Thursday, March 28, 2019

Crystal Reports file versioning with... SharePoint?

Problem: You need to share Crystal Report files with your team and all you use is a Windows network folder, which might even be a mapped drive. No matter how easy Windows folders are, they're a great idea that few people like to use. The preferred way to share files continues to be an e-mail attachment. Even with all the unintended hiccups such as the missing attachment, or knowing which file is really the latest one, or having to unzip a bunch of files, people still gravitate toward that because it seems quicker. I believe another reason why people continue to e-mail files over and over could be that there's a sense of accountability. You can always see when you sent your attachment. So in essence, e-mailing files serves as some type of poor man's version control.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

How Many Hours Old are You? Calculating with SQL.

Do you like to feel the inexorable passing of time? People wish they were older until they reach 21, and then they wish they were younger. Well, if you don't like that feeling, it's because you're measuring it wrong. You should be measuring your age in hours. Then you will get a different feeling. Not the warm and fuzzies, but more of a feeling of incredulity. You won't believe that your age in hours is such a short timespan. There's something to make you feel young.

So, how old do you think you are, in hours?