|
Welcome to the Frontpage
|
Visual BASIC... The curse. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Sunday, 06 June 2010 18:23 |
|
One of the more difficult issues I have faced in the journey to freedom from proprietary software has been Visual Basic for Applications or VBA for short. Now, you are asking a couple of questions at this point. First of all, "What's VBA?" Visual Basic for Applications is a tool supplied by Microsoft to users of their Office suite. You have probably used it without even knowing. If you use macros in MS Office, they are simply a series of commands that are recorded in Visual Basic. While you can use the macro recorder to set up nice simple automations, using the editor available in Office, you can transform a simple spreadsheet into a hugely complex stand alone, executable program. This is very convenient for rapid application development. Combined the features of Microsoft Excel such as data importing and web queries you are able to build quite elaborate data reporting and analysis tools. At least that's what I did. This leads us to the second question. "Why is this a problem?" Microsoft appears to have a philosophy, which states everyone should buy the latest copy of Microsoft Office even if they currently have a perfectly good copy of the previous version installed. Part of this 'theoretical' philosophy is to remove legacy support, meaning macros written in an older version either do not function in the newer version or are automatically upgraded which then makes it incompatible with the older version. Of coarse when you try to get tech support for this situation you are politely informed that "We no longer offer support for previous versions of that product, you must upgrade to Microsoft Office Two Thousand what-the-hell-ever." Two or three times rewriting a reporting program, you find that this isn't such a rapid way to develop an application. Now to solve this problem. One option I used at first was to rewrite the tool with a web based tool. I have several Linux servers running Apache, MySQL and PHP. This works for some things but not standard spreadsheet work which is essential for most office work. Luckily I found a better solution. IBM is now offering a modified version of OpenOffice.org as their Lotus Symphony Suite. I had tried it out but saw no real need to switch from my trusty old OpenOffice. Until now... Check out this article. (Opens in new window) Yes, Lotus Symphony offers (limited) support for Visual BASIC for Applications. Yes I did say limited. Some of my VBA programs are pretty extreme and far beyond the scope of what Symphony is intended to address. However, that being said there is a certain sense of accomplishment when you are running a VBA macro from an Excel spreadsheet on a Linux desktop. Oh yeah, did I mention that Lotus Symphony is cross platform just like OpenOffice.org? I believe the playing field has just leveled a bit. Click here to go download IBM's Lotus Symphony 3 Beta 2. Note: This is NOT the standard release. It is a beta available from this link. The standard download is still at 1.5 and does not support VBA so make sure you get the version 3 beta or you will be very disappointed. |
|
Last Updated on Sunday, 06 June 2010 19:42 |
|
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Saturday, 05 June 2010 19:27 |
|
So what's that? WebERP (Website) is one of many solutions for businesses who want to take advantage of the huge amount of Open Source Enterprise software out there. WebERP is basically a WEB-based "Enterprise Resource Planning" (ERP) software. So in essence, if you want to run a manufacturing company on a limited budget (or just cost-efficiently) this piece of free software installed on a server running MySQL and using PHP is basically all you need. Problem solved. In our case, I set up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server, unpacked the tar file, logged into the web page and followed the instructions. Simple. Actually it is that simple. To explain, the installation is almost too easy. You simply download the script from the website and unzip or untar it in the directory you wish to run it from. There is an installer script which basically just walks you through the set up. You set up a few permissions, set up a MySQL user and the rest is fairly automated. The system is pretty 'turn key' but if you know PHP you can modify it extensively to fit your needs even more. (Open Source, remember?) It has a built in themes system, or you can create your own. Or you can also alter the CSS controls if you are real daring and want to completely customize the appearance. WebERP covers everything from Order Entry to Inventory as well as Billing and Time Management. It is a complete solution. While it is focused on manufacturing, as I said before, it is customizable. Note, as with any unfamiliar software there is a learning curve, and implementation can be a bit time consuming if you are transitioning from another software package. You will need to either key in your existing data or convert your data to the corresponding MySQL tables. The conversion is usually not too difficult and there are many freelance programmers who are well versed in SQL (Structured Query Language) available to help. In our case, the data conversion for our customer file, process list and inventory took about a week. One bit of advice, store the SQL files you use to insert your data into the MySQL database so that the process can be repeated. This affords you the opportunity to do a dry run or two where you can test the function of the software then set things back to your start point for implementation. Also, a quick Google search will reveal several sites online that offer video training and additional documentation. |
|
Last Updated on Sunday, 06 June 2010 18:15 |
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Thursday, 12 October 2006 05:00 |
|
After some fits and starts, HiwayPilot has found his new home. Welcome to the 'Grand Experiment'. It's taken me some time to get my head around this radically different management tool. Years ago, when I started out, (walking to school... 20 miles, in the snow... uphill both ways...) I coded web pages in a text editor. Eventually I incorporated tools like Netscape Composer and NVU to speed things up a bit. But with a lot of my pages containing both Javascript and PHP, I still coded most sites by hand. Eventually I migrated the HiwayPilot site to a WordPress blog. Mostly this was simply a time saving step. I didn't want to compose a new page for every post. When I started building my own content management engine, I realized that was sort of reinventing the wheel. The tools exist, use them. So I did. Joomla! is extremely tweakable. It's also a bit "hands on" as far as content placement. But the customization runs circles around WordPress. (No offense WordPress guys. I still think WordPress is the most approachable blogging, site management tool out there.) I should probably have read more and practiced a bit before switching, but hey, what fun would that be? So please excuse the mess. (And it will get messy before it gets better.) I will try to learn how to tame this beast as quickly as possible and hopefully create some useful tutorials along the way.
 Joomla! provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface that simplifies the management and publishing of large volumes of content including HTML, documents, and rich media. Joomla! is used by organisations of all sizes for Public Web sites, Intranets, and Extranets and is supported by a community of thousands of users. And I kinda like it. (now) |
|
Last Updated on Thursday, 09 July 2009 09:49 |
|
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:22 |
|
I have finally returned after an extended break. Among my many hobbies and pass-times, model railroading takes a huge amount of my time. I've been fairly obsessed with building structures and learning to weather them which has left little time for working on this site. After recently reviewing my server records I noticed that this site has sat stagnate for quite a long time. That's just not right. Something else that has been missing is actually focus. The previous iteration of this site was minor beginner tech tips and Linux promotion. Well, today that type of focus would simply make the site disappear in the ocean of newbie tip sites. Let's face it, I'm a programmer, Linux geek and model railroader. My other personal site, lencain.com, is where I focus on the model trains so I will keep this site pointing towards tech. Tech I get. I want to share my love of things such as Linux, Python, PHP, Robotics and electronics. I can share my experiences from my work life such as our custom security system or in-house payroll time management system. We also create custom electronic devices much like those you see in Make Magazine. I think given proper attention this site can return to it's productive past. PS, while I'm at it we can learn about Joomla together. |
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Friday, 06 October 2006 14:29 |
|
I read Ebooks. Do you? I also read hard-copy books as well as magazines and website articles. I don't think people 'get it' when in comes to ebooks. My Sony Reader goes everywhere with me... as does my cell phone and Palm TX. They are tools just like my laptop and desktop are. Or a notepad and pen. My Sony Reader can be loaded with a couple hundred books at any one time. I don't absolutely NEED the reader to read a book. I have a large bookcase filled with dead trees that I can peruse at any time. I keep tech manuals in hard copy for reference, in PDF on the Laptop for quick searches and on the reader just in case I want to refresh my memory while waiting on the wife at the mall. I don't believe the printed medium is dead. It may not be as dominant as it was, but a newspaper is an easy, quick casual read when you are in a waiting room. Hard cover books seem to 'feel' more relaxing on the beach than their digital counterparts. A purely psychological affect, but it's there none the less. Different formats have different uses. Exactly how many 'paperless' offices really exist? Sure we have the capability, but not the desire. Our weekly management meetings are littered with printed copies of the meeting minutes from the last. We could easily use Ipads or netbooks to review minutes and take notes, but we don't. Nor do many of our counterparts in other companies. It's just simpler to scratch a note in the margin of a printed Word doc as a reminder of a conversation. We record the video conference but people rarely review it. It's quicker to scan through the notes you folded and placed beside the phone on your desk. Yes, technology is wonderful and has afforded us many opportunities to quickly communicate or digitally log and record life, but regardless of technology items like printed books, sticky notes and magazines will still be a part of our lives for some time to come. Their rolls may change, but I don't believe they will vanish in my lifetime. |
|
Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 April 2010 11:45 |
|
|
Copyright © 2010 My Joomla. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
Who's Online
We have 3 guests online
|
