adorr.net » Web Development

Creating standalone page within WordPress template

d0rr — Sun, 13 May 2012 15:35:11 +0000

Creating standalone page within WordPress template is easier than you can imagine. There are times when you want to access to the fabulous WordPress codex but would not want to develop plugin for that purpose. You may also want to synchronize the front-end template for your homepage, blog, application and anything else on your site.

And no, this implementation is not limited to the same domain. That means to say, you can create a php page on anothersite.com using template from wordpresssite.com, as long as they are hosted under the same hosting.

Before you start, you should figure out the absolute path of your wordpresssite.com. It is not the path you see in your FTP. Create a php file with following code and upload to your wordpresssite.com, access it on front-end and you will get the path you need.

Creating the standalone page is as simple as what you see below:

Does this work for you? Do you encounter any issues?

Let me know.

Compare .resx Resource Files Side-by-side

d0rr — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:26:27 +0000

If you are .NET developer and have been dealing with multi-lingual websites, you should be familiar with resource files for translation purposes.

Apart from getting the key right from the beginning, another major challenge of website localization is to get the words translated in an organized and efficient way.

Let’s be reasonable. Programmers aren’t translators, and neither the other way round. Programmers are familiar with Ms Visual Studios, while translators are familiar with Ms Office. The conventional way of converting between resx files used by programmers and doc/excel files used by translators simply causes too much overhead and open up chances for mistakes.

Being open-source, Simple Resx Editor is no compromise in terms of features. You can edit multiple languages resource files side by side, with easy synchronization, addition of missing strings, highlighting missing translations and so on.

User interface is clean and easy to use, it is definitely worth a try.

You can download my sample resx files for testing purpose.

Google +1 Button

d0rr — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:17:22 +0000

You should have heard about Google+ by now.

Like it or not, you have to add it onto your already lengthy social media todo list for your customers, clients or your ownselves.

Default button embedding code can be as simple as follow:

But wait! You don’t have to be bounded by the same old boring button!

Go on and get your customized Google +1 Button now!

Secure Your Web Application Using Acunetix

d0rr — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 03:57:23 +0000

If you are in the website/web application industry, you should most probably be familiar with (or at least heard of) the name of Acunetix.

To put it simply, Acunetix is web security scanner which you can use to audit your website/web application, the Enterprise way.

In Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), you should be aware that there is an additional essential and crucial step in website/web application SDLC, which is Security Testing. Ranging from the common Cross-site scripting (XSS) to SQL injection, Acunetix is able to preamp you with the security loopholes and possible vulnerability before it’s too late.

It is kind enough that Acunetix offer free Cross-site Scripting (XSS) scanner for you to get a hold on how Acunetix is and how do we operate them.

If this is your first time installing and running Acunetix, you may want to refer to the official getting started step-by-step manual.

The pricing of Acunetix is relatively cheap if you consider what it does to give your clients piece of mind.

Do you have anything to say about Acunetix?

Or do you know of any other (open source) alternative solutions?

Please share!

Send Email from Gmail using ASP.NET

d0rr — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 02:49:19 +0000

Cut the chase and let’s dive into the code right away.

VB.NET code

Try


			Dim mailUsername As String = "YOUR-USERNAME@gmail.com"

			Dim mailPassword As String = "YOUR-PASSWORD"

			Dim mailToEmail As String = "TO-ADDRESS@EMAIL.COM"

			Dim mailSubject As String = "this is the mail subject"

			Dim mailBodyFormat As System.Web.Mail.MailFormat = Web.Mail.MailFormat.Text

			Dim mailBody As String = "this is the mail body"

			Dim attachmentPath As String = ""
			Dim myMail As New System.Web.Mail.MailMessage()

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver", "smtp.gmail.com")

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport", "465")

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing", "2")

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate", "1")

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername", mailUsername)

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword", mailPassword)

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpusessl", "true")

			myMail.From = mailUsername

			myMail.[To] = mailToEmail

			myMail.Subject = mailSubject

			myMail.BodyFormat = mailBodyFormat

			myMail.Body = mailBody

			If attachmentPath.Trim() <> "" Then

				Dim MyAttachment As New System.Web.Mail.MailAttachment(attachmentPath)

				myMail.Attachments.Add(MyAttachment)

				myMail.Priority = System.Web.Mail.MailPriority.High

			End If
			System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "smtp.gmail.com:465"

			System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.Send(myMail)
        Catch ex As Exception
            Response.Write(ex.Message.ToString)

End Try

C# code

try {


	string mailUsername = "YOUR-USERNAME@gmail.com";

	string mailPassword = "YOUR-PASSWORD";

	string mailToEmail = "TO-ADDRESS@EMAIL.COM";

	string mailSubject = "this is the mail subject";

	System.Web.Mail.MailFormat mailBodyFormat = System.Web.Mail.MailFormat.Text;

	string mailBody = "this is the mail body";

	string attachmentPath = "";
	System.Web.Mail.MailMessage myMail = new System.Web.Mail.MailMessage();

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver", "smtp.gmail.com");

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport", "465");

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing", "2");

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate", "1");

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername", mailUsername);

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword", mailPassword);

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpusessl", "true");

	myMail.From = mailUsername;

	myMail.To = mailToEmail;

	myMail.Subject = mailSubject;

	myMail.BodyFormat = mailBodyFormat;

	myMail.Body = mailBody;

	if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(attachmentPath.Trim())) {

		System.Web.Mail.MailAttachment MyAttachment = new System.Web.Mail.MailAttachment(attachmentPath);

		myMail.Attachments.Add(MyAttachment);

		myMail.Priority = System.Web.Mail.MailPriority.High;

	}
	System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "smtp.gmail.com:465";

	System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.Send(myMail);
} catch (Exception ex) {
	Response.Write(ex.Message.ToString());

}

Simple yet useful. Let me know if it works for you.

Cheers!

Erroneous Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express R2 Installation

d0rr — Thu, 26 May 2011 04:22:05 +0000

Issue

You have installed Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express R2 on Microsoft Windows Server 2008.

You completed the installation.

However when you try to start SQL Server service, you were thrown an error message “The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.“

Or, you did not get any error message, but your SQL Server service did not start either, and when you dig into Application Event Viewer you see “FileMgr::StartLogFiles: Operating system error 2(The system cannot find the file specified.) occurred while creating or opening file ‘e:\sql10_main_t.obj.x86fre\sql\mkmastr\databases\objfre\i386\MSDBLog.ldf’. Diagnose and correct the operating system error, and retry the operation.“

Retry for a few times and you may get slightly different error messages, but all have to do with not able to open file at location e:\sql10_main_t.obj.x86fre\sql\mkmastr\databases\objfre\i386\, be it for the files model.mdf, MSDBData.mdf, modellog.ldf or MSDBLog.ldf

If you have followed and encountered the same (or similar path) mentioned above, read on.

Possible Fix

Many have blamed the problematic Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express R2 installer.

Some managed to fix it without reinstalling (but it failed on me).

However, no harm giving it a try as it may work on your installation.

Run the following:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Release\setup.exe

with the parameters:

/ACTION=REBUILDDATABASE /INSTANCENAME=SQLEXPRESS /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS=

My Solution

I uninstalled my SQL Server 2008 Express R2.

I downloaded and installed Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=en

Last but not least, I downloaded and installed SQL Server 2008 Express SP1 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=01AF61E6-2F63-4291-BCAD-FD500F6027FF&displaylang=en

To play safe, I downloaded SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe which suppports installation on both 32-bit and 64-bit (WoW) O/S, though I was running 64-bit O/S.

Whats More?

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express installation will not be completed without Management Studio.

You may want to download it from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=08e52ac2-1d62-45f6-9a4a-4b76a8564a2b

Let me know if the above solutions works on you.