Error handling

Whilst I, like all of you I am sure, never write code which would need an error handler, I am intrigued on how this is approached across the various deployment I have seen.

Some deployments leave errors in the lap of the gods, and to be honest, the error handler in Pivotal meets a lot of peoples needs. Others rely on logging all errors to an external file, even others create a separate error class in the event viewer to show what is going on.

I just have a feeling that all this error handling adds to the complexity of the situation, and can be the majority of the code.

With the essential try...catch in C# I am coming to the conclusion that it is essential to log as much as possible at the lowest level when an error occurs, as the user never gives us the whole picture, certainly not remembering exactly what they did and copying the error message. A vague 'Pivotal is broken' is the usual phone call I get.

New site

It still amazes me how little I know about Pivotal.

I am on a new site, where Pivotal has been running for some time, and seeing how they have customised and developed their solution gives me new ideas and ways of approaching customisation of the system.

It is a 5.9 Rich client system, heavily customised in most areas, and their use of non OOB functionality is great. What it tells me is that you can teach an old dog new tricks and there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The client is planning on moving forward with 6.0, and I hope to be at the forefront of this development.

Been a while

Sorry there has not been any post for a while, been tied up with vacations and work.

With the 5.9 support deadline only a year away (that is for new HF / SP, and will probably move) I still don't see any of my clients moving to Sedna. Not sure how it is in the non-partner world, those supported by Pivotal directly, but there does not seem to be any push from us to get the upgrades going.

Most are taking the opportunity to re-evaluate CRM in general, and whether Pivotal is consider depends on the history between the supplier and client a lot of the time, rather than any technical considerations. If people can remember the poor service / support response they got, then they are blaming the product rather than the partner / Pivotal.

I am hoping Pivotal is marketing Sedna heavily in all communities, but I have not seen any.

Generally Available

Sorry for the delay since the last post, the real world caught up with me for a month.

After attending the CDC Connect conference in the Williams Conference centre (what a venue, never mind all the cars etc, as a conference centre for that many people, it would be hard to beat) I was bouyed by the number of clients their for CDC in general, and Pivotal in particular. A good mixture of both clients I knew about and I did not.

Mathieu and Scott did a good job presenting Pivotal 6 again, but nothing new, apart from it was using the GA release. I think Mr Booth lost alot of people with his upgrade stuff, but it was good to hear my views echoed by a seasoned consultant such as him. He really made it clear that for WAM users it will be a big leap of faith for going to Pivotal 6. I am not sure that the investment needed gives you the benefits.

Maybe I am wrong, what are the views out there?

Cheat Sheet

Think I am moving forward with Sedna now, thanks to the Cheat Sheet, which I found invaluable when rebuilding my demo systems.

Cheat Sheet

This document is essential for all of us whilst we are still learning how to get the new version up and running.

I have finally taken the plunge and gone with a separate Sharepoint VMWare, which is also my domain controller, and this configuration works really well. You do need a sizable machine (I am running on a dual core Dell with 4Gb ram) but the domain controller / sharepoint server makes it more like real life.

I am a little concerned about the numerous versions that seem to be flowing out of R&D recently, the second one released end of last week, 25th, with versions release on 8th April and 17th March. I would prefer to see these as hot fixes, as I don't want to go through the pain of installation again, and want a stable base to start really selling this stuff.

Pivotal 6 thoughts

Well, I finally have a demonstrable version of sedna up and running.

My Thoughts....

Pros...

• One click install - an improvement over the install nightmares I have seen in Windows clients.
• Smart Client interface - very clean, very useable, very customisable
• Forms - well, they could not get much worse than in Active client
• Client / Server Tasks - once I have got my head around it all, I am sure, as we are in the .NET world, we can really take huge strides to produce efficient, complex solutions.
• Ability to use vbscript / VB dlls
• Sharepoint Portals - What a luxury!
• Outlook integration - I think this is going to be the killer part for people to upgrade.
  

Cons

• No Pivotal agents - The import utility is useful, but not a patch on what could be done in Pivotal agents on the fly. Leads to more work for customisers to do the bespoke import jobs.
• Documentation - still pretty poor.
• Need CMS 6.1 desperately.
• No pretty looking Portals OOB, would prefer to see several graphs etc being used.
• No undo in the form designer
  

Fustrated again

Still in the middle of getting Sedna up and running.

First things first, the documentation still sucks.

I wanted a document which was - do these steps to get Sedna up and running using the OOB CMS as we have it.

What I am doing is going across many documents etc which are not clear which steps to do first, which are essential etc etc.

The client seems slow as well, but then I am running on VMWare, on a laptop, so will reserve judgement until I see it in production, well a better spec machine anyway.

Does look good though, I am still working on it, and will do a full review if I get time by the end of this week.