Quick question on an internal forum asking how to show just the first and last record in a group. XPATH to the rescue there are a couple of functions we can use to fetch just the first and last record. Lets assume we are looping over EMPLOYEES.

<?for-each:EMPLOYEES?>

this will fetch all records. With the addition of the XPATH expression

<?for-each:EMPLOYEES[position()='1' or position()=last()]?>

The XPATH standard allows us to create a filter, if or boolean expression to limit the number of rows to be rendered.

position() - returns the current record being process. So position() = 1 will only return the first record

last() - returns the last record pointer. So position()=last() will give us the last record only.

Combining them together with an ‘or’ statement ensures we only get the first and last record in our group. Done!

All good and fine, and a sad day for fans of Michael Jackson, the king of pop as he was known as, but a sad day

Browse down to the section that says "Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer". 
Currently there are downloads available for Windows and Linux:

Windows x86: Disk1 (File 1) , and Disk1 (File 2)
Linux: Disk1 (File 1), and

Apart from the very important reason that Fusion Middleware is the technology platform and foundation of Fusion Applications, Fusion Middleware 11g is also the vehicle for the release of Discoverer 11g.

I wasn’t in the room during those workshops that led to defining the four perspectives, but I have a hypothesis how it could have happened. In figuring out which non-financial areas to pick, someone may have mentioned the three value disciplines from Treacy and Wiersema: operational excellence, product innovation and customer intimacy. Treacy and Wiersema state that organizations need to score sufficient in all these areas, and need to excel at one.

These three value disciplines map 3 of the balanced scorecard perspectives perfectly: process, growth/learning (innovation) and customer. The fourth perspective had to be the financial outcome of those perspectives.

If it didn’t happen this way, at least it shows the logic of the four perspectives, as they align with other established management theory.

PS. Please take the survey that is part of the research for my new book on www.frankbuytendijk.com.

Standard Mac Software:

• Address Book
• AppleScript
• Automator
• Calculator
• Dashboard
• Dictionary
• Expose
• Font Book
• Image Capture
• TextEdit
• Unison
• Utilities
• Spaces
• iCal
• iSync
• Stickies
• Server - because we also have Mac OSX Server

Office:

• iWork
• iLife

Internet Applications:

• Adium - chat
• iChat - chat
• Colloquy - irc (not used that much)
• Cyberduck - ftp client
• DynDNS Updater - link a hostname to an ip
• Dropbox - online storage
• Firefox with different plugins (YSlow, LiveHTTPHeaders, Firebug, ColorPicker, …)
• Safari - standard browser on OSX
• GoToMeeting - to do remote support and meetings
• SSH Tunnel Manager - ssh
• Meerkat - ssh
• Cisco VPNClient - vpn
• Viscosity - vpn
• Skype
• Mail
• Twitterrific - twitter reader
• Reader Notifier - get rss updates
• Yuuguu - connect to others
• Transmission - download files

Graphical Software:

• Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
• Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
• Adobe Flash CS3
• Adobe Illustrator CS3
• Adobe InDesign CS3
• Adobe Photoshop CS3
• PDFpenPro - edit pdf
• Paintbrush
• OmniGraffle Professional 5 - make schemes
• iWeb - make websites

Games:

• Chess
• Quinn - tetris like
• MasterMind - dashboard plugin

Entertainment:

• DVD Player
• DivX Converter
• DivX Player
• EyeTV - makes it able to watch tv on my mac
• Flip4Mac - be able to play wmv
• GarageBand - audio
• Front Row - menu to all entertainment
• iDVD
• iMovie
• iPhoto
• iTunes
• ScreenFlow - record video
• Photo Booth
• VLC - play video
• QuickTime Broadcaster
• QuickTime Player
• VisualHub - convert video (not updated anymore)
• Spotify - play any song (only works when I’m in the UK)
• BookSmart - online creation of you photo albums
• WorldRadio widget - listen to radio as dashboard app

Local/External storage:

• ExpanDrive - Mount drives even through ftp etc
• Macfusion - extend to other filesystems
• SuperDuper! - backup your Mac

Phone:

• Missing Sync for Windows Mobile - I’ve an HTC and not an iPhone, so need extra software to sync agenda, contacts etc
• TomTom HOME - on my phone I have also GPS and navigation software

Oracle related:

• Oracle SQL DataModeler - SQL Modeler
• Power*Architect - SQL Modeler
• SQLEditor - SQL Modeler
• SQLDeveloper - my day to day tool to talk to the Oracle database
• Versions - SubVersion client
• VMware Fusion - to get access to my remote machines

Project Management:

• Merlin - allows to estimate the work and breakdown in pieces
• Mindjet MindManager - read MindMaps
• OmniFocus - to do list which is able to sync as well

Text Editor:

• SubEthaEdit - allows to work on a text with more persons, real time editing
• TextMate - favorite text editor

OSX Tools:

• OmniDazzle - mouse focus and effects
• Quicksilver - lunch commands fast
• StuffIt Expander - zip like
• 1Password - store passwords in a secure way
• Wallet - store passwords in a secure way
• World Clock Deluxe - to keep an eye when my clients get awake
• iBank - trying that, MS Money type app
• Caffeine - let your Mac never go in sleep mode
• Time Machine - automated backups
• iStat Pro widget - shows a lot of information about your Mac (ip, temperature etc)
• AccuWeather widget
• SysTran translation widget
• Currency converter widget

For the people who want to work faster, here’s a good list of shortcuts for OSX.

So I thought to give it a go. The steps to get it running:

• Go to the SQL Power website and download Power*Architect
• As most OSX applications you install by dragging the application in your Applications folder
• So now I wanted to get an ERD of some tables, so you run Power*Architect and select from which Data Source you want to capture.
• I had to download the Oracle 10g JDBC driver first (apparently 11g is not yet foreseen in Power*Architect)
• In the User Preferences you can tell where the driver can be found
• Next I dragged-dropped from the interface the tables I wanted to the right hand side, but the tables where not nicely ordered
• Luckily there is a button “Automatic Layout” which I pushed and that gave me the below result

As far as I’ve tested Power*Architect, it looks very promising. It’s definitely a tool I will try a bit more in the future.

I installed the full version on my Mac to see how it is like. These are the steps I followed to get it working on my MacBook Pro:

1. Download the zip file from OTN
2. Unzip the file in my Applications folder
3. You’ll see a folder called “datamodeler”
4. I ran a Terminal session to call this command: sh datamodeler.sh
5. The first time SQL Developer Data Modeler asks you to enter the full pathname of a J2SE installation. For me the path is:
   /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home
6. Next SQL Developer Data Modeler opens and you are good to go
7. I tried to generate a relational and logical datamodel and it worked great (see below screenshot of the DG Tournament schema

   

As expected Oracle didn’t make the tool for free. I hoped differently, but apparently Larry decided against it. The latest Oracle pricelist shows under the Tools section the price of SQL Developer Data Modeler. The first year you pay USD 3,000 + USD 660 (support and upgrade), from the second year onwards it’s 660, but that gives you the right to install all updates. I definitely think the product can justify the price, but maybe not for everybody or in every project as you might not want to use all the features.

One of the most important parts for me is viewing the ERD in a graphical way. I tend to use the ERD to explain clients how we see the application. Or if we come in when the application already exist, to quickly know what is going on behind the scenes. Till now I used SQLEditor of MalcolmHardie Solutions. It allows me to connect to a database and get the ERD for a schema or certain tables. It can do a lot more like adding tables, columns etc and you can see the sql statements in different formats. Below is a screenshot of the same schema as the picture before.

Most of the time I have to rearrange the tables so it’s more logic and more understandable. Personally I think Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler looks a bit better and it has more features and I had to not rearrange that much as with SQLEditor. But then I guess that explains the difference in price SQLEditor costs $79.

I still have a lot to learn of the functionalities of Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler, but what I saw at the conferences and what I could do so far, I definitely think it’s worth for you to give it a try.