Dave Burke

First Sueetie Smart Placeholder Control Surfaces

daveburke — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:13:46 -0700

When I was initially contemplating how to restrict Sueetie blog comments to Registered Users I thought I'd use a smart placeholder control to display or hide the comment form. While I went another route on blog comments, the Sueetie UserRolePlaceHolder took form as a very useful control, the first of several Sueetie "smart" PlaceHolders we'll no doubt be seeing.

To demonstrate the UserRolePlaceHolder I added a simple welcome greeting to registered users on the Sueetie.org home page. By contrast, anonymous users don't see the message.

As I've said a number of times, simplicity is the cornerstone of Sueetie architecture, and I think it's exemplified in the new UserRolePlaceHolder control. First of all, the placeholder, like Sueetie placeholders to come, will most likely be single-function with no guesswork on how to use them. The UserRolePlaceHolder control displays or hides information based on, um, User Role.

To make the controls even easier to use, the property and content areas are full intellisense-enabled. Here's a screenshot of setting the role.

Each placeholder control will contain a TrueContentTemplate and FalseContentTemplate for consistency. Either a condition is true or it isn't, with options to display content on either condition. Those, too, are intellisense-enabled.

True to the "Patterns and Origins" history of Sueetie architecture documentation, it's time to note that the UserRolePlaceHolder control was written from scratch. Don't have any illusions, Chameleon is brilliant, but it's the LAST thing we want in Sueetie. The full control source is displayed below. You'll have to admit that there are very few lines of code here. Definitely not Chameleon in origin.

The trick was instantiating the True and False ContentTemplates on a bound object, in this case the SueetieUser. A post from Stefan Sedich describing his Templated ASP.NET RSS Feed Reader Control was very helpful in understanding the concepts involved. Highly recommended. There are also examples of templating in YetAnotherForum.NET, particularly in the YAF.Controls project Container control. Templating is also used in Joe Shearn's Sueetie Content Parts control source.

Look for more Sueetie conditional placeholders in the weeks to come as the need arises. We'll try to keep them as simple to use as UserRolePlaceHolder.

Everyman Links for July 3, 2009

daveburke — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:33:27 -0700

High Drama for Free. Chris Anderson gets spanked big-time after plagiarizing wikipedia in bulk for his upcoming book, “Free.” This Virginia Quarterly Review post lists the copied excerpts. The initial explanation for the omission was that neither Anderson nor his editors were confident in how to properly annotate wikipedia bibliographic citations, so they simply decided not to. This is, of course, a bullshit excuse. Anderson quickly apologized. If he hadn’t I’d still be buying the book. The best summary of the brouhaha is from Valeria Maltoni in Right Place, Right Time. “Chris Anderson says free is the future of a radical price, Malcolm Gladwell says it's priced to sell but doubts that free is the future, Seth Godin says Malcolm is wrong, while Mark Cuban makes the distinction between free and freely distributed. Chris Brogan seems to agree with Mark Cuban and thinks Seth, too is right. There is one thing all of these gentlemen have in common, and that is a passion for figuring out what the right place, right time is.”

Mike Rowe has more than a great voice. This story on Mike Rowe (“Dirty Jobs” host and “Deadlist Catch” narrator) is one of the most thought-provoking pieces I’ve read in a while. “Follow your passions and go for broke. This is what we’re told growing up to achieve success. But that’s not the only way to go, says Rowe. Think of what other people are doing and go the other way. It’s not just following your passions, it’s doing jobs other people aren’t doing. Or as Silicon Valley cartoonist cum philosopher Hugh McLeod says: IGNORE EVERYONE!” Thanks to Dave Penton for the infotweet.

Courage to be a butt plug. On the heels of Rowe’s “Ignore Everyone” reference, here’s Copyblogger’s “The Courage to be Wrong,” but I got more out of it than going beyond being wrong. I read Rolla May’s “Courage to Create” in 1982, so I get the concept. Maybe, along with being creative, the goal is to have the courage to be a butt plug as well. “It’s not just about differentiation, it’s about perverting the norm, destroying sacred traditions, and screwing with the way people think. It’s about doing, saying, or living something that’s so completely unexpected that people can’t help but pay attention.”

TechCrunch is back! I extricated myself from the web of TechCrunch distribution points some months ago, but this play-by-play of a new lawsuit Arrington describes at his brash, arrogant best exemplifies why I started reading Crunch in the first place.

Blogging –> Lifestreaming –> Something else. Perhaps the best take on the blogging verses lifestreaming issue I’ve read is from Steve Woodruff. "We’re going to burn through existing and new platforms over the coming years, and they’ll get more sophisticated in their abilities to let us network and communicate...The bits and pieces don’t really matter, they’ll evolve and converge. Each of them is an Expression and/or Connection Engine, all enabling our brave new world of networked communications.”

Inside a Netflix Distribution Center. Cool Pics.

Bing vs. Google. I don’t have any Zune news for you today, so here’s a new Bing/Google comparative search engine app for you. I’ve not used Google Search for two weeks and I feel fine. In thinking about why I’ve been Bingin’, I’d say it’s primarily due to two factors, 1) I don’t want Google to take over the world, and 2) every other Microsoft online offering has been either killed by Microsoft’s Marketing department or has been a lame product out of the gate carrying the “Live” moniker of doom. The surprise factor is strong with this one, Obi-Wan.

TweetSharp. Restating a Robert McLaws tweet, “Show Twitter updates on your .NET website in 4 lines of code with Tweet#. A very well designed API that works!” Robert criticizes most everything in Tech (one of the reasons I enjoy reading him), so when he likes something I pay attention.

Detroit after People. There’s a History Channel DVD in my Netflix queue titled “Life After People” depicting the state of the planet and manmade structures without the presence of people. These sad photos of present day Detroit fit that category. Thanks to Joel Ross for the infotweet.

The Wit and Wisdom of @Telecomgeek. In this week of saying goodbye to Farrah, Jackson, McMahon, and Billy Mays, the silence of @Telecomgeek is broken only in response to the loss of Karl Malden. “For my money, the best big-screeen portrayal of Omar Bradley by any actor.” In these crazy times it’s good to know someone can distill the noise of the world down to its essential truths.

Restricting BlogEngine.NET Comments to Sueetie Registered Users

daveburke — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:14:14 -0700

Man, I've been getting so tired of those losers who try to boost their SEO rating by squirting their comments on my blogs like some disgusting bodily function. You know the ones, "I was very interested to know this information about you, and I really liked your blog. have a nice day!" Yeah, you too, asshole.

BlogEngine.NET has hidden captcha that blocks 100% of all automated comment spam attempts, but it doesn't prevent people from manually typing in some inane comment with a link back to their wares. Beyond the excellent captcha in BlogEngine.NET, you can close comments after a certain period and you can turn comments off altogether, but that's it. We, on the other hand, have the Sueetie Framework available, so why not restrict blog comments to Registered Users only? That's what you'll now find on sueetie.org and dbvt.com where on Sueetie.org anonymous users will see the message, "Please login to leave a comment. We require site membership for comments to build a stronger community and to reduce spam. Thanks!"

Since my dbvt.com is Sueetie-enabled I employed the same approach but with a slightly different message. The essential takeaway is that I figure my friends don't mind creating a site account to talk to me. I initially used different terminology in the message, but I didn't want search indexes to pull-up "dickhead" on each of my blog posts. For anonymous contact, there's always the Contact form. To be honest I don't get many comments anymore, so it's not like I'm going to put a lot of people off.

Code work was extremely minimal. Three or four new lines of code to the BlogEngine.NET CommentView control, a bit of re-architecting and we're done.

I don't expect this to be 100% effective, as these people are not only outrageously stupid, they're also without scruples. It will be an interesting experiment and I'll keep you posted. Worse case, I can shutdown their accounts in Sueetie Administration with a single click and if they persist with different accounts, well, Sueetie needs a Email Verification Registration Component anyway.

New Sueetie Media List View Control

daveburke — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:31:24 -0700

With the Gallery Server Pro Recent Photos View in the can, it was time to add the Sueetie Media List View Control that I've been wanting to do. You'll find it on the sueetie.org home page and at my Sueetie-powered dbvt.com home page.

We're using it on both locations as a Recent Photos display, but the control supports displaying media by various criteria, like media type, album or author. It does so with a SueetieContentViewTypeID property of the Sueetie ContentQuery object. The ContentQuery object contains the query properties used in all Sueetie List View Controls.

To bring Gallery Server Pro media into the Sueetie Data Family we created an importer to add new media data into the core Sueetie_Content table, associating it with Sueetie Framework application, content and group properties. This allows us to do whatever we wish to do with the data outside of the application, in this case Gallery Server Pro.

Here are a few media objects in the Sueetie_Content table. SourceID keys on the MediaObjectID in Gallery Server Pro's gs_MediaObject table, ContentTypeID "6" is MediaImage type, ApplicationID "4" is the Sueetie Media Gallery.

The process to add new media data to Sueetie Data Core screams for a background task, but we haven't had the need to build a background task component yet, and to be honest, I don't want to go with an IIS Application_Start() approach to tasking in Sueetie. I'd rather go with Server Scheduled Tasks, but that's another post. For the media data import it was an opportunity to create a Gallery Server Pro administrative page (real easy) and remember to run it after adding new library media.

As for using the control, the structure is the same as other Sueetie List Controls where you simply drop the control onto the page, specifying GroupID and other ContentQuery properties.

I don't have other List View controls planned at the moment, so it's time to move on to other Sueetie fun. The Recent Photos List View was a great way to top off this stage of building view controls.

Stylin: The Fruit Box

daveburke — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:09:13 -0700

You can’t go wrong with a bold fruit theme. Goldfish always work, too.

Link to The Fruit Box | View all Stylin Sites

Stylin: Algirdas City Hotels

daveburke — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:04:55 -0700

Next time I’m in Vilnius, Lithuania, I’m staying at the Algirdas!

Link to Algirdas City Hotels | View all Stylin Sites

Stylin: Michael J. Fox Foundation

daveburke — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:59:08 -0700

Good attention to detail. Balanced use of bright color and monochrome.

Link to Michael J. Fox Foundation | View all Stylin Sites

Stylin: Full Cream Milk

daveburke — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:47:06 -0700

If I worked at a Web Design firm, I’d want it to be called “Full Cream Milk.” Effective use of a limited range of color.

Link to Full Cream Milk | View all Stylin Sites

Stylin: Patrick Bizier

daveburke — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:43:41 -0700

The Home Page title says it all. “Patrick Bizier: Art & Illustration.”

Link to Patrick Bizier | View all Stylin Sites

Stylin: Kitschen Sink

daveburke — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:39:54 -0700

I’m a sucker for this faux Comic Book style with the colors and the caricatures in black-n-white.

Link to Kitschen Sink | View all Stylin Sites

Stylin: The Lite Cylinder

daveburke — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:35:08 -0700

This stylin’ home page does such a good job featuring the see-through propane tank that I almost want to run out and buy one. Almost.

Link to The Lite Cylinder | View all Stylin Sites

Stylin: Literary Bohemian

daveburke — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:29:57 -0700

I enjoy moving my mouse over the various menu options. Another case where artistic ability trumps web design chops. But’s it’s a close call.

Link to Literary Bohemian | View all Stylin Sites

Stylin: Max Aub

daveburke — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:26:18 -0700

Maximum content in a defined area. Very interactive design. Sophisticated. Good lookin’.

Link to Max Aub | View all Stylin Sites

Nordic Track Book Club Review: New Rules of Marketing & PR

daveburke — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:38:19 -0700

I’ve read several of David Meerman Scott’s books and have enjoyed each of them. Scott also authors an interesting Twitter stream at @dmscott. The complete title of his 2007 release is The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly. Lots of good information on the role of content in marketing your product or service. Excerpts from the first 100 pages below. 4-out-of-5 Nordic Track Ski Stars.

__________________

p.19 Instead of a one-size-fits-all website with a mass-market message, we need to create many different micro-sites, each aimed at a narrow target constituency.

p.23 Get down to the essence of what your product solves and write good stories about that.

p.25 PR is about your buyers seeing your company on the web.

p.30 The big hits come by getting to the little guy.

p.31 Organizations gain credibility and loyalty with buyers through content. Smart marketers now think and act like publishers in order to create and deliver content targeted directly at their audience.

p.32 Once marketers and PR people tune their brains to think about niches they begin to see opportunities for being more effective at delivering their organization’s message.

What visitors really want is content that first describes the issues and problems they face, and then provides details on how to solve those problems.

p.37 My typical response, “What’s the goal?” often throws people off. It’s amazing that so many marketers don’t have established goals for their marketing programs and for their websites and blogs in particular.

p.39 Web content directly contributes to an organization’s online reputation by showing thought leadership in the marketplace of ideas.

p.51 Reputation management is important and media measurement is a key part to what PR people do. Companies are already measuring what’s going on in the media. Now they need to also measure what’s going on with blogs.

p.63 There is no good reason why organizations shouldn’t communicate directly with their audiences without a media filter via releases.

p.64 Bullet list of “The New Rules of News Releases.”

p.93 The formula for going viral is a combination of some great (and free) web content that is groundbreaking or amazing or hilarious, plus a network of people to light the fire, and all with links that make it very easy to share.

p.108 A great website just feels right, as if the creator of the site cares a great deal and wants his or her passion to shine through.

New Gallery Server Pro Recent Photos View

daveburke — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:49:24 -0700

I was looking for an opportunity to dig into Roger Martin's rockin' Gallery Server Pro source code for a while now, and creating a Recent Photos View for Sueetie was my big chance. Here's the new Recent Photos View of my personal Photo Gallery so you'll know what I'm talking about.

Below is what it looked like before with Gallery Server Pro's default home page view.

I wanted to go to my Photo Gallery and immediately see what's new, so I designed Recent Photos to serve as the gallery home page. The out-of-the-box album view is efficient, but it's pretty static and rarely displays any new content without first digging into the albums.

In addition to wanting to see what's new with the Recent Photos view, it was also important to be able to specify additional gallery home page views in Sueetie's future, like by document type, or by albums listed vertically with additional descriptions and information.

As you probably know, site-wide settings for a Sueetie community site are located in the root Sueetie.config file. For our Recent Photos view, we're using Sueetie.config to set the "recentphotos" page as the media gallery home page view.

<!--
Media

StartPage (default = album)
    Specifies which page to use as Media Gallery start page
    Three options:
        1. album - Default display of Gallery Server Pro
        2. recentphotos - All photos in gallery displayed in reverse chronological order
        3. folders - Display of media albums with additional Sueetie data,
            arranged by media type

RecentPhotoCount (default = 160 @ 16 photos/page)
    Number of photos to retrieve for recent photos to prevent retrieving entire media gallery.
-->

Gallery Server Pro is designed as a User Control to make it easy to drop it into an existing site. The base GalleryPage.cs class loads the appropriate page based on various criteria, so we added a Sueetie Configuration option when loading the home page.

string sueetiePage = SueetieConfiguration.Get().Media.StartPage;
page = (PageId)System.Enum.Parse(typeof(PageId), sueetiePage, true);

"PageId" is an enumerator to which we added a "RecentPhotos" value with the result that instead of loading the default "album.ascx" page, we're loading "recentphotos.ascx."

The approach I took was to create a new "album" for Recent Photos with the AlbumID of -1. That way only a few changes were required in Gallery Server Pro, allowing us to leverage all Gallery Server Pro security rules and functionality.

I modified the Gallery Server Pro data provider method that populated the album contents along with a new stored procedure to handle both recent photos and normal album media object retrieval.

The above data provider change was one of only two touches to the Gallery Server Pro source outside of the Web project. The other was to sort the Recent Photos collection by DateCreated, with most recent first.

One remaining update was required in the Web project to generate the correct thumbnail url. Gallery Server Pro Media objects are stored by album name, so we needed to obtain the original GalleryObject parent information when generating the url. We do that by loading a MediaObjectInstance() for each photo on the first trip, which isn't a performance hit as you might suspect since the collection is then cached.

Now with Recent Photos logic in place we're able to do something else with Gallery Server Pro that I've been wanting to do. That's right, the next new Sueetie feature will be a control to display recent photos outside of Gallery Server Pro. Ehhhh, there goes the surprise!