Social Networks and Extending the User Profile in Drupal: Part-1

This article by Bill Fitzgerald, gives an overview of building user profiles. The article begins with the core profile module, and then goes deeper to show how to extend user profiles using the flexible Content Construction Kit and custom fields.

Software Documentation with Trac

Documentation—if there is one word that installs fear in most developers, it must be this one. No one in their right mind would argue the value of documentation, but it is the actual act of writing it that concerns developers so.

The secret of creating good documentation is to make the process of doing so as painless as possible, and if we are lucky maybe even attractive, to the developers. The only practical way to achieve that is to reduce friction. The last thing we need when we are in middle of fixing a bug is to wrestle with our word processor, or even worse try to find the right document to update.

David J Murphy illustrates in this article, how Trac can used for the purpose of documentation.

Solving LUA Problems with Avecto Privilege Guard

This article by Russell Smith, author of Least Privilege Security for Windows 7, Vista and XP, includes information about tools and techniques that can be used to solve Least Privilege Security problems. Specifically, we will use third-party solution to configure administrative privileges for applications and Windows processes on-the-fly. Privilege Guard is a third-party solution, from Microsoft Gold Partner Avecto, that allows system administrators to dynamically add or remove privileges by modifying the logged in user's access token as it's assigned to new processes.

SOP Module Setup in Microsoft Dynamics GP

To celebrate the recent publication of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Reporting book, Packt is pleased to announce a series of attractive discounts on our wide range of Dynamics books. For more information click here.

Dynamics GP offers a great deal of options and additional modules surrounding the core distribution modules, using which some advanced workflow and functionality can be achieved when needed. Inventory, Sales Order Processing, and Purchase Order Processing are commonly referred to as the Distribution Modules. These modules integrate with each other and with the other modules in Dynamics GP and are the modules where the transactions pertaining to inventory quantities and costs, purchases, sales, and transfers are entered.

In this article by Victoria Yudin, author of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Implementation, we will cover basic setup for the Sales Order Processing (SOP) module.

Sphinx: Index Searching

Search is by far the most important feature of an application where data is stored and retrieved. If it hadn't been for search, Google wouldn't exist, so we can imagine the importance of search in the computing world. A reliable search engine like Sphinx Search can be the difference between running a successful and unsuccessful business.

In this article by Abbas Ali, author of Sphinx Search Beginner's Guide, we will learn how to use the Sphinx API to issue search queries from your PHP applications. We will examine different query syntaxes and learn about weighting, sorting, and grouping our search results.

Spring MVC - Configuring and Deploying the Application

In the previous discussion, the focus was on understanding the Model, View and Controller components of the application using Spring MVC framework. However, the developed components do not have knowledge of each other. Model is passed through Controller to the View using Logical View name. We have yet to map Logical View to the physical file. Also, to deploy the application, the application itself needs to be configured so that the Application Server knows to which component it should the route the requests. In this article by A. P. Rajshekhar, the focus will be on these two steps – configuring the components as well as configuring and deploying the application.

Spring Security 3: Tips and Tricks

Spring Security exists to fill a gap in the universe of Java third-party libraries, much as the Spring Framework originally did when it was first introduced. Standards such as Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) or Java EE Security do offer some ways of performing some of the same authentication and authorization functions, but Spring Security is a winner because it packages up everything you need to implement a top-to-bottom application security solution in a concise and sensible way. Additionally, Spring Security appeals to many because it offers out of the box integration with many common enterprise authentication systems; so it's adaptable to most situations with little effort (beyond configuration) on the part of the developer.

This article will provide you with a few tips and tricks on Spring Security.

SQL Query Basics in SAP Business One

This article discusses the basic concepts and knowledge needed to use SQL query in SAP Business One. You will learn a clear definition of SQL query, the data dictionary, and table links.

In this article by Gordon Du, author of Mastering SQL Queries for SAP Business One, we will begin by identifying the target audience, and will then go on to discuss the basic concepts and knowledge needed to use SQL query in SAP Business One. In the first section, you will be given a clear definition of the specific scope of the SQL and Query. The following section discusses the Data Dictionary and table links such as base tables versus target tables. The last section gives you a key concept to remember for building a good query by keeping it simple.

SQL Server and PowerShell Basic Tasks

This article by Donabel Santos author of SQL Server 2012 with PowerShell V3 Cookbook, demonstrates scripts and snippets of code that accomplish some basic SQL Server tasks, using PowerShell. We will start with simple tasks, such as listing SQL Server instances and creating objects such as tables, indexes, stored procedures, and functions, to get you comfortable with working with SQL Server programmatically.

You will find that many of the recipes can be accomplished using PowerShell and SQL Management Objects ( SMO). SMO is a library that exposes SQL Server classes, which allows for programmatic manipulation and automation of many database tasks. For some recipes, we will also explore alternative ways of accomplishing the same tasks, using different native PowerShell cmdlets.

Even though we are exploring how to create some common database objects using PowerShell, I would like to note that PowerShell is not always the best tool for the task. There will be tasks that are best left accomplished using T-SQL. Even so, it is still good to know what is possible with PowerShell and how to do it, so that you know you have alternatives depending on your requirements or situation.