September 23, 2009
I was writing some PowerShell this week, and wanted to do some logging. I’ve blogged in the past about configuring log4net with the fcSDK within Powershell. However, this method relied on the log4net handling within our SDK. What if I wanted to log before I got to the SDK initialization? Kevin shared some of his log4net fu, and I put it into Powershell. Configure Logging Here’s what I came up with: function configure-logging() { [system.reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("log4net") > $null; $LogManager = [log4net.LogManager] $global:logger = $LogManager::GetLogger("PowerShell"); if ( (test-path $appSettings["logConfigFilePath"]) -eq $false) { $message = "WARNING: logging config file not found: " + $appSettings["logConfigFilePath"] write-host write-host $message -foregroundcolor yellow write-host } else { $configFile = new-object System.IO.FileInfo( $appSettings["logConfigFilePath"] ); $xmlConfigurator = [log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator]::ConfigureAndWatch($configFile); } } Notice that the logging config file is coming from $appSettings. I blogged about this earlier. Logging Config File…
Using Log4Net in PowerShell
September 23, 2009
I was writing some PowerShell this week, and wanted to do some logging. I’ve blogged in the past about configuring log4net with the fcSDK within Powershell. However, this method relied on the log4net handling within our SDK. What if I wanted to log before I got to the SDK initialization? Kevin shared some of his log4net fu, and I put it into Powershell. Configure Logging Here’s what I came up with: function configure-logging() { [system.reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("log4net") > $null; $LogManager = [log4net.LogManager] $global:logger = $LogManager::GetLogger("PowerShell"); if ( (test-path $appSettings["logConfigFilePath"]) -eq $false) { $message = "WARNING: logging config file not found: " + $appSettings["logConfigFilePath"] write-host write-host $message -foregroundcolor yellow write-host } else { $configFile = new-object System.IO.FileInfo( $appSettings["logConfigFilePath"] ); $xmlConfigurator = [log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator]::ConfigureAndWatch($configFile); } } Notice that the logging config file is coming from $appSettings. I blogged about this earlier. Logging Config File…
September 17, 2009
Dovetail SDK is a software development kit for writing applications, using .NET, to access Clarify™ databases. One of the more common requirements for objects created for Clarify is performing workflow operations on those objects, such as assigning cases or dispatching change requests. Dovetail SDK provides a powerful set of tools to make workflow operations easy to implement. This guide explains how to get started. Using WorkflowManager for Workflow Actions Dovetail SDK supports the following Workflow Methods for Queueable Objects in Clarify with the WorkflowManager object:AcceptAssignDispatchForwardMoveRejectYankChangeStatusQueueable Object Types that are currently supported:CASE, SUBCASE, DEMAND_DTL, TASK, OPPORTUNITY, CONTRACT, BUG, PROBDESC, DIALOGUEAll of these methods follow the same basic model for parameters. For example, the Dispatch method takesid number of the object being dispatchedtype of object being dispatchedqueue that the object is being dispatched totime that the dispatch occurredlogin name of the user performing the…
August 28, 2009
Separate the user from complexity. Spam filtering is pretty complex stuff. The act of signaling an email is spam should not be. Which of these user interfaces for Spam handling do you think works better? Outlook 2007 – 1 action = navigation + 6 options A classic lesson from Don’t Make Me Think. The cognitive load in Outlook is very high. The steps for a email user wishing to mark an email as spam. Some how know to right click on the email. (acquired knowledge) Click on Junk E-mail. (Find the menu item) Pick from a list of 6 potential junk email options. (Read and understand what each option means) GMail – 1 to 1 Gmail recently changed their menu items condensing them down and in my opinion reducing their readability. However I find the task of marking email as…
August 27, 2009
We pride ourselves on the value we provide our customers for maintenance and support, whether it is on our own software products, or on the Clarify software products we also support. I have writtenfrequently about the level of service we provide, often citing customer examples to back up our claim. We are often asked by customers who are considering switching to our Clarify Help Desk Program why we are better than Amdocs. Here’s what we highlight - First, Dovetail charges considerably less than Amdocs charges for support. In tough economic times, this is an important factor. We then talk about our customer service and how our customer support staff is top notch and the service they provide is fabulous (OK, I’m bias, but our references back us up). We go on to say how support cases are immediately handled by…