SWQL Study Group for the complete novice - thoughts?

This sounds like a good idea, I am happy to contribute in any way. 

There are some resources that could help you, my favorite is the getting started post https://thwack.solarwinds.com/resources/b/product-blog/posts/intro-to-api-sdk-swql

The SolarWinds Academy also provides access to live and on-demand content in this area https://customerportal.solarwinds.com/VirtualClassrooms

Thanks Tony. As you may guess it is early days and greatly depends on the reaction, etc. It helps that you are in the UK as if we did set something up makes scheduling easier 

I didn't state explicitly but for me the prime reason for a study type group would be down to my style of learning. I rarely learn well from reading text or watching videos - no matter how often I try I find myself falling asleep or losing concentration and have to restart. Which is not helpful.

I have seen Michael's posts and even challenged him to complete them during a one to one call recently. I will go over his posts again and see if there is anything I can glean.

In relation to the virtual classroom, I was sure I'd searched through that and found nothing of relevance to learning SWQL, the SDK, etc - the only mention I can see is an advanced reporting one.

Thanks Tony. As you may guess it is early days and greatly depends on the reaction, etc. It helps that you are in the UK as if we did set something up makes scheduling easier 

I didn't state explicitly but for me the prime reason for a study type group would be down to my style of learning. I rarely learn well from reading text or watching videos - no matter how often I try I find myself falling asleep or losing concentration and have to restart. Which is not helpful.

I have seen Michael's posts and even challenged him to complete them during a one to one call recently. I will go over his posts again and see if there is anything I can glean.

In relation to the virtual classroom, I was sure I'd searched through that and found nothing of relevance to learning SWQL, the SDK, etc - the only mention I can see is an advanced reporting one.

If you want step-by-step, someone I know did a series of SolarWinds Lab episodes about it.

• SolarWinds Lab Episode #86 - Orion SDK 101: Intro to PowerShell and Orion API - SolarWinds Lab Archive - SolarWinds Lab - THWACK
• SolarWinds Lab Episode #91 – Customizing the Orion Platform With the SolarWinds API and SWQL - SolarWinds Lab Archive - SolarWinds Lab - THWACK
• SolarWinds Lab Episode #93–A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Modern Dashboards on the Orion Platform - SolarWinds Lab Archive - SolarWinds Lab - THWACK

You can also ask questions in the Orion SDK forum.  People are always glad to help out.

Thanks Kevin - I'm pretty sure I've seen all those videos at least once but IIRC mostly shot past my grasp as I didn't (don't) have the basics in place. I understood the gist, but the detail in the specifics is what eludes.

And second, as I hinted at above, watching videos is not my prime identified style of learning - it doesn't even come in 2nd or 3rd in the 7 styles I was taught about. I very much learn bet by being able to interact directly with others going through it at the same time.

You and me both, my friend.  I (personally) learn by doing the thing.  I can read all the docs and watch all the videos, but for me actually doing the thing is what teaches me.  If you had a magic wand, what would you want?

The UK time is a challenge for me on PST, otherwise I'd be game to lead a couple sessions.   I taught the L1 courses on advanced scripting/ database/ reporting many times when I worked for them.   If your company has some training budget to burn L1 still does that course and has UK team.  It's very hands on and can take someone from "no idea what SQL is" to being halfway decent query writing and able to use postman for the API in just a few days.

Marc - that course would be perfect and I'm trying to get it sorted this end (new financial year coming up real soon so who knows) but last I spoke with L1 UK was that the course is available only has a remote course run by their USA counterparts.

The remote part is not an issue so long as interaction is a go - what isn't feasible is starting a course at 16:00 my time when that is my end of day :) - and as we foster kids I need to have my downtime to help my wife.

As to the offer of leading a session or two then I will bear that in mind, and the odd late day I can accommodate.

But so far the only responses I've had are from folks that know the stuff - I need more folks like me to make it viable!

There are other partners offering this kind of help in your area.  Prosperon is on that operates mostly in the UK.  There are a few others out there.  The nice part about services like these is that they can work with you and your dataset, not a sample one, so whatever you do is more in line with what you'll need to do in the future.

Thanks Kevin - I'll have to see if our training provider works with Prosperon...

In the meantime, another THWACK'ster and I are meeting via Teams next week to start and see what can be done to assist me.