Removing Phantom Indexes

Whilst working on resolving a phantom index issue, John Godfrey from Carys Computing came across a useful little trick for removing the rogue index.

Faced with an unwanted phantom index on a table in his application, John turned to the database manager and diving into the Utilities -> Indexes menu, he ran the option to remove the phantom index. However, nothing happened, the phantom index remained.

John then tried to add the index so that he could then remove it. As expected, OpenInsight duly reported that the new index could not be added as one already existed – the phantom index.

John notes that, at this point, you can turn to the help system in OpenInsight. This points you towards the System Editor, in which you can change field 6 from a 1 to a 0, to indicate that no BTree index is active.

However, John has found a neat, quick resolution to the phantom index issue and one that he asked me to share with everyone through my blog. He states:

“To the errant field add an XRef Index. This magically makes the Index editable and removable. So go back in and remove the XRef and BTree Indexes as required.”

I would like to thank John for this contribution and I will welcome any more tricks like this that anyone comes across and who would like to share with my readers.

O4W and older browsers.

OpenInsight for the Web (O4W) is fast becoming, if not already is, Revelation’s leading web development tool. This is no surprise when you see just how easy it is to create Web 2.0 compliant browser based systems against OpenInsight’s own Linear Hash data, TigerLogic’s D3 data, Rocket Software’s U2 data and also SQL data stores – the latter 3 via the built in dedicated data connectors.

However, being fully Web 2.0 compliant does come at a small cost. O4W uses advanced web technologies to deliver an interactive and dynamic web experience. To fully benefit from this, users and developers should use the most current versions of their web browser. At the time of writing this blog posting, these versions include; Chrome 3, Firefox 3, IE8, Opera 9 and Safari 3.

However, that is not the be all and end all. Developers and users may chose to use older versions of their web browser, but at the risk of reduced functionality. Developers who choose to support these older browsers should undertake their own careful testing of any plug-ins and functionality that their web solutions may rely upon. Minimally acceptable browser versions currently include Chrome 1+, Firefox 2+, IE6+, Opera 9+ and Safari 3+.

As a default, users accessing an O4W based system with an older browser will be presented with a message that their browser is unsupported. They can continue, but the message remains at the top of the O4W forms as a reminder that something might not work totally as expected. This can be seen if you run the Online O4W demo in an older browser or with IE8 running in compatibility mode.

The good new though, is that the javascript to create and display this message is stored in the O4W configuration record and this functionality will be updateable via the O4W Maintenance/Config Records screen in version 1.1 and later.

However, for the moment (version 1.0) developers can disable or modify the message by editing the appropriate CFG_O4W record in the O4WCONFIG table and clearing out or changing field 45 as appropriate. This can be either ‘CFG_O4W’ globally, or *CFG_O4W for a specific application.

Updating this will be easier from O4W version 1.1 (to be included in OpenInsight 9.2.1). From version 1.1, O4W will have an updatable field via the DB Management, O4W Maintenance, configuration Records, Browsers Tab.

Partial content c/o http://www.revelation.com/ discussion forum.

ARev32 / OI Hybrid Demo

Advanced Revelation (ARev) users often ask me what ARev32 provides them with. The short answer is a future proofed system in a world where DOS applications are feeling their age and running into problems. A move to ARev32 brings you into the 32-bit Windows world of OpenInsight, and shortly the 64-bit world.

Whilst a straight conversion leaves you with an ARev32 window that looks and feel just like it does under traditional ARev, an extended conversion can take you ‘a lot’ further.

My new ARev32 demo video (hosted on my YouTube RevSoftUK Channel) takes a quick look at ARev 3.12’s converted SAMPLES application and how it can be run within an OpenInsight MDI frame and then how you can mix GUI and ARev32 windows, including sending information between one and another.

It also takes a look at how ARev32 users can extend the flexibility of the ARev32 system by displaying two or more ARev application screens in their own ARev32 windows – effectively having a Customer screen open with a record and another for the Products record.

Click here to review the ARev32 Demo Video.

What a novice can create with Openinsight!

Many of you have been chasing me on the completion of the OpenInsight QSG series of tutorials. As well as becoming very busy over the summer, one of the main reasons for the pause in the creation of the video series was my time away developing my own Contact Manager.

Some of you that are new to OpenInsight and also some non-Revelation MultiValue developers who have been looking at OpenInsight have asked to see what I have been able to achieve with VERY little technical knowledge, mostly using the OI WORKS technical resources. I did have a couple of hours with Aaron in the car back from London to Northampton for a couple of areas and Carl helped me with an email blast module using an existing routine. Otherwise it is all my own work, design, code, etc.

It is now in use daily, but still far from complete. I need some data validation in areas, some OIPI reports need to be created, a global search facility and the report library in general adding to. I also have a healthy wish list of more technical things for when my technical colleagues become a little less hectic on client work.

Anyway, I have created an overview video of the application and I hope that it will serve to demonstrate what can be achieved in a very short period of time and by a complete application development novice, using OpenInsight.

New Tutorial Videos.

As many of you will have noticed, Revelation continue to extend the range of data connectors for OpenInsight. A data connector for Univision is in development and the D3 (TigerLogic) connector was a new feature in the recent 9.2 release.

Revelation US has recently released a couple of tutorial videos to accompany the D3 Connectors release. They include:

Setting up and working with the OI4D3 connector - Mike Ruane demonstrates OpenInsight's connector technology and attaches data from TigerLogic's D3 data server. Once the data has been attached, OpenInsight can then be used to quickly and easily create graphical or browser-based applications against a D3 database.

Creating an O4W report against a D3 database – Second in Mike’s OI4D3 connector series, this time he takes a look at using OpenInsight's O4W Report Wizard against data from TigerLogic's D3 data server. The O4W Report Wizard lets a user or developer create browser-based interactive reports.

OI 7.2 to 9.2 Upgrade Release 2 now available.

Thank you to everyone who is currently beta testing the 7.2 to 9.2 one step upgrade, available from the WORKS area on www.revelation.com. This will become an invaluable resource for anyone looking to move their end-users from an older version of OpenInsight to 9.2 and your feedback during this beta phase is very much appreciated.

As a result of the current testing, a new version (Release 2) has been published to the WORKS area. This release sees an enhancement to resolve an issue where the SYSREPOSIX table could become damaged and a ‘Rebuild system Index’ would then be required to resolve the issue. OpenInsight WORKS subscribers can download the new file from the WORKS area – click here.

New D3 Connector tutorial video.

Revelation shall shortly be releasing yet another data connector for the MultiValue community.

This time, it is Tigerlogic’s D3 that comes under the spotlight. For those readers using D3, or wanting to use a D3 backend with OpenInsight as a front end, Mike has created and published a short demo tutorial on setting up and using the D3 connector. Click here to view mike’s video.

Protecting your sensitive OpenInsight data.

Sometime ago, Kevin Ruane wrote an article on hiding your Linear Hash data from workstations, this prevented direct access to the data inside .LK and .OV files (Revelation’s Linear Hash data files).

At the time, this was just another useful benefit afforded the Universal Driver for users running Revelation based systems. However, in more recent times we have seen many headlines of high profile individuals and organisations loosing client and other sensitive data – headlines that no organisation can afford to deal with and that often lead to lasting damage to the organisation’s reputation.

If that was not reason enough to take data privacy seriously, organisations now have requirements to protect and audit access to data and this is becoming a more and more common request. For instance, compliance with industry security standards like the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is now a must have for anyone handling credit card information through their online systems or otherwise.

Revelation has published an update to the original article which covers one method to prevent unauthorised access to OpenInsight’s data held inside .LK and .OV files. Working with OpenInsight 9.2+ and the Universal Driver 4.6 over a Windows 2008 Server and Windows 7 workstation environment (so nice and contemporary) this new article details how to use strict NTFS permissions to achieve peace of mind for developers and end-users alike. After all, if your users can not directly read or change .LK and .OV files, you can audit and protect access to the data using controls that are internal to your application.

The full article can be found on http://www.revelation.com/ at http://tinyurl.com/32lhftq.

MVP Software Scores with Online Sports Scheduling Application

MVP Software, a long standing Revelation Software Value Added Reseller in the USA, has recently used OpenInsight 9.2’s O4W technology to extend their Sportspak (originally written in ARev) and associated applications to the web. The new web application is now known as Sportspak.Online.

Having made the move to SQL sometime ago, when a Windows interface was required, MVP Software returned to Revelation and their trusted MultiValue technologies through OpenInsight 7.0. Now with a new web interface being the next logical step forward and required by their users, MVP Software looked to O4W when designing and creating their new web application for high school sports management.

Joyce Wells (Database trends and Applications), picks up this story in her article recently published to http://www.dbta.com/Articles/Editorial/MV-Community/MVP-Software-Scores-With-Online-Sports-Scheduling-Application--69758.aspx.

More OpenInsight 9.2.1 enhancements.

As most of your will no doubt know, OpenInsight 9.2 featured release 1.0 of O4W, Revelation latest web authoring tool for Linear Hash and other MultiValue databases.

The release of O4W has been extremely well received throughout the OpenInsight community and Revelation has received a wealth of feedback, both following the commercial release and before that during the beta phase. In fact, there was so much feedback and subsequent development work undertaken that Revelation found it necessary to pause the development cycle of O4W for the OpenInsight 9.2 release at a certain point. This was to enable the company to catch up with the documentation and keep it in synch with the product itself.

Whilst the O4W development was paused and sandboxed for the 9.2 release, actual development of O4W continued right through the beta phase and it continues to evolve for the next OpenInsight release. As we learned at the Revelation Conference a few months ago, this further development resulted in a backlog of features and those are now being included in the forthcoming 9.2.1 release.

It is also interesting to note that, even before the 9.2 commercial release was available, some forward thinking Revelation clients saw the massive benefits and opportunities that O4W offered them and they became early adopters. Revelation created some special O4W cuts for these clients, enabling them to run O4W in earlier OpenInsight versions and to begin using the solution at that time. These were not test systems, most were real-world solutions for their customers and then, once the 9.2 commercial release was available, they were ready to deploy their O4W based systems to their clients.

So what’s in the new O4W 1.1 version?

One of the main new features is the new theme selector. This lets you change the look and feel of your web application on the fly. O4W is tied to Google’s jQuery library and this enables O4W developers to utilise a myriad of available themes. Just by picking a particular theme, developers can change the entire look and feel of their solutions. This is a major benefit to MultiValue developers, as it enables them to build on their years of experience and to couple this with the themes created by jQuery developers and the jQuery community. Together, this enables developers to easily create much more robust and better looking web applications.

In addition to theme support, O4W 1.1 (which will form part of the OpenInsight 9.2.1 release) will also provide Revelation’s OpenInsight developers with the ability to take an existing OpenInsight form (Window) or a report and convert that form or report into an O4W web form or web report automatically. There really will be no reason for Revelation’s exiting developers not to take a look at O4W if they have not already done so, as it will inevitably become even easier to create that all important web interface.

The OpenInsight 9.2.1 release will include many additional O4W enhancements and countless enhancements to the MultiValue application development toolset itself. You’ll need to be on the OpenInsight WORKS program to gain access to these benefits. If you are already a member, simply watch this blog and the Revelation web sites for more information as it becomes available.

If you are not a WORKS member, please contact your local Revelation office for details on how to ensure that you do not miss out on the OpenInsight 9.2.1 and O4W 1.1 beta cycle.