Law Manager User Group

Tech Questions :: RE: LawManager upgrade to version 5.31

Author: nickpuschak
Subject: Problem with MSComDlg.CommonDialog
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 4:26 pm (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 1

The problem with MSComDlg.CommonDialog is not a LawManager issue, but Microsoft changed the licensing of this and some of the API.
The dialog is only installed with a VB project using the dialog and I think previously it was installed as part of microsoft office.

There is a EvLa.GetPath function to do this. This will put up a dialog for the user to choose a file.

function GetPath([title: OleVariant], [filter: OleVariant], [defaultExt: OleVariant], [initialDir: OleVariant]): WideString

Function GetPath( _
ByVal Title As Variant, _
ByVal filter As Variant, _
ByVal defaultExt As Variant, _
ByVal initialDir As Variant _
) As String

Parameters
Title - The title to display in the dialog title. Usually this should describe what the user is selecting.

filter - What filters to use. This is a vertical bar separated list of items. The items come in pairs when the description is first and then the actual filter. For example: 'Law Manager Script File|*.LMS;*.ECF|Report File (*.QRP)|*.QRP' will result in two file types being available. Either "Law Manager Script File" or "Report File (*.QRP)" are the choices the user will see. Internally the two file types are filtered by *.LMS;*.ECF and *.QRP. Notice that it is possible to have multiple file type filters grouped under one display entry for the user.

defaultExt - The default extension to use. This will cause the dialog to focus on this filter first.

initialDir - The initial directory to use for browsing. If this is not passed in then the current directory of the application will be used.
_________________
Nicholas Puschak
Bridgeway Software
VP Product Management

Ask Law Manager :: RE: BDE not compatible with SQL Server 2005?

Author: nickpuschak
Subject: LawManager solutions for MS SQLServer 2005
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:30 pm (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 2

TITLE: LawManager support for MS SQL Server 2005
TYPE: Developer Tip
PRODUCT: Case Management Foundation
KEYWORDS: MS SQL Server 2005
SYMPTOM/ISSUE:
==============
There are two issues regarding LawManager support for MS SQL Server 2005 that can cause problems.

ISSUES:
======
1) Client server LM Pro uses the Borland BDE, which communicates with the SQL DB-Library, which is not included anymore with SQL 2005. This is only a problem with LM Pro, not LM Web/Server, which uses ADO to communicate with SQL Server.

2) SQL 2005 does not support the older outer join SQL syntax if you are not running in SQL 2000 (80) compatibility mode. Many LawManager systems may have views that use the older MS SQL outer join syntax and the BDE uses that syntax to manage text fields. You can run Pro or Web in 2000 compatibiliy mode and not have to change your views. If you don't want to run in compatibility mode, you need to change your views and run LM Pro three tier or switch to LM Web.

NOTE: LM Pro 5.4 may switch from BDE to ADO.

SOLUTIONS:
=========
If you don't want to upgrade much you can run MS SQL Server 2005 in a 2000 compatibility mode by doing the following:
1) For freshly installed SQL clients you will need to copy the dll "C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntwdblib.dll" from a MS SQL Server 2000 installation to your Client PCs that are running LM Pro.
2) Set the Compatibility level of the database to SQL Server 2000 (80) on the SQL Server.

For LawManager 5.3 we have done the following to allow you to run in full 2005 mode:
The views ParentAddressView and ParentPhoneView were updated.
CREATE VIEW dbo.ParentAddressView AS
SELECT Address.*, AddressType.description address_type, Office.office_name
FROM Address LEFT OUTER JOIN Office ON Address.office_key = Office.office_key, AddressType
WHERE Address.address_type_key = AddressType.address_type_key
CREATE VIEW dbo.ParentPhoneView AS
SELECT Phone.*, PhoneType.description phone_type, Office.office_name
FROM Phone LEFT OUTER JOIN Office ON Phone.office_key = Office.office_key, PhoneType
WHERE Phone.phone_type_key = PhoneType.phone_type_key

The scripts with SQL changed:
DocMergeGenerateDoc (line 191 didn't need the outer join since Merge.selection_key is required)
GetComponentCaption - outer join wasn't needed (don't think script is being used)
MergeFieldSelectCode - outer join not needed (script may not be used)
The Scripts where there were Outer Join vars, but they weren't used:
MatterBudgetFinancialSQL - outer join vars not needed
MatterFinancialFooterFindSQL - outer join vars not needed
MatterFinancialHeaderSQL - outer join vars not needed
MatterFinancialSQL - outer join vars not needed
VendorHeaderSQL - outer join vars not needed
NOTE: LM Pro Client/Server uses the BDE and blob saving will NOT work since the BDE fires a SQL with the old style Outer Join, which we can not fix. The only solution is to run LM Pro in a three-tier deployment through LM Server, which uses ADO. ADO does not have this problem.
MORE INFO:
==========
http://pauked.com/blog/?p=83
DB-Library - Embedded SQL for C
Although the SQL Server 2005 Database Engine still supports connections from existing applications using the DB-Library and Embedded SQL APIs, it does not include the files or documentation needed to do programming work on applications that use these APIs. A future version of the SQL Server Database Engine will drop support for connections from DB-Library or Embedded SQL applications. Do not use DB-Library or Embedded SQL to develop new applications. Remove any dependencies on either DB-Library or Embedded SQL when modifying existing applications. Instead of these APIs, use the SQLClient namespace or an API such as OLE DB or ODBC. SQL Server 2005 does not include the DB-Library DLL required to run these applications. To run DB-Library or Embedded SQL applications you must have available the DB-Library DLL from SQL Server version 6.5, SQL Server 7.0, or SQL Server 2000.

The query uses non-ANSI outer join operators (�*=� or �=*�). To run this query without modification, please set the compatibility level for current database to 80 or lower, using stored procedure sp_dbcmptlevel. It is strongly recommended to rewrite the query using ANSI outer join operators (LEFT OUTER JOIN, RIGHT OUTER JOIN). In the future versions of SQL Server, non-ANSI join operators will not be supported even in backward-compatibility modes.
_________________
Nicholas Puschak
Bridgeway Software
VP Product Management

Tech Questions :: LawManager upgrade to version 5.31

Author: BorisZ
Subject: LawManager upgrade to version 5.31
Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:37 pm (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 1

Did someone faces a problem with Common Dialog in LawManager. We are calling it from VB script by
Set dlgOpen = CreateObject("MSComDlg.CommonDialog.1")
This worked OK in 5.0, but returns an error in 5.31
Thanks!

Ask Law Manager :: RE: BDE not compatible with SQL Server 2005?

Author: genabrave
Subject: Sql 2005
Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 6:16 pm (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 2

Is this resolved? We are planning to upgrade to sql 2005 by calendar year end

News and Announcements :: Hiring at Citigroup, Business Objects / MS SQL consultants..

Author: BHousel
Subject: Hiring at Citigroup, Business Objects / MS SQL consultants..
Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 9:22 am (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 0

Citigroup is looking to grow the size of the Law Manager support team. Openings are available immediately for consultants with Business Objects experience. Secondary skills include general reporting / data warehousing, MS SQL Server, Webfocus, VBScript ActiveX/COM development, and of course Law Manager. The team is located in Pavonia/Newport area of Jersey City NJ, very close to I-78, PATH, and NJ Transit. Please send all resumes or inquires directly to me, bryan.m.housel@citi.com.

Thanks!

News and Announcements :: Law Manager User Group Meeting - 1/31/07

Author: BHousel
Subject: Law Manager User Group Meeting - 1/31/07
Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 11:56 am (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 0

From Rob Jarvis:

Quote:

Greetings to everyone it has been some time since we had some communication with the user group. Over the last several weeks I have been working with Nancy Rich of Bridgeway to assembly a �Law Manager� East Coast User Group Conference.

Together we come up a date, time and place (See Below) and we are looking for the group to assist in putting together an agenda for the meeting. So please email me your agenda items that you would like discussed and I will pass them on to staff at Bridgeway to address ,once we have more in way of an agenda I will circulate it back to the group. In addition I have ask them to provide a conference call number for those who can�t attend them.

In closing if you received the is email and are no longer involved with the Law Manager product in your company please pass on the email or let me know and I will change it on my distribution list.

Thanks

DATE:
Wednesday, January 31, 2007

TIME:
2 - 5 pm.

LOCATION:
The New York Suite
located on 4th floor of the Hilton New York

ADDRESS:
The Hilton New York Hotel
1335 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019

News and Announcements :: New FTP Site for LawManager Products

Author: nickpuschak
Subject: New FTP Site for LawManager Products
Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 1:12 pm (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 0

We have finally transferred all the product files (installers, release notes, manuals, configuration patches, etc.) from the old Thomson Elite ASR site to a new Bridgeway FTP site. There is a Table of Contents spreadsheet in the root directory with descriptions of each file. This site is intended only for LawManager clients that are under maintenance. Please contact our new support person, Kathy Huxley at Support@lawmanager.com or call her at 610-729-1123 to get the URL to the new Product FTP site.
_________________
Nicholas Puschak
Bridgeway Software
VP Product Management

News and Announcements :: RSS on the Message Board..

Author: BHousel
Subject: RSS on the Message Board..
Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:23 am (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 0

We have RSS for the message board now!

For those that don't know, this will let you grab a summary of the new message board posts from another program or website that is RSS-aware. For example, Firefox can make a Live Bookmark of the forum. Or you could add the RSS to your My Yahoo or Google Reader page.

RSS for the whole message board is:
http://www.lawmanager.info/rss.php

Or you can just grab a single forum by including the forum id:
http://www.lawmanager.info/rss.php?f=3 (for News and Announcements)

Tech Questions :: RE: Commit header and tabs in a single transaction?

Author: BHousel
Subject: Re: This is not really possible
Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:34 pm (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 3

andy wrote:

What's the actual use case you're trying to solve?
It would defenitely be a nice feature, but is it worth the cost?

Financial Transactions in the header, and a Cost Center tab which stores the contribution of each cost center towards the transaction. Also, after the entire transaction is committed (header and tab), I need to call a stored procedure to update the balance summary info elsewhere.

So it's definitely the sort of thing that I'd like to protect with a transaction, to ensure that header and tabs get committed together.

Ask Law Manager :: BDE not compatible with SQL Server 2005?

Author: BHousel
Subject: BDE not compatible with SQL Server 2005?
Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:22 pm (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 2

Recently I ran into a problem with LawManager.Pro on a machine that had the SQL Server 2005 client tools installed. It didn't work because the BDE (Borland Database Engine) relies on features that are no longer supported by SQL Server 2005 client tools.

More info here: http://pauked.com/blog/?p=83

Can Law Manager 5.3, or a future version, be built without this BDE dependency?

News and Announcements :: LawManager Pro 5.2.1 (293) Hotfix has been released

Author: nickpuschak
Subject: LawManager Pro 5.2.1 (293) Hotfix has been released
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:54 am (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 0

The LawManager Pro 5.2.1 (293) Hotfix has been released and is available on the ASR site. The release notes describe the handful of fixes in this hotfix. This is a direct replacement for LM Pro 5.2 (286).
_________________
Nicholas Puschak
Bridgeway Software
VP Product Management

Tech Questions :: RE: Creating a Tab against Mainframe Data

Author: andy
Subject: Using ADO
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:31 pm (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 1

When using ADO against a stored procedure you have to change the statement type. Can I see the actual code which was used?

Tech Questions :: RE: Commit header and tabs in a single transaction?

Author: andy
Subject: This is not really possible
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:28 pm (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 3

This is a know problem, but commiting the header and footer at the same time opens up a real can of worms. For example you would have to populate all primary keys before you started since you cannot call the nextnumber proc once the transaction started. In addition the BeforeCommitCode in the footer assumes many times that the header is already commited and it would not be able to add new rows to the tab since it's executing within the transaction.
Commiting data that eventually will show up in tabs and doing this in the DuringTransaction of the header is possible however it's involved since you have to unmark all changes in the actual notebook tab so it doesn't try to make modifications you already made.
What's the actual use case you're trying to solve?
It would defenitely be a nice feature, but is it worth the cost?

Tech Questions :: Law Manager Build 5.2.286 Web Install

Author: mcpetrow
Subject: Law Manager Build 5.2.286 Web Install
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:19 am (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 0

I'm testing the 3-tier version of Law Manager build 5.2.286 (not Law Manager.NET), and I'm experiercing a weird issue with the auto-detection for the Law Manager software on the client workstation. I enter the following site:

http://<servername>/lawmanager.pro

The server then redirects to the Default.asp page. It's suppose to check if the system has Law Manager build 5.2.286. If it does, then redirect to the Welcome.asp page. If it does not, then redirect to the lmproweb.htm (which I'm assuming used to be the setup.asp page).

The problem is that it doesn't seems to be properly detecting the software. Even with correct version of Law Manager installed, it always redirects to lmproweb.htm page. Here the contents of the versions.inc file:

<% lm2000_release = "Release 5.2.0.286 - 1/3/2006" %>
<% lm2000_version_major = 5 %>
<% lm2000_version_minor = 2 %>
<% lm2000_version_release = 0 %>
<% lm2000_version_build = 286 %>

Here are a snippet of the lm2000ReadyStateChange function which resides on the Default.asp page:

needToUpgrade = (lm2000load && (!lm2000load.IsVersionAtLeast(<%=lm2000_version_major%>, <%=lm2000_version_minor%>, <%=lm2000_version_release%>, <%=lm2000_version_build%>)));

This line then gets translated to the following during runtime:

needToUpgrade = (lm2000load && (!lm2000load.IsVersionAtLeast(5, 2, 0, 286)));

Calling the following function within the debugger results in a value of false:
lm2000load.IsVersionAtLeast(5, 2, 0, 286)

Decrementing the fourth parameter, I discovered that the function returns a value of true when it's reduced to the following:

lm2000load.IsVersionAtLeast(5, 2, 0, 272)

I therefore updated the versions.inc file by changing the lm2000_version_build to 272, and the software detection seems to be working now. I'm curious if others have ran into the similar situation, or perhaps we don't have the latest and greating LMProWebInstall.exe.

Any input is appreciated. Have a good day!!

MIKE
_________________
Mike Petrowski
Senior Programmer/Analyst
DaimlerChrysler Corporation

Tech Questions :: RE: Commit header and tabs in a single transaction?

Author: mcpetrow
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:38 am (GMT -4)
Topic Replies: 3

Not spending any time on this issue, I'd not sure if my theory would hold, but I was wondering if you considered moving all code from the BeforeCommitCode and the AfterCommitCode into the DuringTransactionCode event, for the header as well as each tab. Additionally, do not explicitly call any commit statements. When clicking the save button in the Law Manager header, the system wraps a "begin transaction" and a "commit transaction" around all the DML statements to be executed. If the scenario exists whereby you need to explicitly throw a rollback statement based on some circumstance that occurred during the save process, all work within that transaction should, in theory, be reverted. Again, just spectulation. Might be something to test if you have time. Good luck.
_________________
Mike Petrowski
Senior Programmer/Analyst
DaimlerChrysler Corporation