I need to track state change of an object and fire rules based on output of previous rule output, the examples I got from google results all use, accumulate function to track state. These were in DRLs but I want to do the same with Excel rules table, can anyone provide example or links?
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Currently I have a pricerule that has only one action element to fetch a price from pricelist.
In order to achieve this pricerule I'm adding entries into required tables like
PRICERULE,
PRELEMENT,
PRELEMENTATTR
and other tables.
Now I need to add more conditions and branches to this pricerule in order to fit for the requirements(something like this).
But I found forming this pricerule by inserting entries directly into tables (as I did for simple pricerule) is quite complex. Because after forming the pricerule it has to be updated on weekly basis. Updates will be like changing the markup/markdown percentage or changing the start and end date of this markup etc.
So my question is:
Instead of directly updating the tables, is there any IBM WCS OOB functionality to achieve this?
For PowerApps, what data source, other than SharePoint lists are accessible via Powershell?
There are actually two issues that I am dealing with. The first is dynamic updating and the second is the 500 item limit that SharePoint lists are subject to.
I need to dynamically update my data source, which I am currently doing with PowerShell. My data source is not static and updating records by hand is time-consuming and error prone. The driving force behind my question is that the SharePoint list view threshold is 5,000 records however you are limited to 500 visible and searchable records when using SharePoint lists in the Gallery View and my data source contains greater than 500 but less than 1000 records. If you have any items beyond the 500th record that should match the filter criteria, they will not be found. So SharePoint lists are not optional for me until that limitation is remediated
Reference: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/function-filter-lookup/
To your first question, Powershell can be used for almost anything on the Microsoft stack. You could use SQL server, Dynamics 365, SP, Azure, and in the future there will be an SDK for the Common Data Service. There are a lot of connectors, and Powershell can work with a good majority of them.
Take note that working with these data structures through Powershell is independent from Powerapps. Powerapps just takes the data that the data connector gives it, and if you have something updating the data in the background (Powershell, cron job, etc.), In order to get a dynamic list of items, you can use a Timer control and a Refresh function on your data source to update the list every ~5-20 seconds.
To your second question about SharePoint, there is an article that came out around the time you asked this regarding working with large lists. I wouldn't say it completely solves your question, but this article seems to state using the "Filter" function on basic column types would possibly work for you:
...if you’d like to filter the set of items that you are showing in the gallery control, you will make use of a “Filter” expression, rather than the “Search” expression, which is the default that existing apps used. With our changes, SharePoint connector now supports “equals” type of queries on columns that support filtering (Single line of text, choice, numbers, dates and people), so make sure that the columns and the expressions you use are supported and watch for the same warning to avoid reverting back to the top 500 items.
It also notes that if you want to pull from a list larger than the 5k threshold, you would need to use indexes, I have not fully tested this yet but it seems that this could potentially solve your problem.
So I've started learning access due to necessity, as the person who was in charge of it passed way and someone had to keep it going.
I noticed a very bad (at least IMO) behavior in all databases he created: Every single form was bound directly to a table or saved query. This way, if the user opened a form, he had to complete all the steps he was supposed to do, because if he closed the form mid process (or the computer froze, or anything of the sort), the actual data would be compromised as it would be half complete. This often times broke everything in the process chain, rendering sub-sequential steps impossible to be performed and forced me to correct data manually directly in the tables.
As I've start upgrading his stuff and developing my own, I've been trying to learn ways to allow the data to be edited in the form only, making it possible to cancel the process anytime or save the changes all at once in the end.
If the editions were simple, I discovered that I could create a recordset, copy relevant data to unbound fields in the form and, in the end, if the user chose to, copy the data from the form fields back to the recordset.
Other times more complex solutions were required, as I would need to edit several pieces of data at once in continuous forms, "save" them, run more code, maybe add fields to hold the information originated from that processing and so on. I then learned about using temporary tables, but did not like it, since it tended to bloat the db. I even went on to creating temporary databases during code execution that would host the temporary tables and be destroyed in the end, but that added too much unnecessary complexity.
Nowadays I'm using disconnected ADO recordsets to hold the temporary data and fields. It works but has its limitations.
So I'm wondering, what is the best way you - much more experienced than me - guys use to approach this kind of scenario? Is using in memory ADO recordsets really the best way around?
I think you are mixing two things that a form does that have completely different requirements. Editing existing records (and bound forms are great for that) and creating new records (where using a straight bound form can result in creating incomplete records). The way to approach it depends on many things but mainly to how much data is necessary for a new record to be considered "complete".
I usually do one of the following things:
Create an unbound popup modal form for adding new records where only the necessary fields are present. Once complete it loads the new record to the main form for further editing.
Use the above method except the form is not a popup one but a set of unbound fields in the footer or header of the main form.
Let the user create new records but bind validation on the OnClose (and/or other appropriate to your situation) event of the form that deletes the half-filled record if it does not validate.
Let users create new records in the bound form but have a 'cleanup' routine called either on a schedule or based on user actions.
Ultimately if your business process requires the majority of fields to be manually added/edited every time a new record is added or edited, you are better off using an unbound form.
This way, if the user opened a form, he had to complete all the steps
he was supposed to do, because if he closed the form mid process (or
the computer froze, or anything of the sort), the actual data would be
compromised as it would be half complete
No, if the computer freezes, then no data is saved to the table. This is the same if you used a disconnected reocrdset and a un-bound form.
If you use the before update event in the form that has some verification code and does a simple cancel = true, then the forms data is not saved nor is the table updated. Again, if you used a dis-connected record set and the user closes the form, you have to test the data – and again you can either choose to write out the data or not – this effect is ZERO difference from using a bound form to a table or a disconnected form.
If the editions were simple, I discovered that I could create a
recordset, copy relevant data to unbound fields in the form and, in
the end, if the user chose to, copy the data from the form fields back
to the recordset.
No you don’t need to do the above. The above achieves nothing and only racks up additional development hours and increases cost of the application. In near all cases in-bound forms increase development costs over that of a simple form bound to a table. So the original developer had the correct idea. You can control the update of the underlying table in near all cases to achieve the required verification. Forms only save and write the data out if the developer allows as such.
So Access forms when bound no more or less write incomplete data out to a table if you place verification code in the forms before update event. A half-filled bound form, or a half filled un-bound form with dis-connected reocrdset BOTH will not write their data if the computer freezes.
And BOTH types of forms will not write out data to table until such time your verification code has completed.
Access is not designed for un-bound forms, and tools like vb.net, or even VB6 had a whole bunch of cool wizards and support for un-bound forms. In access, we don't have those wizards. And when you use UN-bound forms then you loose tons of form events. You in effect get the worst of both worlds, since you lose use of form events and have no wizards or support for un-bound. Even just the several delete record events we have are rather amazing.
You lose use of me.dirty, on-insert, me.newReocrd, forms after update events - the list of features you toss out and lose is huge. And if you want a button to write data to the table (such as a save button on the form), then just go:
If me.Dirty = True then
me.Dirty = False ' this forces your verification code to run
End if
There are FEW use cases in which in-bound forms will benefit you, but they will cost you rather much in terms of development times.
I have a nice process overview for our ordering process in Visio. I have an external data source (SQL Server), which works fine. Every record in my data source represents one ordering process. Currently all my shapes of the process are linked to the first record of the data source.
Now I want to add a dynamic behavior. What I want to achieve is this:
A user provides the order reference in a textbox (order reference is a column in the data source)
Afterwards the user clicks a button
After the button click, the process is updated and all shapes are now linked to the external data source record, that matches the provided order reference
So in short: the user should be able to select which process that needs to be visualized.
I assume that this is common functionality, but I don't see how I can deal with this requirement. I've searched already some days on this issue, but without any success.
Can you help me with this issue?
Thanks a lot!
Problem solved :-)
Some old school VBA was required. Using the DataRecordSet object did the trick. It contains a method GetDataRowIDs that you can use to query the external dataset. Once you have the record to visualize, it's just a matter of dynamically updating the shapes with the correct record. Use macro recording to see how to do this.
MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ms195694(v=office.12).aspx
I'm trying understand CQRS to see if it can help out in an reporting environment.
Problem: An CQRS designed system is already in production, happily generating commands, events and updating the necessary query views. A new report is required. This report takes a number of parameters; Start Date, End Date, Product Type, and Product Category.
How do I generate the aggregate views for:
A query store that will initially be empty
And, can pass parameters with very different values
Do I try and solve this using a CQRS approach, or is there a better alternative?
Thanks
If it is not reasonable to precompute all your report data into flat view, then just don't do that. You may want to join a bunch of tables for your report. It's your decision what can be precomputed, and what is not worth it (cpu, storage considerations).
In your particular case (StartDate, EndDate,..) - i can't see what is the problem to generate a single ViewModel table for it, and just query directly against the parameters.
Figure out which events are required to gather all report data.
Query all those events, republish them to the endpoint that handles updating the new report table(s).
Wait until all events have been processed.
Put some indexes on the columns that will function as report query criteria.
Done!