Dynamic Programming...

When I first moved to New York, I worked for a company that was developing an application using Visual Basic with SQL Server on the backend. The application was to be used for multiple banks, with each new bank being a new implementation. I was so impressed that the application used the database to determine many of the settings that were bank specific. Prior to this experience, I guess I just figured that the application would have to know everything about its behaviors, etc.

Well, recently, I was asked to rewrite a reporting web application that was heavily coded and had nothing that was dynamic. To customize the reports for a different client, the reports would have to be rewritten and the menu system would have to be updated and the code redeployed. Adding a new report would have taken time to generate the data routine, create the report file, a dataset and then add the new report to a drop down list and to the main window. I saw that this would be very time consuming.

So, I created a new database, a handful of tables and a few stored procedures. Then I changed the main menu screen and the drop down list of available reports to use the database to determine which reports to show. Then I got to work on the reports themselves. They had to be able to be run from different databases, so I stored the SQL string in the main database, then made connections to the implementation databases. Some of the reports have charts, so I needed to make another table to house the data for the chart series. Also, color schemes for the charts became dynamic.

Now, when I have to create a new report, I'll create a stored procedure, a new report file and a dataset, then add the necessary entries in the database to make it appear on the menu and be able to run the new data. No code will need to be deployed and we won't have to shut down the application just to add a report. In addition, adding a new implementation database shouldn't be hard either. I'm just so pleased with what I've done. It's very dynamic and it hasn't taken me more than a week to pull it all together. (The charting was where most of the time was spent.)

All I have to say is wow. I'm truly thankful for my talents, skills and abilities. God has blessed me beyond measure to perform my daily tasks...and enjoy the challenges that come with them!