Quality Center - Can I get the items from dropdown box in QC? - c#

I am using Quality Center's OTA API in C# and I need to get the items from the dropdowns in QC to a SQL database. Some lists weren't long so I did them manually but the [BG_PROJECT] list has a lot of items so I really don't want to do it manually. How would this be done?

On TDConnection object you have Customization property.
On it you have Customization Listening.
CustomizationLIsts allows access to all the lists defined in the project.
You can see exact api in documentation.

Dropdown list values are stored in the Customization.Lists object.
I don't know C# but I'd do it like this in VBA:
QCC As TDConnection
myList As CustomizationList
I As Integer
Initialise QCC object and connect to domain and project then:
Set myList = QCC.Customization.Lists.List("NameOfList")
For I = 1 To myList.RootNode.Children.Count
MsgBox(myList.RootNode.Children.Item(I).Name)
Next I
(Btw, I wouldn't really use MsgBox() to display each value of the list, I used it here to demonstrate my general approach).

Related

Ms Lightswitch - add dynamic (from code behind) items choice list

I am using Microsoft LightSwitch framework, need to add dynamic items in choice list. So far I found different posts saying that choice list is only for static items and you have to use a separate table if you need to populate it in non-static means.
In my case, table will also not be a good option, I want to add items manually from C# code. Actually I need to populate years combobox, for this I need to add last 3 years, current year, and one next year. This I could not achieve through static data or TABLE will also be not a good idea.
just create a lookup table and add a relationship and LS will do the rest
You can always dynamically populate the new table
Although you won't be able to delete records that have children

"Smart" SQL Update using ListBox

I am developing a project which access a database in sql server 2012 through C# and performs CRUD modifications on it. Here is the main form:
both listboxes on the right are used to deal with informations contained in an intermediate tables (many-to-many relationship). Here is how they work: Basically, you choose types and abilities from the comboboxes, then click on 'add' and they are added in the respective listboxes. To delete items in the listboxes, you just need to select one item and then click 'delete'.
Here's another print to clear any doubts:
On the first print I've provided here, you will see a 'Bulbasaur' data. The PokémonID = 1 is represented by the 'Bulbasaur'; TypeID = 1 and 12 are 'Grass' and 'Poison', respectively; and AbilityID = 1 is 'Overgrow'.
I was trying to create an update function (update_click) using sql queries (SqlCommand, SqlDataReader and so on...), but without deleting the whole associations of a pokémon and its types (and abilities) and then re-adding them, based on the new modifications on the listboxes. I want to avoid it in order to save some memory in cases that some pokémon may hold thousands of types and abilities...
Is it possible? If necessary, I can send you my C# project for more details.
I would suggest a combination of:
1) Use table-valued parameters to send all the data (in its present state in your listboxes) to your T-SQL query or stored procedure at once
2) Consider using the EXCEPT and/or INTERSECT operators (as well as any necessary LEFT or RIGHT JOIN) to compare the contents of your table-valued parameter (essentially a table itself) with the data currently in the underlying tables
3) UPDATE/DELETE/INSERT accordingly
Essentially it sounds like what you are saying you'd like to do is to only "send the changes" to the database:
add any abilities that were not there before;
remove any abilities that were in the database but have been removed
If that's the case then what you need to be able to do is simple set operations:
Set Union
Set Intersect
Set Difference
while you can perform these operations using simple arrays or lists, it is much more efficient to use an actual set implementation such as a generic HashSet<>. With a correct implementation using sets or hash tables you ca achieve linear-time performance.
I hope this helps point you in the right direction..

How to deal with deprecated values in (country-)code lists

Let's say we have a code list of all the countries including their country codes. The country code is primary key of the Countries table and it is used as a foreign key in many places in the database. In my application the countries are usually displayed as dropdowns on multiple forms.
Some of the countries, that used to exists in the past, don't exist any more, for example Serbia and Montenegro, which had the country code of SCG.
I have two objectives:
don't allow the user to use these old values (so these values should not be visible in dropdowns when inserting data)
the user should still be able to (readonly) open old stuff and in this case the deprecated values should be visible in dropdowns.
I see two options:
Rename deprecated values, for instance from 'CountryName' to '!!!!!CountryName'. This approach is the easiest to implement, but with obvious drawbacks.
Add IsActive column to Countries table and set it to false for all deprecated values and true for all other. On all the forms where the user can insert data, display only values which are active. On the readonly forms we can display all values (including deprecated ones) so the user will be able to display old data. But on some of my forms the user should be able to also edit data, which means that the deprecated values should be hidden from him. That means, that each dropbox should have some initialization logic like this: if the data displayed is readonly, then include deprecated values in dropbox and if the data is for edit also, then exclude them. But this is a lot of work and error prone too.
And other ideas?
I deal with this scenario a lot, and use the 'Active' flag to solve the problem, much as you described. When I populate a drop-down list with values, I only load 'active' data and include upto 1 deprecated value, but only if it is being used. (i.e. if I am looking at a person record, and that person has a deprecated country, then that country would be included in the Drop-downlist along with the active countries. I do this in read-only AND in edit modes, because in my cases, if a person record (for example) has a deprecated country listed, they can continue to use it, but once they change it to a non-deprecated country, and then save it, they can never switch back (your use case may vary).
So the key differences is, even in read-only mode I don't add all the deprecated countries to the DDL, just the deprecated country that applies to the record I am looking at, and even then, it is only if that record was already in use.
Here is an example of the logic I use when loading the drop down list:
protected void LoadSourceDropdownList(bool AddingNewRecord, int ExistingCode)
{
using (Entities db = new Entities())
{
if (AddingNewRecord) // when we are adding a new record, only show 'active' items in the drop-downlist.
ddlSource.DataSource = (from q in db.zLeadSources where (q.Active == true) select q);
else // for existing records, show all active items AND the current value.
ddlSource.DataSource = (from q in db.zLeadSources where ((q.Active == true) || (q.Code == ExistingCode)) select q);
ddlSource.DataValueField = "Code";
ddlSource.DataTextField = "Description";
ddlSource.DataBind();
ddlSource.Items.Insert(0, "--Select--");
ddlSource.Items[0].Value = "0";
}
}
If you are displaying the record as read-only, why bother loading the standing data at all?
Here's what I would do:
the record will contain the country code in any case, I would also propose returning the country description (which admittedly makes things less efficient), but when the user loads "old stuff", the business service recognises that this record will be read only, and you don't bother loading the country list (which would make things more efficient).
in my presentation service I will then generally do a check to see whether the list of countries is null. If not (r/w) load the data into the list box, if so (r/o) populate the list box from the data in the record - a single entry in the list equals read-only.
You can filter with CollectionViewSource or you could just create a Public Enumerable that filters the full list using LINQ.
CollectionViewSource Class
LINQ The FieldDef.DispSearch is the active condition. IEnumerable is a little better performance than List.
public IEnumerable<FieldDefApplied> FieldDefsAppliedSearch
{
get
{
return fieldDefsApplied.Where(df => df.FieldDef.DispSearch).OrderBy(df => df.FieldDef.DispName);
}
}
Why would you still want to display (for instance) customer-addresses with their OLD country-code?
If I understand correctly, you currently still have 'address'-records that still point to 'Serbia and Montenegro'. I think if you solve that problem, your current question would be none-existent.
The term "country" is perhaps a little misleading: not all the "countries" in ISO 3166 are actually independent. Rather, many of them are geographically separate territories that are legally portions or dependencies of other countries.
Also note that 'withdrawn country-codes' are reserved for 5 years, meaning that after 5 years they may be reused. So moving away from using the country-code itself as primary key would make sense to me, especially if for historical reasons you would need to back-track previous country-codes.
So why not make the 'withdrawn' field/table that points to the new country-id's. You can still check (in sql for instance, since you were already using a table) if this field is empty or not to get a true/false check if you need it.
The way I see it: "Country" codes may change, country's may merge and country's may divide.
If country's change or merge, you can update your address-records with a simple query.
If country's divide, you need a way to determine what address is part of what country.
You could use some automated system do do this (and write lengthly books about it).
OR
(when it is a forum like site), you could ask the users that still have a withdrawn country that points to multiple alternatives in their account to update their country-entry at login, where they can only choose from the list of new country's that are specified in the withdrawn field.
Think of this simplified country-table setup:
id cc cn withdrawn
1 DE Germany
2 CS Serbia and Montenegro 6,7
3 RH Southern Rhodesia 5
4 NL The Netherlands
5 ZW Zimbabwe
6 RS Serbia
7 ME Montenegro
In this example, address-records with country-id 3, get updated with a query to country-id 5, no user interaction (or other solution) needed.
But address-records that specify country-id 2 will be asked to select country-id 6 or 7 (of course in the text presented to the user you use the country-name) or are selected to perform your custom automated update routine on.
Also note: 'withdrawn' is a repeating group and as such you could/should make it into a separate table.
Implementing this idea (without downtime) in your scenario:
sql statement to build a new country-table with numerical id's as primary key.
sql statement to update address-records with new field 'country-id' and fill this field with the country-id from the new country-table that corresponds with country-code specified in that record's address-field.
(sql statement to) create the withdrawn table and populate the correct data with in it.
then rewrite your the sql statements that supply your forms with data
add the check and 'ask user to update country'-routine
let new forms go live
wait/see for unintended bugs
delete old country-table and (now unused) country-code column from the "address"-table
I am very curious what other experts think about this idea!!

How to get an Item from an auto-populated DataGrid?

I have a DataGrid that is automatically fed certain values from an LINQ-To-SQL-Source. The headers of the DataGrid are also auto-generated. I simply want one of the Cells of the currently selected item within the data-grid.
var a = TestGrid.SelectedCells[0].Item;
If I debug this I get a List containing all the values I need:
TestGrid.SelectedCells[0].Item{ Datum = {11.05.2011 00:00:00}, ID = 3, name = "db",Status = "Ready" }<Anonymous Type>
I have absolutely no idea how to select the second item(ID) from that anonymous type, and google isn't helping
The best option would be to create a type to hold your values and store that in your DataGrid. If you're only using it for display, the anonymous types are fine to use. The moment you need to use them for anything else, they are not so great.
If you really want to stick to anonymous types, the only option you have is to use reflection. If this is specifically a C# 4.0+ app, then using dynamic can make this somewhat easier.

How do I use an enum with custom values for a Sharepoint Web part?

I'm trying to design a Web Part that has a drop-down list for the user to choose from. Eventually, these values will be automatically generated based on some kind of outside data source, so they're going to have somewhat arbitrary numeric values associated with them. This is the code I have now:
public enum filterChoice
{
All=0,
BOCC=12,
Sustainability=15,
Clerk=4,
DA=13,
Emergency=7,
Highlights=3,
POS=6,
PR=1,
PH=5,
SHPR=2,
Test=8,
Transportation=14,
Volunteer=16
};
These are different categories I want the user to choose from. When I choose one and save the settings for my Web Part, Sharepoint is only saving the values in numeric order; that is, All=0, BOCC=1, Sustainability=3 [...] so my Web Part then thinks the user chose the value with the corresponding number (PR when they chose BOCC, Highlights when they chose Sustainability, etc.) How can I make Sharepoint honor my custom values?
Guess you could put only strings in your enumeration and do the translation to the associated numeric values in the code of your webpart using a Dictionary<> or something?

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