David Young

I used to try to write at least two articles per month here, but since taking a new job back in October 2023, I’ve been consumed mostly with learning about various aspects of SAP such as ABAP, BSP, and the like. Even so, I’m still here. In the last year and a half, I’ve probably learned more than I had in my previous ten years of my career. It’s been refreshing to be immersed in a completely new…

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#SAP #ABAP #SQL

In October, I started a new phase in my career of twenty-five years as an IT professional: SAP software engineer. I had worked with SAP in some capacity over the years, but those experiences mostly revolved around connecting APIs to SAP endpoints or querying the SAP database directly using a SQL client like Oracle Developer. I had wanted to learn the inner workings of SAP for many years, but…

#hp #hpsmart #wifi

Recently I had to buy a new printer, and I didn’t have time to do any real research on what I wanted, so I bought one of HP’s low-budget all-in-ones, the HP DeskJet 3755. Currently this printer is selling for less than $100. Setting this printer up on WiFi has been more complicated than I expected. I have never had any real difficulties in setting up a printer on the HP Smart app before. My Asus…

Filling the Skills Gap #skillsgap

Over the course of my career, I have learned about quite a few qualities that makes a team member add value to the team. Many of these strengths are fairly obvious: being willing to work hard, prioritizing tasks properly to meet deadlines, not becoming siloed and unaware of what other team members are doing, etc. One strength that may not be as obvious, but is certainly as valuable as the ones…

#powerbi #notepadplusplus

Oftentimes, when looking at the Advanced Editor window on a Power BI query, you will see that the SQL query in one of the steps has been compressed into fewer lines – perhaps even only one line; minified with codes like “#(lf)” (line feed) and “#(tab)”. To make this more readable, you can copy the code block from Power BI into a Notepad++ window, and replace these codes with escape sequences…

#aws #redshift #sql

Finding metadata regarding table and column names in Redshift can be daunting, especially if you do not know if the tables are internal or external. Redshift has a table called SVV_EXTERNAL_COLUMNS that is useful for looking at external tables, and there are scripts to look at internal tables as well. The SQL code I wrote below combines these and should make it easier to find what you’re looking…

#amazonredshift #postgresql

The task of generating a SQL script for a stored procedure or function is fairly simple in Microsoft SQL Server using SQL Server Management Studio, or in Oracle Database, using SQL Developer. However, if your database is Amazon Redshift, you’re probably using SQL Workbench/J to interact with your database, and unfortunately, its ability to script out stored procs is limited. I recently…

#microsoftlearn #cbt

Over the last ten years or so, I have worked with many different computer-based training (CBT) programs from various vendors, some paid, and some free. Of all the ones I’ve used, Microsoft Learn – which is free, as in “free beer”! – has been the best overall. Not only is the variety of subjects available for study more diverse than the other sites I’ve used (though the Learn classes are all for…

#powerbi

Recently, I was informed that one of our Power BI Datasets could not be refreshed due to an error, and that the schedule had been turned off as a result. The error that was in the refresh history was similar to the one shown below. It appeared that something was causing a timeout on the Power BI gateway. I opened the dataset in Power BI Desktop, and refreshed the queries manually to see if a…

#powerbi #bi

Since June, I have begun working in a new position that involves less in the way of application development, and more data analytics and database development. The primary tool I’ll be using is Microsoft Power BI, along with SQL Server, Amazon Redshift, and CRM Analytics (formerly called Tableau) for use with Salesforce. Power BI is an amazing tool, but like any new or unfamiliar tool, there is a…

#mssql #linkedservers #sqleos

As we are preparing to migrate some of our older SQL Server databases that are nearing their end of support to SQL Server 2019, one of the necessary tasks is determining what Linked Servers need to be established on the new servers to maintain the existing functionality for all of our users’ applications. Testing the functionality of an individual Linked Server is simple enough – the built-in…

#oracle #primavera #p6 #eppm

Recently, I’ve installed multiple instances of Oracle Primavera P6 EPPM version 21 on Windows servers running Oracle WebLogic 12. In each case, after installing WebLogic and P6 EPPM, I get an error similar to the one below when trying to start the Node Manager: <Feb 6, 2018 9:58:31 PM JST> <INFO> <Loading identity key store:…

#activex #ie11 #chrome

I’ve never had much reason to use ActiveX controls, though one major web application I support has a function where users are able to send log entries via Outlook email. This function was built using an ActiveX control many years ago, when Internet Explorer was the only browser we had to support. If a user wanted to run Chrome, they had to do without this function. Now that Internet Explorer 11…

Element is Undefined Java Error on Adobe ColdFusion - #cf

An error that I’ve run into a few times when implementing new components in a ColdFusion website is “Element [COMPONENT NAME] is undefined in a Java object of type class…” This error, when found in a development environment, is likely due to a typo in declaring locations for components in the Application.cfc file. (Or perhaps you just forgot to do it!) But what happens when your development…