Elegant debug statements

I recently uploaded an OpenInsight 10 lesson and at the beginning of the video I talk about a rogue debug statement that I had left in my code in the previous video (on purpose you understand).

Mark Marsh (Professional OpenInsight Application Developer) emailed me with an extremely useful tip to using debug statements in code and which will avoid the issue and embarrassment of leaving a rogue debug statement in your code.  It is also great for those of you with OpenInsight development teams because the trick is user specific.

I’d like to offer Mark a huge thank you for sharing this invaluable tip with me and for enabling me to then share it with you.

You can see the video here and the tip is in the video comments – it’s well worth a look.

Videoing your OI based application

I’ll be the first to admit that, the above image is not a very pretty sight, but this is where is all happens – the recording of my YouTube videos of course.

It is a hive of furious activity at the moment and I really cannot crank out these OpenInsight 10 (OI10) lessons quickly enough.

Anyway, a few people have been asking me what I use, how I prepare, what my workflow is and the like.  This has got me thinking and it builds on a conversation that I’ve been having with one of my UK VARs over recent months.

I am considering offering my skills to any Revelation Software VAR who needs to put together one or more videos for their OpenInsight based application.  This could be a short introduction video, a training video or three, or anything else that you need.  These would primarily be screen cast type videos, but we could consider personal videos (i.e. you in the video) if you prefer.  That said, this proposal is more about getting your application in front of people and having it on YouTube, Vimeo or wherever you prefer.

Video really is one of the first ports of call when people are researching and evaluating things and software is no exception.

So, if this is something that you might be interested in exploring please comment below, or drop me an email if you’d prefer to keep things offline.

 

 

Increased OpenInsight 10 WORKS User Count

Those of you that have been watching my initial OpenInsight 10 videos, will not have failed to notice the OI Management Console and the tools that this powerful feature brings to all OpenInsight 10 (OI10) Systems Administrators.

Not only does it expose some really useful information and statistics, as well as much easier remote configuration, but it makes administering a live system so much easier through the brand new Command Channel.  The guys at RevUS touched on this in their recent Introduction to the Features and Benefits of OpenInsight 10 Webinar and I show working it in my video which provides a Quick Overview of OI10.  Jump to around 12 minutes and you’ll see the Management Console running as an O4W application in the built in OI10 browser on screen.

Anyway, interest in the Management Console was high following the Webinar and a thread appeared on www.revelation.com with regards to some people having trouble running the Management Console and needing a 10 user O4W license to run it.  Whilst running it online is super useful and convenient because System Administrators can access the Management Console from anywhere in the world and at any time, some people might just want to run it locally from their desktop using their OI WORKS license.  This is how I ran the system in the videos.

Even in this local based setup, O4W and the Management Console consumes an additional license, or two – it’s the nature of O4W.  Now, I’ve sat in many a presentation for software where the vendor says “Hey, we have this amazing module, it’ll change your life and that of your users.  Ohh, but it’s going to cost you …”.  Heads quickly fall like a child being offered a big bag of colourful sweets, only for the parent demanding a week’s worth of chores to be completed before access is granted to the bag of sweets.

Revelation Software have once again shown its ongoing commitment
to its OI WORKS community.

It looked like Revelation Software were heading down this same route, but, true to form, Bill told me about an OI WORKS discussion forum posting from Bob Catalano over the weekend.  In the posting, Bob confirms that the Management Console will not function with the usual 2 user OI WORKS license and because of this a decision has been made to increase all existing 2 user WORKS licenses to a 3 user license.

This is brilliant news, it shows Revelations commitment to its highly valued OpenInsight WORKS community of professional application developers and it provides yet more value from the, already, invaluable WORKS subscription service/license.  However, those of you opting for the cheaper NUL based license for your developers will need to look at increasing your NUL license accordingly and in the normal license increase manner.

If you are an active WORKS subscriber looking to work with OI10, please log into WORKS and head over to the WORKS forum for further details on claiming your new OI10 authorisation key.

If you are an expired OI WORKS subscriber or wish to get onto OI WORKS to gain access to OpenInsight 10, please contact your local Revelation office and one of us will be more than pleased to discuss your needs.

 

Quick Catch Up

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQlgupnihVejmHBPzbKlJeA

So, I’ve been quiet on the blog for a few days but I’ve been far from quiet in the office.  As well as the day job, I have been busy creating OpenInsight 10 (OI10) Lesson videos and there are currently ten lessons online.  I’m now getting into building forms, so now is a good time to head over to my new OI10 YouTube Channel, catch up on what I’ve been doing and also please remember to subscribe.

Subscribing and commenting lets me know that it is worth my time creating these videos and that people are finding them useful or not.  If you are a positive comment, a like and subscribe online would be welcome.  If not, please drop me an email explaining why and I’ll try to change before I get too much further into the series.

I am also pleased to feature the RevUS DBTA video from yesterday.  This is a video that features Mike Ruane, Bryan Shumsky and Bob Catalano (all from Revelation Software in the USA) all talking about the many “Features and Benefits of OpenInsight 10”.

In addition, and a first for my YouTube channels, I have a guest presenter.  Andrew from Sprezzatura worked on something for me recently and which will become a big time saver and another example of using the OI10 tool set, rather than cutting and maintaining code.  His video went live this afternoon on the channel.

Anyway, please like, subscribe and comment and help me to keep putting in the hours to get the series of lessons completed and, once that’s done, I’ll be looking for other OI related subjects, hints, tips and how-to’s to video.

The channel can be found here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQlgupnihVejmHBPzbKlJeA