Rhyous

Support Tools for LDMS 9.5 Released

Go here for more information:

http://www.rhyous.com/programming-development/landesk-add-ons/landesk-support-tools/

Let’s say you have an xml or an html document and you want to remove the tags.

<h2>Shopping List</h2>
<ol>
	<li>Milk</li>
	<li>eggs</li>
	<li>butter</li>
	<li>cereal</li>
	<li>bananas</li>
	<li>apples</li>
	<li>orange juice</li>
	<li>yogurt</li>
	<li>bread</li>
	<li>cheese</li>
</ol>

This can be done rather quickly in a tool like notepad++ using the find and replace with regular expressions feature.

1. Go to Find and Replace.
2. Enter this regular expression: <[^>]+>
3. Select regular expression.
4. Make sure the cursor is at the start of the document.
5. Click replace all.

That is it.

There are three tools that can do this:

• PSExec – Not redistributable but free for download. No source code.
• RemCom – BSD Licensed but not really maintained and I haven’t been able to get it to work in Windows 7. Source code available. Uses its own command line.
• PAExec – Free to distribute but no source code. Uses same command line as PSExec.

So they all use the same command line to connect to a remote computer. I think I am going to go with PAExec because it is newer, maintained, distributable, and works in Windows 7.

PAExec \\RemotePC cmd.exe

However, with that command line, it can be confusing to have a command prompt open on your machine without a way to know it is actually a command prompt for a remote computer so it is a good idea to add a prompt.

PAExec \\RemotePC cmd.exe /k prompt $C%computername%$F$S$p$G

I hope this helps.

In my first post, A basic reporting chart in ASP.NET, I went over the basics of creating a report using MSChart and ASP.NET and this was quit easy. However, in today’s world where the importance of business intelligence is ever increasing, the ability to drill down on a report has become the de facto standard. MSChart, ASP.NET, and HTML make it easy to create a drill-down report.

Note: Microsoft has a drill-down report in their ChartSamples example, but it was bundled as part of the same project with two-hundred other reports and was not a minimal example. It requires the use of an Access database (and I had nothing to read Access with), it has a bunch of javascript code that is for a tooltip preview of the drill down report, and the charts are in two objects. All of this made it more difficult for me to break this down.  In this example, the report will be its own ASP.NET project and will be a minimal example, however the use case and the sample data is taken directly from Microsoft’s example.

Report Example Use Case

Imagine you have a list of sales reps, their regions, and their sales results. You want a report to look at total sales per region. Then you want to click on a region to the see the sales by sales rep.

Download the project here: SampleChart.zip

Step 1 – Create the Visual Studio project

1. In Visual Studio, click on File | New | Project.
2. Select Visual C# | Web from the Installed Templates.
3. Locate and select ASP.NET Empty Web Application.
   Note: I like to demonstrate using an Empty project you nothing is done for you, and you have to learn everything you actually need to do.
4. Give the project a name.
   I named mine DrillDownChart because that is my example’s purpose.
5. Click OK.
6. Right-click on the newly created project and click Add | Reference.
7. Select the .NET tab.
8. Locate System.Web.DataVisualization and highlight it.
9. Click OK.

Step 2 – Add a web form for your chart

1. Right-click on the Project and choose Add |  New Item.
2. Select Web Form.
3. Give the file a name.
   I named my file  Report.aspx.
4. Click OK.

Step 3 – Create a data object for the report

Because data is often coming from a database, this example is going to use a DataSet. I am not going to connect to a database, but just use a statically build DataSet.

1. Right-click on the Project and choose Add |  Class.
2. Give the file a name.
   I named my file  SalesDataSet.cs.
3. Make the class inherit from DataSet.
4. Click OK.

Step 4 – Add example data to the data object for the report

While in a real world scenario, you would get the data from a database or somewhere, lets first just create some sample data. We are going to create two simple tables. One is a Region table, that has the region name and ID. One is a RepSales table that has sales per rep and the rep’s region id.

1. Create a property with only a getter that creates a region DataTable called RegionTable.
2. Add the columns needed: RegionID and RegionName.
3. Add the appropriate rows.
4. Create a property with only a getter that creates a reps sales DataTable called RepsSalesTable.
5. Add the columns needed: ID, Name, RegionID, and Sales.
6. Add the appropriate rows.
7. Now in your constructor, add those to the list of Tables in your object.

   using System;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.Linq;
   using System.Web;
   using System.Data;
   
   namespace DrillDownChart
   {
       public class SalesDataSet : DataSet
       {
           public SalesDataSet()
           {
               Tables.Add(RegionTable);
               Tables.Add(RepsSalesTable);
   
           }
   
           public DataTable RegionTable
           {
               get
               {
                   if (_RegionTable == null)
                   {
                       List<String> Regions = new List<string>() { "East", "West", "Central", "International", "South" };
   
                       _RegionTable = new DataTable("Region");
                       _RegionTable.Columns.Add("RegionID", typeof(int));
                       _RegionTable.Columns.Add("RegionName", typeof(string));
   
                       int i = 0;
                       foreach (var region in Regions)
                       {
                           DataRow row = _RegionTable.NewRow();
                           row["RegionID"] = ++i;
                           row["RegionName"] = region;
                           _RegionTable.Rows.Add(row);
                       }
   
                   }
                   return _RegionTable;
               }
           } private DataTable _RegionTable;
   
           public DataTable RepsSalesTable
           {
               get
               {
                   if (_RepsSalesTable == null)
                   {
                       List<String> reps = new List<string>() {
                           "Aaron", "Larry", "Andrew", "Mary", "Sally", "Nguyen", "Francis",
                           "Jerry", "Danny", "Jim", "Sarah", "Hannah", "Kim", "Gerry", "Bob" };
                       int[] regions = { 1, 2, 3, 1, 4, 2, 4, 3, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 5 };
                       int[] sales = { 10440, 17772, 23880, 7663, 21773, 32294, 11983, 14991,
                                       17946, 8551, 19443, 27887, 30332, 16668, 21225 };
   
                       _RepsSalesTable = new DataTable("RepsSales");
                       _RepsSalesTable.Columns.Add("ID", typeof(int));
                       _RepsSalesTable.Columns.Add("Name", typeof(string));
                       _RepsSalesTable.Columns.Add("RegionID", typeof(int));
                       _RepsSalesTable.Columns.Add("Sales", typeof(int));
   
                       for (int i = 0; i < reps.Count; i++)
                       {
                           DataRow row = _RepsSalesTable.NewRow();
                           row["ID"] = i + 1;
                           row["Name"] = reps[i];
                           row["RegionID"] = regions[i];
                           row["Sales"] = sales[i];
   
                           _RepsSalesTable.Rows.Add(row);
                       }
   
                   }
                   return _RepsSalesTable;
               }
           } private DataTable _RepsSalesTable;
       }
   }
   

That is it, your fake example data is prepared.

Step 5 – Add a Chart to the Report.aspx file

1. Open the Report.aspx file.
2. Add a Register to the System.Web.DataVisualization assembly.
3. Locate the div inside the body.
4. Inside the div, add a Chart that includes a ChartArea.

   <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Report.aspx.cs" Inherits="CompareYearsByQuarter.Report" %>
   
   <%@ Register Assembly="System.Web.DataVisualization, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
       Namespace="System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting" TagPrefix="asp" %>
   
   <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
   <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
   <head runat="server">
       <title></title>
   </head>
   <body>
       <form id="form1" runat="server">
       <div>
           <asp:Chart ID="SalesReport" runat="server">
               <chartareas>
                   <asp:ChartArea Name="ChartArea1">
                   </asp:ChartArea>
               </chartareas>
           </asp:Chart>
       </div>
       </form>
   </body>
   </html>
   

Step 6 – Add code the Report.aspx.cs file

We are going to use the same object for both the original report and the drill down report. We will just a little code that switches which data the chart is populated with.

1. Open the Report.aspx.cs file.
2. Create an instance of the SalesDataSet object that has our sample data.
3. Add code in the Page_Load method to configure the Chart.
   Note 1: The steps for this code is in the code and comments itself. I created a method for each step and then populated the methods as  needed.
   Note 2: Notice that the AddDataToSeries() method uses and if statement to determine whether to add the original data or the drill down data.
   Note 3: Because we used a DataTable we query the example data using LINQ. It is likely that in your production reports you are using a real database and you will probably use queries directly to your database.

   using System;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.Linq;
   using System.Web;
   using System.Web.UI;
   using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
   using System.Data;
   using System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting;
   
   namespace DrillDownChart
   {
       public partial class RegionReport : System.Web.UI.Page
       {
           // Step 1 - Create Example Data
           SalesDataSet ExampleData = new SalesDataSet();
   
           protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
           {
               // Step 2 - Populate chart drop down
               PopulateChartTypeDropDown();
   
               // Step 3 - Create Series
               Series series = CreateSeries();
   
               // Step 4 - Set the chart type
               SetChartType(series);
   
               // Step 5 - Add data (and if needed drilldown links to series)
               AddDataToSeries(series);
   
               // Step 6 - Add series into the chart's series collection
               SalesReport.Series.Add(series);
           }
   
           private void PopulateChartTypeDropDown()
           {
               List<String> chartTypes = new List<String>(Enum.GetNames(typeof(SeriesChartType)));
               chartTypes.Insert(0, "");
   
               foreach (var item in chartTypes)
               {
                   DropDownListChartType.Items.Add(item);
               }
           }
   
           private Series CreateSeries()
           {
               Series series = new Series("Sales");
               series.BorderWidth = 3;
               series.ShadowOffset = 2;
               return series;
           }
   
           private void SetChartType(Series inSeries)
           {
               if (Page.Request["ChartType"] != null)
                   DropDownListChartType.SelectedValue = Page.Request["ChartType"];
   
               if (DropDownListChartType.SelectedValue.ToString() == "")
                   DropDownListChartType.SelectedValue = SeriesChartType.Column.ToString();
   
               inSeries.ChartType = (SeriesChartType)System.Enum.Parse(typeof(SeriesChartType), DropDownListChartType.SelectedValue.ToString());
           }
   
           private void AddDataToSeries(Series series)
           {
               if (Page.Request["ChartType"] == null)
                   AddAllRegionData(series);
               else
                   AddSpecificRegionData(series);
           }
   
           private void AddAllRegionData(Series series)
           {
               DataTable sales = ExampleData.Tables["RepsSales"];
               DataTable regions = ExampleData.Tables["Region"];
   
               var query = from reps in sales.AsEnumerable()
                           join region in regions.AsEnumerable()
                           on reps.Field<int>("RegionID") equals region.Field<int>("RegionID")
                           group reps by region.Field<string>("RegionName") into regionGroup
                           select new { Region = regionGroup.Key, Sales = regionGroup.Sum(total => total.Field<int>("Sales")) };
   
               // Populate new series with data
               foreach (var value in query)
               {
                   series.Points.AddXY(value.Region, value.Sales);
               }
   
               // Step 7 - Make this series drillable
               for (int i = 0; i < series.Points.Count; i++)
               {
                   series.Points[i].Url = string.Format("RegionReport.aspx?region={0}&ChartType={1}", series.Points[i].AxisLabel, DropDownListChartType.SelectedValue);
               }
           }
   
           private void AddSpecificRegionData(Series series)
           {
               var query = from reps in ExampleData.RepsSalesTable.AsEnumerable()
                           join region in ExampleData.RegionTable.AsEnumerable()
                           on reps.Field<int>("RegionID") equals region.Field<int>("RegionID")
                           where region.Field<string>("RegionName") == (Page.Request["Region"] ?? "East")
                           select new { RepName = reps.Field<string>("Name"), Sales = reps.Field<int>("Sales") };
   
               // Populate new series with data
               foreach (var value in query)
               {
                   series.Points.AddXY(value.RepName, value.Sales);
               }
   
               // Step 7 - Make this series drillable
               for (int i = 0; i < series.Points.Count; i++)
               //{
               //    // Add drill down code to drill to a third chart
               //}
           }
   
           private void AddDrillDown(Series series)
           {
               for (int i = 0; i < series.Points.Count; i++)
               {
                   series.Points[i].Url = string.Format("RegionReport.aspx?region={0}&ChartType={1}", series.Points[i].AxisLabel, DropDownListChartType.SelectedValue);
               }
           }
       }
   }
   

Step 7 – Add an http handler to the Web.Config for the Chart

1. Open the Web.Config file.
2. Add an http handler for the chart.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" />
    <httpHandlers>
      <add path="ChartImg.axd" verb="GET,HEAD,POST" validate="false"
           type="System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartHttpHandler, System.Web.DataVisualization, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
    </httpHandlers>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

Your project is now complete.

You now have a report that shows you the total sales per region.

Click on the report and you have the sales per region broken out by sales rep.

And your done.

Download the project here: SampleChart.zip

It is time to learn to write some charts. By charts I mean graphic views for reporting on data.

Obtaining MSChart

For .NET 4, MSChart is included in the .NET Framework, so if you have installed .NET 4, you have already obtained MSChart.

For .NET 3.5, the MSChart project which was an add-on. If you are using .NET 3.5, you need to download and install the add-on.

Note: I am using .NET 4 and it was installed with Visual Studio 2010, so I have no need to install the add-on.

Also, we are going to the very minimal steps manually. Many of these steps may be done for you (for example, the Visual Studio Designer will populate the Web.Config for you, but it is always good to know how do things yourself.

Report Example Use Case

Imagine you have sales trending for four years, 2009-2012, and you want to visualize this trend. You want a chart that should all four years, with the quarter results next to each other.

Download the project here: SampleChart.zip

Step 1 – Create the Visual Studio project

1. In Visual Studio, click on File | New | Project.
2. Select Visual C# | Web from the Installed Templates.
3. Locate and select ASP.NET Empty Web Application.
   Note: I like to demonstrate using an Empty project you nothing is done for you, and you have to learn everything you actually need to do.
4. Give the project a name.
5. Click OK.
6. Right-click on the newly created project and click Add | Reference.
7. Select the .NET tab.
8. Locate System.Web.DataVisualization and highlight it.
9. Click OK.

Step 2 – Add a web form for your chart

1. Right-click on the Project and choose Add |  New Item.
2. Select Web Form.
3. Give the file a name.
   I named my file  Report.aspx.
4. Click OK.

Step 3 – Create a data object for the report

1. Right-click on the Project and choose Add |  Class.
2. Give the file a name.
   I named my file  Data.cs.
3. Click OK.

Step 4 – Add example data to the data object for the report

While in a real world scenario, you would get the data from a database or somewhere, lets first just create some sample data.

1. Create a few lists of numbers, one for each year as shown.

   namespace CompareYearsByQuarter
   {
       public class Data
       {
           public int[] Sales2009 = new int[] { 47, 48, 49, 47 };
           public int[] Sales2010 = new int[] { 47, 50, 51, 48 };
           public int[] Sales2011 = new int[] { 50, 52, 53, 46 };
           public int[] Sales2012 = new int[] { 53, 54, 55, 49 };
       }
   }
   

That is it, your fake example data is prepared.

Step 5 – Add a Chart to the Report.aspx file

1. Open the Report.aspx file.
2. Add a Register to the System.Web.DataVisualization assembly.
3. Locate the div inside the body.
4. Inside the div, add a Chart that includes a ChartArea.

   <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Report.aspx.cs" Inherits="CompareYearsByQuarter.Report" %>
   
   <%@ Register Assembly="System.Web.DataVisualization, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
       Namespace="System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting" TagPrefix="asp" %>
   
   <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
   <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
   <head runat="server">
       <title></title>
   </head>
   <body>
       <form id="form1" runat="server">
       <div>
           <asp:Chart ID="SalesReport" runat="server">
               <chartareas>
                   <asp:ChartArea Name="ChartArea1">
                   </asp:ChartArea>
               </chartareas>
           </asp:Chart>
       </div>
       </form>
   </body>
   </html>
   

Step 6 – Add code the Report.aspx.cs file

1. Open the Report.aspx.cs file.
2. Create an instance of the Data object that has our sample data.
3. Add code in the Page_Load method to configure the Chart a separate series of data for each year.

   using System;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.Linq;
   using System.Web;
   using System.Web.UI;
   using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
   using System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting;
   
   namespace CompareYearsByQuarter
   {
       public partial class Report : System.Web.UI.Page
       {
           Data data = new Data();
   
           protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
           {
               Series year2009 = new Series("Sales 2009");
               // Populate new series with data
               foreach (var value in data.Sales2009)
               {
                   year2009.Points.AddY(value);
               }
               SalesReport.Series.Add(year2009);
   
               Series year2010 = new Series("Sales 2010");
               // Populate new series with data
               foreach (var value in data.Sales2010)
               {
                   year2010.Points.AddY(value);
               }
               SalesReport.Series.Add(year2010);
   
               Series year2011 = new Series("Sales 2011");
               // Populate new series with data
               foreach (var value in data.Sales2011)
               {
                   year2011.Points.AddY(value);
               }
               SalesReport.Series.Add(year2011);
   
               Series year2012 = new Series("Sales 2012");
               // Populate new series with data
               foreach (var value in data.Sales2012)
               {
                   year2012.Points.AddY(value);
               }
               SalesReport.Series.Add(year2012);
           }
       }
   }
   

Step 7 – Add an http handler to the Web.Config for the Chart

1. Open the Web.Config file.
2. Add an http handler for the chart.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" />
    <httpHandlers>
      <add path="ChartImg.axd" verb="GET,HEAD,POST" validate="false"
           type="System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartHttpHandler, System.Web.DataVisualization, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
    </httpHandlers>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

You are done. Build and look at your report.

You now have a simple report that should show you the sales trend for quarters 1,2,3,4 over four years. Your chart should look like this.

Download the project here: SampleChart.zip

I recently created an API and I wanted to give it a license where it is free for anyone to use, so I was planning on using the two-clause BSD License. However, after further thought, I realized that I had a few more stipulations I wanted to add. Yes, I wanted the software to be free to use, however, there are a few things I don’t want.

1. I don’t really want someone to fork my project just yet. I want the project to remain in one place.
2. I want the project to be free and commercial friendly, including free to use the code, or link to a binary in any way.
3. I don’t want a company to use my software to sell a competing solution unless I am compensated. In which case, I can license the software to them under a commercial license.
4. If anyone contributes to the project, I would like the right to sell the code under a different (possibly commercial) license. This prevents license and author sprawl. The fourth clause is crossed out because this will be done at commit time and is not needed in the license of existing source code.

Non-compete line addition to the new BSD License

So I came up with two one more line to the new BSD License: a third line prohibiting competing projects or solutions without permission; a fourth line that states that any contributions to the project will result in the all rights to the contributed code being assigned back to me. This will be done at commit time and is not needed in the license of existing source code.

<Project> <Project Description>
Copyright (c) <Year>, <Owner>
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
   list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
   this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
   and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. Use of the source code or binaries that in any way competes with this
   project, whether open source or commercial or other, is prohibited unless 
   permission is granted under a separate license by <Owner>.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Let me know if you think this accomplish the non-compete goal. Especially let me know if something appears erroneous.

Single Ownership

Single ownership means the project always has all rights to every line of code, the binaries, and documentation or anything else that may be included in the project. So if any contributions from anybody to the project occur, they occur with the stipulation that ownership and all rights are transferred to the the project owners.

However, doing this in the license above is the wrong place. It should be a separate agreement that occurs in places like when registering with the project or its mailing list or it source repository. So contribution is done under this separate agreement.

Contributing to this project can be done under the following conditions:
  1. Any contribution (source code, documentation, or other) to this project 
     is your own work.
  2. You transfer all rights to the contribution (source code, documentation,
     or other) to <Owner>.

Again, let me know if this accomplishes the goal, or is insufficient or has errors.

Here is the two-clause BSD License, sometimes called the FreeBSD License or the Simplified BSD License.

Copyright (c) <Year>, <Owner>
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
   list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
   this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
   and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Camtasia Studio 8 is here!  You can find it at http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html. Of course you can See What’s New with Camtasia Studio in video.

Camtasia Studio is the most amazing tool for creating computer training videos, web videos, or Vlogging.

The winner of the Camtasia Studio – Free license give-away has been determined and posted in the comments of that article.

Why I Like Camtasia Studo

I really like Camtasia Studio because I have used it and it just works and does what it says it can do in an easy to use fashion. I used it for every training video I created at my last job. I also have used it to submit my homework and video documentation on my final projects to my professors as I get a Masters of Computer Science.

Please feel free to post how you have used it.

P.S. Camtasia didn’t approach me for this give-away, I approached them because of how their software has helped me and how impressed with it I am.

I have used Camtasia Studio by TechSmith on a number of occasions and I thoroughly enjoy their desktop recording software. Since I like Camtasia Studio so much, I thought I would write a couple of articles on using their software. Since I wanted to write a quick article about them, I contacted them and asked if they would let me host a give away for a free copy of Camtasia Studio right here on my blog. I was totally happy when they said yes.

For details on entering the give-away, see The Give-Away below.

So my blog is not so much about promoting a product as providing instructions for how to do something, so of course, this is going to be a “how to” article. So here is how easy it is to record a video.

Sometimes you want to record something on your desktop. For a blogger like myself, I want to record how something hard is done on a computer. I have int the past used VMWare’s recording feature but it doesn’t record sound. I want both sound and video.

Even though I am geek and a developer and I don’t mind compiling some open source tool from scratch, I am also a fan of quality technology that just works. For recording my desktop or any application with video and sound, Camtasia Studio studio just works. While it is not open source, Camtasia Studio is well worth the license fee for me.

About Camtasia Studio

Let’s talk about Camtasia Studio. Camtasia Studio has a single installer, but like many products it is more of a suite or “studio” of feature.

There are five features installed:

• Camtasia Studio
• Camtasia MenuMaker
• Camtasia Player
• Camtasia Recorder
• Camtasia Theater

I have mostly used the Recorder and Camtasia Studio.

Easy posting to YouTube or ScreenCast

Camtasia Studio makes uploading a video to YouTube or ScreenCast easy. All you need is your username and password and Camtasia Studio does the work for you.

It automatically opens your browser and takes you to the link to your online video.

The Give-Away

So Camtasia Studio is giving away a free License.

• Mac or Windows? They have a version for Windows and Mac and so the winner can choose which license they want.
• Version: Yes, we will be giving away the new version of Camtasia Studio.
• Start date: Friday, June 1, 2012.
• End date: Monday, July 2, 2012.

Here is how you can enter to win it.

Step 1

Like Camtasia Studio on Facebook. Just click the image as it is a link.

Step 2

Enter your email address. Yes, I will need your email address to contact you if you win!