The Designspace

Escape double quotes in strings in Visual Basic

I use Javascript much more than visual basic, so I've always been puzzled by how to escape nested quotes in strings in VB. In Javascript, you either nest single quotes (apostrophe's) and double quotes or add a backslash to escape the character (\", \'). But in VB, single quotes create a comment, and backslashes do not escape characters, so I've been using all sorts of tricks to try and avoid the situation.

Thanks to a discussion on this forum thread, I found that it's simple. Just use "" instead of " to escape the nested quote. In other words, just double up the double quote symbol, to have it ignored in calculating the end of the string.

Make your own custom code for a Wordpress-style Flickr badge

To create a nicer looking Flickr badge, use Flickr's badge creation tool to get the right user code and content codes for your badge.

Go to:
Create your own Flickr badge and make the selections as specified:

1. Choose HTML badge


2. Select the content you want to show.


3. • Would you like to include your buddy icon & screen name at the bottom? Choose No
   
   
   
   • How many items would you like to show? Choose 3
   
   
   • Which ones? Choose a random selection
   
   
   • What size? Square
   
   
   • Which orientation would you like? Horizontal

4. Check off No background, No border.
   

The code will look something like the example below.

<!-- Start of Flickr Badge -->

<style type="text/css">

#flickr_badge_source_txt {padding:0; font: 11px Arial, Helvetica, Sans serif; color:#666666;}

#flickr_badge_icon {display:block !important; margin:0 !important; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0) !important;}

#flickr_icon_td {padding:0 5px 0 0 !important;}

.flickr_badge_image {text-align:center !important;}

.flickr_badge_image img {border: 1px solid black !important;}

#flickr_www {display:block; padding:0 10px 0 10px !important; font: 11px Arial, Helvetica, Sans serif !important; color:#3993ff !important;}

#flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:hover,

#flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:link,

#flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:active,

#flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:visited {text-decoration:none !important; background:inherit !important;color:#3993ff;}

#flickr_badge_wrapper {}

#flickr_badge_source {padding:0 !important; font: 11px Arial, Helvetica, Sans serif !important; color:#666666 !important;}

</style>

 

<table id="flickr_badge_uber_wrapper" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" border="0"><tr><td><a href="http://www.flickr.com" id="flickr_www">www.<strong style="color:#3993ff">flick<span style="color:#ff1c92">r</span></strong>.com</a><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" border="0" id="flickr_badge_wrapper"> 

<tr>

 

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.flickr.com/badge_code_v2.gne?count=3&display=random&size=t&layout=h&source=user_tag&user=47051377%40N00&tag=yourtag"></script>



 

</tr>


</table></span>


</td></tr></table>


<!-- End of Flickr Badge -->

In the red text, change count=3 to count=4 to get 4 images across. Paste only the line of code in red into the table code below, 3 times where indicated:

<style>
  #flickrtbl td { width:76px;height:76px;overflow:hidden;border:1px solid #CCC;padding:3px;}
  #flickrtbl td img{ width:60px;height:60px;}
  </style>
  <table id="flickrtbl"><tr>
  [PASTE CODE HERE]&t=1 </td>
  </tr><tr>
   [PASTE CODE HERE]&t=2 </td>
   </tr><tr>
   [PASTE CODE HERE]&t=3 </td>
  </tr></table>
 

That's it - just paste that into your HTML page. Your badge will look something like this:

Simple Ajax search form that creates a formatted report as you type keywords

This search form is based on the PHP and AJAX Live Search example from the w3schools.com site. I adapted it to show how it might work with ASP classic.

This form finds all courses in a database that contain whatever has been typed so far in their title, then displays them instantly as the keywords are being typed, grouped by type in two tables. Here you can see that "FIR" has been typed, and mostly courses on fire safety are found.

The letters are sent as soon as they are typed, using the onkeyup event as the trigger. Below the letters INF have been typed and courses containing "Infection", "Inform", "Infant" have been found. The changes to the result lists are very responsive and snappy as you type.

To build this form you will need 4 files:

1. mydatabase.asp: a database connection file
2. report.htm: the page containing the form and the display of the results
3. livesearch.js the javascript functions the open and send the XMLHttpRequest
4. functions.asp the file that queries the database and returns the formatted results.

<%

  ' FileName="Connection_odbc_conn_dsn.htm"

  ' Type="ADO" 

  ' DesigntimeType="ADO"

  ' HTTP="true"

  ' Catalog=""

  ' Schema=""

  Dim MM_mydsn_STRING

  'MM_lmsp_STRING = "dsn=MYDSN;uid=userid;pwd=mypassword;"

  %>

Replace the items in bold with the appropriate values for your database.

This is the source of report.htm:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
  <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
  <title>Live Search using ASP</title>
  <script src="livesearch.js" language="javascript"></script>
  </head>
<body>
  <p>&nbsp;</p>
  <p>This page will find all active online activities in the system. </p>
<p>Enter a keyword or phrase in the title of the course:</p>
  <form> 
  Keyword&nbsp;<input name="keyword" type="text" id="keyword" value=""  onkeyup="showResult(this.value)" />
  </form> 
  <div id="update"></div>
</body>
  </html>

This is the source of "livesearch.js".

var xmlHttp;

function showResult(str)

{

if (str.length==0)

 { 

 document.getElementById("update").

 innerHTML="";

 document.getElementById("update").

 style.border="0px";

 return;

 }

xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject()

if (xmlHttp==null)

 {

 alert ("Browser does not support HTTP Request");

 return;

 } 

var url="functions.asp";

url=url+"?keyword="+str;

url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();

xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged ;

xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);

xmlHttp.send(null);


} 


function stateChanged() 

{ 

if (xmlHttp.readyState==4 || xmlHttp.readyState=="complete")

 { 

 document.getElementById("update").

 innerHTML=xmlHttp.responseText;

 document.getElementById("update").style.border="1px solid #A5ACB2"
;

 } 

}

function GetXmlHttpObject()

{

var xmlHttp=null;

try

 {

 // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari

 xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest();

 }


catch (e)

 {

 // Internet Explorer

 try

  {

  xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");

  }

 catch (e)

  {

  xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");

  }

 }

return xmlHttp;

}

When onkeyup event fires, the showResult function is passed the value of whatever has been typed so far. It sends a GET request to functions.asp with the typed letters in the query string ("keyword=[typed letters]").

This is the source of functions.asp

<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%>

  <!--#include file="mydatabase.asp" -->

  

  <%

  Dim Recordset1__keyword

  If (Request.querystring("keyword") <> "") Then 

  Recordset1__keyword = Request.querystring("keyword")

  else Recordset1__keyword = "" 

  End If


Dim Recordset2__keyword

  If (Request.querystring("keyword") <> "") Then 

  Recordset2__keyword = Request.querystring("keyword")

  else Recordset2__keyword = ""

  End If



Dim Recordset1

  Dim Recordset1_cmd

  Dim Recordset1_numRows


Set Recordset1_cmd = Server.CreateObject ("ADODB.Command")

  Recordset1_cmd.ActiveConnection = MM_mydsn_STRING

  Recordset1_cmd.CommandText = "select * from learningactivities where (LEARNINGACTIVITYTYPEID = 300) and STATE = 'A' AND lower(TITLE) like lower('%" &  Recordset1__keyword & "%') order by code"

  Recordset1_cmd.Prepared = true

  Recordset1_cmd.Parameters.Append Recordset1_cmd.CreateParameter("param1", 200, 1, 255, Recordset1__keyword) ' adVarChar


Set Recordset1 = Recordset1_cmd.Execute


Dim Recordset2

  Dim Recordset2_cmd

  Dim Recordset2_numRows


Set Recordset2_cmd = Server.CreateObject ("ADODB.Command")

  Recordset2_cmd.ActiveConnection = MM_mydsn_STRING

  Recordset2_cmd.CommandText = "select * from learningactivities where (LEARNINGACTIVITYTYPEID = 400) and STATE = 'A' AND lower(TITLE) like lower('%" &  Recordset2__keyword & "%') order by code"

  Recordset2_cmd.Prepared = true

  Recordset2_cmd.Parameters.Append Recordset1_cmd.CreateParameter("param1", 200, 1, 255, Recordset2__keyword) 

  Set Recordset2 = Recordset2_cmd.Execute

  

  response.write("<!--Other web based courses table--><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=""0"" id=""results"" border=""1"" align=""left"" style=""width:49%;""><tr><td colspan=""2"">active Other Web based courses</td></tr><tr><td><b>Code</b></td><td><b>Title</b></td></tr>")

  

  'if request.querystring("mode")="s" then

  while not recordset1.eof

  response.write ("<tr><td>" & recordset1("code") & "</td>")

  response.write ("<td><a href='"& recordset1("outlinelink") & "' target='_blank'>" & recordset1("title") & "</a></td></tr>")

  recordset1.movenext

  wend


response.write("</table><!--scorm table--><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=""0"" id=""results2"" border=""1"" align=""left"" style=""margin-left:12px;"" width=""49%""><tr><td colspan=""2"">active SCORM courses</td></tr><tr><td><b>Code</b></td><td><b>Title</b></td></tr>")

    

  'if request.querystring("mode")="s" then

  while not recordset2.eof

  response.write ("<tr><td>" & recordset2("code") & "</td>")

  response.write ("<td><a href='"& recordset2("outlinelink") & "' target='_blank'>" & recordset2("title") & "</a></td></tr>")

  recordset2.movenext

  wend



response.write("</table>")

    

    

  Recordset1.Close()

  Set Recordset1 = Nothing

  Recordset2.Close()

  Set Recordset2 = Nothing

    

  %>

functions.asp queries the database using the typed letters to filter the results. It then writes the results to the page, formatted into side-by-side tables.

Drupal: cannot redeclare date_api_views_data() error after installing Views 2.3

I had a lot of trouble trying to update the Views module. When I would attempt to run update.php, I got the White Screen of Death. I removed several modules and tried to view the modules page - and got this error:

cannot redeclare date_api_views_data()

Apparently back in one of the many updates, I had upgraded the Date module by dragging the new version on top of the old one. This must have left a conflicting file in place that only interfered once Views was updated.

The solution was to delete the Date module from the modules folder and install a clean copy from Drupal.org's modules download site.

Should LMS pass more demographic data to the SCO?

Note: This is a repost of my blog posting from Letsi.org

In training healthcare workers, there is a particular emphasis on distinguishing between individuals based on fine-grained demographic and user data: where they work, who they work for, whether they work in a patient care area or not, are they researchers, do they do "procedures", work in an operating room, and on and on. Sometimes only the individual themselves knows what to enter, and must key it in to their own profile.

Learning management systems do a good job of keeping track of this information, and we have gone to a lot of trouble to make sure ours does this well. The user data is drawn from many sources, and sometimes the only source for it is the user. Would it make sense to allow the LMS to send some of that demographic data to the SCO so it could adapt its content to the user at runtime?

There are several possible workarounds, including one that we use now: create multiple courses in the LMS, and distribute them to various audiences, or perhaps create a .NET frameset around the SCO that queries the DB for the necessary data, using the SCORM-passed user id as the key.

Wouldn't it be easier to simply get the data passed with the user id through SCORM? Then the course could adapt as required by the user's qualifications, location or other differences.

This shifts responsibilities previously located in the LMS to the SCO, but perhaps it makes sense in some situations.CO from the LMS

Intranasal insulin for alzheimer's disease

There is growing interest in the use of intranasally administered insulin for treating symptoms of early alzheimers and for improving memory and cognition in general.

An article published in Neurology in 2008 describes the results of a double-blind study of 25 participants with early alzheimers who were given either insulin or a placebo using an electronic atomizer, daily. They found that although blood glucose and insulin were unchanged with the treatment, the insulin-treated group retained more verbal information after a delay compared wth the placebo group. They also showed improved attention and functional status.

Intranasal insulin improves cognition and modulates beta-amyloid in early AD.

February 16, 2009

<!-- #exec CommandType=CommandDescription-->

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

  <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

  <head>

  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />

  <title>Execute asp code and print result to browser</title>

</head>


<body>

  <H3>Inside index.htm</H3> 

  <!-- #exec CGI="/test/ssi/test.asp?test=this_is_the_request_string" --> 

  </body>

  </html>

<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%>
  <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
  <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
  <title>This is the ASP page</title>
</head>

<body>

<% 
  Response.Write "<BR>Inside test.asp.<BR>" 
  Response.Write "Test = " & Request.QueryString("Test") & ".<BR>" 
  %> 

</body>
  </html>

February 14, 2009

-- phpMyAdmin SQL Dump

  -- version 2.11.9.4

  -- http://www.phpmyadmin.net

  --

  -- Host: localhost

  -- Generation Time: Feb 16, 2009 at 09:52 AM

  -- Server version: 5.1.30

  -- PHP Version: 5.2.4

  

  SET SQL_MODE="NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO";

  

  --

  -- Database: `complian_dprj4`

  --

  

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

  

  --

  -- Table structure for table `sysvals`

  --

  

  CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `sysvals` (

  `sysval_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,

  `sysval_key_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',

  `sysval_title` varchar(48) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',

  `sysval_value` text NOT NULL,

  PRIMARY KEY (`sysval_id`)

  ) ENGINE=MyISAM  DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=37 ;

  

  --

  -- Dumping data for table `sysvals`

  --

  

  INSERT INTO `sysvals` (`sysval_id`, `sysval_key_id`, `sysval_title`, `sysval_value`) VALUES

  (1, 1, 'ProjectStatus', '0|Ready\r\n1|Nd. Resources\r\n2|Nd. Content\r\n3|In Progress\r\n4|In Review\r\n5|Complete\r\n6|Cancelled\r\n7|Templates\r\n8|Ongoing\r\n9|Hold'),

  (2, 1, 'CompanyType', '1|Client'),

  (3, 1, 'TaskDurationType', '1|hours\n24|days'),

  (4, 1, 'EventType', '0|General\n1|Appointment\n2|Meeting\n3|All Day Event\n4|Anniversary\n5|Reminder'),

  (5, 1, 'TaskStatus', '0|Active\n-1|Inactive'),

  (6, 1, 'TaskType', '0|Unknown\n1|Administrative\n2|Operative'),

  (7, 2, 'ProjectType', '0| All\r\n1| App Mgt - Blue\r\n2| ROI - Green\r\n3| Learn Net - White\r\n4| Edu Tech - Lilac\r\n5| Online Edu - Orange\r\n6| Office Mgmnt - Pink\r\n7| Apps Training - Purple\r\n8| Edu Programs - Yellow\r\n9| Strategic Plan - Turq'),

  (8, 3, 'ProjectColors', 'Web|FFE0AE\r\nEngineering|AEFFB2\r\nHelpDesk|FFFCAE\r\nSystem Administration|FFAEAE'),

  (9, 1, 'FileType', '0|Unknown\n1|Document\n2|Application'),

  (10, 1, 'TaskPriority', '-1|low\n0|normal\n1|high'),

  (11, 1, 'ProjectPriority', '-1|3-LOW\r\n0|2-MEDIUM\r\n1|1-HIGH\r\n2|2-UNKNOWN'),

  (12, 1, 'ProjectPriorityColor', '-1|#D4E2F7\r\n0|#009999\r\n1|#EFA9A9'),

  (13, 1, 'TaskLogReference', '0|Not Defined\n1|Email\n2|Helpdesk\n3|Phone Call\n4|Fax'),

  (14, 1, 'TaskLogReferenceImage', '0| 1|./images/obj/email.gif 2|./modules/helpdesk/images/helpdesk.png 3|./images/obj/phone.gif 4|./images/icons/stock_print-16.png'),

  (15, 1, 'BudgetCode', '0|UH 1|MedSchool 2|HMO'),

  (16, 3, 'ProjectStatusColor', '0|#D4E3F7\r\n1|#D8BFD8\r\n2|#F7F7D4\r\n3|#FFFFFF\r\n4|#F7E9D4\r\n5|#E9E9E9\r\n6|#E9E9E9\r\n7|#FFFFFF\r\n8|#D5F7D4'),

  (17, 1, 'ProjectRequiredFields', 'f.project_name.value.length|<3\r\nf.project_color_identifier.value.length|<3\r\nf.project_company.options[f.project_company.selectedIndex].value|<1'),

  (18, 1, 'UserType', '0|Default User\r\n1|Administrator\r\n2|CEO\r\n3|Director\r\n4|Branch Manager\r\n5|Manager\r\n6|Supervisor\r\n7|Employee'),

  (19, 1, 'TicketNotify', '0|admin@localhost\n1|admin@localhost\n2|admin@localhost\r\n3|admin@localhost\r\n4|admin@localhost'),

  (20, 1, 'TicketPriority', '0|Low\n1|Normal\n2|High\n3|Highest\n4|911'),

  (21, 1, 'TicketStatus', '0|Open\n1|Closed\n2|Deleted'),

  (24, 4, 'HelpDeskPriority', '0|Not Specified\n1|Low\n2|Medium\n3|High'),

  (25, 4, 'HelpDeskSeverity', '0|Not Specified\n1|No Impact\n2|Low\n3|Medium\n4|High\n5|Critical'),

  (26, 4, 'HelpDeskCallType', '0|Not Specified\r\n1|Activity still in progress\r\n2|Wrong activity on plan\r\n3|Quiz didn''t score\r\n4|How to unenroll\r\n5|Unable to log in\r\n6|Delete activity from transcript\r\n7|Manager - Staff list\r\n8|Learning module or SCORM\r\n9|Other'),

  (27, 4, 'HelpDeskSource', '0|Not Specified\r\n1|E-Mail\r\n2|Phone\r\n3|In Person\r\n4|Fax'),

  (28, 4, 'HelpDeskOS', '0|End-User\r\n1|Manager\r\n2|Facilitator\r\n3|Other'),

  (29, 4, 'HelpDeskApplic', '0|Not Applicable\r\n1|LMS\r\n2|Learning Module/Quiz'),

  (30, 4, 'HelpDeskStatus', '0|Unassigned\n1|Open\n2|Closed\n3|On Hold\n4|Testing'),

  (31, 4, 'HelpDeskAuditTrail', '0|Created\n1|Title\n2|Requestor Name\n3|Requestor E-mail\n4|Requestor Phone\n5|Assigned To\n6|Notify by e-mail\n7|Company\n8|Project\n9|Call Type\n10|Call Source\n11|Status\n12|Priority\n13|Severity\n14|Operating System\n15|Application\n16|Summary\n17|Deleted'),

  (35, 3, 'ProjectTypeColor', '0|#CCCCCC;\r\n1|#6699cc\r\n2|#66cc99\r\n3|#FFFFFF\r\n4|#ccccff\r\n5|#ff9966\r\n6|#ff99cc\r\n7|#660099\r\n8|#ffffcc\r\n9|#009999'),

  (32, 2, 'Complete?', '0|Yes\r\n1|No'),

  (36, 1, 'TicketSubject', '0| Other\r\n1|activity still in progress\r\n2|wrong activity on plan\r\n3|quiz didn''t score\r\n4|how to unenroll\r\n5|unable to log in\r\n6|delete activity from transcript\r\n7|Unable to open modules or quizzes\r\n8|Facilitator access\r\n9|How to Use\r\n10|Fix Learning Activity or Portal');