Here’s a simple Excel spreadsheet of US States and their abbreviations.  I don’t know how many times I’ve recreated this blooming thing.  I just found myself, once again trying to find a decent table of states to put into my Supple Forms states drop down list, and after ten minutes and finally getting it into an nice Excel table, I figured it was time to memorialize it forever here.  So, no more hunting around.  Here you go:

(more…)

Popularity: 40%

This is the 2nd part of this 3 part video series on hosting a plugin on WordPress.org.  There are 3 easy steps to accomplish this, but you need to do them all and you have to do them in order.  So if you haven’t already gotten your WordPress Subversion repository in an email, take a look at Part 1 of this series here. Here in Part 2, we’re going to download and install the Aptana IDE to use as a graphical interface to subversion.  WordPress very helpfully provides instructions for the bare basics needed to use SVN to get your plugin hosted. Take a gander at the image at the right.  That sent shivers down my spine.  I did download SVN and tried a few SVN commands from the terminal.  And they worked, but I really wanted something a little more point-and-click.  And Aptana was it.

(more…)

Popularity: 17%

Before I get into what a great affair the inaugural meeting of the Worksoft Users Group was, let me say a word on User Groups in general.  Anyone in IT who works with complex software (and isn’t it all complex these days?) knows by now what an incredible resource a good Users Group can be.  The American SAP Users Group (ASUG) is absolutely indespensible.  When you marry SAP in the US (excuse me…I mean buy SAP), it’s really like you’re marrying ASUG too.  They are a huge resource for training, conferences, customer interactions…the works!  Well, when I got the email from Worksoft announcing that they were holding the inaugural gathering of the Worksoft Users Group (official acronym to be declared later, but I’ll use WUG for now) the Sunday before TechEd in Las Vegas, it was like someone from SETI picking up THE SIGNAL on the VLA.  We’re not alone!

(more…)

Popularity: 4%

One of the challenges with automated testing is building your test scripts or processes at the right level of granularity to allow for reusing them over and over in different scenarios.  The Worksoft Certify automated testing tool is built around the idea of object oriented test scripts and reuseability.  The ideal test script can be used to satisfy many test scenarios by simply feeding it different data.   This article will discuss how to deal with data (recordsets) within an SAP and Certify context in such a manner that you can maximize reuseability of your scripts with the least amount of tweaking required at the time of script execution. (more…)

Popularity: 5%

Looking for the holy grail in testing SAP? I am. We’ve got an upgrade from 4.6C to ERP 6 looming on the horizon, and a little testing magic would go a long ways. Wouldn’t it be cool to say, “Replicator, one sales order, 20 line items.” And…presto! “Replicator, pick and delivery on last Sales Order.” Sha-blam! All set. “Replicator, one purchase order with 300 line items, and tell me if it meets this set of criteria.” Dare I dream? Oh, yes, just like butter. Usually, testing feels more like a stint as the Black Knight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail than quality time spent with a Star Trek replicator. The good news is that the SAP world is moving towards that magical replicator experience in automated testing. Albeit slowly, but good progress all the same. Enter Worksoft Certify, HP’s Mercury, et al. This post is an introduction to Worksoft Certify. (more…)

Popularity: 17%

If you use Worksoft Certify for automated testing and have upgraded to at least version 8.1, there is a useful training video on the Process and Data editor. It’s a bit hard to find, so here’s how you find it:

1. Open and login to Certify
2. On the top toolbar, select Help / Contents
3. In the Help screen, select Search
4. Search for Process and Data
5. Select “Process and Data Editor”…should be the first result
6. About half way down the page, you should see a cheesy film reel icon (bad clipart). To the right of that is a like to click (“here”) that will start the video. You might have to scroll down to click the play button

(more…)

Popularity: 4%