I need to iterate through infopath templates (xsn files) and change the URL of data connections, and then save the changes to the templates.
The data connections I want to change, points to lists in a sharepoint environment.
So, how could I accomplish this task?
I was thinking doing this with a console application.
Infopath definitely doesn't make it easy to deploy to different servers. I have used a powershell script but you can use any console app or scripting language.
Steps to follow:
1. Extract the files from the XSN (either use extrac32 util from MS or rename to zip and use any zip library)
2. Change the data connection (string replace) in manifest.xsf, template.xml, and sampledata.xml
3. Repackage the files into the XSN (either use cabarc util from MS or zip and rename)
It is a pain to have to do all that but the entire script is less than a page long and runs pretty fast. One caveat I ran into was I needed a delay between steps 1 and 2 - the files weren't actually finished extracting and my script was trying to change them.
Related
I am writing a PLSQL procedure that takes input as an excel file through front end and using that excel input the procedure inserts , updates or deletes the records present in an existing table . Can anyone show me the approach for this?
If that "Excel" file has to be really in native XLS(X) format, a simple option - if you want to stay within Oracle boundaries - is an Apex application which offers a data loading wizard. Takes 4 pages to create it (don't worry, Apex Wizard creates almost everything for you). Once the loading is over, a (stored) procedure can do the rest of processing (you'd call it by pushing a button).
Alternatively, if you save contents of that file as a CSV file, you can load it with SQL*Loader, utility ran at the operating system command prompt. You'd have to create a control file (no wizard to do that, I'm afraid). This approach probably isn't convenient for end users (who's going to type anything at the command prompt?) so you'd have to create some kind of an application to do that.
Or, CSV again, but this time used as an external table. This approach requires the file to be located in a directory accessible by the database server (most frequently, the directory is located on that computer, and you most frequently don't want to allow access to anyone to it). Its advantage is that you can access the CSV file directly from (PL/)SQL, fetch data from it, perform various adjustments etc.
If you're capable of writing programs that aren't part of the Oracle niche (I'm not), go for it (but I can't suggest anything; someone else might).
I'm building an application that takes as an input data stored in an Excel sheet. I want the user to be able to select the file they want to load data from, have the application connect to and read from the Excel file stored on the client's machine, and close the connection. Can I do this without uploading the Excel file to the server? I'm able to do everything except for selecting the file using a filedialog box and passing the path & file name to the procedure that connects to the Excel file and processes. I've tried using the file input control but I'm unable to pass the path & file name to the connection string. Any suggestions as to what other routes I might take?
EDIT:
The application essentially takes user input, either via single inputs into textboxes on the page or a bulk upload via an Excel spreadsheet, processes the inputs and spits out a report in Excel format. The only thing displayed on the page are the loaded inputs (via the 2 methods just described) in a listbox that the user can either add or remove additional items.
The short answer is "Only with an ActiveX control in IE unless you write your own plugin for another browser." My opinion is, "you shouldn't."
There is a good discussion already on Stack Overflow: How to read an excel file contents on client side?
The long answer, given the rest of the information you have provided, is that I would recommend the following:
1) Upload the spreadsheet to the server.
2) Extract the data on the server.
3) Return the data to the client in whatever form suits your situation.
4) Clean the original file on the server.
Some further recommendations for you, since you provided so much detail in your comments:
Rather than using a GUID to generate your server-side filename, use a timestamp in the format YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS-Ticks followed by the original filename.
Instead of deleting the data files immediately, each time you add a file, remove any files older than N days.
This way if you have any issues processing your files in the future, you'll be able to retrieve the uploaded file to your development environment and debug it there. Assuming the data isn't personal information or sensitive in some other way, of course.
Cheers!
I have a website on which I have published several of my applications.
Right now I have to update it each time one of the applications is updated.
The applications themselves check for updates so the user only visits the website if they don't have a previous version installed.
I would like to make it easier for me by creating a single executable that when downloaded and executed, will check with the database which version is the most recent and then download that one and run that setup.
Now I can make a downloader for each application, but I rather make something more universal with a parameter or argument as the difference.
For the download the 'know' which database to check for the most recent version, I need to pass on the data to the downloader.
My first thought was putting that in a XML file, so I only have to generate different xml files for each application, but then it wouldn't be a single executable anymore.
My second thought was using commandline arguments like: downloader.exe databasename
But how would I do that when the file is downloaded?
Would a link like: "https://my.website.com/downloader.exe databasename" work?
How could I best do this?
rg.
Eric
I have heard lots of strategies for deploying asp.net applications, but am not quite sure which strategy is best for my needs.
I have an asp.net 4 application. I have separate development/staging/production environments (different web.configs). I also need to manage sql server changes. It is possible that I may have more than 1 DB server and more than 1 app server to push changes to. Ideally, I would like to hit a button and say "deploy to staging" or "deploy to production" and it brings deploys code/db/config files to the correct servers. Ideally, I'd like there to be some process to rollback in case of a bad release as well.
I have heard xcopy/robocopy strategies, MSDeploy (now called Web Deploy?) strategies, and building MSI packages to deploy.
Which of these seems like the best fit for this type of need?
Method #1
If you have some time to spend, I suggest using CruiseControl.NET. For a while at least, the stackoverflow team used this for deployments.
Method #2
As far as copy strategies go, I recommend using a combination of 7zip and ftp for application and media. 7Zip is nice, as it allows you to exclude file types (web.config), folders, and file types, and allows you to compress different files differently. Example, there is no point in compressing a PNG. Note, this does a full deployment every time. So, if you have large media folders, I'd handle them separately.
As for the database, I believe you will have the best of luck using SQL Compare by Redgate. They are commercial applications, but they are very, very good. They've been positively mentioned multiple times on the stackoverflow podcasts.
Build a CMD file on the development/build server that generates the master 7zip file and FTP's it to a dedicated folder on the staging (or production) server. I end up with multiple calls to 7zip feeding files into a single 7zip file, using different compression methods for each batch.
Build a CMD file for each staging or production server. This file will execute proper file backups, and extract the 7zip file to the proper location.
A deployment to staging will go like this:
Execute your 7zip-prep command file which will trigger FTP upload to a dedicated FTP folder on the staging server
Execute DB changes against the staging database server via scripts generated by SQL Compare
Execute 7zip extraction command file on the staging server
This is the method that I use. I have not invested the time to master CruiseControl.NET, but when I do I will probably use it instead, at least for larger applications. It's not a one-click deployment, but it allows for multiple efficient deployments per day (as I've been doing off and on for few years now). The 7zip method is nice, because once you have your command files, you can copy them and use them for new projects very quickly.
I have a .jpg file which represents the current image from a webcam. User's will be downloading this file at an interval of once a second. Because there could be dozens of users reading it, this could be dozens of times a second (which is normal for any web server).
Problem is, this image is updated by a 3rd party application also once a second which "spiders" my local networks webcam portal image. This is so we can build our webcams into our current administration panel.
The problem I am already finding is ASP.net sometimes gets an error it can not access the file because it is open for write permissions by the bot. Likewise, the bot can not access it because IIS is feeding it to the user.
The bot uses io.streamwriter to save the data to the file, and my script uses Response.WriteFile to send the file to the script. (I need to use an actual ASP.net page with a JPG content-type that feeds the file to make sure only users with a active session can view the JPG).
My question is what is the best practices for this? I know why it's happening but what is the best resolution for this? Would storing as a BLOB in a database maybe be smarter since databases are created for concurrent read/writing already? Is there an easier way of doing this with a file I have not thought of yet?
Thanks in advance,
Anthony Greco
Using a BLOB will work if the readers use SNAPSHOT isolation model (SQL Server 2005 and up). See Download and Upload images from SQL Server via ASP.Net MVC for how to stream an image from a BLOB, and see Understanding Row Versioning-Based Isolation Levels for a lecture on SNAPSHOT.
But using a BLOB may be overkill, you could get away with something much simpler. For instance, if you only have one ASP.Net process, then you could have a global volatile variable for the current file name. The writer writes the JPG into a new file, and then updates the global 'current' file name with an Interlocked.CompareExchange operation (it has to be Compare because a newer writer might actually finish faster, outrun a previous writer, and you want to preserve the latest update). There are still some issues left to solve (find out the file name at startup, clean up old files etc) but they are all fairly ease to solve.
If you have a farm of servers, or multiple ASP.Net processes serving the site, then things could get complicated. I would still do a rotating file name and do a try-and-error approach (try to respond with newest file, fall back to previous older one if conflict is detected).
You could get the bot to write the data to a different filename and then do a delete and rename to the filename being served by ASP.Net. This should reduce the file lock time down to the time for a delete and rename to occur. To clarify:
ASP.Net serving image from "webcam.jpg"
bot writes image data to "temp.jpg"
when last image byte written, bot deletes "webcam.jpg" and renames "temp.jpg" to "webcam.jpg"
ASP.Net should check "webcam.jpg" exists, if not wait 10ms (or suitable small increment) and check again.