Solving technology problems, one at a time
Here’s an example of CSS styles you can use to create nice soft drop shadows around elements on a web page: <style> #test { -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #666; -webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #666; box-shadow:
Continue readingA very useful displays an RSS feed as a list of article excerpts within a webpage.
The screenshot below shows the way the original script displays the RSS feed. A list of article excerpts is displayed in the center column of a portal site..
When writing a script to display an RSS feed, I got the following error:
Error: Object required: '[string, 136]'
This is because I was using the SET command to create a string, as shown below:
Dim itm
itm = lnk.link
Response.Write(itm)
Dim itmid
Set itmid = Split(itm,"=")(1)
resulted in the error
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Error: Object required: '[string, 136]'
A previous post covered the steps to copy table structure and data to a new or existing database.
To copy all the objects (tables, users, constraints, etc.) from one SQL Server database to another database, use the Generate Scripts function in SQL Server Management Studio.
In the Object Explorer, right click the name of the database. Select Tasks > Generate Scripts…
Click Next.
Secure wifi networks often require installation of a certificate on mobile devices trying to connect. Apple provides a utility to allow companies to create configuration (“.mobilconfig”) files for iPhone and iPad that install the appropriate settings and certificates for their wifi network.
These .mobileconfig files can be put on the web for download to the device through Safari, but sometimes this doesn’t work. If the web server is not configured with the correct MIME type (application/x-apple-aspen-config for .mobileconfig files), the device’s Safari browser may not allow it to be downloaded. The link may not even function at all – it is not clickable in some cases.
If this happens, you can still install the .mobilconfig file by downloading it on a laptop or desktop computer and emailing it to your i-device. When you click on the attachment, it should start the installation process. However, you may have to change the extension to “.der” before emailing it to have it recognized as a certificate.
The University of Michigan has .mobilconfig files available for connection to the MWireless network and U-M VPN, and I found that emailing them to my iPad as described above was the only way I could install them.
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One of the biggest drawbacks of Drupal for several years has been the lack of a single rich-text editor that is totally compatible with all browsers. Two years ago, I tested all of the WYSIWYG modules available at the time, found they were all riddled with bugs and incompatibilities, and finally settled on the YUI editor for a large Drupal site I run.
Unfortunately, it never really worked that well: the site’s members upload lots of photos, and it did a poor job of sizing them – users had no idea how to ensure they were not displayed at full resolution – and with 10 megapixel cameras, full resolution is enormous!
Continue readingThe search for the perfect WYSIWYG text editor in Drupal goes on. The best I’ve seen yet is YUI Rich Text Editor, but it still has some serious browser incompatibilities and usability problems. One significant is that there is nothing stopping users from upload a huge image, and not resizing it down using the provided resizing tools.
Now that just most cameras produce images of enormous resolution, users in my Drupal sites’ users often upload gigantic photos, which remain splashed across the entire layout until I get around to fixing them. I finally got tired of correcting users’ posts for them and fixed the CSS so it will never happen again.
Continue readingIn most Windows applications, the version number is listed under Help > About. For some reason, IIS Manager is an exception. There are significant differnces between versions of IIS, so it’s crucial to know which
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When running Java or other types of applications which use an XML file as part of the input, you may see this error: The Processing Instruction Target Matching “[xX][mM][lL]” is Not Allowed.
Often the cause is a malformed XML file, with a common problem being a blank line accidentally inserted before the required first line of the xml:
[ A blank line here will cause the error ] <?xml version-"1.0"?>Continue reading
We are using an ASP script to create iCal files from a database, so another department can display the events on their web-based calendar.
Their calendar page is outside the corporate firewall. The ASP script needs to reside on and IIS server within the firewall. I needed a fool-proof way to transfer the ical file nightly out to an external web server so it could be accessed by any calendar applications that need to use it. The best way I’ve found so far is to create a batch file with command-line FTP instructions, and add it to a Windows scheduled task.