I came across a PeopleSoft posting written by Rob’s PeopleSoft Blog and could not help but to post it on my blog. It is such a neat trick and I’m sure will come handy in many occasions.

How often do you see your users running queries and then writing down values that are returned by the query so that they can then navigate to the appropriate page and view the underlying details of those vouchers, journals, vendors, etc.? Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just click on a hyperlink embedded within the query results and have the page pop up in a separate browser window instead?

I attended a session at Oracle OpenWorld at which a consultant demonstrated how hyperlinks can be used in PS Query to drill down to individual values that are returned by a query. There wasn’t a lot of detail given on how to do this, but once I got home I decided to give it a shot, and within an hour I had it working. This is one of the coolest features I’ve ever seen in PS Query, and I’m sure your users will love it.

Apart from adding more memory or processing power to your personal computer, there are several steps you can take to speed up your sluggish computer.

Clear your browsers history.  This is done differently in different browsers, but you will usually find it under Tools in your browsers menu.  Clearing this not only will make your computer safer, it will make it faster.

Do a disk cleanup.  To do this in Windows, click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. This may be a long process so you need to possibly set this up during a time when you have got other things going on. For instance, set it up, and then go watch your favorite TV show, or go mow the lawn, or go workout.

Do a disk defragment.  You will see that option in the Disk Clean Up window.  This does not have to be done often, but depending on your computer use, once a month is usually fine.
Once that is done, it’s time to run a malware/spyware scan. Most people do not realize how easy it is to become infected with malware or spyware, so running continual scans is strongly recommended. This should be done at least on a weekly basis.

Now it’s time for the Virus scan.  Most people have virus software but if you don’t I highly suggest you get one as quickly as possible. This scan could take anywhere from twenty minutes to a couple of hours dependent on how many files you have on your hard drive so once again, set it, and then go do something else.

Now restart your computer and you will be surprised at how much faster it now runs. By doing these actions above, you will keep your computer performing like it probably did when you first got it, and you may help avoid costly repair bills.

Technorati Tags: computer performance, more computer speed

Syntax

%EffDtCheck(recordname [correlation_id1], correlation_id2, as_of_date)

The %EffDtCheck construct expands into an effective date subquery suitable for a Where clause.

recordname: Specify the record name to use as the record in the effective-date checking. This can be bind variable, a record object, or a record name in the form recname.
correlation_id1: (Optional) Specify the letter used inside the effective-dating subselect. If this parameter isn’t specified, recordname is used.
correlation_id2: Specify the letter already assigned to the main record in the From clause of the SQL statement.
as_of_date: Specify the date to use in the effective date. This can be a bind variable, a variable, or a hard-coded date. The value for as_of_date is automatically wrapped in%DateIn unless as_of_date is already wrapped in %DateIn or refers to other database columns.

I felt that having upgrade compare reports produced in CSV or HTML format was a greatest help to the entire team. It will be very easy keep track of decision made for each and every object and possibly put some comments about the upgrade action taken.

You need tweak the regedit setting on the PC where you run the compare report in the following way.

1. Click on Start Menu – > Run
2. Type Regedit

3. Click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER

4. Click on Software

5. Click on PeopleSoft – > PeopleTools -> Release8.40

6. Click on PSIDE

7. Right Click on PSIDE and Select New DWORD value and create the following DWORD values.
UpgHtmlOutput – for HTML output
UpgTextOutput – for tab delimited text
UpgCsvOutput – for comma delimited CSV output

8. Double click on the DWORD and Set each value to 1 that you want to create reports for. To turn off, set value to 0, or delete the entry.

9. Now run the compare reports and you will have your compare reports in HTML , CSV or Text format files in the same directory as it was for PRT files.

Sometimes you would like to have an article stays on the top of your Joomla home page at all times. Joomla however doesn’t really provide a way of doing that. Sure when you first create an article, it will be on the very top of your home page. But try creating more articles and see what happens, your article will be pushed down and replaced by the newly created ones.

Fortunately, there is an easy way of preventing that from happening. So, lets get straight to it.

After your have created the article you would like to make sticky on your front page. Navigate to your Front Page Manager, locate the your article and in the “Order” column enter “-1″ and click save. (see picture below)

It can’t get any easier, can it?

Technorati Tags: stick article joomla

Why is my computer running slow? Why does it take forever to start up or open programs or browse web pages? These are questions we hear constantly from users.

Thankfully help is at hand. Below are some simple yet effective computer maintenance tasks that can help improve the performance of your computer.

And ALL the tools are FREE.

• Is your PC clean inside? Dust can build up on the fans etc resulting in bad airflow which in turn can cause the PC to overheat. An overheating PC can cause all sorts of problems such random reboots, screen freezes etc. Use a can of canned air to remove the dust. For temperature monitoring there are a number of good freeware programs that can identify the temperature of your fans, processor, hard drives etc.

Check out: Core Temp or Speed Fan or Everest

• Your computer’s power supply unit (PSU) powers all the components in your PC. The more components you add the more power it needs. Should your PSU be failing or lacking in power then computer performance can be degraded causing all sorts of strange problems. An easy way to check if your PSU is not supplying enough power is by downloading SpeedFan.

Once downloaded and installed, open up SpeedFan and look at the voltages on the bottom left of the Readings tab. Look at the +3.3v, +5v and +12v inputs at the bottom left. Your voltages should be within + or - 5% of these. If they are not then test the system with a new / known to work PSU.

• Having more than one real anti-virus scanner and or malware / spyware program may seem like a good idea and provide you with extra layers of security. However having more than one real time scanner can actually degrade performance as each scanner in turn checks files. We advise that one real time anti-virus and one real time malware / adware / spyware scanner be installed on any system.

• Clean out your temp files. As time goes by your computer builds up temporary files from installing programs, browsing the internet etc. These can really slow down your PC and make anti-virus / malware scans take a lot longer. You can do this manually by closing all programs and type %temp% then Enter in to the Run box. A list of files / folders will appear. To select them all press Ctrl+A then press the Delete key.

Remember to empty the Recycle Bin. Or use a program such as TFC

• Uninstall any old, demo or not required / used programs. Use either the uninstaller that comes with the program or Add / Remove from the Control Panel. DO NOT just delete the program shortcut or the folder in \Program Files.

• Reduce the number of programs that autorun on startup. Do you really need PowerDVD to run on startup? DO NOT use msconfig to permanently disable start up items as this is meant for troubleshooting purposes only. Use StartUp Lite or Autoruns instead.

• Does your computer have enough memory? More is definately always better and please don’t confuse RAM memory with hard disk space. Right click My Computer and select Properties to find out how much RAM you have. As a basic rule we recommend atleast 512 MB for XP and 1 GB for Vista. You can check the correct memory upgrade for your computer using Crucial scan my system tool or CPUID

• Is your hard drive nearly full. Go to My Computer and right click your C: drive and select properties. A dialogue box with a pie chart will appear showing you both used and free space among other hard drive tools.

• Defrag your hard disk using these with freeware programs such as:

DIRMS & Buzzsaw or MyDefrag

• Check your hard drive’s health using diagnostic tools supplied by the manufacturer. Seagate / Maxtor. Western Digital. Fujitsu. Hitachi. Samsung.

• Check your hard disk for errors. For XP go here. For Vista go here.

• Check your swap file size. This should be atleast the size of the amount of RAM installed in your PC but not more than 4GB and you must have the available space on your hard drive. 98 / XP guide.

• Check your System Files for errors using sfc / scannow. For an XP guide go here. For Vista go here.

• Stop all unnecessary services being careful to retain the required ones. XP guide here. Vista guide here.

• Scan for viruses / malware using AVG.. The Best Free Antivirus Online.

• Update all your drivers

• Keep up to date with Windows Update by turning ON Automatic Updates.

XP guide. Vista guide.

• Once done, create a new System Restore point and get rid of ALL old, possibly infected ones. XP guide here. Vista guide here. Following these steps will help you maintain a healthy system.

Technorati Tags: make computer faster, speed up computer

One of the requirements I have lately is to compare table data between two different environments (Development and Test).
The Oracle SQL below compares table1 that has 2 key fields and 3 regular fields.

Note: For the SQL below to work, your password needs to be the same in both environments. If not, then
a connection using the below will not be possible.

FROM table1 tst, table1@dev_database dev

– Compare data from the same table in two different environments
SELECT   tst.fieldkey1, tst.fieldkey2,
         (CASE tst.field1
             WHEN stg.field1
                THEN ‘Match’
             ELSE    ‘field1 in DEV is ‘
                  || dev.field1
                  || ‘. field1 in TEST is ‘
                  || tst.field1
          END
         ) AS field1,
         (CASE tst.field2
             WHEN dev.field2
                THEN ‘Match’
             ELSE    ‘field2 in DEV is ‘
                  || dev.field2
                  || ‘.  field2 in TEST is ‘
                  || tst.field2
          END
         ) AS field2,
         (CASE tst.field3
             WHEN dev.field3
                THEN ‘Match’
             ELSE    ‘field3 in DEV is ‘
                  || dev.field3
                  || ‘.  field3 in TEST is ‘
                  || tst.field3
          END
         ) AS field3
    FROM table1 tst, table1@dev_database dev
   WHERE tst.fieldkey1 = dev.fieldkey1
     AND tst.fieldkey2 = dev.fieldkey2
     AND (   tst.field1 <> dev.field1
          OR tst.field2 <> dev.field2
          OR tst.field3 <> dev.field3
         )
ORDER BY tst.fieldkey1, tst.fieldkey2;