Kendo UI - mobile tools

I have just completed main features for Legal Paperwork Stinks - a web based legal case management software.

I was about to start work on the mobile site for this, when I got an email from Telerik that they have Kendo UI.  They have some GREAT tools for web apps!  Now I have to redo some of my design docs... but it will be worth it.

Just Finished site: Bay Vue Carpet Cleaners

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

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

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

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

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

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

}