M Go Blue

Update Forms

For our project, we wanted to be able to update data via the web. If somebody changed their address, got a new phone number, etc, we thought it would be nice to be able to update this information without altering their ID. So, we decided to implement this functionality. I was going to blog about my troubles relating to this yesterday night, but after working through it some more, it is now functioning just fine. No need to blog about a problem. So, I thought I'd blog about our success, and give some pointers to any other group that is considering implementing a similar ability, as it was kind of frustrating to figure out.

The key is that you cannot treat UPDATE the same as INSERT, meaning no bind-params and a bunch of question marks. Instead, in the relevant XSQL page, you need page-params and an UPDATE command similar to the following:

xsql:set-page-param name="itemA" value="{@itemA}"

UPDATE tableA SET itemA = '{@itemA}'
WHERE itemB = '{@itemB}';
COMMIT;

Hopefully this will help another group out that is trying to do this. If you want, you can check out this functionality by visiting our user interface page here.

Class Blogging

I must say that I have really enjoyed blogging in BIT 320. I think it was a very powerful way to communicate and see what different people were thinking. At the beginning of the term, I didn't immediately recognize the benefits, but I got into it shortly thereafter. I think aggregating all the recent posts as a way to view the blogosphere really improved the way we used blogging. It made keeping up to date on blogosphere developments a lot easier. As did tools like Sage. Learning how to use trackbacks effectively was also beneficial.

As for any future changes that I would recommend to class blogging, the only thing I could think of was having people name their blogs as just their real names. Like, having mine be simply "Scott Foley" instead of "M Go Blue." I thought it might make communication a bit clearer. But, then, after thinking about it more, I thought, you know, I get a kick out of everybody having a unique alias. It is just more fun to talk about what Blogonaut, Hail to the Victors, or Big Blog in the Sky says instead of real names. And real names are posted at the bottom of the aggregated recent posts anyway. So, I really have no recommendations for new changes. The change that was made earlier in the course--the recent post aggregation--really is the only thing that I would have suggested changing, but it has already been done!

Recently, blogging has proven to be a great way to communicate issues pertaining to the second project. But, it has also been a great way to read about people's thoughts pertaining to class issues and issues relating to the way technologies we are studying impact information business. I have grown so fond of blogging that I have created blogs for extracurricular use, and will continue to use them, as they are certainly a great means of communication.

Thank You Page and Formatting

In response to Maulin's post here, we, too, had problems with getting a thank you page to display correctly. We had tried it a number of different ways without much success, encountering the same problems you speak of. I, in fact, previously blogged about our troubles in this area. But, with some help in today's class, we were able to get it to work. Below are two files that you can check out to get an idea of how we got ours to function correctly. You have to create a new stylesheet for the thank you message, which contains little more than the thank you message itself, and also include code in the relevant XSQL page.

insertStory.xsql
thanksHTML.xsl

In regards to centering tables, changing fonts, etc, I think altering the cis320.css file can make these changes. Hope this helps.

Form Display Question

Our group has had trouble trying to get an html "thank you" message to display after successfully entering data into a form.  As it currently stands, code is displayed on the screen after a successful entry.  In XSQL6, an html page that says "Thanks" appears instead, and we'd like to do something like that for our project to make it look nicer.  But, we cannot figure out how to get this to work with our forms.

In insertOrderResult.xsl in XSQL6, there are lines that get the "Thanks" message to display. However, trying to apply this to our forms is difficult.  We do not have an iterative series of forms that continue to re-appear, and can be broken out of if a "No more" button is clicked, as is the case in XSQL6.  Instead, we just want it to display a "thank you" message after a single successful entry.  We have been unsuccessful in our attempts at trying to do this, as we cannot figure out where to insert the bit of code to make it work.  Depending on where we put the code, it will either display the "thank you" page and not enter data into the database, or it will enter data into the database and not display the "thank you" page.  But, it never does both at the same time.  Any advice?

Dropdown Menus

In response to the question about drop down menus here, you have to list an element to be displayed in menu.  The line "select donor_id from grant_program" selects donor_id from grant_program, but does not display anthing in the menu.  To display donor_id in the menu, you do the following:

select donor_id, donor_id from grant_program

Or, if you wanted to display the name of the donor in the dropdown menu instead of the ID, you could just as easily do that. I'm not sure if this is applicable to what you want to do, or if you have a name associated with the ID, but if you did, it would be written in a manner similar to the following:

select donor_id, first_name, last_name from grant_program

Project 2 Progress

Our group has been making good progress on the project and we are now able to view all of our Project 1 views in HTML, as well as having one entry form complete. Some advice when implementing forms that involve retrieving sequenced numbers from the database: remember to create the sequence to begin with. Overlooking this caused us a bit of frustration. Furthermore, we had some issues with getting the forms to generate the numbers in XSQL after creating the sequence, but after working at it, we have resolved the problem.

Specifically, we had originally created a sequence named "person_id," and could not get this to work for some time. After reviewing XSQL5 some more, we decided to try renaming the sequence "personid," as our original "person_id" label is also used as an attribute of a table in our database. This was possibly causing some processing confussion. Making this change got it to work. Either that, or we made some really minor change simultaneously, and it just coincidentally happened to work this time around. Anyway, we still have much to do, but are well on our way. For any group having trouble with the sequences, just keep on working at it and it should work out sooner or later.

IT Outsourcing

I can certainly sympathize with the frustration that Hail to the Victor's expresses here regarding multiple copies of documents and the negative implications they have on class projects. The response that bschool bloggin got back from Scott Moore regarding this issue was very interesting, as I had absolutely no idea that Ctools presented an opportunity to share documents in a restricted online group environment. I wish I knew this earlier, as it certainly would have reduced the duplication frustration that is inherent in emailing out multiple versions of documents.

But, I am more interested right now in Blogonaut's recommendation of outsourcing the solution. While in this case I think Ctools' solution takes care of the matter pretty well, and a solution does not really need to be outsourced, there are other instances at this university where IT is definitely outsourced. An example of the university's outsourcing of IT can be found in this Michigan Daily article. The article describes a deal that the University has brokered with a company called Cdigix to outsource the ability to upload audio and video files for use as course materials. A really cool side effect of the University signing this deal is that we as students will soon be able to download all the music we want for only $2.99 a month, and the article discusses this aspect at lengths. But, apparently, this extra ability was not really a factor in the university's decision to outsource their online audio and video capabilities. I think it is very interesting to see the university outsourcing this IT aspect. I wonder if the university's outsourcing IT in general will become a more common occurance in the future.

Blog: Word of the Year

I agree with Mike.  Pretty cool that blog is the word of the year!  Commentators on CNN, MSNBC, and FoxNews talk about the impact blogs have all the time.  I just hear about blogging everywhere. I know that it is my word of the year, though I'm also a big fan of their #7 word "peloton."  I had know idea what the heck this word was until this past summer, where I heard it like ten times a day during the Tour de France.

MySQL Database

The ability to input data into a database and visualize the views all in html format seems really appealing for extracurricular, student group use.  Being able to generate unique identification numbers, having drop-down menus, and being able manipulate the database from the web gets me thinking how valuable a system like this could be for a student group on campus.  It would make record keeping so clean and organized, and more importantly, accessible to everybody who needs it.  No more need for disjoint lists and spread sheets.  One cohesive database that people could manipulate from online would be perfect.

But, as I think about the possibilities of creating my own web-enabled database for extracurricular use, I realize that we will only have access to Oracle for another few weeks.  This brings me to my question.  I know that mySQL is open source and therefore would satisfy my cost constraints, but I went to mySQL.com to look around, and I was completely overwhelmed.  I had no idea what I would have to download and if it would work for my needs.  Is using mySQL the best choice for me, and if so, how would I go about getting started?

Thanksgiving Blogging and IT

I was talking with my Dad over break about what was going in BIT 320 and told him all about our class blog.  He works for Sun Microsystems, and he told me that they had recently implemented a internal company blog.  Tranquilidad's post here does a good job outlining the benefits of corporate blogging.  He said that he hasn't contributed to it just yet, as he initially didn't see the benefits of the blog.  But, he mentioned that even though he hasn't made a post, it is nice to read what others in the company are thinking.

Besides talking with my dad about corporate blogging, eating turkey, and catching up with class activities, I decided to do a little extracurricular web design.  Not only did I re-designed my club's website, but I implemented a team blog as well.  I set the blog up about a week or so ago, and I worked on the site off and on over break.  The website can be found here.  Notice the blog button on the left-hand side.  I set up a team blog so that all the members of the executive board can participate, though I am the only one on the team as of right now.  I just used blogger.com to do it, as it was free, and it seems like it will work out just fine.  It was ridiculously easy to set up, and I was literally making my first post a minute after I registered.  Though, I must admit, the price of admission for typePad may be worth it, as blogger.com is much more limited.  No trackbacks.  No reference and hit statistics.  No categories for posts.  Minimal page customization.  But, it is free, and I guess that won out this time.