Comments on: WinPHP Challenge http://akrabat.com/winphp-challenge/winphp-challenge/ Developing PHP software in the Real World, by Rob Allen Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:53:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sam Hennessy http://akrabat.com/winphp-challenge/winphp-challenge/#comment-25569 Sam Hennessy Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:06:42 +0000 http://akrabat.com/?p=513#comment-25569 Good job on entering into the comp. To me the dump tool would be the best fit for what I think they are looking for. Good job on entering into the comp. To me the dump tool would be the best fit for what I think they are looking for.

]]> By: Rob... http://akrabat.com/winphp-challenge/winphp-challenge/#comment-25488 Rob... Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:11:34 +0000 http://akrabat.com/?p=513#comment-25488 Brendon, Essentially :) It's a long while since I last tried it, but I could never get it working reliably for me on XP's IIS and it seemed to try and be a copy of the desktop version but on the web. Brendon,

Essentially :)

It's a long while since I last tried it, but I could never get it working reliably for me on XP's IIS and it seemed to try and be a copy of the desktop version but on the web.

]]> By: Brendon Kozlowski http://akrabat.com/winphp-challenge/winphp-challenge/#comment-25487 Brendon Kozlowski Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:59:52 +0000 http://akrabat.com/?p=513#comment-25487 Rob, something like Microsoft's own "SQL Server Web Data Administrator"? :) Rob, something like Microsoft's own "SQL Server Web Data Administrator"? :)

]]> By: Rob... http://akrabat.com/winphp-challenge/winphp-challenge/#comment-25468 Rob... Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:10:47 +0000 http://akrabat.com/?p=513#comment-25468 One other minor issue is that we have to connect to a VPN before we can use the SQL Server manager to connect to the database. Whenever we do this, we lose DNS for anything outside the network we connect to. Again, we know nothing about Windows network administration, so don't know if this is our fault or the just the way the clients's IT dept has set up the VPN. It always seems to me that the VPN takes two or three attempts to actually get a connection and is forever dropping out if you connect and then don't do anything with it for an hour or two. It'd be much simpler to be able to query the data from a web browser over SSL. One other minor issue is that we have to connect to a VPN before we can use the SQL Server manager to connect to the database. Whenever we do this, we lose DNS for anything outside the network we connect to. Again, we know nothing about Windows network administration, so don't know if this is our fault or the just the way the clients's IT dept has set up the VPN. It always seems to me that the VPN takes two or three attempts to actually get a connection and is forever dropping out if you connect and then don't do anything with it for an hour or two.

It'd be much simpler to be able to query the data from a web browser over SSL.

]]> By: Rob... http://akrabat.com/winphp-challenge/winphp-challenge/#comment-25467 Rob... Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:07:58 +0000 http://akrabat.com/?p=513#comment-25467 Stuart, Mainly because we have nothing but trouble with it. We have one client that uses Windows/SQL Server and whenever we get a new BAK file from then and restore it locally, we enter a world of pain. Even the restore is not easy as you have to remember to check the correct boxes on the Options tab and alter the file paths to the database. The main issue however is that after restore, the user that owns the tables in the database is not the user with the same name that is in the Security section. This means that we have to change the owner of all the tables to dbo so we can delete the user within the database. We can then assign the user within Security to the database and get on with life. It's a right pain when you only touch SQL Server once ever 3 or 4 months. I don't know anything about replication, does it work well if you leave the VM turned off for months at a time before you come back to do some maintenance? I've always thought of it as a production thing to share data between primary and secondary servers. Related to that is that as we rarely use SQL Server, we don't know the manager problem. It's slow too as everything seems to be hidden within a right clicked menu. A final minor issue is that I can't diff the backups to find out what's changed. (Maybe I can, but haven't worked out how to in the Express manager thing!) Essentially all of our problems lie in the fact that we don't know the MS way and it doesn't fit the workflow of bash scripts that we currently have. The biggest thing that I am hoping to get out of this competition is a better understanding of how to actually use an MS stack when 95% of your work is nix based. Stuart,

Mainly because we have nothing but trouble with it. We have one client that uses Windows/SQL Server and whenever we get a new BAK file from then and restore it locally, we enter a world of pain. Even the restore is not easy as you have to remember to check the correct boxes on the Options tab and alter the file paths to the database.

The main issue however is that after restore, the user that owns the tables in the database is not the user with the same name that is in the Security section. This means that we have to change the owner of all the tables to dbo so we can delete the user within the database. We can then assign the user within Security to the database and get on with life. It's a right pain when you only touch SQL Server once ever 3 or 4 months.

I don't know anything about replication, does it work well if you leave the VM turned off for months at a time before you come back to do some maintenance? I've always thought of it as a production thing to share data between primary and secondary servers.

Related to that is that as we rarely use SQL Server, we don't know the manager problem. It's slow too as everything seems to be hidden within a right clicked menu.

A final minor issue is that I can't diff the backups to find out what's changed. (Maybe I can, but haven't worked out how to in the Express manager thing!)

Essentially all of our problems lie in the fact that we don't know the MS way and it doesn't fit the workflow of bash scripts that we currently have. The biggest thing that I am hoping to get out of this competition is a better understanding of how to actually use an MS stack when 95% of your work is nix based.

]]> By: Stuart Herbert http://akrabat.com/winphp-challenge/winphp-challenge/#comment-25455 Stuart Herbert Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:55:29 +0000 http://akrabat.com/?p=513#comment-25455 Rob ... why not just use a standard SQL Server data backup? It's binary, but it can be rsynced just fine. Or you could setup replication. SQL Server's replication is very nice; I find it much easier to work with than MySQL's. Rob ... why not just use a standard SQL Server data backup? It's binary, but it can be rsynced just fine.

Or you could setup replication. SQL Server's replication is very nice; I find it much easier to work with than MySQL's.

]]> By: Rob... http://akrabat.com/winphp-challenge/winphp-challenge/#comment-25449 Rob... Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:11:47 +0000 http://akrabat.com/?p=513#comment-25449 Hi Stuart, The entire lot into one file. Would make me more comfortable as a back up and I can rsync it around easily. Assuming I can find a good rsync for Windows... Regards, Rob... Hi Stuart,

The entire lot into one file. Would make me more comfortable as a back up and I can rsync it around easily. Assuming I can find a good rsync for Windows...

Regards,

Rob...

]]> By: Stuart Herbert http://akrabat.com/winphp-challenge/winphp-challenge/#comment-25448 Stuart Herbert Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:59:32 +0000 http://akrabat.com/?p=513#comment-25448 Hi Rob, Welcome to the competition :) Do you want to dump the data or the schema out into a single file? Dumping the schema used to be very easy to do. Dumping the data used to require third-party tools. This was back in the SQL Server 2000 days. Best regards, Stu Hi Rob,

Welcome to the competition :)

Do you want to dump the data or the schema out into a single file? Dumping the schema used to be very easy to do. Dumping the data used to require third-party tools. This was back in the SQL Server 2000 days.

Best regards,
Stu

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