I have a project where a web page has a form where the user enters some information and then hits a button which uses this information (e.g. ZIP code) as part of a query to dynamically exports the results as a PDF or XLS file. The data I am querying is housed in an Oracle database on Server A.
Server A is controlled by a different contractor who is agnostic to our project (not antagonistic but not especially helpful). This other contractor controls the ColdFusion, Oracle database and Server A.
It turns out we now have updated information that is housed on Server B that the client wants to include in the PDF/XLS file. Server B is under my control but the data is in a Geographic Information System (GIS). Server B's data will be set up to be served out as a REST service which can accept input from Server A and spit out the answer. I can output the data in JSON format, XLS, PDF (and maybe CSV but I need to check). I cannot put the data (or software) onto Server A nor dump the contents into the Oracle database.
My question is this:
What techniques can I employ to successfully dynamically incorporate my updated data into this PDF ?
I am not sure if the client has Adobe LifeCycle (still checking) so I would like to have a solution that does not use this product.
I have poked around the internet and have found some resources (such as Populate_And_Merge_Multiple_PDF_Forms but I am still looking for some resources that describe a solution.
Many Thanks !
Creating a simple web service in ColdFusion is pretty straight forward. To consume your service the other company will use CFHTTP or their technology's equivalent.
In your CFC, make sure your function's access attribute is set to remote. Doing so will allow your function to be accessed from an outside source.
remote: available to a locally or remotely executing page or component
method, or a remote client through a URL, Flash, or a web service. To
publish the function as a web service, this option is required.
Also, specify your returnformat attribute to be JSON
The format in which to return values to a remote caller. This
attribute has no effect on values returned to a local caller. json:
serialize the return value into JSON format before returning it
remotely
I have also used returnformat of plain to prevent any other formatting by ColdFusion so if you wanted to create a custom output such as a simple list of values, use plain.
plain: ensure that the return value is a type that ColdFusion can
convert directly to a string, and return the string value without
serialization. Valid types include all simple types, such as numbers,
and XML objects. If the return value is a complex type, such as an
array, or a binary value, ColdFusion generates an error. If you
specify a returntype attribute, its value must be any, boolean, date,
guid, numeric, string, uuid, variablename, or XML; otherwise,
ColdFusion generates an error.
Sources:
CFFunction
Related
Let me explain in more detail:
1st: I'm running endeca 3.1, so Endeca Server here refers to 3.0's Data Domain.
I'm required to use an Endeca Server currently present on Endeca (Downloaded a Demo VM). All the info on it, including, groups, attributes and data, must be merged into out Endeca Server. (It can also be the other way around, i could merge my Endeca Server into this one.)
So far, i've tried to do the following:
1) Clone the Endeca Server
2) use the putCollection sconfig operation to create a collection on it with the same name i have on mine.
3) Load configurations using the LoadCollection & LoadAttributes graphs from OEID POC Template 3.1. I point to the new collection on the Configuration.xls file.
This is where i encounter an issue. The LoadAttributes graph gets a T/O message from the server's WS. Then the config WSDL becomes inaccesible for a while. I can't go beyond this point.
I've been able to load data into the collection, but i need to load the attributes first.
THanks in advance for your replies.
Regards
There are a few techniques.
Have you tried exporting the data domain and then importing it?
You can use the endeca-cmd tools to export to a file, and then import from that file. This would enable you to add 2 datastores into one server.
If you want to combine 2 datastores then that is a different question.
The simplest approach in 3.1 if the data collections are small. Extract then as CSV (via a data-table), convert to XLS and add them via self provisioning into separate collections within a single data store. If you are running in the VM this is potentially the easiest approach.
This can also be done using Integrator.
You don't need to load the attributes unless you are using multi-value types. You can call against the conversation web-service to extract data and then load it using 'bulk-load' I would not worry too much about creating the attributes unless this becomes essential due to their type or complexity. If you cannot call against the conversation web-service, then again extract as csv and load using Integrator.
I have a project running in vb.net. It's currently a very small project, so I have used XML serialization as the main way of storing information. I.e. creating a xml file in the .exe folder. and saving/reading from there.
Problem: Since the project is small, I have no SQL database setup and I would like to keep it that way. But I do want to create a user/password for access to the program.
What I have tried: I have tried using XML serialization, but hiding the xml file. Once I hide it, I'm unable to access the file (saying I have no permissions).
What's a good way to have the same utility without using SQL and not giving away security?
Hiding the file is pointless. You should simply hash the passwords and then store the data just as you do for any other data. That's exactly what you'd do if you were using a database too. When a user registers, you hash the password they provide and store the result. Anyone can then view the data without breaching security because they cannot get the original value from the hash. When a user logs in, you hash the password they provide and compare that to the value in the database and, if they match, the user is authenticated.
You should do some reading on hashing in general and also consider adding a salt for extra security, although that may not be worthwhile in this case.
On my BizTalk server I use several different credentials to connect to internal and external systems. There is an upcoming task to change the passwords for a lot of systems and I'm searching for a solution to simplify this task on my BizTalk server.
Is there a way that I could adjust the File/FTP adapters to extract the information from an XML file so that I can change it only in the XML file and everything will be updated or is there an alternative that I could use such as PowerShell?
Did someone else had this task as well?
I rather don't want to create a custom adapter but if there is no alternative I will go for that one. Using dynamic credentials for the send port can be solved with Orchestration but I need this as well for the receive port.
You can export the bindings of all your applications. All the passwords for the FTP and File Adapter will be masked out with a series off * (asterisks).
You could then edit your binding down to just those ports you want to update, replace the masked out passwords with the correct passwords, and when you want the passwords changed, import them.
Unfortunately unless you have already prepared tokenised binding files the above is a manual effort.
I was going to recommend that you take a look at Enterprise Single Sign-On, but on second thoughts, I think you probably just need to 'bite the bullet' and make the change in the various Adapters.
ESSO would be beneficial if you have a single Adapter with multiple endpoints/credentials, but I infer from your question that isn't the case (i.e. you're not just using a single adapter). I also don't think re-writing the adapters to include functionality to read usernames/passwords from file is feasible IMHO - just changing the passwords would be much faster, by an order of weeks or months ;-)
One option that is available to you however, depending on which direction the adapter is being used: if you need to change credentials on Send Adapters, you should consider setting usernames/passwords at runtime via the various Adapter Property Schemas (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa560564.aspx for the FTP Adapter Properties for example). You could then easily create an encoding Send Pipeline Component that reads an Xml file containing credentials and updates the message context properties accordingly, the message would then be send with the appropriate credentials to the required endpoint.
There is also the option of using ESSO as your (encrypted) config store instead of Xml files / database etc. Richard Seroter has a really good post on this from way back in 2007 (its still perfectly valid tho.)
In my share point 2010 website, I added two content source
file system (shared folder)
BDC data (Line of Business Data)
I added the managed properties to map the metadata of the BDC data.
My search result coming link this
I would like to link the two content source, my second content source having the file related information like (tab, category, fileno, case name)
I added the column and also I altered the xslt in the search result web part. the results are coming link below.
From the result, the third one (120) is coming from the database so all the properties are mapped (caseid, casename,fileno, doctab, description)
But it's not mapping to the file system. The file system having relationship with the table with the file name and also the the path of the files having some information:
file://192.168.25.231/FolderName/CaseID/documenttab/filename
CaseId is the primary key for the table which I added as second content source.
How can I achieve this?
Hmm, it's difficult to add much more without seeing the environment. But here's plan B
Given you're using the BCS and want to display both unstructured content (the files) and application data that shares metadata with the files, you could try the following. It will require some coding knowledge. You can make connections between web parts in SharePoint Designer but this will need Visual Studio
create a custom search results web page, and use the standard core search results web part along with separate data web part for displaying the application data
create a custom query box for entering the search query, probably best done with separate fields for the metadata - case ID, case name etc. (You'd normally use a data filter web part, but that won't pass results through to the normal search results - you need to code to run two queries)
format and pass the query to both the core search results web part, and the BCS data web part, to display items that match the query
That's probably as much as I can help with. The SharePoint section on MSDN should be the next port of call. Good luck!
This may be an overly simplistic explanation to keep the response as short as possible.
For your search results page, the best approach when also retrieving application data is to not present that information in the core search results web part. Exclude it from the default scope. Instead, use a federated search results web part added to the results page. You'll also need to create the corresponding federation location for the scope (easy to do), and you can then use XSLT to style the display of the results - application data needs to be presented differently to links to files and web pages.
Then, a search for say the case ID, will display all files containing that information in the core search results web part, and will display any matching application data in the federated results web part, with the different formatting applied. Note - there will be no connection between the two. The only relationship is that they both match the search query. It is possible to connect web parts to filter one based on the selected value in another, but it's an entirely different approach and not easily done using search results.
This is my first time that I am working on a big project for a client. So I was not sure how to solve this problem. However I have come up with two different ideas but I need professionals opinion about which one is better :)
Situation :
There is an application which runs on different client's iPad. Application data is stored by using giant XML file. This XML file is shared among all client by a server. So a server has a centralised copy and each client has their own copy. Once client made changes to their XML copy they updates server copy in and other client updates their copy by updated server copy.
Now only one client can make changes at one time, To fix this I have logic by which before client starts editing XML they need to get ownership from server and server will only allow one client to edit at one time.
Visual Representation :
Now on client side I have to think of a logic by which I will update my client copy and upload it to server. There are two options,
Option 1 :
In option 1, I can directly manipulate XML file by using GDataXML parser and upload that copy to server. For persistence I can save client copy on my iPad in document directory.
Option 2 :
In option 2, I can read XML file create a CoreData representation for local storage. When ever I update data inside core data it will I will change XML file too and than upload that file on server. Double work but I guess better persistence.
Now which one more robust and advisable? Personally I was planning to do option 2 because it seems more robust as I am persisting application data in core data. But option 1 seems more easy work but I don't know how good persistency will remain.
Sorry for lengthy question,
Thanks for any input given.
There are a number of factors which would influence selecting the second option over the first.
How big is the XML file? If you need to work with very large documents, you may need to incrementally parse the XML (SAX) into core data. This will allow you to access the document's contents without loading it all into memory at once.
Do you need to run complex queries in the data? If so, you may be better off using core data fetch predicates, rather than xpath or XSL.
Are you already using core data? Depending on how the XML data is structured, it might be simpler overall to import the data into your existing persistent store.
Otherwise, you can probably make due with parsing the entire document and either traversing the resulting tree or querying with xpath.
If you need to create an object graph based on what you get from server and show it to user (which you most probably need to do), you should stick up to second option, since it allows easy and robust data persistence.
If you do not need to present user with any data from the XML file you can, of course, store it in the Documents directory.
So, if this is a client application and it has at least some visual representation of the data from an XML file you should use CoreData.
If you want a regular update of data , then use CoreData