Hi, first check and see if you can connect to the Oracle data source using a query tool. Can you do that?

Hi if your issue is fixed please post the solution. My first response is validate your tnsnames.ora file. Another thing to check is how connections are made in production.

Hi Scott, thanks for the comments. I think that your concerns apply to any table, not just a lookup table. I recommend making keys int. In any case, the table...

Thanks rat, I take your point. I don't have access to check most of these but now I have a direction to look.

My answer is that it depends. Sometimes the report parsing logic is so specialized that it will never be used elsewhere. In those cases I sometimes just slap it in...

At its simplest, the MasterType table would have an ID, a Description, and a TypeIndex. All of the rows for, say, CustomerType would have TypeIndex of, say 1. Note that...

This is about type tables in general, not about your question. I would call type tables a well-known design pattern. I have never seen a database without them. Over the...

Nevermind, thanks for your comment.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by  GeorgeCopeland.

I have to second Rick again. In your...

I have to second what Rick said. We all have two eyes, two ears, and a brain, all of which work similarly. No ethnicity is different enough that we cannot...

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by  GeorgeCopeland.

A spoof is something that works but appears to be something else, like a packet of data from a fake IP. A mock is something that appears to be something...

Great article on one of my favorite subjects. I think you are right, one of the keys to business success is a focus on customer needs. I agree that this...

Extremely well said. A little bit of failure is a learning experience, is it? Nonsense.

Allowing failure: Steve and others use children learning as an analogy for this. That works very well because this is childish. When I am a member of your team, there...

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by  GeorgeCopeland.

Sorry you are ailing, Grant. When making your point you used medical data, which is a complication above just normal business data, but the point is the same. I have...