Search Results

Search found 43856 results on 1755 pages for 'header files'.

Page 343/1755 | < Previous Page | 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350  | Next Page >

• Removing PDF attachments via itext

  - by r00fus

  I'm trying to remove attachments from a number of my pdf files (I can extract via pdftk, so preserving them is not an issue). I coded the following based on an example found from a google search: import java.io.FileOutputStream; import java.io.IOException; import com.lowagie.text.*; import com.lowagie.text.pdf.*; class pdfremoveattachment { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, DocumentException { if (args.length < 2) { System.out.println("Usage: java PDFremoveAttachments source.pdf target.pdf"); System.exit(1); } PdfReader sourcePDF = new PdfReader(args[0]); removeAttachments(sourcePDF); FileOutputStream targetFOS = new FileOutputStream(args[1]); PdfStamper targetPDF = new PdfStamper(sourcePDF,targetFOS); targetPDF.close(); } public static void removeAttachments(PdfReader reader) { PdfDictionary catalog = reader.getCatalog(); // System.out.println(catalog.getAsDict(PdfName.NAME)); // this would print "null" PdfDictionary names = (PdfDictionary)PdfReader.getPdfObject(catalog.get(PdfName.NAMES)); // System.out.println(names.toString()); //this returns NPE if( names != null) { PdfDictionary files = (PdfDictionary) PdfReader.getPdfObject(names.get(PdfName.FILEATTACHMENT)); if( files!= null ){ for( Object key : files.getKeys() ){ files.remove((PdfName)key); } files = (PdfDictionary) PdfReader.getPdfObject(names.get(PdfName.EMBEDDEDFILES)); } if( files!= null ){ for( Object key : files.getKeys() ){ files.remove((PdfName)key); } reader.removeUnusedObjects(); } } } } If anyone knows how I might be able to remove attachments, I'd greatly appreciate a reply.

  Read the article

• mysql to excel generation using php

  - by pmms

  <?php // DB Connection here mysql_connect("localhost","root",""); mysql_select_db("hitnrunf_db"); $select = "SELECT * FROM jos_users "; $export = mysql_query ( $select ) or die ( "Sql error : " . mysql_error( ) ); $fields = mysql_num_fields ( $export ); for ( $i = 0; $i < $fields; $i++ ) { $header .= mysql_field_name( $export , $i ) . "\t"; } while( $row = mysql_fetch_row( $export ) ) { $line = ''; foreach( $row as $value ) { if ( ( !isset( $value ) ) || ( $value == "" ) ) { $value = "\t"; } else { $value = str_replace( '"' , '""' , $value ); $value = '"' . $value . '"' . "\t"; } $line .= $value; } $data .= trim( $line ) . "\n"; } $data = str_replace( "\r" , "" , $data ); if ( $data == "" ) { $data = "\n(0) Records Found!\n"; } header("Content-type: application/octet-stream"); header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=your_desired_name.xls"); header("Pragma: no-cache"); header("Expires: 0"); print "$header\n$data"; ?> The code above is used for generating an Excel spreadsheet from a MySQL database, but we are getting following error: The file you are trying to open, 'users.xls', is in a different format than specified by the file extension. Verify that the file is not corrupted and is from a trusted source before opening the file. Do you want to open the file now? What is the problem and how do we fix it?

  Read the article

• foreach() error handling - how do make it do nothing?

  - by Jared

  Hey all, This should be very basic, but I am a little stumped! Here is my array: $menu = array( 'Home', 'Stuff'=>array( 'Losta Stuff', 'Less Stuff', 'Ur moms stuff', 'FAQ' ), 'Public Works' ); Here is my logic: echo "<ol>\n"; foreach( (array)$menu as $header ) { echo ' <li><b>'.$header."</b><br />\n"; echo ' <ol>'; foreach( (array)$header as $headers ) { echo ' <li>'.$headers.".</li>\n"; } echo ' </ol>'; } echo "</ol>\n"; As you can see, Home and Public Works don't have data in the them, so I get a Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in test.php on line ## If I add (array) to $header like this: foreach( (array)$header as $headers ), It no longer gives me the error, but it just displays the $header as the $headers (i.e. Home - Home, Instead of Home - nothing). Basically, if the data is empty, I want it to do nothing!

  Read the article

• Python to C# with openSSL requirement

  - by fonix232

  Hey there again! Today I ran into a problem when I was making a new theme creator for chrome. As you may know, Chrome uses a "new" file format, called CRX, to manage it's plugins and themes. It is a basic zip file, but a bit modified: "Cr24" + derkey + signature + zipFile And here comes the problem. There are only two CRX creators, written in Ruby or Python. I don't know neither language too much (had some basic experience in Python though, but mostly with PyS60), so I would like to ask you to help me convert this python app to a C# class. Also, here is the source of crxmake.py: #!/usr/bin/python # Cribbed from http://github.com/Constellation/crxmake/blob/master/lib/crxmake.rb # and http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/tools/extensions/chromium_extension.py?revision=14872&content-type=text/plain&pathrev=14872 # from: http://grack.com/blog/2009/11/09/packing-chrome-extensions-in-python/ import sys from array import * from subprocess import * import os import tempfile def main(argv): arg0,dir,key,output = argv # zip up the directory input = dir + ".zip" if not os.path.exists(input): os.system("cd %(dir)s; zip -r ../%(input)s . -x '.svn/*'" % locals()) else: print "'%s' already exists using it" % input # Sign the zip file with the private key in PEM format signature = Popen(["openssl", "sha1", "-sign", key, input], stdout=PIPE).stdout.read(); # Convert the PEM key to DER (and extract the public form) for inclusion in the CRX header derkey = Popen(["openssl", "rsa", "-pubout", "-inform", "PEM", "-outform", "DER", "-in", key], stdout=PIPE).stdout.read(); out=open(output, "wb"); out.write("Cr24") # Extension file magic number header = array("l"); header.append(2); # Version 2 header.append(len(derkey)); header.append(len(signature)); header.tofile(out); out.write(derkey) out.write(signature) out.write(open(input).read()) os.unlink(input) print "Done." if __name__ == '__main__': main(sys.argv) Please could you help me?

  Read the article

• Inner join on 2 arrays?

  - by russ

  I'm trying to find a solution to the following (I'm thinking with Linq) to the following: I need to pull down certain files from a larger list of files on an ftp server that have a similar file name. For example, we send an order file to some company for processing then they return a response file that we can download. So, I could send them the files "order_123.txt" and "order_456.txt". After a certain amount of time I need to go look for and download the responses for those files that will be named "order_123.resp" and "order_456.resp". The kicker is that in some cases I can have multiple responses in which case they would create "order_123-1.resp" and "order_123-2.resp" and also the files don't get removed from the server. I know this can be accomplished by looping through the files I know I need responses to then loop through all the files on the server until I find files that match but I'm hoping that I don't have to loop through the files on the server more than once. This example may help clarify: I've sent "order_222.txt" and "order_333.txt" they processed them and the ftp server contains: "order_111-1.resp" "order_001.resp" "order_222-1.resp" "order_222-2.resp" "order_333.resp" I need to download the 3rd, 4th, and 5th file. Thanks.

  Read the article

• What can i use to journal writes to file system

  - by Dmitry

  Hello, all I need to track all writes to files in order to have synchronized version of files on different place (server or just other directory, not considerable). Let it: all files located in same directory feel free to create some system files (e.g. SomeFileName.Ext~temp-data) no one have concurrent access to synced directory; nobody spoil ours meta-files or change real-files before we do postponed writes (like a commits) do not to care recovering "local" changes in case of crash; system can just rolled back to state of "server" by simple copy from it significant to have it transparent to use (so programmer must just call ordinary fopen(), read(), write()) It must be guaranteed that copy of files which "server" have is consistent. That is whole files scope existed in some moment of time. They may be sufficiently outdated but it must be fair snapshot of all files at some time. As i understand i should overload writing logic to collect data in order sent changes to "server". For example writing to temporary File~tmp. And so i have to overload reads in order program could read actual data of file. It would be great if you suggest some existing library (java or c++, it is unimportant) or solution (VCS customizing?). Or give hints how should i write it by myself. edit: After some reading i have more precision requirements: I need COW (Copy-on-write) wrapper for fopen(),fwrite(),.. or interceptor (hook) WriteFile() and other FS api system calls. Log-structured file system in userspace would be a alternative too.

  Read the article

• Why is PHP discriminating between .php and .abc extensions for caching?

  - by Sam

  There seems to be a problem between how PHP engine handles identical files that differ only in their file extension. Problem: "An If-Modified-Since conditional request returned the full content unchanged." Also, I measured that the .php extension loads much faster than identitcal twin with .xxx extension even though the file contents are identical, and they differ only in their file extension. "HTTP allows clients to make conditional requests to see if a copy that they hold is still valid. Since this response has a Last-Modified header, clients should be able to use an If-Modified-Since request header for validation. RED has done this and found that the resource sends a full response even though it hadn't changed, indicating that it doesn't support Last-Modified validation." homepage ending with .php exact same file, but ending .ast Given: A home.php file is copied as home.xxx and this extension is added to htaccess to recognize it as a PHP file. The .php file listen to the php.ini where freshness is set to 3 hrs, the non .php files have to listen to htaccess where freshness is set to 2 hrs according to: AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .ast .abc .xxx .etc <IfModule mod_headers.c> ExpiresActive On ExpiresDefault M2419200 Header unset ETag FileETag None Header unset Pragma Header set Cache-Control "max-age=2419200" ##### DYNAMIC PAGES <FilesMatch "\\.(ast|php|abc|xxx)$"> ExpiresDefault M7200 Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=7200" </FilesMatch> </IfModule> So far so good and everything loads, except, the non-php file doesn't cache properly, or it does cache well but doesn't validate well, to be more specific. See images enclosed. Only the non-php file extension causes the error and loads slower. The entire page.php loads faster as somehow all the elements in there then load properly from cache, while the page.abc has the full request returned while it ought to be cached, meaning the entire page is slower. Bottom line: What should be changed, in order eliminate the If-Modified-Since conditional request returning the full content unchanged?

  Read the article

• Mule ESB 3.2 Splitter destroys Enricher results

  - by Eddie

  Here is the snippet of my flow: <logger message="PRODUCT_ID = #[header:productID]" level="INFO" doc:name="Logger"/> <splitter evaluator="jxpath" expression="//*/BisacHeaderCodes" doc:name="Splitter"/> <logger message="PRODUCT_ID_POST_SPLITTER = #[header:productID]" level="INFO" doc:name="Logger"/> #[header:productID] was set up prior to Logger call. I tried #[variable:productID] and got the same result. When I run it, this is the out put I get: INFO 2012-04-05 23:12:47,865 [[bookinista_order_management].connector.http.mule.default.receiver.02] org.mule.api.processor.LoggerMessageProcessor: PRODUCT_ID = 72 ERROR 2012-04-05 23:12:47,871 [[bookinista_order_management].connector.http.mule.default.receiver.02] org.mule.exception.DefaultSystemExceptionStrategy: Caught exception in Exception Strategy: Expression Evaluator "header" with expression "outbound:productID" returned null but a value was required. org.mule.api.expression.RequiredValueException: Expression Evaluator "header" with expression "outbound:productID" returned null but a value was required. So, right before Splitter, I have a perfect value in my header, and right after Splitter, that value disappears! I understand that Splitter propagates only part of payloda, but shouldn't it leave headers and variables alone? Any ideas for a workaround?

  Read the article

• C++ Namespaces & templates question

  - by Kotti

  Hi! I have some functions that can be grouped together, but don't belong to some object / entity and therefore can't be treated as methods. So, basically in this situation I would create a new namespace and put the definitions in a header file, the implementation in cpp file. Also (if needed) I would create an anonymous namespace in that cpp file and put all additional functions that don't have to be exposed / included to my namespace's interface there. See the code below (probably not the best example and could be done better with another program architecture, but I just can't think of a better sample...) Sample code (header) namespace algorithm { void HandleCollision(Object* object1, Object* object2); } Sample code (cpp) #include "header" // Anonymous namespace that wraps // routines that are used inside 'algorithm' methods // but don't have to be exposed namespace { void RefractObject(Object* object1) { // Do something with that object // (...) } } namespace algorithm { void HandleCollision(Object* object1, Object* object2) { if (...) RefractObject(object1); } } So far so good. I guess this is a good way to manage my code, but I don't know what should I do if I have some template-based functions and want to do basically the same. If I'm using templates, I have to put all my code in the header file. Ok, but how should I conceal some implementation details then? Like, I want to hide RefractObject function from my interface, but I can't simply remove it's declaration (just because I have all my code in a header file)... The only approach I came up with was something like: Sample code (header) namespace algorithm { // Is still exposed as a part of interface! namespace impl { template <typename T> void RefractObject(T* object1) { // Do something with that object // (...) } } template <typename T, typename Y> void HandleCollision(T* object1, Y* object2) { impl::RefractObject(object1); // Another stuff } } Any ideas how to make this better in terms of code designing?

  Read the article

• How to get value of h:inputText when binded in JSF

  - by Tr?n Minh Phuong

  How can i get 2 h:inputTextValue from this? <h:dataTable cellspacing="0" value="#{managerManagedBean.lstMatch}" var="m" binding="#{managerManagedBean.datatableMatch}"> <!-- cellspacing='0' is important, must stay --> <h:column> <f:facet name="header">Team One</f:facet> <h:outputText value="#{m.teamOneName}"></h:outputText> </h:column> <h:column> <f:facet name="header">Match Score</f:facet> <h:inputText value="#{m.teamOneResult}" style="width: 20px; text-align: center" binding="#{input}"></h:inputText> - <h:inputText value="#{m.teamTwoResult}" style="width: 20px; text-align: center"></h:inputText> </h:column> <h:column> <f:facet name="header">Half Time</f:facet> <h:outputText value="#{m.haveHalfTime}"></h:outputText> </h:column> <h:column> <f:facet name="header">Team Two</f:facet> <h:outputText value="#{m.teamTwoName}"></h:outputText> </h:column> <h:column> <f:facet name="header">Match Date</f:facet> <h:outputText value="#{m.matchDate}"></h:outputText> </h:column> <h:column> <f:facet name="header">Control</f:facet> <h:commandButton action="#{managerManagedBean.update(m, input.value)}" value="Update Match"> </h:commandButton> </h:column> </h:dataTable>

  Read the article

• Visual SourceSafe (VSS): "Access to file (filename) denied" error

  - by tk-421

  Hi, can anybody help with the above SourceSafe error? I've spent hours trying to find a fix. I've also Googled the heck out of it but couldn't find a scenario matching mine, because in my case only a few files (not all) are affected. Here's what I found: only a few files in my project generate this error other files in the same directory (for example, App_Code has one of the problem files) work fine I've tried checking out from both the VSS client and Visual Studio another developer can check out the main problem file without any problems This sounds like a permission issue for my user, right? However: I found the location of one of the problem files in VSS's data directory (using VSS's naming format, as in 'fddaaaaa.a') and checked its permissions; everything looks fine and its permissions match those of other files I can check out successfully I can see no differences in the file properties between working and non-working files What else can I check? Has anyone encountered this problem before and found a solution? Thanks. P.S.: SourceGear, svn or git are not options, unfortunately. P.P.S.: Tried unsuccessfully to add tag "sourcesafe." EDIT: Hey Paddy, I tried to click 'add comment' to respond to your comment, but I'm getting a javascript error when loading this page in IE8 ("jquery undefined," etc.) so this isn't working. This is when checking out files, and yes, I've obliterated my local copy more times than I can remember. ;) EDIT 2: Thanks for the responses, guys (again I can't 'add comment' due to jQuery not loading, maybe blocked as discussed in Meta). If the problem was caused by antivirus or a bad disk, would other users still be able to check out the file(s)? That's the case here, which makes me think it's a permission issue specific to my account. However I've looked at the permissions and they match both other users' settings and settings on other files which I can check out.

  Read the article

• mysql to excel genration using php

  - by pmms

  <?php // DB Connection here mysql_connect("localhost","root",""); mysql_select_db("hitnrunf_db"); $select = "SELECT * FROM jos_users "; $export = mysql_query ( $select ) or die ( "Sql error : " . mysql_error( ) ); $fields = mysql_num_fields ( $export ); for ( $i = 0; $i < $fields; $i++ ) { $header .= mysql_field_name( $export , $i ) . "\t"; } while( $row = mysql_fetch_row( $export ) ) { $line = ''; foreach( $row as $value ) { if ( ( !isset( $value ) ) || ( $value == "" ) ) { $value = "\t"; } else { $value = str_replace( '"' , '""' , $value ); $value = '"' . $value . '"' . "\t"; } $line .= $value; } $data .= trim( $line ) . "\n"; } $data = str_replace( "\r" , "" , $data ); if ( $data == "" ) { $data = "\n(0) Records Found!\n"; } header("Content-type: application/octet-stream"); header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=your_desired_name.xls"); header("Pragma: no-cache"); header("Expires: 0"); print "$header\n$data"; ? the above code is used for genrating mysql to excel sheet but we are getting following error the file youare trying to open, 'users.xls',is in a different format than specified by the file extension. verify that the file is not corrupted and is from a trusted source before opening the file. do you want to open the file now?

  Read the article

• CSS class not working as expected [closed]

  - by user1050619

  My HTML codes not implement the CSS styling..The border in the CSS file is not being implemented. I tried both in Firefox & IE. Please provide your inputs. Please find the code below: HTML <html> <head> <link href="file://c:/jquery/chapter-1/begin/styles/my_style.css" rel="stylesheet"> </head> <body> <div id="header" class="no_hover"><h1>Header</h1></div> <button type="button" id="btn1">Click to Add</button> <button type="button" id="btn2">Click to Remove</button> <script src="file://c:/jquery/chapter-1/begin/scripts/jquery.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="file://c:/jquery/chapter-1/begin/scripts/test4.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </body> </html> jS FILE $(document).ready(function() { $("#btn1").click( function(){ $("#header").addClass("hover"); $("#header").removeClass("no_hover"); }); $("#btn2").click( function(){ $("#header").removeClass("hover"); $("#header").addClass("no_hover"); }); }); CSS FILE .hover{ border: solid #f00 3px; } .no_hover{ border: solid #000 3px; }

  Read the article

• load data from grid row into (pop up) form for editing

  - by user1495457

  I read in Ext JS in Action ( by J. Garcia) that if we have an instance of Ext.data.Record, we can use the form's loadRecord method to set the form's values. However, he does not give a working example of this (in the example that he uses data is loaded into a form through a file called data.php). I have searched many forums and found the following entry helpful as it gave me an idea on how to solve my problem by using form's loadRecord method: load data from grid to form Now the code for my store and grid is as follows: var userstore = Ext.create('Ext.data.Store', { storeId: 'viewUsersStore', model: 'Configs', autoLoad: true, proxy: { type: 'ajax', url: '/user/getuserviewdata.castle', reader: { type: 'json', root: 'users' }, listeners: { exception: function (proxy, response, operation, eOpts) { Ext.MessageBox.alert("Error", "Session has timed-out. Please re-login and try again."); } } } }); var grid = Ext.create('Ext.grid.Panel', { id: 'viewUsersGrid', title: 'List of all users', store: Ext.data.StoreManager.lookup('viewUsersStore'), columns: [ { header: 'Username', dataIndex: 'username' }, { header: 'Full Name', dataIndex: 'fullName' }, { header: 'Company', dataIndex: 'companyName' }, { header: 'Latest Time Login', dataIndex: 'lastLogin' }, { header: 'Current Status', dataIndex: 'status' }, { header: 'Edit', menuDisabled: true, sortable: false, xtype: 'actioncolumn', width: 50, items: [{ icon: '../../../Content/ext/img/icons/fam/user_edit.png', tooltip: 'Edit user', handler: function (grid, rowIndex, colIndex) { var rec = userstore.getAt(rowIndex); alert("Edit " + rec.get('username')+ "?"); EditUser(rec.get('id')); } }] }, ] }); function EditUser(id) { //I think I need to have this code here - I don't think it's complete/correct though var formpanel = Ext.getCmp('CreateUserForm'); formpanel.getForm().loadRecord(rec); } 'CreateUserForm' is the ID of a form that already exists and which should appear when user clicks on Edit icon. That pop-up form should then automatically be populated with the correct data from the grid row. However my code is not working. I get an error at the line 'formpanel.getForm().loadRecord(rec)' - it says 'Microsoft JScript runtime error: 'undefined' is null or not an object'. Any tips on how to solve this?

  Read the article

• Margin-Top push outer div down

  - by Daniel Hertz

  Hello, I have a header div as the first element in my wrapper div, but when I add a top margin to a h1 inside the header div it pushes the entire header div down. I realize this happens whenever I apply a top margin to the first visible element on a page. Here is a sample of the css. Thanks! div#header{ width: 100%; background-color: #000; position: relative; } div#header h1{ text-align: center; width: 375px; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto; font-size: 220%; text-indent: -5000px; background: url('../../images/name_logo.png') no-repeat; } html part <div id="header"> <h1><a href="/home.php">Title</a></h1> <ul id="navbar">

  Read the article

• PHP download page: file_exists() returns true, but browser returns 'page not found'

  - by Chris

  I'm using PHP for a file download page. Here's a snippet of the problem code: if (file_exists($attachment_location)) { header($_SERVER["SERVER_PROTOCOL"] . " 200 OK"); header("Cache-Control: public"); // needed for i.e. header("Content-Type: application/zip"); header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary"); header("Content-Length:".filesize($attachment_location)); header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=file.zip"); readfile($attachment_location); die("Hooray"); } else { die("Error: File not found."); } This code works absolutely fine when testing locally, but after deploying to the live server the browser returns a 'Page not found' error. I thought it might be an .htaccess issue, but all .htaccess files on the live server are identical to their local counterparts. My next guess would be the live server's PHP configuration, but I have no idea what PHP setting might cause this behaviour. The file_exists() function always returns true - I've checked this on the live server and it's always correctly picking up the file, its size etc., so it does have a handle on the file. It just won't perform the download! The main site is a Wordpress site, but this code isn't part of a Wordpress page - it's in a standalone directory within the site root. UPDATE: is_file() and is_readable() are both returning true for the file, so that's not the problem. The specific line that is causing the problem is: readfile($attachment_location) Everything up until that point is super happy.

  Read the article

• Configuring visual subversion to exclude

  - by douglasrahn

  I have been searching for any documentation on how to exclude files for visual svn but have not found any. All the documentation I find seems to not match my file structure or I am missing some files/directories referenced. For example the only file I find with configuration items in it seems to be completely commented out and missing the miscellaneous section as well as any auto properties enable - etc... Ultimately I need to exclude some files so that my development can continue without SVN errors. I am constantly receiving errors for pbuser and other project files and would like to make sure this is not causing some of my other headaches. Here is information I would love to use but cant as it doesnt match: How to “fix” Subversion in XCode 3 Posted on December 10, 2008 by Rodney Aiglstorfer in Xcode If you don’t take the necessary steps to prepare for subversion, you will run into problems using it in XCode. This is because XCode produces files that “confuse” Subversion because it either thinks they are text files when they are really binary files or the reverse. To overcome these limitations, you need to make some simple changes to the subversion configuration file in your user home directory. Here are some steps you can follow to ensure that you will be able to use Subversion within XCode without any issues. Step 1. Open the subversion configuration file ~/.subversion/config NOTE: If the “.subversion” directory doesn’t exist yet then run this command which fails but will create the necessary files to get you started: svn status Step 2. Enable “global-ignores” and add new things to ignore Find the line that contains the text “global-ignores” and append the following text: build *~.nib *.so *.pbxuser *.mode* *.perspective* What I am looking for really is how to exclude the files I know I need to for Visual subversion - it shouldnt be different really from regular svn as it claims to use the same product just places a gui on it.

  Read the article

• PHP Array to CSV

  - by JohnnyFaldo

  I'm trying to convert an array of products into a CSV file, but it doesn't seem to be going to plan. The CSV file is one long line, here is my code: for($i=0;$i<count($prods);$i++) { $sql = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE id = '".$prods[$i]."'"; $result = $mysqli->query($sql); $info = $result->fetch_array(); } $header = ''; for($i=0;$i<count($info);$i++) { $row = $info[$i]; $line = ''; for($b=0;$b<count($row);$b++) { $value = $row[$b]; if ( ( !isset( $value ) ) || ( $value == "" ) ) { $value = "\t"; } else { $value = str_replace( '"' , '""' , $value ); $value = '"' . $value . '"' . "\t"; } $line .= $value; } $data .= trim( $line ) . "\n"; } $data = str_replace( "\r" , "" , $data ); if ( $data == "" ) { $data = "\n(0) Records Found!\n"; } header("Content-type: application/octet-stream"); header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=your_desired_name.xls"); header("Pragma: no-cache"); header("Expires: 0"); print "$data"; Also, the header doesn't force a download. I've been copy and pasting the output and saving as .csv

  Read the article

• Tools and Utilities for the .NET Developer

  - by mbcrump

  Tweet this list! Add a link to my site to your bookmarks to quickly find this page again! Add me to twitter! This is a list of the tools/utilities that I use to do my job/hobby. I wanted this page to load fast and contain information that only you care about. If I have missed a tool that you like, feel free to contact me and I will add it to the list. Also, this list took a lot of time to complete. Please do not steal my work, if you like the page then please link back to my site. I will keep the links/information updated as new tools/utilities are created.  Windows/.NET Development – This is a list of tools that any Windows/.NET developer should have in his bag. I have used at some point in my career everything listed on this page and below is the tools worth keeping. Name Description License AnkhSVN Subversion support for Visual Studio. It also works with VS2010. Free Aurora XAML Designer One of the best XAML creation tools available. Has a ton of built in templates that you can copy/paste into VS2010. COST/Trial BeyondCompare Beyond Compare 3 is the ideal tool for comparing files and folders on your Windows or Linux system. Visualize changes in your code and carefully reconcile them. COST/Trial BuildIT Automated Task Tool Its main purpose is to automate tasks, whether it is the final packaging of a product, an automated daily build, maybe sending out a mailing list, even backing-up files. Free C Sharper for VB Convert VB to C#. COST CLRProfiler Analyze and improve the behavior of your .NET app. Free CodeRush Direct competitor to ReSharper, contains similar feature. This is one of those decide for yourself. COST/Trial Disk2VHD Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft's Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). Free Eazfuscator.NET Is a free obfuscator for .NET. The main purpose is to protect intellectual property of software. Free EQATEC Profiler Make your .NET app run faster. No source code changes are needed. Just point the profiler to your app, run the modified code, and get a visual report. COST Expression Studio 3/4 Comes with Web, Blend, Sketch Flow and more. You can create websites, produce beautiful XAML and more. COST/Trial Expresso The award-winning Expresso editor is equally suitable as a teaching tool for the beginning user of regular expressions or as a full-featured development environment for the experienced programmer or web designer with an extensive knowledge of regular expressions. Free Fiddler Fiddler is a web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP(s) traffic between your computer and the internet. Free Firebug Powerful Web development tool. If you build websites, you will need this. Free FxCop FxCop is an application that analyzes managed code assemblies (code that targets the .NET Framework common language runtime) and reports information about the assemblies, such as possible design, localization, performance, and security improvements. Free GAC Browser and Remover Easy way to remove multiple assemblies from the GAC. Assemblies registered by programs like Install Shield can also be removed. Free GAC Util The Global Assembly Cache tool allows you to view and manipulate the contents of the global assembly cache and download cache. Free HelpScribble Help Scribble is a full-featured, easy-to-use help authoring tool for creating help files from start to finish. You can create Win Help (.hlp) files, HTML Help (.chm) files, a printed manual and online documentation (on a web site) all from the same Help Scribble project. COST/Trial IETester IETester is a free Web Browser that allows you to have the rendering and JavaScript engines of IE9 preview, IE8, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process. Free iTextSharp iText# (iTextSharp) is a port of the iText open source java library for PDF generation written entirely in C# for the .NET platform. Use the iText mailing list to get support. Free Kaxaml Kaxaml is a lightweight XAML editor that gives you a "split view" so you can see both your XAML and your rendered content. Free LINQPad LinqPad lets you interactively query databases in a LINQ. Free Linquer Many programmers are familiar with SQL and will need a help in the transition to LINQ. Sometimes there are complicated queries to be written and Linqer can help by converting SQL scripts to LINQ. COST/Trial LiquidXML Liquid XML Studio 2010 is an advanced XML developers toolkit and IDE, containing all the tools needed for designing and developing XML schema and applications. COST/Trial Log4Net log4net is a tool to help the programmer output log statements to a variety of output targets. log4net is a port of the excellent log4j framework to the .NET runtime. We have kept the framework similar in spirit to the original log4j while taking advantage of new features in the .NET runtime. For more information on log4net see the features document. Free Microsoft Web Platform Installer The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 (Web PI) is a free tool that makes getting the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL Server Express, .NET Framework and Visual Web Developer easy. Free Mono Development Don't have Visual Studio - no problem! This is an open Source C# and .NET development environment for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X Free Net Mass Downloader While it’s great that Microsoft has released the .NET Reference Source Code, you can only get it one file at a time while you’re debugging. If you’d like to batch download it for reading or to populate the cache, you’d have to write a program that instantiated and called each method in the Framework Class Library. Fortunately, .NET Mass Downloader comes to the rescue! Free nMap Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network exploration or security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Free NoScript (Firefox add-in) The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Flock, Seamonkey and other Mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript, Java and Flash and other plug-ins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank), and provides the most powerful Anti-XSS protection available in a browser. Free NotePad 2 Notepad2, a fast and light-weight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting. This program can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system's registry. Free PageSpy PageSpy is a small add-on for Internet Explorer that allows you to select any element within a webpage, select an option in the context menu, and view detailed information about both the coding behind the page and the element you selected. Free Phrase Express PhraseExpress manages your frequently used text snippets in customizable categories for quick access. Free PowerGui PowerGui is a free community for PowerGUI, a graphical user interface and script editor for Microsoft Windows PowerShell! Free Powershell Comes with Win7, but you can automate tasks by using the .NET Framework. Great for network admins. Free Process Explorer Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. Also, included in the SysInterals Suite. Free Process Monitor Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. Free Reflector Explore and analyze compiled .NET assemblies, viewing them in C#, Visual Basic, and IL. This is an Essential for any .NET developer. Free Regular Expression Library Stuck on a Regular Expression but you think someone has already figured it out? Chances are they have. Free Regulator Regulator makes Regular Expressions easy. This is a must have for a .NET Developer. Free RenameMaestro RenameMaestro is probably the easiest batch file renamer you'll find to instantly rename multiple files COST ReSharper The one program that I cannot live without. Supports VS2010 and offers simple refactoring, code analysis/assistance/cleanup/templates. One of the few applications that is worth the $$$. COST/Trial ScrewTurn Wiki ScrewTurn Wiki allows you to create, manage and share wikis. A wiki is a collaboratively-edited, information-centered website: the most famous is Wikipedia. Free SharpDevelop What is #develop? SharpDevelop is a free IDE for C# and VB.NET projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. Free Show Me The Template Show Me The Template is a tool for exploring the templates, be their data, control or items panel, that comes with the controls built into WPF for all 6 themes. Free SnippetCompiler Compiles code snippets without opening Visual Studio. It does not support .NET 4. Free SQL Prompt SQL Prompt is a plug-in that increases how fast you can work with SQL. It provides code-completion for SQL server, reformatting, db schema information and snippets. Awesome! COST/Trial SQLinForm SQLinForm is an automatic SQL code formatter for all major databases  including ORACLE, SQL Server, DB2, UDB, Sybase, Informix, PostgreSQL, Teradata, MySQL, MS Access etc. with over 70 formatting options. COST/OnlineFree SSMS Tools SSMS Tools Pack is an add-in for Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) including SSMS Express. Free Storm STORM is a free and open source tool for testing web services. Free Telerik Code Convertor Convert code from VB to C Sharp and Vice Versa. Free TurtoiseSVN TortoiseSVN is a really easy to use Revision control / version control / source control software for Windows.Since it's not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like. Free UltraEdit UltraEdit is the ideal text, HTML and hex editor, and an advanced PHP, Perl, Java and JavaScript editor for programmers. UltraEdit is also an XML editor including a tree-style XML parser. An industry-award winner, UltraEdit supports disk-based 64-bit file handling (standard) on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and later). COST/Trial Virtual Windows XP Comes with some W7 version and allows you to run WinXP along side W7. Free VirtualBox Virtualization by Sun Microsystems. You can virtualize Windows, Linux and more. Free Visual Log Parser SQL queries against a variety of log files and other system data sources. Free WinMerge WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle. Free Wireshark Wireshark is one of the best network protocol analyzer's for Unix and windows. This has been used several times to get me out of a bind. Free XML Notepad 07 Old, but still one of my favorite XML viewers. Free Productivity Tools – This is the list of tools that I use to save time or quickly navigate around Windows. Name Description License AutoHotKey Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder. Free CLCL CLCL is clipboard caching utility. Free Ditto Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Ditto allows you to save any type of information that can be put on the clipboard, text, images, html, custom formats, ..... Free Evernote Remember everything from notes to photos. It will synch between computers/devices. Free InfoRapid Inforapid is a search tool that will display all you search results in a html like browser. If you click on a word in that browser, it will start another search to the word you clicked on. Handy if you want to trackback something to it's true origin. The word you looked for will be highlighted in red. Clicking on the red word will open the containing file in a text based viewer. Clicking on any word in the opened document will start another search on that word. Free KatMouse The prime purpose of the KatMouse utility is to enhance the functionality of mice with a scroll wheel, offering 'universal' scrolling: moving the mouse wheel will scroll the window directly beneath the mouse cursor (not the one with the keyboard focus, which is default on Windows OSes). This is a major increase in the usefulness of the mouse wheel. Free ScreenR Instant Screencast with nothing to download. Works with Mac or PC and free. Free Start++ Start++ is an enhancement for the Start Menu in Windows Vista. It also extends the Run box and the command-line with customizable commands.  For example, typing "w Windows Vista" will take you to the Windows Vista page on Wikipedia! Free Synergy Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s). Free Texter Texter lets you define text substitution hot strings that, when triggered, will replace hotstring with a larger piece of text. By entering your most commonly-typed snippets of text into Texter, you can save countless keystrokes in the course of the day. Free Total Commander File handling, FTP, Archive handling and much more. Even works with Win3.11. COST/Trial Available Wizmouse WizMouse is a mouse enhancement utility that makes your mouse wheel work on the window currently under the mouse pointer, instead of the currently focused window. This means you no longer have to click on a window before being able to scroll it with the mouse wheel. This is a far more comfortable and practical way to make use of the mouse wheel. Free Xmarks Bookmark sync and search between computers. Free General Utilities – This is a list for power user users or anyone that wants more out of Windows. I usually install a majority of these whenever I get a new system. Name Description License µTorrent µTorrent is a lightweight and efficient BitTorrent client for Windows or Mac with many features. I use this for downloading LEGAL media. Free Audacity Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Learn more about Audacity... Also check our Wiki and Forum for more information. Free AVast Free FREE Antivirus. Free CD Burner XP Pro CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Free CDEX You can extract digital audio CDs into mp3/wav. Free Combofix Combofix is a freeware (a legitimate spyware remover created by sUBs), Combofix was designed to scan a computer for known malware, spyware (SurfSideKick, QooLogic, and Look2Me as well as any other combination of the mentioned spyware applications) and remove them. Free Cpu-Z Provides information about some of the main devices of your system. Free Cropper Cropper is a screen capture utility written in C#. It makes it fast and easy to grab parts of your screen. Use it to easily crop out sections of vector graphic files such as Fireworks without having to flatten the files or open in a new editor. Use it to easily capture parts of a web site, including text and images. It's also great for writing documentation that needs images of your application or web site. Free DropBox Drag and Drop files to sync between computers. Free DVD-Fab Converts/Copies DVDs/Blu-Ray to different formats. (like mp4, mkv, avi) COST/Trial Available FastStone Capture FastStone Capture is a powerful, lightweight, yet full-featured screen capture tool that allows you to easily capture and annotate anything on the screen including windows, objects, menus, full screen, rectangular/freehand regions and even scrolling windows/web pages. Free ffdshow FFDShow is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, H.264, FLV1, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, MPEG-4 movies. Free Filezilla FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface. You can also download a server version. Free FireFox Web Browser, do you really need an explanation? Free FireGestures A customizable mouse gestures extension which enables you to execute various commands and user scripts with five types of gestures. Free FoxIt Reader Light weight PDF viewer. You should install this with the advanced setting or it will install a toolbar and setup some shortcuts. Free gSynchIt Synch Gmail and Outlook. Even supports Outlook 2010 32/64 bit COST/Trial Available Hulu Desktop At home or in a hotel, this has replaced my cable/satellite subscription. Free ImgBurn ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit! Free Infrarecorder InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration. Free KeePass KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. Free LastPass Another password management, synchronize between browsers, automatic form filling and more. Free Live Essentials One download and lots of programs including Mail, Live Writer, Movie Maker and more! Free Monitores MonitorES is a small windows utility that helps you to turnoff monitor display when you lock down your machine.Also when you lock your machine, it will pause all your running media programs & set your IM status message to "Away" / Custom message(via options) and restore it back to normal when you back. Free mRemote mRemote is a full-featured, multi-tab remote connections manager. Free Open Office OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose. Free Paint.NET Simple, intuitive, and innovative user interface for editing photos. Free Picasa Picasa is free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great. Free Pidgin Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at once. Free PING PING is a live Linux ISO, based on the excellent Linux From Scratch (LFS) documentation. It can be burnt on a CD and booted, or integrated into a PXE / RIS environment. Free Putty PuTTY is an SSH and telnet client, developed originally by Simon Tatham for the Windows platform. Free Revo Uninstaller Revo Uninstaller Pro helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer easily! Even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet.Revo Uninstaller is a much faster and more powerful alternative to "Windows Add or Remove Programs" applet! It has very powerful features to uninstall and remove programs. Free Security Essentials Microsoft Security Essentials is a new, free consumer anti-malware solution for your computer. Free SetupVirtualCloneDrive Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Point to the .ISO file and it appears in Windows Explorer as a Drive. Free Shark 007 Codec Pack Play just about any file format with this download. Also includes my W7 Media Playlist Generator. Free Snagit 9 Screen Capture on steroids. Add arrows, captions, etc to any screenshot. COST/Trial Available SysinternalsSuite Go ahead and download the entire sys internals suite. I have mentioned multiple programs in this suite already. Free TeraCopy TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, providing the user with a lot of features. Free for Home TrueCrypt Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux Free TweetDeck Fully featured Twitter client. Free UltraVNC UltraVNC is a powerful, easy to use and free software that can display the screen of another computer (via internet or network) on your own screen. The program allows you to use your mouse and keyboard to control the other PC remotely. It means that you can work on a remote computer, as if you were sitting in front of it, right from your current location. Free Unlocker Unlocks locked files. Pretty simple right? Free VLC Media Player VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats Free Windows 7 Media Playlist This program is special to my heart because I wrote it. It has been mentioned on podcast and various websites. It allows you to quickly create wvx video playlist for Windows Media Center. Free WinRAR WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce the size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format. COST/Trial Available Blogging – I use the following for my blog. Name Description License Insert Code for Windows Live Writer Insert Code for Windows Live Writer will format a snippet of text in a number of programming languages such as C#, HTML, MSH, JavaScript, Visual Basic and TSQL. Free LiveWriter Included in Live Essentials, but the ultimate in Windows Blogging Free PasteAsVSCode Plug-in for Windows Live Writer that pastes clipboard content as Visual Studio code. Preserves syntax highlighting, indentation and background color. Converts RTF, outputted by Visual Studio, into HTML. Free Desktop Management – The list below represent the best in Windows Desktop Management. Name Description License 7 Stacks Allows users to have "stacks" of icons in their taskbar. Free Executor Executor is a multi purpose launcher and a more advanced and customizable version of windows run. Free Fences Fences is a program that helps you organize your desktop and can hide your icons when they are not in use. Free RocketDock Rocket Dock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock. Free WindowsTab Tabbing is an essential feature of modern web browsers. Window Tabs brings the productivity of tabbed window management to all of your desktop applications. Free

  Read the article

• Add Intellisense when using the URL rewritingnet config file

  - by Vizioz Limited

  I often use the URL re-writing engine that comes with Umbraco which is from urlrewriting.net and I have always found it very fiddly to edit the configuration file, I wish I have know it was possible to add Intellisense to Visual Studio, and I guessed that most people would also not realise this, after all, who reads the manual right?!So, if you are someone who edits the urlrewriting.config without Intellisense, but would like to use it, this is how you do it :)1) Download the URL rewriting source code files from urlrewriting.net2) Unzip the source files and find the urlwritingnet.xsd file, put this file into your web project, or the directory where your urlredirect.config lives.3) Open up the web project and then open your config file, and hey presto! You should find you now have intellisense!So, the next question is, are there XSD files for the rest of the Umbraco config files, and more importantly for the Umbraco.xml file? If not, does anyone fancy creating them? I am sure intellisense for all these files would be very helpful :)

  Read the article

• HTG Explains: What “Everything Is a File” Means on Linux

  - by Chris Hoffman

  One of the defining features of Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems is that “everything is a file.” This is an oversimplification, but understanding what it means will help you understand how Linux works. Many things on Linux appear in your file system, but they aren’t actually files. They’re special files that represent hardware devices, system information, and other things — including a random number generator. These special files may be located in pseudo or virtual file systems such as /dev, which contains special files that represent devices, and /proc, which contains special files that represent system and process information. How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic How to Make Your Laptop Choose a Wired Connection Instead of Wireless HTG Explains: What Is Two-Factor Authentication and Should I Be Using It?

  Read the article

• 10 Ways to Get a Document into AxCMS.net

  - by Axinom

  Since AxCMS.net 9.1 there is a possibility to upload multiple files simultenously (with a simple Silverlight component). While I was waiting for my files to upload, I started to think about which other methods we currently have in AxCMS.net for uploading documents. I came up with 10 and same evening this article was ready: 10 Ways to Get a Document into AxCMS.net The Classic: Individual Manual Upload Document Creation Box Upload Multiple Files Files from a Remote URL Files from Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) WebDAV ZIP Create Documents Programmatically Apply Auto-Formatting Send the Documents via Email Always choose the most appropriate way to upload your documents into AxCMS.net. Consider size of the documents, how many you have, where to they come from and which other tools you use.  

  Read the article

• How to Print or Save a Directory Listing to a File

  - by Lori Kaufman

  Printing a directory listing is something you may not do often, but when you need to print a listing of a directory with a lot of files in it, you would rather not manually type the filenames. You may want to print a directory listing of your videos, music, ebooks, or other media. Or, someone at work may ask you for a list of test case files you have created for the software you’re developing, or a list of chapter files for the user guide, etc. If the list of files is small, writing it down or manually typing it out is not a problem. However, if you have a lot of files, automatically creating a directory listing would get the task done quickly and easily. This article shows you how to write a directory listing to a file using the command line and how to use a free tool to print or save a directory listing in Windows Explorer. Amazon’s New Kindle Fire Tablet: the How-To Geek Review HTG Explains: How Hackers Take Over Web Sites with SQL Injection / DDoS Use Your Android Phone to Comparison Shop: 4 Scanner Apps Reviewed

  Read the article

• Error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk

  - by Tim Huffam

  This error occurred on our TFS2008 build server which we had upgraded to cater for VS2010 projects (by installing VS2010 on the build server - see this article). Error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk. However - although we had installed VS2010 on the build server - we had not installed the web development components (Visual Web Developer) - this is what caused the error. To fix - simply add the web development components: Go into Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs Select Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, and click on Change/Remove In the VS Maintenance Mode screens, select Add or Remove Features In the Setup - Options page make sure 'Visual Web Developer' is checked. Click on Update.   You shouldn't need to restart your build service. HTH Tim

  Read the article

• T-SQL Tuesday #21 - Crap!

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  Adam Machanic's (blog | twitter) ever popular T-SQL Tuesday series is being held on Wednesday this time, and the topic is… SHIT CRAP. No, not fecal material.  But crap code.  Crap SQL.  Crap ideas that you thought were good at the time, or were forced to do due (doo-doo?) to lack of time. The challenge for me is to look back on my SQL Server career and find something that WASN'T crap.  Well, there's a lot that wasn't, but for some reason I don't remember those that well.  So the additional challenge is to pick one particular turd that I really wish I hadn't squeezed out.  Let's see if this outline fits the bill: An ETL process on text files; That had to interface between SQL Server and an AS/400 system; That didn't use SSIS (should have) or BizTalk (ummm, no) but command-line scripting, using Unix utilities(!) via: xp_cmdshell; That had to email reports and financial data, some of it sensitive Yep, the stench smell is coming back to me now, as if it was yesterday… As to why SSIS and BizTalk were not options, basically I didn't know either of them well enough to get the job done (and I still don't).  I also had a strict deadline of 3 days, in addition to all the other responsibilities I had, so no time to learn them.  And seeing how screwed up the rest of the process was: Payment files from multiple vendors in multiple formats; Sent via FTP, PGP encrypted email, or some other wizardry; Manually opened/downloaded and saved to a particular set of folders (couldn't change this); Once processed, had to be placed BACK in the same folders with the original archived; x2 divisions that had to run separately; Plus an additional vendor file in another format on a completely different schedule; So that they could be MANUALLY uploaded into the AS/400 system (couldn't change this either, even if it was technically possible) I didn't feel so bad about the solution I came up with, which was naturally: Copy the payment files to the local SQL Server drives, using xp_cmdshell Run batch files (via xp_cmdshell) to parse the different formats using sed, a Unix utility (this was before Powershell) Use other Unix utilities (join, split, grep, wc) to process parsed files and generate metadata (size, date, checksum, line count) Run sqlcmd to execute a stored procedure that passed the parsed file names so it would bulk load the data to do a comparison bcp the compared data out to ANOTHER text file so that I could grep that data out of the original file Run another stored procedure to import the matched data into SQL Server so it could process the payments, including file metadata Process payment batches and log which division and vendor they belong to Email the payment details to the finance group (since it was too hard for them to run a web report with the same data…which they ran anyway to compare the emailed file against…which always matched, surprisingly) Email another report showing unmatched payments so they could manually void them…about 3 months afterward All in "Excel" format, using xp_sendmail (SQL 2000 system) Copy the unmatched data back to the original folder locations, making sure to match the file format exactly (if you've ever worked with ACH files, you'll understand why this sucked) If you're one of the 10 people who have read my blog before, you know that I love the DOS "for" command.  Like passionately.  Like fairy-tale love.  So my batch files were riddled with for loops, nested within other for loops, that called other batch files containing for loops.  I think there was one section that had 4 or 5 nested for commands.  It was wrong, disturbed, and completely un-maintainable by anyone, even myself.  Months, even a year, after I left the company I got calls from someone who had to make a minor change to it, and they called me to talk them out of spraying the office with an AK-47 after looking at this code.  (for you Star Trek TOS fans) The funniest part of this, well, one of the funniest, is that I made the deadline…sort of, I was only a day late…and the DAMN THING WORKED practically unchanged for 3 years.  Most of the problems came from the manual parts of the overall process, like forgetting to decrypt the files, or missing/late files, or saved to the wrong folders.  I'm definitely not trying to toot my own horn here, because this was truly one of the dumbest, crappiest solutions I ever came up with.  Fortunately as far as I know it's no longer in use and someone has written a proper replacement.  Today I would knuckle down and do it in SSIS or Powershell, even if it took me weeks to get it right. The real lesson from this crap code is to make things MAINTAINABLE and UNDERSTANDABLE.  sed scripting regular expressions doesn't fit that criteria in any way.  If you ever find yourself under pressure to do something fast at all costs, DON'T DO IT.  Stop and consider long-term maintainability, not just for yourself but for others on your team.  If you can't explain the basic approach in under 5 minutes, it ultimately won't succeed.  And while you may love to leave all that crap behind, it may follow you anyway, and you'll step in it again.   P.S. - if you're wondering about all the manual stuff that couldn't be changed, it was because the entire process had gone through Six Sigma, and was deemed the best possible way.  Phew!  Talk about stink!

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350  | Next Page >