Cuardaigh & Éasca: Cruthaigh Fillteán agus Cineál Ábhar Sann (Nó, Nocht do TFBeanna agus Them Eat Too)

D'fhonn a bheith ag obair ar fud an fhadhb PTF Scríobh mé faoi anseo, I did some testing and discovered that KPI’s work against folders with meta data in the same way that they work against documents or list items. I proved it out by creating a new content type based on the folder content type and then added a few fields. I created some indicators and proved to myself that KPIs work as expected. This was welcome news. It’s not perfect, because the drill-down you get from the KPI against the folders is not exactly what you want. This isn’t too much a drawback in my case because 1) ní dhéanann na húsáideoirí deiridh a fhios bith níos fearr agus 2) the drill-down goes to a folder. They click the folder name and they are at the item. It’s two clicks instead of one, nach bhfuil an deireadh an domhain.

This flowed nicely with the work I was doing. I am creating a folder for every document that gets uploaded. This is done via an event receiver. Mar thoradh air sin, tá sé ina píosa císte a choinneáil ar an fillteán tuismitheora meta data in sync with the KPI-driven meta data from the file itself since the plumbing is already in place. This allows me to have my KPI’s and eat them too 🙂

I modified the event receiver to add the folder and then set this new folder’s content type to my custom KPI-friendly content type. This bit of code did the trick:

 SPFolderCollection srcFolders = targetWeb.GetFolder("Documents").Fofhillteáin;
  SPFolder fillteán a cuireadh leis = srcFolders.Add(properties.ListItem.ID.ToString());
  SPContentTypeId kpiCT = nua SPContentTypeId("0x0120002A666CAA9176DC4AA8CBAA9DC6B4039F");
  addedFolder.Item["Content Type ID"] = kpiCT;
  addedFolder.Item.Update();

Chun teacht ar an Ábhar Cineál haitheantas iarbhír, Rochtain agam go cineál ábhar trí suímh láithreán agus cóipeáil / a ghreamú sé as an URL mar a thaispeántar:

íomhá

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Tapaidh agus éasca: Faigh an SPFolder de SPListItem i Glacadóir Imeacht

Is fuath liom a admháil go, but I struggled with this one all day. My event receiver needs to update a field of its parent folder. This little bit shows how to do it:

príobháideach neamhní UpdateParentFolder(SPItemEventProperties airíonna)
{

SPFolder thisItemFolder = properties.ListItem.File.ParentFolder;
thisItemFolder.Item["ZZ Approval Status"] = "Good news, gach duine!";
thisItemFolder.Item.Update();


} // UpdateParentFolder

Sa chás seo, Tá mé ag obair le leabharlann doiciméad agus na hairíonna atá ag teacht ó ócáid ​​ItemAdded.

Is é an cleas nach féidir leat a fháil ar an SPFolder na míre díreach ó na míre féin (i.e. Is properties.ListItem.Folder null). Ina áit sin, téigh go dtí an mír liosta ar Comhad a bhaineann agus a fháil ar an fillteán Comhad ar.

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Ach eile Imeacht Trick Debug Glacadóir

I’m sure I’m not the first person to come up with this. Mar sin féin, I haven’t noticed anyone publish a trick like this since I started paying close attention to the community last July. Mar sin,, Shíl mé sa phost é seo tip debug tapaidh agus éasca.

Tá mé ag obair ar glacadóir ócáid ​​a thosaigh a ghiniúint an earráid sa 12 hive:

Earráid Conchango.xyzzyEventReceiver glacadóir luchtú agus a reáchtáil ócáid ​​i xyzzy, Leagan 1.0.0.0 =, Cultúr = neodrach, PublicKeyToken = blahbalhbalh. Additional information is below. : Cuspóir tagartha nach leagtar ar shampla de rud.

I didn’t know where I had introduced this bug because I had done too many things in one of my code/deploy/test cycles.

Rinne mé an réiteach seo a fháil ar mo PDB i ann le súil go SharePoint ar 12 Bheadh ​​hive thaispeáint ar an rian chairn, but no luck. I don’t know if it’s possible and if someone does, cuir in iúl dom 🙂

Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil sé indéanta go do theachtaireachtaí logáil féin a scríobh chuig an 12 hive. Frankly, Theastaigh uaim rud éigin a bhí beagán níos lú scary agus níos tapúla a chur i bhfeidhm.

Rith sé liom go raibh mé in ann ar a laghad, a fháil ar roinnt eolais rian bhunúsach ag breith agus ath-throwing eisceachtaí cineálach mar seo:

  iarracht {
    UpdateEditionDate(airíonna);
  }
  ghabháil (Eisceacht agus)
  {
    caith nua Eisceacht("Dispatcher, UpdateEditionDate(): Eisceacht: [" + e.ToString() + "].");
  }

Léirigh sé seo suas sa 12 hive thusly:

Earráid Conchango.xyzzyEventReceiver glacadóir luchtú agus a reáchtáil ócáid ​​i xyzzy, Leagan 1.0.0.0 =, Cultúr = neodrach, PublicKeyToken = blahblahblah. Additional information is below. : Dispatcher, UpdateEditionDate(): Eisceacht: [System.NullReferenceException: Cuspóir tagartha nach leagtar ar shampla de rud. at Conchango.xyzzyManagementEventReceiver.UpdateEditionDate(Airíonna SPItemEventProperties) at Conchango.xyzzyManagementEventReceiver.Dispatcher(Airíonna SPItemEventProperties, EventDescription Teaghrán)].

Sin a thug dom go léir na sonraí is gá dom a rianú síos ar an bhfadhb ar leith agus tá mé ag súil é a úsáid go leor ag dul ar aghaidh.

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Dé Domhnaigh greannmhar: “NACH AR ONNMHAIRÍ”

Ar ais timpeall 1998, the company I worked for at the time received some funding to create a new e-commerce product. We had the full gamut of business requirements to meet. It had to be fast, éasca le haghaidh úsáideoirí deiridh, flashy, il-teanga, etc. Sad to say, Mé dócha nach raibh mar shraith uaillmhianach oibre a chur i gcrích ó na laethanta heady.

This effort pre-dated Microsoft.NET. Plain vanilla ASP was still somewhat new (nó ar a laghad an-aithne ar mo chuideachta). "Brick and mortar" companies were doomed. Doomed! This is to say that it was pioneering work. Nach Hadron Collider obair cheannródaíoch, ach dúinn inár saol beag, bhí sé obair cheannródaíoch.

We were crazy busy. We were doing mini POC’s almost every day, figuring amach conas stáit a choimeád ar bun i meán go bunúsach gan stát, figuring amach saincheisteanna il-teanga, row-level security. We even had create a vocabulary to define basic terms (Is fearr liom stát-mharthanach ach ar chúis éigin, the awkward "statefull" Bhuaigh an lá).

Mar a bhí muid ag cumadh madly an táirge seo, the marketing and sales people were out there trying to sell it. Somehow, they managed to sell it to our nightmare scenario. Even though we were designing and implementing an enterprise solution, we really didn’t expect the first customer to use every last feature we built into the product day zero. This customer needed multi-language, a radically different user interface from the "standard" system but with the same business logic. Multi-language was especially hard in this case, mar gheall ar táimid dírithe i gcónaí ar Spáinnis nó Fraincis, ach sa chás seo, bhí sé Sínis (a bhfuil tacar carachtar double-beart agus láimhseáil speisialta ag teastáil mar gheall ar an teicneolaíocht a úsáid le linn).

Fast forward a few months and I’m on a Northwest airlines flight to Beijing. I’ve been so busy preparing for this trip that I have almost no idea what it’s like to go there. I had read a book once about how an American had been in China for several years and had learned the language. One day he was walking the city and asked some people for directions. The conversation went something this:

  • Mheiriceá: "Could you tell me how to get to [XX] tsráid?"
  • Sínis: "Sorry, we don’t speak English".
  • Mheiriceá: "Oh, maith liom labhairt Mandairínis." agus d'iarr sé orthu arís i Sínis, ach níos soiléire (mar is fearr a d'fhéadfadh sé).
  • Sínis: An-go múinte, "Sorry, we don’t speak English".

The conversation went on like that for bit and the American gave up in frustration. As he was leaving them he overheard one man speaking to the other, "I could have sworn he was asking for directions to [XX] sráide."

I had picked up a few bits and pieces of other China-related quasi-information and "helpful advice":

  • A Korean co-worked told me that the I needed to be careful of the Chinese because "they would try to get me drunk and take advantage of you" sa chiall pressuring mé isteach chinntí gnó dona.
  • Ní raibh cead againn chun gluaisteáin a thiomáint (bhí roinnt mearbhaill maidir le cibé an raibh sé seo saincheaptha, ceanglas dlíthiúil nó díreach riail an chliaint).
  • Bhí rialacha speisialta le haghaidh dul trí custaim.
  • Ní raibh cead againn úsáid a bhaint as airgead do rud ar bith Mheiriceá.
  • You’re not supposed to leave tips. It’s insulting if you do.

Agus ar deireadh, Bhí mé cuimhní cinn réasúnta úr an Tiananmen massacre. When I was at college, I remember seeing real-time Usenet postings as the world looked on in horror.

I mbeagán focal, I was very nervous. I wasn’t just normal-nervous in the sense that I was delivering a solution that was orders of magnitude more complicated than anything I had ever done before. I was also worried about accidentally breaking a rule that could get me in trouble.

Tá mé ar an 14 uair an chloig eitilte agus cé go raibh sé rang gnó, 14 Is é uaireanta ar feadh i bhfad damanta. Níl ach an oiread sin bealaí chun siamsaíocht a chur ar tú féin ag léamh, watching movies or playing with the magnetized cutlery. Even a really good book is hard to read for several hours straight.

Faoi dheireadh, Thosaigh mé a léamh ar an ábhar pacáistithe ar phíosa bogearraí a bhí mé lámh-iompar leis dom ar an gcliant, Netscape’s web server. I’m reading the hardware/software requirements, na blurbs margaíochta, ag féachaint ar an pictiúr deas agus go tobann, I zero in on the giant "NOT FOR EXPORT" rabhadh, rud éigin faoi 128 bit encryption. I stuffed the box back into my carry bag, rabhadh aghaidh síos- (amhail is dá mbeadh a chabhraigh) agus iarracht a físeanna de a choinneáil Oíche Express out of my head.

Looking back on it now, I should have been worried, más rud é ar chor ar bith, when I left the U.S., not when I was entering China 🙂 Nothing untoward happened and I still consider that to be the best and most memorable business trip I’ve had the pleasure of making.

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Réiteach: SPQuery Níl an Cuardaigh Fillteáin

This past week I was implementing an "evolving" solution for a client that uses BDC and SPQuery and ran into some difficulty using SPQuery against a document library containing folders. Bottom line: assign "recursive" leis an tréith bhfianaise an cheist.

Mo scéal:

  • Ar Dé Luain, Mé a uaslódáil doiciméad agus roinnt sonraí meta sholáthar.
  • An tseachtain seo a leanas, I upload a new document. Much of this new document’s meta data is based on the document I uploaded on Monday (which we call the "master document").
  • Cruthaithe againn ar aghaidh seirbhís gréasáin a sholáthraíonn comhéadan BDC-chairdiúil leis an liosta ionas gur féidir le húsáideoirí a aimsiú go héasca an doiciméad Dé Luain trí chuardach teidil.
  • A BDC data column provides a friendly user interface. (Tá sé seo mar chuid de mo iarracht ag baint úsáide as BDC ar feadh colún Lookup níos cairdiúla).

Úsáideann an aghaidh a BDC seirbhís deiridh ar cheist mar seo a dhéanamh ar an lookup:

 // Úsáidte uirlis U2U chun cabhrú ghiniúint an cheist CAML.
      oQuery.Query =
        "<I gcás>";

      más rud é (titleFilter.Length > 0)
        oQuery.Query   =
          "  <Agus>";

      oQuery.Query   =
        "    <Agus>" +
        "      <Geq>" +
        "        <FieldRef Name=\"DocumentId\" />" +
        "        <Value Type=\"Text\">" + MinID + "</Luach>" +
        "      </Geq>" +
        "      <Leq>" +
        "        <FieldRef Name=\"DocumentId\" />" +
        "        <Value Type=\"Text\">" + maxId + "</Luach>" +
        "      </Leq>" +
        "    </Agus>";

      más rud é (titleFilter.Length > 0)
        oQuery.Query   =
          "    <Tá>" +
          "      <FieldRef Name=\"Title\" />" +
          "      <Value Type=\"Text\">" + titleFilter + "</Luach>" +
          "    </Tá>" +
          "  </Agus>";
      oQuery.Query   =
        "</I gcás>";

Le linn an gcéad chéim na forbartha, this worked great. Mar sin féin, thugamar isteach fillteáin isteach an t-eolaire a réiteach roinnt fadhbanna agus go tobann, my BDC picker wouldn’t return any results. I tracked this down to the fact that the SPQuery would never return any results. We used folders primarily to allow multiple files with the same name to be uploaded but with different meta data. When the file is uploaded, a chruthú dúinn fillteán atá bunaithe ar an mír liosta ID agus ansin bogadh an comhad ann (Scríobh mé faoi sin anseo; tá muid go raibh torthaí measctha leis an gcur chuige seo, ach ar an iomlán, tá sé ag obair go maith). The user don’t care about folders and in fact, don’t really understand that there are any folders. We have configured all the views on the library to show items without regard to folders.

I hit this problem twice as the technical implementation evolved and solved it differently each time. The first time, I wasn’t using the CONTAINS operator in the query. Without a CONTAINS operator, I was able to solve the problem by specifying the view on the SPQuery’s contructor. Instead of using the default constructor:

SPList oList = web.Lists["Documents"];

SPQuery oQuery = nua SPQuery();

Úsáid mé ina ionad sin Cruthaitheoir atá sonraithe d'fhonn:

SPList oList = web.Lists["Documents"];

SPQuery oQuery = nua SPQuery(oList.Views["All Documents"]);

Sin réiteach ar an bhfadhb agus thosaigh mé a fháil ar mo torthaí.

I then added the CONTAINS operator into the mix and it broke again. It turns out that the CONTAINS operator, a mhéid is féidir liom a rá, nach bhfuil ag obair leis an dearcadh ar an mbealach céanna leis an a GEQ níos simplí / LEQ operators. I did some searching and learned that the query’s ViewAttributes should be set to "Recursive", mar atá i:

oQuery.ViewAttributes = "Scope=\"Recursive\"";

That solved the problem for CONTAINS. Go deimhin, seo a réiteach freisin mo fhadhb cuardaigh bunaidh agus dá mbeadh sonraithe mé an tréith recursive an chéad uair, Ní ba mhaith liom a bheith ar siúl ar an cheist arís.

Ar an bhfíric go n-oibríonn SPQuery dearcadh-bhunaithe le haghaidh roinnt oibreoirí (GEQ/LEQ) agus ní daoine eile (BhFUIL), chomh maith leis an bhfíric nach bhfuil KPI cosúil a bheith ag obair ar chor ar bith le leabharlanna doiciméad fillteán iontu mar thoradh ar dom chun a chreidiúint go bhfuil go SPQuery roinnt saincheisteanna orthogonality.

Go raibh maith agat Speisialta:

  • Na folks maith ag U2U agus a n-uirlis fhiosraithe.
  • Michael Hoffer ar mór "foghlama ag déanamh" blog post, tuairimí agus freagraí.

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MOSS TFB bug? Táscaire liosta Ceangailte le Leabharlann Doiciméad Le Fillteáin

Suas chun dáta 02/29/08: I solved this problem by creating a folder and then assigning a content type to the folder which has the meta data I need for the KPIs. Cur síos mé go bhealach níos mine beag anseo.

We have implemented a technical solution where users upload documents to a document library. An event receiver creates a directory and moves the file to that directory (ag baint úsáide as teicníc cosúil leis an méid a scríobh mé faoi anseo). We’ve successfully navigated around the potential issues caused by event receivers that rename uploaded files (mainly because users never start their document by clicking on "New" ach ina ionad sin a chruthú ar an docs go háitiúil agus ansin iad a uaslódáil).

The meta data for these documents includes a Yes/No site column called "Urgent" and another site column called "Status". We need to meet a business requirement that shows the percentage of "Urgent" documents whose status is "Pending".

Tá sé seo de ghnáth simplí a dhéanamh agus mé cur síos ar rud éigin go mór mar seo ag an Beagle SharePoint le go leor de shots scáileán má tá suim agat.

In a nutshell, Rinne mé an méid seo a leanas:

  • Create a view on the doc library called "Pending".
  • Cumraigh an dearcadh neamhaird a struchtúr fillteán.
  • Cruthaigh Liosta PTF.
  • Create an indicator in the list that points to the doc lib and that "Pending" féachaint ar.

This simply does not work. The KPI shows my target (e.g. Cúig cinn de dhoiciméid práinneach) but always shows the actual number of urgent documents as zero. Paradoxically, if you drill down to the details, it shows the five urgent documents in the list. I created a very simple scenario with two documents, one in a folder and one not. Here is the screen shot:

íomhá

The above screen shot clearly shows there are two documents in the view but the "value" is one. The "CamlSchema" with blank document Id is in the root folder and the other is in a folder named "84".

It appears to me that even though you specify a view, the KPI doesn’t honor the "show all items without folders" setting and instead, confines itself to the root folder.

If I’m wrong, please drop me a line or leave a comment.

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SPD Sreabhadh Oibre “Sonraí Ó Úsáideoir Bailigh”: Athraigh an Tasc Foirm Ghinte

I’m working on a project that uses five different SharePoint Designer work flows to handle some document approvals. SPD provides the "collect data from a user" gníomh ionas gur féidir linn a spreagfaidh an t-úsáideoir le haghaidh giotán éagsúla faisnéise, mar shampla, cé acu acu é a cheadú, roinnt tuairimí agus b'fhéidir a iarraidh ar cad a bhí siad don dinnéar an oíche eile.

The forms are perfectly functional. They are tied to a task list as a content type. Tá siad 100% system-generated. This is their strength and weakness. If we can live with the default form, then we’re good to go. Mar sin féin, we don’t have too much control over how SPD creates the form. If we don’t like that default behavior, ní mór dúinn dul i muinín cleasanna éagsúla a fháil timpeall air (mar shampla, tosaíocht leagan ar thasc).

Is gá dom a nasc ar na foirmeacha tasc a d'oscail suas an airíonna an amhairc a chur ar fáil (dispform.asxp) of the "related item" in a new window. This provides one-click access to the meta data of the related item. This is what I mean:

íomhá

Thankfully, we can do that and it’s not very hard. Broadly speaking, dóiteáin suas SPD, navigate to the directory that houses the workflow files and open the ASPX file you want to modify. These are just classic XSL transform instructions and if you’ve mucked about with itemstyle.xsl, cásanna XSL eile cuardaigh nó, this will be easy for you. Go deimhin, Fuair ​​mé é a bheith i gcoitinne níos éasca ós rud é go bhfuil an fhoirm a ghintear beagán níos éasca a leanúint i gcomparáid le croí-thorthaí páirt gréasáin chuardaigh (nó an CWQP nightmarish).

Ar ndóigh,, there is one major pitfall. SPD’s workflow editor expects full control over that file. If you modify it, SPD will happily overwrite your changes give the right set of circumstances. I did two quick tests to see how bad this could get. They both presuppose that you’ve crafted a valid SPD workflow that uses the "collect data from a user" céim.

Tástáil 1:

  • Athraigh an comhad ASPX de láimh.
  • Tástáil sé (fhíorú go raibh shábháil do chuid athruithe i gceart agus ní raibh rud ar bith a bhriseadh).
  • Oscail suas an sreabhadh oibre agus cuir ar ghníomhaíocht atá unrelated (such as "log to history").
  • Sábháil an sreabhadh oibre.

Toradh: Sa chás seo, Ní raibh SPD ath-chruthú ar an bhfoirm.

Tástáil 2:

  • An bhfuil an céanna mar #1 except directly modify the "collect data from a user" gníomh.

Toradh: Seo ar ath-Cruthaíonn an fhoirm ó scratch, ró-scríobh do chuid athruithe.

Nótaí Deiridh:

  • Ar a laghad dhá ghníomh SPD chruthú foirmeacha mar seo: "Collect Data From a User" and "Assign To Do Item". Both of these actions’ Is féidir foirmeacha a mhodhnú de láimh.
  • Bhí mé in ann a ghiniúint mo nasc chuig dispform.aspx mar gheall ar, sa chás seo, the relate item always has its ID embedded in the related item’s URL. I was able to extract it and then build an <a href> based on it to provide the one-click meta data access feature. It’s unlikely that your URL follows this rule. There may be other ways to get the ID of the related item but I have not had to cross that bridge, mar sin níl a fhios agam má thagann go dtí an taobh eile de chuid an chasm.
  • Ní raibh mé ag imscrúdú, ach ní ba mhaith liom a bheith ionadh más rud é go bhfuil roinnt de chineál comhaid teimpléad sa 12 hive go raibh mé in ann a mhodhnú go mbeadh tionchar acu conas a ghineann SPD na foirmeacha réamhshocraithe (i bhfad mar is féidir linn a mhodhnú teimpléid airdeall).

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An bhfuil “Earráid Anaithnid” Teachtaireachtaí Níos Fearr really Than a Trace Releases?

Bhí mé ag léamh blog post Madhur ar conas a ar chumas taispeántais rian chairn agus anois tá mé ag wondering: cén fáth nach bhfuil muid a thaispeáint i gcónaí a rian chairn?

Cé a tháinig suas leis an riail sin agus cén fáth go bhfuil muid ag leanúint?

End users will know something is wrong in either case. At least with a stack trace, is féidir iad a rialú brúigh-PrintScreen, copy/paste into an email and send it to IT. That would clearly reduce the time and effort required to solve the issue.

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Dé Domhnaigh (Embarrassing) Greannmhar: “Is é mo Ainm Paul Galvin”

A bunch de bhlianta ó shin, my boss asked me to train some users on a product called Results. Results is an end user reporting tool. It’s roughly analogous to SQL Server Reporting Service or Crystal. Ag an am, bhí sé deartha a reáchtáil ar feadáin glas (e.g. Wyse 50 críochfort) connected to a Unix box via telnet.

My default answer to any question that starts with "Can you … " is "Yes" and that’s where all the trouble started.

The client was a chemical company out in southern California and had just about wrapped up a major ERP implementation based on QAD’s MFG/PRO. The implementation plan now called for training power end users on the Results product.

I wasn’t a big user of this tool and had certainly never trained anyone before. Mar sin féin, Ndearna mé roinnt ranganna oiliúna eile agus bhí tapa ar mo chosa, so I was not too worried. Dennis, an fíor lánaimseartha Torthaí teagascóir, had given me his training material. Looking back on it now, it’s really quite absurd. I didn’t know the product well, had never been formally trained on it and had certainly never taught it. What business did I have training anyone on it?

Chun rudaí deacra logistically, I was asked to go and meet someone in Chicago as part of a pre-sales engagement along the way. The plan was to fly out of New Jersey, téigh go dtí Chicago, meet for an hour with prospect and then continue on to California.

Bhuel, I got to Chicago and the sales guy on my team had made some mistake and never confirmed the meeting. Mar sin,, I showed up and the prospect wasn’t there. Awesome. I pack up and leave and continue on to CA. Somewhere during this process, I find out that the client is learning less than 24 hours before my arrival that "Paul Galvin" is teaching the class, not Dennis. The client loves Dennis. They want to know "who is this Paul Galvin person?" "Why should we trust him?" "Why should we pay for him?" Dennis obviously didn’t subscribe to my "a thabhairt nuacht olc go luath" philosophy. Awesome.

I arrive at the airport and for some incredibly stupid reason, I had checked my luggage. I made it to LAX but my luggage did not. Maidir liom féin, bhfuil a chailliúint bagáiste a lán cosúil le dul tríd an seacht céimeanna de grief. Eventually I make it to the hotel, gan aon bhagáiste, tuirseach, ocras agus ag caitheamh mo (ag anois, an-crumpled) business suit. It takes a long time to travel from Newark — to O’Hare — le cliant — ar ais go dtí O'Hare — agus ar deireadh a LAX.

Bhfaighidh mé mé féin ar deireadh suí sa seomra óstán, munching ar bharra snickers, exhausted and trying to drum up the energy to scan through the training material again so that I won’t look like a complete ass in front of the class. This was a bit of a low point for me at the time.

Dhúisigh mé suas an lá dár gcionn, did my best to smooth out my suit so that I didn’t look like Willy Loman on a bad day and headed on over to the client. As is so often the case, go pearsanta go raibh sí go deas, polite and very pleasant. This stood in stark contrast to her extremely angry emails/voicemails from the previous day. She leads me about 3 miles through building after building to a sectioned off area in a giant chemical warehouse where we will conduct the class for the next three days. The 15 nó 20 assemble mic léinn go mall, most them still expecting Dennis.

Mé ag tosú i gcónaí as mo ranganna oiliúna a thabhairt isteach mé féin, giving some background and writing my contact information on the white board. As I’m saying, "Good morning, my name is Paul Galvin", Scríobh mé mo ainm, email and phone number up on the white board in big letters so that everyone can see it clearly. I address the fact that I’m replacing Dennis and I assure them that I am a suitable replacement, etc. I have everyone briefly tell me their name and what they want to achieve out of the class so that I can tailor things to their specific requirements as I go along. The usual stuff.

We wrap that up and fire up the projector. I go to erase my contact info and … I had written it in permanent marker. I was so embarrassed. In my mind’s eye, it looked like this: There is this "Paul Galvin" person, last minute replacement for our beloved Dennis. He’s wearing a crumpled up business suit and unshaven. He has just written his name huge letters on our white board in marcóir buan. What a sight!

Chríochnaigh sé go léir sona sásta, áfach,. This was a chemical company, tar éis an tsaoil. A grizzled veteran employee pulled something off the shelf and, is dócha de shárú ar rialacháin an EPA, cleared the board. I managed to stay 1/2 day ahead of the class throughout the course and they gave me a good review in the end. This cemented my "pinch hitter" reputation at my company. My luggage arrived the first day, mar sin bhí mé lá i bhfad níos mó presentable dhá agus trí.

Mar a bhí mé ag cur an tsúil dearg ar ais sa bhaile, I was contemplating "lessons learned". There was plenty to contemplate. Communication is key. Tell clients about changes in plan. Don’t ever check your luggage at the airport if you can possibly avoid it. Bring spare "stuff" in case you do check your luggage and it doens’t make it. I think the most important lesson I learned, áfach,, was this: always test a marker in the lower left-hand corner of a white board before writing, in huge letters, "Paul Galvin".

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Peirspictíochtaí: SharePoint vs. an Large Hadron Collider

Due to some oddball United Airlines flights I took in the mid 90’s, I somehow ended up with an offer to transform "unused miles" into about a dozen free magazine subscriptions. That is how I ended up subscribing to Scientific American magazine.

Mar bogearraí / dul i gcomhairle le daoine, we encounter many difficult business requirements in our career. Most the time, we love meeting those requirements and in fact, it’s probably why we think this career is the best in the world. I occasionally wonder just what in the world would I have done with myself if I had been born at any other time in history. How terrible would it be to miss out on the kinds of work I get to do now, at this time and place in world history? I mo thuairimse,: pretty terrible.

Over the years, some of the requirements I’ve faced have been extremely challenging to meet. Complex SharePoint stuff, building web processing frameworks based on non-web-friendly technology, complex BizTalk orchestrations and the like. We can all (hopefully) look proudly back on our career and say, "yeah, that was a hard one to solve, but in the end I pwned that sumbitch!" Níos fearr fós, even more interesting and fun challenges await.

I personally think that my resume, in this respect, is pretty deep and I’m pretty proud of it (though I know my wife will never understand 1/20th of it). But this week, I was reading an article about the Large Hadron Collider in my Scientific American magazine and had one of those rare humbling moments where I realized that despite my "giant" status in certain circles or how deep I think my well of experience, there are real giants in completely different worlds.

The people on the LHC team have some really thorny issues to manage. Consider the Moon. I don’t really think much about the Moon (though I’ve been very suspicious about it since I learned it’s slowing the Earth’s rotation, which can’t be a good thing for us Humans in the long term). Ach, the LHC team does have to worry. LHC’s measuring devices are so sensitive that they are affected by the Moon’s (Earth-rotation-slowing-and-eventually-killing-all-life) gravity. That’s a heck of a requirement to meet — produce correct measurements despite the Moon’s interference.

I was pondering that issue when I read this sentence: "The first level will receive and analyze data from only a subset of all the detector’s components, from which it can pick out promising events based on isolated factors such as whether an energetic muon was spotted flying out at a large angle from the beam axis." Really … ? I don’t play in that kind of sandbox and never will.

Next time I’m out with some friends, I’m going to raise a toast to the good people working on the LHC, hope they don’t successfully weigh the Higgs boson particle and curse the Moon. I suggest you do the same. It will be quite the toast 🙂

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