View Full Version : Things I would like to see
Data Wrangler
03-24-2007, 06:40 AM
Hey-
It would be nice to have two things...
A FAQ/Wiki type of thing to collect all of the different threads on various things we do in Autoplant, and
It would be nice to have a software 'toolbox' of routines gathered together so that everyone has some tools to do common things in Autoplant. I can think of some things I would like to see, as well as contribute.
Derek
Me too Derek. We should all collaborate on a project to organize some of the data that's in these threads.
As far as the toolbox goes, I have a couple I could contribute. I think the main concern there is that some of those tools are considered proprietary information. Thus they are treated as such. If we all broke out of the mold a little and posted 1 or 2 each (except for PeterJ who would have to post his whole "bag of tricks" B) ) that would be pretty handy. Thanks for planting the seed Derek, lets do it.
I have developed a handy little utility for our instrumentation guys. Is some VBA that runs inside the excel datasheets. When a cell changes value between times opening the datasheet, the cell that changes is marked with a red backgroud and a dialog box pops up and says - "QUIT F*CKNIG UP MY DATABASE!"...
...no wait...it says "(number) cells have changed since this datasheet was last opened"
I will post it if someone else will post one of thiers.
No one likes my datasheet idea? or is that just rediculously basic?
Data Wrangler
03-26-2007, 09:50 PM
It sounds like a good thing... I'm concentrating on the P&ID part of the software right now... I've got a colleague working with the engineers and the data-sheets. He would be more interested.
Derek
Data Wrangler
03-26-2007, 10:11 PM
What I have done with my VBA code is to put it all in a .mdb file that i use outside of the project databases. This way I can hook up to any of them via linking and use the same code and queries on all of them. I do a lot of editing in this setup (more than in Datamamager, I'm sorry to say) because I can slice and dice the data any manner of ways to find common patterns and discrepancies. Filtering, and doing search and replaces is really quick if you have the right setup.
There are several different ways to run code that has an effect on Autoplant. For manipulating the P&ID graphics, or adding stuff to P&ID, the lisp files would be the way to go. For wholesale database manipulation, Access VBA code. For Datasheet customization, Excel VBA, etc.
If we want to create a common toolbox of code, I would recommend some categorisation so we can figure out how everything fits together. For a wiki, maybe we should look into getting something like this (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki).
I am not trying to avoid your wiki question. It's a great idea and I was looking into it with the media wiki software before you posted actually. My research showed me that there is some work to do in the mySQL database and sadly I just don't have time for it right now. I was also thinking of some sort of XML generated dashboard but same story there and in addition I would have to polish up on my XML...
any ideas?
Data Wrangler
04-06-2007, 07:37 AM
I'm not sure what you mean by "XML Dashboard"...
Derek
hey Derek, I just meant using XML to extract the data in the database and display it in a web page.
Data Wrangler
04-06-2007, 09:15 AM
Oh, okay.
I have done some html generation from access - creating a series of static web pages from the database. It makes it easier for multiple people to get to the information, and everyone has a browser...
XML is more structured, but it shouldn't be too different.
Derek
I have done some html generation from access - creating a series of static web pages from the database.
You mean setting up DAP's or from coding from scratch? It would be nice if the data was searchable. A big problem is that .php generated pages aren't so search engine friendly. For example when google query's the site and try's to index, it sees http://www.davetyner.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=2754
and says...f* that
It wants to see www.davetyner.com/autoplant/how (http://www.davetyner.com/autoplant/how) do I insert a reducer.html
In any case, there are some folks that have gotten the wiki's to work with thier php forums. I will continue look into this now that I have some free time and help increase the value of the site to us users.
Data Wrangler
04-06-2007, 10:26 AM
I didn't use DAPs because I wanted more control over the formatting - I basically coded the html code into a report or two and saved off the resultant reports to a .htm file. There was no need for real-time access - I batched generated the pages once a week or so... It was for project reports for our internal intranet.
As far as what you are planning- I don't know much about how the bulletinboard database is stored. Do you have an example?
Derek
The database is a mySQL database. You interface with it much like you would SQL. It's open source software so obviously there are certain limitations to it. Yesterday, I was able to export the user, post, and thread table to excel, import the spreadsheet to access tables, make the relationships, develop a query, and print a report. It's the long way around but I think through some sort of automation and .asp form development, we could have an .asp web page that could allow the user to filter the forum database to find exactly what they need. Innntteerresting....
I agree with you on the DAPs, I didn't like the formatting either. Did you know that M$oft has done away with DAPs in Access 2007?
Still thinking about the toolbox thing. Anyone interested in contributing to it?
grinch2000cs
06-11-2008, 12:32 PM
About your XML thing, i might be able to help soon. Just started learning XML recently. When i find some time i can send you a few things. Maybe even be able to code. Just depends on work load, school load, and family load.
g2000cs
awesome grinch thanks. That's a lot of loads man!
grinch2000cs
06-11-2008, 12:52 PM
tell me about it. I am going bald and what hair i have is turning grey.
LOL
grinch2000cs
07-01-2008, 07:33 AM
Hey since you have started adding additional software sections to the site, what about COADE's CAESAR II. I don't know about anyone else but we are having problems with the PCF files going into CAESAR. I have even spotted bugs and have reported them. This way if anyone is having issues with pipe stress analysis they can come here.
Just a thought, what do you all think?
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.1.7 Copyright © 2012 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.