Chorn Sokun’s Weblog

Early this month I got into a busy schedule in order to release my new database application. I needed to run & check a final test, wrote up manual and do some paper work to invite my colleague across the country (2 staffs from each province X 24) to attend a 3 days training workshop in total we get approximately 48 staffs which is too much for an IT training so we split it into 2 batches 12 provinces each.

In term of the actual database I allocated 2 days and for the first day of the training I leave it for general IT update lesson which include Khmer Unicode orientation half morning, and for that session alone I am very lucky to have Mr. CHEA Sok Huor a Country Project Leader from PAN and his colleague came in for help. Without them I wouldn’t know where to get such precise Khmer Unicode Orientation somewhere else, so thank you from the deepest of my heart.

Oh! Talking about helping there is another gentle who I owe him as well, that gentle is Mr. Tuy Pheap my long colleague. We share room in the last 3 years before he moved on to his current job and come back to seat behind my back :) “Again :D”.  I disturb him from time to time :D policing what my system do against his employer needs (the World Bank) not only that he also help me correct my Khmer Translation + Spelling :) and this phrase “ខ្ញុំយល់ហើយ!!!” for a button which in English say “I Understand” was his innovation :) let me tell you about this joke

In our new application if there are any problems or errors detected a list of detail explanation will show up ( jQuery modal )  what I originally did was to have user click on “Ok” button to close the message. But without anything special user might just click “Ok” and go on … that not fun. So we came up with an idea instead of naming the button “Ok” we called it “I Understand” :))

And as a side effect during the training we forget to translate a few messages so default message showed. Since the user  do not read English and he dare not click on the button to close the message :(

I am glad with the result as it turn out and thanks to all the backend libraries that I used without them I wouldn’t know how much I would need to damage my brain cells to get this job done :)

What I used?

• NHibernate
• Castle (MonoRail, ActiveRecord)
• Rhino-Tool (Rhino.Security, Rhino.Common)
• Oh ! ASP.NET for sure :) but I a brail devil don’t blame me for not using webform
• Log4net
• jQuery & it plug-in(s)

Challenges:

• For the past 5 years most of them get use to do data entry in desktop mode (VB6)
• Some of them using the Internet for the first time; right this is (1==1).
• The amount of data that we collect had increase 1.5X
• More restriction in term of data modification – they used to have full control over there data and that cause me alot of headache over the past years.

At the end of training session I got a request to setup a demo URL (http://db.ncdd.gov.kh/pid-train) so that when participant get back to their duty province they can teach their colleague, by doing this I get a few additional feedback on how to improve the process of data entry as well as knowing how user interact with the application.

For sure: “No one is perfect” and “No software ever release bug free” as long as it could do it main job properly I would call it V1.

Now the weekend is coming I had to switch on actual URL and for that mean I had to copy a folder change connection string to get another URL up and running KOOL stuff ;)

I hope Ayende won’t mind if I steal the name :D well, he did used that name for one of his sample project. Anyway let me throw some good news out to all of my blog trackers “who loves coding :D” I just check-in a sample project using Castle minutes ago.

As I am not sure how many of you understand what I am blogging about or even had trouble try to replicate my trip. Now I make it simpler if you want to catch-up or debate with me on my future Castle posts you got a chance to start it  now just go grab a stick and stone from http://code.google.com/p/storm-the-castle/

If you have any question/suggestion/request you can post it on the project site I am happy to help it out as time allow ;)

Oh by the way this is my 100 posts :))

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.

I had spent the last two weeks work with my colleague to improve our intranet web application which had been used for the last 3 years (.NET 1.1 WebForm days). I thought that was a good opportunity to introduce Castle into the organization and voilá tomorrow is my showtime. I am going to present this new draft to the management and I hope they like it ;)

WB-RILGP Powered by Castle

It takes almost 2 weeks and I feel like I am building a plane in the sky. What can you expect not to do when you are on solo team?

With additional resource to help I believe we can get this kind of project done in 2 weeks; I hope all the  ”warior in train” get ready to rock the world soon enough ;)

It amazes to see how people taking their value time and energy try to make the different, somehow I was not expected this phenomenon to growth that much in Cambodia but the truth is Cambodian make a different.

Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls watch out !

Syntax Localization

At the movement of posting I am not clear who behind this project… but, you guy made something that turn my morning into

Congratulation! now let open our discussion will this thing change Cambodian development climate what are your pros & cons?

I never regret to step my feet into programming world back in 1997. My first experience using notepad to script out (HTML) website. I don’t remember how many times I skew up my brother’s computer just to figure out a thing no matter how hard he try to avoid me. 

Rewind for the last 10 years I keep pushing myself up step by step no matter how hard, stressful I got I never give up. 10 years? Yeah I know my brain deserved a major upgrade perhap replacement of RAM, CPU Squad Core or something :) But see it took me so long to get to this stage where I legendary programmers abroad take much shorter time to advance their skills.

You may compare my learning experience to a single pig raising in a big farm, the lack of physical interaction, challenge and guiding is the main source preventing it from fast growth. But that are all history today I am so happy, because I am no fall into those mind set and I am not alone, ladies & gentlemen the dark army is rising. 

Dark Army, taking on TDD & DDD

This is the 5th session that they all come together and learn .NET programming C# and I glad to become their instructor as much as I enjoy walking them through the learning curve. Although it is a programming course we don’t talk much about syntax sugar or debate about how it was designed because it doesn’t give much value in real world once it’s time to get down to business so what they need to learn are concepts and tool set for rapid application development.

I want to see some new face as well but it doesn’t seem to work out just yet :) but again we please to invite you to join our journey anytime just keep you eyes on our public calendar.

Let the spirit of sharing growth among Cambodian, let us all create an opportunity for our young generation to extend what we had discovered.

From my previous post on giving “free C# lecturing session” I have had a good time guiding friends into my own world. To make it a better hours to spend time I manage a temporary agendar in my google calendar where you can subscribe and get inform on the next session.

As I already mention the agenda is not fixed you can propose additional item as long as it fit within the scope of C# programming.

Why not x, y language and platform z? Of cause not only I want to share something that I learn but I want to iron the knowledge as well so yeah if you are inspired setup your session one I might be your first guess but I don’t want to waste time talking about something unrealistic which beyond my ability. I want participant walk out of each session learning something that they apply to their daily tasks “I expected”.

What should you bring?

• Pen & Notebook
• Questions – check the session agenda prepare your questions.
• Laptop – I can’t afford to get a proper room & LCD so bear me try it on your own laptop with your own risk “kidding” but yeah we do a round table session.
• Beers? yeah that would help clarify most cases

Let hit the jackpot.

A part from rely on google search to craw for new knowledge I did enjoy listening to various developer’s podcasts. I don’t know about you but if you believe me I did learn something from each podcast show.

So my dear friends why don’t you tune in your iTune and subscribe to a few of these podcasts and check it out ;)

• .NET Rock Podcast by Carl Franklin & Richard Campbell
• ALT.NET Podcast
• Herding Code
• ThoughtWorks – IT Matters Podcast
• Hanselminutes talk show

is there anymore? you tell me :)

Guy, I feel all the time I have been blogging to myself. I knew cause I usually got zero comment :) not sure how many of you are developer that really understand what I am talking about.

I believe over the years of self study I had possessed something beautiful which become my liability not sharing to someone locally.

my lazy friends

So my dear lazy friends are you interested to get a free C# lecturing session? I would be able to give it that as long as you provide me a room with LCD projector if you can bring some beers that would be best ;)

Alright I want to try something a bit hot (make sure you not fall asleep along the way) here are a few topic I love to cover:

• C# OOP Q&A Session
• C# Test-Driven Development (TDD)
• ORM introduction (NHibernate)
• ASP.NET Development with Castle & Rhino-Tools

I might not be the best in town but I’ll try the hardest shot. So what your thought? Are you ready to be burn?

Note: this program is only available on Saturday/Sunday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia only.
Requirement: leave your comment and i will get back to you.

Recently I was requested by an old friend (as known as my loyal client) which I helped him a few years back to fill in a task that his core developer could not do to help him again.

Back in history I used to work for him as a consultant. I suppose to his staff solve their problems using relevant technology and techniques. However at that time the developer was unable to catch up with the trend. So he asked me to transform myself into an developer and implementing the missing pieces. That was kind of interesting project so I agreed to take it.

By the way I mean to say bad about the my friend staff. The developer worked for my friend at that time he did his job very well. He completed 90% of the work that their client wanted “Restaurant Management Application” via “RAD” VB6 + SQL Server 2000 :) oh and he wrote a few wrapping method for data & UI creation call which is nice. However at the very last week the client came and asked them to implement additional feature which was used by his competitor restaurant and yeah they want to allow their staff to record customer ordering through a Pocket PC devices.

Since then the project gone live and everyone are happy with it. So what the heck I am saying all of these? Because now it more than just me filling the missing pieces. This time he has no longer employee any developer.  He approached me this time with the full source code that his old developer staff did (VB6 + SQL SERVER 2000) and asked me to upgrade this software for his new client, well of cause with additional feature request.

As much as I tried to escape from VB6 it always come back to me time and time again. I think I have no longer willing to forget it but to live with it. And if I count recent CMS customization work that I did with my newphew and man that was Joomla! CMS hacking for smoth integration of various extensions for at less 4 different clients ( and you should know they shall each has their unique requirements).

Within two weeks I got that much to do, It really a greate experience to trick my brain from confusing the system especially ending a VB6 code with semi colon :)) and big big and I mean BIG thanks to the Joomla! CMS community without their excellent work done I should have been slept well in my grave.

If you follow my previous post you might know what I’ve been doing so far, well i was messing around with Ubuntu 8.04 and if you ask me how was that? I would say “Yeah, It is an OS for my mom”. How about you buddi? you asked. See the problem is Ubuntu 8.04 was developed for my mom it wasn’t me ! :( that kind of sad isn’t it?

Now let me express what make me feel this way, I guess you know who I am right? Oh ! com’on I knew you did hahaha I write VB, PHP, Java & C# tool I am expected to see in Hardy Heron

• Eclipse 3.3 (sorry we got 3.2 )
• Mono 1.9 (hm hmm, wait and see u might have it next release cycle)
• MonoDevelop 1.0 (oh, isn’t beta 3 work great for ya ?!)

the Ubuntu guy love to play with giant snake therefore all they care about is Python.

After all I might have to do I miss catch for 8.04 cuz my mom don’t use any computer :(