EMEA RUG Report

For those of you who were unable to make the EMEA RUG last week, Elkie Holland from Prospects IT (the leading recruiter in the MultiValue community) has written a very nice report about the RUG including links to some of the useful resources that Carl mentioned during his presentation.

Following the RUG Mike and I took to the road and made numerous site visits around the UK, including the first of many telephone interviews with mainstream IT media journalists. One of the striking things to come out of these discussions is the need for business to aggregate disparate data in one consistent interface. It seems that many people, especially MultiValue users, are still pumping data into corporate data stores for reporting, displaying over the web, etc.

O4W and the data connectors released as part of 9.2 are well placed to address this business need, enabling people to seamlessly use data within one single OpenInsight based application, from multiple database sources. At the moment the company supports its own native data, several flavours of SQL, Rocket Software’s Universe and Unidata, TigerLogic’s D3 and a Univision data connector is almost complete. Please visit www.revsoft.co.uk and the Products pages for more information about the new technologies – If you are an existing OpenInsight WORKS subscriber then you can start working with them today, as you already have them.

Anyway, it was a really nice surprise to find one of the RUG attendees writing about the event and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Elkie for the report.

OpenInsight 9.x End-User Benefits

Since the RUG and my road trip with Mike, I have had a number of requests for a document that details the benefits to end-users in the 9.x series. Whilst the majority of the benefits are for developers, there are a large number of enhancements that will benefit end-users.

I was planning on blogging the list, but the document grew to a size where this is not effectively possible. Revelation have packed so much into the 9.x release :). For this reason and a few others, I am planning on making the document available on request. Please drop me an email to my usual address (or comment below) and I’ll get a copy to you via email.

The document itself is divided into two main sections. The first is divided into categories based on the tools and each benefit is listed with a few lines of explanation. The second section is a two page bullet point list that simply summarises the key points.

I hope that this will become useful for those of you, like me, who need to justify the annual license fee to your end-users who are currently on 8.0.8 or prior and who you now need to move into the 9.x series.

Mike Ruane Kidnapped in London

So, I let Mike out of my sight for one day whilst here in London last week and he gets himself into trouble.

Then, following a grilling about the new tools in OpenInisght 9.2, he produces a new ‘How-To’ video for OpenInsight 9.2’s brand new SQL Connector. This tool lets developers use SQL server data as if it were native MultiValue data, without having to learn SQL. Stick with the BASIC you know.

Well, along with O4W, I guess the connector was one of the big highlights of the week and it is set to open many new doors for Revelations VARs around the world.

Upgrading to OpenInsight 9.2

Following a hugely successful RUG and road trip around the UK last week (more on the RUG coming soon) and the release of OpenInsight 9.2, we have had a number of support requests from people new to OpenInsight for installation keys. This posting is therefore to remind everyone of the process to obtain the upgrade files and the authorisation key.

The first pre-requisite is that you have a current OpenInsight WORKS subscription. Please contact me if this is not the case. You then need to ascertain which version of OpenInsight you are running at the present time. If it is an older 7.x or 8.x version then you will need to cross-grade your runtime or Developer Class licenses, please contact me for more details about the cross-grade procedure.

Assuming you are simply upgrading your OpenInsight development system (W serial number) you will need to either obtain one of the single hit upgrades that are unofficially available (there is not currently one to jump from 7.x or 8.x to 9.2, but I will blog one if and when it is made available), or the appropriate upgrades from your current version to 9.2. The readme files identify which upgrades can be jumped, however I personally usually apply each in turn. Alternatively, there is a 9.2 full install in the WORKS area and this can be used for a single clean installation by those of you who wish to backup and restore your application/s into a fresh installation of OpenInsight.

Please note that the WORKS area includes both a 9.2 Full Install and also a 9.2 upgrade, so please be careful to download the right file.

Please also note that upgrades prior to 8.0.3 can be installed without an installation authorisation key, but upgrades from 8.0.3 require keys. The good news though is that you only need one key for the whole upgrade process.

OK, so the actual process:

1) Log into www.revelation.com with your unique username and password.

2) Locate the ‘WORKS Subscribers’ button on the left navigation bar and use it to enter the private WORKS area.

3) Next locate and click on the ‘Works Downloads’ link in the navigation panel and then choose ‘View All by date Posted’. This works fine for us at the present time, as the two upgrades appear at the top of this list. Otherwise you could select to display all by version.

4) Click on the full installation or upgrade page link to go to the license page.

5) Read and then accept the license to move on to the actual download page.

6) Review this page, but move straight to the OI92Install.exe icon at the bottom of the upgrade page and download the file, saving it to you local machine. Please also be sure to download and study the Installation Guide and Readme Guide as there is information in there about closing services, etc. before running the installation and installing the client files as part of the installation.

7) Move back to the top of the download page and locate the hyperlink to the ‘OpenInsight 9.2 Full Install / Upgrade Request Form. This launches the form that you will use to request your installation key.

8) Complete this form, being sure to complete all of the red labelled prompts, including your correct email address, serial number and a site name (reference to this license). If this is your development license (W serialised engine) then just enter Development License.

9) If you have already uploaded your OEngine.dll file DO NOT upload it again, just hit the save button and your request will be processed automatically and you will receive you code by email within a few minutes.

If you have not previously uploaded your OEngine.dll file for the system being upgraded, please locate your OEngine.dll file from within your OpenInsight folder and upload that now. This will invoke a manual registration process and you should receive your installation key within 24 hours (subject to the US office opening hours).

10) You then simply need to install the upgrade/s or full installation using the authorisation key where prompted.

Although the above ten steps sounds complicated on paper, it is actually very straight forward and (with the exception of the actual download time) the process of obtaining the upgrades and installation key should not take more than a few minutes.

However, please do not hesitate to contact your designated Revelation office should you require any assistance throughout this process.

OpenInisght 9.2 Now Available.

For those of you that might not have noticed, the final commercial release of OpenInsight 9.2 was made available to all OI WORKS subscribers on Thursday last week and a press release will be going out form the EMEA office ina few minutes.

This new release was very warmly received last week, both at the RUG and the various client meets that Mike and I had around the UK.

Some of the highlights were the enhancements to TCL for end-users and the connectors for SQL and D3 and of course O4W.

There are a number of documents available for the connectors and O4W and we have videos planned for the SQL connector, the D3 connector and I also have plans to turn the O4W Quick start guide into a series of videos over the coming weeks.

All OI WORKS subscribers have access to the new release through the WORKS area on www.revelation.com. If you are no longer a WORKS member and would like to get your hands on the new version, please contact me for WORKS renewal details.

OpenInsight 9.2 now in final beta

Overnight Revelation US has announced to their beta testers that the final OpenInsight 9.2 beta is now available for download from the beta site.

This final beta is the version that the company intends to put on general release on the 15th July 2010. In Mike’s email to the registered beta testers, he says that Revelation are very happy with this release and all of the functionality and features that it brings. He goes on to thank all of the beta testers for their time and feedback and I would like to take this opportunity to add my thanks to everyone involved with this release, both beta testers and the Revelation developers who have worked so hard to make this a great release.

Please remember that Mike will be in London on the 13th July for the next RUG. He will be reviewing 9.2 and also taking a note of your needs for 9.3 and beyond.

M.

OI listed in NoSQL directory.

I am pleased to announce that OpenInsight is now listed on the official NoSQL list of databases compiled on http://nosql-database.org/. Our listing can be found in the MultiValue section.

Starting OpenInsight/OpenEngine with Arguments

Over the last week or so we have had a few requests for details of the command line switches that are available when launching OpenInsight. They are actually listed in the OpenInsight help files and they can be found by searching for “Starting OpenInsight/OpenEngine with Arguments”.

However, for ease of use here are the details:


/ap - Application Name
For Example: /ap=SYSPROG

/un - User Name
For Example: /un=SYSPROG

/pw - Password
For Example: /pw=swordfish

/dv - Development mode flag
(1 = Development mode, 0 = Runtime mode).
Defaults to Runtime mode.

/sn - Server Name
see Client to Out-of-Process Engine.
For Example: /sn=dylan

/he - Hide Engine flag
1 = Hide Engine, 0 = Do Not Hide Engine.
The default value is dependent on the engine type.
Runtime Engines default to 1. Development engines default to 0.
Note: If you hide an Engine, the Debugger tool is disabled.

/hi - Hide Interface flag
1 = Hide Interface, 0 = Display Interface.
The default value is 0.
This option determines whether the OpenInsight Interface screen is displayed or hidden during execution. The OpenInsight help files provide some graphical examples.

/sm - System Monitor flag
1= Start System Monitor on startup, 0 = Do not start the System Monitor.
The default value is 0.
The System Monitor is not available in a runtime system.

/bn - Banner Display flag
1= Display Login Banner, 0 = Do not display banner.
The default value is 1.

/ca - Application Manager Caption
The caption may not contain spaces.
For Example: /ca=Local_OI.

/i - Indexer
This argument is used for OpenEngine only. This argument will start the OpenEngine as a dedicated indexer. The format for using this argument is /i appname.

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Some specific examples include:

C:\RevSoft\OI32Bit>oinsight /ap=EXAMPLES /un=EXAMPLES
This command line will run the EXAMPLES application under the EXAMPLES user in runtime mode.


C:\Revsoft\Oinsight\oinsight.exe /ap=sysprog /un=sysprog /ca=local_oi /dv=1 /sn=soren
This command line will run the SYSPROG application with the user SYSPROG in developer mode. It will also set the window caption to read "OpenInsight - SYSPROG(LOCAL_OI) and a server name of SOREN. This will be listed in the OpenEngine Information under Queue Information.


C:\Revsoft\Oinsight\oengine.exe /i sysprog
This command line will run the OpenEngine Index Server with the SYSPROG database.


C:\Revsoft\Oinsight\OINSIGHT.exe /ap=examples /un=examples /hi=1
This command line is for use with runtime engines. The OpenInsight interface screen (The Application Manager IDE) is displayed by default. By setting /hi=1 the OpenInsight interface will not be displayed.