Oracle ApEx Request That Will Submit Requested Page Though Link

Posted on September 8, 2010 by ryelpango

There is a very useful Oracle ApEx REQUEST constant called BRANCH_TO_PAGE_ACCEPT. If included in a URL, the request will process the page as if it was submitted. Now think about this for a minute because this is a useful tool that can enhance your application dramatically. I will provide an example to make my point. Traditionally clicking on a URL in ApEx will simply load the page requested. Loading a page means that the “After Submit Processes” region in ApEx will never be triggered. As a consequence most programmers will plug their process in in “Before Header” or “After Header” point in their page process restricted via some execution condition. This is highly inefficient because it means that the process will be evaluated every time the page is accessed.

To improve this process, add a BRANCH_TO_PAGE_ACCEPT Request in your Column Link. This modification will submit the page requested which will then allow you to place the process in the “After Submit” region. Execution of the block will be more targetted making you application more efficient.
BRANCH_TO_PAGE_ACCEPT
The request looks something like this:

f?p=&APP_ID.:23:&SESSION.:BRANCH_TO_PAGE_ACCEPT:&DEBUG.::P0_REQ_ID:#ID#

Happy Coding!

Posted in ApEx, Oracle | Tagged | 2 Comments

If You’re Turning, Then Please Indicate

Posted on July 21, 2010 by ryelpango

Super HeroWe don’t all possess superpowers. In fact, like me, a lot of us cannot read minds. There’s this great gadget invented which is installed on all vehicles called the signal light. The idea is if you intend to make a left or right turn, you flick this little lever near your steering wheel to the direction where you expect to turn into. This action will activate the signal light on the outside of your vehicle, on the left or right side, depending on which direction you flicked the lever.

These set of actions effectively communicates where the driver intends to go, well before he/she gets there. This is necessary so that everyone else around him/her can negotiate their manoeuvres effectively, all in the effort of preventing an accident.

roundabout signI want to focus the attention to a specific scenario – The dreaded roundabout. I don’t know about you but I think that there’s an unwritten rule that you have to go through a roundabout as fast as possible and signalling is optional. Throw in pedestrians and bicycle riders in the mix and the result could be catastrophic.

Every driver on the road has a responsibility. A responsibility to be up to date with their knowledge of the road rules, to obey these rules, be considerate when driving and to drive safely at all times. I think a lot of us forget how dangerous it is to be on or near the roads.

Please always remember.

Posted in Driving, Vehicles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Removing Folder With Reserved Names in Windows

Posted on May 13, 2010 by ryelpango

I’ve written a file archiving process in ASP that auto creates the directory structure on the main archive folder. The process uses the first four characters of the file to create the directory. It then proceeds to place the file in that directory. As a result all files with common first four characters are placed in a single directory.

Anyway, one of the files archived had the name LPT199999.csv. The ASP process created the archive directory with the name LPT1 and placed the file in it with no issues at all. The only problem is LPT1 is a reserve-word, and when you try to copy this directory to another, it fails with the following error:

 Copy Reserve Name Folder

When you try to delete the folder named LPT1, you get the following error:

Delete Reserve Name Folder

Fortunately, there is a way to delete the directory and prevent further problems. You need to use a syntax that bypasses the typical reserve-word checks completely. For example, you can possibly remove any directory with a command such as:

RMDIR \\.\driveletter:\path\filename

eg. In my case, I deleted all files in the LPT1 directory and ran the following command to remove the directory:

RMDIR \\.\C:\backupdir\LPT1

That’s it… Too easy!

Posted in Kernel, Windows XP | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Facebook is a Time Waster

Posted on May 4, 2010 by ryelpango

Facebook suxAt some point in time, you start to wonder, how useful is Facebook.com? After you muddle through the crap that people write in their profile comment, you start to realize, what a waste of space. 99% of the stuff written on the notification is not even mildly amusing.

It’s become just another platform to promote the “look at me” generation, an era where too much attention is never enough. What do I need to write now in order to get people to comment on my post? Hmmmm… hang on… that’s not shocking or offensive enough… let me just tweak it a little… There… that’s better. You just wasted three hours of you life looking at photos of your friend’s friend’s friend who you don’t even know.

On the surface it appears to not be a problem at all. But if you think about it, it actually exposes a much bigger problem. You see, Facebook is a social “environment”, a place where children and adults alike congregate into one “event”. Once you log in, you get immersed into a world far beyond your knowledge, which can be dangerous especially if you’re a child. You get thrown into a world of unsolicited, uncensored point of views, and visual images from people who you don’t even know existed. It is a perfect example of technology trying to mimic complicated social frameworks and failed miserably.

Get a life. Go out and talk to some real people. Ban your kids from accessing Facebook or MySpace (or at least limit their time on it). I’ve deactivated my facebook profile. I was just hoping that there was a delete button so there was no turning back. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a waste of my time.

Peace.

Posted in facebook, social networking sites | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sony Ericsson W705a and PC Suite Synchronization Problem

Posted on December 23, 2009 by ryelpango

I’ve just recently acquired a Sony Ericsson W705a. Very nice phone, looks and feels good, with a premium feel. Nice navigation icons, and loaded with features. The phone came with a PC suite/PC Media Manager CD. Well, I installed the Sony Ericsson PC Suite software and found the whole process easy and the software itself was very easy to use. Youre able synch your phone’s contact list with your PC’s, backup and restore phone contents, view/edit contacts, etc.

Within the suite, under applications, you’re also able to update your phones firmware using the Sony Ericsson Update Service.

So I did.

This was when I started getting synchronisation problems. I couldn’t access the contacts on my phone anymore through the suite. I couldn’t synch my phone and computer, which kept failing with some error code I couldn’t remember.

I tried to fix the problem by updating the PC Suite, through the Help -> Search for updates option. The software advised that my version was the latest (Version 5.007.01). I tried unintalling/re-installing the suite, installing the suite to another machine (this method actually failed to recognize my phone altogether), to no avail.

Sony Ericsson PC Suite Update

Fortunately for you, the fix is quite simple:

  1.  Uninstall Sony Ericsson PC Suite on your computer.
  2. Go to http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/support/softwaredownloads/detailed/pcsuite/w705a?cc=ca&lc=en and download the latest version of the PC Suite manually (at the time of writing this article, Version 6.009.00).
  3. Install the downloaded software.

That’s it. Too easy!

Posted in Mobile Phone, Sony Ericsson W705a, Uncategorized | Leave a comment