Software Development Notes

Garage Cleanup Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:53:00 +0000

Ran across this website. I need to forward it along to my parents. I don't think they've seen their garage floor in years.

LNK2019 - Undefined External Symbol

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:30:00 +0000

LNK2019 errors are fun to track down. Nothing like "Undefined External Symbol" to strike fear in your mind.

LNK2019 means that one of the functions or classes that you are using cannot be found. Well duh, but why can't the linker find it?

So you have 2 projects. One is a static lib project, the other is using the static lib. When linking to the static lib, it can't find one of the functions or classes that you are using in your non static lib project.

First make sure that the project settings are looking in the right place for the static lib. Then use dumpbin.exe to analyze the static lib and make sure the symbols are actually defined in the static lib.

If you don't find the symbol your looking for in the output from dumpbin.exe, then take a look at your static lib. What is most likely happening is some of your functions have prototypes, but the actual implementation is missing. i.e. look for .cpp files that need to be added to the static lib, or actually code up the prototypes that are missing bodies.

Turn Text in Drupal to HTML

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:27:00 +0000

So you have some text in drupal, and you want it to be formatted with HTML. Use check_markup.

Joomla: Redirect to same page after login

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:08:00 +0000

Here's some code to redirect Joomla to the page you want, after forcing a user to login first.


           $uri =& JFactory::getURI();
           $redirect = '&return='.base64_encode($uri->toString());
           $this->setRedirect(JRoute::_('/index.php?option=com_user&view=login'.$redirect),
 "Please login.");

A TAB is 4 Spaces

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:02:00 +0000

A TAB is 4 Spaces.

In .vimrc or _vimrc add these lines:

set autoindent
set smartindent
set tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4
set expandtab

Mac Quirks: Multiple From Emails with Apple Mail

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:22:00 +0000

Thanks to Michael Voong for this tip. There is bare minimal documentation from Apple on how to add multiple email addresses to a single account in their email program.

The solution, edit your email account settings using a comma separated list for all the email addresses or email aliases you want to be able to use in Apple Mail.

Recursively Remove .svn directories on Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:11:00 +0000

To recursively remove .svn directories on Linux:


rm -rf `find . -type d -name .svn`

Python 2.6, py2exe, and VC++ Runtime Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:57:00 +0000

I got this annoying error the other day, while freezing a python 2.6 executable on Windows:

py2exe msvcp90.dll no such file or directory

Background:

Python 2.6 uses Visual Studio 2008, and so it requires the Visual Studio 2008 C++ Runtime (vcredist).

I saw a few posts on the web, here and here. They get the solution partially right.

The Correct way to fix py2exe msvcp90.dll no such file or directory.

In your setup.py file first exclude the dll so you can build the exe.


options = {
  "py2exe": {
      "compressed": 1,
"optimize": 2,
      "bundle_files": 2,
      "dll_excludes": [
    "MSVCP90.dll",   
      ]
  }}

Then add this to your manifest file in between the tags:

<dependency>
<dependentassembly>
<assemblyidentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorarchitecture="x86" publickeytoken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"></assemblyidentity>
</dependentassembly>
</dependency>

This allows you to use the vcredist to install the required vc++ dlls on the target system.

Annoing Windows XP issue : _except_handler4_common could not be located

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:36:00 +0000

Thanks to Dev Adventures for this one.

I had one of the most annoining Windows XP issue. It happened while building a py2exe project on Windows Vista, and installing it on Windows XP.

The issue, a most cryptic error message:

"The procedure entry point _except_handler4_common could not be located in the dynamic link library msvcrt.dll"

The solution:

Remove the mswsock.dll from the distribution.

Visual Studio 2008 UAC Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:31:00 +0000

Thanks Jim!

Visual Studio 2008 UAC Problem

I had a Visual Studio 2005 project with a manifest that set requireAdministrator. When ported to Visual Studoi 2008 I got this error: manifest authoring error c1010001: Values of attribute "level" not equal in different manifest snippets.

Solution

Remove the explicit manifest file and set the UAC.

1. Remove the explicit manifest file "Configuration Properties > Manifest Tool > Input and Output" remove the "Additional Manifest Files" value

2 Go to "Configuration Properties > Linker > Manifest File" and change the UAC Execution Level

SVN Ignore

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:26:00 +0000

CVS allows you to place a .cvsignore file in your path to ignore files you don't want in CVS. Subversion (SVN) has a similar feature, though a little bit different implementation. To ignore a file in SVN:

svn propedit svn:ignore ./some_path

Free Wordpress Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:02:00 +0000

Some Free Wordpress Tutorials covering the basics of:

Logging into Wordpress
Creating/Editing Posts in Wordpress
Creating/Editing Pages in Wordpress
Using the NGEN Gallery in Wordpress

Ubuntu Mouse Scroll and Vmware

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:42:00 +0000

Edit the xorg.conf file to :


Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "vmmouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

and the mouse scroll starts to work.

Flash Slideshow: ActionScript to Load an XML File

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:39:00 +0000

I've seen a few various ways to load an xml file with flash. Each of them suffer from the same problem. They are hard coded for a specific file, and riddled with magic numbers to access xml node data.

Here's some actionscript to load an XML in Flash. Great for loading say a Flash Slideshow from XML.


var slideshow_images:Array;

var data_xml:XML = new XML();
data_xml.ignoreWhite = true;
data_xml.onLoad = function(loaded) {
if (loaded) {
 slideshow_images = load_images(data_xml);

 //TODO: do something with the images

 delete data_xml;
}
}

data_xml.load("photos.xml");

function load_images(images_xml) {
var images:Array = new Array();
var cur_image_xml = images_xml.firstChild.firstChild;
while (cur_image_xml != null) {
 images.push(get_image_data(cur_image_xml));
 cur_image_xml = cur_image_xml.nextSibling;
}
return images;
}

function get_image_data(image_xml) {
var image = new Object();
var image_prop_iter = image_xml.firstChild;
while (image_prop_iter != null) {
 //trace(image_prop_iter.firstChild.nodeValue);
 image[image_prop_iter.nodeName] = image_prop_iter.firstChild.nodeValue;
 image_prop_iter = image_prop_iter.nextSibling;
}
return image;
}

Cross Browser CSS Opacity

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:28:00 +0000

Here's a simple CSS Tip from arbnet.net.

If you want your transparency to translate to all browsers, then make sure to use all four of the elements shown below.

.class { opacity: 0.7; filter:alpha(opacity=70); -moz-opacity:0.7; -khtml-opacity:0.5; }

The first is CSS Standard and will work in all standards compliant browsers, the second is for Internet Explorer, the third for older Mozilla browsers and the last for older Safari browsers.

Idaho SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:30:00 +0000

It really bothers me when local businesses don't take the time to create a website and optimize it for the search engines. Nothing like searching for a local company and having a bunch of national directory websites show up in the search results instead. Have businesses in Idaho ever heard of Idaho SEO? With a few simple SEO tweaks to their websites they could boot the national sites from the list and make a lot of local customers happy.

See What Version of a Package Is Installed on Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:58:00 +0000

To see what version of a package is installed on Ubuntu, or a Debian version of linux:


dpkg -s

jQuery Image Gallery, jQuery Slideshow

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:33:00 +0000

The Galleria module for jQuery makes a really great jQuery Image Gallery. Added some tweaks to it, and now I've got a jQuery Image Gallery and Slideshow. With features such as pause on hover, and a contact sheet.

Theme Drupal Search Results

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:21:00 +0000

I had the most awful time trying to theme the drupal search results page and remove the silly "node type", "author", "date" and "extra" info from the search results.

Initially I tried the easy route which was to copy modules/search/search-result.tpl.php into my theme and then in the themes template.php file remove the search-info div. Because that's the info I didn't want to show up.

Didn't work. Worked only for /search/node. Failed when going to /search/node/some%20search%20term.

Finally was able to get it working by implementing hook_prepocess_search_result, and making sure the $info array didn't have anything.


/**
 * Implement hook_preprocess_search_result()
 */
function phptemplate_preprocess_search_result(&$variables) {
  $result = $variables['result'];
  $variables['url'] = check_url($result['link']);
  $variables['title'] = check_plain($result['title']);

  $info = array();
  /* HIDE THIS FROM END USER
  if (!empty($result['type'])) {
    $info['type'] = check_plain($result['type']);
  }
  if (!empty($result['user'])) {
    $info['user'] = $result['user'];
  }
  if (!empty($result['date'])) {
    $info['date'] = format_date($result['date'], 'small');
  }
  if (isset($result['extra']) && is_array($result['extra'])) {
    $info = array_merge($info, $result['extra']);
  }
  */
  // Check for existence. User search does not include snippets.
  $variables['snippet'] = isset($result['snippet']) ? $result['snippet'] : '';
  // Provide separated and grouped meta information..
  $variables['info_split'] = $info;
  $variables['info'] = implode(' - ', $info);
  // Provide alternate search result template.
  $variables['template_files'][] = 'search-result-'. $variables['type'];
}

With this gem in my hook_theme implementation

    'search_result' => array(
      'arguments' => array('result' => NULL, 'type' => NULL),
      'template' => 'search-result',
      'path' => drupal_get_path('module', 'search')
    )

Disable the Drupal User Contact Form

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:07:00 +0000

The best way I've found to disable the user "contact form", is to hook_menu_alter and remove the 'contact' fieldset from the user profile form itself.


function modulename_form_alter(&$form, $form_state, $form_id) {
  switch ($form_id) {
    case 'user_profile_form':
      unset($form['contact']);
      break;
...

Webware for Python, and WebKit

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 03:40:00 +0000

So does anybody still use Webware for Python? And how do the developers of Webware feel about WebKit? Now there stuck with names for their products that companies with bigger pocket books have rebranded.

Ask anyone about WebKit, they won't tell you its a python application server that runs on top of Webware. No, they'll say, WebKit is an open source web browser engine with roots in KHTML, that Apple has invested heavily in.

Drupal CCK Search

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:38:00 +0000

So you've added a custom content type, you've added CCK fields to it. Now you want to create some pages, to provide search result lists for your custom content type.

If your using Drupal 6, make sure the CCK Module, the Views Module, and the Advanced Help module are installed.

Then within the drupal admin, go to "Views". This is where you can create your custom search result pages. The advanced help module, will help you make sense of things, and the "Views" module itself is great in that it tells you the exact SQL that will be used to generate your search results. You can use any thing related to your node to help filter your results; be it CCK, Taxonomy or many other options.

Drupal Gripes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:01:00 +0000

Today's Drupal gripes:

Everything in the database
Difficult to move between development and production servers
Version Control, difficult to have a running production server, add changes to a development server, and then merge the changes into a production environment
No Unit Testing

Why Java, .Net, Ruby, Django, Pylons, TurboGears, etc are better

Unit Testing
Easy to move between development and production code

Drupal Custom Menu

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:32:00 +0000

So, you've made a custom drupal menu, now you want to use it in your theme. How do you use your custom drupal menu in a theme? Here's how.

First, Drupal adds "menu-" to your custom menu. So if you named your menu "custom-menu", when referencing your custom menu you have to call it "menu-custom-menu".

The drupal api call to make is "menu_navigation_links", and then pass the result to "theme" to render the list.


print theme('links', menu_navigation_links('menu-custom-menu',0));

Look how the code above is similar to what you're used to doing for the $primary_links, and $secondary_links that are built into drupal, as shown below:


print theme('links', $primary_links, array('class' => 'links primary-links'));