Oct 17, 2007

Failed to enable constraints

Did any one face this issue before ?

I had created odbc connection to mysql in .net 2.0 dataset.
Having issue on "fillby" transaction after i create a new select query.

In the front end page, having constraint issue too.
I had try to enable the dataset and set auto increment in the dataset to solve these issue on my local, but when upload to the server, the error happen again. :S

Any one have any idea ?

Oct 16, 2007

CAL3D Modeling Exportation

CAL3D Exportation

During FYP 3D Game , Novice Odyssey , I am lack of time to research Cal3D ,
thus, I am using MD2 to repalce Cal3D, Cal3D had been listed in my future list.
Who is interesting, may refer it:

1. create a box, modifier > editable mesh.
2. name your box head[0].
2. create bones for charactor and name your bones.
3. click your head[0], modifier > skin.
4. in skin modifier, add bones where the mesh covered.
5. click envelop, adjust the skin size.
6. click your box, utitlies > more > body paint.
7. send your box to body for uv map and texture.
8. in body paint, click your map and create a color of mapping.
8. adjust your uvmap vertex, paint your texture.
9. set your texture saiz as 128 x 128.
10. save your texture as tga file.
11. send back to 3d max
12. click m, material, beside your (standard) button, name your material.
13. material name should b head[0], body[1], leg[2]...
14. create your animation.
15. export your skeleton first.
16. click your mesh,export yuur mesh and choose your skeleton file as reference.
17. export your material, you wil see ur head[0] material.
18. export your animation.
19. create cfg files as below :

#
# cal3d model configuration file
#
# model: 2
#

scale=0.5

skeleton=m4.csf

animation=1.caf

mesh=m4_head.cmf
mesh=m4_body.cmf

material=1.crf
material=2.crf

20. create your batch file.
21. done.

How To Create MD2 ( Animated Model )

MD2 was my fyp game project 's modeling technique.
Today refresh all my notes in my Yahoo! notes and dig out some stuff to share over here.

How to create md2

1) in 3d max create the snow man, save snowman.max
2) convert into mesh or patch
3) in photoshop create texture 128 x 128
4) image> index color save as snowman.bmp
5) in 3dmax, press m, set only one material map
6) use body paint to paint it
7) in body paint,click ur object
8) click the mapping, scale down to seperate each mapping in diff place
9) paint it
10) in body paint save texture as bmp as 128x 128 (mus change later)
11) send back to 3dmax
12) qtip exporter, rename tris.pcx to snowman.pcx
13) use photoshop to change texture snowman.bmp put same name snowman.md2
14) check for the saiz 128x128 and the 8 bit color
15) u are done!!

Oct 12, 2007

SVN Server Setup

Source Control Subversion Server Setup Under Windows

Get SVN Server Tools
http://subversion.tigris.org/ ( original subversion )
http://www.collab.net/products/subversion/ ( CollabNet Subversion)

Get SVN Client Tools
http://tortoisesvn.net/

Get Visual Studio Intergration Add-On
http://www.VisualSvn.com/
http://ankhsvn.tigris.org/

A) Download Subversion

You'll need the latest version of..

the Windows binaries
the "run Subversion as a windows service" wrapper
the TortoiseSVN shell integration utility

B) Install Subversion

Unzip the Windows binaries to a folder of your choice. I chose c:\program files\subversion\ as my path.
Now, add the subversion binaries to the path environment variable for the machine. I used %programfiles%\subversion\bin\
You'll also need another environment variable, SVN_EDITOR, set to the text editor of your choice. I used c:\windows\notepad.exe

C) Create a Repository

Open a command prompt and type

svnadmin create "c:\Documents and Settings\Subversion Repository"

Navigate to the folder we just created. Within that folder, uncomment the following lines in the /conf/svnserve.conf file:
```
[general]
anon-access = read
auth-access = write
password-db = passwd
```
Next, uncomment these lines in the /conf/passwd file:
```
[users]
harry = harryssecret
sally = sallyssecret
```

D) Verify that everything is working

Start the subversion server by issuing this command in the command window:

svnserve --daemon --root "C:\Documents and Settings\Subversion Repository"

You can create shortcut and set the target
"C:\Program Files\CollabNet Subversion Server\svnserve.exe" -d -r
C:\Documents and Settings\Subversion Repository

Create a project by opening a second command window and entering this command:
```
svn mkdir svn://localhost/myproject
```
It's a standard Subversion convention to have three folders at the root of a project:

/trunk
/branches
/tags
At this point, Notepad should launch:

Enter any comment you want at the top of the file, then save and exit.

You'll now be prompted for credentials. In my case I was prompted for the administrator credentials as well:

Authentication realm:  0f1a8b11-d50b-344d-9dc7-0d9ba12e22df
Password for 'Administrator': *********

Authentication realm:  0f1a8b11-d50b-344d-9dc7-0d9ba12e22df
Username: sally
Password for 'sally': ************

Committed revision 1.

Congratulations! You just checked a change into Subversion!

E) Start the server as a service

Stop the existing command window that's running svnserve by pressing CTRL+C.
Copy the file SVNService.exe from the zip file of the same name to the subversion\bin folder.

Install the service by issuing the following commands:

svnservice -install --daemon --root "C:\Documents and Settings\Subversion Repository"
sc config svnservice start= auto
net start svnservice

Test the new service by listing all the files in the repository:
```
svn ls svn://localhost/
```
You should see the single project we created earlier, myproject/

F) Set up the shell extension

Run the TortoiseSVN installer. It will tell you to restart, but you don't need to.
Create a project folder somewhere on your hard drive. Right click in that folder and select "SVN Checkout..."

type svn://localhost/myproject/ for the repository URL and click OK.
Create a new file in that directory. Right click the file and select "TortoiseSVN, Add"
The file hasn't actually been checked in yet. Subversion batches any changes and commits them as one atomic operation. To send all your changes to the server, right click and select "SVN Commit":

And we're done! You now have a networked Subversion server and client set up on your machine. Note that the default port for svnserve is 3690.

Extra Command:
SVN Client Command: svn
-----------------------
add
blame (praise, annotate, ann)
cat
changelist (cl)
checkout (co)
cleanup
commit (ci) -m "my log message"
copy (cp)
delete (del, remove, rm)
diff (di)
export
help (?, h)
import
info
list (ls) -v
lock
log -v
merges
mergeinfo
mkdir
move (mv, rename, ren)
propdel (pdel, pd)
propedit (pedit, pe)
propget (pget, pg)
proplist (plist, pl)
propset (pset, ps)
resolved
revert
status (stat, st) -u -v
switch (sw)
unlock
update (up)

SVN Admin Command: svnadmin
-----------------------------
crashtest
create
deltify
dump
help (?, h)
hotcopy
list-dblogs
list-unused-dblogs
load
lslocks
lstxns
recover
rmlocks
rmtxns
setlog
setrevprop
verify

SVN Look Command: svnlook
--------------------------
author
cat
changed
date
diff
dirs-changed
help (?, h)
history
info
lock
log
propget (pget, pg)
proplist (plist, pl)
tree
uuid
youngest

SVN Dump Fileter Command: svndumpfilter
----------------------------------------
exclude
include
help (?, h)

SVNServe Daemon: svnserve
---------------------------
svnserve -d -r /path/to/repo

SVN Windows Service
---------------------------
sc create svn
binpath= "C:\svn\bin\svnserve.exe --service -r C:\repos"
displayname= "Subversion Server"
depend= Tcpip
start= auto

C:\> sc create svn
binpath= "\"C:\program files\svn\bin\svnserve.exe\" --service -r C:\repo
displayname= "Subversion Server"
depend= Tcpip
start= auto

C:\> net stop svn
C:\> net start svn

error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not

Compile error with Visual C++ 2005 / Orcas : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int

Solution:
Compiler expect (const int) not (const).

Oct 11, 2007

ASCII/Multibyte to Unicode conversion

ASP.NET, All Topics, C# , .NET >> C# Database >> Unedited Reader Contributions
http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/ASCIIMB2UnicodeTSQL.asp

ASCII/Multibyte to Unicode conversion

By carlop().

An article about converting ASCII/Multibyte to unicode using C# and SQL/CLR Integration

C# (C# 2.0), SQL
Windows (WinXP), .NET (.NET 2.0)
Win32, SQL (SQL 2005), VS
DB, Dev
Posted: 8 Feb 2007
Updated: 16 Feb 2007
Views: 15,212

Note: This is an unedited reader contribution

7 votes for this article.

Popularity: 2.62. Rating: 3.1 out of 5.

Note: This is an unedited contribution. If this article is inappropriate, needs attention or copies someone else's work without reference then please Report this article.

Introduction

A common problem when converting legacy database applications is that our customers have a lot of data and they don't want to loose it. Probably data strings are encoded in ASCII / Multibyte but our new system uses NVARCHAR fields. So the problem is that we have to convert old data into Unicode. This is exactly what we'll do.

I have to highlight that the approach I will present is 'oversized' for most cases: in a common scenario you will deal with a single codepage, in that case SQL Server built-in tools are enough. But there are situations that requires a more advanced approach, such as when you have a legacy database that stores strings with different codepages.

As a complete example to show you capabilities of SQL-CLR integration I've also decided to use a Win32 API to perform the conversion, so that you can also see how use P/Invoke from SQL. This can be useful if you have an old DLL and want to use it... but *beware* that it can be really dangerous... if you don't have full knowledge of what you're doing you can keep down the entire SQL Server process !!!

Just a note: I do not provide a test project since the code I will show here is really simple, you can use copy & paste, it's faster !

Solution

The solution I want to show is simple and powerful at the same time. It is made of two logical parts: First we'll build the conversion routine as a standard C# function. Secondly we'll integrate it into SQL Server as a function, so you can use with T-SQL.

Clearly, depending on you application scenario, this may not be the best approach, so once you have the conversion routine you may choose to follow my approach or you may prefer to use it in an external application that performs a batch conversion or you may think of something else.

Part #1: create the conversion routine.

I've used the following well known Win32 API:

int MultiByteToWideChar(
  UINT CodePage, 
  DWORD dwFlags,         
  LPCSTR lpMultiByteStr, 
  int cbMultiByte,       
  LPWSTR lpWideCharStr,  
  int cchWideChar        
);

Here there's the C# signature that can be used for P/Invoking:

  [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern int MultiByteToWideChar(
      uint CodePage,
      uint dwFlags,
      [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)] Byte[] lpMultiByteStr, 
      int cbMultiByte,
      [Out, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)] Byte[] lpWideCharStr,
      int cchWideChar);

Now it's quite easy to write a class that performs a conversion:

namespace ConvUtils {

  public static class Unicode {

    public static SqlString ConvToUnicode(SqlInt32 codepage , SqlString multibyteString) {
      byte[] b = (byte[])iConvToMultibyteArray(multibyteString); 
      return (SqlString)ToUnicode((uint)(int)codepage, b);
    }

    private static string ToUnicode(uint codepage, Byte[] lpMultiByteStr) { 
      Byte[] lpWideCharStr = new Byte[2*lpMultiByteStr.Length]; 
      MultiByteToWideChar(codepage, 0, lpMultiByteStr, lpMultiByteStr.Length, lpWideCharStr, 2*lpMultiByteStr.Length);
      return System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetString(lpWideCharStr);
    }


    private static SqlBinary iConvToMultibyteArray(SqlString multibyteString) { 
      byte[] result = multibyteString.GetUnicodeBytes();
      return (SqlBinary)result;
    }
  }
}

The example is quite easy and does not require any other explanation. The SqlTypes has been used because I will integrate it into SqlServer, but if you don't need it you may replace them with strings and Byte arrays.

I've also decided to let the codepage be a parameter since the codepage on your PC or on SQL Server can be different from the one needed for the conversion.

Part #2: SQL Server code

Ok, now we have a C# code that converts ASCII/Multibyte into Unicode. The next step is to integrate it into SQL Server so that any database user can have access to this conversion routine:

First create a DLL that can be hosted by SQL Server: all we have to do is to add the [SQLFunction] attribute to the ConvToUnicode :

    [SQLFunction] 
    public static SqlString ConvToUnicode( …

Finally build the DLL and integrate it into SQL with a script that is like the following one:

use TESTDB 
go 
exec sp_configure "clr enabled", '1' 
go 
reconfigure 
go 
-- for test purpouses only, not recommended in production environments
 ALTER DATABASE TESTDB SET TRUSTWORTHY ON 
go 

begin try 
  CREATE ASSEMBLY [asmUni] FROM 'c:\project_output_dir\uniconv.dll' with permission_set=UNSAFE 
end try 
begin catch 
  alter assembly [asmUni] FROM 'c:\project_output_dir\uniconv.dll' WITH UNCHECKED DATA  
end catch 
go

if exists(select name from sys.objects where name = 'csConvToUnicode') drop function [dbo].[csConvToUnicode] 
go 
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[csConvToUnicode] ( 
@codepage int, 
 @multibytestr nvarchar(max) 
) returns nvarchar(max) 
AS EXTERNAL name [asmUni].[ConvUtils.Unicode].[ConvToUnicode] 
go

That's all !

Now you can use this function like any other, for example in a classic select statement, to create a view or to create a trigger that automatically keeps your data updated.

Just a final example on how we can use this function in a T-SQL statement (950 is the codepage for traditional chinese):

select 
  description, 
  dbo.csConvToUnicode(950, description) as converted 
from testtable

description             converted
----------------------- -------------------
¨àµ£ºô¸ô¦w¥þ            兒童網路安全 
°ê»Ú¸ê°T °T°T°T°T°T        國際資訊 訊訊訊訊訊
°ê»Ú¸ê°T °T°T°T°T°T        國際資訊 訊訊訊訊訊
a                    a
Áô¨pÅv¬Fµ¦            隱私權政策
test c                test c

Conclusion

I have shown a really simple but powerful way to leverage the CLR integration provided by SqlServer to convert old ASCII/Multibyte data into Unicode. I Hope that this is a good starting point for your personal solution.

History

February 16th, 2007 - Added more comments on introduction
February 8th, 2007 - First Version

About carlop()

10 years of hard coding... and it's going on !

Click here to view carlop()'s online profile.

Add this article to:

Discussions and Feedback

14 comments have been posted for this article. Visit http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/ASCIIMB2UnicodeTSQL.asp to post and view comments on this article.

Updated: 16 Feb 2007

Article content copyright carlop(), 2007
everything else Copyright © CodeProject, 1999-2007.

Useful Chinese Links

Chinese links

Chinese script, Free Chinese fonts, Writing Chinese, Chinese computing, Chinese radio, Chinese newspapers, Chinese dictionaries, Chinese translation, Chinese courses, Chinese names, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese computing, Chinese philosophy, Chinese forums, Miscellaneous

Chinese script

中国文字研究与应用中心 (Center for the Study of Chinese Characters and Their Applications)
http://www.ideograms.org

A history of written Chinese
http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/visible/

Information about and articles on Chinese characters and the Chinese script
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character
http://www.chinaorbit.com/china-culture/chinese-characters.html
http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/script.html

Pinyin/Zhuyin Converter - converts Chinese characters to pinyin or zhuyin
http://www.pin1yin1.com

Free Chinese fonts

http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/edv/sinopc/chinese_fonts.htm
http://www.indeed.com.tw/download.html
http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/fonts.html
http://www.twinbridge.com

Chinese Translation

Our Price:$10.00

Writing Chinese

Writing Chinese Characters - and how to count the strokes
http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/methods/bihua.htm

Animated Chinese characters - shows you how to write individual characters
http://ocrat.com/ocrat/chargif/

Videos showing you how to write Chinese characters stroke by stroke
http://www.chineselearner.com/writing/symbol/

Online Chinese radio

China Radio International - in Mandarin and many other languages
http://www.cri.com.cn

Beijing Music Radio (北京音乐台) - in Mandarin
http://fm974.tom.com

Radio Shanghai (上海人民广播电台) - in Mandarin
http://www.radioshanghai.com

Radio Taiwan International (中央廣播電台) - in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, Cantonese and various other languages): http://www.cbs.org.tw

BCC (中國廣播電台) - in Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka
http://www.bcc.com.tw

Voice of Taipei (台北之聲) - in Mandarin and Taiwanese
http://www.vot.com.tw

RTHK (香港電台) - in Cantonese
http://www.rthk.org.hk

BBC World Service - in Mandarin and Cantonese
http://www.bbc.co.uk/chinese/

Radio Free Asia - in Mandarin and Cantonese
http://www.rfa.org/english/

Melody Studio - Chinese, Taiwanese and Cantonese music
http://www.melodystudio.com/

Online Chinese newspapers

China

People's Daily (人民日报)
http://www.peopledaily.com.cn

Taiwan

China Times (中時電子報)
http://news.chinatimes.com

Hong Kong

Ming Pao News (明報新聞網)
http://www.mingpaonews.com

Apple Daily (蘋果日報)
http://www.appledaily.com

Singapore

Lianhe Zaobao (联合早报)
http://www.zaobao.com

Online Chinese dictionaries

http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/ccdict/
http://www.yourdictionary.com/languages/sinotibe.html
http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php
http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html
http://www.pristine.com.tw/resources/lexicon.php
http://zhongwen.com
http://www.tigernt.com/dict.shtml
http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/dictionary.html
http://www.chinesedic.com
http://www.chinese-dictionary.org
http://www.kanjinetworks.com
http://www.clearchinese.com/chinese-english-dictionary.htm
http://chdw.de
http://app.chinesesavvy.com/services/dictionary/DictionarySearchPO.ot
http://www.ilearnchinesehere.com

Picture-based Chinese character/word dictionary
http://www.vertical-sun.com/hanzi

Speaking Chinese English Dictionaries
http://moosenose.com/speakingpinyin.htm
http://app.chinesesavvy.com/services/dictionary/sentence/DictionarySentencePO.ot

Chinese Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com

Chinese language resources - information, dictionaries, etc
http://www.chinalanguage.com
http://www.easechinese.com

Online Cantonese dictionary
http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/scripts/wordsearch.php

Online Shanghainese/Wu dictionaries
http://dict.zanhe.com
http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/wudict.php

Online Taiwanese dictionary
http://daiwanway.dynip.com/cgi/tdict.acgi

Photo dictionary of rare Chinese characters (with explanations in Japanese)
http://homepage2.nifty.com/Gat_Tin/kanji/kaindex.htm

Online Chinese translation

Online translation from English into Chinese (Simplified & Traditional) of websites and text: http://www.readworld.com/tran

Online Chinese courses/lessons

Cantonese
http://www.khuang.com/chinese/cantonese.asp
http://www.chinawestexchange.com/Cantonese/

Mandarin
http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/ccol/content.htm
http://www.chineseon.net
http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/online.htm
http://www.languageguide.org/mandarin/
http://www.chinese-lessons.com
http://www.chinese-outpost.com/language/
http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese
http://www.zapchinese.com
http://www.sinoling.com
http://learnchinese.elanguageschool.net
http://www.clearchinese.com/learn-chinese/
http://www.effectivelanguage.com/mandarin.html
http://www.chinesepod.com
http://www.clearchinese.com
http://www.activechinese.com
http://www.china-8.com/cms/sites/china-8/section.cfm?id=12
http://parlezchinois.free.fr
http://www.loquella.com/learn-chinese
http://www.echineselearning.com
http://www.chinese-course.com

Mandarin phrases (some with audio)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/
http://www.wku.edu/~yuanh/AudioChinese/
http://www.chinaadviser.com/useful_chinese_phrases.html
http://www.languageguide.org/mandarin/
http://www.slanguage.com/fun_chinese_mand.html

Shanghainese
http://www.linguasinica.com/Shanghai/
http://www.zanhe.com
http://www.shanghai.or.jp/zw/shanghai/

Taiwanese
http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/
http://www.tacpa.org/wdcts/mtl/intro.html
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/lang/taiwanese/

Basic lessons in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Shanghainese and Hakka
http://www.hqpin.com/eindex.html

China Online - inlcudes articles, phrases and information about Chinese languages
http://www.chinaonline.cn.com/chinese_language.html

Online resources for learning Mandarin
http://www.chinesetools.eu

HyperChina - an interactive Mandarin Chinese course on CD-ROM http://www.sinologic.com/HyperChina.html

Chinese Phrases for Travellers (with audio)
http://chinese.travel-way.net

Chinese Writing Master - software that helps you learn how to write Chinese characters
http://www.cchar.com

Early Learning - Chinese: Free printable bilingual (English- Mandarin Chinese) materials and tips for parents, homeschoolers, caregivers, daycare/child-care providers, babysitters, or anyone who works with young children who are learning chinese/english
http://www.earlylearning-chinese.com

Chinese names

Your name in Chinese
http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html
http://www.qualitylanguage.com/name_translator.htm
http://www.transname.com
http://www.chinese-tools.com/names
http://www.chinesenames.org
http://www.chine-informations.com/mods/prenoms/
http://definingcharacters.com

Chinese Seals

A guide to the hundred most common Chinese surnames
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/3919/hundred.html

An introduction to Chinese names and other interesting facts about Chinese language and culture: http://www.wlu.edu/~hhill/btl.html

Chinese calligraphy, translation and design - get your name in beautiful Chinese calligraphy: http://www.transname.com

Chinese calligraphy

http://www.chinapage.com/callig1.html
http://www.asiawind.com/art/callig/calligal.htm
http://www.tongram.com/gallery/default.asp
http://home.flash.net/~cameron/calligraphy/collection.htm
http://www.rice-paper.com/uses/calligraphy.html

Chinese computing

The Complete Guide to Chinese Computing
http://www.chinesecomputing.com/

An introduction to Chinese Input Methods http://zsigri.tripod.com/fontboard/cjk/input.html#chinese
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Chinese-input-methods-for-computer

The Cangjie Input Method
http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/methods/cangjie.htm

InputKing - a program for inputting Chinese text online
http://www.inputking.com

Guide to reading Chinese on the internet
http://www.cathay.net/help/read-chn.shtml

Beautiful Chinese wallpaper for your computer
http://www.desktopchina.com/desktopchina/

SIMO - enables you to input Chinese through browsers
http://www.simo.us

Chinese philosophy

The Daodejing (Tao-te-ching) by Laozi (Lao-tzu) in Chinese and English
http://www.chinapage.com/laotze.html

Chinese Text Project - texts of ancient Chinese philosophy online
http://chinese.dsturgeon.net

Chinese forums

http://www.chinese-forums.com
http://www.omnitalk.com
http://www.chinesesavvy.com/savvy/

Miscellaneous

Chinese Tools - online tools to learn chinese or build chinese websites. Includes annotation tools, dictionaries, and converters for pinyin, unicode, traditional and simplified chinese: http://www.chinese-tools.com

Chinesesavvy - a variety of resources for students of Chinese, including an online dictionary, articles on Chinese culture and history, forums, etc/
http://www.chinesesavvy.com/savvy/

Interesting Chinese - information about Chinese language, history and culture
http://www.interestingchinese.com

Free Chinese New Year E-cards
http://www.chinesenewyearecards.com
http://www.123greetings.com/events/chinese_new_year/

Convert Chinese characters to Unicode

This tool will convert Chinese characters (and just about everything else, including Japanese hiragana, katakana, and kanji; tonal Hanyu Pinyin; and Cyrillic script) into the decimal (not hex) form of Unicode numerical character references (NCRs). These NCRs can then be used in Web pages, with greater ease than the Chinese characters themselves for those whose operating systems or other software don't handle double-byte text well.

For example, 台北, the characters for "Taipei" (Táiběi), can also be written as 台北. For this to work, the "charset" of the Web page should be set to Unicode:
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

It's generally better, however, to use the characters themselves rather than their Unicode NCRs in cases where a Web page has a lot of Chinese text, because Chinese characters take up less file space than their NCRs.

http://www.pinyin.info/tools/converter/chars2uninumbers.html

Convert Chinese Charactor To Pin Yin

http://www.purpleculture.net/pinyin_old.asp

Information about written and spoken Chinese on this site

Recommended books

Books about Chinese characters and calligraphy
Classical Chinese, Mandarin, Shanghainese, Hokkien, Taiwanese and Cantonese language courses, dictionaries, etc.