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Maintaining Consistent Primavera P6 Client Configuration Files Across Multiple Users Using PowerShell

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In setting up Oracle’s Primavera P6 EPPM version 18.8, I discovered that users who connected to the client via Citrix were not picking up changes that were made to the default configuration file.

Normally, if that file is changed and is newer than the user’s own file, it will be overwritten with the default. In this case, users were not seeing the newer file, and when I looked, they often had no local profile on the Citrix server.

As it turned out, the user profiles were set up as roaming profiles that were deleted upon logoff. This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, except that the their copy of the config file was always listed as newer than the default.

A workaround was to be logged into the server via RDP, and to have the user log in via Citrix. At that time, the config file could be manually copied, overwriting the user’s old file, and then (most importantly!) manually opening and saving the user’s file, so that it would remain in place in their roaming profile even after logoff.

This is clearly not a feasible practice in a production environment. However, an automated script that does this could solve this problem! Save the following as a .cmd file and make sure it is run prior to running the P6 client executable.

copy "C:\Program Files\Oracle\Primavera P6\P6 Professional\18.8.0\Data\PrmBootStrapV2.xml" "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Oracle\Primavera P6\P6 Professional\18.8.0" /y

powershell (Get-ChildItem 'C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Oracle\Primavera P6\P6 Professional\18.8.0\PrmBootStrapV2.xml').CreationTime = $(Get-Date)
powershell (Get-ChildItem 'C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Oracle\Primavera P6\P6 Professional\18.8.0\PrmBootStrapV2.xml').LastAccessTime = $(Get-Date)
powershell (Get-ChildItem 'C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Oracle\Primavera P6\P6 Professional\18.8.0\PrmBootStrapV2.xml').LastWritetime = $(Get-Date)

As long as the Citrix server has PowerShell installed, this should work.

Update: Part 2 has a script that will allow for both Local and Roaming profiles.

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Blockchain: Where to Begin?

Blockchain symbolic representation

Blockchain is a technology that I hear about almost every day now. 

And yet I haven’t found the best place to learn about it – both its concepts and its implementation. With so many courses and books, where to begin?

Those of you who have learned about it and use it regularly – what resources did you use? What, if any, certifications are legitimate?

You may leave your thoughts in the comments, or tweet me: @deepinthecode.

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Examining the TransactionObject in PowerBuilder During Update and Delete

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During the upgrade of an application from Sybase PowerBuilder 6.5 to SAP PowerBuilder 12.6, I ran into a bug in the Update event that had me suspicious that the TransactionObject was somehow changing, causing the update to be directed toward a different database.

As it turns out, the bug was due to a trigger in the main database that was selecting data from another database. 

Even so, I learned about something quite valuable: the SQLPreview event. 

event sqlpreview
this.setsqlpreview(sqlsyntax)
end event

If you set a watch on sqlsyntax, you can see the SQL code associated with the data update.