.Ronald

NetMag is publishing very interesting articles for web developers and web designers. Thanks to Newz Crawler and Moreover for letting me discover this site and its fine publications.

On this series about ASP.Net, they first give you an introduction to the power and flexibility of ASP.Net. In the second part, they talk about forms authentication.

These are some nice articles with fine examples, I’m already looking forward to the next article.

Apache has long time been the biggest Web Server, with Microsofts IIS as good second. It’s like that since somewhere in 1998 and it will be like that for a very long time, trust me. But the it’s the rise of the PHP server side scripting software on Microsoft Servers that caught my attention in Netcrafts September Web Survey.

The doubling of active sites running on Microsoft 2003 Server over a few months might be remarkable, it’s less surprising if you keep in mind that a lot of hosting companies are switching from older Windows Server software to the newer, more robust and stable Windows 2003 Server software. Only 5% are migrations from Linux to Windows 2003.

But as I told, the number of PHP-drive sites running on Windows Server software has doubled over the last year. This could mean a serious boost for PHP to become the second Server-Side scripting software on Windows after Macromedia’s ColdFusion, as PHP is not limited to Linux/Apache/MySQL, but could be hosted on a variety of envorinements.

I expect PHP to become the second language on Windows after ASP somewhere in the first half of the next year.

Don’t forget to check out this very interesting article on ServerWatch: IIS vs. Apache, Looking Beyond the Rhetoric By Martin Brown!

Apache has long time been the biggest Web Server, with Microsofts IIS as good second. It’s like that since somewhere in 1998 and it will be like that for a very long time, trust me. But the it’s the rise of the PHP server side scripting software on Microsoft Servers that caught my attention in Netcrafts September Web Survey.

The doubling of active sites running on Microsoft 2003 Server over a few months might be remarkable, it’s less surprising if you keep in mind that a lot of hosting companies are switching from older Windows Server software to the newer, more robust and stable Windows 2003 Server software. Only 5% are migrations from Linux to Windows 2003.

But as I told, the number of PHP-drive sites running on Windows Server software has doubled over the last year. This could mean a serious boost for PHP to become the second Server-Side scripting software on Windows after Macromedia’s ColdFusion, as PHP is not limited to Linux/Apache/MySQL, but could be hosted on a variety of envorinements.

I expect PHP to become the second language on Windows after ASP somewhere in the first half of the next year.

Don’t forget to check out this very interesting article on ServerWatch: IIS vs. Apache, Looking Beyond the Rhetoric By Martin Brown!

NetMag as a very interesting article about PHP and blogging. The series is meant as an introduction to PHP and uses a blogging system as use case: Introducing PHP: Blog-u-like. The tutorial goes a step further than just explaining the regular echo’s and if-then-else statements by introducing reference parameters, object orientation (inheritance).

Next article promises to explain about RSS, XML-RPC and various remote blogging API’s.

I’ll keep you informed!

NetMag as a very interesting article about PHP and blogging. The series is meant as an introduction to PHP and uses a blogging system as use case: Introducing PHP: Blog-u-like. The tutorial goes a step further than just explaining the regular echo’s and if-then-else statements by introducing reference parameters, object orientation (inheritance).

Next article promises to explain about RSS, XML-RPC and various remote blogging API’s.

I’ll keep you informed!

Dell is good stuff, no doubt about it, but their support needs some bugfixing.

When my computer crashed on the 4th of august, I didn’t know what troubles were ahead.

I was working (as I always do 🙂 and suddenly my PC went down. No problem I tought, just a loose cable or plug, plug it back in and we’re up and running again.

NOT! As I was checking the power cables behind my desk, I saw that the high voltage protector was down. It was (is) an old piece, and I didn’t know if it had helped me a lot, so I thought that I could just remove it and plug the power cord directly in the wall.

WRONG! BOOM! went my Dell with the smell of burning plastic. I just blew up my PC :(. The protector WAS protecting me, or at least my PC. I think I sometimes need something or someone to protect ME against myselft and stop me from doing stupidities like this one.

So, the next day I went to my local PC vendor (Sysar), where I buy software and hardware for me or clients of mine from time to time, with the question to replace my power supply, as it was obvious that I blew that one.

SORRY, NO CAN DO! Dell uses his own hardware parts which aren’t compatible with standard hardware like the AT or ATX power supplies you find in every computer store. There goes my cheap and quick hardware fix 🙁

Up to Dell Support. First I tried to call their technical support line and after more than 30 minutes (!) waiting and more than �25 poorer and still nobody on the phone, I tried to send them an e-mail asking where I could find the right power supply.

2 days later, no reply.

Oh Lord, where can I find the right power supply? On the internet, of course!

So after some Google-ing and consulting the Dell support forums, I came up to a site which sold Dell compatible power supplies: PC Power & Cooling! Thank God (or anybody who’s up their above, if there is someone or something after all). Their Power Supply Selector (including Dell) told me that I needed their Turbo-Cool� 350T Dell Power Supply for my Dell Dimension 8100. Yes! yes! let’s order it!

But there was no Turbo-Cool 350 in their product list, so I thought that the Turbo-Cool 300 Dell was the one I needed and ordered it online for $89 (ex. shipping and transport). (Again, I really think I need someone or something to protect me from stupidities)

Less than a week later (it seemed like eternity for me), my power supply arrived and I was as happy as a little kid getting a candy bar. Open the box, open the case, screw the power unit in place and attach the cables.

DAMN! They don’t fit! So there is really a difference between the Turbo-Cool 300 and Turbo-Cool 350 after all 🙁

What to do now??

OK, let’s try to call Dell support again, and have patience this time… And indeed after 40 minutes of waiting, someone answered my call. The nice guy asked me for the problem, tried to troubleshoot and fix my problem from the other side of the line, but he ended up concluding that I needed to have the power supply replaced. They are not stupid over there at Dell, but they or sloooowww…

He would send me an email which I had to fax back to order a Pick Up and Replace reparation that could take 5 to 10 business days and would cost �250. Oh man…

But what choice did I have, I blew up my machine, I order the wrong part and when I recoverd my old PC and connected it to the same power cable is my Dell was using, I blew up that one too!!!

Something was defenitly wrong, and someone had to take care of it, but it wasn’t going to be me, no way!

OK, so I asked the to pick up my Dell at my wife’s working place, as I’m rarely at home during the day and she only works about 10 minutes from where we live.

Now the coincidence wants that right on that day (or better the night before) they had some visitor in the shop, you know the kind that smashes windows, takes everythings that small enough to carry and has some value and then leaves within 5 minutes. Burglars.

So the shop was closed, but my wift left a note on the door that the PC could be picked up at the shop owners, right next door.

Guess what, at 15h30, they rang at my door: “Where here to pick up a Dell system.” Luckily, my wife was still at home and told them that we had agreed to pick up the system at another location. “Huh?” So my wife had to take her car, drive back to her work and give the system to the courier. Oh my god, are they stupid, or is it me…

Well, OK, now I have to wait…

2 days later, I recieved a phone call from the courier service asking me what needed to be done with the Dell system. The had 2 adresses and didn’t know if it had to be pick up, or deliverd, or…

WHAT? They ARE stupid.

A phone call to Dell support, told me te consult the support website, which stated that my repair was delayed and I would receive a notice shortly. Oh my god, my system, it’s lost! I saw all dooming scenario’s passing by…

I sent an email to Dell again (to technical support, sales and commercial services) expressing my concerns and demanding an clarification of the situation immediately.

2 days later, as expected, no response…

But the next day, at the very same moment as I received a first reply which stated that they had my home address in their database and that ’the system will be(!) picked up and delivered at that address’, my wife called to tell me that they returned my system and that it was fixed!

Oh, I could hardly wait to go home and continue with my work where I started it 3 weeks earlier.

A few days later, I received an invoice from DHL for the import taxes from the first power supply I ordered and an invoice from Dell for �250 and VAT for the repair. They can be fast after all…

Conlusion: The same Dell, new power supply and about �500 less on my banking account.

I hope my insurance company can easy the pain a little bit…

Dell is good stuff, no doubt about it, but their support needs some bugfixing.

When my computer crashed on the 4th of august, I didn’t know what troubles were ahead.

I was working (as I always do 🙂 and suddenly my PC went down. No problem I tought, just a loose cable or plug, plug it back in and we’re up and running again.

NOT! As I was checking the power cables behind my desk, I saw that the high voltage protector was down. It was (is) an old piece, and I didn’t know if it had helped me a lot, so I thought that I could just remove it and plug the power cord directly in the wall.

WRONG! BOOM! went my Dell with the smell of burning plastic. I just blew up my PC :(. The protector WAS protecting me, or at least my PC. I think I sometimes need something or someone to protect ME against myselft and stop me from doing stupidities like this one.

So, the next day I went to my local PC vendor (Sysar), where I buy software and hardware for me or clients of mine from time to time, with the question to replace my power supply, as it was obvious that I blew that one.

SORRY, NO CAN DO! Dell uses his own hardware parts which aren’t compatible with standard hardware like the AT or ATX power supplies you find in every computer store. There goes my cheap and quick hardware fix 🙁

Up to Dell Support. First I tried to call their technical support line and after more than 30 minutes (!) waiting and more than �25 poorer and still nobody on the phone, I tried to send them an e-mail asking where I could find the right power supply.

2 days later, no reply.

Oh Lord, where can I find the right power supply? On the internet, of course!

So after some Google-ing and consulting the Dell support forums, I came up to a site which sold Dell compatible power supplies: PC Power & Cooling! Thank God (or anybody who’s up their above, if there is someone or something after all). Their Power Supply Selector (including Dell) told me that I needed their Turbo-Cool� 350T Dell Power Supply for my Dell Dimension 8100. Yes! yes! let’s order it!

But there was no Turbo-Cool 350 in their product list, so I thought that the Turbo-Cool 300 Dell was the one I needed and ordered it online for $89 (ex. shipping and transport). (Again, I really think I need someone or something to protect me from stupidities)

Less than a week later (it seemed like eternity for me), my power supply arrived and I was as happy as a little kid getting a candy bar. Open the box, open the case, screw the power unit in place and attach the cables.

DAMN! They don’t fit! So there is really a difference between the Turbo-Cool 300 and Turbo-Cool 350 after all 🙁

What to do now??

OK, let’s try to call Dell support again, and have patience this time… And indeed after 40 minutes of waiting, someone answered my call. The nice guy asked me for the problem, tried to troubleshoot and fix my problem from the other side of the line, but he ended up concluding that I needed to have the power supply replaced. They are not stupid over there at Dell, but they or sloooowww…

He would send me an email which I had to fax back to order a Pick Up and Replace reparation that could take 5 to 10 business days and would cost �250. Oh man…

But what choice did I have, I blew up my machine, I order the wrong part and when I recoverd my old PC and connected it to the same power cable is my Dell was using, I blew up that one too!!!

Something was defenitly wrong, and someone had to take care of it, but it wasn’t going to be me, no way!

OK, so I asked the to pick up my Dell at my wife’s working place, as I’m rarely at home during the day and she only works about 10 minutes from where we live.

Now the coincidence wants that right on that day (or better the night before) they had some visitor in the shop, you know the kind that smashes windows, takes everythings that small enough to carry and has some value and then leaves within 5 minutes. Burglars.

So the shop was closed, but my wift left a note on the door that the PC could be picked up at the shop owners, right next door.

Guess what, at 15h30, they rang at my door: “Where here to pick up a Dell system.” Luckily, my wife was still at home and told them that we had agreed to pick up the system at another location. “Huh?” So my wife had to take her car, drive back to her work and give the system to the courier. Oh my god, are they stupid, or is it me…

Well, OK, now I have to wait…

2 days later, I recieved a phone call from the courier service asking me what needed to be done with the Dell system. The had 2 adresses and didn’t know if it had to be pick up, or deliverd, or…

WHAT? They ARE stupid.

A phone call to Dell support, told me te consult the support website, which stated that my repair was delayed and I would receive a notice shortly. Oh my god, my system, it’s lost! I saw all dooming scenario’s passing by…

I sent an email to Dell again (to technical support, sales and commercial services) expressing my concerns and demanding an clarification of the situation immediately.

2 days later, as expected, no response…

But the next day, at the very same moment as I received a first reply which stated that they had my home address in their database and that ’the system will be(!) picked up and delivered at that address’, my wife called to tell me that they returned my system and that it was fixed!

Oh, I could hardly wait to go home and continue with my work where I started it 3 weeks earlier.

A few days later, I received an invoice from DHL for the import taxes from the first power supply I ordered and an invoice from Dell for �250 and VAT for the repair. They can be fast after all…

Conlusion: The same Dell, new power supply and about �500 less on my banking account.

I hope my insurance company can easy the pain a little bit…

Microsoft announced the roadmap for the next 3 Visual Studio releases (Microsoft Developer Tools Roadmap 2003-2005).

As Microsoft recently released Visual Studio 2003 and a beta for Microsoft Visual Studio Tools For Office, the next big release of the development environment (codenamed Whidbey) will be accompanied with the next version of SQL Server (codenamed Yukon). As Microsoft says, this Visual Studio release will be minor upgrade – comparable with the upgrade from VS.NET to VS.NET 2003 -, but will have some nice, long awaited features.

One of these is the return of the ‘Edit and Continue’ function that allows developers to edit their code while debugging and continue with the edited code without the need to recompile (as in Visual Basic 6). Also a new release of the .NET Framework will released, but that was as expected. According to Microsoft, there will be great enhancements for Windows client programmers to give them easier access to system resources as keyboards, mice, network, etc… Another nice feature will be some sort of built-in spellingchecker which corrects the author if he misspells common coding constructs.

Microsoft also promised improvements to the .NET Compact Framework that allow for the creation of applications for the new versions of Pocket PC; Windows CE and SmartPhones.

In the ASP.NET area, Microsoft will introduce some new web controls as there will be the GridView and DetailsView which allow Access-like master-detail forms. More promising will be the introduction of the Master Pages, which allow developers to create page templates that contain headers, footers, controls and menu bars, so that when a page inherits from a Master Page, it automatically inherits the look and feel and when the developer wants to change the visual layout, he only needs to edit the Master Page. Looks promising.

What the themes and skins will be, I’m not sure as Microsoft has attempted to introduce skinning and theming in lots of others applications and Windows versions, without really meeting the expectations.

The 2005 release is still somewhat vague, it’s still 2 years ahead if Microsoft releases as planned 🙂 but the key here is the release of the next Windows operating system (cedenamed Longhorn) and features elements as managed interfaces, enhanced UI features, and other new capabilities of Longhorn. These include the Longhorn trustworthy computing and security model, new application model, improved communication and collaboration, integrated data storage, and innovations in presentation and media, as Microsoft says.

Microsoft announced the roadmap for the next 3 Visual Studio releases (Microsoft Developer Tools Roadmap 2003-2005).

As Microsoft recently released Visual Studio 2003 and a beta for Microsoft Visual Studio Tools For Office, the next big release of the development environment (codenamed Whidbey) will be accompanied with the next version of SQL Server (codenamed Yukon). As Microsoft says, this Visual Studio release will be minor upgrade – comparable with the upgrade from VS.NET to VS.NET 2003 -, but will have some nice, long awaited features.

One of these is the return of the ‘Edit and Continue’ function that allows developers to edit their code while debugging and continue with the edited code without the need to recompile (as in Visual Basic 6). Also a new release of the .NET Framework will released, but that was as expected. According to Microsoft, there will be great enhancements for Windows client programmers to give them easier access to system resources as keyboards, mice, network, etc… Another nice feature will be some sort of built-in spellingchecker which corrects the author if he misspells common coding constructs.

Microsoft also promised improvements to the .NET Compact Framework that allow for the creation of applications for the new versions of Pocket PC; Windows CE and SmartPhones.

In the ASP.NET area, Microsoft will introduce some new web controls as there will be the GridView and DetailsView which allow Access-like master-detail forms. More promising will be the introduction of the Master Pages, which allow developers to create page templates that contain headers, footers, controls and menu bars, so that when a page inherits from a Master Page, it automatically inherits the look and feel and when the developer wants to change the visual layout, he only needs to edit the Master Page. Looks promising.

What the themes and skins will be, I’m not sure as Microsoft has attempted to introduce skinning and theming in lots of others applications and Windows versions, without really meeting the expectations.

The 2005 release is still somewhat vague, it’s still 2 years ahead if Microsoft releases as planned 🙂 but the key here is the release of the next Windows operating system (cedenamed Longhorn) and features elements as managed interfaces, enhanced UI features, and other new capabilities of Longhorn. These include the Longhorn trustworthy computing and security model, new application model, improved communication and collaboration, integrated data storage, and innovations in presentation and media, as Microsoft says.

I’ve done some pretty good work last week, but more about that in a later post.

Because first of all, I think I should give you some background information about the way I work, the projects I’m working on and some projects I’ve done in the past.

As mentioned before, the main part of the projects I develop as freelance webdesigner are built around PHP and MySQL technologies.

Alltough these sites run on Linux production servers, I develop them on a Windows 2000 system inside a VMWare box. This is really the best piece of software on the planet! It allows me to run *any* operating system in a secure local environment while browsing and mailing and downloading and … with my WindowsXP.

VMWare also allows me to set different kinds of configurations and test different technologies without messing up my working environment. Don’t really understand what I’m talking about? Read this:

I have 1 single computer (a 2 year old Dell Dimension) with Microsoft Windows XP.

• Browsers: Mozilla Firebird (once you’ve given it a try, you can’t live without it) and Microsoft Internet Explorer (doesn’t car about web standards, but since many so called ‘web developers’ build their web sites with only IE in mind, you can’t live without it either)
• E-mail Clients: Mozilla Thunderbird (for personal e-mail) and Microsoft Outlook (for my professional e-mail and communication, and because it has a calander and planning functionality and it was bundled with Office)
• Microsoft Office XP (was installed on the system and I havent ’t really given OpenOffice a try since it was released, so I think I’ll stick with it for a while)
• And some other software for daily use (media players, P2P stuff, …)

As you can see, anything but a real *Internet Development Dream Machine*. But with the magic of VMWare I turn it into any *Dream Machine* I want to. Here’s a list of what I have:

• Windows 95 with Internet Explorer 4.0
• Windows 98 with Internet Explorer 5.0
• Windows Me with Internet Explorer 5.5
• Windows 2000 Server with Mozilla 1.1, Internet Explorer 5.5, Office 97, Apache 1.3.28, PHP 4.1, MySQL 3.20, Visual Studio 6
• Windows 2000 Server with Mozilla 1.4, .NET Framework, Internet Explorer 6.0, Office 2000, Apache 2.0.47, PHP 4.3.2, MySQL 3.23.57, Adobe Photoshop 7, Visual Studio .NET 2000
• Windows 2003 Enterprise Server, installed recently, so not really configured except for Apache 2.0.47 and PHP 5 beta
• Linux: I don’t really work with Linux, but I’m always trying to learn to work with it, so that one day I can change everything to Linux. I’ve installed many flavours of Linux including Mandrake 8 and 9, Red Hat 8 and 9 Suse 8 and also the Live Eval and recently Debian, but it gave me some problems and I gotta retry later.
• I’m still looking for some old MS-DOS 5.0/6.0 and Windows 3.11 disk to set up these machines too, just for fun.

As you can see, I have about 8 different configurations and lots more if I need to, all on 1 desk and on 1 machine 🙂

I’ve done some pretty good work last week, but more about that in a later post.

Because first of all, I think I should give you some background information about the way I work, the projects I’m working on and some projects I’ve done in the past.

As mentioned before, the main part of the projects I develop as freelance webdesigner are built around PHP and MySQL technologies.

Alltough these sites run on Linux production servers, I develop them on a Windows 2000 system inside a VMWare box. This is really the best piece of software on the planet! It allows me to run *any* operating system in a secure local environment while browsing and mailing and downloading and … with my WindowsXP.

VMWare also allows me to set different kinds of configurations and test different technologies without messing up my working environment. Don’t really understand what I’m talking about? Read this:

I have 1 single computer (a 2 year old Dell Dimension) with Microsoft Windows XP.

• Browsers: Mozilla Firebird (once you’ve given it a try, you can’t live without it) and Microsoft Internet Explorer (doesn’t car about web standards, but since many so called ‘web developers’ build their web sites with only IE in mind, you can’t live without it either)
• E-mail Clients: Mozilla Thunderbird (for personal e-mail) and Microsoft Outlook (for my professional e-mail and communication, and because it has a calander and planning functionality and it was bundled with Office)
• Microsoft Office XP (was installed on the system and I havent ’t really given OpenOffice a try since it was released, so I think I’ll stick with it for a while)
• And some other software for daily use (media players, P2P stuff, …)

As you can see, anything but a real *Internet Development Dream Machine*. But with the magic of VMWare I turn it into any *Dream Machine* I want to. Here’s a list of what I have:

• Windows 95 with Internet Explorer 4.0
• Windows 98 with Internet Explorer 5.0
• Windows Me with Internet Explorer 5.5
• Windows 2000 Server with Mozilla 1.1, Internet Explorer 5.5, Office 97, Apache 1.3.28, PHP 4.1, MySQL 3.20, Visual Studio 6
• Windows 2000 Server with Mozilla 1.4, .NET Framework, Internet Explorer 6.0, Office 2000, Apache 2.0.47, PHP 4.3.2, MySQL 3.23.57, Adobe Photoshop 7, Visual Studio .NET 2000
• Windows 2003 Enterprise Server, installed recently, so not really configured except for Apache 2.0.47 and PHP 5 beta
• Linux: I don’t really work with Linux, but I’m always trying to learn to work with it, so that one day I can change everything to Linux. I’ve installed many flavours of Linux including Mandrake 8 and 9, Red Hat 8 and 9 Suse 8 and also the Live Eval and recently Debian, but it gave me some problems and I gotta retry later.
• I’m still looking for some old MS-DOS 5.0/6.0 and Windows 3.11 disk to set up these machines too, just for fun.

As you can see, I have about 8 different configurations and lots more if I need to, all on 1 desk and on 1 machine 🙂

As I told you in yesterday’s post, I’m currently developping a new website for my own web design company and a framework in PHP in parallel.

But what has been done so far?

Well, firstly I created some sort of prototype: a single homepage with DIV’s for logo, header, navigation, content, etc…, the logo’s and a stylesheet. It takes some time in the first place, but I think it makes developping a website much easier if you have a clear view of what you want before you start implementing the functionality.

Then I started with the navigation. I decided to go for a (small) matrix structure, with products and services on the one hand and a target-audience approach on the other hand. It went quite well and I’m pretty happy with the result 🙂

The navigation is not yet fully implemented in the framework, and I’m not sure if it ever will be completely in the framework (need to do some heavy thinking about that).

Well, so far so good for the pretty fun stuff, now it’s time for the real thing…

The next thing I started with was the user registration and login functionality. But what about user registration without a database? So I needed the use of some sort of DataAccess base-class (As I’ve done a lot in COM and .NET development). The Data baseclass allows met to execute queries on the database without having to open and close the database and entering username and password time after time again. Execute the query and continue with the result, dynamic queries and arguments, etc… Nice work 😉

OK, so we have data access, back to the user registration and login.

But how can I handle user login, without some sort of state or session management? That’s when I started with the State, State->Cookie and State->Session classes. This allows me to choose wether I want the user state to be implemented using cookies or using session variables (which uses a cookie also, but can be deployed without using a cookie). Of course the regular session and cookie functionality is (or will be) implemented.

Another step taken… Back again to user registration and login.

So an unregistered visitor comes on the site and gets a ‘Register’ link. This shows a popup where he can enter a user name and an email address for registration, along with optional personal data. While I was creating the register-form, I tought: “Why type the same stuf over and over again and change some id’s and labels each time, just to create a simple form?” And the answer was: “to realize that this stuff needs to be in the framework as well!”

So the Form and Form->FormField classes were born. Now I can simply create a form by specifying some variables, some formfield variables and nothing more. This will save me a lot of time, espacially if I add form-validation to it. But that’s something for the (near) future.

That’s what has been done in the past weeks (I’ve got a daytime job you know, and I don’t have time every day and sometimes I realy don’t feel like working in the evening, that way it ook weeks for this).

The next post will be about what I was working on in the past days and what (problems) I came up to.

Stay tuned!