Is there a way to use form fields that does not correspond to database field for temporary processings?
I.e. I want to add:
temp fields item1, item2
database field sum
button with record hook that sets sum = item1 + item2
As far as I know it's simply not possible with ClearQuest.
I've tried to do something similar and was told by our IBM consultant that the only way is to create a DB field for all variables.
You can't attach data to form fields really - those are representations of the underlying data, not something scripts interact with directly.
Adding temporary data to the underlying record (entity) itself sounds unlikely as well. Perhaps it's possible to abuse the perl API and dynamically attach data to entity objects but I personally wouldn't try it, you're liable to lose your data at the whim of CQ then ;-)
That does not however mean it's impossible to have temporary data.
The best way seems to me to be using the session object, which is explicitly intended for that purpose.
From the helpfile:
IBM Rational ClearQuest supports the
use of sessionwide variables for
storing information. After you create
sessionwide variables, you can access
them through the current Session
object using functions or subroutines,
including hooks, that have access to
the Session object. When the current
session ends, all of the variables
associated with that Session object
are deleted. The session ends when the
user logs out or the final reference
to the Session object ceases to exist.
There's some helpful documentation on this subject in file:///C:/Program%20Files/Rational/ClearQuest/doc/help/cq_api/c_session_vars.htm (Presuming a default installation on a windows machine, of course.)
Translating the code example in there into what you seem to be wanting, first you store the data you have calculated inside the session object:
$session->SetNameValue("item1", $value1);
$session->SetNameValue("item2", $value2);
Then in your calculation hook you retrieve the stored values and set the value of that totals field like this:
my $item1 = GetNameValue("item1");
my $item2 = GetNameValue("item2");
my $sum = $item1 + $item2;
$entity->SetFieldValue("some_totals_record", $sum);
Adjust to taste of course ;-)
ClearQuest schema designers often include 'temporary' fields in their record types. They do this so they perform operations on hooks to generate another value.
For example, for the Notes fields, there is a 'temporary' Notes_entry field that the user types the most recent note into, and when the record is saved, the value is added to the Notes_Log field. The next time the record is edited the Notes_entry field is cleared so the user can type a new Notes_entry.
Related
I am trying to implement iCloud sync in my Core Data app. I am not that pro in programming and this is really an advanced topic I learned... I found that Core Data sync Framework "Ensembles" by Drew McCormack. It seems to make iCloud Sync much easier.
I integrated it in my App and syncing does work quite well as long as I add new objects to my Core Data model. But when I delete an object, it creates duplicates. And then duplicates from duplicates. I ended up having the same Entry (object) like 3-4 times...
Why is that? What am I doing wrong? I did some research and my guess is that global identifiers could solve this?
What are global identifiers? My guess is that they help to avoid duplicates!? But how do I set this? I really have no idea, did a lot of research but couldn´t find an answer to that.
Thanks for help!
Update:
Thanks for help! I read the readme and the book, but since i am beginner not everything is clear to me.
I think I understand the use of global identifiers in Ensembles now, but I don´t know if I´m doing it correctly.
If I understand it right, I have to assign an identifier to each object. I can do this by storing it in an attribute. This identifier can be anything as long as it is unique and a NSString?
In my app the user can store different things, let´s say name, text, title, date and so on. The app is based on the Master-Detail-View template in Xcode and uses Core Data. My Core Data model has only a single entity with some attributes, most are strings and a NSDate. No relationships or anything. If the user hits "+" a new object is created and I store the things the user enters in the attributes.
What I did to add global identifiers is to add a new attribute that stores it.
So when a new object is created i do
/// I did find that to use as identifier !?
NSString *taskUniqueStringKey = newManagedObject.objectID.URIRepresentation.absoluteString;
/// and store it in the attribute.
[newManagedObject setValue:taskUniqueStringKey forKey:#"coreDataObjectID"];
Then i use this:
- (NSArray *)persistentStoreEnsemble:(CDEPersistentStoreEnsemble *)ensemble globalIdentifiersForManagedObjects:(NSArray *)objects
{
return [objects valueForKeyPath:#"coreDataObjectID"];;
}
This seems to work for me. But am I doing it right? Is this the right place to assign a global identifier? I have no awakeFromInsert !?
If this is working, I got the next problem. My app is already live and older entries that the user saved before the update will be missing the global identifier. What can I do about that? I thought what I already got and what is unique and the only thing I can think of is an attribute that saves [NSDate date] when the object is created.
I was trying to use this but I failed because Ensembles will only accept NSString and not NSDate!? Can I use this date attribute, is this unique enough and working as gloabl identifier? And if yes, could you please give me code example in how to convert this from date to string?
Syncing with Ensembles works quite good. No duplicates anymore, you can just switch off iCloud and the entries stay and switch it on again and it syncs like it should without loosing locally stored objects or so. Ensembles is really cool! I am seeing some minor strange behaviors like sometimes sync takes long, sometimes it´s really quick and if I edit things in a short time period on two different devices it gets a bit messed up like an object that I just deleted reappears. But I guess that´s normal? If I take some time between using the app on the different devices everything works fine.
Do I understand it right, there is only that one method to call for sync:
- (void)syncWithCompletion:(void(^)(void))completion
{
if (self.ensemble.isMerging) return;
if (!self.ensemble.isLeeched) {
[self.ensemble leechPersistentStoreWithCompletion:^(NSError *error) {
if (error) NSLog(#"Error in leech: %#", error);
if (completion) completion();
}];
}
else {
[self.ensemble mergeWithCompletion:^(NSError *error) {
if (completion) completion();
}];
}
and you just call it if needed? There is nothing else like doing merge without leeching before, or a method like "this is the actual status - save it like it is now" ?
There are different points in the app where you want to sync. On app start and when terminating will be a good point. In my app there are two points where I should sync I guess: when adding an object and save it to Core Data and when I save changes to the object. I could also provide a button like "sync now". Is this a good approach and do I always just call
[self syncWithCompletion:NULL];
Another question that came up. Can I exclude objects from sync with Ensembles? My app loads tutorial entries as objects once on first app start. I don´t want to sync them if that´s possible somehow?
Thanks a lot for your help! If I could help you with anything like localizing in german or so let me know ! ;)
Yes, this is almost certainly due to not setting up global identifiers for your objects, or at least not doing it properly.
When you leech your ensemble, the local persistent store is imported into the sync data. Without global identifiers, Ensembles will assign random ids to your objects, so it can track them across devices.
Duplicates arise when you leech a second device that has the same data. Ensembles has no way to know that the data represents the same logical objects as on the other device, so it again assigns random ids. Effectively, it treats the objects on each device as being completely independent, so that all end up in your data set after syncing.
The solution is global identifiers. By implementing a CDEPersistentStoreEnsemble delegate method, you can provide Ensembles with global ids, which it can use to identify which objects on different devices belong together.
What should you use for global ids? Often, just a UUID, though for singleton like objects you will just want to pick an id.
You can initialize them in awakeFromInsert. You can store the global ids in attributes on your entities. (Note that if you are migrating an existing app, you will want to check with a fetch if the global ids have been generated BEFORE you try to leech the store for syncing.)
More details are in the README on GitHub and in the book at leanpub.
Update
To answer your update questions:
Yes, an identifier just has to be a string, and immutable. It should not change once assigned.
The NSManagedObjectID is not a very good global identifier, in that it will be different on different devices. We really want something that is global across devices.
If you are starting from scratch, using NSUUID is a good approach. Just create a unique id, and store it in the object.
If you have an existing app, and it has been syncing via another mechanism, you need to come up with a way to provide the same global identifiers on each device. One way to do that is mash up the object properties in some way. Usually that will give you a pretty-close-to-unique value, and it will be good enough for the transition.
As an example, you do a quick fetch, and discover that your objects don't yet have global ids. You go through the objects, and set the global ids to a string comprised of creationDate + text. (You could even shorten this by taking a hash, but it probably isn't that important.) After this initial 'migration' to global identifiers, you would just use UUIDs for any newly created objects.
Note that you don't have to use awakeFromInsert. That is simply a convenient place to put it. As long as you assign the global identifier before saving the object you should be fine.
The easiest way to get a string from an NSDate is to call the description method, but another way would be to get a double using timeIntervalSince1970, and turning that into a string. (Be careful with dates as unique identifiers on their own: often objects created together will have the same creation date.)
You are correct about how you should do a sync: you can simply call syncWithCompletion:.
To answer the question about excluding objects: You can't exclude individual objects, mainly because it could become tricky when those objects have relationships to synced objects. You can handle these objects in one of two ways:
Put them in a separate persistent store, and add that store to the same persistent store coordinator.
Sync the objects, but give them global ids manually, so that the objects are treated the same on each device. Eg. You could just give global ids as 'Sample1', 'Sample2', etc.
To integrate Drew's answer, I guess the two steps are the following.
1 Implement CDEPersistentStoreEnsemble delegate method (see README)
- (NSArray *)persistentStoreEnsemble:(CDEPersistentStoreEnsemble *)ensemble
globalIdentifiersForManagedObjects:(NSArray *)objects {
return [objects valueForKeyPath:#"yourUniqueIdentifier"];
}
2 Generate the unique identifier for a NSManagedObject subclass
- (void)awakeFromInsert {
[super awakeFromInsert];
if (!self.yourUniqueIdentifier) {
self.yourUniqueIdentifier = [[NSUUID UUID] UUIDString];
}
}
In awakeFromInsert you can initialize special default property values, like for example an identifier.
The check is necessary, for example, when you have parent-child contexts. Otherwise you are overwriting the identifier previously set. See Why is awakeFromInsert called twice?.
NSIncrementalStore has a required method "obtainPermanentIDsForObjects".
To get the ID's I have to create new row's in the database. Then to save the data in
executeRequest:withContext:error:, I have to hit the DB again.
Is there a reason why I shouldn't get new rowID's and save the data at the same time in obtainPermanentIDsForObjects?
The answer is probably not, if your entities have relationships.
To save a relationship, you need to uniquely identify the corresponding objects. Identifying an object requires your internal identifier which can be obtain via the permanent objectID (NSManagedObjectID).
But (some of) your objects won't have a permanent and internal ID yet because they haven't been handled yet in "obtainPermanentIDsForObjects"
In other words first you need to assign permanentID's (and thus also internalID's) before you can save references to them.
I am facing an issue with extended attributes on a document (trying to extend a document table). I created the original table’s PK (FDOC_NBR) in the extended table and linked the two via a foreignKey of the customized original table’s ojb entry (as an “extension” reference-descriptor). I created the bo and dd for the extension and customized the original document’s dd to add the new attributes. On the extended BO itself I also added members (with setters and getters) for the 2 new columns + for the PK column of documentNumber. I also added the new attributes to the documet’s jsp. The pertinent module definition was already extended to include custom dd, ojb, etc. files.
Indeed, when opening the document the new fields are shown- however, when trying to submit the document (regardless of doing anything with the new fields) I get an error-
Error Details: OJB operation; SQL []; ORA-01400: cannot insert NULL
into ("KFSTEM"."TEM_TRVL_ARRANGER_DOC_EXT_T"."FDOC_NBR") ; nested
exception is java.sql.SQLIntegrityConstraintViolationException:
ORA-01400: cannot insert NULL into
("KFSTEM"."TEM_TRVL_ARRANGER_DOC_EXT_T"."FDOC_NBR")
Seems like somehow the system tries to insert a value of NULL into the extension’s PK field, instead of the actual document number. Trying to debug this, in the action’s route method and all the way down to DocumentDaoOjb.save (which is as far down as I can go) I see the document with the real doc number is passed on, so the problem seems to be purely with ojb trying to set this number to the extension table.
Does anyone have any experience with extended attributes on documents that could help shed some light on this?
KFS is using the KNS, and in the Kuali Nervous System, the primary key on the extended attributes object must be set through manual intervention.
In this case, it looks as if you're adding an extended attribute to a transactional document, the Travel Arranger document (TAA), which simplifies things. Basically, you'll need to extend org.kuali.kfs.module.tem.document.TravelArrangerDocument and override prepareForSave to set the document number there (it may be set already since prepareForSave should be called several times during the routing process, but there's no real harm from overwriting that information as the base document's number will remain the same).
Hope this helps!
I have a Mongoose model that holds Places. Each place has a lat/lng. I can define a Mongoose virtual attribute called distance that would be used to sort Places in ascending order. What's the best way to refer to the user's location information (let's assume it's stored in a session variable for now) from inside the distance virtual attribute?
For anything involving external data, adding a method to the schema would be a better choice than a virtual property.
I'm solving a similar issue. The problem is that methods are fine if you want perform an operation on a single value but I'm retrieving a list and want to inject a new virtual field into every record in the list - but use session data to generate the field. to do this safely (avoiding globals), I think I'll need to use a QueryStream and inject the new field using an ArrayFormatter that takes the session variables as constructor parameters.
This also looks like a job for LINQ so another approach might be to use one of the ports of LINQ to JS.
If you sill prefer to use virtuals, you can store user location info in NodeJs globals. For example this code may be set after user login:
global.user_location = user.location;
I am designing an application that will display dynamically-generated forms to the user who will then enter values into the form fields and submit those values for persistence. The form represents an employee evaluation.
One use case allows an administrator (from HR) to define the form fields. They should be able to create a new form, add/remove fields from a form and mark a form as 'deleted'.
The second use case is when a manager views the form and enters values into the form fields for a specific employee. They should be able to save the values at any time and recall the saved values when viewing the form again for the same employee.
Finally, when the manager is satisfied with the values they've entered for that employee, they can 'submit' the form data which persists the flattened data into the data warehouse for reporting purposes. When this is done, the 'working' copy of the data is removed so the form will display empty the next time they view it for that employee.
I am not concerned with the front-end at this point and working on the back-end service application that sits between the client and the data store. The application must provide a course-grained interface for all of the behavior required.
My question is how many aggregate roots do I actually have (and from that, how many repositories, etc)? Do I separate the form definition from the form data even though I need both when displaying the form to the user?
I see two main entities, 'EmployeeEvaluationSchema' and 'EmployeeEvaluation'. The 'EmployeeEvaluationSchema' entity would have a collection of 'FieldDefinition' value objects which would contain the properties that define a field, the most basic being the name of the field. The 'EmployeeEvaluation' entity would have a collection of 'FieldValue' value objects which contain the values for each field from the definition. In the simplest case, it would have a field name and value property. Next, the 'EmployeeEvaluation' could have a reference to 'EmployeeEvaluationSchema' to specify which definition the particular evaluation is based on. This can also be used to enforce the form definition in each evaluation. You would have two repositories - one for each entity. If you were to use an ORM such as NHibernate, then when you retrieve a 'EmployeeEvaluation' entity, the associated 'EmployeeEvaluationSchema' would also be retrieved even though there is a dedicated repository for it.
From your description it sounds like your objects don't have any behavior and are simple DTOs. If that is the case maybe you should not bother doing DDD. Can you imagine your entities without having getters? There are better ways to do CRUDish application than DDD. Again this is only valid if your "domain" does not have relevant behavior.