RE: Frontend to UniVerse?
My answer to questions like this is always that you can get into these MV systems in so many different ways that it's now irrelevant which tools or languages you use. Pick one that you're comfortable with and you'll find ways to use your tools to get into the back-end and interface with applications. As examples: Java, VB6, VB.NET, C#, Perl, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, ODBC, HTTP, RPC, sockets, Nucleus, Visage, DesignBAIS, RedBack, WebWizard, UniObjects/UOJ, Intercall, Coyote(?), PDP.NET, mvInternet, AccuTerm, wIntegrate (yes these can be used as pure connectivity components) Excel, Outlook, Project, Word, Crystal Reports, FRx, ... Quick Books, Great Plains, Turbo Tax, ... (omission of a product name is only a sign of failing memory) There is no best language, development tool, or connectivity method - IMHO. It comes down to your comfort zone, your price range, your favorite technologies, your company politics, your confidence in the long-term viability of tools, and other semi-intangibles. If your question is more specific like how do I get into Universe from a .NET middle tier, then people can provide a more specific answer. For ideas about how to use MV apps with Web Services, for example, see my article on Web Services and .NET in the March/April and prior issues of Spectrum Magazine, where I mention a number of these technologies: http://www.intl-spectrum.com/SPECTRUMMAG.HTML (4.5MB PDF) I'll be happy to provide free advice, offical consultation, education, and development services using most of the technologies mentioned here. Feel free to ask. Tony, Nebula RD [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Trevor McNamara Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 3:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Frontend to UniVerse? Hey, I would like to know what programming languages would be best to program a frontend to a UniVerse 10 database? Database on AIX5 P Series. I have done a frontend to a SQL Database using VS .NET before but nothing from a UNIX database? The frontend end would run on WinXP Machines and need to run commands on the AIX machines to run daily processes and also reporting as well as you are currently manually putting in the UniQuery and then importing it into excel would be great if we could use Crystal Reports like i used on my SQL frontend. Any help of websites reguarding this please let me know. Thanks in advance. Trev _ Get Extra Storage in 10MB, 25MB, 50MB and 100MB options now! Go to http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-aupage=hotmail/es2 -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: D3 - Universe
Barry Brooks asked: I have a client who is running D3 and Universe on seperate servers. They wish to be able to directly access D3 files from Universe. Does anyone know the best (or any) way to do this. D3 and Universe are running on Linux Redhat 9. Ross Suggested: You MIGHT be able to use ODBC from UV, but ODBC with D3 has never been great - depending on volumes, there is always OSFI (on D3) being mapped to a UV type 19 file ? Sorry Ross, that won't work because the D3 ODBC client driver is Win32 only. Barry said he's running on Linux. Although he CAN create some code in a Win32 middle-tier and use that as a hub between the Linux boxes. Chuck suggested: Set up the D3 files you need to access as FSI (external file format) and point to them from UniVerse (SAMBA, VisionFS, or file mapping) as Type 19. No... FSI doesn't work like that, FSI files are still mini blobs unto themselves. And here too, there is no FSI over Linux. Barry - there are a few ways to do this, one of which might be to use CallHTTP (or another HTTP call) from Universe and FlashCONNECT or a home-grown HTTP interface with D3. The solution will depend on how transparent or tightly integrated you want these environments to be. If you want a READ in UV to read a record in D3 then some creative coding is required, but it's possible. I'll be happy to discuss solutions with you for free but some coding/services will be required to make this happen. Tony [EMAIL PROTECTED] Former DBMS Product Manager, Raining Data, including D3. Currently specializing in communications interfaces for MV platforms and applications. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: D3 - Universe
If all you want is to do is Access queries, then you can build the query, then pass it to D3 through a combination of rlogin and d3tcl. That's a little cludgy. Or, again, you can go through a Win32 middle-tier. The results can be returned to Universe through stdout or captured into a variable for processing. For large reports coming back, this will be an issue and some code will need to be built around the request to page the data back to Universe. If you want to do this sort of thing on your own, then AccuTerm scripting can be used to do the data exchanges. The AccuTerm session doesn't need to be on the same desktop as the user, and in fact you can have one system doing the connectivity for many users. This isn't elegant either, but a lot of people like using familiar tools. If you want a more elegant solution, then more coding is required. We're doing some development now which allows one MV platform to integrate very closely with other MV platforms, almost seamlessly, but it's not ready yet. If you're interested, please e-mail. Tony [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Barry Brooks Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 3:58 PM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: RE: D3 - Universe Thanks Rick We are trying to achieve 'Real-Time, Online' enquiry to d3 files from Universe. Cheers ... Barry -Original Message- From:Rick Ramsey [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent:Tuesday, 27 April 2004 9:40 PM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: RE: D3 - Universe Thanks Rick We use wintegrate bridge copy to achieve copies of files but what we are attempting to do is real-time enquiry from Universe to D3 files Barry When you say 'access D3 files from UniVerse' it's not really clear what you mean (copy files? Real-time queries?) For simple copying from one MV system to another we've had good experience with AccuTerm (www.asent.com) which is our terminal emulator, copying tool and GUI enabler (with Nucleus from Binary Star). I think you can get a free trial copy of AccuTerm from their site. Rick Ramsey -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Barry Brooks Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 6:59 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: D3 - Universe Hi everyone I have a client who is running D3 and Universe on seperate servers. They wish to be able to directly access D3 files from Universe. Does anyone know the best (or any) way to do this. D3 and Universe are running on Linux Redhat 9. Barry Brooks -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: We need a web based Forum!
Two ideas, not entirely original: 1) The techie in me says It would be an interesting project to create the e-mail and web interfaces described in an MV system. (What a concept, a database for massive amounts of structured data...) It wouldn't have the bells and whistles of established e-mail listservers (for a while anyway), nor of established web forums, but it would be possible to store the data in an MV environment which then populates one of the standard web forum software packages through an API, or a web interface can be written. 2) The more practical side of me says: There is a comp.databases.Pick and a comp.databases.Revelation (which isn't used), and comp.databases.ibm-db2. Maybe it's time for comp.databases.ibm-u2.tech and comp.databases.ibm-u2.misc? I believe this has been alluded to by Kevin Zollinger, James Hogan, and Dawn Wolthuis, to some extent. Personally I don't like e-mail forums. I prefer Usenet where Google can do the archiving and I can use real news software to track threaded discussions. Usenet can be browsed with e-mail, web browser, _and_ a real Usenet reader. It's also pull technology. E-mail is pull technology to an extent as well, but it's more push technology because it pushes itself into the e-mail queue. I think the only reason people won't like this is that a lot of people don't understand what Usenet is, and they won't want to get a new reader. Well folks, e-mail was never designed for this sort of thing, Usenet was. Another change that would need to be made is that people will have to learn to stop posting real e-mail addresses and URLs. You can post what you want to Usenet but harvesting programs WILL create spam for every address made available to the public. To curb some of the issues, a private server can be setup, available by registration and login only, but since it's so easy to register to the list I can see spammers registering to a private server as soon as they find it. Tony I wrote a Usenet client in D3, after that, anything is possible. :) James Hogan wrote: Seems to me a system where *email (the list) carries on as usual *All emailed responses are submitted as forum responses *All forum responses are whooshed out to the list as email I would whole-heartedly agree with this. BUT I have never seen such an animal in action myself. I think it's mythical. Will I have certainly been involved in usenet newsgroups that are linked in this way. I gave an example in previous emails. It has been developed for forums too, as per my email below, which no one to date has commented on. [snip] -Original Message- [snip Mail 2 Forum info] -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Universe on XP (Personal Edition)
I use the same technique for starting D3, mvBASE, IIS, and other services form desktop shortcuts. Stopping services with a kill um all, let God sort um out macro like this can be problematic, it really depends on the service, but it's a nice way to free resources. You may see the command window flash as a BAT is executed, but if something is wrong you won't be able to catch the errors. Depending on how thorough you want to be, I recommend writing more code so that your U2 systems update a Windows file when they boot and shutdown. You can then use a script (WSH) from your BAT which verifies the status before termination, maybe with a pause if the status is unexpected - like if users are still logged-in or some other processes are running. HTH, Tony -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Anthony Dzikiewicz Sent: Friday, April 23, 2004 11:31 AM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: Universe on XP (Personal Edition) So, I am doing a kind of odd ball thing. I wrote some UV Basic programs to create batch files that are run via the scheduled tasks. I don't want Universe running on my machine all the time. So, I created a couple of '.bat' files to start and stop universe, which are also set up as scheduled tasks. For example, stopuv bat file is NET STOP UniVerse Telnet Service NET STOP UniVerse REXEC Service NET STOP UniVerse Resource Service NET STOP Uni RPC Service This appears to work. The messages come up as everything being successful. I do a 'NET START' to see the services running and it doesn't show any of the Universe processes. However, I then realize that I am still logged into Universe in the PC and it is still alive and well. Is this a bug ? If I exit the session and then retry it, I wont be able to log in. Also, If I stop Universe the gui way from the control panel, I get the same result. Does this happen on all windows platforms ? What if I were shutting down to perform a backup and yet people were still messing with the data. Anthony -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: starting and stopping processes
Tony, Willing to share any of those scripts? Also, does anyone have a UinData version of these start/shutdown scripts? - Charles Scripted Barouch It's not rocket science, but here are some examples. Just create the scripts in a standard directory, then drag shortcuts to your desktop, then assign relevant icons to each shortcut: For D3 it's simple: net start d3vme For shutting down I always shutdown from within the environment. I wrote my own version of D3Tray called NebulaMonitor which intercepts a system shutdown if D3 is up and offers to shutdown D3 or cancel the shutdown. I think this could easily be adapted for Unidata and Universe over Win32. --- For mvBASE: net start mvBase Server net start mvBase WorkStation --- For IIS, a StartIIS.BAT does this: cscript //nologo startweb.vbs And the VBS is this: set IISOBJ = getObject(IIS://localhost/w3svc/1) IISOBJ.Start set IISOBJ = nothing Stopping IIS just changes the .Start to .Stop --- MySQL is this: net start mysql --- I have a BAT to start and stop all services in a particular class. Here is one I run if I'm not planning to do FlashCONNECT or other web development for a while: net stop flashconnect cscript //nologo stopweb.vbs net stop w3svc --- I don't guess any more examples are necessary. Enjoy. Tony No Mom, HE's Chuck! Gravagno [Related AD] New NebulaLaunch will start and stop any process on any system in your office or anywhere on the internet, all directly from your MV BASIC code. (Any system running a NebulaLaunch server that is.) NebulaLaunch is being distributed as a free and integrated component within the new NebulaPay credit/debit payment processing software, now in Beta. And by the way, NebulaPay is free too, no up-front costs, maintenance, or support fees. NebulaPay info is here: http://Nebula-RnD.com/products/financial.htm NebulaLaunch will be productized separately as time permits. Inquiries welcome [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
[OT] to Brian Re: C#Builder
Brian, I hope this responds to your points (Good chatting BTW, hope all is well): - Because the compiler is free doesn't mean the IDE must be too. We could say the MV database model and Pick/BASIC compiler are free, and we're just licensing user access to it through the various MV DBMS implementations. But we have to pay for something. I see no problem with someone providing a for-fee IDE which makes my development easier, and I think Borland was wise to create a tiered pricing structure for increased functionality, starting with free software for limited use. - About no commercial use in the free version: If I'm making money by using someone else's software I see nothing wrong with compensating them for the opportunities they've provided me. That goes for VS.NET, C#Builder, or an MV DBMS. What we all object to is unreasonably and prohibitively high costs to developers, and up-front costs that could be unrecoverable if for some reason we aren't selling product. - About the quality of C#Builder. I've had my beefs with it too but it IS a good product and a viable alternative to VS.NET when people say I don't want to have to pay Microsoft to code in .NET. See the following link for a side by side comparison: http://www.c-sharppro.com/features/2003/11/cs200311jm_f/cs200311jm_f.asp What that article points out is that C#Builder is about on-par with VS.NET for average development. However it stands out considerably for Enterprise-scale development of larger applications (which was probably not considered by your local press who hammered the product). Maybe this isn't where guys like us fit in, but Borland did address needs of a large audience that were not being satisfied with Microsoft offerings, and that seems to be consistent with the overall Borland strategy. While I spent several months intensively working with C#Builder last year, for my needs VS.NET is my preferred tool, though I do miss some very cool features of C#Builder. How does this apply to MV developers? In my mind tools are irrelevant. Pick one and go forward. I don't care if you're using VS.NET, C#Builder, or Notepad for your .NET development, but I think it's important to get started with .NET development with any tool at any level, to enhance your apps and keep you competitive with other mainstream offerings. My best, Tony [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brian Leach wrote: But C#Builder is a borrowed technology and the cost seems way high for what is essentially a wrapper around a compiler that is otherwise available for free. The cost seems to be set to reflect that of Visual Studio .Net, which offers far more in terms of functionality than the Borland IDE: and it got hammered by the computer press over here for exactly that reason. I'm worried that Borland are getting greedy - snapping up technology companies instead of concentrating on their core skills of providing the best languages (they've gone down that road before and been badly burned) - there is a sense that they are panicking in response to losing their best resource to Microsoft - and pushing out product that is overpriced for the market or not ready. That's not the Borland we know and love, and as a long time Borland supporter, I want Borland to succeed - they have a very loyal customer base and I can't see these tactics doing Borland any favours. BTW you cannot legally use C#Builder personal for any commercial development. Brian 'who wouldn't be without his MSDN universal subscription either' Leach -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: GUI as nice as character-based
I wrote: ... An Enterprise level shop doesn't care that the software costs over US1000 and probably wouldn't be using PHP for development. The Borland model is bl**dy expensive. Dangit, I meant to emphasize that The Borland model NOT is bl**dy expensive. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: [OT] MSDN
Replied to e-mail request before I saw this. Yes, everything comes direct from Microsoft, DVDs, newsletters, support, etc. MS never questioned the source and I get the same services as anyone who buys direct. I have never received anything from the original vendor. Where did you find the legal MSDN for $1300? My renewal is now up for $2300 and with the DVD rebate, it is still $2000. Do the shipments still come directly from Microsoft? Thanks. Regards, Jim For Visual Studio .NET I acquired a legal copy of an MSDN Universal subscription for US1300, the included freebies brought that down to a net of less than $1000. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: [OT] MSDN
Clif Oliver wrote: Stop teasing us, Tony. grin What's the source where we can get MSDN subscriptions for $1,300? OK OK ... arm is twisting in agony, people love me when they can save a buck but rarely when they can spend a buck, what up wit dat?... Get it here: http://store.viosoftware.biz/msunsu701yes.html The current price is $1495. It went up from 1300 to 1400 right after I got it last year and another 100 this this year, still not a bad deal considering the full retail value. (List 2800, sale prices +-2400) Almost all reviews of VioSoftware are positive. (4.5 out of 5 avg rating in forums) The only bad reviews I've found are from people who throw away their original packaging or destroy their key codes (duh) and then they're upset that they can't get new ones. Tell them to implement a commission program and then send me a credit on my next purchase! :) - Note that I also got a 300 cash rebate for getting DVDs instead of CDs, I believe this is still available until June 2004. - Plus I got other benefits that further drive the net price for me down to about $700. - With this sub we are authorized to install a single copy of MS Office for production use (in addition to as many development/test installs as we need). Since I didn't have to go out and buy that copy I saved yet another $350+ in my software budget. That brings my real expenditure for this package down to about $350? - Finally, while we aren't supposed to use the development licenses for production use, my development system IS my production system which I destroy on a regular basis as I install and test code. That means I don't need to purchase an additional OS license for this box, which brings my final net cost down to about nil. I dunno folks, do the math, this isn't as bad as people think. Benefits vary between USA and other countries. Research your options. And did I mention MS support is excellent? When was the last time anyone here really put in a call to Microsoft rather than posting to a forum? I honestly expected bad service (we've never seen that one, maybe re-installing everything will fix it) and the need to get confrontational (must be the italian in me) - their pleasant attitude and efficiency are disarming. Anyway, you can find this software on other sites, for example: http://www.google.com/search?q=msdn+universal+best+price However, caveat emptor, there are a lot of evil doers out there who will sell improper licenses (Academic/Student, OEM, OLP, etc). Too good to be true is a mantra to keep in mind. VioSoftware is reputable and the licenses are good. Tony not an MS Borg Gravagno (nod to Chuck for using his sig thingie) -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: GUI as nice as character-based
Brian Leach wrote: Or if you want browser based cross platform - is anyone on the list using Macromedia flash to talk to U2 through web services? Will wrote: Aren't you missing something there? Or can web services speak directly to a U2 database? And if so ... how? For info on Web Services talking to your U2 system, please see my series of articles on the topic for Spectrum Magazine: http://Nebula-RnD.com/spectrum/ We'll be posting article 3 in a couple days which specifically mentions tools for U2. Article 4 for the May/June issue is going to press now with examples of Web Services deployed for MV apps and in the mainstream world. For info on getting from Flash (Shockwave) to MV, see my other post for this thread that I'm posting at the same time as this one. Tony -Everything connects to MV- -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: GUI as nice as character-based
Brian Leach wrote: The data based stuff is pretty recent in terms of Flash, and I guess most of the Flash community hasn't caught onto it yet - after all, it is primarily a tool for content designers (and for some pretty good games too) so most of the people using it are not database minded. Brian, the Flash and Shockwave people have been working with databases for a few years now, though you're right that by and large most of those developers don't get the value of real databases yet. As Craig Bennett says All the graphic designers in the audience just stared ... They're approaching it from an artistic view and not an applications view. They see a database as a place to put data, like for game scores, but not as an integral part of an application the way we MV people see it. For years I've seen this gap in perception as being an opportunity for MV people to refit their apps with user-friendly UI's, but MV people don't get that either. The Macromedia-type web developers are very interested in data connectivity for zero-install or low-footprint clients. I did a presentation for the Orange County Multimedia Association a couple years ago (when I was Product Manager at Raining Data) which included discussion of the MV model, comparisons with ODBC, using Omnis Studio for cross-platform development and deployment, and FlashCONNECT as a data conduit from mainstream graphical tools. The focus was on data connectivity and trying to get them to get it, not any one product or technology. See the following link for demos I wrote to get from various clients (including Shockwave/Flash) into D3. (That was over 4 years ago now - whoe!) The same techniques can be used with different tools and back-end DBMS environments, so don't let the FlashCONNECT thing scare you. http://flashconnect.rainingdata.com/wuc2000/fcdemos/index.html Note that I did the Shockwave interface as an installable thick-client, though it could have just as easily have been a thin-client browser plug-in. In hind site I probably should have made it thin but my focus was on demonstrating the variety of technologies - making everything a browser interface would make it easier for people to get eye candy but would have limited the scope of the real purpose of the demo. If someone would like to use Macromedia or Adobe GUI products with U2 or other MV applications, I'd enjoy providing the communications interfaces for such a project. It wouldn't be a simple or cheap solution, particularly at this stage - writing Flash dialogs is hard work - until someone does something to capitalize on it. There are already plenty of (considerably cheaper) tools that produce flash content without having to use Flash as the actual designer, so it may only be a question of time before someone with the money and time realises the potential there and comes up with a suitable tool. Real Flash work is easier than it used to be and much more feature-rich. As indicated above I think the issue is getting people to see the value in the UI as well as the tools that can drive it. Most people don't understand Flash and think of it as a toy rather than as a tool - just like people look down on CUI business software. Anyone who wants a browser-based GUI, especially cross-platform, should seriously look at Flash and Shockwave, in addition to Java. The big question is who is your audience? If the audience is Joe internet user then Flash may be better. If your application is more extranet-oriented then I'd tend toward Java, depending on the features required. Tony -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: GUI as nice as character-based
chris wrote: mono is an C# .net port for linux. It supposed to run C# exes as is (from a windows box) I haven't tired it yet. I still working on my hello world app in C# so I'm not ready to try porting anything :) I'm just trying to find the time to get into Mono. I believe it has a bright future and will be great for all of us wanting cross-platform access into our MV apps. Tony Technical editor, C#Builder Kick Start, SAMS Publishing Buy it at Amazon or at your local book store! :) Post your C# questions to http://csharp-station.com/ Dawn M. Wolthuis wrote: And will this next version of .NET run fine on Linux and Mac OS? I don't keep current enough with MS and I know they keep suggesting they will run on Linux and MacOS, but I'm not familiar with any projects that will actually accomplish that. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: GUI from Mv code Re: Crystal Reports
[I went on and on and then said] As an aside, pardon me for being so bold, but it's amazing that the providers of these GUI products aren't jumping to pay people like me to help developers become viable candidates for their products. There's no guarantee that any given site will adopt any given GUI product, if any, but unless there are prospects there can be no new customers. It seems to me it's worth it to someone to foster redevelopment like this. Well, that's the MV market for ya... Tony [Ross Ferris] ?? Please refer to your email of March 23rd - If things have changed I'll get the guys from ACTi to give you a call :-) My above quote doesn't mean that I necessarily want to do this sort of work. There are lots of talented people in our market who could use work and it seems a natural fit to tool providers to contract with third-parties to facilitate app migration for a host of applications. Personally, I prefer to write communications tools and do other high-end tech stuff for MV - if I never see another line of application code I'll be happy. However, there is something cool and rewarding about modularizing old code that will become the back-end to a GUI thick client, web client, Web Service or Smart Phone. I'll consider opportunities for myself and other Nebula RD associates as they present themselves, but I'm not going to gear up to provide modularization services if the MV market isn't interested. Fostering redevelopment means someone must fund projects like this, if not the VAD then perhaps tool developers who have something to gain from the efforts of the VAD. (Really OT here, more for CDP than this forum, sorry.) Tony -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: GUI from Mv code Re: Crystal Reports
Will wrote: A key factor that makes CUI non-portable to GUI is the embedded Input and Print statements in the code. I respectfully disagree that this is key. After all event oriented apps also have input statements I think you mean the key factor is that the programs are not event oriented. Mike Randall said: I think the point Tony was making was the splitting of the program logic from the actual screen formatting. ... You do bring up a valid point regarding event driven apps with the concept of submitting an entire form. You're both right. Note that my quote was _A_ key factor, not _The_ key factor. In my mind I assume that event orientation is possible once code is modularized, Input statements are replaced with passed-in values, and Print statements are replaced with returned messages and status data. You can have event oriented code with Print/Input statements, which isn't desirable, at least in MV code destined for a GUI. You can also have monolithic procedural code without the Print/Input statements, which could be the case with screen-at-a-time (3270 style) code. The bottom line is that a fundamental shift needs to be made in most MV code before it can be moved to GUI. Contrary to popular belief this shift doesn't need to be made all at once. I have a VAR/client with a 20 year old app that is being refitted over time to be more modular. They started their conscious shift about a year ago and they're now finding all sorts of benefits to modularization. They're now at a point where they can start looking at various GUI-enablement products in our market space. As an aside, pardon me for being so bold, but it's amazing that the providers of these GUI products aren't jumping to pay people like me to help developers become viable candidates for their products. There's no guarantee that any given site will adopt any given GUI product, if any, but unless there are prospects there can be no new customers. It seems to me it's worth it to someone to foster redevelopment like this. Well, that's the MV market for ya... Tony -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Crystal Reports
Mark, it's interesting to see this project unfold, please do keep us up on events there. (Ready for some acronym soup?) Crystal Reports is heavily tied to .NET these days. Microsoft has selected CR for integration with Great Plains, so there is a high level of commitment to the CR/GP/.NET links. It shouldn't be a problem to create a middle-tier which interfaces data from both GP and UD into CR via ADO.NET.ADO.NET is _not_ ADO, which was basically supposed to be an upgrade to ODBC. In addition to other things, ADO.NET is really a data hub which allows you to create a source-independent set of tables and relations. The end result is that CR doesn't know or care where the data is coming from, it comes from an ADO.NET data model. How you get the data into ADO.NET is up to you. My recommendation is to take a look at the Pick Data Provider .NET from Raining Data, another product which has endorsement from Microsoft. Pricing is very reasonable, it's stable, well documented and supported. Since there are questions about other interfaces working with U2 from .NET, like RBO's, UniObjects, UniODBC, etc, it seems reasonable to choose a connectivity module that was written for the purpose. Using technology that is endorsed by Microsoft from end to end should give you some political leverage as well, since that seems to be a priority with management there. [Ad] Here at Nebula RD, we can prototype a report on a TM basis, even going all the way back and forth between GP, MV, and CR. I honestly have no idea how long it would take without looking at this closer, but the tools are available, we have everything here, it's just a matter of connecting the dots. (Nebula RD is an authorized Raining Data reseller and MSDN Universal Developer.) If you'd like to contract for more specific work, we now have highly qualified people available to do this sort of work (MS MVP/MSDE trainer/developers), and we'll be happy to take a back seat and let you get the glory as projects are completed. Good luck. Tony [EMAIL PROTECTED] 949-380-1668 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Johnson Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 11:51 AM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: Crystal Reports One of my clients wants to connect Crystal Reports to their UD database to apparently give greater access to the data that they sometimes deem as hidden and only accessable through me. This client converted to Great Plains 6 weeks ago (SQL based) and their CR experts were struggling with duplicating some of the more mundane reports that already exist in UD. A monthly sales tax summary (by jurisdiction) took the GP guy 3 days futzing with CR using GP's data. How much trouble are they going to get in trying to use MV'd data from the UD system (ODBC) if they have so much trouble with more 'normalized' data. Everyone seems to think that CR is a magic pill and once attached to a SQL database, the sophisticated reports simply roll off. I'm trying to strongly propose a data warehouse concept whereby the day's sales data gets exported and updated into their prior application for the sake of the multitude of existing, proven reports in MV. If these guys took 3 days for a simple tax report, how can CR fabricate temporary tables for the sake of these consolidated sophisticated MV reports? I'm just interested in hearing of some experiences. This client is too stubborn to go back from GP and may even disregard their entire MV system completely. I really have nothing to lose if I insult them. Thanks in advance. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Conversions
You have my sympathy/empathy, and I'm sure that of many others here. I have some thoughts that may seem common sense, but they may be worth mentioning: Document everything. -- Downtime -- Delays -- End-user complaints -- Discussions with management and software vendors -- Missing features, reports, inquiry screens -- Limited access to end-users who should have authorization to access specific data -- Situations where the software forces a change in business practices This is good for many reasons. -- Ass coverage in case someone starts blaming you. -- Good morale for end-users to see you care about their concerns. -- Provides a metric regarding what vendors are doing or not. -- Helps with progress reports for management. -- Helps in tracking cost overruns, It sounds like the company switched over to the new apps cold turkey. That wasn't a good move. Running in tandem is preferred even if it means double entry for a while. It also sounds like the move was made a little too quick, without full understanding of the business requirements or buy-in from the end-users. End-users need to be consulted before-hand and treated as partners during the migration, otherwise you get people gossiping around the watercooler about the clueless computer guys. If they're involved in every step then they can't point fingers either unless they're totally ignored along the way. Running a company isn't a democracy but you don't need a mutiny from the ranks when people start asking why things aren't being done properly anymore. Bottom line here: Listen. If you're caught in the middle and being asked to manage the decisions someone else has handed down then keep channels open and maintain frequent but not annoying dialogs with management and vendors. The last thing you need are inquiries about why didn't we know about this? or how long has this been going on. Keep on top of issues so that you aren't involved in damage control. Have manuals and phone numbers for support handy, identify usenet forums for GP. See if you can get a couple key end-users into classes so that they can front issues before you have to. Create a pseudo first-tier support group out of a few of these people and delegate responsibility. This goes along with the partnering thing - and buy them lunch now and then, they're working overtime here. Encourage all users to report issues to your or your support group immediately so that issues can be resolved rather than sitting on them until they become serious. Some people don't want to make waves and you find out about stuff way too late - like in the middle of closing the month-end. A big issue is, have you been given the authority to do what's required, or have you been given the responsibility without the authority? IT usually gets the latter. If you have authority, keep on top of your support providers and make sure they don't sit on issues. Escallate unresponsiveness to their management and yours as required before technical issues explode on you. If you don't have authority then hopefully you have the ear of someone who does. Once people in a new implementation like this realize that no one is in authority, the feces really strikes the rotary oscillators: Front-line end-users start using words like FUBAR as your project turns into yet another migration horror story for Pick people to smugly enjoy. HTH, Good Luck. Tony Nebula RD -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Johnson Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 8:05 PM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: Conversions Does anyone have a short paper on the care and feeding of both the company and its employees during a conversion/migration from one system to another. I'm facilitating a migration from MV/Results/Primac to Great Plains and it is a very large mismatch. GP seems to be shopping-cart oriented and Results/Primac are more of a traditional Order Entry system. I can't seem to convey that difference as management (read: those who don't use the computer) like the GUI and all of the nice links and screens. The worker bees are in a turmoil with the increased amount of carpal-tunnel potential mouse/keyboard back and forth as well as the absense of many functions that were present under the MV app. Their productivity has fallen 75% as it takes 4x longer to enter an order. There are no sales tax lookups, no product or customer lookups. You clearly cannot scroll through 35,000 line items. There's no easy alternate shipping addresses and the original reports leave a lot to be desired. The accounting package is appealing but a company doesn't exist just for the accounting dept. Not to mention all the hamburger-helper features i've installed over the last 6.5 years. I also have to fabricate custom reports with Crystal Reports and/or Access as there are many fields of data that should be there like customer back orders, sample customers, customer categories and a
RE: Conversions
Smooth bro. Real smooth. Excuse us ladies and gentlemen as I escort our colleague out by his ear and smack him around a little. Please IGNORE last post. It was meant to be private. I was meant to be asleep. Sincerely, Charles Barouch -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: XML or WORD Format???
It seems the problem here is that you're going from pure data to StructureX, then you want to go from StructureX to StructureY. Going direct to StructureX is a fine first-off approach, but since your needs are now expanding I'd suggest that you need to rethink your approach. You need to go directly from data to Y rather than data to X to Y. Further, if the business rules are extracted from the UI, you can choose any UI X or Y that you want without recoding the app. It sounds to me like you should have your app generate XML documents for invoices, and then someone can custom code from XML to PDF, XML to PCL, XML to Word, XML to Excel, etc. Yes, there is some pain involved in this process, but you're digging yourself a deep hole by trying to go directly from PDF to something else. I do have tools to allow you to do this without PS, PCL or other funky escape codes, and a happy client as a reference. I offer the tools and methodology as part of a service, rather than offering the tools on their own. E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] if interested. Good luck in any case, Tony -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Haas, John Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 5:49 AM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: RE: XML or WORD Format??? Thanks, The goal is to have a copy of our invoice that can be opened in WORD or Excel. I only mentioned the PCL and .pdf formats because these are already produced when we create an invoice. If there is another way please let me know. We are running Universe version 9.6. John. -Original Message- From: Anthony Youngman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 8:43 AM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: RE: XML or WORD Format??? In one word - it's IMPOSSIBLE. Okay, you may be able to achieve what you want, though. The thing is, the output of pdf and pcl is an image, Word and xml are structured text. You can't go automatically from a structure-free format to a structured format. I'd investigate ghostscript, and see if you can get it to throw out a text document rather than postscript (or feed the postscript through a ps2txt filter), but if your original pdf or pcl was of a graphic, then you're stuffed without an ocr filter in place. So, basically, what you're after can be achieved, but without knowing what is IN your input files, it's impossible to recommend (or even guess) what might or might not work. Cheers, Wol -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Haas, John Sent: 01 April 2004 14:33 To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: XML or WORD Format??? Does Anyone know of a way to convert either .pdf or PCL formats to XML and/or WORD format that will run under HP-UX. Thanks in advance. John. *** THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE INDIVIDUAL OR ENTITY TO WHICH IT IS ADDRESSED AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, AND EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, forwarding, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail or telephone, and delete the original message immediately. For more information, please visit http://www.bakerlaw.com. Thank you. *** -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users *** * This transmission is intended for the named recipient only. It may contain private and confidential information. If this has come to you in error you must not act on anything disclosed in it, nor must you copy it, modify it, disseminate it in any way, or show it to anyone. Please e-mail the sender to inform us of the transmission error or telephone ECA International immediately and delete the e-mail from your information system. Telephone numbers for ECA International offices are: Sydney +61 (0)2 9911 7799, Hong Kong + 852 2121 2388, London +44 (0)20 7351 5000 and New York +1 212 582 2333. *** * -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users *** THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE INDIVIDUAL OR ENTITY TO WHICH IT IS ADDRESSED AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, AND EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the
RE: Re Text File to PDF
Troy Buss wrote Otherwise its back to pcl2pdf ( www.visual.co.uk/pcl2pdf.html ) and blat for this other project I'm working on. Hey Troy, long time bud. Hope all is well. I have code here that I haven't had time to fully productize it yet. Very simply you populate a variable with substitution strings, and pass it to a routine that generates an HTML page, PDF, or PostScript. It's all clean BASIC code, there's no funky printer/device-specific escape sequences (PCL or PS) and you can change the report layout independently from the app code. Using a similar set vars and call a subroutine interface, you can also e-mail the resulting files - no SendMail, Outlook, or other mail client or server code required. All of this will work over Windows or Linux (Blat is great but it doesn't work over Linux). I'll be porting this to U2 within the next couple weeks. So far there is one happy client that's been using it over D3 for several months. I think they'll provide a good reference if asked. Regards, Tony [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Modern Universe - was: The lists are closing
I think Joe may realize a couple things: 1) He doesn't know enough about the system to criticize it. 2) The IT people in his UV shop didn't know much either. Many Pick guys get into Pick because they know their business market but not much about technology, and Pick makes it easy to write software without being a real programmers. Once people do get into Pick, a high level of technical proficiency can be attained quickly - not always the same technical skills as in other areas but the job gets done nonetheless. Many people do branch out to understand how mainstream technologies integrate with Pick, but not everyone. As Dave says, when people don't extend beyond the basic skills it doesn't mean the technology itself is deficient. I think this will be my last comment on the topic. Tony Since people are posting quotes, the following came to mind: Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it. -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), I refuse to get into a battle of wits with someone who is unarmed. -Unknown -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Question for Donald Kibbey
George, the best commercial integration option available for MV right now is the Pick Data Provider .NET from Raining Data. When IBM has UO.NET, that situation may change, but developers must research and understand the capabilities of both products before making assumptions and decisions - it would be very wrong to assume that all .NET connectivity products are alike. Honestly you don't need any data provider for .NET integration with MV, you can roll your own connectivity, but there is value in having someone else develop, maintain, and enhance these tools for you. The same holds true for any GUI RAD IDE or Web building product in our market. See my article in the March/April edition of Spectrum Magazine about other .NET connectivity methods for U2. HTH, Tony Technical Editor, C#Builder Kick Start, SAMS Publishing Author, Web Services and .NET articles, Spectrum Magazine Nebula RD now offers C# training with a C# MVP, MCSD trainer. george r smith wrote I would like to use C# against unidata what do I need to do this. I come from a mvBase background and am a little lost in the U2 market. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: PDP.NET, mvBASE, etc (was Question for Donald Kibbey)
george r smith wrote: Get the Pick Data Provider .NET from Raining Data and get the same support as Clink for mvBase - no thanks. Well George, there are many more engineers and support people working on PDP.NET than on mvBASE. mvBASE is a dead-end DBMS product that RD inherited - Clink was dead when GA had it, don't blame RD for that. mvBASE is essentially R83 over Windows - it's seen it's day and it's about time that support start slowing down for this one. Compare this to Universe and Unidata, for which IBM has proven their intent to support the software unless and until they see as much interest as we see for mvBASE. If you're bashing RD support in general, YMMV, but I can tell you that RD is very motivated to market and support PDP in a way that I haven't seen in years. And as I said in my last post, to make uninformed decisions on matters like this is simply inappropriate. I didn't mean to imply that PDP.NET runs with mvBASE. That's like putting a Corvette body over your VB Bug. Without trying to digress more OT from this U2 forum, you CAN use mvBASE and other MV DBMS products with .NET. In that case I would use FlashCONNECT as the conduit, and create a .NET wrapper around HTTP calls. This sort of interface can give new life to a number of applications that most people have written off. Similar connectivity can be created for U2 apps, just use a different pipe like UO or InterCall. (We have a new pipe here at Nebula RD that is MV platform agnostic. Announcements will be made in about a month.) This is pretty much the topic of my article in the current Spectrum Magazine. Tony, Nebula RD Connecting MV with ... everything -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Question for Donald Kibbey
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: George, the best commercial integration option available for MV right now is the Pick Data Provider .NET from Raining Data. But doesn't .NET take up like a gazillion bytes of space? And doesn't integration require an object? As in... integration with .. what? Will I don't know why I need to clarify that statement, the other guys got it fine. An integration option for MV sort of implies between MV and anything else that uses .NET. The word for is just as good a preposition as with. I also said: you don't need any data provider for .NET integration with MV. This implies that .NET itself _is_ the object. Since the whole purpose of .NET is to serve as a common ground for development, if you have integrated with .NET then you have accomplished a goal. This further implies that you can now integrate with anything else that is also .NET-compatible. Yes, connectivity, interaction, and real integration do have different connotations and I try to be more careful about my choice of words. You can connect to anything but unless you have a good API around your connectivity you aren't really integrating. PDP.NET is an API like UO but it is much more, and it does take advantage of .NET where UO does not and UO.NET may not - we'll see. HTH, Tony -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: The U2 List is better than CDP
Craig Bennett CDP is all very well, but the noice ratio can be quite high, not to mention the trolls. Haha, I unsubscribed from this group for several months just because of the high noise volume in here. CDP volume tends to go up and down but since there are so few people really contributing content we're a bit more loose than we would be (I think) in a high traffic environment like this forum. I missed the chatter from U2community when the lists at Oliver split, but that made the U2 list all the more valuable as a focussed technical resource. A switch to CDP or another uncontrolled forum would lose this quality. Haha, I'm sorry, but is THIS the focused technical resource or the chatter group - I honestly can't tell though I've been here believing it's the technical group. I like the group and all but this group is not what I'd call focused. YMMV. We'll see what happens on the other side. Tony -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Modern Universe - was: The lists are closing
Joe Eugene wrote: I have heard stories where several corporations migrated to RDBMS, Never heard any LARGE Corp(Hershey, GE, BOfA etc) switch to UV/MVDBMS. Of the many companies who have migrated from MV to an RDBMS you always hear the fanfare of their initial decision but rarely of the years of toil as they try to get back what they originally had, let alone moving forward. Read up on Oxford Health for one of many examples. Moving to an unknown DBMS platform isn't good for stock values - sad but true fact of Wall Street. If IBM actually stood behind U2 then this attitude might change a little. It seems like many people over there support U2 but IBM as a company just doesn't want to openly embrace the technology. Also, as Chuck says, there is the big company, big money mindset - MV is just too efficient for those guys to consider because their IT staff wouldn't be commensurate with their company size. I do have an anecdote: One of my clients, an MV user, is a supplier to a fortune 500 company. That F500 company chooses to remotely connect into my client to obtain their business data - because they can't get the data they need fast enough from their big 3 systems and IT staff. Never seen any Enterprise Software (SAP, PeopleSoft etc) mention UV on their Web Sites If you'd like to integrate SAP with U2, I told you I'd be happy to do it for you. So far no one has asked - that's why you don't see anything anywhere. I think the mindset is one or the other - it doesn't have to be that way. Never seen a book on UV OR PICK at Barnes Nobles. Perhaps you can explain where UV plays an Important Role. Ahhh, and this is the point where most Pick people will agree the market has collectively failed to perform: Marketing. The people who have acquired MV environments have done so with the idea of somehow turning over a profit through investment, but rarely do the plans truly include expanding awareness of the Pick model to bring in new developers. It's a paradox that I've been trying to understand for many years. Expansion cannot happen without education, and that means encouraging books, magazine articles, and other forms of mainstream advertising. If IBM, jBASE, and Raining Data ever do for their products what Intersystems has done for Cache', _then_ we'd have some fun! Tony (Always willing to write a book, and I occasionally do...) -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Modern Universe - was: The lists are closing
I can't say if MV is slow or inefficient as far as database handling compared to various relational DBMS environments. Since the tests themselves (TPC, etc) are biased because they themselves are defined based on relational constructs, I suspect we'll never get real numbers that we can all agree on. Aside from that you're way off. Stating that UV people use PICK and that UV is not supported by SAP or Peoplesoft tells me you aren't very familiar with this technology. Saying MV is slow and then advocating a translation to Java tells me you aren't too familiar with Java either. Saying Pick doesn't support advanced level computing is simply wrong, and so are a couple of your other claims. But I think we understand and can agree with your point that MV isn't mainstream. Pick-based DBMS products are very capable with regard to communications. We can connect an MV app to anything. Connectivity methods aren't always mainstream but the claims of little/NO support and not compatible are incorrect. Non-MV products incorporate tools that we can use just as easily. Remember that programming and connectivity are not natively done within most other DBMS environments, they use outside tools to connect into a DBMS too. So in a sense, because we have tools inside and outside of our environments, we have a bit more to work with than they do - that is, BASIC can be considered a built-on RAD language compared to the inadequacies of stored procedures. It's counter-productive to get into one-upmanship against relational products and other staples of the IT world, so I'll just close by saying all of these products are as good as the skills of the people using them. Here at Nebula RD we'll be happy to help you connect your app to anything you want, including SAP, Peoplesoft, DB2, or whatever else you or your trading partners use. Tony Joe Eugene wrote: PICK is LEGACY Technology and does NOT Support alot of advanced level computing we have today. 1. UV has Little/NO support for Emerging Technologies(XML/XQuery/XSLT/WML etc) 2. UV is Not supported in Most Integration Enterprise Software (SAP/PeopleSoft) 3. UV is Not efficient compared to highly evolved databases(DB2/Oracle) 4. UV Folks seem to use PICK, which is Not Compatible with many of of the Current Advanced Technologies and Techniques. 5. UV is very SLOW, TOO Procedural and Not the right tool for an OLTP Environment. It would be nice if IBM provided a Package to convert all UV Stuff to IBM DB2 and perhaps provide some kinda code converter to convert all pick stuff to DB2 Stored Procs or Java Native Compiled Procedures. I belive this would be ideal and would help corportations intergrate systems easily. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: The lists are closing
Thanks for the community effort Clif! Tony Dear Friends: After 10+ years of either hosting or supporting the info-prime, info-unidata, info-vmark, info-informix, and u2-users etc lists, I have decided to shut down the list server. I *really* want to encourage ALL of you to come over the the www.u2ug.org site and support this effort. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
New offering, NebulaPay credit/debit payment processing
We're almost finished with the new NebulaPay, which facilitates internet-based payment processing for a wide variety of transaction types including standard credit and debit, EBT, check verification, restaurant/gratuity, and others. Source transactions can come from POS, web site, by phone, recurring charges, etc.. NebulaPay will support both USA and Canadian regulations and will support both English and French applications over Win32 and Linux/Unix platforms. All major cards are supported. This software will be offered free to MV VARs. There are no sign-up fees, initial purchases, or maintenance or support fees. (We reserve the right to modify this policy in the future, though we don't forsee any need at this time.) We help to negotiate transfer from a merchant's existing payment provider to ours, for an equal or better rate to the merchant - they never notice the difference unless they're saving money. Processing fees are then split between the payment provider, the VAR and us - everyone benefits and there are no extra costs to merchants or consumers. At this time we're looking for U2 VARs that have a need to implement or re-fit payment processing with their application. The D3 port is now in beta and we will go production supporting mvBASE as well. A jBASE port will immediately follow. Universe and Unidata will be supported if there is demand - which is the reason for this post. All inquiries are welcome, especially VARs interested in running a Beta, once the code is ported to U2. Thanks and regards, Tony Gravagno Nebula Research and Development [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Clarion interface to Pick
-Original Message- Does anyone know if there is an interface driver for Pick into Clarion, or if anyone has written such an interface? From: Craig Bennett Hi Glenn, you could use ODBC (erk) but I believe that sockets will be the simplest answer. Depending on the version of Clarion you may have to buy sockets libraries (see www.capesoft.com). ... If you go down this route, I suggest you use HTTP as a base protocol - saves reinventing that part of the wheel. As long as a custom interface with sockets is on the table, I'm very happy using Catalyst SocketTools which support Clarion: www.catalyst.com. I agree that HTTP is a good generic interface, though that may depend on which side is client or server. Some of our components are based on using MV as an HTTP client to an HTTP Server (all written by myself using Catalyst toolsand Pick BASIC) where the server is embedded in other application-oriented components to do real work. It may work with Clarion code, I haven't checked yet. This technology will be offered to U2 sites soon. Inquiries welcome. Tony Nebula RD [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: How to start windows programs
I have a new component which will launch multiple applications on any PC in a shop from any MV platform. No AccuTerm or wIntegrate involved, very affordable. It's currently named NebulaLaunch and is being incorporated into a couple other components here and will be available as a separate offering soon. Inquiries welcome. Tony Nebula RD [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Björn Eklund Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 9:35 AM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: How to start windows programs Hi, Is there a way of starting windowsprograms on the users PC from a Unibasic program or do I need Wintergrate or some other tool to do that? I would like to send a invoice number away to an invoice archive on MS sql-server to get a pdf copy of the invoice in an Internet Exploreror acrobat reader window. Björn Eklund -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: [UV] Does anyone know how to
You really don't want to read a binary document into your app. It's relatively easy to create a COM Add-in for Word which can be controlled from any MV environment over any OS. See http://nebula-rnd.com/products/doc.htm as an example of what can be done in this area. I've been thinking about creating a simple version of NebulaDoc that does nothing more than basic string replacement rather than supporting all of the other Word functions. This would facilitate these very common mail-merge type requests. Inquiries welcome. Same thing can be done with Excel. I already have an inquiry about this for using Word with QM from LadyBridge and a couple for D3. I just need a few more confirmed requests to kick me over the edge. Tony [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I am running UV 9.5.1... on windows NT (PICK flavor). I want to be able to read in a .doc file created in Word 2000, do a string replace, and then write out the file as a new .doc file. I have tried using the standard READ and READSEQ. I use the CHANGE command [REC = CHANGE(REC,txta,txtb)] and then WRITE (or WRITESEQ). In each case I get the anticipated results but when I attempt to launch the document in Word 2000 I get THE unknown file format error. I have to figure that some characters imbedded in the original document are being stripped by the limitations of the uniVerse READ and READSEQ commands thus making this method not practical. I did this in the past - in another life maybe - but this is my first attempt with WORD 2000. All practical suggestions appreciated. dan -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Pick AP-Pro Discs
If you had more of these deals you could setup a hosted environment (your choice of DBMS including U2 and D3). You use your own licenses on that system and do your development there. End-users can SSH into their own production accounts and pay you some monthly rate for using your app and resources until they're ready to move up. Voila', your own ASP. The initial cost of getting a licensed DBMS and ports may be prohibitive, but the advantage is that the system still belongs to you when the end-user has moved on to their own environment or even to a hosted solution of their own. If you already have a licensed environment then it should cost nothing to move the license to a hosted box, so the cost of getting this going is trivial. Note that (to my knowledge) it violates license agreements to run live end-users on development software provided by any of the MV DBMS vendors. You might be able to get a free temporary license to let users run for a couple months on a try before they buy basis. If you can manage that then they can host a DBMS locally and still pay you for your app. Couple ways to cut this cookie... Let me know if any of this is of interest. Tony Nebula RD [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- I would like to acquire... an older Pick AP-Pro system... I only need 3-5 users. I have a new client that I want to break into the Pick world with an inexpensive application to start. I can develop their new app on my own AP-Pro yet in 2 months they will want their own system. We've explored the concepts of a W2K/D3 or U2 box and its cost would kill the deal. I want to get my foot in the door and as they grow, we can convert later. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: UniVerse to excel feeds
For an example of what's possible, see these links: http://Nebula-RnD.com/products/analysis.htm http://Nebula-RnD.com/demos/nebulanalysis/ (audio/video presentation) Unattended, all Pick BASIC, no CSV files or XML or other file I/O or translations, full formatting with charts and all other features of Excel. Internally I've written a COM-AddIn for Excel that listens for socket calls and processes the requests - that's a fast and direct pipe, no intermediate formatting. Another benefit of this is that many users in an office can share a single copy of Excel on a given host, or the MV server can use the Excel that's on the MV client PC. NebulAnalysis is not being offered over U2 at this time as a product but I am willing to implement the features as a service. It's been a long time since I've done anything with this, honestly because most people are quite happy with the traditional mess of writing a CSV, doing some manual import, then manually reformatting after they've done the import. In a world where people want everything automated I really don't understand this intense desire to do everything manually with Excel. Inquiries welcome. Tony, Nebula RD [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Moderator for Spectrum, Las Vegas) -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Don Cutting Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 8:22 AM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: UniVerse to excel feeds Hi All, We are looking for a process, where a report run in UniVerse can feed direct into excel, with no human action being taken - or as little as possible. If you have a process or tool where you can do this, and are willing to share this information, please e-mail. We are on UniVerse 10.0.19 and AIX 5.2 Thank you in advance for your suggestions. Thanks and have a great day! Donald H. Cutting A. N. Deringer, Inc. D. B. A. / Systems Analyst Tel. (802)524-8172 Fax. (802)524-8297 www.anderinger.com Our Service Recommends Us! -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: UniVerse to excel feeds
Sounds like a great tool Ronnie. http://www.PickSource.com is a great place for stuff like this. I'll be happy to host it at http://Nebula-RnD.com/freeware, just e-mail me a zip, and please include a ReadMe. Good luck in any case. Tony Nebula RD -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ronnie Adams Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 8:28 PM To: 'U2 Users Discussion List' Subject: RE: UniVerse to excel feeds I have a subroutine that works with both Accuterm and Wintegrate. It's fairly easy to integrate into an existing report. You can put column headings, set column widths, add formulas, multiple sheets, multiple books. It does quite a bit. I'd be glad to share it with the group if somebody would tell me where to put it. I should also put an example of a program that calls it. Let me know. Ronnie -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bruce McAdoo Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 3:26 PM To: 'U2 Users Discussion List' Subject: RE: UniVerse to excel feeds Don: If you have wIntegrate, terminal emulation and host-based application, you can accomplish your task. I did, but it was about five years ago. Maybe a current wIntegrate user could chime in. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 11:47 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: UniVerse to excel feeds Don: I have written a program called BEXCEL which takes in a command, formats a csv file, and then uses an ftp process (we have pi/open on hpux) to send this file to a place where the users can open it. For example, the command BEXCEL INMATE | LNAME FNAME MNAME DOB AKA.LN AKA.FN | IRPT1 | ALL | Y reads the INMATE file then outputs a file named myloginIRPT1.csv with columns LNAME, FNAME, MNAME, DOB, AKA.LN, and AKA.FN to the designated network site via an ftp transfer. The AKA fields are multivalued and are handled. All records were selected, but in the place of 'ALL' one could have put the name of a select list. The final parameter Y means to put a space between records in the csv file. I have the companion programs HEXCEL, which outputs a .htm file for your browser and has additional parameters to specify headlines, and TEXCEL which is the interactive version where users enter file name, fields desired, etc for Ad Hoc reporting. I have embedded calls to BEXCEL in a few programs (send report to Excel) and it works fine. There is a little 'local' coding in each of these, but I will be happy to take that code out. You do need to set up a couple of VOC entries (easy) and also set up the ftp process to get the file automatically sent to the desired network directory (I needed my network guys to do this for me). Free if you would like to take a look. Harold Oaks Don Cutting wrote: Hi All, We are looking for a process, where a report run in UniVerse can feed direct into excel, with no human action being taken - or as little as possible. If you have a process or tool where you can do this, and are willing to share this information, please e-mail. We are on UniVerse 10.0.19 and AIX 5.2 Thank you in advance for your suggestions. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: D3 on NT
Notice my next paragraph begins with the word Seriously Yes XML has been usuable as a connectivity medium for years, but how many people are taking advantage of it? Microsoft and other companies are continually developing tools to reduce the time and money aspect of using XML, and make it easier to make use of relational databases, but I doubt most MV users or developers are keeping up with the details. No matter how much free information is available, I don't seriously think professionals like us who provide information, products, and services will go out of business anytime soon. ETL tools are always in vogue. Tony Tony, Could you do me a favor and not declare my entire market segment dead. You now have the keys to data integration heaven and you don't need to buy any more tools or migration services. The fact is, I could move data from any system to any other system before XML, we all could. The question is always the 'time value of money' equation. If a tool makes things work more consistently, faster, and with less setup time I still see a value. - Charles Barouch Tony Gravagno wrote: Without purchasing extra software, probably the easiest thing to do in a migration these days is to take advantage of free .NET features which allow seamless exchanges between XML and ADO.NET: 1) It's simple to write code to wrap data in XML. 2) You can use a program provided with the .NET Framework to generate a Schema from the XML into a .XSD file. 3) ADO.NET imports XSD files to create an internal map of a dataset. 4) With one line of code ADO.NET can read XML and store the data as a relational dataset. Connecting the dots: It's easy to go from any MV platform into XML, then into ADO.NET, and from there to any Relational DBMS. And now that I've let the cat out of the bag, I have to retire a poor man. You now have the keys to data integration heaven and you don't need to buy any more tools or migration services. Seriously the way the technology is implemented depends on the application. If you ARE interested in data migrations From any platform To any platform, I'll be happy to help. Tony Nebula RD Former D3 DBMS Product Manager, Raining Data Technical Editor, C#Builder Kick Start, SAMS Publishing Author, Web Services and .NET series, Spectrum Magazine -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: Format Text in Output Data File
Karl has one good way to do it. I'd like to slug whoever it is that put it into people's heads that CSV is the universal pipe into Excel. CSV is for raw data only, it has nothing to do with formatting. If you want formatting then you must understand how to use the functionality built into Excel, and how to invoke those functions. wIntegrate and AccuTerm are great tools but they are inadequate for this purpose. I spent months writing software to address the very pain that people mention in forums almost every day, but people insist on trying to put the square CSV peg into the round Excel hole. I'm not making a sales pitch, just encouraging you to take a look at this audio/video presentation to see what's possible: http://Nebula-RnD.com/demos/nebulanalysis/ Good luck. Tony -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Karl L Pearson Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 2:31 PM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: Re: Format Text in Output Data File Open your spreadsheet program and then do a few cells with the attributes you want, save them as HTML/XML and then open the document with a text editor and see what the formatting codes are for those cells. Karl On Wed, 2004-02-04 at 15:28, Simon Adams wrote: I am trying to format text outputted to a csv data file. I'm building a string of data and writing it out to a data file with 'comma' separation, line by line, and naming the outputted file with a .csv extension. Is there a way to format the text/data line(s), as bold or italics or colour etc. without using a third-party software ? Cheers, Simon. Australia. ** *** This e-mail, including any attachments to it, may contain confidential and/or personal information. If you have received this e-mail in error, you must not copy, distribute, or disclose it, use or take any action based on the information contained within it. Please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail of the error and then delete the original e-mail. The information contained within this e-mail may be solely the opinion of the sender and may not necessarily reflect the position, beliefs or opinions of Salmat on any issue. This email has been swept for the presence of computer viruses known to Salmat's anti-virus systems. For more information, visit our website at www.salmat.com.au. ** *** __ -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- Karl L. Pearson Director of IT, ATS Industrial Supply Direct: 801-978-4429 Toll-free: 888-972-3182 x29 Fax: 801-972-3888 http://www.atsindustrial.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: using commas in a csv file output
Once again you're looking at the problem like a nail because you're swinging at it with a CSV hammer. First import Tab-delimited text into your document. Then go to menu Table Convert Text to Table. All of this can be automated. George, what kind of import are you suggesting for a Word table? Tony From: George Gallen that doesn't work if you are reading the data into a Word Table. It doesn't recognize quotes as ignore comma switch. Excel, however, respects it without a problem. From: Kevin King quote the entire data value. From: Simon Adams How can I force a comma in an outputted csv file ? -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: [ot] Peoplesoft migrates to Ascential
Ultimately, however, it is not engineers who decide product directions. Recall the Golgafrinchan B Ark. snip (dawn) Nope, that doesn't ring any bells, but sounds like another story, so do tell ... That was a reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Good summary of the Golgafrincham story is here: http://www.sadgeezer.com/hhg/golgaf.htm In other words, Management makes the ultimate decisions... A bit more context can be found here for those who wish to be entertained. http://www.sadgeezer.com/hhg/episode6.htm Tony ___ u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
