Philip Stears | DriveWorks

Interesting SQL Server Related Support Ticket

We had an interesting support ticket recently where a customer was having trouble logging into their SQL Server based DriveWorks Group - DriveWorks kept showing them a message along the lines of "The group could not be opened, this could be indicative of a problem with your system".

Ultimately we ended up in having to do a GoToMeeting with the customer to try and see what was actually going on, and as soon as we were shown the database in SQL Server the problem became very obvious:

Don't worry if it's not obvious to you, I'll do you a favour and tell you - you see that each of those tables begins with "db_owner", well that's not right at all, DriveWorks expects that its databases begin with "dbo".

It isn't normal to end up in this situation, but that said, it can happen if you configure SQL Server away from the defaults, and if it does happen you'll need to rename the tables back - this unfortunately requires a little more black magic than a lot of us IT folks are probably comfortable with, but luckily we've got a SQL 2005/2008 script that does it for you:

   1: -- Get all the tables in the database and their schemas

   2: DECLARE tableCursor CURSOR FOR 

   3:     SELECT t.name,s.name 

   4:     FROM sys.tables t 

   5:     JOIN sys.schemas s 

   6:     ON t.schema_id=s.schema_id

   7:     

   8: DECLARE @name nvarchar(MAX)

   9: DECLARE @schema nvarchar(MAX)

  10: DECLARE @fullName nvarchar(MAX)

  11:  

  12: -- Loop for each table

  13: OPEN tableCursor

  14: FETCH NEXT FROM tableCursor INTO @name,@schema

  15:  

  16: WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0

  17: BEGIN

  18:  

  19:     -- Work out the current full table name

  20:     SELECT @fullName= @schema + '.' + @name

  21:     

  22:     -- Change the schema to dbo

  23:     EXEC sp_changeobjectowner @fullName, 'dbo'

  24:     

  25:     -- Rinse and repeat

  26:     FETCH NEXT FROM tableCursor INTO @name,@schema

  27: END

  28:  

  29: -- Cleanup

  30: CLOSE tableCursor

  31: DEALLOCATE tableCursor

 

Whatever you do, make sure you are in the right database before you execute this script! and obviously this has been written as a quick and dirty script to perform a task, so we make no warranty of fitness for purpose and all that jazz - but hopefully if you do come across this problem, whether it be with DriveWorks or any other product, then this might help.

One thing I can't stress enough though, is that if you do decide to start messing around with a database, be it ours or any other application's, ALWAYS take a backup first, if you don't know how, then make sure you learn, because there's nothing worse than not having a backup, and call me an idiot, but unfortunately I know this from experience :-). Luckily only ever in demo environments, but still, take it from me, it isn't fun.

Philip

How I Got Started in Software Development

Thanks a lot Luke ^o), that's your Christmas card out of the window, anyhow, here' goes.

1. How old were you when you started programming?

Uhm, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure - my father was a bit of a computer enthusiast himself, so we always had a machine around that I played about with, but I guess I first got really interested in programming when I got my own 80286 which would have made me about 10ish.

2. How did you get started in programming?

I got two main starts really. Shortly after getting the aforementioned 286; I picked up a kids book containing a load of BASIC programs in it from a boot fair, unfortunately none of them were written in GW-BASIC so I had to do a lot of modifying to get them to work and I guess that in itself taught me a lot.

But the thing that really got me going was getting a copy of VB4 Standard Edition for my 12th (I think) birthday. That, a copy of "Visual Basic 4 for Windows for Dummies", and a lot of articles from computer magazines got me really fired up about development. There's just something about seeing a machine doing what you tell it to; that never quite gets dull - especially when said computer can be hundreds of miles away and you can bring robots into the mix. It's not a God complex though. Much. Anyway, moving swiftly on...

3. What was your first language?

GW-Basic, I've still got the floppys around here somewhere.

4. What was the first real program that you wrote?

A notepad clone- when I was about 13 I got bored at the lack of anything technological at school (at the risk of annoying a load of people, they used Acorns, and I was pretty much a PC guy), so my parents got me enrolled at the local college doing some Cambridge IT certificate module thingymabob, it was pretty good fun, although my work did get plagiarised which taught me a few lessons about life a little earlier than I might have wanted.

The program was written in VB3 which was alright, but lacking a load of functionality, so I got pretty heavily involved with calling into the Windows API from VB which I probably enjoyed a lot more then than I do now :-)

5. What languages have you used since you started programming?

Ouch, uhm, a few, the ones I use professionally at the moment are VB.NET, C#, and a little bit of C++ here and there, but I've used quite a few through academia and personal playing - MSIL, Old School VB, ASP, C, Pascal & Delphi, CAML, PHP, MASM & NASM Assembler to name some, I'm sure there are others, and I won't even bother trying to list dialects of BASIC.

6. What was your first programming gig?

I did some work experience with a SolidWorks Reseller called SolidBase when I was maybe 15, which basically involved a lot of spreadsheet to database conversion using VB6. Shortly after that I found myself working on DriveWorks 3, and I've ended up working for DriveWorks throughout the remainder of my education doing bits and pieces until last year or so ago when I finished University and came to work for DriveWorks full time where I now head up our development efforts.

7. If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?

Are you joking? If I knew then what I know now, then by now, I'd be writing even better code ;-)

8. If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?

Never stop playing - programming is a fun and enjoyable activity, the minute you forget that; you'll burn out. So make sure you make time to sit down with new technologies and fiddle.

 

Seeing as this is a meme, and I'll anger the Internet Gods if I don't continue it, I'm tagging Glen Smith, Jeff Read, Ben Hall, and Boris Shoov (I can but try ;-)) 

P.S. Can you believe that "thingymabob" isn't in Windows Live Writer's spell checker? for shame.

Reseller Training Event

We will be running both Level 1 and Level 2 technical training and certification over at SolidWorks' head quarters in Boston from September 15th, this is a great opportunity to spend some time out of the office picking up some invaluable skills and networking with other AEs from far and wide.

Level 1 will run September 15th to 17th, and Level 2 will run from September 18th to 19th.

If you're interested in attending, then please drop an e-mail to info@driveworks.co.uk.

I'll follow up with more information as soon as we've got all the final arrangements made.

Twitter

Okay, I admit it, I pretty much suck - my blogging career to date has been nothing short of tragic. It's not even as if there isn't stuff to write about, I mean, there's always stuff going on, it's just that I've got the blogging equivalent of attention deficit disorder. Every time I sit down and start thinking about writing a blog entry, my mind wanders and before I know it I'm writing code again.

So, after noticing that Ian had started twittering, I figured I'd give it a go, after all, being limited to typing 140 characters is right up my street, if anything it's 20 characters too few.

I've only been on it for a day and I've been pleasantly surprised so far, but I'm still trying to work out where it fits in. With any luck it'll hold my attention longer than bebo, facebook, blogging, linked in, and a tonne of others that I somehow seem to have got sucked in to, but Jeff's already expressed his doubts ;-)