Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

Stop Snagit from Saving .SNAGX Files Automatically
I recently installed SnagIt and it was annoyingly saving both PNG and SNAGX files. This post shows how to get rid of the SNAGX file. If you just need the solution, scroll to the bottom.

I installed Snagit recently with a new machine. The old screenshot software I had been using was banned by IT as it had an unpatched vulnerability.

The main reason I want a screen capture tool is for sharing an image. This might be for a note for me, feedback to a product team, a part of a screen for a blog or article, or even showcasing something for a customer.

What I have done for a couple of decades:
- hit a hotkey
- select a region of the screen
- move on
I expect to have the region of the screen saved in a folder on my workstation, where I can then grab it later and send it somewhere.

The SnagIt Problem

When I added SnagIt, I set up a automatic capture with these settings.
- select: region
- Effects: non
- Share: File, automatic filename, specific folder
- No preview, no delay, capture the cursor
- Preset – One set up
This worked well, with my images being captured.

Except, with every PNG, I also had a SNAGX file. That was really annoying because if I edit, I’m editing the PNG and resaving it. I don’t need 2 image files.

Customer Support

I had a chat with customer support, who was not helpful. They suggested this article: Save to another format. I eventually got the person to understand I didn’t need that, and they said this wasn’t supported.

I complained a bit on Twitter, mostly just annoyed. The person who responded gave me the same article, but then they responded later with the solution.

The Solution

The place to configure this isn’t the SnagIt app, which is where I’d expect it. It’s in the Snagit Editor. I’m guessing that the capture process calls the editor somehow, which is why this design exists.

Go to the Edit menu, then select Editor Preferences. Go to the Library tab. In there, uncheck the “automatically save new image captures to library”. It’s checked below, but remove that and it should stop with the SNAGX versions.

Summary

No screenshots because, well, when I try to capture one the SnagIt app and Editor disappear. The one above is from Twitter.

This is a weird architectural design. The capture widget would be the place I’d expect this, but the “save new image captures” implies to me all image captures, not just the SNAGX format. It’s poorly worded, IMHO, for users to understand.

However, my problem is solved and I don’t need the job I created that runs every day and deletes *.SNAGX from my folder.:
September 2, 2024
A New Word: Flashover

flashover – n. the moment a conversation becomes alive and real, when a spark of rust shorts out the delicate circuits you keep insulated under layers or irony, momentarily grounding the static emotional charge you’ve built up through decades of friction.

I sometimes wonder how sad or disappointed (or angry) the authors or this dictionary are at the world.

I don’t get too insulated with irony, but I do have flashover moments when I suddenly become interested in a conversation. It can be with a customer, when they have a cool problem, or they see some excitement in how they might adopt DevOps.

It can be with friends or family, when I hear them tell me something wonderful about their life.

It’s a cool feeling when you might be half paying attention to a conversation, or you feel like you’re having small talk, and all of a sudden you get excited or interested, more invested, in the chat.

I love that.

From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

August 30, 2024
Friday Flyway Tips: Git Integration in Community Edition

Redgate added Git integration to the free, Community edition of Flyway Desktop. I saw the announcement and decided to make this post to show how this can work for a new project.

We do need git installed, so head over to the free git download if you don’t have it. From there, install Git and you’re ready to go.

I’ve been working with Flyway Desktop for work more and more as we transition from older SSMS plugins to the standalone tool. This series looks at some tips I’ve gotten along the way.

Source Controlling Your Project

When you start Flyway Desktop Community, you should see the edition in the upper left, as shown here.

I’ll click Open project, and choose one of my existing projects. When I do that, I see all the migrations in the project. I can also select or add a target and run flyway commands from here.

What’s new is the right hand sidebar, which now has the VCS controls. If I click the left arrow in the upper right, I get the sidebar to expand. I can see I don’t have any changes. This bar wasn’t available previously, but now it is.

Let’s make a change. I’ll close this (click the arrow at the top) and return to the migrations screen. I’ll click the “add migration” button (the arrow points to this in the image below).

When the editor opens, I’ll add some code. I’ll also change the name. Notice there are no changes in the right sidebar.

When I save this, all of a sudden, there is a single change in the middle of the bar.

Expanding the sidebar and clicking on the middle icon, I see my one change has been added as a migration script.

I can add a comment and commit this or continue working. When I’m done committing, I can easily push my changes from here to the remote.

I’m manually managing scripts in Community Edition, but I can do it all from Flyway Desktop, including all the version control work.

Flyway Enterprise

If you want to get more from Flyway, try Flyway Enterprise out today. If you haven’t worked with Flyway Desktop, download it today.

If you use the CLI Flyway Community, download Flyway Desktop and get a GUI for your migration scripts as well as version control.

Video Walkthrough

No video walkthrough this week as I’m on the road.

You can check out all the Flyway videos I’ve recorded.

August 30, 2024
Moving One File Across Git Branches: #SQLNewBlogger
I was working on some branching and merging with a customer and they wanted to move a file from one branch to another without taking the entire commit. I had to dig in a bit and see how to cherry pick a file, and not a commit. This post looks at how this can work.

I’ll do this in the git CLI. I’m sure it works in many clients, but when I do something strange or new, I like looking at the CLI. Mostly because when I make a mistake, the clients send me to the CLI often anyway, so I get comfortable there.

Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers. You can see all posts on Git as well.

A Simple Setup

First, grab a repo. In this case, I had a branching/merging repo I use with customers to show some things. I’ll use the repo at: https://github.com/way0utwest/BranchMerge

For me, I have a main branch, as well as a dev and qa branches. There are likely some feature ones as well.

To start with, let’s check main. Everything is up to date (I pulled already):

Let’s also check QA. Same thing.

I’ll now make some changes on QA, adding a file and changing two others. Once I do this, here is my status, pre-commit.

If I don’t commit, these files don’t exist, and I could change branches and add them there. However, once I commit, I might want to move them in a certain way. I’ll commit and my status is clean.

Now, I could switch to main and do this to move one file:
```
git checkout qa -- README.md
```
However, I’m just doing that without review. So, I wouldn’t do that and you shouldn’t either. Instead, let’s create a PR.

Using a Branch for Peer Review

A PR is a pull request, but it also means we ask for some peer review. In my case, I’ll use this code to create a new branch and then pull in two changes: my modified readme and one of the other changes.
```
git checkout -b r9-qa

git checkout qa -- README.md

git checkout qa -- "V6__create proc gettwo.sql"
```
Ignore my typos, but I’ve run 4 commands: checkout 3 times and status once.

Now I’ll commit and push these changes to my r9-qa branch.

Once I do that, Github detects a push and asks me to create PR. I do, and I see the PR with these changes.

Now I can proceed with my flow, and my cherry picked changes are captured.

There is a git cherrypick command, but often I find I need random files from multiple commits, while ignoring others in the commit. This works well for database releases.

A few references:
SQL New Blogger

This post took my about 20 minutes to write. However the learning and experimentation took over an hour as I read various links and dug into the docs and various posts.

This is a very useful skill, and one you can discuss in an interview. Write a similar post and you’ll be prepared for this type of question in an interview.
August 28, 2024