Panel: To Share or Not to Share

• Sharing is broken across regions (regions get approved/filed at different times, which complicates implementing changes)
• Some people apparently just don't use regions: they emulate it all with the formulas and lots of tables
• But sharing makes development faster (at the cost of more complex maintenance)
• My thought: perhaps sharing would be more useful if really break down everything into small components that wont change
• What actually gets shared depends, as always, on business requirements

Break:

I thought I should take some pictures of the resort that the conference was at.

Loews-Ventana Canyon Resort lobby entrance.

Pond at the Loews-Ventana Canyon Resort. Yes, this is in the desert. It makes me wonder what happens when there's a real drought...

Golf course at the Loews-Ventana Canyon Resort. Plus a little bit of the pond they have that spills over in a pretty water feature into a lower pond. Although that part shows up more as the water just ending in a sharp edge.

"X"ML Marks the Spot ~ Utilizing Ratabase XML

• Presented by Serge Décoeur
• Overview of XML (if you don't know this, umm...learn it?)
• Ratabase XML schema: 'RBGeneric.xsd'
• New with v.5.0
• Fields:
  • General fields := input fields
  • Accumulator, Parameter fields := output fields
  • Global fields SHOULD NOT be passed in
  • Optional FLD attributes MOSTLY used by test tool
  • Arrays also handled differently
• We've coded formulas to handle NoMatch errors  - we just keep on processing
• Uppercasing everything "performs better"
• Extension stuff sounds interesting
  • Not passed to calculator, so more efficient data pass through mechanism?
• Exclude attribute lets Nodes not be passed to the calculator
• API doesn't drive calls at all
  • your "LobAdapter" would do it
  • so we'd still have the web service, it just eliminates block specific stuff in it (replace with the XML API)

Wynsure Solution Overview

• Platform portfolio of products
• "Synergy Solutions" : partner with other solutions (non-CGI)
• CGI implements, supports, does it ALL for these apps
• Highly component based (good), but single sourced (bad)
  • .NET version is "a lot faster" than the Java version
• Actually written by Wyd (in Minneapolis)?!
• Does Property & Casualty and Life
• Adding:
  • reflexive questioning
  • acord support

Finding the Proven Trail - Upgrading from Prior Versions

• Summary: v4.0 → v4.2 → v5.01
  • Presented by John Barlow
  • Upgrade Production before Product Builder
  • Need Full distro to get to v5.01
• Product Builder
  • v4.0 → v4.2
    • Create Archive DB (.sql or DB2 script)
    • Archive stuff is optional - can enable archive stuff AFTER 5.0 update
    • Calculator doesn't really get updated with 4.2
    • Note: Liberty firewall prevents us from getting FTP access
  • v4.2 → v5.0
    • SQL script (or DB2 batch file)
    • Run security update
    • Update Product Builder database ID
• Production
  • Update DB's (further instructions)
  • Install v5.01 following instructions
  • (No complex upgrade steps)
• v5.0
  • Additional date validator changes
  • adapter change
• "Feel free to contact help desk"

Exploring the Desert Landscape ~ Desert Jeep Tour

 

Now playing: Sam Roberts – Love at the End of the World – Them Kids