I am in Las Vegas to see the Vegas Bowl. BYU vs Oregon. The first quarter was ok. Neither team scored. Both made offensive errors. BYU dropped several easy passes, and Beck had some bad passes. After that it was all BYU. Oregon just didn't play well tonight. They finally scored in the 4th quarter on a long TD pass. They really didn't do anything all night.
The highlight was at the beginning when volunteers from Nellis Air Force base rolled out a football field size American Flag. Then the during the National Anthem, 2 air force jets flew over and hit the afterburners right above us. COOL! Definately the highlight of the evening. I want to take my boys next year so they can experience this.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
My users have been requesting a seemingly simple feature for a while now and I could not get it to work.
When they enter a value, they are prompted with a javascript confirm (Ok/Cancel) box if the value is over $1,000,000. If the choose "OK", no problem. But when they choose cancel, they wanted to be put back in that same field. I should just be able to do the following:
function
checkValue(){if (document.getElementById('valuation ').value >= 1000000){
if (confirm("This value is over $1,000,000. Are you sure you meant to enter such a large value?")){
}
else {
document.getElementById('valuation').focus();
}
return false;
}
}
I was able to set focus to any field, except the one I just came from. The only hack I was able to find was to set focus first to another field, then the field I came from and then use the follwing in my <input> statement.
onFocus="this.select()"
Here is the javascript function I had to use:
function
checkValuation(){if (document.getElementById('valuation').value >= 1000000){
if (confirm("This value is over $1,000,000. Are you sure you meant to enter such a large value?")){
}
else {
document.getElementById('otherfield').focus();
document.getElementById('valuation').focus();
}
return false;
}
}
-------------------------------
David Mineer
David Mineer
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
I just found out that I can have the contacts on my cell phone backed up automatically. Not only that, it provides a web interface for adding, updating and deleting the contacts on my phone. I have a verizon phone and you can find out about it at:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/backupassistant
It does const $1.99 a month. But as often as I drop phones in a glass of milk, it is worth it to me.
Several of my users have been complaining that iGoldmine was not working for them. I am not sure when it quit because iGoldmine sometimes doesn't get used for weeks at a time. But I was pretty sure it was working until sometime in November maybe even towards the end of November.
Anyway, I started researching this and came to find out that I could not run the goldmine executable which is on a network share, from the machine running my iGoldmine server. The iGoldmine server is W2K 2003 server and is just a member server of my domain. The error I was getting when trying to run the goldmine executable was:
"windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."
I decided to try and run some other .exe files on different network drives and sure enough, same error on all of them.
Goldmine tech support is usually awesome, but this time they just pooped out on me and had me so mad I had to go get a Dr Pepper to settle down. They didn't want to help at all.
Turns out the issue was with the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. You can get to this in Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs/Windows Components/. After that you can check or uncheck the two options: "For administrator Groups" and "For all other user groups". Both were checked, so I unchecked them and then I was able to access files over the network.
I didn't have the same problem logged in as myself. I was able to run those files, other users, however could not and hence the problem. There must have been a windows update that changed the IE config and hence caused this problem. I would have thought the Goldmine folks would have encountered this already, cause it has probably been a month or so.
Anyway, I started researching this and came to find out that I could not run the goldmine executable which is on a network share, from the machine running my iGoldmine server. The iGoldmine server is W2K 2003 server and is just a member server of my domain. The error I was getting when trying to run the goldmine executable was:
"windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."
I decided to try and run some other .exe files on different network drives and sure enough, same error on all of them.
Goldmine tech support is usually awesome, but this time they just pooped out on me and had me so mad I had to go get a Dr Pepper to settle down. They didn't want to help at all.
Turns out the issue was with the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. You can get to this in Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs/Windows Components/. After that you can check or uncheck the two options: "For administrator Groups" and "For all other user groups". Both were checked, so I unchecked them and then I was able to access files over the network.
I didn't have the same problem logged in as myself. I was able to run those files, other users, however could not and hence the problem. There must have been a windows update that changed the IE config and hence caused this problem. I would have thought the Goldmine folks would have encountered this already, cause it has probably been a month or so.
Friday, November 03, 2006
I was changing around some javascript on one of my pages and came to a piece where I wanted to access a variable several times. I remembered using a "with" statement when doing some programming Visual Basic for Access. I looked up the with statement and found out that it is not recommended to use.
Here is the with Statement:
alert(document.title);
alert(document.body.tagName);
alert(document.location);
Here is the with Statement:
with (document) {
alert(title);
alert(body.tagname);
alert(location);
}
"It is another scope. When you use the with statement, you are forcing the interpreter to not only look up the scope tree for local variables, but you are also forcing it to test each variable against the object specified to see if it's a property" - "Professional Javascript for Web Developers, Nicholas C Zakas, p 581
Monday, October 30, 2006
I have a dynamic region and I wanted blank lines to not show. I have owners listed with companies, but sometimes there isn't an owner name, just the company name. I use the /br/ to go to the next line to get a "Mailing Label" type layout, if there was no owner then there would be a blank line.
The solution would normally be to use a /cfif len(fieldname) = 0/ Since this is a dynamic spry region, that doesn't work. I found the solution in the forums:
spry:if examples
My version of the code is:
-span spry:if="'{FIRSTNAME}' != '';"-
The solution would normally be to use a /cfif len(fieldname) = 0/ Since this is a dynamic spry region, that doesn't work. I found the solution in the forums:
spry:if examples
My version of the code is:
-span spry:if="'{FIRSTNAME}' != '';"-
Friday, October 27, 2006
Trying to a seemingly simple thing before going live with the AJAX code I have been working on. I don't want pressing the enter key to submit the form when a field is in a particular field. This turned out to be harder than I thought. But here is the code that does it:
Include the following element into the head part of your document:
/script type="text/javascript"/
function noenter() {
return !(window.event && window.event.keyCode == 13); }
/script/
Add the following attribute into each input type="text" tag(s) in your form:
onkeypress="return noenter()"
The function has to go in the header on the page. It didn't work for me putting it in an included .js file.
Include the following element into the head part of your document:
/script type="text/javascript"/
function noenter() {
return !(window.event && window.event.keyCode == 13); }
/script/
Add the following attribute into each input type="text" tag(s) in your form:
onkeypress="return noenter()"
The function has to go in the header on the page. It didn't work for me putting it in an included .js file.
Still struggling with the grouping thing. The interim sort-of workaround was to just flatten the whole thing out. Like this.
here is what I want
company1
contact1
contact2
company2
contact3
company3
contact4
contact6
contact7
company4
This is what I have to do for now.
company1 contact1
company1 contact2
company2 contact3
company3 contact4
company3 contact6
company3 contact7
company4
Redundancy and not what I want but it does allow me to go live with the ajax portions of the code and not break the app. We will see what the users think.
here is what I want
company1
contact1
contact2
company2
contact3
company3
contact4
contact6
contact7
company4
This is what I have to do for now.
company1 contact1
company1 contact2
company2 contact3
company3 contact4
company3 contact6
company3 contact7
company4
Redundancy and not what I want but it does allow me to go live with the ajax portions of the code and not break the app. We will see what the users think.
Spry and grouping. I have a spry dynamic region that returns a list of companies that my user searches for. Well, each one of these companies can have 1 or more contacts attached to them. Currently, when they search, a popup page is presented with a list of companies that match their search value. As I Output the query, I use a contact object that gets all contacts for that company. (contact.getContact(companyid)). This is easy in Cold Fusion.
In spry however, I cannot figure out how to do it. I can output the list of companies, and I can write an onclick so that when I click on their name, the associated contacts are listed, but I can't list those contacts below the name of the company, I can only create the dynamic region for the contacts outside the company dynamic div.
I am still researching this and hoping to find a workaround. I did notice that there are some posts about grouping the spry forums, but all that is said is that it will be added to the list for future upgrades. This was back in the beginning of August. Maybe there is something available now.
In spry however, I cannot figure out how to do it. I can output the list of companies, and I can write an onclick so that when I click on their name, the associated contacts are listed, but I can't list those contacts below the name of the company, I can only create the dynamic region for the contacts outside the company dynamic div.
I am still researching this and hoping to find a workaround. I did notice that there are some posts about grouping the spry forums, but all that is said is that it will be added to the list for future upgrades. This was back in the beginning of August. Maybe there is something available now.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
This was a post I found on the labs forums site at adobe, but I can't find it for the life of me right now. Before the IE caching problem neither firefox or ie were loading the new data after I updated the database and it turned out to be an internal spry caching problem. The following comes for the posting in the forum. The key for me was the useCache:false part that you stick at the end of the Spry.Data.XMLDataSet call.
If you're going to be updating the data set by re-loading the same URL, make sure you turn caching off:
After that, you'll want to define a function callback that will be triggered *after* your server request to update the record:
function UpdateRecordCallback(req)
{
// We just finished updating a record, force myDataSet to
// reload the data from the server so our regions auto update.
myDataSet.loadData();
}
Then use the loadURL() utility function to send your request. You'll have to pass your callback function to loadURL so that it gets called when the request succeeds:
function UpdateMyRecord(recordID)
{
Spry.Utils.loadURL("GET", "closetesrecord.php?id=" + recordID, true, UpdateRecordCallback);
}
...
If you're going to be updating the data set by re-loading the same URL, make sure you turn caching off:
After that, you'll want to define a function callback that will be triggered *after* your server request to update the record:
function UpdateRecordCallback(req)
{
// We just finished updating a record, force myDataSet to
// reload the data from the server so our regions auto update.
myDataSet.loadData();
}
Then use the loadURL() utility function to send your request. You'll have to pass your callback function to loadURL so that it gets called when the request succeeds:
function UpdateMyRecord(recordID)
{
Spry.Utils.loadURL("GET", "closetesrecord.php?id=" + recordID, true, UpdateRecordCallback);
}
...
While I was having the problem with caching, I was also in a not so bad problem. IE was giving me errors when Firefox was not. I was getting two different errors on an href onclick event.
When you call dynamic fields in a spry dynamic region you format them like this: {FIELDNAME}. So I had an href like this:
Firefox had no problem with this. IE, however, was having a problem and I couldn't figure it out. Finally figured out that I had to have single quotes around the spry dynamic vars like this:
That was only needed inside the onclick event, not outside. Small thing and the error didn't seem to effect the functionality, but you hate for users to get the little error each time the page loads. Makes everything seem just not right.
When you call dynamic fields in a spry dynamic region you format them like this: {FIELDNAME}. So I had an href like this:
Firefox had no problem with this. IE, however, was having a problem and I couldn't figure it out. Finally figured out that I had to have single quotes around the spry dynamic vars like this:
That was only needed inside the onclick event, not outside. Small thing and the error didn't seem to effect the functionality, but you hate for users to get the little error each time the page loads. Makes everything seem just not right.
Building an AJAX interface for my data entry app. Was stuck trying to get a dynamic region to refresh. Turns out IE has some caching issues. I found the following page that, if you read the comments gives a pretty thorough explanation of the problem that I was having.
http://ajaxian.com/archives/ajax-ie-caching-issue
Of course I am using cold fusion and the answer was to put the following line at the top of my xml page.
I spent several hours trying different things. I had just upgraded to ie 7 and thought that could have been part of the problem. It was working just great in firefox. Glad it was an easy fix, wish I would have figured it out quicker.
I am using the adobe spry framework for AJAX. It is still in prerelease but I have really enjoyed it as it is my first serious foray into AJAX.
http://ajaxian.com/archives/ajax-ie-caching-issue
Of course I am using cold fusion and the answer was to put the following line at the top of my xml page.
I spent several hours trying different things. I had just upgraded to ie 7 and thought that could have been part of the problem. It was working just great in firefox. Glad it was an easy fix, wish I would have figured it out quicker.
I am using the adobe spry framework for AJAX. It is still in prerelease but I have really enjoyed it as it is my first serious foray into AJAX.
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Some time ago I added a feature to my data entry application (Written in Microsoft Access 2000) that backs up the main table to an excel file when you close the data entry form.
Well, at the time I couldn't figure out how to delete files after they were so old, like 30 days or so. This was a safety feature because the whole access files are sometimes deleted when a file is sent ftp or something overwriting the original.
Anyway, I left the delete portion for later and forgot. So my users have been having excel files pile up on their hard drive and I didn't realize it until know. Some users would have to have upwards of 1 gig of files from this feature.
I realized this 2 days ago and finally figured out how to delete files in that backup directory that are older than 30 days. Here is the code:
On Error GoTo Err_Command1_Click
Dim ss As String
Dim strPath As String
strPath = "c:\cm\backup\"
ss = Dir(strPath & "*.*")
If ss <> "" Then
While ss <> ""
If DateDiff("d", FileDateTime(strPath & ss), Now()) > 30 Then
Kill (strPath & ss)
End If
ss = Dir()
Wend
End If
Exit_Command1_Click:
Exit Sub
Err_Command1_Click:
MsgBox Err.Description
Resume Exit_Command1_Click
One day I hope to grow up and not be such a careless programmer. I hard a hard time finding this code, mainly because I couldn't figure out how to search for it. Works like a charm though. Tested it myself and also on an employees computer. We will see if there are problems next week.
Well, at the time I couldn't figure out how to delete files after they were so old, like 30 days or so. This was a safety feature because the whole access files are sometimes deleted when a file is sent ftp or something overwriting the original.
Anyway, I left the delete portion for later and forgot. So my users have been having excel files pile up on their hard drive and I didn't realize it until know. Some users would have to have upwards of 1 gig of files from this feature.
I realized this 2 days ago and finally figured out how to delete files in that backup directory that are older than 30 days. Here is the code:
On Error GoTo Err_Command1_Click
Dim ss As String
Dim strPath As String
strPath = "c:\cm\backup\"
ss = Dir(strPath & "*.*")
If ss <> "" Then
While ss <> ""
If DateDiff("d", FileDateTime(strPath & ss), Now()) > 30 Then
Kill (strPath & ss)
End If
ss = Dir()
Wend
End If
Exit_Command1_Click:
Exit Sub
Err_Command1_Click:
MsgBox Err.Description
Resume Exit_Command1_Click
One day I hope to grow up and not be such a careless programmer. I hard a hard time finding this code, mainly because I couldn't figure out how to search for it. Works like a charm though. Tested it myself and also on an employees computer. We will see if there are problems next week.
Friday, May 28, 2004
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
I read a great article last night about CSS. I have been using CSS only a little in the last little while and I need to use it more. It seems to be difficult to understand. The article was great and gave me some great ideas including help on an issue I had already struggled with. The article is at http://sys-con.com/story/?storyid=44901&DE=1.
div.clear {
clear: both;
height: 0;
margin: 0;
line-height: 0;
font-size: 1px;
}
This has to do with making the parent element expand to contain float. Anyway check out the article for more info. Great stuff. I now longer have the magazine because my youngest child spilled a large glass of milk all over the table which had the magazine on it. Thank goodness for the web site.
I read a great article last night about CSS. I have been using CSS only a little in the last little while and I need to use it more. It seems to be difficult to understand. The article was great and gave me some great ideas including help on an issue I had already struggled with. The article is at http://sys-con.com/story/?storyid=44901&DE=1.
div.clear {
clear: both;
height: 0;
margin: 0;
line-height: 0;
font-size: 1px;
}
This has to do with making the parent element expand to contain float. Anyway check out the article for more info. Great stuff. I now longer have the magazine because my youngest child spilled a large glass of milk all over the table which had the magazine on it. Thank goodness for the web site.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
MSSQL 2000 running on my laptop
I am trying to set up everything to run on my laptop so that I can develop when away from desktop. I was trying to add cold fusion datasources throught the Cold Fusion Administrator and it was failing with some error which I have now forgotten.
The trick was to go the SQL Server Enterprise Manager, right click on the server, then select the Network configuration button at the bottom. Then I had to enable tcpip. This immediately fixed the datasource problem and everything is running good now. Don't know why that wasn't on by default. Maybe because it is an MSDE installation running locally.
I am trying to set up everything to run on my laptop so that I can develop when away from desktop. I was trying to add cold fusion datasources throught the Cold Fusion Administrator and it was failing with some error which I have now forgotten.
The trick was to go the SQL Server Enterprise Manager, right click on the server, then select the Network configuration button at the bottom. Then I had to enable tcpip. This immediately fixed the datasource problem and everything is running good now. Don't know why that wasn't on by default. Maybe because it is an MSDE installation running locally.
More Linksys RV016
Well, I was in at the office until 12:30 last night on the phone with Linksys tech support trying to get this router working. The dynamic dsl has no problems. Even when I hook up to the static dsl I can get a connection to the internet from my lap top (Lan port 1), but the server with the static ip address does not get out to the internet. I did however, have the server being seen from the internet for a short while, but I do not know why that happened.
I got on the phone with tech support yesterday morning, and then again at 6:30. In the morning they gave me some things to try and I didn't want to bring the server down during the day, so I tried all variations of those things and then called back at 6:30. Had to go to softball at 7:15 so I hung up after being on hold for a level 2 excalation for about 10 minutes. Got back at 9:30 and called, only to work with the guy for over an hour and then get hung up on while being transferred to level 2. Then I called back and the new guy told me I needed to call linksys customer service and ask to be sent directly to level 2. All of these people I talk to speak poor english and are not one bit familiar with the RV016. This makes it very difficult and frustrating.
The last tech couldn't figure it out, so she said she would test it in a lab and get back with me with 48 hours.
So far this is a nightmare, I will keep you posted.
Well, I was in at the office until 12:30 last night on the phone with Linksys tech support trying to get this router working. The dynamic dsl has no problems. Even when I hook up to the static dsl I can get a connection to the internet from my lap top (Lan port 1), but the server with the static ip address does not get out to the internet. I did however, have the server being seen from the internet for a short while, but I do not know why that happened.
I got on the phone with tech support yesterday morning, and then again at 6:30. In the morning they gave me some things to try and I didn't want to bring the server down during the day, so I tried all variations of those things and then called back at 6:30. Had to go to softball at 7:15 so I hung up after being on hold for a level 2 excalation for about 10 minutes. Got back at 9:30 and called, only to work with the guy for over an hour and then get hung up on while being transferred to level 2. Then I called back and the new guy told me I needed to call linksys customer service and ask to be sent directly to level 2. All of these people I talk to speak poor english and are not one bit familiar with the RV016. This makes it very difficult and frustrating.
The last tech couldn't figure it out, so she said she would test it in a lab and get back with me with 48 hours.
So far this is a nightmare, I will keep you posted.
Monday, May 24, 2004
Linksys RV016.
We just got a new switch from linksys the RVO16. This was suppose to be a dream for us. Being easily able to combine up to 7 DSL connections and Load Balance all of them. We can add another dsl line for only $28.00/month now so bandwidth is cheap. Only problem is that it is only that cheap if you get 1.5 meg. Seems extra expensive from there on up.
Anyway, we got this router and I have been having a hard time setting it up. I have two dsl connections right now. One, we have had for years, is hooked in to a cisco 675 modem. The bandwidth is 940 down and 860 up or right around there. We have 5 static Ip addresses on this line. Line #2 is connected to an actiontec GT701-WG. No static IP's and the bandwidth is 1.5 down and 1024 up. More bandwidth but currently not used that much. My hope is to share the bandwidth on those two lines.
Plugging in line 2 was not much trouble. By default the linksys is set to dhcp an ip address. As long as the private range is different between the dsl modem and the rv016 then there should be mo problem. Changing the LAN ip on the rv016 is no problem and can be done from the setup tab on the web configuration screen. By default this screen is located at http://192.168.0.1 with password admin and username admin.
We just got a new switch from linksys the RVO16. This was suppose to be a dream for us. Being easily able to combine up to 7 DSL connections and Load Balance all of them. We can add another dsl line for only $28.00/month now so bandwidth is cheap. Only problem is that it is only that cheap if you get 1.5 meg. Seems extra expensive from there on up.
Anyway, we got this router and I have been having a hard time setting it up. I have two dsl connections right now. One, we have had for years, is hooked in to a cisco 675 modem. The bandwidth is 940 down and 860 up or right around there. We have 5 static Ip addresses on this line. Line #2 is connected to an actiontec GT701-WG. No static IP's and the bandwidth is 1.5 down and 1024 up. More bandwidth but currently not used that much. My hope is to share the bandwidth on those two lines.
Plugging in line 2 was not much trouble. By default the linksys is set to dhcp an ip address. As long as the private range is different between the dsl modem and the rv016 then there should be mo problem. Changing the LAN ip on the rv016 is no problem and can be done from the setup tab on the web configuration screen. By default this screen is located at http://192.168.0.1 with password admin and username admin.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Goldmine & Crystal Reports
We have been wanting to create some reports for goldmine and the internal report writer is awful. We have really struggled to use it. Finally I decided to give crystal reports (9.0) a try and it was heavenly. I am familiar with cr 9 and it took me only minutes to do what we had been strugglin for days to do with the built in report writer.
I could not however, figure out how to make the crystal reports available from within goldmine. There is an option in "Print Reports" to choose Crystal Reports, but it doesn't work. A search of the newsgroups confirms that this is a pain in the rear to set up. Lots of talk of having to find the exact dlls from the cr 9 cd and having to put them on the machine running goldmine. Versions vary by goldmine version and maintenance is a nightmare. Since I can easily deploy the cr reports to the web I am not going to worry to much about having them avialable in GM.
We have been wanting to create some reports for goldmine and the internal report writer is awful. We have really struggled to use it. Finally I decided to give crystal reports (9.0) a try and it was heavenly. I am familiar with cr 9 and it took me only minutes to do what we had been strugglin for days to do with the built in report writer.
I could not however, figure out how to make the crystal reports available from within goldmine. There is an option in "Print Reports" to choose Crystal Reports, but it doesn't work. A search of the newsgroups confirms that this is a pain in the rear to set up. Lots of talk of having to find the exact dlls from the cr 9 cd and having to put them on the machine running goldmine. Versions vary by goldmine version and maintenance is a nightmare. Since I can easily deploy the cr reports to the web I am not going to worry to much about having them avialable in GM.
Friday, May 14, 2004
Just ordered the RV016 router from linksys. This is suppose to let you share multiple internet connections (Up to 7) and use them either for redundancy or load balancing. Our main dsl line gets so saturated once in a while that we are hoping to be able to utilize the bandwidth of a second line to help allevaite the burden. I will let you know how it works.
One of our DSL lines has static ip's which point through to our server. The other dsl has no static ip's but more available bandwidth. I talked to linksys tech support and they said this would be easy to set up.
One of our DSL lines has static ip's which point through to our server. The other dsl has no static ip's but more available bandwidth. I talked to linksys tech support and they said this would be easy to set up.
These blogs suck. YOu can see how bad the last one was. I wanted to post sample code and none of it came through at all. That always deters me from continuing, cause it is a pain.
Been working alot with mach-ii trying to understand more and also trying to familiarize myself with the Object Oriented world. Found some free books on-line written by Bruce Eckel. They are located at: http://mindview.net/Books. I skimmed through some of the Objects chapter (2, I think) and it appears to be a good book.
I also ordered Head First Java based on a reccommendation by Hal Helms.
I really wish I could attend a class on OO programing, but at $2500 a wack I just can't do it. Alot of money, but it would probably pay for itself in increased productivity. Oh well, hopefully the books will suffice for now.
Been working alot with mach-ii trying to understand more and also trying to familiarize myself with the Object Oriented world. Found some free books on-line written by Bruce Eckel. They are located at: http://mindview.net/Books. I skimmed through some of the Objects chapter (2, I think) and it appears to be a good book.
I also ordered Head First Java based on a reccommendation by Hal Helms.
I really wish I could attend a class on OO programing, but at $2500 a wack I just can't do it. Alot of money, but it would probably pay for itself in increased productivity. Oh well, hopefully the books will suffice for now.
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