Nike+: Update to Site Requires Additional Exemptions in AdBlock Plus

I wrote previously about needing to add an exemption for Nike Plus if you are running Firefox with AdBlock Plus. Two days ago Nike did some updates to the Nikeplus site, and the original issue of just getting a white screen came up again. Turns out, there is a new domain needed to add to the exemption list.

So, adding a new exemption like so will get around this:
@@http://nikerunning.nike.com

I will need to investigate further, I am fairly sure you can a wildcard, like either @@.nike.com, or maybe @@*.nike.com to get around this, the only concern for me are ads that come from the Nike domain...

BIRT - Highlight Chart Series on MouseOver Event

One of the most common requests I hear with BIRT charting is that people want interactive charts. So, when someone mouse over a series in a Pie Chart, they would like to see that series jump out, or highlight. I’ve heard this request over and over again.

The problem is that BIRT charts render charts as single images. So, when you render a chart, it renders a JPG or a PNG file, and when it displays in the browser, it displays with an image map to handle interactivity. This makes doing a highlighting chart series very difficult. Typically the solutions that is given is to use the SVG output for charts. While this will work, I don’t like the solution for a number of reasons. First, the behavior is not consistent. Secondly, SVG is not a standard format. In some browsers it requires a plugin.

So, I took a page out of history to come up with a solution. This harkens back to the yesteryear of the good old image swap Javascript. The solution is simple. Basically, BIRT will render the chart multiple times, once for ever series in the chart. It does so by using a script in the initialize tag (this needs to be done during the generation phase, I used Initialize in this example). The script reads the parent chart, makes a copy, and modifies the explosion expression to explode only a single series. Once completed, a Javascript on the client side will retrieve the chart images by ID and store them in an array. The Chart interactivity will then call a swap function when the user mouse-overs that particular series, causing it to swap. The example report below leave room for improvement, but it is a workable example of how this can be accomplished. I combined this example with an example on BIRT Exchange that shows how to highlight of table rows that correspond to the chart series. This gives it a little extra umph.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<report xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/birt/2005/design" version="3.2.17" id="1">
    <property name="createdBy">Eclipse BIRT Designer Version 2.3.2.r232_20090202 Build &lt;2.3.2.v20090218-0730></property>
    <property name="units">in</property>
    <method name="initialize"><![CDATA[var reportDesignHandle = reportContext.getReportRunnable().getDesignHandle();
var re = reportDesignHandle.findElement("NewChart");

var pieChart = re.getReportItem().getProperty("chart.instance");

for (var x = 1; x <= 20; x++)
{
    importPackage(Packages.org.eclipse.emf.ecore.util);
    var chartCopy = EcoreUtil.copy(pieChart);
    
    var outerSeries = chartCopy.getSeriesDefinitions().get(0);
    var innerSeries = outerSeries.getSeriesDefinitions().get(0);
    var pieSeries = innerSeries.getSeries().get(0);
    pieSeries.setExplosionExpression("valueData == " + x);
    pieSeries.setExplosion(5);
    
    var eih = reportDesignHandle.getElementFactory().newExtendedItem("chart-" + x, "Chart");
    eih.getReportItem().setProperty("chart.instance", chartCopy);
    eih.setBookmark("\"Chart-" + x + "\"");
    
    re.getContainerSlotHandle().add(eih);
}]]></method>
    <property name="iconFile">/templates/blank_report.gif</property>
    <property name="bidiLayoutOrientation">ltr</property>
    <data-sources>
        <script-data-source name="Data Source" id="7"/>
    </data-sources>
    <data-sets>
        <script-data-set name="Data Set" id="8">
            <list-property name="resultSetHints">
                <structure>
                    <property name="position">0</property>
                    <property name="name">id</property>
                    <property name="dataType">integer</property>
                </structure>
                <structure>
                    <property name="position">1</property>
                    <property name="name">count</property>
                    <property name="dataType">integer</property>
                </structure>
            </list-property>
            <list-property name="columnHints">
                <structure>
                    <property name="columnName">id</property>
                </structure>
                <structure>
                    <property name="columnName">count</property>
                </structure>
            </list-property>
            <structure name="cachedMetaData">
                <list-property name="resultSet">
                    <structure>
                        <property name="position">1</property>
                        <property name="name">id</property>
                        <property name="dataType">integer</property>
                    </structure>
                    <structure>
                        <property name="position">2</property>
                        <property name="name">count</property>
                        <property name="dataType">integer</property>
                    </structure>
                </list-property>
            </structure>
            <property name="dataSource">Data Source</property>
            <method name="open"><![CDATA[count = 0;
id = 0;]]></method>
            <method name="fetch"><![CDATA[if (id < 20)
{
    id++;
    count++;
    
    row["id"] = id;
    row["count"] = count;
    return true;
}

return false;]]></method>
        </script-data-set>
    </data-sets>
    <styles>
        <style name="report" id="4">
            <property name="fontFamily">"Verdana"</property>
            <property name="fontSize">10pt</property>
        </style>
        <style name="crosstab-cell" id="5">
            <property name="borderBottomColor">#CCCCCC</property>
            <property name="borderBottomStyle">solid</property>
            <property name="borderBottomWidth">1pt</property>
            <property name="borderLeftColor">#CCCCCC</property>
            <property name="borderLeftStyle">solid</property>
            <property name="borderLeftWidth">1pt</property>
            <property name="borderRightColor">#CCCCCC</property>
            <property name="borderRightStyle">solid</property>
            <property name="borderRightWidth">1pt</property>
            <property name="borderTopColor">#CCCCCC</property>
            <property name="borderTopStyle">solid</property>
            <property name="borderTopWidth">1pt</property>
        </style>
        <style name="crosstab" id="6">
            <property name="borderBottomColor">#CCCCCC</property>
            <property name="borderBottomStyle">solid</property>
            <property name="borderBottomWidth">1pt</property>
            <property name="borderLeftColor">#CCCCCC</property>
            <property name="borderLeftStyle">solid</property>
            <property name="borderLeftWidth">1pt</property>
            <property name="borderRightColor">#CCCCCC</property>
            <property name="borderRightStyle">solid</property>
            <property name="borderRightWidth">1pt</property>
            <property name="borderTopColor">#CCCCCC</property>
            <property name="borderTopStyle">solid</property>
            <property name="borderTopWidth">1pt</property>
        </style>
    </styles>
    <page-setup>
        <simple-master-page name="Simple MasterPage" id="2">
            <property name="topMargin">0.25in</property>
            <property name="leftMargin">0.25in</property>
            <property name="bottomMargin">0.25in</property>
            <property name="rightMargin">0.25in</property>
            <page-footer>
                <text id="3">
                    <property name="contentType">html</property>
                    <text-property name="content"><![CDATA[<value-of>new Date()</value-of>]]></text-property>
                </text>
            </page-footer>
        </simple-master-page>
    </page-setup>
    <body>
        <table id="9">
            <property name="width">100%</property>
            <property name="dataSet">Data Set</property>
            <list-property name="boundDataColumns">
                <structure>
                    <property name="name">id</property>
                    <property name="displayName">id</property>
                    <expression name="expression">dataSetRow["id"]</expression>
                    <property name="dataType">integer</property>
                </structure>
                <structure>
                    <property name="name">count</property>
                    <property name="displayName">count</property>
                    <expression name="expression">dataSetRow["count"]</expression>
                    <property name="dataType">integer</property>
                </structure>
            </list-property>
            <column id="23"/>
            <column id="24"/>
            <header>
                <row id="25">
                    <cell id="26">
                        <property name="colSpan">2</property>
                        <property name="rowSpan">1</property>
                        <extended-item extensionName="Chart" name="NewChart" id="29">
                            <xml-property name="xmlRepresentation"><![CDATA[<model:ChartWithoutAxes xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:attribute="http://www.birt.eclipse.org/ChartModelAttribute" xmlns:layout="http://www.birt.eclipse.org/ChartModelLayout" xmlns:model="http://www.birt.eclipse.org/ChartModel" xmlns:type="http://www.birt.eclipse.org/ChartModelType">
  <Type>Pie Chart</Type>
  <SubType>Standard</SubType>
  <Block>
    <Children xsi:type="layout:TitleBlock">
      <Bounds>
        <Left>0.0</Left>
        <Top>0.0</Top>
        <Width>0.0</Width>
        <Height>0.0</Height>
      </Bounds>
      <Insets>
        <Top>3.0</Top>
        <Left>3.0</Left>
        <Bottom>3.0</Bottom>
        <Right>3.0</Right>
      </Insets>
      <Row>-1</Row>
      <Column>-1</Column>
      <Rowspan>-1</Rowspan>
      <Columnspan>-1</Columnspan>
      <Outline>
        <Style>Solid</Style>
        <Thickness>1</Thickness>
        <Color>
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>0</Green>
          <Blue>0</Blue>
        </Color>
        <Visible>false</Visible>
      </Outline>
      <Visible>true</Visible>
      <Label>
        <Caption>
          <Value>Highlight Chart</Value>
          <Font>
            <Size>16.0</Size>
            <Bold>true</Bold>
            <Alignment>
              <horizontalAlignment>Center</horizontalAlignment>
              <verticalAlignment>Center</verticalAlignment>
            </Alignment>
          </Font>
        </Caption>
        <Background xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>0</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>255</Green>
          <Blue>255</Blue>
        </Background>
        <Outline>
          <Style>Solid</Style>
          <Thickness>1</Thickness>
          <Color>
            <Transparency>255</Transparency>
            <Red>0</Red>
            <Green>0</Green>
            <Blue>0</Blue>
          </Color>
        </Outline>
        <Insets>
          <Top>0.0</Top>
          <Left>2.0</Left>
          <Bottom>0.0</Bottom>
          <Right>3.0</Right>
        </Insets>
        <Visible>true</Visible>
      </Label>
    </Children>
    <Children xsi:type="layout:Plot">
      <Bounds>
        <Left>0.0</Left>
        <Top>0.0</Top>
        <Width>0.0</Width>
        <Height>0.0</Height>
      </Bounds>
      <Insets>
        <Top>3.0</Top>
        <Left>3.0</Left>
        <Bottom>3.0</Bottom>
        <Right>3.0</Right>
      </Insets>
      <Row>-1</Row>
      <Column>-1</Column>
      <Rowspan>-1</Rowspan>
      <Columnspan>-1</Columnspan>
      <Outline>
        <Style>Solid</Style>
        <Thickness>1</Thickness>
        <Color>
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>0</Green>
          <Blue>0</Blue>
        </Color>
        <Visible>false</Visible>
      </Outline>
      <Visible>true</Visible>
      <HorizontalSpacing>5</HorizontalSpacing>
      <VerticalSpacing>5</VerticalSpacing>
      <ClientArea>
        <Outline>
          <Style>Solid</Style>
          <Thickness>0</Thickness>
          <Color>
            <Transparency>255</Transparency>
            <Red>0</Red>
            <Green>0</Green>
            <Blue>0</Blue>
          </Color>
          <Visible>false</Visible>
        </Outline>
        <Insets>
          <Top>0.0</Top>
          <Left>0.0</Left>
          <Bottom>0.0</Bottom>
          <Right>0.0</Right>
        </Insets>
      </ClientArea>
    </Children>
    <Children xsi:type="layout:Legend">
      <Bounds>
        <Left>0.0</Left>
        <Top>0.0</Top>
        <Width>0.0</Width>
        <Height>0.0</Height>
      </Bounds>
      <Insets>
        <Top>3.0</Top>
        <Left>3.0</Left>
        <Bottom>3.0</Bottom>
        <Right>3.0</Right>
      </Insets>
      <Row>-1</Row>
      <Column>-1</Column>
      <Rowspan>-1</Rowspan>
      <Columnspan>-1</Columnspan>
      <Outline>
        <Style>Solid</Style>
        <Thickness>1</Thickness>
        <Color>
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>0</Green>
          <Blue>0</Blue>
        </Color>
        <Visible>false</Visible>
      </Outline>
      <Visible>true</Visible>
      <ClientArea>
        <Outline>
          <Style>Solid</Style>
          <Thickness>0</Thickness>
          <Color>
            <Transparency>255</Transparency>
            <Red>0</Red>
            <Green>0</Green>
            <Blue>0</Blue>
          </Color>
          <Visible>false</Visible>
        </Outline>
        <Insets>
          <Top>2.0</Top>
          <Left>2.0</Left>
          <Bottom>2.0</Bottom>
          <Right>2.0</Right>
        </Insets>
      </ClientArea>
      <Text>
        <Value></Value>
        <Font>
          <Alignment/>
        </Font>
      </Text>
      <Orientation>Vertical</Orientation>
      <Direction>Top_Bottom</Direction>
      <Separator>
        <Style>Solid</Style>
        <Thickness>1</Thickness>
        <Color>
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>0</Green>
          <Blue>0</Blue>
        </Color>
        <Visible>true</Visible>
      </Separator>
      <Position>Right</Position>
      <ItemType>Categories</ItemType>
      <Title>
        <Caption>
          <Value></Value>
          <Font>
            <Alignment/>
          </Font>
        </Caption>
        <Background xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>0</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>255</Green>
          <Blue>255</Blue>
        </Background>
        <Outline>
          <Style>Solid</Style>
          <Thickness>1</Thickness>
          <Color>
            <Transparency>255</Transparency>
            <Red>0</Red>
            <Green>0</Green>
            <Blue>0</Blue>
          </Color>
          <Visible>false</Visible>
        </Outline>
        <Insets>
          <Top>0.0</Top>
          <Left>2.0</Left>
          <Bottom>0.0</Bottom>
          <Right>3.0</Right>
        </Insets>
        <Visible>false</Visible>
      </Title>
      <TitlePosition>Above</TitlePosition>
    </Children>
    <Bounds>
      <Left>0.0</Left>
      <Top>0.0</Top>
      <Width>561.75</Width>
      <Height>351.75</Height>
    </Bounds>
    <Insets>
      <Top>3.0</Top>
      <Left>3.0</Left>
      <Bottom>3.0</Bottom>
      <Right>3.0</Right>
    </Insets>
    <Row>-1</Row>
    <Column>-1</Column>
    <Rowspan>-1</Rowspan>
    <Columnspan>-1</Columnspan>
    <Outline>
      <Style>Solid</Style>
      <Thickness>1</Thickness>
      <Color>
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>0</Red>
        <Green>0</Green>
        <Blue>0</Blue>
      </Color>
      <Visible>false</Visible>
    </Outline>
    <Background xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
      <Transparency>255</Transparency>
      <Red>255</Red>
      <Green>255</Green>
      <Blue>255</Blue>
    </Background>
    <Visible>true</Visible>
  </Block>
  <Dimension>Two_Dimensional</Dimension>
  <Units>Points</Units>
  <SeriesThickness>10.0</SeriesThickness>
  <GridColumnCount>0</GridColumnCount>
  <SampleData>
    <BaseSampleData>
      <DataSetRepresentation>'A','B','C','D','E'</DataSetRepresentation>
    </BaseSampleData>
    <OrthogonalSampleData>
      <DataSetRepresentation>6,4,12,8,10</DataSetRepresentation>
      <SeriesDefinitionIndex>0</SeriesDefinitionIndex>
    </OrthogonalSampleData>
  </SampleData>
  <Interactivity>
    <Enable>true</Enable>
    <LegendBehavior>None</LegendBehavior>
  </Interactivity>
  <SeriesDefinitions>
    <Query>
      <Definition></Definition>
    </Query>
    <SeriesPalette>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>80</Red>
        <Green>166</Green>
        <Blue>218</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>242</Red>
        <Green>88</Green>
        <Blue>106</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>232</Red>
        <Green>172</Green>
        <Blue>57</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>128</Red>
        <Green>255</Green>
        <Blue>128</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>64</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>128</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>128</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>192</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>170</Red>
        <Green>85</Green>
        <Blue>85</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>128</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>0</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>192</Red>
        <Green>192</Green>
        <Blue>192</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>255</Red>
        <Green>255</Green>
        <Blue>128</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>128</Red>
        <Green>192</Green>
        <Blue>128</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>7</Red>
        <Green>146</Green>
        <Blue>94</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>0</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>255</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>255</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>192</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>0</Red>
        <Green>255</Green>
        <Blue>255</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>255</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>128</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>0</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>192</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>128</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>192</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>255</Red>
        <Green>0</Green>
        <Blue>255</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>128</Red>
        <Green>64</Green>
        <Blue>64</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>255</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>64</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>80</Red>
        <Green>240</Green>
        <Blue>120</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>0</Red>
        <Green>64</Green>
        <Blue>128</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>128</Red>
        <Green>0</Green>
        <Blue>64</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>255</Red>
        <Green>0</Green>
        <Blue>128</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>128</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>64</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>128</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>128</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>255</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>255</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>0</Red>
        <Green>64</Green>
        <Blue>0</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>0</Red>
        <Green>0</Green>
        <Blue>0</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>255</Red>
        <Green>255</Green>
        <Blue>255</Blue>
      </Entries>
      <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
        <Transparency>255</Transparency>
        <Red>255</Red>
        <Green>128</Green>
        <Blue>0</Blue>
      </Entries>
    </SeriesPalette>
    <SeriesDefinitions>
      <Query>
        <Definition></Definition>
      </Query>
      <SeriesPalette>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>80</Red>
          <Green>166</Green>
          <Blue>218</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>242</Red>
          <Green>88</Green>
          <Blue>106</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>232</Red>
          <Green>172</Green>
          <Blue>57</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>128</Red>
          <Green>255</Green>
          <Blue>128</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>64</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>128</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>128</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>192</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>170</Red>
          <Green>85</Green>
          <Blue>85</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>128</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>0</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>192</Red>
          <Green>192</Green>
          <Blue>192</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>255</Green>
          <Blue>128</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>128</Red>
          <Green>192</Green>
          <Blue>128</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>7</Red>
          <Green>146</Green>
          <Blue>94</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>255</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>192</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>255</Green>
          <Blue>255</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>128</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>192</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>128</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>192</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>0</Green>
          <Blue>255</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>128</Red>
          <Green>64</Green>
          <Blue>64</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>64</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>80</Red>
          <Green>240</Green>
          <Blue>120</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>64</Green>
          <Blue>128</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>128</Red>
          <Green>0</Green>
          <Blue>64</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>0</Green>
          <Blue>128</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>128</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>64</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>128</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>128</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>255</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>64</Green>
          <Blue>0</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>0</Red>
          <Green>0</Green>
          <Blue>0</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>255</Green>
          <Blue>255</Blue>
        </Entries>
        <Entries xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>255</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>128</Green>
          <Blue>0</Blue>
        </Entries>
      </SeriesPalette>
      <Series xsi:type="type:PieSeries">
        <Visible>true</Visible>
        <Label>
          <Caption>
            <Value></Value>
            <Font>
              <Alignment/>
            </Font>
          </Caption>
          <Background xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
            <Transparency>0</Transparency>
            <Red>255</Red>
            <Green>255</Green>
            <Blue>255</Blue>
          </Background>
          <Outline>
            <Style>Solid</Style>
            <Thickness>1</Thickness>
            <Color>
              <Transparency>255</Transparency>
              <Red>0</Red>
              <Green>0</Green>
              <Blue>0</Blue>
            </Color>
            <Visible>false</Visible>
          </Outline>
          <Insets>
            <Top>0.0</Top>
            <Left>2.0</Left>
            <Bottom>0.0</Bottom>
            <Right>3.0</Right>
          </Insets>
          <Visible>true</Visible>
        </Label>
        <DataDefinition>
          <Definition>row[&quot;count&quot;]</Definition>
        </DataDefinition>
        <SeriesIdentifier></SeriesIdentifier>
        <DataPoint>
          <Components>
            <Type>Orthogonal_Value</Type>
          </Components>
          <Separator>, </Separator>
        </DataPoint>
        <LabelPosition>Outside</LabelPosition>
        <Stacked>false</Stacked>
        <Triggers>
          <Condition>onmouseover</Condition>
          <Action>
            <Type>Invoke_Script</Type>
            <Value xsi:type="attribute:ScriptValue">
              <Script>swapImage(categoryData);&#xD;
highlight(categoryData);</Script>
            </Value>
          </Action>
        </Triggers>
        <Explosion>0</Explosion>
        <ExplosionExpression></ExplosionExpression>
        <Title>
          <Caption>
            <Value></Value>
            <Font>
              <Size>16.0</Size>
              <Bold>true</Bold>
              <Alignment/>
            </Font>
          </Caption>
          <Background xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
            <Transparency>0</Transparency>
            <Red>255</Red>
            <Green>255</Green>
            <Blue>255</Blue>
          </Background>
          <Outline>
            <Style>Solid</Style>
            <Thickness>1</Thickness>
            <Color>
              <Transparency>255</Transparency>
              <Red>0</Red>
              <Green>0</Green>
              <Blue>0</Blue>
            </Color>
          </Outline>
          <Insets>
            <Top>0.0</Top>
            <Left>2.0</Left>
            <Bottom>0.0</Bottom>
            <Right>3.0</Right>
          </Insets>
          <Visible>true</Visible>
        </Title>
        <TitlePosition>Below</TitlePosition>
        <LeaderLineAttributes>
          <Style>Solid</Style>
          <Thickness>1</Thickness>
          <Color>
            <Transparency>255</Transparency>
            <Red>0</Red>
            <Green>0</Green>
            <Blue>0</Blue>
          </Color>
          <Visible>true</Visible>
        </LeaderLineAttributes>
        <LeaderLineStyle>Fixed_Length</LeaderLineStyle>
        <LeaderLineLength>10.0</LeaderLineLength>
      </Series>
      <Grouping>
        <Enabled>false</Enabled>
        <GroupingInterval>1.0</GroupingInterval>
        <GroupType>Text</GroupType>
        <AggregateExpression>Sum</AggregateExpression>
      </Grouping>
    </SeriesDefinitions>
    <Series>
      <Visible>true</Visible>
      <Label>
        <Caption>
          <Value></Value>
          <Font>
            <Alignment/>
          </Font>
        </Caption>
        <Background xsi:type="attribute:ColorDefinition">
          <Transparency>0</Transparency>
          <Red>255</Red>
          <Green>255</Green>
          <Blue>255</Blue>
        </Background>
        <Outline>
          <Style>Solid</Style>
          <Thickness>1</Thickness>
          <Color>
            <Transparency>255</Transparency>
            <Red>0</Red>
            <Green>0</Green>
            <Blue>0</Blue>
          </Color>
          <Visible>false</Visible>
        </Outline>
        <Insets>
          <Top>0.0</Top>
          <Left>2.0</Left>
          <Bottom>0.0</Bottom>
          <Right>3.0</Right>
        </Insets>
        <Visible>false</Visible>
      </Label>
      <DataDefinition>
        <Definition>row[&quot;id&quot;]</Definition>
      </DataDefinition>
      <SeriesIdentifier></SeriesIdentifier>
      <DataPoint>
        <Components>
          <Type>Orthogonal_Value</Type>
        </Components>
        <Separator>, </Separator>
      </DataPoint>
      <LabelPosition>Outside</LabelPosition>
      <Stacked>false</Stacked>
    </Series>
    <Grouping>
      <Enabled>false</Enabled>
      <GroupingInterval>1.0</GroupingInterval>
      <GroupType>Text</GroupType>
      <AggregateExpression>Sum</AggregateExpression>
    </Grouping>
  </SeriesDefinitions>
</model:ChartWithoutAxes>
]]></xml-property>
                            <property name="outputFormat">PNG</property>
                            <expression name="bookmark">"Chart-Main"</expression>
                            <property name="height">4.885416666666667in</property>
                            <property name="width">7.802083333333333in</property>
                        </extended-item>
                    </cell>
                </row>
                <row id="10">
                    <property name="textAlign">left</property>
                    <cell id="11">
                        <label id="12">
                            <text-property name="text">id</text-property>
                        </label>
                    </cell>
                    <cell id="13">
                        <label id="14">
                            <text-property name="text">count</text-property>
                        </label>
                    </cell>
                </row>
            </header>
            <detail>
                <row id="15">
                    <expression name="bookmark">row["id"]</expression>
                    <cell id="16">
                        <data id="17">
                            <property name="resultSetColumn">id</property>
                        </data>
                    </cell>
                    <cell id="18">
                        <data id="19">
                            <property name="resultSetColumn">count</property>
                        </data>
                    </cell>
                </row>
            </detail>
            <footer>
                <row id="20">
                    <cell id="21">
                        <text id="31">
                            <property name="contentType">html</property>
                            <text-property name="content"><![CDATA[<script type="text/javascript">
/**
Javascript for setting up hte image swap from all the chart instances
**/
    imageArray = new Array();
    mainImageSrc = document.getElementById("Chart-Main").src;
    
    for (x = 0; x < 20; x++)
    {
        currentImage = document.getElementById("Chart-" + (x + 1));
        
        imageArray[x] = currentImage;
        
        currentImage.style.display = "none";
    }
    
    function swapImage(num)
    {
        mainImage = document.getElementById("Chart-Main");
        
        mainImage.src = imageArray[num - 1].src;
    }
    
    function showMain()
    {
        document.getElementById("Image-Main").src = mainImageSrc;
    }
</script>]]></text-property>
                        </text>
                    </cell>
                    <cell id="22">
                        <text id="30">
                            <property name="contentType">html</property>
                            <text-property name="content"><![CDATA[<!-- Dummy tag to get parent nodes -->
<div id="tableAnchor"></div>

<script>    
    // Get the table object itself
    var o = document.getElementById("tableAnchor");
    while(o != null){
        if (o.tagName == "TBODY")
            break;
        o = o.parentNode;
    }
    
    // Add the mouseover event to each of the table rows
    for (var i = 1; i < o.children.length; i++) {
        var ro = o.children[i];
        ro.onmouseover = function(){highlight(this.id);swapImage(this.id);};
        ro.onmouseout = function(){unhighlight(this.id);};
    }
    
    // Highlight function is called from mouseove events (see above)
    // and also from chart mouseover events.
    var g_previousHighlight = "";
    function highlight(category) {
        // Remove previous highlight (if any)
        if (g_previousHighlight > "") {
            var o = document.getElementById(g_previousHighlight);
            o.style.backgroundColor="";
            
        }
        
        // Apply new highlight
        var o = document.getElementById(category);        
        o.style.backgroundColor="#8080ff";
        g_previousHighlight = category;        
    }
    
    function unhighlight(category) {
        // Remove previous highlight (if any)
        if (g_previousHighlight > "") {
            var o = document.getElementById(g_previousHighlight);
            o.style.backgroundColor="";
            
        }
        
        // Apply new highlight
        var o = document.getElementById(category);        
        o.style.backgroundColor="#FFFFFF";
        g_previousHighlight = category;        
    }


</script>]]></text-property>
                        </text>
                    </cell>
                </row>
            </footer>
        </table>
    </body>
</report>

BIRT: Accessing the Report Context in Java Chart Event Handler

After Googling this, it seems that this is a common question that has no posted answers. seriously, thats annoying. I hate when that happens.

Anyway, so what I needed was to set a property in the report context that could be accessed withing a chart event. Now, if I was using the Javascript handler, something like the following would be sufficient:

context.getExternalContext().getScriptable()

However, this does not return anything close to a context in a Java event handler. The
context.getExternalContext()  returns a BIRTExternalContext object, this is not a public accessible class. And getScriptable
returns a NativeJavaObject. So, in a way that is not documented anywhere, you can do the
following to get access to an IReportContext object from within a Java Event handler for charts:

Object o = icsc.getExternalContext().getObject();
IReportContext context = (IReportContext)o;

Thats it. Not sure why this is not documented anywhere since it seems to be asked a bunch.

Electronics: Goodwill is an Electronics Goldmine

Seriously. Especially old, outdated stuff. And if your looking for wall warts, you just can't beat Goodwill. We went in there looking for 80's cloths for a theme party, I walked out with 3 9 volt, 500 mA wall warts for less than 3 bucks. Cheapest I could find them online was about 3 bucks a piece. Radio Shack sells them for about 20 bucks. I'm sure everyone who is an electronics tinkerer already knew this, and I'd heard it years ago, but I was blown away. Worth keeping in mind for the microcontroller projects.

Sguil: Issue with Reverse DNS

I had an interesting issue with SGUIL. Interesting in the sense that the developer had no idea why I was having this issue, and could offer no insight. I had a rather “square peg, round hole” solution to fix it.

In version 0.7 of Sguil, the Reverse DNS option would not work on my machine, both with the External DNS option checked, and without it checked. In both instances I would get the following error:

The odd thing was this function worked just fine in previous versions of Sguil. So, to fix this, I went back to the IP address lookup used in the previous versions of Sguil. I edited the /sguilRoot/client/lib/extdata.tcl file to look like so:

#
# GetHostbyAddr: uses extended tcl (wishx) to get an ips hostname
#                May move to a server func in the future
#
proc GetHostbyAddr { ip } {

#    global EXT_DNS EXT_DNS_SERVER HOME_NET

#    if { $EXT_DNS } {

#        if { ![info exists EXT_DNS_SERVER] } {

#            ErrorMessage "An external name server has not been configured in sguil.conf. Resolution aborted."
#            return

#        } else {

#            set nameserver $EXT_DNS_SERVER

#            if { [info exists HOME_NET] } {

              # Loop thru HOME_NET. If ip matches any networks than use a the locally configured
              # name server
#                foreach homeNet $HOME_NET {

#                    set netMask [ip::mask $homeNet]
#                    if { [ip::equal ${ip}/${netMask} $homeNet] } { set nameserver local }

#                }

#            }

#        }

#    } else {

#        set nameserver local

#    }

#    if { $nameserver == "local" } {

#        set tok [dns::resolve $ip]

#    } else {

#        set tok [dns::resolve $ip -nameserver $nameserver]

#    }

#    set hostname [dns::name $tok]
#    dns::cleanup $tok
#    if { $hostname == "" } { set hostname "Unknown" }
#    return $hostname
if [catch {host_info official_name $ip} hostname] {
  set hostname "Unknown"
}
return $hostname
}

This took care of my problem. My only guess is that there is something with the ActiveTCL implementation of the DNS library on Windows that prevented this from working. I am not sure what the advantage of using the DNS library instead of the TCLX host_info command is due to my lack of experience in TCL/TK.

But this does illustrate an important point. Since Sguil was written in a scripted interpreted language (TCL/TK), making a change to my instance was trivial. Edit a file, and I had my issue resolved. Had this been in a compiled language, I would have had either compile the source, which would have taken more time, or gone back to the developer, submit a bug fix, and wait. In this case, it is fortunate that the tool was not developed that way.

Security: NSM Illustrated

I haven’t posted any security related posts in a while. Richard Bejtlich recently wrote an article illustrating a general event model of an analysts reaction using just an IDS vs an NSM based operation. I thought it would be a great opportunity to illustrate that process with an example to go along with the "Elvis" slides. The following is based on an incident, and will illustrate the NSM investigative process and using data to respond to the incident and make a business decision to modify network policy.

I’m cleaning out old events that have accumulated, and setting back up our sensor after an OS update deprecated some of the shared libraries used by Snort and SANCP. Once I got everything up and running, I saw a whole slew of SSH connection attempts kicked off by Snort. This is a fairly common event, and based on experience I know this is just an automated scan looking for open SSH ports and trying to brute force them.

Now, if this was only an IDS setup, I would only see an alert that an attack was underway. The only information I would have available would be the alert, and any logs. However, because Sguil was designed around the NSM principles, I had more information than that.

The first thing I did was query the event table for the potential attackers IP, and I can see that the connection attempts started at around 6:00 AM, and went on for 23 minutes. At this point, I have a pretty good idea that this is some sort of brute force attack, but not enough information to be sure. I need to investigate further.

The next thing I do is query the SANCP table for this IP address to see all the sessions the attacker has generated. More hits come back for this than alerts, which indicate there were connection attempts that did not trigger alerts because they did not match any of the signatures in Snort. This is an important distinction as to why an IDS or IPS system are not foolproof and shouldn’t be seen as security silver bullets. There were no sessions prior to this series of events, so this is our attackers first visit. In the below screenshot you can see there is a single session before 6:00 AM. This is probably the scan looking for live targets to attack. After this single session with no data sent or received, the connection attempts begin. I can tell by the source and destination data size that nothing more than the initial key exchange and login attempt ever gets done before closing the connection.

I investigate further and pull a transcript, which is a full content of the session. As expected, the data is encrypted because it is SSH traffic. But that doesn’t dead-end the investigation, I still have log data to analyze. I grep the auth.log file on the system in question with the IP address of the attacker. Sure enough, I see that this attacker is indeed trying to brute force our machine with different user and password combinations. The first log entry for the attackers IP shows that they did not send anything, solidifying my original theory that the first session in the SANCP query was to look for live targets.

This illustrates an important point. No 1 tool can handle everything, or give enough of a picture. As I understand it (and it may be a little off, I learned this stuff almost 8 years ago now), it's using all the tools at your disposal to get a big picture view of whats going on in your network, and be able to gather evidence as to make informed decision. Somewhat like Business Intelligence, but in a security perspective.

So at this point, being that I am a decision maker, I decide to block this IP from accessing the system further. I implement an IPTables rules to block them from any further connection attempts. To further reduce exposure, I may disable password authentication, and do white list rules to allow only known machines to connect. I could have blocked this at the firewall, but I didn't, which leads to the next scenario.

Now, this would have been the end of it, except I started to see alerts trigger from another one of our systems. Apparently this other system also had it’s SSH port exposed for remote logins. At this point, I am now aware of a policy violation on the network. So, while this was the exact same attacker just moving on to the next IP address in their scan, I have an entirely different scenario. I have information that leads me to make the decision to modify the firewall rules to close the firewall hole that is exposing this second machine.