Thanks for your time.
I am on Firefox Mobile.
I plan to use a restartless approach using the add-on node.js tools.
I need to pull profile data in my app, some of which requires direct SQL due to spotty mobile support according to: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/SDK/Tutorials/Mobile_development
I plan to use indexed-db, thinking that this will give me the ability to run SQLite queries against existing user profile data (mostly needed for reading).
Am I on the right track? I have also seen simple-storage. Is that a better tool?
I've been bitten by the test-driven infrastructure bug. My current project is using Azure, including SQL Azure, Azure tables, cloud services, and mobile services. Configuring an entire environment is somewhat complex. Now I'm looking for a testing framework that I can use to verify that the environment is configured correctly. Something like "Confirm that there's a mobile service endpoint named foo, that is has APNS and GCM endpoints, and that there is a Google API key and Apple push certificate associated." There is more, but that is complex enough that existing tools don't seem to cover it but simple enough to describe in a single sentence.
Because of the number of products, I have to use both the PowerShell module and the cross-platform CLI to script the setup. The cross-platform CLI looks like the easiest way to get data out (it uses Node and can easily dump JSON data), but I'm at a loss as to how to even start with testing JSON dumps from a Node module that was never really intended to be used as a module.
The PowerShell module is buggy and doesn't have any ability to read mobile services information.
There is a ruby gem for managing Azure, but it's very limited. So my hope of being able to work all in Ruby was dashed. There too, I'm not sure how one would use ServerSpec to test a remote node without actually running anything on the remote node.
I'd like to stay within the realm of something that would be understandable by another Azure developer (e.g. JavaScript, PowerShell, and potentially Ruby) and not have to start from scratch with something like Erlang or Brainf**k.
Corey - big area of ongoing build out on Azure right now which is why you are finding limited support. Resource Manager is aimed at driving programmable infrastructure (http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/xplat-cli-azure-resource-manager/) but doesn't yet encapsulate all Azure service offerings.
There is also the Management Libraries (for .Net) - http://www.bradygaster.com/post/getting-started-with-the-windows-azure-management-libraries or at the most basic of levels there is the pure REST API that you can code directly against if there are bits missing from the above (which is likely) - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/ee460799.aspx
I'm assigned to find a solution for an issue with connecting proprietary ProvideX database to a running web application developed on a OSX platform using PHP language. What I've figured is that if there will be a possible way for querying data from ProvideX, The web app could pull data and update itself with live data. ODBC is what I found as an effective and possible solution.
The question is that, is there any Linux ODBC driver for provideX so the web API would be able to communicate to ProvideX database? I know that there's one for windows platform since ProvideX has been designed to work with windows systems.
Any thought or writeup I could go over to find out more on this issue?
Don't try to go strictly through the ODBC driver. It works nice if you're just looking at the data in an ODBC compliant application or service, but for web applications PxPlus offers a different way to access the database. Look for PxPlus web server, which may or may not be included in your installation.
I'm writing an application in Node.js for a spare-time, bootstrap project. I have a Windows background and Windows Azure with three-month free trial currently seems like the simplest way to develop, deploy and host the project.
However Windows Azure appears to get expensive after the free trial expires, and in any case I'd like the option to host on non-MS platforms, so I have a couple of questions:
I can see from the tutorial that I need some Windows-specific code to import the port number at which the app should listen - are there many more examples of Windows or Azure specific code requirements further down the line?
I'd like to take a NoSQL approach to data storage since I'm more interested in flexibility and performance than in referential integrity or structural consistency - would it be difficult to wrap Azure Tables in a data access layer that would be reasonably portable to other NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or the various cloud offerings?
Finally, the catch-all question - is there anything else I should be looking out for?
Tackling your second question: there are modules in the NPM registry that can help you here.
Firstly Microsoft have recently released the Azure SDK for node as an NPM installation module. This has a rich API that will help you interface into Azure Tables.
There are also NoSQL clients available in the NPM registry for most solutions (including MongoDB).
If you keep your data access simple, you should be able to make use of the various NoSQL clients that are available and create a nice little module layer that sits above all the ones you need to support.
You could even create a public github repository and submit your hard work into the NPM registry for other people to help you develop.
I have built an app on Windows Azure's node.js support as well and there is virtually no lock in if you stick to npm modules and open platforms.
You should also check into Microsoft's Bizspark program - you get two years of 2 reserved instances for free + storage. Its a great program.
I'm studying an introductory course in databases and one of the exercises is to work with MS-Access. However I'm using Linux at home and although I can use the computer classes at the university it is far from convenient (limited open time - my studying time is mostly nights).
So how can I use an Access file (*.mdb) in Linux? By use I mean changing tables, writing queries and so on.
Are there tools to convert it to another database format (mysql, postgresql or even gadfly)?
Also what problems may I encounter?
Although a bit dated, I've had good success with mdbtools which is a set of command line tools for accessing and converting Access databases to other formats. I've used it for importing databases into PostgreSQL.
If you're running an Ubuntu variant you can install it with:
sudo apt-get install mdbtools
or you can download it from here.
You're out of luck. Access has no real equivalent on Linux and while Kexi is an interesting alternative that can import Access files and aims to provide similar functionality, it doesn't actually uses Access files once the data is imported.
If your assignment is to develop an Access application with forms etc as opposed to just using and mdb database as a store, then you can try a recent release of Wine with a compatible Access version (see compatibility list) or, even better, find a Windows machine where you're sure it's going to work.
Not to be forgotten, the use of a Virtual Machine loaded with Windows would help you achieve the same thing on your Linux box.
I am currently trying Access with Wine on Ubuntu and I seem to be getting there. I have found that I need to copy various dlls manually, but that could easily be lack of reading up on the subject.
From the documentation: Connecting To Microsoft Access. However, this seems to indicate that you need access running in a windows host and connect via ODBC... See also Known Problems.
I recently discover https://dbeaver.io/ which is a software (in java) to manage different database types (MySQL, PostGreSQL…), a bit like phpmyadmin (but as a host based soft, no server require) and it can manage MS Access excep if version is too old (it is probably my case)
You can work with Access through a connection (ODBC or OLEDB), as long as you only need to manage the "database" dimension of the file (tables and views, which are called "queries" in Access).
Once the connection is open (see here for connection strings), you can send SQL commands to your mdb database, such as (where cn is here a connection object):
cn.execute "CREATE TABLE myTableName (myTable_id autoNumber, myTable_code Text, ...)"
Please note that MsAccess uses a specific DDL that looks like the standard T-SQL but is not really it. Check the syntax in MsAccess help.
Depending on your database (and its constraints, default values, primary keys used, relations, data validation rules, aso), transfering Access can be easy and straight or might not even be possible. You will encounter a problem each time your database implement an access-specific/non-standard SQL rule.
If you really need to convert your access data to something else, I'd adise you to (1) export it under MS-SQL (the free version will be ok, an upsizing wizard is available in Access or on this site), (2)use an additional tool like this one to generate a "CREATE DATABASE" SQL Script, including or not data inserts, (3) use this script to try to create the database and its data on another database server.
If you've got an assignment to work with Access, then frigging find a Windows computer and do your exercise on the native platform for Access. It's completely senseless to do anything else, as you won't be learning anything useful about Access.
If the assignment is to use a Jet data store, then that's something of a different story. And if it is, then you should have worded your question differently. I wouldn't recommend using Jet on anything but a native Windows file system. Certainly if the project is to actually read/write data to a Jet data file then you're not really fulfilling the assignment if you're not using Windows at least as the ODBC host.