So I needed to figure out which servers are connecting to which databases. That sounds like a complicated thing but it isn’t!

Just run this query (and make sure you have appropriate permissions)

SELECT
loginame, hostname, program_name, DB_Name(dbid), last_batch
FROM
sys.sysprocesses
where hostname <> ”
order by last_batch desc

Collaboration is defined as “the action of working with someone to produce or create something.” Yet, many confuse communicating with collaborating. True collaboration gives you and your project an edge by aligning efforts towards a clear objective. I’ll show how teams can achieve true collaboration with JIRA Agile.

And here is my presentation from the Atlassian Summit 2014 on this topic

You can view in the Atlassian archives https://summit.atlassian.com/archives/2014/collaboration-teams/collaboration-is-more-than-communication-jira-agile

Hope you enjoy!

This is just a quick tip and development best practice based on a few things I’ve found while fixing bugs in an application. It is not just a quick tip on how to get the extension of a file, but instead it is about not reinventing the wheel, thinking about all possibilities and outcomes when you are programming and in general doing things right.

The idea is that whenever you have a problem to solve, for example get the extension for a given file you should find the appropriate framework function instead of trying to solve it on your own. Someone definitively already spent a lot of time creating a function that tests many potential scenarios.

Here is what I found:

What is the problem? That for any file that is included with multiple “.” Then as you can see the extension is extracted incorrectly.

How should I handle this? Welll, if you are wondering “oh look for the first “.” but from right to left!”

Hmmmm yes…maybe… but no sale.

Instead you should use the appropriate framework libraries. Read this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.path.getextension(v=vs.110).aspx

Path.GetExtension Method

.NET Framework 4.5

7 out of 10 rated this helpful – Rate this topic

Returns the extension of the specified path string.

Namespace:  System.IO
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

C#

public static string GetExtension(        string path)

Parameters

path

Type: System.String

The path string from which to get the extension.

Return Value

Type: System.String
The extension of the specified path (including the period “.”), or null, or String.Empty. If path is null, GetExtension returns null. If path does not have extension information, GetExtension returns String.Empty.

And try to do the same always. Think about all possibilities and when possible try to find out if you are not reinventing the wheel.

It is so easy to be part of the 90% of Sturgeon’s law! How hard can it be to create something with bad usability? Apparently it is extremely easy. Take a quick look at this example I am within the corporate Sharepoint. I want to upload a document. So I click Add document. And now I get this popup.  My question is how hard can it be for Microsoft to create #1 a decent upload control to select location #2 that has enough space so that I can actually read the current location #3 and I clicked Add document within a specific folder. I think the majority of times I would want to add the document where I clicked.   How hard can all this be? Well, SharePoint is a great product but there are some areas for improvement and I would love if someone at the SharePoint team could take a stab at this.

I heard something about good UX a bit a ago that makes perfect sense. A UI is like a joke, if you have to explain it then it is not that good!

For those of you that landed directly on this page, I am working on a series of post that help people “Get Started with Enterprise Search using Apache Solr”. In this post I cover one specific module. If interested in watching the course please click here: http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=enterprise-search-using-apache-solr . Click here to get to the starting point: https://www.xaviermorera.com/2014/06/getting-started-with-enterprise-search-using-apache-solr/ You’ve made it to module 3! Thanks a lot if this is the case. So far we started by understanding “Why Enterprise Search?” and “Why Solr?”, both very valid questions and fundamental if you want to go down the “search” path – which by the way if more people really understood search this could really save millions and millions of hours of frustrated users! And remember my promise: I will show you how to, in a few hours, build something that may cost thousands of dollars to develop and may take a long time to learn! That is pretty powerful if you ask me. After that, I walk you through architecture to show you where to place the search engine and also the internal architecture of Solr – don’t forget Lucene! And now we get to module 3, Solr Configuration. I start by showing you how to download solrinstaller.exe, click next/next/next and Solr is up and running! Yay…. Not quite Solr is not yet at that point. There is no Windows installer (yes, I am a Windows guy… no Linux) but it is extremely simple none the less. So in this module I show you

• How to land on your feet when starting the wonderful search engine. I explain how you use Jetty server which can be started immediately. But this is only for dev purposes.
• Then we move on to the areas of when you first open you search administration page, located in http://localhost:8983.
• We move on to each one of the ares of the Admin UI. It is not 100% necessary to know them all, but there are some that you actually should. You may not care now, but if you run into errors then it is useful to know how Logging is where you should go.

• And then I do something that may save you a lot of time. I show you how to run Solr within Tomcat, which is suitable for production.

Let me tell you a quick story from a while ago so that you understand. I could be ashamed to say that it took me several hours to run Solr within Tomcat the first time I did it. I am not ashamed. I was clueless, some blog posts were technically accurate but confusing. In this training I show you how to do it in less than 7 minutes. This will save you time and frustration if you have never done it before and need to do so! And this is the end of the module. I prepare you for what’s to come, index data and the fun part: searching! I hope you enjoy and contact me if you have questions, concerns or most preferably criticism so that I can improve my trainings!

Solr Configuration		00:29:43
Solr Configuration		00:54
Getting Solr and Overview		02:19
Install, Run, Index and Query		09:11
Admin UI		00:34
Getting assistance		00:27
Dashboard		00:29
Logging		00:15
Core Admin		00:18
Java Properties		02:11
Thread Dump		00:22
Core Selector		00:39
Analysis		00:11
DataImportHandler		00:54
Documents		00:47
Ping		00:19
Plugins and Stats		00:24
Query		00:27
Replication		00:26
Schema Browser		00:36
Tomcat – Running Solr in production		06:59
Takeaway		00:52

For those of you that landed directly on this page, I am working on a series of post that help people “Get Started with Enterprise Search using Apache Solr”. In this post I cover one specific module. If interested in watching the course please click here: http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=enterprise-search-using-apache-solr . Click here to get to the starting point: https://www.xaviermorera.com/2014/06/getting-started-with-enterprise-search-using-apache-solr/ In the second module I start by trying to make my point on how

• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
• Users usually don’t care about the application
• They care about getting accurate and fast results.

Users don’t care about the how, engineers care about the how. The people that use it don’t. and that’s what counts! Then I focus for a few minutes on explaining architecture from two points of view:

• Where, architecturally speaking, within an application does the search engine fit in

• Solr’s architecture

The third section of this module explains what makes Solr move and shake, mainly the search engine underneath: Lucene. And finally I explain to you the parts of a search application. This part may be a bit subjective depending on who looks at it, but most principles apply across the board. If you are interested on viewing this module you can start here:  enterprise-search-apache-solr-m2 Here is the table of contents:

Architecture of an Enterprise Search Application		00:12:32
Architecture		00:30
Beauty and Simplicity		01:20
Architectural Review		05:06
Lucene the Search Engine		02:24
Search Applications		02:13
Takeaway		00:57

You can also go back to the main page of this series by clicking here: https://www.xaviermorera.com/2014/06/getting-started-with-enterprise-search-using-apache-solr/

For those of you that landed directly on this page, I am working on a series of post that help people “Get Started with Enterprise Search using Apache Solr”. In this post I cover one specific module. If interested in watching the course please click here: http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=enterprise-search-using-apache-solr . Click here to get to the starting point: https://www.xaviermorera.com/2014/06/getting-started-with-enterprise-search-using-apache-solr/

The third module is made up of four sections:

Installation

In this section I will show you how to install Solr. It is not as simple as solrinstaller.exe, next, next next… but it not too complicated either.

Demo

Watch, learn and follow. You will be able to get Apache Solr running in a few minutes.

Admin UI

In this section I go over each one of the options in the Admin UI. I don’t spend too much time as there are many secitons, but enough for you to understand what they are for.

Tomcat

Solr comes with Jetty server out of the box. However Jetty is not for production purposes, instead it should be for development only. I will show you how to run Solr within Tomcat. BTW: if you do not know how to do this, it may take you a few hours of research to learn on your own. Watch this clip and you will learn in a few minutes!

If you are interested on viewing this module you can start here:  enterprise-search-apache-solr-m3 

This is the table of contents:

Solr Configuration		00:29:43
Solr Configuration		00:54
Getting Solr and Overview		02:19
Install, Run, Index and Query		09:11
Admin UI		00:34
Getting assistance		00:27
Dashboard		00:29
Logging		00:15
Core Admin		00:18
Java Properties		02:11
Thread Dump		00:22
Core Selector		00:39
Analysis		00:11
DataImportHandler		00:54
Documents		00:47
Ping		00:19
Plugins and Stats		00:24
Query		00:27
Replication		00:26
Schema Browser		00:36
Tomcat – Running Solr in production		06:59
Takeaway		00:52

You can also go back to the main page of this series by clicking here: https://www.xaviermorera.com/2014/06/getting-started-with-enterprise-search-using-apache-solr/

Today a good friend asked while watching my Getting Started with Enterprise Search Using Apache Solr course in Pluralsight on how to index data in different cores in Solr.   Here is the answer.

• Let’s say you want to feed data to Solr’s default collection, called collection1, using the update handler, then do this:

java -Durl=http://localhost:8983/solr/update  -Dtype=text/csv -jar post.jar “Two sample courses with author test.csv”

• But if you have a different core, i.e. psdemo, then do this:

java -Durl=http://localhost:8983/solr/psdemo/update  -Dtype=text/csv -jar post.jar “Two sample courses with author test.csv”

Easy as pie! If interested in watching the course please click here: http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=enterprise-search-using-apache-solr .

For those of you that landed directly on this page, I am working on a series of post that help people “Get Started with Enterprise Search using Apache Solr”. In this post I cover one specific module. If interested in watching the course please click here: http://pluralsight.com/training/courses/TableOfContents?courseName=enterprise-search-using-apache-solr .Click here to get to the starting point: https://www.xaviermorera.com/2014/06/getting-started-with-enterprise-search-using-apache-solr/

I start my Enterprise Search Apache Solr training course by conveying my beliefs to you. I truly believe that a good search implementation can help tremendously with the adoption of your application or providing huge savings by letting your users find what they are looking for. I can even say that a Search Engine is a very straightforward and easily understood name, but maybe sometimes I think that you should have a Find Engine!

Anyway, in this module I start with why. I really hope we both are in the same lane. Immediately I tell you what I promise you will get from this course. It is a pretty powerful promise, but believe me it is true.

I promise… That in the next couple of hours I will teach you to build things that might take you weeks to learn on your own and we will create together a search experience that could cost thousands of dollars to build

And they I take you in a few minutes into some interesting topics, for example Why Enterprise Search. This might seem normal to you, but most people have no idea about search. Search is one of the most misunderstood functionalities in IT!

And then of course we touch on a bit of history of search engines, famous Solr sites so that you can see with your own eyes how the big guys really are using Solr! If they are, why shouldn’t you?

Also, Apache Solr is not alone. I have a personal opinion at this point that it is the best, but others disagree. Let’s all agree to disagree then, but in this training I will focus solely on Apache Solr.

Are you ready to watch? If so you can watch it here after you log in to Pluralsight: http://pluralsight.com/training/Player?author=xavier-morera&name=enterprise-search-apache-solr-m1&mode=live&clip=0&course=enterprise-search-using-apache-solr

Here is the table of contents for this module:

	Progress	Duration
Why Solr & Enterprise Search?		00:19:05
Why Watch This Course?		01:34
My Promise to You		00:38
What to Expect From This Course		01:29
Are you Ready to Learn?		00:59
Why Enterprise Search?		03:41
Solr & Famous Sites		02:19
Other Search Engines		00:29
History of Search		03:32
Functions of a Search Engine		01:14
Features & Scalability		02:11
Takeaway		00:54

You can also go back to the main page of this series by clicking here: https://www.xaviermorera.com/2014/06/getting-started-with-enterprise-search-using-apache-solr/

This post originally appeared in Pluralsight’s blog in http://blog.pluralsight.com/tips-for-meetings I am including it here as future reference of all my writings

Meetings can be wildly useful for things like brainstorming and communicating within — and between — teams. They can also be great for sparking collaboration and moving projects forward. But when they get  misused or abused, which happens all too often, they end up being little more than a gigantic waste of time. Let’s look at the top five things that tend to go wrong in meetings, and how you can fix them.

1. Busyness vs. Productivity. For some people, the mere act of sitting in a meeting is considered work. This becomes an issue when those in attendance use the time to appear busy, rather than actively, and constructively, contributing. Meetings that go over in this manner tend to end with scheduling another meeting just to “continue the discussion.” This is all too common among project managers or product managers.

The fix: Make sure every meeting you attend or lead has a real and very clear objective. Moreover, make sure that this meeting is actually necessary. If the objective is not important or required, then simply defer the meeting until the right time.

2. The time trap: Have you ever been in a one hour meeting with 15 other folks and quietly agonized over your workload, rather than actively listening and waiting for your two minute turn to talk? And what about the guy next to you who seems to be thinking the same thing, while he plays Candy Crush or answers emails? An hour long meeting with this many people is actually two days of work lost forever; gone in time. I shiver just to think of how many dollars are wasted because of overcrowded meetings.

The fix: Not everyone needs to be invited to every meeting. Make sure each person has a clear understanding of why they’re there. Reserve a friendly kick out of the room for anyone who doesn’t need to be around. Also, as the old adage says, “divide and conquer.” A very broad topic where too many people are involved can be broken down into smaller chunks with smaller groups. You only need one person to coordinate among teams, and one is always much better than a committee. This is very common with Scrums that get abused and end up looking more like office parties.

3. No direction: Another reason why some meetings take much longer than expected is that there isn’t a clear agenda or objective. This leads to endless talking, tangents and scheduling new meetings to continue the conversation. People also confuse a meeting agenda with the subject of the meeting. For example, “Discussion on data” makes a fine subject line, but it’s far too vague to serve as the agenda. This scenario also comes into play when the overall vision for the project is not made clear or has many unknown factors.

The fix: Create a clear agenda with well-defined points and, if possible, use my favorite feature of Scrum: timebox. Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,” and this applies just as well to meetings. If you don’t have a limit, people will use as much time as possible for a discussion. Timebox will help you maintain control over this. And, if the issue is overall project vision, try planning shorter term until there is a clearer view of the road ahead.

4. Too many interruptions: If you’re into self-improvement, you may be familiar with the concept of “flow.” In a nutshell, flow is when you’re totally immersed in the task at hand; when you’re your most productive. Developers usually experience this when time suddenly flies by.

Something else you should be familiar with that is the “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule.” If you’re a maker (in this case, let’s use programmer), you likely work in large chunks of time, say from 8 a.m. through noon. During that time you focus on solving a problem, but if you’re interrupted, it may take up to 15 minutes to pick up where you left off. This means that if there are multiple meetings throughout the day, your maker’s schedule gets broken down into many small chunks that do not allow for full, focused involvement in a task.

The fix: Managers usually have smaller chunks of work that can be broken down into one hour slots, hence their impulse to “book meetings with the team to catch up.” They may have the best intentions, but this usually has a negative impact. Even worse, managers are higher in the food chain, which makes it difficult to cancel a meeting with your boss based on the fact that he was interrupting you.

If you’re a manager, try to understand the impact that you have on your whole team with these interruptions. Aim to schedule meetings when you know they’ll have the least impact on workflow – this can be near the start, middle or end of the day. If you’re a programmer, or a “maker,” find a way to approach your manager and see if he can work out a better method for scheduling these meetings. It can also be helpful to use email, chat or a tool like Jira to manage your team’s progress.

5. Too much talk, not enough action: This is a tricky one, as it requires a leader who is aware of the capabilities and responsibilities of his entire team (or at least those who will be in attendance). Thanks to extreme differences in personalities, this can be tricky. Typically you end up with some people who talk too much and others who remain totally silent. Unfortunately, talking does not always equate to doing. Someone might talk a lot and do very little, while the guy doing the work just sits and listens. This creates an unbalanced and biased view, as not all of the involved parties will communicate appropriately and the outcome of the meeting might not be the best.

The fix: It is the meeting organizer’s responsibility to understand the involvement of each person invited to the meeting in respect to the meeting agenda. Then ask questions, specifically on each one of the topics, to get the correct information and help obtain the best possible outcome for everyone involved.

To quickly recap, meetings can be the best way to help your team move forward. Just remember to schedule them only when absolutely required, instead of as a way to keep busy; invite only those who really need to be there; have a clear agenda and objective; don’t interrupt the maker’s schedule; and guide the meeting in such a way that everyone is heard.