Re: Questions and problems

[Hitesh Patel <hitesh@presys.com>]

On Monday 12 August 2002 01:41 pm, Gayland Gump wrote:
> I have recently downloaded and installed NorthStar.  Thus far I have
> managed to get it working after a fashion but have encountered a variety
> of problems.  I am writing to get a sense of how many users are actually
> using this software and it's reliability and level of community support.
>

As far as I know there is a growing number of NorthStar fanatics spread losely 
over the globe ;-)

> The documentation appears to be somewhat out of step with the
> application as the download did not appear to match the installation
> instructions accurately though close enough that I was able to get it
> running.

Your right, docs have gotten a major update in 1.7... 

>
> Currently I am unable to add network addresses to the system.  My
> examination of the NorthStar.postgresql.sql file suggest that there is a
> mismatch in the number of arguments expected and the number of arguments
> supplied in the line that initializes the networks table.  The symptom
> of this was a false error for a pg_atoi conversion error on one of the
> timestamp variables when I manually executed the initialization line
> from within psql.

This is a known bug and is fixed in CVS.  I would wait for 1.7 to come out 
sometime next week and try then. 

>
> Furthermore, the author may have changed the type for the network
> variable from CIDR to a Numeric(40,0) type recently, yet the default
> initialization entry for the network table, is in CIDR format and
> presents as "ERROR:  Bad numeric input format '0.0.0.0/0'" when the
> initialization sql is presented via psql.

Eeeck, the CIDR type hasn't been used since back in the 1.1 days.  Are your 
running an older version?  If so have you gone thru and ran all the update 
scripts to bring your database schema up to date?

>
> I am concerned that further efforts to get this software running may
> lead to further revelations and ultimately prove to be a significant
> obstacle to useful use of the software.
>

Good things come to those who never give up.  In all seriousness though these 
are some very weird problems.  Could you provide some more specifics like OS, 
Web Server, Perl versions, and the version of NorthStar your were and/or are 
try to get running.

> My application also requires significant additional information be
> tracked.  I have attempted to use the software to add templates and
> define additional fields.  The documentation indicates that I should be
> able to edit these field definitions, (they are not yet populated with
> any data) but the documented edit buttons appear to be missing.    I am
> curious as to if anyone has modified the system through the addition of
> additional tables to the database.  It is not entirely clear to me yet
> if I can actually sufficiently extend the software to fulfill my needs
> using the mechanisms available.

Hmm.. this is odd.. again.. need the version your running to see if I can 
figure out whats going on.

>
> I am praying and hoping for a speedy response to my questions and
> perhaps an opportunity to dialog with anyone regarding thier experience
> with the NorthStar software.
>

I'm hoping we haven't scared you off... if you can provide some more specifics 
as indicated above i'm sure we can get things going.

> Thanks in advance,
>
> Gayland Gump
> ggump@pacifier.net
> gumpg@pacifier.com

-- 
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Hitesh Patel                    |  Voice: (541) 759-3126     |
| Network Engineering Manager     |  Fax:   (541) 759-3214     |
| Preferred Communications Inc.	  |  Email: hitesh@pciwest.net |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+