Razorleaf Corporation » Utilities

Searching Tip: Context

Jonathan Scott — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 03:29:48 +0000

Are you ready to take your search capabilities to the next level? If you’re like many professionals today, you’re inundated by information at work, and sifting Read More...

Inforbix Gets Started

Jonathan Scott — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:24:00 +0000

For those of you familiar with the key players at Dassault, ENOVIA, and SmarTeam over the years, you probably know Oleg Shilovitsky. Oleg is the former Read More...

Microsoft’s Free XML Editor

Paul Gimbel — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:02:46 +0000

XML is the wonder of the modern programming age. Its plain text can represent objects with properties and attributes to capture complex structures in a simple text file. And it’s even fairly easy to understand. Just look at it. It’s logical. But as logical as XML is, when you look at an XML file in production, it’s huge, convoluted, and impossible to grasp in one glimpse inside of Notepad. Lucky for us, our friends at Microsoft have come up with an answer in their free XML Notepad 2007 tool. After installing XML Notepad 2007 (you can download it from Microsoft’s site or from Codeplex), the tool is simple to launch and use. In Windows Explorer, simply right-select any XML file and choose the option Edit with XML Notepad. The interface is intuitive and an easy way to view and edit XML files. One tab provides a tree view that allows you to collapse and expand each section to drill down quickly. Another tab provides a preview of the file, once the specified XSL transform has been applied. Copy, paste, search, replace, and other standard editor functions are there along with XML-specific menus that let you insert elements, attributes and so on. An error list window at the bottom of the editor warns of any problems in real time, and a dynamic help window displays the xsd:documentation for nodes as they are selected. And perhaps best of all, elements are color-coded based on element type, making the content easy to scan visually. XML is becoming more and more important when working with software. And this free tool from Microsoft is a great way to work with XML. Download it and try it for yourself. Oh yeah, and did we mention that it is Open Source (for those of you looking for a good code base in creating your own specialized XML editing app). If you have other XML editing tools that you think are great (we like Notepad++, too), leave us a comment and let us know about them, please.

Microsoft’s Free XML Editor

Paul Gimbel — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:02:46 +0000

XML is the wonder of the modern programming age. Its plain text can represent objects with properties and attributes to capture complex structures in a simple Read More...

Autocomplete and IntelliSense

Jonathan Scott — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:39:45 +0000

If you’ve been developing programs for a while, you probably either love autocompletion features or you hate them. If you’re in the former camp, or you’re just getting started with programming, this tip is just for you. Autocomplete, or the Microsoft equivalent, IntelliSense, is a feature within certain software that tries to automatically complete what you’ve started typing before you finish typing all of the letters yourself. For a lot of people, this is a real time-saver and can prevent typographical mistakes. But what if you’re working on code in a text file, or in a development environment that doesn’t have autocomplete? Here are a few utilities that can help you out.

PhraseExpress

A freeware utility (with a commercial cousin), PhraseExpress offers autotext (text substitution), autocomplete (finishing what you start to type), spell checking, and a program launcher (from text shortcuts). The interface is polished, and options for the various autocompletions appear in contextual menus. The tool includes some advanced features, too, like the ability to include formatting and images in the inserted text (more useful for email signatures and the like than for coding applications).

Texter

If you haven’t browsed through the Lifehacker website, checking out the Texter tool might be your introduction to a new resource. The folks over at Lifehacker offer a number of time-saving tips, and they actually wrote Texter. This open source Windows application runs in the system tray as a universal text substitution tool, meaning it works in any Microsoft Windows application. You can start with basic things like replacing text using a hotstring. For example, when I type “newSTUtil” and then the TAB key, Texter will replace “newST” with “Set SmUtil = SmSession.GetService("SmUtil.SmSessionUtil")” You can see how this would be handy for enhancing simple coding tools like BasicScript, the development utility that is included with ENOVIA SmarTeam.

TypingAid

Another very basic tool, TypingAid requires you to setup a text substitution list (wordlist.txt) to use as its “guide”. Based on the content of this file, the executable watches what you type and suggests possible matches from your wordlist.txt file. You simply choose the number of the entry that you want to use, and your text is automatically completed. It’s very simple, but very effective. TypingAid is also available as open source software.

AutoHotKey

AutoHotKey (AHK) is the granddaddy of all Microsoft Windows-based autocomplete utilities. In fact, Texter and TypingAid (mentioned above) are both written in AutoHotKey’s scripting language. AHK is useful for a lot more than text substitution and autocompletion, though – you can automate any series of keystrokes or mouse clicks by hand or through the use of AHK’s macro recorder. What’s more, you can compile your AutoHotKey macros into their own executables that can be run on other computers that don’t have AutoHotKey installed. So there you have it, IntelliSense everywhere (in Microsoft Windows at least), and for free too. What are your favorite productivity enhancing tools for programming? Leave us a comment below and share your tips and tricks.

Internet-Based Clipboard

Derek Neiding — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:10:49 +0000

Have you ever needed to copy text or a complex hyperlink between two different computers? Of course you have. Depending on how often you do this Read More...

Multiple Vaults in Aras Innovator for Global PLM Support

Dennis Lindinger — Sat, 01 May 2010 01:53:01 +0000

The majority of businesses these days have a need to manage documents in at least one location other than the “main” site. If the documents have any size to them, the vaulting process can be very painful and time consuming, regardless of the PLM system in use. Luckily, most PLM systems, including Aras Innovator, have the ability to house vaults in multiple locations to support such a multi-site environment. This allows for the vaulting operations to be moved local to the user, saving time and money. To create a new vault in Aras Innovator, follow these few steps:

Allocate a server at the secondary location (Site 2) that is capable of running Windows Internet Information Server (IIS) and has sufficient available storage to house the vaulted files.
Run the Innovator setup, InnovatorSetup.msi, to begin the installation process.
Perform a custom installation and select the Vault Server setup component only.
Choose a name for the vault. The default name in the installation is “Default”. You may already have a vault named “Default” in your Innovator environment, so you should specify a different name. A name indicating the location can be helpful when looking at a list of Innovator vault names.
The installation will also ask for the Application Server URL. This is the URL to the Innovator server instance at Site 1. The URL has the following form, http:////Server/InnovatorServer.aspx. The hostname and alias can be gleaned from an existing Innovator shortcut.
Identify the local path on the server where the vaulted files will be stored.
Complete the installation.
Browse the installation path and open the file VaultServerConfig.xml in a text file editor. Confirm that the (from Step 5) and (from Step 4) parameters are correct per the values entered during the installation.
Login to Innovator as an administrator and expand the Administration -> Vaults branch of the tree.
Add a new vault record.
Set the Name on the form to the vault name used during the installation (Step 4).
Set the Vault URL to http:///vault/VaultServer.aspx.
Save, unlock and close the Vault record.
Update the Default Vault value on the user records that will be using the Site 2 vault.
Login as one of the Site 2 users and create a new document object and attach a file to it. Unlock the document object.
Confirm that the file has been added to the Site 2 vault in the path specified in Step 6.

While implementing additional vaults adds some hardware and software administration overhead, the performance gains from the use of vaults local to the users can be significant and greatly enhance the user’s experience and efficiency with the software. For more information or help on setting up an Aras Innovator multi-site environment, please contact us.

Defragmenting VMs for Performance

Jonathan Scott — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:30:08 +0000

If you’ve worked with virtualization long enough, you may have noticed that performance can degrade over time. This phenomenon is related to disk fragmentation, particularly in Read More...

Accessing Virtual Disks Via Windows

Steve Dunn — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:30:24 +0000

One of the often overlooked features of VMWare Workstation is the Virtual Disk Mapping utility. Available through the standard VMware Workstation GUI, the tool maps a Read More...

ENOVIA SmarTeam V5R20 New Features

Jonathan Scott — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:45:55 +0000

ENOVIA SmarTeam V5R20 was released for General Availability (GA) in February, 2010. Service Pack 1 was co-released, so effectively it can be considered part of “what’s Read More...