Archive for category: News

This article discusses the DECLARE statement in SQL, which you can find the official documentation here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/language-elements/declare-local-variable-transact-sql?view=sql-server-2017

The DECLARE statement is used in a SQL statement to declare a variable. The declared variable can then be set using SET statement. Once set, the declared variable can be referred by the SELECT statement.

The DECLARE statement can also be used to declare a DATETIME and the SET statement can modify this DATETIME with DATEADD. This allows us to avoid dealing with JavaScript datetime variables.

For our case, we wanted to query all individuals that were set to turn 18 years old within a year.

In order to do this, we first ‘DECLARE’d the variables we would need and modified them using SET:

Note: First argument of DATEADD function can be any accepted SQL interval (year,month,week,day,hour,second,etc.)

Now that our 3 variables had been set, we were able to refer to them in the WHERE portion of the SELECT statement:

Full query with results:

By specifying the search range using DECLARE and SET, we are able to query the DOBs of just those users that are set to turn 18 years of age within a year of the query date.

For those who spend a large part of their day behind a screen, keyboard shortcuts are great and the time saved by using these shortcuts definitely accrues over time. You are losing precious seconds of productivity every time you lift your hand off the keyboard to use the mouse instead. Effectively using keyboard shortcuts can cut that wasted time down.

Most of us are already familiar with the most common keyboard shorts such as cut/copy/paste/undo/redo (ctrl+x/c/v/z/y).

At one point or another, we all have probably seen some type of chart online that shows all the possible keyboard shortcuts. This list is a bit daunting to take in at once and difficult to commit to memory unless you actually sit down and make it a point to memorize all the shortcuts. Even then, I find that it quickly fades from memory if not put to regular use.

Therefore I wanted to create this short list of keyboard shortcuts that I actually use in my daily work:

1. Windows key + Arrow direction key – Snaps app window to left/right side/corner of screen
   

   Examples:
   Windows key + Left arrow direction key – left side
   

   
   Windows key + Right arrow direction key – right side
   

   
   Windows key + Left arrow direction key then Windows key + Up arrow direction key – left upper corner
   

   Windows key + Left arrow direction key then Windows key + Down arrow direction key – left lower corner
   

   Windows key + Up arrow direction key – Maximize window
   Windows key + Down arrow direction key – Minimize window

   The most common use case for me is when I want to compare two similar files. For example, sometimes I pull up an erroring work unit log on the left side and a normal, functioning log on the right to compare the two and see where the path diverges. There are also times that I will compare an old backup file to a new modified one to visualize the changes.
   

2. Windows key + E – Opens File Explorer
3. Windows key + M – Minimizes all windows (useful for quickly accessing desktop shortcuts)
   Windows key + Shift + M – Restores all minimized windows
   Windows key + Comma – Temporarily peek at the desktop
4. Windows key + S – Opens Windows search.
   Simply start typing the program/file name after pressing Windows key + S. Useful for opening programs/files quickly.
5. Ctrl + Shift + V – Paste as plain text. I use this at least a couple of times a day. This is especially useful when composing emails with copied snippets from other sources.Ctrl + V:
   

   
   Ctrl + Shift + V:
   

In ServiceNow there are a ton of buttons when you first start using it and it can be overwhelming and easy to ignore them at first.

When a ticket finally makes it to you, it might be in a hierarchy of other ticket types (requests, changes, tasks, incidents).  For my example it’s under the “Request Item” field.

The Request Item in our case is another ticket type in the hierarchy and usually has more detailed of what the task is to complete this ticket.  A useful button that you may overlook is the “I’ button which is essentially an Info button with tons of helpful information.

This button shows a plethora of information that may be relevant in resolving the ticket or task and essentially allows you to view more specifics about the ticket without just searching for it elsewhere in ServiceNow.

All these Info buttons could be useful, some give detailed user information while others give location info.  It saves a bunch of time. Hope this was helpful!

Often people have spreadsheets that they are using for data gathering and don’t want to change the familiar format to accommodate a Lawson Upload.  Especially when it is a multi-tab spreadsheet that data can change depending on which tab you are pulling data from. No problem. Using advanced Excel techniques can pull the information from the specified tab in a format needed for uploading.

In this example, time attributable to projects is entered on a multi-tab spreadsheet one tab per period.

As the tab changes on the Instructions tab, and after the macro finishes by clicking n the Create Upload button, the total count and amount can be validated that the process worked as expected.

Each tab can have a different order of users and/or different active projects across the top.

As the tab changes on the Instructions tab, and after the macro finishes by clicking n the Create Upload button, the total count and amount can be validated that the process worked as expected.

The macro extracts the non-zero time entries and formats the data in a way that the Upload Wizard can then load the data into Lawson.