Introduction                                                                                                         (top) 

The BbyB Beacon is an electronic publication to keep the members of Bit by Bit informed about the current affairs of the company. It contains announcements of important events like training programmes, Management Review Meetings, etc.

Contact Information

Any contribution to the newsletter in the form of technical articles, or items of general interest, are welcome. Please send them to pratima@bbyb.com or sreedhar@bbyb.com

From the Management

2003 draws to a close in just a few more days. I guess this is perfect time to look at our achievements during the calendar year. As a company the biggest achievement has been to get our ISO certification. This task was achieved due to the efforts put in by our MR Jayaraj. The other achievement has been the ability to maintain growth in a period where other software companies have been hard hit even to maintain last year's turnovers. This achievement is a credit to all of us and also to our clients.

Deepak, Devaki and Guru were nominated as 'Employees of the Year 2003'. Please join me in congratulating them once again. I guess we ignored the contributions of some employees when the nominations went in - Sharada, who keeps the office ticking over like clockwork; Raju, whom we notice only when he is absent and cups start filling up in the sink; Sushilamma, whose has a deadline everyday and is never late&ldots; I guess if I started naming people then I would have to name each and every one because we have all contributed to the success of BbyB.

The 'Programmer of the Year' awards have had quite good responses so far in the two months that it has been in operation. To encourage more people to take part we are adding a 2nd and 3rd place to this award. The 1st place will get Rs. 1 lakh, the 2nd place will get Rs. 50000.00 and the 3rd place will get Rs. 25000.00. We also plan to continue the 'Employee of the Year' award with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places earning the same as the 'Programmer of the Year' award. This is meant to give equal chances to non-programming staff and also programmers who are too busy to be able to work on this award.

I wish all of you a very happy New Year and a prosperous 2004 to follow.

Raghu Shenoy

From The Editor

New Year's Resolutions

I'm sure that most of us get an urge to make resolutions on the New Year's eve and I'm also sure that most of them do not last longer than a week.

It is because we set very high goals for ourselves that we end up breaking them. We stand a better chance of keeping our resolutions by having a few resolutions on our list than too many. Planning our way around goes a long way in helping us keep our resolutions. Determination is one of the key ingredients.

Last but not the least...;.

What we need is a reminder, a copy of your plan of action, staring at you in your face from the wardrobe door or your fridge.

Do you know how the tradition of making New Year resolutions actually started??

The Babylonians believed that what a person did on the first day of the year would affect the entire year.

The New Year is a time for looking back into our past and looking forward to the coming year.

As we're stocking the Champagne & Wine and getting into the partying mood, it's also time to compose that thoughtful list of resolutions.

Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year

Other News                                                                                                           (top) 

Anniversary Bash

The Company's turned 12 on 2nd December 2003. This was celebrated with a party on 10th December 2003 in the evening.

The highlight of the evening was the speeches by the 'Employee of the Year' nominees.

All of us enjoyed a sumptuous dinner from Satya Gardens.

Chris Reed was one of the guests.

(Click on the thumbnails to enlarge)

Employee of the Year

'The Employee of the Year' was jointly awarded to Guru, Deepak and Devaki.

The following five persons got through the first round:

Guru with 5 votes; Arun with 3; Deepak, Devaki and Usha with 2 votes.

Arun and Usha forfeited their votes.

Chris Reed's in Bangalore

Chris Reed was in Bangalore from 8th December 2003 to 15th December 2003. He was here to touch base with the MESaLS team at BbyB.

News From Abroad                                                                                              (top) 

Shashi was in U.K. between the 13th of November 2003 and 20th December 2003.

This is what Shashi had to say about his trip to U.K....

During the recent visit, Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Scotland was upgraded to the latest version of MESaLS.

Hereford Council in Herefordshire was also upgraded to the latest version towards the later part of the visit.

While in Exeter, Devonshire, I had a direct interaction with the users and got their feedback and heard some of the problems they were having while using the system. Fortunately, almost all the issues raised during the session were already resolved and were included in the next version which was ready for release pending the coordination between BHP HQ and Exeter's IT Department.

Although, the visit was very hectic and involved lot of traveling, I did manage to get little free time for myself and visit John and Eirian, Chris and Barb, Paul and his family for weekends and dinner. I also visited a Bird Sanctuary that is very close to office and Glasgow Science Centre when I was in Scotland.

Towards the end, all at BHP HQ decided to have Christmas and New Year Party that included Bowling and Pizzas. I am happy to say that the Team I was in (the Christmas Pudding) won the event (I managed 168 out 1080).

On the way back to India, I picked up cold as Souvenir, the effects of which is still lingering around.

Picures from his trip

Programmer of the Month                                                                                    (top) 

Internal Audit

An Internal Audit was conducted on the 22nd December 2003.

The audit included Purchase, Training, System Administration, a project - StaffBank, the Top Management and the Management Representative.

Sreedhar, Vinay and Pratima were the internal auditors.

The 'Programmer of the Month' for November 2003 is Masood Imran for his exemplary work on Parameter Reports and migrating to Crystal Reports 9.

Migrating to Crystal Reports 9

With the release of version 9, Crystal Reports continues to improve the flexibility and power of the Report Designer Component. New features allow you to enhance the reporting experience of your users.

The new features and enhancements are:

Report Designer Component 9 (RDC)

The Report Designer Component represents the latest in ActiveX technology and provides the following advantages over the OCX:

It integrates directly into the Visual Basic IDE.

It allows you to create, view, and modify reports using Reports Experts and

familiar Visual Basic code.

It exposes all Print Engine features and provides the greatest number of

events and objects to which to write code.

It gives better performance from its dual-interface component, with no

wrapper around the Print Engine.

It allows you to take advantage of code completion features that are easy to

use in the Visual Basic editor.

More control over data connectivity

Unlimited SQL control - Edit SQL directly for unlimited control over database connectivity. Specify database connections and create parameterized SQL commands to perform any query your database supports.

Support for Unicode - With full support for Unicode strings, you can display data stored in virtually any language as well as present multiple languages in a single report.

New time-saving design tools

Component reuse - Store and maintain key report objects- including SQL commands, bitmaps, custom functions, and text objects - in a central library for faster report development. The Crystal Repository also enables single point updating - update the component once and the change is available across all reports.

Custom Functions - Extract business logic from key formulas to create custom formula-language functions. Store Custom Functions in the Crystal Repository and reuse them across multiple reports.

Custom Templates - Spend less time formatting individual reports. With standardized formatting and logic, Custom Templates let you quickly apply a standardized, consistent look and feel across multiple reports.

More web flexibility

New report application server - The Crystal Enterprise Report Application Server - the evolution of the Crystal Reports Print Engine - provides powerful server-based report processing services so you can tightly integrate dynamic content into enterprise web applications. Web-based report processing is faster than ever before.

Java, .NET and COM SDKs - A rich set of Java, .NET, and COM APIs let you control how end users interact with reports and modify them at runtime. Automatically turn on advanced options including highlighting, zooming, and text searching. Tight integration with Microsoft Office lets end users search on report data and export the results to Microsoft Word, Excel and HTML.

Crystal Report Viewer

An integral part of the Report Designer Component, the Crystal Report Viewer offers full control over the previewing of reports in both client and Web environments. A new freeze pane feature and improved distribution further enhance the viewer's functionality.

Freeze panes in the Crystal Report Viewer

The ActiveX viewer now has a feature similar to the Freeze Pane feature found in Microsoft Excel. In the ActiveX Viewer, right-click and select Freeze Pane from the shortcut menu to freeze the report from the bottom-right corner of the selected object. Unfreeze using the same menu. Scroll horizontally or vertically, and the report data scrolls as it would in Excel: vertical scrolling scrolls the portion of the report to the right of the selected object (above and below); horizontal scrolling scrolls the portion of the report below the selected object (left and right of the object).

Improve runtime distribution

Distribution of the Crystal Report Viewer (Crviewer9.dll) has been simplified.Crviewer9.dll is no longer dependent on the Urlmon.dll making for an easier installation of the RDC with your application.

Retired Developer APIs

Crystal Reports provides many new options to meet your development needs as you move from single-tier to multi-tier to Enterprise applications. Some of the older Developer APIs, however, have been retired as shown in the following list.

Crystal Reports ActiveX Control (crystl32.ocx)

The Crystal Reports ActiveX control is no longer supported and no longer available as of Crystal Reports version 9.

Crystal Reports Automation Server (cpeaut32.dll)

The Crystal Reports Automation Server is no longer supported and no longer available as of Crystal Reports version 9.

Crystal Reports Print Engine (crpe32.dll)

The Crystal Reports Print Engine is now considered a legacy API and no longer exposes calls for any of the new features included in Crystal Reports. The API is still available to developers.

RDC Runtime C Headers

The RDC runtime C headers are no longer supported as of Crystal Reports version 9.

Design Time Control for Microsoft Visual Interdev (DTC)

The DTC is no longer supported as of Crystal Reports version 9.

Points to Remember when creating Reports with Crystal 9

Crystal 9 does not support the Automation Object. But all the methods supported by the Automation object are present in the RDC.

crystl32.ocx is not present in the Crystal 9. We have to rely on the Smart Viewer to preview the Reports.

In Crystal 7, ttx reports use the data type of the recordset to match the fields. But Crystal 9 requires the Name and data type to match with the ttx fields.

For Web Reports, Crystal 7 based rptServer.asp, SmartViewerActiveX.asp and SmartViewerJava.asp have to replaced with Crystal 9.


Programmer of the Month for December 2003

The 'Programmer of the Month' for December 2003 is Chaitanya Bherde for his outstanding work on Migration from Version 6 to Version 8 of APEX TDB controls and Windows Installer.

ComponentOne Version 8.0 components offer enhanced functionality and some new features. Some of them are listed below:

Excel and Word-like styles

Style objects encapsulate font, color, picture, and formatting information, facilitating easy customization of grid components at design time and run time.

Fixed, nonscrolling columns

Splits can also be used to create nonscrolling columns anywhere in the grid (at the left or right edges, or in the middle).

In-cell objects

The grid supports a variety of in-cell objects for data display and editing, including bitmaps, command buttons, check boxes, and radio buttons.

Automatic data translation

Database values can be automatically translated into alternate text or graphics without coding. For example, numeric codes can be rendered as words or even bitmaps.

Reusable grid layouts

Grid layouts can be saved to a file, then reused in other projects. Multiple layouts can be stored in a single grid at design time, then loaded as needed in code. End-user layout preferences can also be saved to a file, then recalled the next time the application is run.

There are two ways in which we can migrate to Version 8 from a previous Version:

Change our existing projects completely to use these controls and discard the old ones.

Keep the old controls as it is and start using the new control on new screens.

For the first solution, we need a migration utility which will modify our existing projects. This utility will have to do following tasks:

Change the references in the VBP file.

Change the references in the .frm files that use TDB controls.

Set the properties of the controls in the .frm files that use TDB controls.

Changing the references means changing GU ID, Class name and OCX name in VBP and .frm.

For the second solution we have to just add references to our current project and start using the new controls on new screens.

Two small applications have been developed to change the existing controls to the new version.

The current version of application on the Client site can be changed by using Liveupdate.

Windows Installer

After you have completed your development efforts, you must create a way to package and distribute your product to users. You can create a Microsoft® Windows® installer package (.msi) file install your application. Installer package files efficiently install your applications and reduce the cost of application deployment and management for your customers.

To create a Windows installer package (.msi) file, you create and work with an installer project (sometimes called setup projects) in the Microsoft development environment. When you're satisfied with the installation configuration established in your installer project, you package it into an .msi file.

Microsoft® Visual Studio® Installer is a tool you can use to build and package Windows installer-based setups to distribute to single or enterprise-wide users. With Visual Studio Installer, you can take advantage of all the benefits provided with the new Windows installer, while working in the Microsoft development environment.

Some of the important features of Windows Installer are as follows:

Application self-repair. Because the centralized installation information enables your application to repair itself, your users spend less time uninstalling and reinstalling an application, as well as trying to fix undiagnosed or difficult-to-identify problems. A malfunctioning application can check installation data to discover and replace any missing or corrupt files.

Powerful rollback capabilities. The Windows installer maintains an "undo" operation for every change it makes during any installation. If your user encounters a fatal error that stops the install process, the user can still return the machine to its exact pre-installation state. Even if an installation fails, users can continue to be productive with their previous set of applications.

Visual Studio Installer is a more complete and powerful tool for authoring application installations than those previously available in Visual Studio, making it easier to manage the intricate aspects of application installations. With the intuitive Windows-based graphical interface, you can manage installation tasks easily, including:

Folder and file placement. You can specify installation folder and file locations on the target machine.

Component management. You can create, modify, and specify installation conditions and locations for installer components.

Shortcuts. You can create file and folder shortcuts and specify where to place them on the target machine.

File associations. Establish document types, file extensions, and verbs created during the installation and specify the associations between them. You can also establish associations between MIME types and verbs.

Registry entries. You can specify registry keys and values to create during the installation.

User interface dialogs. You can select and to some extent customize the user interface dialogs displayed during installation.

Most importantly, Windows installer packages make application installations easier for your users. Windows installer packages can run on any 32-bit Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000 platforms. The Microsoft® Windows® installer bootstrap loader (setup.exe file) checks to see if the Windows installer is already on the target machine. If not, the bootstrap loader installs the Windows installer.

Programming Issues                                                                                              (top)

List of Issues Open for January 2004

1. Demonstrate English like queries on either StaffBank / Sepia / MESaLS databases. - 1 point
   
2. Design (not implement) a component for standard emailing without using MAPI compliant clients. The user should be able to use a text-based template that is used as the template for the merge. - 4 points
   
3. Set up a secure HTTPS site on the www.bbyb.org site that will be hosted locally. Any funding that will be required for purchasing licensing, etc., will be borne by BbyB. - 3 points
   
4. Link MSDE installation to a standard PDW install for VB and also into an WinInstaller install for QTM. - 3 points
   
5. Find a component (costing below 300 US $) to generate an XSD for MESaLS. - 3 points
   
6. Ability to draw a map and get directions between two UK postcodes. - 3 points
   
7. Demonstrate the user of Microsoft Speech API for speech to text conversions. - 3 points
   
8. For StaffBank, design a method to order Nurses in a manner of who is most likely to work for a particular shift. - 4 points
   
9. Incorporate Microsoft Net Meeting / Windows Messenger into a project like StaffBank / Sepia / MESaLS allowing users to chat with each other in real time. - 4 points
   
10. Demonstrate the use of Microsoft Application verifier to verify if any of the BbyB products comply with the Win XP logo certification. If not, what changes need to be made to achieve compliance. - 3 points
    
11. Develop an ATL component for the web that has been signed by BbyB. Any costs that are involved in obtaining the signing licences will be borne by BbyB. - 3 points
    

Note:

Meetings and Events                                                                                            (top)

New Recruits                                                                                                        (top) 

	Vinod H has been appointed as the System Administrator. He holds a diploma in Computer Science and Engineering from RES Polytechnic, Bangalore. He is a Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) from Microhard Institute of Technology, Bangalore.
KrishnaPrasad Yadapadithaya K, an engineer in Computer Science, completed his course in 2001 from NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte, Mangalore University. He has been appointed as a Domain Member (VB).
	Anupa Jayakrishnan, has completed a 4 year course in Graphic Design from Shrishti. She has been appointed as a Graphic Designer.
Darshan Korishettar, an engineer in Electronics and Communication, completed his course in 1999 from SDMCET, Dharwad, Karnataka University. He has been appointed as a Testing Engineer.
	Rejeen completed his MCA from Mangalore University in 2002. He has been appointed as a Domain Member (VB).

Upcoming Birthday                                                                                                (top)

Two members of Bit by Bit are celebrating their birthdays in the month of January.

Here's wishing them both a very happy birthday