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May 27, 2006
Computrition
Thus began a great journey.
Once upon a time, Dining puchased Computrition (CI). It was expensive, but high quality. It only ran on Oracle8, but we tried to cram it into the Oracle9 DB. Alas, it was not to be. So we made an Oracle8 DB on coug and life progressed merrily. It ran. It very occasionally broke, but was found to usually be our fault (usually).
Then along came CI v15. Shiny...pretty...new reports...and you guessed it: it only runs on Oracle10g. No problem.
We order. We train. We install. We backup. We break.
We delete. We re-install. We backup. We break.
We re-delete. We re-re-install. We DON'T do anything really weird and it's still running. Well that lesson is learned. But alas, Troy moved along to greener pastures leaving us with only me.
But today I began to prepare the mightly 10g to handle CT v15. I tried to load some data, but alas it did not load. I called support - alas it still did not load. They went home. Monday is a holiday.
We will prevail. Never give up...never surrender. We'll call them back ... on tuesday.
...[ Please read extended entry ]...
BLOG UPDATE: 7/24/06
We have successfully setup Oracle 10g R1. We had originally setup R2 without understanding that the optimal 10g version was 10.1.0.4
With a great deal of ease, I was able to load our Computrition v14.5 data into v15.5 and connect to it with a machine that has HS v15.5 installed. I must commend Computrition on their exemplary support and patient help while we resolved Our issue.
The issue turned out to be our fault - first R2 vs. R1, then we were held up by a bug in R1 (which Oracle may not even know about) that doesn't exist in Oracle 10g R2. Once we overcame those hurdles, Oracle started working well. So, once we had our database where Computrition wanted it - it took immediately. Smooth sailing. Thanks again to Computrition support - specifically their DBA team.
Posted by ellism at 1:18 AM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2006
Vercon
And I was having such a productive week too...
Today John and I continued our effort on project VERCON. We made some headway and were starting to take the next step... then we ran into a wall.
It seems that you can select from sys.all_source (with the appropriate privelegs) from a SQL window - but when you do this same thing from a procedure it seems to default rights back to public. This means that even when I'M the one running the query (with DBA rights, no less) from a procedure, the only results are what any standard schema can see.
This is obviously a problem, as we want to be able to copy both public and private code from the sys schema's all_source table. More importantly, why can we do it from a SQL window, but not from a procedure.
Anyway, that's where we stopped today. We made some progress, we learned some stuff - but now the whole project is halted until we can figure this issue out.
Posted by ellism at 8:09 PM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2006
VERCON
Today John and I worked on the VERCON (Version Control for PL/SQL) for our StaffDev. We populated one table and devised a scheme to keep it updated. We created another table for version control and diagramed the DB design. We discussed some options/issues and found resolutions/solutions to most of them.
We got started a little late, and our time was cut a bit short by the President's presentation.
Posted by ellism at 9:07 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2006
Firefighting
Some days seem to just fly by, as I'm running from place to place putting out little fires. Not every day is like that, and I'm glad. I've heard of some operations where that's all IT ever does. But then progress and innovation don't occur.
Nothing works forever. I dig that. They call it job security. I don't want things to always work perfectly and never have issues. On the other hand, I'm glad that we don't only have issues. When I have the time to think, strategize and innovate I still feel alive as a programmer. Some people are addicted to 'new' (my wife thinks I'm one of those people). She enjoys teasing me about reorganizing the furniture in at least one room of our house on a frequent basis.
But innovation is more than just an addiction to 'something new'. Innovation is birthed from a combination of need, stopping to take some time and using that little genius that deep down inside us all. It just feels good to think up something ... 'new'. Something that we think is really gonna make a difference. It's the difference between trying to make new tricks for the dog, or just trying to make a new dog.
Innovation is what keeps me alive as a programmer. It's the difference between Boo-ya! and "Hi my name is Michael, I can take your order whenever your ready".
I think we all innovate. My purpose in writing this blog was not to say that I rock and am too smart for my pants. It was a simple self expression. Some people love feedback, others love completion. Mostly I guess I was expressing an appreciation for the time and structure to continue innovation.
Some of my recent projects show this innovative spirit (in my opinion). The portal is the best example, as it bridges a known gap in our current technology use. I'm still working away at it - that and 5 other projects...
Posted by ellism at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2006
Ever need a vacation from your vacation?
Well my wife and I returned from two weeks of vacation on tuesday. We went to Florida: saw the everglades, alligators, disneyworld...
It was great, but I'm tired :)
I love my wife so much, but we are very opposite. She loves to run around on vacation and I love to sit. Weird, huh? Oh well, we make it work and we had a really good time.
Anyway, today I built the table structure to hold the data for the VERCON schema: an automated Version Control tool to backup/track our PL/SQL code. So that's what I worked on today for my ProDev. I hope it'll be a neat program when it's through. The first time it saves me (or someone else) it'll all have been worth it.
Posted by ellism at 8:40 PM | Comments (0)