SQL, VB, MicroStrategy & Other Topics

To fill up my database with test data, I needed to generate dummy text, phone numbers, social security numbers etc. There are data generators out there, but i wanted to write my own, so here it is... ALTER FUNCTION dbo . fn_WORD_JUMBLER (       @Text VARCHAR ( MAX ) = '' ,       @DataType INT = 0 , -- 0 = random text, 1 = random number       @DataLenth INT = 10     ) RETURNS VARCHAR ( MAX ) AS BEGIN /* USAGE: SELECT dbo.fn_word_jumbler('ankeet Is Awesome!', DEFAULT, DEFAULT) SELECT dbo.fn_word_jumbler('1234567890ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ', DEFAULT, DEFAULT) -- ALPHABETS SELECT dbo.fn_word_jumbler(DEFAULT, 0, DEFAULT) -- NUMBERS SELECT dbo.fn_word_jumbler(DEFAULT, 1, DEFAULT) ============================================================================= Created By: Ankeet Shah Purpose: Accepts an input and Returns the same text in reor...

When I take a break from work, I pretty much just find a personal project to get busy with! This time it was the Network Widget in MicroStrategy 9.3.0 that got me busy. I have been working on my family tree using Legacy Genealogy software. Being of the Indian (East) ancestry, I wanted to represent the relationships using terms from Indian languages. For example, mother's brother in English is Uncle  but in Gujarati/Hindi is Mama . Father's brother in English is Uncle  but in Gujarati/Hindi is Kaka  and Chacha  respectively. I wanted to make a 'dashboard' of my own that would represent these terms and allow me to filter by family members and individuals. So I started with a database. Since this is just a proof of concept (to myself), I decided to keep the design pretty simple. Database Design The design comprises simply of 3 tables. First and foremost are two 'primary' tables - tblRelationships and tblFamilyMembers. tblRelationships defines relationship nam...

Recently I ran across the following error while trying to run a report. My "mini" data warehouse is stored in Microsoft Access. Report: Transactions for Heatmap Job: 836 Status: Execution failed Error: SQL Generation Complete QueryEngine encountered error: Execute Query failed.  Error type: Odbc error. Odbc operation attempted: SQLExecDirect. [42000:-1809: on SQLHANDLE] [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Cannot modify the design of table 'TTLOR2BS4MD000'. It is in a read-only database . Connection String: DSN=AnkeetFinancials;DBQ=C:\Users\ashah\Documents\AnkeetPersonalTransactions\FinancialTransactions.accdb;DRIVERID=25;FIL=MS Access;MAXBUFFERSIZE=2048;PAGETIMEOUT=5;UID=admin;. SQL Statement: create table TTLOR2BS4MD000 ( Transaction_Category TEXT(255),  Statement_End_Date TIMESTAMP,  Account_ID LONG,  WJXBFS1 LONG,  WJXBFS2 DOUBLE) ..  QueryEngine encountered error: Report [Transactions for Heatmap]: Drop table error: DBI...

Here is more comprehensive blog regarding silent installation.  Ignore/Excuse the document format as it is a copy/paste from Microsoft Word. 1.                Required Components 1.        Setup.exe along with supporting installation files for MicroStrategy product 2.        Response.ini 3.        Setup.iss – file containing responses to required input by InstallShield during installation 4.        Batch File - .bat file containing the command to be executed 1.1.          Setup.exe Setup.exe is shipped with other MicroStrategy installation files. Usually downloaded as a zip file and can be unzipped to any location. For purposes of Silent Install, this file could be located locally or on a network drive. 1.2.    ...

Obtain the Hotfix 4 zip file and unzip it (locally or on network). Make sure there are HFResponse.ini and HFSetup.iss files in the unzipped folder. If all is good, use the below script and create a batch file to install Hoftix 4 via Command Prompt. "Path_to_hotfix_unzipped_files\setup.exe" -L0009 --ResponseFile="Path_to_hotfix_unzipped_files\HFResponse.ini" -f1 "Path_to_hotfix_unzipped_files\HFsetup.iss" -f2"c:\silentinstall\setup.log"

Create a batch file "install.bat" (name does not matter) with the following command line: "Path_to_setup_file\setup.exe" -L0009 --ResponseFile=" Path_to_setup_file \response.ini" -f1" Path_to_setup_file \setup.iss" -f2"c:\setup.log" Path_to_setup_file above should be replaced with actual path to the setup.exe for the version you are trying to uninstall. The setup files can be located on remote server. Make sure to provide a proper fully qualified UNC path. Use the below response file. Response file should be named response.ini and should be saved in the same location as setup.exe. Below script only installs Desktop and Narrowcast. If you would like to install additional components, make necessary changes. Also notice that the below script will force a reboot of your system. Most errors encountered during installation will be logged in c:\setup.log. Again, feel free to change the location of the setup.log file. [Installer]  HideA...