Store your SQL database in the same location as live

I do a lot of moving of databases between development and production servers.  If I’m lucky, the production server I’m working with gives me access to DTS services, or even the Database publishing wizard.  More often than not however, the SQLServer I’m pushing to is locked down in a way that I am required to Remote Desktop into the server, then update the database via restore.

So here’s the tip.  When you’re only means of updating a remote SQLServer database is by physically restoring the database, do your best to mirror the product server’s database location on your development machine.  Check out this screenshot, and you’ll see what I mean

MSSQL : Restore Files and Filegroups

The background of this image shows that my production server houses all of it’s databases at the path C:DBdatabase.mdf.

The lower right box shows where I keep my databases on my development server. Since I do not store any vital data on my C: drive, I’ve changed the path to D:DB.

While this isn’t an exact path match, this trick saves me a little bit of time and frustration when restoring a database remotely.  Especially when I have to do it more than a handful of times in the same day.

It’s assumed you know how to the following  :

• Back up a SQLServer database
• Copy the BAK file to a remote server
• Connect remotely to your SQLServer
• Restore a Database file from a file ( BAK file )

Keyboard doesn’t release a RadioButtonGroup’s focus

Today I was using Alert.show() while building a RadioButtonGroup change handler and noticed something interesting.

If you use your mouse to change the values of a RadioButtonGroup, Alert.show() will behave like a proper modal dialog.
However, if you use your keyboard’s arrow keys to toggle the values, the focus remains with your RadioButtonGroup.

The lesson here is since the focus remains with my RadioButtonGroup, you can continue to change the values all you want via keyboard.
In my situation, I kept receiving Alert.show()s, instead of one.

Try it for yourself.
First click on a RadioButton below, and notice that the Alert.show() keeps you from clicking on the RadioButtonGroup until you OK the prompt.

Now try the same thing again using your keyboard. If you do it enough times, the prompts will cover up the stage completely.

http://www.ericfickes.com/v1/code/flexRadioButtonAlertShow/alertblur.html

Create an iPhone version of your RSS feed easy

Here’s a sweet utility site, Intersquash.com. It’s a super fast way to create an iPhone friendly view of your RSS feed.

Here’s the iPhone version of ericfickes.com on Intersquash.

Pretty sweet service.

Arnold prank calls

Here’s a simple Flex soundboard with the Arnold prank phone calls.
If you haven’t heard these prank calls yet, what are you waiting for? Get flash 9 if you don’t already have it, then get ready to LYFAO!

http://ericfickes.com/v1/code/flexsoundboard/soundboard.html

Launch the arnold soundboard in a new window