New Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

With the release of Gutsy Gibbon I installed Oracle XE on it - works without any problems ;-)

Home theatre

Having acquired a Sanyo PL-VZ 2 projector, I started my home theatre project.

Equipment so far:

• Sanyo PL-VZ 2
• DVDO iScan HD
• Kenwood KRF-V 6070

The projector is not ceiling-mounted, it rests on top of my shelf....

Picasa crashes?

If Picasa crashes while uploading pictures or sending them per email: Updating the Intel wireless driver 2200BG helps!

A similiar problem with Pegasus Mail, which suddenly crashed while sending email, was also cured by the update.

End-user configurable help in Apex

Let's assume the following scenario:

We have an application developed by A for B, B wants to be able to add and edit help information on the pages of the application, but has no access to the development environment of Apex.

1. Create a table HELP with 3 columns:

CREATE table "HELP" (
"ID" NUMBER,
"PAGE" NUMBER,
"HELP" VARCHAR2(4000),
constraint "HELP_PK" primary key ("ID")
)
/

CREATE sequence "HELP_SEQ"
/

CREATE trigger "BI_HELP"
before insert on "HELP"
for each row
begin
select "HELP_SEQ".nextval into :NEW.ID from dual;
end;
/

2. Create a "report and form" on this table in your application, they will be used for maintaining the help table.

3. Create a help region on Page 0 as report region, use the following SQL:

select help from HELP where page = &APP_PAGE_ID. and help is not NULL

Condition for this region: select help from HELP where page = &APP_PAGE_ID. and help is not NULL returns at least one row.


4. Using the report and form from step 2 an authorized user can create and edit the help text for the pages: the page number goes into PAGE, the text into HELP.

Update

Today I have updated my Ubuntu 6.10 server to 7.04 without any problems.

Additionally I installed XE on the machine - worked perfectly.

As a precaution I always use the "real" root in Ubuntu for installing XE, as I ran into some troubles with doing it with "sudo" some months ago.

A380

Finally, I had the chance to see the A380 flying.

After missing the first opportunity in 2005, because of waiting on the wrong side of FRA airport in the fog, my chance came on 27th March 2007.

Having arrived at the spotters point at runway 18W just a few minutes before, the A380 landed on runway 07L.

APP_PAGE_ID

A while ago I promised tips & tricks .... well, for starters:

Supporting the end users of an Apex application is much easier, when they can tell you the relevant page number. Of course it is in the URL (as long as the Apex URL is not hidden, e.g. with a frame redirect), but in my experience end users like a more explicit way of getting the information.

For this reason, I include &APP_PAGE_ID. in the Navigation Bar of my application.

Apex Evangelists

Some leading members of the Apex community have started a project "AE - Apex Evangelists"!

Good luck to them - you can find more information at http://www.apex-evangelists.com/

Linux and Oracle

Installing XE on a Windows server worked always like a charm for me.

Having a Suse 9.3 based virtual server from Strato, I tackled the issue of installing XE on Linux.

As my experience with Linux got a little rusty over the past years (installed a server 4 years ago and no need to touch it again...) I tried installing XE on Suse 9.3, Suse 10.1 and Ubuntu 6.10 ... worked perfectly following the guides from Oracle. :-)

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/xe/files/install.102/b25144/toc.htm
http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/linux/install/xe-on-kubuntu.html

Back to Oracle

I will give a presentation about my experiences with Express Edition and Apex at the 19th Conference of the German Oracle Users in Mannheim. My slot is 16th of November, 10.00 - 10.45 in Variohalle 2.

The title is "Erste Projekterfahrungen mit Oracle 10g Express Edition und Oracle Application Express".

Landed ;-)

And here shortly after landing - or is it watering ;-)

It was the first flying boat to land in Frankfurt for 74 years - after the famous Do X in 1932.

Thousands of people watched from both sides of the Main - even the weather played along! 

Something completely different ....

19.10.2006: 1135, Do 24 ATT flying low level above the river Main in Frankfurt...

Databaselab

As I have been teaching Information Systems and Databases for a while now, I will share some experiences and tips and tricks and anything else on this blog - as time allows.

A focus will be Oracle Application Express - I stumbled over this RAD tool a year ago. Some projects and courses later.....

www.databaselab.de is already a center of my courses.

Crimea

Another conference - I gave a presentation "Bechmarking E-Government: The Case of Eastern Europe" at the 11th International Scientific Conference: The Problems of Economic Integration of Ukraine into the European Union which took place in Simeiz, Crimea, Ukraine.

Bratislava

The last day we spent in Bratislava, a really nice capital!

 

Vienna, Stift Vorau and Bratislava

Just have returned from the 7th Conference of the International Association for Comparative Studies in Economics and Integration (Arnoldshain VII Seminar), which took place at WU Vienna and Stift Vorau in Styria. I am not really an economist, but have helped to organize the event ;-)

Welcome

Hi,

just blogging a little around ;-)