Category: Web Building

SQL Server or SQL Server Express: Connection Error: (provider: Shared Memory Provider, error: 0 – No process is on the other end of the pipe.

Posted on by

After a server containing a SQL Server database is restarted, you may get the error

Connection Error: (provider: Shared Memory Provider, error: 0 - No process is on the other end of the pipe.

Or you may get an error like the one below:

"A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connection.s (provider: Shared Memory Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 2)”

Continue reading

Fixing the error: JAVA_HOME is not set on a Mac

Posted on by

While setting up Nutch on a Mac, I kept getting this error in the terminal:

Error: JAVA_HOME is not set

To fix the error on OS X 10.6.x (Snow Leopard), enter the following at the command prompt:

export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)

On 10.5 and above, the command line tool /usr/libexec/java_home dynamically finds the top Java version specified in Java Preferences for the current user. Using this method will allow the path to automatically change as software updates change Java versions.

Continue reading

SQL Server Express tutorial: Add a built-in user to a database

Posted on by
In IIS, several built-in Windows accounts are created automatically during installation. These include IUSR_MachineName, IWAM_MachineName, and ASPNET, each of which has specific privileges. Web applications will often require that the IUSR account have rights to connect to SQL Server Express.

Here’s how to give this account permissions in the SQL Server database, when the database is located on the same box as the application.

  1. Open  SQL Server Management Studio.
  2. Right click the folder “Users” in the path
    Databases > Database Name > Security

    2010-08-18_18.27.18.jpg

  3. Select New User. . . from the popup menu.

    2010-08-18_18.27.35.jpg

    4. Continue reading

SQL Server tutorial: Copy database tables to another database

Posted on by

To export the table structure and data from one SQL Server database to another existing or new database, use the Export Data… function in SQL Server Management Studio. This procedure will not copy any of the other database objects such as constraints, stored procedures, or users.

  1. In the Object Explorer, right click the name of the database. Select Tasks >Export Data…

    2. Continue reading

How to set up an ODBC Data Source for a SQL Server database on a Windows Server

Posted on by

Many web applications require that you set up an ODBC Data Source which serves as a sort of pointer to a particular database which specifies which driver and credentials to use to connect. Here’s how to set up one for SQL Server/SQL Server Express on a Windows 2003 server.

  1. Select Start > Administrative Tools > Data Sources(ODBC)

     odbc data sources

  2. Select the System DSN tab, and click the Add button.

    2010-08-18_17.58.49.jpg

Continue reading

Some great free and not-so-free font sites.

Posted on by

It’s easy to find free fonts all over the web, but many free font sites are packed with eccentric font faces only useable in ransom notes or ’80’s grunge band logos. It’s very hard to sift through them for usable fonts with the spacing, design and legibility we used to expect from traditional font foundries.

While completing a recent design project, I found several sites that deliver only high-quality font sites. Some specialize in free fonts, others are mostly for-purchase, with a few free samples that are nonetheless worth mentioning. 

The advent of @font-face means we can soon start expecting the same quality typography in web that is available in print. While cloud-based solutions (fonts.com, typekit, etc.) for commercial font licensing issues are starting to show up, there are also some opensourced web fonts out there that you can download and start using today for free on your sites.

Continue reading

Add phpMyAdmin to your Web Platform Installer IIS setup

Posted on by

One key item that seems to be inexplicably missing from Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer is some kind of front end like phpMyAdmin for administering mySQL databases. It installs one for SQL Server Express, but not for mySQL. Fortunately, it’s only a 5 minute job to install phpMyAdmin yourself. 

After running the Microsoft Web Platform Installer and installing whatever PHP/mySQL applications you want to run, download and decompress a copy of the latest version of phpMyAdmin from this page. Drop the folder containing the phpMyAdmin files into the inetpubwwwroot directory on your IIS server. Shorten the name of the folder to “phpmyadmin” or something appropriate when typing a URL.

Continue reading

Microsoft Web Platform installer: Drupal on IIS, the easy way.

Posted on by

If you work with Windows servers, then you have probably gotten used to doing without the many opensource web applications taken for granted outside the enterprise environment. Drupal, WordPress, phpBB, Moodle, etc. were all out of reach. Yes, it was possible to install PHP and mySQL, but it took a level of commitment and dogged troubleshooting persistence that few people are willing to undertake.   

Well, now you can have your enterprise cake and your opensource software too! Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer, introduced a couple of years ago, makes the process of installing all those LAMP-style web apps easy. When I say easy, I really mean easy! It just works!

Continue reading
firefox logo

When Firefox won’t launch Java applets

Posted on by

If Firefox won’t launch java applets, but Internet Explorer will, you may need to change some settings in the Java control panel to turn on Applet support for Firefox. (Expert users: One sign that this is the issue rather than some Java security exception is that the Java console will be completely blank when you try to launch the applet in Firefox. _

Unfortunately on many PC’s, the Java control panel can be a challenge to find. First, check in the control panels area for “Java.” If it is not there, you may have to look in

C:Program FilesJava

for JRE (Java Runtime Environment) folders.

In the image below there are several of them. Usually you should pick the most recent one, as that is the one that is probably in use.

javacontrolpanel.jpg

Continue reading

Create an iCal file from your data using ASP

Posted on by

Google Calendar and many other calendar apps will import or subscribe to iCal format files (.ics) If your event data is locked away in a database, you may find it useful to display and distribute it using Google’s extensive calendaring features.

Following is an example of an ASP file that will write an iCal file.

Generate the iCal file in a web-accessible directory, then have Google Calendar or other iCal compatible application subscribe to it.

Continue reading