Serendipitous Cerebration (Part 1)
I recently worked on a team tasked with a software integration project that connects invoices from between some Accounting software to ILINX® Content Store. The integration software was used for pulling invoice values from both our AP and AR invoices for modifying the image indices for the stored content in ILINX Content Store.
Following a series of patches for Windows, Content Store, and the accounting software, Murphy’s Law began rearing their ugly heads and the integration solution in place that retrieved and updated indices flat quit working.
Most of the issues resolved themselves in short order, but ONE issue – the ability to read one field. We were able to connect and pull values from every other field on the Accounting form. To complicate issues more, 2 of the fields from the invoices are used to identify the proper document in Content Store and the broken field was one of these. Trying to isolate the cause of the issue quickly started feeling like wrestling with a squamous Kimono dragon bent on devouring as much time and resources as a large Monitor lizard can muster.
A couple of techs, multiple attempted connector types, some choice language, and a forehead sized dent in my keyboard later it connected and started pulling. After all of the hair pulling and frustration I’m left with one of those moments when things started working for no reason and continued to function as originally expected, and while you still need to determine what happened you’re just too ecstatic that the software is no longer harassing you with error messages.
I’d never advise using Serendipitous Cerebration as a preferred method of problem solving. In fact, if Serendipitous Cerebration is your preferred method of problem solving, chances are there is a lot of floundering around before isolating the issue down to a workable solution. Which is why I’m guessing that most of us try and not go that route, but I’d bet that there are not many techs out there that have had similar moments when, out of the blue, an issue seemingly resolves itself and all you want to do is jump up and start cheering before attempting to figure out what really corrected the issue.
Please check back for the Part 2 of this 5 part blog on 9/30/11!
Co Authors: Random McParks & John Hart
ImageSource Inc.
