Solving the "Cannot display this help file" error with Windows Help (.hlp) Files Under Vista/Windows 7/and later

This blog post provides simple step-by-step solutions to getting Windows Help files to display under Windows Vista/ Windows 7.NOTE: Microsoft Help Viewer is not installed as standard in any of the newer operating systems (Microsoft is actively discouraging it's use). In order to add this feature to you system consult this Mircosoft Knowledgebase Article;http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607This gives you the information you need to install the Help...

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Noetix: Including the GL Cost in the GMF_Item_Costs Template

This blog post covers how to add in a field called GL_Cost_Item_Period_Total which displays the GL Cost from the GMF.GL_ITEM_CST table for both Release 11i and Release 12 of Oracle E-Business Suite.The field uses a sub-query as a comparison between adding in the table and doing a sub-query revealed that adding the table causes rows to be excluded from the result set (and therefore is a big Noetix No-No).The SQL required for Release 11 (in the column definition) is;(SELECT MAX(GIC.ACCTG_COST)   FROM GMF.GL_ITEM_CST GIC  WHERE 1=1 ...

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SSRS: Deployment Problems With Large Data Models

This blog post describes how to solve the "Maximum request length exceeded" error when deploying large data models; the "maximum" size of the XML file the Report Server is expecting.The ProblemThe problem is easily sumarised by the actual error message;The text of the message reads;"There was an exception running the extensions specified in the config file. ---> Maximum request length exceeded."What this actually means is that you've tried...

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SSRS: Dynamically Linking Reports Together

This blog post provides a step-by-step guide with a worked example of how to link together two reports without hard-coding report paths (allowing you to migrate reports from Development > Testing > Live without having to worry about changing code to make sure, for example, your Live report is not linking to a Development report).By far the easiest way to work through this is to look at a specific example.BackgroundLet us assume we have two...

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Councillors Right of Access to Information and Confidentiality

This blog post summarises the statutory right of access to information available to Councillors across the political spectrum in the UK. It is by no means exhaustive. I am by no means a legal expert! All Councillors should be aware of who is fulfilling the "Monitoring Officer" role at their Council and this is the best person to ask regarding access to information and confidentiality.Hopefully this will be useful to Councillors (primarily opposition Councillors - of which I am one) across England.(Of course if you are a member of the public and...

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Installing Active Directory Tools Under Windows Vista (SP2)

This blog post is a step-by-step guide to installing the Active Directory Tools (i.e. Active Directory Users and Computers) on a Windows Vista machine. It has been tested on Windows Vista Enterprise (32-bit, Service Pack 2) but will probably work with all non-home versions.First of all you need to download the software from Microsoft. If you type "windows vista remote server administration tools" into Google one of the results it returns will be...

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SSRS: Working With Oracle Database Parameters In Report Builder 3

This Knol gives a simple example which shows some of the tricks/ ways of working you might like to use then writing SSRS reports against a back-end Oracle system.The first thing to do is to open Report Builder, create a new dataset, connect to any Oracle database (the SQL we'll be using will run against any system), and then paste in the SQL;SELECT  TRUNC(SYSDATE) as TODAYS_DATE,  :Where_Test as TEST_PARAMETERFROM DUALWHERE 'TEST' = :Where_TestAs...

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Noetix: Adding a new Z$ Column Reference

Sometimes you need to add an additional Z$ column to link between two view. This Google Knol tells you what you need to know to make a simple customisation.NOTE: It's worth pointing out that there are a narrow range of customisations supported by Noetix and this isn't one of them. If you have purchased NCM (Noetix Customisation Maintenance) then it's likely that you can get them to support this enhancement but it's at the discretion of whoever handles your NCM files.We will be making this change to the template for a view - what this means is if...

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C# Programming Test #1

Interview testEver needed a simple test to get that interviewee talking? The point of this Knol is to provide you with a small code sample to discuss with an applicant.Given the size of the world and the number of companies in it it's pretty unlikely that either a) whoever you give this test to (as a company) will have read this, or b) if you memorise this (as an interviewee) that this will be the test the company uses.It's just a bit of fun that comes after I realised that I'd written some technically correct but logically incorrect code. Hope...

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