Trying to streamline things at work and make it so we are producing higher quality code I have learned a few things. Mind you I have only been in my new position for a few weeks, but already I along with our Account Manager have discovered some long lingering holes that need to be plugged. Nothing major, but nevertheless, we need to fill the holes. Some of the uncovered issues are: communication, processes and specifications for developers. It is not enough to get the projects done, but we need to do it right and right on spec.
5 Steps to Finding Employment as a Computer or Web Developer
The Two Sides to Job Hunting
I have had students ask me about how to get hired or who is hiring. I have also had employers ask me how to find developers when they have had a tough time hiring quality employees. These are tough questions to answer, but I have been on both sides of the table.
How a Developer can Mitigate Stress of a Designer
Working with a designer and can be a challenge as a developer as we are totally different mind sets. Working with a designer as a DotNet developer can be even more of a challenge, but there can be a simpler way. DotNet can be absolutely daunting to a designer who is used to working with HTML or PHP, but using your designer as you build your application will make things easier for everyone.
If I have my way; I like to work with the design first and then do my coding as this provides the best results and the least stress for everyone involved.
Continue reading How a Developer can Mitigate Stress of a Designer
Stop Spending Good Money On Mobile Sites
For about 4 years I have been preaching to my customers why they do not need a mobile site. Instead, it is better to spend money on a responsive site. If you are getting your site done or redone, find a designer who will give you a responsive site. A responsive site should not cost you more and it should be the only solution.
The Lawn Mower Woes
Last weekend was a holiday weekend where I was supposed to get a lot of yard work done. Part of the yard work was to cut the grass, but alas I suffered the lawn mower woes. You may recall in October 2013 a post that I wrote entitled “HTML Will not fix the Lawn Mower“. Continue reading The Lawn Mower Woes
French and Other Language Characters – Classic ASP
Recently working with PayPal and Classic ASP I stumbled unto a problem where French characters were being encoded and displayed as unreadable text. It turns out that PayPal returns the result to you using UTF-8. In C# this would be an easy fix. Language characters can be tough in classic ASP. I had searched for quite a while until I found the following code: Continue reading French and Other Language Characters – Classic ASP
Tricking Out Classic ASP With JSON – The Mandrill Experience
Using JSON with Classic ASP can be a tricky thing, but the developer of ASPJSON has made it very easy. This library ( or include ) has made my life so much easier, but the instructions to get me started was somewhat raw and difficult for me to follow.
Since my original posting about Tricking Out Classic ASP with JSON, I have had several people ask for the solution to SendGrid and Mandrill. Both systems are very different, but the principals are similar. I found Mandrill the easiest to implement.
The following code is the magic to it all, but this example is specific to Mandrill.
jsonstring = ""
If Request.TotalBytes > 0 Then
Dim lngBytesCount
lngBytesCount = Request.TotalBytes
jsonstring = BytesToStr(Request.BinaryRead(lngBytesCount))
End If
Set oJSON = New aspJSON
'Load JSON string
jsonstring = replace(jsonstring, "mandrill_events=","")
oJSON.loadJSON(URLDecode(jsonstring))
' Loop Through Records
for i = 0 to oJSON.data.count -1
str = oJSON.data(i).item("event")
straddress = oJSON.data(i).item("msg").item("email")
next
You can download the full code sample from: http://www.unlatched.com/sample/Mandrill%20with%20Classic%20ASP/mandrill%20aspjson%20testing.zip
I did include the ASPJSON include file so that you would get the complete solution; but you should ensure you have the latest once you have my example working. Goto ASPJSON to get the latest library.
Auto-Link Using Regular Expressions
I was recently asked if I could automatically turn website text (ex: www.google.com ) into HTML hyperlinks. My first thought was ah CRAP! I also wondered why they could not use the link tool in the editor, but they asked so I delivered. With about 5 minutes on Google, I found the perfect solution that worked for me.
Mind you I was working in C# for this, but since it is a regular expression solution; it will apply to virtually any language. The one change that I had made from the original code was to add in a piece that also auto-linked when the text included “http://www.”. You may or may not want the extra addition that I had made.
I flipped over Flipp
I don’t often promote apps and products, but my wife found an app that makes shopping more efficient.
If you have an Apple or Android phone and you like deals or price matching, you must try Flipp ( http://www.flipp.com ). My wife “clips” the deals on her iPad and it immediately shows up on my iPhone or iPad under “clippings. At the grocery store checkout, I just show them my clippings and the price nicely decreases saving me money. The synchronization is a nice touch in it self, but this app also has an awesome search feature that allows you to search for a product and it shows all the flyers that it is published in. This app is its weight in gold. One stop shopping at No Frills and I have most of my savings as if I drove from store to store.
Life has become simpler with Flipp