I just installed Windows 7 on my desktop machine. Today I set up XP mode … cause I can. And the first thing I did was to create two virtual machine … one running IE6 and one running IE7. So there you have it. I can now run IE6, IE7, and IE8 on one box. The image is a screenshot of my box with the proof. This will make website debugging so much easier. Although for the most part I’ve kinda let IE6 go, but at least I can know how bad it will look.
So, the other day I was trying to pivot some SQL data that was basically in this format…
| RECNUMBER | COLNUMBER | FIELDNAME | FIELDVALUE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | FirstName | Davin |
| 1 | 2 | LastName | Studer |
| 2 | 1 | FirstName | Melissa |
| 2 | 2 | LastName | Studer |
I wanted to see it like this …
| RECNUMBER | FIRSTNAME | LASTNAME |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Davin | Studer |
| 2 | Melissa | Studer |
It took me a while to figure out the syntax for this, but here it is. It uses the SQL pivot keyword.
This first portion dynamically creates the column names to be used in the pivot.
declare @cols varchar(max)
select @cols = stuff (
(
select '], [' + FieldName
from table
group by FieldName
order by min(ColNumber)
for
xml path('')
),
1,
2,
''
) + ']'
This next part creates a query within a string that we will run with the SQL exec command.
declare @query varchar(max)
set @query = '
select RecNumber, ' + @cols + '
from (
select RecNumber, FieldName, FieldValue
from table
) dta
pivot
(
min(FieldValue)
for FieldName in (' + @cols + ')
) pvt
'
All that is left to do is to execute the query that was created. I ended up putting this into a stored procedure.
exec(@query)
So, I was looking at Google’s homepage in IE8 today and I noticed something funny. I was curious, so I decided to open up Google in the other major browsers to see if the funniness followed. Nope! Only in IE. Below are screenshots of the major browsers (save Google Chrome of course). See if you can spot the difference. I realize that Google can do whatever it wants with its one home page(even though Microsoft can’t do what it wants with its OS, but don’t get me started) and granted IE has its faults, but this seems a bit mean to me … especially since I was using IE8, which is the most standards compliant IE to date(meaning the features that they have implemented conform to industry standards). What do you think, is it “evil” to single out one competing browser in this way?
Firefox:
Opera:
Safari:
IE8:
I found out a cool way to clear a floated element the other day without having to use a clearing div/break or whatever your favorite method of clearing is. In fact you don’t have to add any extraneous html to achieve the clear. Give it a shot yourself. Here is the key …
.box {
border: 1px solid #999999;
}
#header {
width: 217px;
margin: 0px 0px 5px 0px;
padding: 5px;
}
#container {
overflow: hidden; /*This is the magic. It will clear the footer without needing a clearing div*/
}
#left {
width: 100px;
float: left;
margin: 0px 0px 5px 0px;
padding: 5px;
}
#right {
width: 100px;
float: left;
margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;
padding: 5px;
}
#footer {
width: 217px;
padding: 5px;
}
The HTML
<html>
<body>
<div id="header" class="box">
Header
</div>
<div id="container">
<div id="left" class="box">
Left
</div>
<div id ="right" class="box">
Right
</div>
</div>
<div id="footer" class="box">
Footer
</div>
</body>
</html>
So, I’ve actually been using this technique for a while, but recently on a project I have been working on I again ran into the need for it. Many times creating an application you might find yourself with a bunch of checkboxes (or anything for that matter) that you might use to build a SQL where clause, such as …
select field1, field2, field3
from table
where
checkbox1 = 0
and checkbox2 = 1
and checkbox3 = 1
The problem is that when you are building the where clause you have to check to see if you are on the first item. If so, then do not add an “and”, otherwise add the “and”. Or say you have a static SQL query that you often use and you want to quickly comment out the first item in the where clause but you don’t want to totally delete it. You may have to do this …
select field1, field2, field3
from table
where
--checkbox1 = 0
/*and*/ checkbox2 = 1
and checkbox3 = 1
I find this to be somewhat awkward to do. If you are dynamically building a where clause it adds more code to have to decipher, or if you have a static query it adds unneeded edits. I prefer the below method …
select field1, field2, field3
from table
where
1 = 1
and checkbox1 = 0
and checkbox2 = 1
and checkbox3 = 1
By adding the “1 = 1” I can simply add every piece of the where clause with the “and” in front and I don’t have check if I am on the first item or not. Also it makes it easy to selectively comment out parts of my static query without having to do much typing as the below example shows.
select field1, field2, field3
from table
where
1 = 1
--and checkbox1 = 0
and checkbox2 = 1
--and checkbox3 = 1
For me this has been very helpful in many projects, including my current one. Maybe somebody else will find this approach helpful as well.
Melissa and I use Picasa to sort all of our digital pictures. It’s a pretty good image cataloging program. One of the cool features that Picasa has is a button at the bottom that says “BlogThis!”. It’s pretty handy. All you have to do is select a photo or multiple photos and hit the “BlogThis!” button. It will then copy the images up to blogger and create a new post based on those images. Well, recently Melissa and I switched to using Windows Live Writer to create our blog posts. Sure, we could use Blogger’s interface, but honestly I can’t stand it, and Windows Live Writer has a pretty slick interface. Also, it will hook up to most of the major blogging engines (Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, etc).
Well, the only problem is that I could not find a button for Picasa that would open the images in Windows Live Writer. Bummer! So, I decided to make my own. It was a fun project. I’ve never made a Windows installer file before, so it took a bit of learning, but here is the final product. If you use Picasa and Windows Live Writer and would like to have a button in Picasa for creating blog posts in Live Writer, then click the below link. I copied the button into the Live Writer Gallery, so that everyone can create blog posts easily from Picasa.
Also, if you download this and find it useful please leave a comment on this post. It would be nice to know if people find this plugin helpful. Thanks.
So, I’ve been working on creating a php script that pulls Google Calendar data. I couldn’t find many examples of how to do it on the web. So, after much trial and error here is what I’ve come up with. Use as you wish.
<?php
/**********************************************************/
/* The username/password used to login to Google Calendar */
/* */
/* This is the only part you should have to edit in this */
/* script. */
/**********************************************************/
$google_username = '???';
$google_password = '???';
/**************************************************************************/
/* Include Zend framework and load libraries, used to interact with Gdata */
/* Get the Zend framework at http://framework.zend.com/download */
/**************************************************************************/
require_once 'Zend/Loader.php';
Zend_Loader::loadClass('Zend_Gdata');
Zend_Loader::loadClass('Zend_Gdata_AuthSub');
Zend_Loader::loadClass('Zend_Gdata_ClientLogin');
Zend_Loader::loadClass('Zend_Gdata_Calendar');
/******************/
/* Login to Gdata */
/******************/
$authService = Zend_Gdata_Calendar::AUTH_SERVICE_NAME;
$httpClient = Zend_Gdata_ClientLogin::getHttpClient($google_username, $google_password, $authService);
/***********************************************************************/
/* Replaces [link:url]Text[/link] with a properly formatted anchor tag */
/* The url must have the http:// or https:// at the front */
/* */
/* Params: */
/* $text - String of text */
/***********************************************************************/
function createLink($text) {
$pattern1 = '/\[\/link\]/';
$pattern2 = '/(\[link:)([^\]]*)(\])/';
$replacement1 = '</a>';
$replacement2 = '<a href="$2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">';
$text = preg_replace($pattern1 , $replacement1, $text);
$text = preg_replace($pattern2 , $replacement2, $text);
return $text;
}
/*****************************************************************************************/
/* Replaces [email:email address]Text[/email] with a properly formatted email anchor tag */
/* */
/* Params: */
/* $text - String of text */
/*****************************************************************************************/
function createEmail($text) {
$pattern1 = '/\[\/email\]/';
$pattern2 = '/(\[email:)([^\]]*)(\])/';
$replacement1 = '</a>';
$replacement2 = '<a href="mailto:$2">';
$text = preg_replace($pattern1 , $replacement1, $text);
$text = preg_replace($pattern2 , $replacement2, $text);
return $text;
}
/*****************************************************/
/* Replaces line breaks in the text with <br /> tags */
/* */
/* Params: */
/* $text - String of text */
/*****************************************************/
function createLineBreaks($text) {
$text = str_replace("\n", "<br />", $text);
return $text;
}
/*****************************************************************/
/* This function applies the formatting functions defined above. */
/* */
/* Params: */
/* $text - String of text */
/*****************************************************************/
function formatText($text) {
$text = createLink($text);
$text = createEmail($text);
$text = createLineBreaks($text);
return $text;
}
/*****************************************************************/
/* This function formats the date/time shown to the user. */
/* */
/* Params: */
/* $start - Starting date/time */
/* $end - Ending date/time */
/*****************************************************************/
function formatDate($start, $end) {
if (date("H:i:s", $start) == "00:00:00" && date("H:i:s", $end) == "00:00:00") //All day event
{
$end = $end - 1; //For all day events the end day is one greater than it really is
if(date("M j, Y", $start) == date("M j, Y", $end)) //Single day all day event
{
$date = date("M j, Y", $start);
}
else //All day event spanning multiple days
{
if (date("Y", $start) == date("Y", $end))
{
if (date("M", $start) == date("M", $end)) //All day event spanning multiple days in same month
{
$date = date("M j", $start) . " - " . date("j, Y", $end);
}
else //All day event spanning multiple months
{
$date = date("M j", $start) . " - " . date("M j, Y", $end);
}
}
else // All day event spanning multiple years
{
$date = date("M j, Y", $start) . " - " . date("M j, Y", $end);
}
}
}
else //Time range event
{
if(date("M j, Y", $start) == date("M j, Y", $end)) //Single day range event
{
$date = date("M j, Y (g:i a", $start) . " - " . date("g:i a)", $end);
}
else //Range event spanning multiple days
{
if (date("Y", $start) == date("Y", $end))
{
if (date("M", $start) == date("M", $end)) //Range event spanning multiple days in same month
{
$date = date("M j (g:i a)", $start) . " - " . date("M j (g:i a), Y", $end);
}
else //Range event spanning multiple months
{
$date = date("M j (g:i a)", $start) . " - " . date("M j (g:i a), Y", $end);
}
}
else //Range event spanning multiple years
{
$date = date("M j, Y (g:i a)", $start) . " - " . date("M j, Y (g:i a)", $end);
}
}
}
return $date;
}
/******************************************************************/
/* Create a definition list of the events in human-readable form. */
/* You can use CSS to style the list. */
/* */
/* Params: */
/* $client - GData $httpClient created above */
/* $feed - The GData feed to read */
/******************************************************************/
function listEvents($client, $feed)
{
$gdataCal = new Zend_Gdata_Calendar($client);
$eventFeed = $gdataCal->getCalendarEventFeed($feed);
$html = $html . "<dl>\n";
foreach ($eventFeed as $event)
{
foreach ($event->when as $when)
{
$start = strtotime($when->startTime);
$end = strtotime($when->endTime);
}
$date = formatDate($start, $end);
foreach ($event->where as $where)
{
$location = $where->valueString;
}
$title = $event->title->text;
if ($location != "")
{
$title = "<a href=\"" . $location . "\" target=\"_blank\">" . $title . "</a>";
}
$content = formatText($event->content->text);
$html = $html . " <dt><span class=\"eventdate\">" . $date . "</span><span class=\"eventtitle\"> - " . $title . "</span></dd>\n";
$html = $html . " <dd><span class=\"eventcontent\">" . $content . quot;</span></dd>\n";
}
$html = $html . "</dl>\n";
return $html;
}
?>
<html>
<body>
<?php
Echo listEvents($httpClient, "http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/yourfeedhere");
?>
</body>
</html>
For those of you who are web developers there is a great extension for Firefox that has just recently come out. I’ve used it for about a week, and I am in love with it … not as much as I love my wife though. It is the greatest thing for web developers since Jolt. By the way you may want to check out their site, since it has some information about the plug in that you may not realize just playing around with it at first … there are lots of features. Go get it and try it for yourself.
