Yaser Sulaiman’s Blog

Everything that has a beginning has an end. Yes, this is my last day of my summer training at Futurware.

I spent the last week finalizing the list of features for the auditing component. Fortunately, the Team Leader didn’t ask me to go to Aramco. I think he figured out that I will only slow them down. Lucky me! I also wrote the second and third progress reports. Unlike the first one, my posts about summer training were really helpful. Lastly, I submitted all what I have worked on to the company.

I really enjoyed working at Futureware. I know it wasn’t perfect, but compared with what I have heard from other students about their summer training experience, mine was really good. I’ll defiantly miss it.

Now, it’s time for me to go to Syria and enjoy my two-week vacation. See ya!

At last! I got the chance to work on something as interesting as the OLAP Cube.

On Saturday, I started searching for audit trail components based on the new info. One of the employees told me that I should take a look at the Enterprise Library (a library of application blocks designed to assist developers with common enterprise development tasks). I found that it contains the Logging Application Block which can be used to simplify the implementation of common logging functions.

On Sunday, I started reading a blog about how to use the Logging Application Block. I tried to follow the steps of building a simple application with logging capabilities, but there was something wrong with the database connectivity. I changed so many settings to the extent that I couldn’t trace back the changes, but it refused to work. The Team Leader sent me an e-mail containing more details and asked me to study this tool more. This was good news for me, because I figured out that I won’t be going to Aramco soon!

On Monday, I continued my struggle with the library and the DB. After one last reboot, the whole thing worked! What made it work? I have no idea! (Déjà vu: I faced a similar situation with the OLAP cube before). I developed and tested another application with more logging capabilities. I sent an e-mail to the Team Leader to inform him of my progress.

What’s next? I don’t know! I have managed to dodge going to Aramco for the time being, but I don’t know if I can keep doing it till the end of my summer training.

It seems that I’ll spend the last two weeks of my summer training in the place I hate most!

On Monday, I formatted the proposal according to the company’s official format and sent it to the Team Leader. He responded by giving me a “real” new task: they wanted to know if there are any audit trail system components that can be used within the system. I never heard of “audit trail” before and I wasn’t given many details about it. So, I was on my own.

On Tuesday, I reached a dead end in my search. I was hoping to see the Team Leader on that day but his meeting with the Big Boss (the founder of the company, that is) took too long and didn’t end till after 5:30 PM.

On Wednesday, I sent an email to the Team Leader requesting more details about this new task. He replied back giving me the details I asked for, and there was something else: “Even if you can’t find anything relevant let me know. I might ask you to do some development with us here in Aramco“. NO! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!

I have to find a way to get out of this! Wish me luck

WOW! This is the first time I summarize a whole week in one post! And there is a good reason for that.

It was kind of a slow week. After I discovered that the user can’t “slice & dice” the cube using Excel Services, I waited to be assigned a new task. I waited and waited and waited. The Team Leader was too busy to give me that new task. Finally, he told me on Wednesday that we need to write a formal proposal about the OLAP cube and Analysis Services and the possible user interfaces that can be used. I summarized what I know about these stuff and finished the draft on Saturday.

Today (Sunday), I went to Aramco after the lunch break because the Team Leader wanted to see me. He told me that the proposal was OK and that I should write it now according to the official format of the company. He also wanted to see a demo of the cube. Unlike the last time, the old database server was available to be used. Unfortunately, the cube refused to be deployed at all. (ARGH! why is this happening to me?!). So, The Team Leader said that he will come to the company on Tuesday and then I can show him the demo on my PC.

Working inside Aramco haven’t been a pleasant experience for me. So, if you happen to see me going there again.. please shoot me!

4 weeks down, 4 weeks to go!

On Tuesday, I investigated the possibility of using Excel Services even further. I worked with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for the first time. I had to use Virtual PC 2007 to run Windows Server 2003 and it took me some time to get it up and running.

On Saturday, I used a video tutorial to start with Excel Services right away. It was a good one, but I still need to know how to give the user the ability to “slice & dice” the cube. Working with a virtual PC is really frustrating, especially if there is only 1 GB of physical memory to run Windows XP and Windows Server 2003!

What about Wednesday? Well, I was feeling tired and there wasn’t really that much work to do. So, I took the day off!