List of Articles | xefteri.com

ColdFusion: Adobe's Web Application Platform

A ColdFusion weather custom tag
This custom tag will allow you to easily add a weather control to your website. Using the XML data feeds from weather.com we can produce owesome looking weather controls, both for current conditions and for forecasts. This control has a multitude of attributes, is fully customizable, easy to use, comes with example templates, and full source code provided.

A ColdFusion color picker custom tag
We'll learn how to create and use a ColdFusion custom tag, that will add a color picker field to a form and make it easy to select a web safe color. No popups were harmed during the making of this article!

Firefox download counter in ColdFusion
We'll see how to create and use a ColdFusion custom tag that will make it easy for us to display the Firefox download counter.

Working with cfpop email headers
Using the cfpop tag to retrieve emails returns the headers as one long text string, which makes it difficult to get specific values. In this article we'll see first how to get the headers, and then how to work with them to get the name-value pair we want.

Other: Technologies & Languages that don't fit anywhere else

Printing table headers on every page
Long tables that run over more than one page when printed do not display their headers on all printed pages, just the first one. It is possible though, with a few HTML and CSS hacks to get them to display on all printed pages.

Improving an XML feed display through CSS and XSLT
XML feeds, though useful, are boring to look at in a browser because they are simple XML files. It's possible though to make them easier on the eye, and in this article we'll look at two ways of doing that. First, we'll use simple CSS properties to format each XML node, and then we'll use a little more complex but much more powerful XSL transformation.

Identity fields in Oracle and SQL Server
While it may be relatively easy to create an incrementing and unique identifier inside a table in SQL Server, things get tricky with Oracle. In this article, we'll see the differences between the two databases and offer a way of solving the problem.

ASP.NET: Microsoft's Web Application Platform

Smart headers and footers using ASP.NET User Controls
Good site usability often means removing links from one page back to itself. In this article we will look at how to create an ASP.NET User Control which will act as a common header to a site. It will automatically know which page we are looking at, and it will remove links to the same page from itself. For example, on this site, if we click on the About us section of the header, it will take you to the page, and it will make that link inactive. That way, we know that we are under that section, and we can't click on it anymore.

Maintaining Sorting while Paging in an ASP.NET Datagrid
The Datagrid server control offers much control and flexibility in presenting data. Two of the actions that are hard-wired into it are Paging and Sorting. On their own they work great, but not so well together. When you sort a column and then move to a previous or next page, the sorting preference is not maintained. In this article we will see how to maintain both by using the Viewstate object.

How postback works in ASP.NET
In this article, we will take a closer look at how ASP.NET pages post back to themselves, and how to customize this feature in our web applications.

Viewing and editing file and directory attributes in ASP.NET
The System.IO.FileAttributes class gives us access to file/directory attributes. In this article, we'll see how to use this class to first read the current attributes and then change them.

Copying a directory in ASP.NET
The System.IO.DirectoryInfo class does not come with a method to copy a directory. In this article, we'll see how to create a method to do that, and then use it in an ASP.NET page.

Creating and consuming a Web Service using Visual Studio .NET
This article will go through the complete process of how to create a Web Service and then how to consume it in any ASPX page. We'll do this entirely within the Visual Studio.NET. Our Web Service will convert Fahrenheit degrees to Celcius.

Configuring the ASP.NET Worker Process through the 'machine.config' file
Unlike classic ASP which run in the same memory space as the IIS, the new ASP.NET runs as a process of its own. This gives us more flexibility, stability and power, especially when combined with the file. Using standard XML notation inside this file, we can attribute our process to do things that will make the Webmaster's job a lot easier. We'll take a close look at the ASP.NET process and the attributes available for us to play with.

Creating clickable table rows in ASP.NET that change colors
In services like Hotmail, you have a list of contents in a table. If you allow the user to select rows and do something with them, you might want to make it more pleasing to the eye, by changing the color of the row when selected. You might also have a main control checkbox, that when clicked selects all the rows and also colors all the rows. In this article, we'll see how to accomplish that in 2 parts: first how to create programatically the table and controls populating the checkboxes, and second we'll create the Javascript functions that handle the client effect of changing colors.

Calculating the Size of a folder in ASP.NET
In classic ASP it's very easy to get the size of a folder since the FileSystemObject (FSO) class includes a Size function. In ASP.NET there is no such function provided, so we'll see how to create one, extending the System.IO.DirectoryInfo Namespace.

A custom '404 Page Not Found' in ASP.NET
We will create a custom 404 Response error page in ASP.NET, which will produce a friendly output to the user and send an email to the webmaster letting them know about the broken link so they can fix it.

Downloading any file to the browser - Part II: using ASP.NET
Following an article on how to do this using ASP 3.0, we'll see how to accomplish the same effect using ASP.NET. Using streams, we can provide a file to the user without the need for FTP or any interference of the Internet Information Server (IIS).

ASP: Microsoft Classic Active Server Pages (ASP)

Exporting Word files to HTML
In this article we will first discuss the case for and against using Word as your HTML editor. Then we will see how to properly save a Word file to smaller, more compact HTML files. Third and last, we will see how to do this through code, and possibly create a batch process for converting numerous Word files to HTML at once.

GetRows VBScript Class - Part III: Paging the results
In Part I of this series, we saw how to create a VBScript class to query our database using the very fast GetRows() method, and return a recordset as a local array. In Part II, we extended the class to allow ADDing and UPDATEing a row in the database. In this Part III, we will expand the class further to allow pagination of the returned recordset.

Dynamic Tree Menu of your site
We'll see how to create a menu system that is cross-browser and includes all your site's folders/files. It uses ASP, XML and DHTML and by simply copying it to your site you have an instant Windows Explorer-like navigation of the contents.

Generating an XML file of your website's folders/files
Using the File System Object (FSO) we can traverse through our website's contents and write them out in a nicely nested form in an XML file. We can then use that file for example, in a content management system or a TreeView control.

Downloading any file using ASP, FSO and the ADODB Stream object
In this article, we will see how to allow a user to download any file from our web server. They will see a prompt, giving them the option of opening or saving it, rather than simply opening it which is the default. We can achieve this using the FSO and ADODB objects.

Calling MS Access Parameterized Queries from ASP
Instead of passing a SQL query through your ASP code against Microsoft Access as you would normally do, you can use the Queries design interface to create them in Access and then call them from your ASP code. It makes things easier to edit and maintain, and the results are returned faster.

A Generic GetRows VBScript Class - Part II: Adding Update and AddNew functions
Expanding on a previous article, we will see how to add 2 new methods to our class: one that inserts a new record in our table and another that edits an existing one. Use them against any table with just a few lines of code.

Formatting complex ASP output using HTML templates
Mixing HTML and ASP code can be very difficult to maintain. Concatenating long strings in the code makes things difficult to read, and switching back and forth between ASP code and HTML can be very inefficient. Worst of all, you cannot use your HTML editor to edit the content presentation just as you usually do; you have to edit everything by hand. In this article we'll see how to solve this issue using HTML templates.

Web-based Content Editor using IFrame
If you have ever used Hotmail's Rich Text Editor and wondered how they do it, then this article will shed some light on that. An IFrame works like a frame but lives within your page, thus creating inline frames. Without the need of applets or ActiveX, it's possible to use that and create an online content editor that resembles and works like your favorite word editor.

The Windows 2000 Indexing Service
Also known as Index Server, it catalogs your website, allowing your visitors to search against your content. This article goes through installing the Indexing Service on Windows 2000, pointing it to your web site, tuning it for speed and efficiency, showing you how to use it with some sample code against the ADO, and what to do if it fails.

A Generic GetRows VBScript Class
The GetRows method of the ADO object is known to be the fastest way to fetch a recordset. By encapsulating the logic within a VBScript class, it's possible to query your database and return your records to a local array in only 3 lines of code.