 ? ConvertToString(args[3]) : "";

                return method.Invoke(null, fullArgs);
        }
        return null;
    }

    private static string ConvertToString(object argument)
    {
        XPathNodeIterator it = argument as XPathNodeIterator;
        if (it != null)
        {
            return IteratorToString(it);
        }
        else
        {
            return ToXPathString(argument);
        }
    }

    private static string IteratorToString(XPathNodeIterator it)
    {
        if (it.MoveNext())
        {
            return it.Current.Value;
        }
        return string.Empty;
    }

    private static String ToXPathString(Object value)
    {
        string s = value as string;
        if (s != null)
        {
            return s;
        }
        else if (value is double)
        {
            return ((double)value).ToString("R", 
                NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);
        }
        else if (value is bool)
        {
            return (bool)value ? "true" : "false";
        }
        else
        {
            return Convert.ToString(value, 
                NumberFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);
        }
    }
}

Don't forget to add a reference to the System.Data.SqlXml.dll.

 Gmail client for mobile devices was released by Google a month ago. It's Java ME MIDP2 application, cool looking as one could expect from Google. I went and installed it last week on my Motorola V3X. Well, I found out that while Gmail for mobile work on hundreds of different mobile devices ...

Anyway, while digging around my phone filesystem I found a folder where J2ME applications are installed (/a/mobile/kjava/installed/) and there I found Gmail jar, image png file and other working files including RMS file. RMS stands for MIDP Record Management System (RMS) - a persistent storage for J2ME MIDlets. Seeing string "Login store" inside it I couldn't resist to scan it. What I found though was my Gmail username and password in clear text!

0000000FF0:  FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF                  
0000001000:  00 10 6F 6C 65 67 74 6B │ 40 67 6D 61 69 6C 2E 63   ►olegtk@gmail.c
0000001010:  6F 6D 00 0A 6D 79 70 61 │ 73 73 77 6F 72 64 FF FF  om ◙mypassword  
0000001020:  FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF │ FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF                  

 WTF??? 

Well, I can't affirm that Gmail for mobile application indeed stores user password in clear text, because I never got it fully working on my phone. Chances are they encrypt it after first successful login.

I need somebody to confirm this. If you've got Gmail for mobile application installed on your mobile, please take a look how your password is stored. I have no idea which mobile devices allow direct access to the file system, but at least it's very easy for Motorola phones. Just install P2K drivers and P2K Phone File Manager, run it and open /a/mobile/kjava/installed/ folder. Find Gmail's RMS file and inspect it.

PS. I did contact Google about this issue, but never got any response.

I saw today Josh Christie post about "Better HTML parsing and validation with HtmlAgilityPack". HtmlAgilityPack is an open source project on CodePlex.  It provides standard DOM APIs and XPath navigation -- even when the HTML is not well-formed! Well, DOM and XPath over malformed HTML isn't new idea. I've been using ...

I just uploaded nxslt v2.1 release. In addition to the nxslt.exe command line tool it now also includes nxslt task implementation for NAnt and MSBuild. ...

Why another XSLT task? Because existing ones suck. NAnt includes standard "style" task, but it uses obsolete slow and buggy XslTransform engine to perform transformations. MSBuild doesn't include XSLT task at all, while the Xslt task from the MSBuild Community Tasks Project is broken. Not no mention these tasks are barebone ones. If you need a better XSLT task for NAnt or MSBuild - nxslt task is for you.

Here is some highlights on this new nxslt task.

nxslt task is a free feature-rich task for NAnt and MSBuild that allows to perform XSL Transformations (XSLT) using .NET Framework 2.0 XSLT 1.0 implementation - XslCompiledTransform class. nxslt task supports plenty of advanced features:

• XML Base, XInclude, XPointer
• Embedded stylesheets
• <?xml-stylesheet?> processing instruction
• Multiple output documents via exsl:document extension element
• Custom URI resolving
• Custom extension functions
• 70+ EXSLT and EXSLT.NET extension functions
• Credentials to access XML documents and XSLT stylesheets
• Pretty printing
• Batch processing

nxslt and nxslt task are free tools under BSD license. Download here.

Btw, besides transforming XML documents nxslt task can also be used for pretty printing or resolving XIncludes. I'll post on this later.

I completely forgot that I still have one Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite with MSDN Premium Subscription gift card to give away. And it expires 12/31! Oh boy, what do I do now??? So for the next 2 weeks I'll be holding the "The Coolest XML Project Contest". ...

Here is the deal. If you are working on a cool project, product, web site, service or whatever no matter open source or commercial one, which uses any XML technology in any way (hey, isn't anything matches this description nowadays?) you have a chance to win this $10K worth gray box from Microsoft called "Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite with MSDN Premium Subscription for one year". Everybody is eligible, no limitations or restrictions (well, microsofties and devs working for Al-Qaeda are obviously out).

To enter the contest you only need to describe your thing (project/product/web site/service/whatever) to me. Keep it simple. Don't forget to mention how any XML technology is involved. Just post it as a comment on this page. Or if you need pictures to describe it - write on your blog and post here a link. If your are not ready to disclose your stuff to the public eye, send me an email (and then if you win I promise not to unveil project details until you say me so).

It's me who will decide which entry is the coolest and so who is the winner. I'll probably consult my friends though.

Well, I'm XML and XSLT geek doing open source projects so I'm naturally biased toward such kind of things, but that means nothing. What I really want is to give it away to somebody who actually needs it and who is it going to use it to build something cool and preferably to benefit the community.

I'm accepting entries till December 24, 2006. Hurry up. Take a chance.

Better late than never - forthcoming Java 6 (currently Release Candidate) will include StAX, pull based streaming XML API.  .NET has pull based XML parser (XmlReader) from the very beginning and Microsoft was arguing .NET's XmlReader is better than SAX since at least 2002. No, I'm not saying Java catches .NET up ...

I was building NAnt and MSBuild tasks for the nxslt tool last two days and the bottom line of my experience is "previously I thought NAnt sucks, but now I know NAnt is brilliant and it's MSBuild who sucks really big way". My complaints about NAnt were that NAnt being .NET ...

I'm missing something obvious and spent already about two hours on that simple problem. I hope somebody profficient in MSBuild drops me a line. How do I build MSBuild custom task that has XML subtree? Here is my NAnt task:<nxslt in="books.xml" style="books.xsl" out="out/catalog.html"> <parameters> <parameter name="param1" namespaceuri="" value="val1"/> </parameters> </nxslt> How ...