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Added a conversion guide

Douglas Pace — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:07:23 +0000

I finally finished my write-up to provide some tips on writing conversion code using Pace-Trace. As usual, I ended up spending more time on it than I expected, but hopefully with a valuable byproduct. It is hard to cover this topic without getting into the debate regarding which development platform is best-suited for conversion modules. In short, I believe Component Interface is the best approach if you are not sure you can perform the necessary validations outside of PeopleSoft. That said, I believe someone with a careful eye to ensure required fields and prompt values are populated correctly via SQL by using a staging table will still find the entire conversion process (from design, development, and testing) much faster, easier, and successful by building an SQR from a trace file. Again, read the whole entry to get the full story.

As an aside, I found an awesome free tool today that handles that nasty problem of not being able to delete files because Windows thinks (incorrectly) that it is in use by another application. This will be definitely added to my “bag of tricks.” The tool is called Unlocker, and you can download the tiny (192K) application for free here:
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

More added to the Usage Guide

Douglas Pace — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:29:11 +0000

So I made my first contribution to the Usage Guide today (specifically this part on helpful tips for business analysts to get the most out of tracing). Hopefully people will find it helpful. Toward the end I started questioning if I missed something, and then I remembered every project that I have worked has involved this “living document” concept which can be loosely translated to “I know I haven’t finished it, but I’m going to put it out there anyway.” In this case, I think I am much further along than that, especially considering no one is paying me to do this in the first place. Even still, I’d like to hear if I left something out you think would be useful or you actually find something that needs correcting.

Finally adding more content…

Douglas Pace — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 19:23:59 +0000

I wrote my original guide to turning on tracing to match what I think makes sense for most users turning on tracing; using the method I described, you can easily focus on a particular statement using Pace-Trace to assist throughout the process. However, after chatting with Ryan earlier, I realize that I should also include the process for turning on tracing interactively within a session. In most clients that I have worked, developers are granted direct access to the online trace file; however, sometimes you may find yourself less fortunate, and required to have the file manually transferred for you each time you want to review its contents. If you find yourself in this position, you will certainly want to minimize the size of the trace file as much as you can. The new addition to the guide to tracing can be found here. Also, I felt that my guide to turning on tracing was somewhat “buried,” so I added it in the “Quick Links” section on the home page. (And good luck on getting access to that trace file.)

I am currently in the process of adding my first real contributions to the Usage Guide, which should hopefully take more shape over the next week. I have been struggling on exactly how I want to lay that all out. In addition, I’ve decided to add another section with useful SQL for PeopleSoft implementations. Overall, I just want to put everything out there that people keep asking of me from various projects. Hopefully after a while, I can just answer questions with a URL from my website.