5 things I’ve learned this week:
- how to write SQL queries
- import/export data with MS SQL Server (more hidden than you’d expect)
- basics of using PHP with MySQL or MS SQL Server (the latter works now too, with an additional module)
- basics of using ASP with the same instead of PHP
- Bhupinder Singh is a great man (let it be known in all the lands)
Basically, I’ve got this project involving a whole lot of moving parts (database, queries, multiple user-interfaces, syncing, etc…) and I, being an expert in none of these things, was resolved to teach myself all the tools Id need to get things done how the pros do. Time-consuming, often frustrating, and I felt inefficient many times along the way. However, I am glad now, since I do have a basic understanding of how a whole bunch of things work now.
Anyway, yesterday I was on the corporate Twitter-like feed on Yammer, and I was mentioning/asking around about all these options, while being open to suggestions. Bhupinder, a wise man I met while waiting for the same bus at DC, chimed in about Webforms, a proprietary part of the ECM suite that OpenText makes and markets itself. I am generally very wary when people make suggestions to me about how to do things, especially if I’ve never used whatever tools they recommend. It takes approximately 5 seconds to recommend an application or a system to get a job done with, and anywhere from a day to many for me to figure out how to use it clumsily before moving on (usually a mismatch of my needs and the app’s capabilities). Back to Webforms! Bhupinder then volunteered to give me a quick tutorial on how to start a template up, create views for it, pull reports back out using SQL queries, link the information to a database that’s already hooked into Livelink… Just an all around AWESOME suggestion.
Without his help, I would be anxious at best about my project’s success/final level of functionality. After having spent maybe at most 30 minutes speaking with Bhupinder, listening to his insights, and learning about some of the basic tools at my disposal, and getting set up (it’s frustrating wanting to try different tools but not having anyone to show you how to get set up to start testing!), I am pretty confident that this will be the way to go. There’s plenty of documentation on our Intranet that I will be using to teach myself, and the direct feed in and out of one of our established databases is one of the major selling points. I am extremely grateful to Bhupinder (and the others who have offered me their suggestions too) for his great idea and coaching. I’m pretty excited to get to work today.