Update config automation page and DXP page
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PA4KEV
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@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ const ConfigAutomation = () => {
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<div className="scrollspy-example col-6 offset-3" data-bs-spy="scroll" data-bs-target="#list-example" data-bs-smooth-scroll="true" tabIndex="0">
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<section id="list-config-automation" className="content-section">
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<h1 className="text-primary">Configuration automation</h1>
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<p>At <a href="https://www.hitachivantara.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hitachi Vantara</a> I worked with other developers on automating a configuration process using <a href="https://www.python.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Python</a> and several external API.</p>
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<p>At <a href="https://www.hitachivantara.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hitachi Vantara</a> I worked with other developers on automating a configuration process using <a href="https://www.python.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Python</a> and several external API.</p>
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<p>Products would be picked, assembled, configured and finally packaged for shipping at the distribution centre where I collaborated on this project. Configuration happend by connecting a Windows laptop to the product and apply settings. This related to the product's operating system, network and storage settings.</p>
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<picture>
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@ -32,9 +32,9 @@ const ConfigAutomation = () => {
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<h2 className="text-primary">Development</h2>
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<p>This project started as a local Python 2 script when it started, to only automate very specific settings. It later moved to USB drives and eventually to a VM on a network.</p>
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<p>It eventually grew to support multiple product lines and at this moment I joined the other programmer to further extend this software after my internship.</p>
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<p>Here I learnt working properly with Git and designing software architecture. I also learnt how to create automation by interfacing by GUI automation with <a href="https://www.autohotkey.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AutoHotkey</a> and combine multiple APIs to achieve results.</p>
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<p>The automation software also used other resources like <a href="https://ttssh2.osdn.jp/index.html.en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tera Term</a> scripts.</p>
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<p>Another fun thing I added was an <a href="https://www.raritan.com/products/power/power-distribution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">iPDU</a> where Python could safely powercycle 230 Volt AC power consumers. This was useful to power down devices when the distribution center was not operating at night to reduce costs.</p>
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<p>Here I learnt working properly with Git and designing software architecture. I also learnt how to create automation by interfacing by GUI automation with <a href="https://www.autohotkey.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AutoHotkey</a> and combine multiple APIs to achieve results.</p>
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<p>The automation software also used other resources like <a href="https://ttssh2.osdn.jp/index.html.en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tera Term</a> scripts.</p>
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<p>Another fun thing I added was an <a href="https://www.raritan.com/products/power/power-distribution" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iPDU</a> where Python could safely powercycle 230 Volt AC power consumers. This was useful to power down devices when the distribution center was not operating at night to reduce costs.</p>
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<picture>
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<source media="(max-width: 799px)" srcset={`${process.env.PUBLIC_URL}/images/projects/hitachi/cto-laptop-w240.webp`} />
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@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ const ConfigAutomation = () => {
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<section id="list-lessons-learnt" className="content-section">
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<h2 className="text-primary">Lessons learnt</h2>
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<p>Being a programmer, I was mostly concerned with the software. But it requires hardware to run on. When the software does not work because of differences in the platform the software run on, what is there to do? I eventually started managing around 40 configuration laptops, using <a href="https://clonezilla.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Clonezilla</a> to create identical machines.</p>
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<p>Being a programmer, I was mostly concerned with the software. But it requires hardware to run on. When the software does not work because of differences in the platform the software run on, what is there to do? I eventually started managing around 40 configuration laptops, using <a href="https://clonezilla.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Clonezilla</a> to create identical machines.</p>
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<p>Docker would have been an ideal solution, but I did not know much of it at the time.</p>
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<p>Also my many points of learning in git merges, creating release tags, deploying broken versions of the software and immediatly needing to patch with hotfixes, all contributed to my learning of software development.</p>
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<p>Automation demands an equalized platform to run on and once it is deployed, hundreds of products will be making use of it. So, thinking something over and propely design and architecture software is much more time-saving than quickly meeting deadlines.</p>
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@ -12,25 +12,25 @@ const DXPDevelopment = () => {
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</div>
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<div className="scrollspy-example col-6 offset-3" data-bs-spy="scroll" data-bs-target="#list-example" data-bs-smooth-scroll="true" tabIndex="0">
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<section className="content-section">
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<h1 id="list-dxp" className="text-primary">DXP Development</h1>
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<section id="list-dxp" className="content-section">
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<h1 className="text-primary">DXP Development</h1>
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<h4 className="text-secondary">OPPLE Catalog Generator</h4>
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<p>What is DXP? It stands for Digital Experience Platform and is basically interactive software where data can be maintained. One such DXP I loved working on was for <a href="https://www.opple.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OPPLE</a>. They are a brand of lighting products and have over 14000 different items.</p>
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<p>My contributions were taking ownership of their catalog generator tool and maintaining the data of their products in <a href="https://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drupal</a> on their website.</p>
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<p>You can view the catalog here: <a href="https://www.opple.nl/en/product-catalogue-np" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.opple.nl/en/product-catalogue-np</a></p>
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<p>All the data was supplied through an external API by <a href="https://www.compano.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Compano</a> and through an uploaded XML file. This data had to be parsed and converged into a logical structure so that products and product families were matched along with their features, photographs, accessoires, dimensional drawings, sensor diagrams and more. And all data is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">multilingual</a>. And of course data had to be exchanged through excel files for pricelists and tender texts. Data was used interchangably between different tools and websites.</p>
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<p>What is DXP? It stands for Digital Experience Platform and is basically interactive software where data can be maintained. One such DXP I loved working on was for <a href="https://www.opple.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OPPLE</a>. They are a brand of lighting products and have over 14000 different items.</p>
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<p>My contributions were taking ownership of their catalog generator tool and maintaining the data of their products in <a href="https://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Drupal</a> on their website.</p>
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<p>You can view the catalog here: <a href="https://www.opple.nl/en/product-catalogue-np" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.opple.nl/en/product-catalogue-np</a></p>
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<p>All the data was supplied through an external API by <a href="https://www.compano.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Compano</a> and through an uploaded XML file. This data had to be parsed and converged into a logical structure so that products and product families were matched along with their features, photographs, accessoires, dimensional drawings, sensor diagrams and more. And all data is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">multilingual</a>. And of course data had to be exchanged through excel files for pricelists and tender texts. Data was used interchangably between different tools and websites.</p>
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<img src={`${process.env.PUBLIC_URL}/images/projects/opple/opple-catalog.webp`} alt="opple catalog"/>
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<p>The catalog generator makes use of the Drupal platform as an intranet portal where thousands of PDF's could be automatically generated in a single batch. The customer only has to alter the data and the layouts and appropriate sections appear.</p>
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</section>
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<section className="content-section">
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<h3 id="list-legacy" className="text-primary">Legacy</h3>
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<p>This project was handed to me as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolithic_application" target="_blank" rel="noopener">monolithic source</a>, with only 1 PHP file containing all the rendering logic and handling exceptions (as in, many products had their own unique, exceptional attributes). This was a project that had outgrown itself and was hard to scale further due to the current structure. I had to improve the code base, while retaining the legacy functions. But because everything was so tightly coupled I had to make sure a change did not break functionality elsewhere. The key is to write new code and provide "safety nets" for older code.</p>
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<p>A common misconception is to think by creating quick code, is easy gain. Not much effort, just copy and paste the existing logic and adjust it a bit. Then put it in the same file, no need to document it. But by building up <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Technical Dept</a>, you will either leave this code behind or you will forget how everything works. Making code scalable, is essential. Even for "small" or "temporary" projects. Do not take shortcuts, thinking it will save time or meet the deadline.</p>
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<section id="list-legacy" className="content-section">
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<h3 className="text-primary">Legacy</h3>
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<p>This project was handed to me as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolithic_application" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">monolithic source</a>, with only 1 PHP file containing all the rendering logic and handling exceptions (as in, many products had their own unique, exceptional attributes). This was a project that had outgrown itself and was hard to scale further due to the current structure. I had to improve the code base, while retaining the legacy functions. But because everything was so tightly coupled I had to make sure a change did not break functionality elsewhere. The key is to write new code and provide "safety nets" for older code.</p>
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<p>A common misconception is to think by creating quick code, is easy gain. Not much effort, just copy and paste the existing logic and adjust it a bit. Then put it in the same file, no need to document it. But by building up <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Technical Dept</a>, you will either leave this code behind or you will forget how everything works. Making code scalable, is essential. Even for "small" or "temporary" projects. Do not take shortcuts, thinking it will save time or meet the deadline.</p>
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</section>
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<section className="content-section">
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<h3 id="list-improvement" className="text-primary">Improvement</h3>
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<section id="list-improvement" className="content-section">
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<h3 className="text-primary">Improvement</h3>
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<p>Restructuring code built as such requires mostly patience. You cannot instantly restart everything, as this tool is used in production. You cannot create a new architecture complete with diagrams, there is currently no time. It is not the only project I work on, there are 20 other projects that also require attention. Instead, I started by moving functions around every time I worked on a new feature for the tool. Dedicating existing functions to separate module files was the start. Creating object-oriented code for new features was the next step. Applying unit tests came next. As long as a new feature request did not exceed in time, it could be slowly prepared to grow by having prework done every time.</p>
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<p>Eventually, it became a tool with composed logic, making future maintenance and feature requests a lot more simple.</p>
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<p>Moving forward with a structured tool, I am proud to have collaborated on this project!</p>
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