Just Another Coder

Just Finished site: Bay Vue Carpet Cleaners

2011-12-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

You would be surprised by the quality of most carpet cleaner websites. The competition is quite stiff. I took a look at several before implementing this design for Bay-Vue Carpet Cleaning in Morro Bay. It has a beautiful photo on the front... an adorable picture of a mother and baby on a white carpet... a great tag-line...

I followed it up with a lengthy testimonials page ... and in several places showed before and after photos. This really helps sell the service. This guy has been in the business for a long time and has a great reputation. Now he has a site that reflects it.

Just finished site: Back Bay Pottery

2011-12-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

I just finished a simple but elegant website for a local San Luis Obispo pottery maker - Back Bay Pottery

She makes various pottery items that she sells on Etsy.com

The home page has an Etsy wigit that displays the product lists... for purchase.

The Events page shows a public calendar using an iframe wigit. Then when she updates her events through google, she makes them updated on her site.

How to Share your Google Calendar:
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=37083

How to Embed your calendar into your website:
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41207&ctx=cb&src=cb&cbid=-eqyxton29qwe&cbrank=3

Google Product Data Feeds

2011-12-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

I just finished working on a Google RSS xml data feed.

If you want to do it properly, try the following:

1) Build a RSS with the extra attributes needed for your type of business. Follow the Product Feed Specification guidelines.

2) Make sure you use the proper Google Product Category taxonomy when putting in product categories - that is important. Note that google_product_category (google's taxonomy) is different from product_type whis is the category your business uses.

3) Log into Google... Go to your merchant center, and submit your product feed. You may even set up your shipping and tax rates in Google Merchant, separate from the feed if desired.

4) Sign up your business in one or two product review sites. Then promote at least one of them to have people review you as a vendor. This is reflected in your 0-5 star score with these sites... and google pulls these.

How to imbed YouTube videos into EBAY - Looping

2011-01-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

I was recently contacted by a potential client... He wanted to know how to imbed YouTube videos into a his Ebay Listing. And his video was only 15 seconds - and had the product rotating.. He wanted it to auto-start, and loop.

The above video gives great easy-to-use instructions...

If you want to do some of this by hand, consider the following:
YouTube Looping Tricks

DataTable from XML & data chema - Correct datatypes filling from xml

2011-01-14T23:01:00.000-08:00

I have filled some datatables (datasets which contain 1 datatable) from xml.

//read xml / api into dataset..

DataSet ds = new DataSet();
ds.ReadXml("http://www.myuapi.com?request=KeyId=" + uuid);
MyRadGrid.DataSource = ds.Tables[0];

The problem is that all the data is looked at like string... some is really integer or doubles.. When we do filtering using Telerik filters... it needs to have the right datatype to filter properly...

SOLUTION: stay tuned...

I put the data into a linq query... and typed the items in the list... code to follow soon.

Remove duplicate Items RadComboBox - Telerik

2010-12-12T20:55:00.000-08:00

I had a puzzle recently with a RadComboBox...
I have a sql query that took a long time to run... sometimes 30 seconds, due to the huge database size and the complex query...

To populate a RadGrid - I bound it to a SqlDataSource. But I also needed dropdowns to filter this grid - and this needed to be bound to unique items in a column of that grid... I didnt want to do another db query to get a filtered version of the same info - so I bound it to the SAME SqlDataSource - and cached the datasource to minimize calls.

[asp:SqlDataSource ID="MySqlDataSource" EnableCaching="true" CacheDuration="180"
runat="server" OnSelecting="MySqlDataSource_Selecting"
ConnectionString="[%$ ConnectionStrings:mySqlConnectionString %]"
SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM vwBundlesForSale "]
[/asp:SqlDataSource]

However, this made there to be duplicate items in my dropdown... and the data was not sorted.

If you want to Sort and Filter for unique items in a Telerik RadComboBox, use something like this:

IN ASPX PAGE:

[telerik:RadComboBox ID="CoatComboBox"
runat="server" DataSourceID="MySqlDataSource" DataTextField="CoatName" DataValueField="CoatName" AllowCustomText="false" EnableItemCaching="true" Width="165px" DropDownWidth="260px" OnDataBound="SortAndNoDups_OnDataBound" AppendDataBoundItems="true" ......

IN CS CODE-BEHIND

protected void SortAndNoDups_OnDataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
RadComboBox fixComboBox = (RadComboBox)sender;
string selectedText = string.Empty;
if (fixComboBox.SelectedIndex >= 0)
{
selectedText = fixComboBox.SelectedValue;
}
fixComboBox.SelectedIndex = -1;
fixComboBox.Filter = RadComboBoxFilter.Contains;
fixComboBox.Sort = RadComboBoxSort.Ascending;
fixComboBox.SortItems();
string priorItem = "";
for (int i = 0; i < fixComboBox.Items.Count; i++)
{
try
{
RadComboBoxItem itm = fixComboBox.Items[i];
if (itm.Text == priorItem)
{
fixComboBox.Items.Remove(itm);
i--;
}
else
{
priorItem = itm.Text;
}
}
catch
{
break;
}
}

if (selectedText != string.Empty)
{
try
{
fixComboBox.SelectedValue = selectedText;

}
catch { }
}

}
protected void MySqlDataSource_Selecting(object sender, SqlDataSourceSelectingEventArgs e)
{
e.Command.CommandTimeout = 0; //prevents SqlDataSource timeout after 30 seconds

}

C# ?? two question marks

2010-11-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

You ever wonder what ?? means in C# language?

Its a cool shortcut for checking for nulls and returning a value...

I find it very useful when working with Linq queries... that may return some nullable fields..

Great article:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/446835/what-do-two-question-marks-together-mean-in-c

Soap Call using Javascript

2010-09-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

There are many times now that I need to make a soap call to an XML web service.... from the client (javascript). If, for example, you need to update the database... but want to use Javascript to do so out of process - without a postback...and with minimal data passed to the server... this is a great approach.

After a lot of research and testing I have found and do recommend the following js tool for any of my colleagues:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/ajax/JavaScriptSOAPClient.aspx

Using this, it is a simple trick to call the database...

[script]
var url = "../../ws/MyWebService.asmx";

function HelloWorld() {
var pl = new SOAPClientParameters();
pl.add("yourName", "Robert the Great");
SOAPClient.invoke(url, "HelloTo", pl, true, Hello_CallBack);
}

function Hello_CallBack(resultData) {
alert("Hello_CallBack: " + resultData);
}
[/script]

Optimizing a website for Speed

2010-07-25T19:37:00.001-07:00

There are several techniques that can be used to optimize your website for speed. And remember, one of the things Google considers now is your website speed.

The basics include
1) Compressing resource files (like .css and js)
2) Minimizing the number of files linked/imbedded in a web page.
3) Optimizing the size of images used on the web page

NOTE: if a css file referenced on all pages references multiple images for backgrounds - make sure that most of them are really used on all pages. If not - consider referencing them only on pages where needed.

So for my websites, I am taking all the common css files for a page (often separated for specific wigits or sections) and compressing them into one .css file for the site. I do the same for the javascript... Of course, this is only after the site is approved for look/feel by the client so I don't have to redo this. And I keep the un-compressed versions available for later editing if needed... since these will have all my comments and easy-to-read formatting.

If a .css or .js file is only needed on a few pages, I only include a compressed version of that file where needed. (and I use the compressed version here too...) But overall, this has proved to be a good strategy for minimizing website overhead - and increasing speed.

TOOLS TO BOOKMARK:

Speed Tests:
http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
http://www.selfseo.com/website_speed_test.php

Compression Tools:
http://javascriptcompressor.com/
http://www.cssdrive.com/index.php/main/csscompressor/

Finishing up My Own Software

2010-05-12T08:29:00.001-07:00

I've never done this before... but on 15 Mar I will have completed my first software for resale.

I have built software for myself before... including a CMS and E-Commerce application. But this is the first time I have completed a software package for public resale. It is a lot of fun.

This bit of software wraps a set of web services and includes data obtained from my personal research. It allows (through IP-detection) the discovery of the visitor's location, timezone, and allows for conversion of date/time to that location's timezone - using that country's preferred date/time displays.

link rel="image_src" - whats this for?

2010-04-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

I saw this in a page and was trying to figure out what this was used for..
[link rel="image_src" href="linktoimage.jpg" /]

Basically, when you submit/share this to Facebook , this helps Facebook determine which image to put next to the link. If this is not present, Facebook tries to put in the first image it finds on the page, which may not be the best one to represent your site. (NOTE: Facebook also uses your meta title and meta description tags.)

I am hoping that someday that search engines will use this to put thumbnails of this image in their results display... But oh well. Until then, it will help with social sharing. Since Facebook is such a large resource, this is currently an important thing to consider.

Resources:

Optimizing your site for Facebook

Enhanced Social Share

Facebook Meta Tags

Marching Ants - CSS

2010-04-01T20:53:00.001-07:00

I just saw a really cool way to do the marching ants.. Check this out:

http://sunpig.com/martin/archives/2010/02/10/marching-ants-in-css.html

Thought I would pass this along... too cool.

I am always looking for better ways of doing things, and I liked how he used CSS and animated gifs to get the affect...

similar one (though I like the first one better):
http://www.serafinistudios.com/blog/archives/2003/10/29/how-to-add-marching-ants-photoshop-selection-style-to-your-links/

I even integrated this into my CMS - so when people hover over a wigit - they can easily see what sections they can edit.

I had to share

Google Products - SEO

2010-03-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

I have been working on the SEO for one of my clients - and have had a lot of success working on the SEO for his Google Products listing also... It is surprising how this can grab a little-tapped market.

I simply have a RSS feed of my products in a manner requested by Google, and submit the feed to Google Products database. The feed is dynamic - and changes whenever products change using ASP.Net

However, lately I have enhanced it a bit with better success. I still use the page meta-description for the Google product description, but I use a special field for the Google Product name, so we can tailor it for Google Product searches.

Normally I found it to be best practice to include a good product name (with relevant keywords), followed by the package/product size or weight in parenthesis. The product name should include the keywords AND be user-friendly to read. The description should include keywords AND be a good sales pitch.

.htaccess file 301 redirect - to avoid duplicate content

2010-02-28T17:03:00.000-08:00

Ya - I'm an ASP.net programmer, but every now and then I do a bit of php or other maitenance..

The other day I had to update a website for SEO. I noticed that this guy had two domains pointed to the same website... and that you can crawl them exactly the same.

Unfortunately, this gets a duplicate content penalty so I had to update the .htaccess file to correct this and do 301 redirects. Here are the lines of code needed to do this if you ever need it:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^^(www\.)?dontneedthis\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.spiderweblogic.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Of course - change spiderweblogic to your website...

TIP: don't kill any existing .htaccess file. Just append this code towards the top. (You may not see it if you use a ftp program.)

Pinging Blogs

2010-01-15T13:23:00.000-08:00

For best results after posting blogs...ping them. That way blog search sites know you have updated content.

Here are some free services that ping blogs on request:

http://www.feedping.com/
http://pingomatic.com/

If you roll-your-own blog, you may want to use pingomatic.com - since they are easy to integrate as a back-end service.

301 redirect windows server - for HTML pages

2009-09-28T16:29:00.000-07:00

I was working on moving a website over... The old site was html only - the new one is ASP.net. The puzzle was how to get the 301 redirects set up on a windows box? I have done it in code-behind... if it is an ASP.Net page... and with classic "asp" pages.

HERE is what I found
IIS Redirect
In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
Select the radio titled "a redirection to a URL".
Enter the redirection page
Check "The exact url entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource"
Click on 'Apply'

more on 301 redirects

Dynamically Loaded Controls Disappear ASP.Net C#

2009-08-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

I have been working with dynamically loaded Web User Controls.

However,I just found that they disappear after a postback... The basic solution is to reload them after postback.

Oh well...

Related articles (with info/tips/code):

[Telerik has good tips on using viewstate to help]

http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet/ajax/ajxloadusercontrols.html

http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/092904-1.aspx

http://weblogs.asp.net/infinitiesloop/archive/2008/04/23/truly-understanding-dynamic-controls-by-example.aspx

Javascript Cross Browser Back Method

2009-08-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a quick CROSS browser "back" method in JavaScript. It is really simple...

The history.go(-1) only worked well in IE. This double method worked well in IE, Firefox and Chrome. It checks if it knows how to do the "referrer" method. If not... it uses the history.go

[a href="#" onclick="if(document.referrer) {window.open(document.referrer,'_self');} else {history.go(-1);} return false;"]continue shopping[a]

Of course, you should use a "<" instead of "[" ... Blogger had issues when I posted the full link.

MySql Text Field - Truncating Data?

2009-06-12T22:32:00.000-07:00

Every now and then you run an application that really tests the constraints of data types. I just encountered this....

I just found out that in MySql "BLOB TEXT A BLOB or TEXT column have a maximum length of 65535 (2^16 - 1) characters". I was encountering some data errors with large text chunks - and finally found that they were being truncated silently... When I counted the characters - yes... that was the issue.

Arggg!

But there is a simple solution... LONGTEXT or LONGBLOB fields can handle the larger bits of data - if this is expected. This gives you approx 4 Gig of space to work with. Good to know.

Standard Web Page Width

2009-06-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

I have been building web pages for over 6 years... and have been using a standard web page width of 778px for 800px monitors, unless the client requests otherwise. The concept is to avoid (left/right) scrolling and make a good user experience.

Most of the justification came from the analysis/tips in Jakob Nielson's book on "Homepage Usability" - dated in 2002. Most other articles I've read suggest this... but the trend is changing, as these monitors become fewer.

Floating widths are cool - and useful. But they take longer to develop and I only do those on request, at an extra fee. However, since my statistics show that less than 2% use 800 px monitors, I am about to change my policy...

But what width to use? Of course I will build for the 1024px monitors... the next size up. This is the largest percentage for screen resolutions now - about 34%. But I am considering only using 960px width for the regular content. That will allow for those who don't open their browser all the way. And it will allow the background colors/gradients to properly frame the page.

More info:
http://webdesign.about.com/od/webdesign/a/aa080904.htm

http://funbytebitstop.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/775-px-make-it-your-default-webpage-width/

http://www.jimdegerstrom.com/blog/2008/07/standard-web-design-page-width.html

Screen Resolution Statistics
One of my websites gets 7,500 visitors per month on average...
21% use screen resolution 1024x768
18% use 1280x800
10% use 1280x1024
10% use 1440x900
7.6% use 1366x768
7% use 1680x1050
3.4% use 1920x1080
3% use 1920x1200
2.8% use 1600x900
2.25% use 1152x864
1.6% use 1280x768
1.5% use 1280x720
1.25% use 1360x768
0.9% use 800x600
0.9% use 1280x960
....

So it seems that less than 1 in 100 use the smaller 800 X 600 monitors...
Any thoughts?

Google Maps - just the basics please

2009-05-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

My Spiderweb Logic CMS has had Google Maps integrated into it for a couple years, so I havent had to focus on this for a bit. However, someone just asked me how to integrate Google Maps into their website. This is never a 2 sentence explanation. Here are the basics:

First figure out what you want.

I want GOOGLE MAPS imbedded IN my website:

You will need to use the API to build your map. Reviewing the official documentation will help with "how do I" questions specific to your website.

REF: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/

1) COPY/Paste code for your website

This is the best method:
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/#AJAX_Loader
They give you a bunch of javascript. Put it between the head tags.

Don't forget to create a "div" tag in the body with the id of "map" to contain your map.

2) Get a Google API Key for your website (even if it is localhost)

3) Replace the ABCDEFG in the above template with your google key.

4) Find the longitude/latitude of the location you want to center on.
Get longitude and latitude. If you are doing things dynamically both Yahoo and Google provide geocoding apis. But for one-time use, that link is the best.

5) Replace longitude and latitude numbers in the sample code with the actual longitude and latitude for your location.
ref: map.setCenter(new google.maps.LatLng(37.4419, -122.1419), 13);

It should now work.
You can alter the zoom in/out features by changing the 13 to a different number. You can alter the width and height by altering the width/height of the div tag.

You might also find the tutorial helpful here:
tutorial: http://code.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=74725&topic=11364
list of events: http://econym.googlepages.com/gevent.htm

I want to link to a GOOGLE MAP defined with my specific location(s):

This means that your map stays at Google. You just link to it from your website. However, you can configure a map specific to your needs - with your location preferences.

STEPS:
1) Log into your Google account. (Get one if you dont already.)

2) Get to the Google "maps" product

3) Create a new map and set your preferences. Put in a name and description. Dont forget to save.

4) Go back in edit mode and drag markers/balloons to your locations. Save.
NOTE: When you are editing your map you can zoom in to help put in your markers.

5) Get a link to your map. (Click on the "collaborate" link on left to get the URL. Copy/paste the full URL noted to the "href" of a link.) example map

Business Testimonial Sites

2009-04-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

One of my clients was interested in using some testimonial sites, and wanted to know what was out there.

Honestly, there are several sites that let you post a business profile and manage testimonials / business ratings. The trick is to hit the main ones (in case someone searches for you) and to use them to build your reputation/goodwill etc - and perhaps your search ranking.

TIP 1: create accounts in about 3-4 sites. You dont need to create and manage accounts in lots of these unless you have LOTS of time. But only let your customers know about 1 or two at a time. That way you can have several testimonials with one site. (Its a good idea to put links to these in your emails and in your website.) As you grow, share the other sites to build them up also. If someone asks for referrals, you can pass them a link with more than one testimonial.

TIP 2: If you sign up for an account with these places, take the time to do it right. Upload relevant pictures, including your logo. Remember - this is part of your BRANDING/MARKETING. Put in contact info AND your website url in the proper places. Put in a good description of your company. Put in a coupon - if they allow such things.

1) http://www.yelp.com
2) http://local.yahoo.com
3) http://www.insiderpages.com
4) http://centralcoast.citysearch.com
5) http://www.trustlink.org (affiliated with BBB)
6) http://www.merchantcircle.com

If you are in the food or travel business there are specific referral sites related to these activities. That way if someone is interested in traveling, he/she can do a search on what there is to do/eat and plan an iternerary - based on the reputation of the business.

Securing XML Web Services - SOAP

2009-03-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

I was doing research on securing XML Web Services and came across the following:

http://www.keithelder.net/blog/archive/2007/01/06/Securing-Web-Services-With-Username-and-Password.aspx

I want to see if I put a XML Web service in a folder - secured with folder permissions - and use username/password to get the web service... that would be the most scalable solution for me... Since I would like to use this secure some user-specific data.
-------------------

Ok - for speed and simplicity I just did the following:
1) Made username and password properties passed into the web service
2) Used SSL to connect to protect the web service.

It was simple and easy to use... pulled data specific to a user... from ASP.Net app into vba app.

Want the code??

ASP.Net AJAX - Update Panels

2009-03-16T22:48:00.001-07:00

Update Panels are COOL!

They have some quirks - but if used properly, they can really speed up a web app. (Had trouble using them with file uploads... but all else was fine.) I have been working on building some advanced lead-generation/management tools into my CMS - mostly using AJAX modals, tabs etc.

I have found that those forms with several grids and more than 3 tabs tend to take a few seconds to redraw - using a regular postback. However, if I use an Ajax update panel - only the data in that update panel is redrawn... saving LOTS of time for the update.

I still use regular postbacks - especially if if the update impacts several tabs, or if using file uploads. However, in most cases this is not needed...

FILE upload in Update Panel?
I normally don't bother... But if needed, refer to this:
http://geekswithblogs.net/ranganh/archive/2008/04/01/file-upload-in-updatepanel-asp.net-ajax.aspx

----------------------

One critical thing to consider with update panels - whether to set
UpdateMode="conditional" or "always".

Set to "conditional" if:
This update panel is not being affected by other update panels.

Set to "always" if:
This update panel data is being affected by updates in other update panels. This slows down the display/postback of all update panels with this... but can be very handy. Only do if necessary.

Importing Contacts from Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo using C#

2008-12-29T13:08:00.000-08:00

Many of the social bookmark services offer a means to import/invite people from your online email accounts... This is a great feature.... Honestly, I was a bit afraid of it at first. However, I do see the usefulness of it.

I have found some help (C#) to do this... I do have some websites that this would help with... particularly those with marketing, contact lists, and newsletter features. It can be rather useful..

http://forums.asp.net/p/1083530/2279066.aspx#2279066
http://forums.asp.net/p/1083530/1982614.aspx

Yahoo class:
http://gnillydev.blogspot.com/2007/10/yahoo-contact-import-class-in-c.html

Google documentation:
http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/
http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/docs/2.0/developers_guide_protocol.html

Live/Hotmail documentation:
http://gnillydev.blogspot.com/2007/10/live-msn-hotmail-contacts-importing-in.html

I will update this with any insights as I find it... and try it out.

Where to use it:

Lets say you have a "newsletter" or "prospect management" or "social" web-software. You can use such tools to import new contacts or friends and jump-start your system with your current business/family contacts.

Linking MS Access to SQL Server - labels

2008-12-19T21:12:00.000-08:00

I had a label generator plugin for MS Word... from Avery Denison to print my labels. The data for the names/addresses resides in a SQL Server Database.

Avery Dennison can import from a Word doc, a Spreadsheet, or from an Access db.

I didnt want to download a spreadsheet all the time before importing, so I decided to use Access as a front end and link tables.... Theoretically it was a simple process..

Here is the article I found to do this:

http://my.safaribooksonline.com/0596009739/integratingea-CHP-7-SECT-1?portal=informit

It worked fine - until I closed the file and tried to re-open. Then I had to enter the password again.

Unfortunately, I had problems holding on the the username/password in the ODBC connection I made.... The following article explains why... The odbc connection to Sql Server connection kept defaulting to being a "trusted" connection instead of using the Sql Server username/password that I gave it.

http://www.dbforums.com/showthread.php?t=413813 Thank you Bill Gates!

I tried applying the latest patch - no luck. Later I will revisit this...

---------------------------

I just saw http://www.officearticles.com/word/mail_merge_labels_in_microsoft_word.htm I knew MS Word had some sort of feature like this - just couldnt figure out where. But like a fool, I tried using Avery Dennisons software.

No luck. I had problems connecting to SQL Server 2005 db. Probably the same problem as above. I am connected to it easily from my web server. Only my desktop has issues.

-------------------------

Ok.... Another angle:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301659
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Misc/Q_21767403.html
http://www.fordevs.com/2008/08/i-was-looking-for-doing-mail-merge.html

- building MS Word on web server using C# and then downloading.

Looks like it may be possible to do what I want directly from the web server. I may need some sort of office components installed.. not sure.

----------------------

Another angle. I am going to try to get MS Access to pull data from my database.
Then I will use MS Access to run the label writers...
http://databases.about.com/od/tutorials/ht/mailinglabels.htm

YES!! This works if you have the data in MS Access. I was able to print the labels successfully! I even got MS Access to import the data from Excel. I just had to remove all the formatting done by my Excel generation code.

NEXT STEP: use vba to pull data into MS Access from my prospect management system. That would be very useful... if I had a canned tool to build mailing labels. I will need a way to pull the data from a web service or similar... I have some ideas that should work perfectly. Only constraint will be that the user has MS Access. Using data from:
http://microsoft-soap-toolkit.software.informer.com/

System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient with login credentials (ASP.Net)

2008-12-16T11:58:00.000-08:00

How to set login credentials for email ... C#...

Normally when I set up a SMTP form for a client using ASP.Net I do something like the following:

System.Net.Mail.MailMessage myMail = new System.Net.Mail.MailMessage();
myMail.From = "you@someemail.com";
myMail.Subject = "subject of email";
myMail.To.Add(new MailAddress("them@someemail.com"));
myMail.Body="This is the body of the email...";

System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient mailClient = new System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient("myserver",25);
mailClient.Send(myMail);

I havent had to change that process until today. Now I needed to find ways to do "credentialed" email, since his web host required it. I didn't want to purchase/install any special active X object to do this.

SOLUTION:
However, there are some new tricks with ASP.net 2.0 to handle this. Its something I didnt have to use til today.

You can put some settings in the Web.config file to handle smtp when you do a .Send() call
http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/072606-1.aspx

Or you can do code-behind method to do this...
http://www.wwwcoder.com/main/parentid/435/site/5833/68/default.aspx

Both seem to work well, depending on your preferences.

OTHER BENEFITS:

I have noticed lately that some email servers (like hotmail) gives warning messages when I do un-credentialed emails... The email says "This message has been blocked for your safety." next to it... and "This message may be a phishing scam" or "This message may be dangerous". Not good. When use the email credentials I think it checks the IMX records - and sees what server the email should come from.

This is the link hotmail gives it.. about Microsoft's "Sender ID" checking. http://help.live.com/help.aspx?project=MailClassic&market=en-US&querytype=keyword&query=gnihsihp&tmt=&domain=mail.live.com&format=b1&fs=-1

RSS feeds... images and html

2008-12-14T22:44:00.000-08:00

I was building a RSS feed for a client... They have an MLM-tool site promoting some health enhancing products like Max GXL (made by Max International) for Max International associates.

This site helps the different MLM associates to gain leads... (By the way - if you have a MLM business and need some tools for your team to build their downline, send me an email.. I am happy to build one for you too. robert@spiderweblogic.com )

PROBLEM:
I had trouble with the image tags... They didnt like to display in the RSS feed. I knew that it was possible.. Yahoo did it. Anyone else having trouble with putting images or other html inside RSS feeds? View the source and see how it is done.

Look at this... http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories (my model)
Finally I got: http://www.mymaxteampro.com/membersrss.aspx to show the images properly.

It didn't take too long to figure out the trick... the opening tags... needed to use the html hex... (ampersand + #60 + semicolon) instead of the opening tag <. The closing tag is normal.. Just view source on the membersrss.aspx - that one has simpler html .

How to Turn off Autocomplete in html textbox

2008-12-12T16:25:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while you have a form where you dont want Google's Autocomplete to try to guess at the text. For example, my wife runs a shipping business. I had a textfield for the tracking number. Each time she tried to enter it, it gave a long dropdown of the other tracking numbers.... But this is only an annoyance and not helpful.

Others may have credit card textfields... and need the same feature for shared computers - for obvious reasons. If someone else uses the computer, you dont want them to see the auto-complete of your credit card transaction.

This simple fix was courtesy of the following site:
http://www.petefreitag.com/item/481.cfm

Most sites just suggested turning off the google toolbar or explained that there was no fix.... But all things come to those who are persistant in finding the truth.

Social Bookmarking: Twitter This Button

2008-12-12T08:58:00.001-08:00

Social bookmarking (like Digg.com and Delicious.com) are the latest craze..

I normally put in AddThis.com wigits on my blogs/websites to allow people to talk about sites/vote on page..

Recently, I put together my own Twitter button... Feel free to use it. I found it rather useful when putting on dynamic article pages.. or on blog posts.

Not enough permissions. Inherit your page class from RadAjaxPage

2008-12-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

I have been scratching my head for a few hours trying to figure out how to fix the following bug:
Finally - i figured it out ....

If you are trying out Telerik controls for the first time - you may get this. Or if your web host changes some of their configurations (which happened to me) you may also get this.

--------------------

Server Error in '/' Application.
Not enough permissions. Inherit your page class from RadAjaxPage if you are running under Medium trust level.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.InvalidOperationException: Not enough permissions.Inherit your page class from RadAjaxPage if you are running under Medium trust level.

Source Error:
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:
[InvalidOperationException: Not enough permissions.
Inherit your page class from RadAjaxPage if you are running under Medium trust level.]
Telerik.Web.UI.RadAjaxControl.AttachOnRender() +274

--------------------------

The fix is an obvious one. If you are reading this post, you probably did a search for this particular error. Once I figured it out - I felt pretty stupid, and I am a very experienced .Net programmer. I had made a database change (a small one) and then this error started happening... I couldnt figure out how my database change could have caused it.

My database change was not the culpret. The web host changing their trust/configuration settings was the problem.

To fix - I had to "read" the error.

--------------------------

VB.Net fix.....

Imports Telerik.Web.UI ' put at top of page

Partial Class MyShippingAccount
Inherits RadAjaxPage ' System.Web.UI.Page

C# fix....

using Telerik.Web.UI; // put at top of page

public partial class admin_ShipThis_modal : Telerik.Web.UI.RadAjaxPage //System.Web.UI.Page
{

No code-behind page? No problem...

<[percent-sign] @ Page Language="VB" Inherits="Telerik.Web.UI.RadAjaxPage" [percent-sign]>
<[percent-sign]@ Register assembly="Telerik.Web.UI" namespace="Telerik.Web.UI" tagprefix="telerik" [percent-sign]>
---------------------------------------

Let me know it this helps.. I kept wondering if I broke something the whole time with my database change... and if Ajax components were complaining over it. But no. If you got this error - it is probably not your fault... and the fix is easy. I hope this saves you some head-scratching time.