XTIVIA BLOG
Software Development Lifecycles (or Don’t Get Hung Up on Orthodoxy, Be Courageous and Tailor)
Here at XTIVIA, we have standardized on an agile process we've coined as XDLC (XTIVIA Development Lifecycle). XDLC is largely based on Scrum and other agile techniques that enable us to quickly deliver maximum value for our Enterprise Portal/Java customers. We chose Scrum...
Enhancing customizable pages in Liferay Portal
Liferay v6.1 introduced a new end-user customization capability wherein we can create a customizable page in a site that allows an end-user to add or remove portlets on the page or drag and drop portlets in different places on the page. In order to enable customization for a...
Informix Dynamic Server and ISM
Learn how to setup and backup Informix Dynamic Server and ISM Let's talk about the Informix Dynamic Server. I have often been asked how difficult it is to use ISM and Onbar to backup their Informix Dynamic Server. I gave a webinar early in October that will explain just...
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Solutions Engineers
Over the past 20 years or so the concept of Design Patterns has emerged as a way to classify and define solutions to Information Technology challenges. In the software engineering community, patterns typically relate to technical topics and fill an important need to...
SQL Server Profiler Trace Tutorial
I recently had a client ask me about how to use profiler. I looked online and did not find anything that was concise and to the point for what I wanted to show him so I decided to just make a quick tutorial which is listed below. This tutorial covers the usage for SQL...
Recovering from a crippled login
Quick, DBA with the sysadmin role in SQL Server: What's your default database? I'll bet you think it's the master database. But, as I learned this weekend, that's not something you can take for granted -- especially if you didn't create the login. Our clients typically create...
Dial down developer permissions
Given the general mayhem and wanton destruction database developers can inflict on an organization, you'd think there'd be a best-practices set of SQL Server permissions that DBAs should grant developers. Or better yet, a "dbdeveloper" server role that falls somewhere between...
Drop the Dead Weight in your DB2 database.
One way to make your DB2 database use less storage and speed up Inserts and Updates is to drop the indexes that are never used. As the application changes and the database workload changes, you may find many indexes are no longer needed. Dropping these will free up...
Basic Portlet Styling in Liferay
Portlets are the basic building blocks of any site running Liferay. The default portlet styles are fine; but to really make your site sing, you can get a handle on them and dress them up to look as good as the rest of that theme you so lovingly handcrafted. Let’s start with the...
Do I need a portal or a content manager?
This question comes up a lot. I think it's important to understand the primary features and functions of what each does. Portals arrived in the the late 1990's with Yahoo.com and Excite.com. They are a way of personalizing and aggregating information from disparate...