Ugly Code
With my recent project, I had to do some research for the bits that make up the msRTCSIP-OptionFlags field in Active Directory for OCS users. There were certain operations that are not 100% supported by HMC so often times you have to fill in the gaps. The definition of this field is as follows:
This attribute specifies the different options that are enabled for the user or contact object. This attribute is a bit-mask value of type integer. Each option is represented by a bit. This attribute is marked for Global Catalog replication.
Unfortunately, in my searching I found not only the technet article, but I also found this
Here a sample of some of the code that you’ll find….
objUser.Put "msRTCSIP-OptionFlags", "16"
else
‘If user not enabled then do not enable OCS
if strOptionFlag = "0" then
objUser.Put "msRTCSIP-OptionFlags", "0"
‘If user is enabled for Public IM then keep Public IM enabled and enable RCC
elseif strOptionFlag = "1" then
objUser.Put "msRTCSIP-OptionFlags", "257"
‘If user is enabled for RCC then keep RCC enabled and enable Enhanced Presence
elseif strOptionFlag = "16" then
objUser.Put "msRTCSIP-OptionFlags", "272"
‘If user is enabled for RCC and Public IM then keep RCC & PIM enabled and enable Enhanced Presence
elseif strOptionFlag = "17" then
objUser.Put "msRTCSIP-OptionFlags", "273"
‘If user is already enabled for RCC and Enhanced Presence then keep settings
elseif strOptionFlag = "272" then
objUser.Put "msRTCSIP-OptionFlags", "272"
‘If user is already enabled for RCC, PIM and Enhanced Presence then keep settings
elseif strOptionFlag = "273" then
objUser.Put "msRTCSIP-OptionFlags", "273"
end if
end if
All I have to say is wow! You’ve got to be freaking kidding me. Are there programmers out there that don’t understand what a bitfield is supposed to be or how to do bitwise operations? That’s like the first freaking class in a Computer Science degree. This is where you learn about Big 0, Binary numbers, loops, variables. If you are a programmer reading this blog and you don’t know what a bit field is and how to us it. Google it, read up, and rid the world of ugly ass code like what I found above.
Now technically what this person is doing would “work” since it is setting the integer with an appropriate number. But wow is this the WRONG way to do it. I’m afraid to see this persons code for when they need to check and see if the RCC bit is set for the user. Technically, they should be able to do a simple bitwise operation and check it something along the lines of:
{
// RCC is set
}
I have a feeling that this person is doing for the following:
{
X is set
Y is set
Z is set
}
else if(value == 257)
{
Y is set
Z is set
}
This is a very simplistic psuedo-code example. But wow…I’m still in shock that this type of code is out there…and posted somewhat recently in October of 2008!
I really hope I run into this guy some day so I can beat him with the clue-by-4.
