Julian Kuiters - SQL Server Thoughts...

Monitor Calibration for Better Colors

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:12:38 +1100

If you are a website designer or graphic artist, its important your monitor is calibrated to ensure the colors you are using will display and print the same for other people. Most monitors include an "auto-adjust" feature, but this isn't enough.

Most website designers and graphic designers will use special hardware that will calibrate a monitor automatically - making sure that colors and pictures match perfectly.

If you can't afford the hardward monitor calibrators, there are some great websites that offer monitor calibration tests that you can use to manually calibrate your monitor.

One of the best test pages I've found is the Lagom LCD monitor test pages. There are a variety of test images for gamma, contrast, saturation as well as other features. And they've optimised their test images for LCD monitors, which differ to CRT monitors.

So take the time to calibrate your monitor - you'll be surprised how much better photos and most websites appear when you calibration is correct.

Website Designers already on board for iPad compatable websites

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:05:30 +1100

Now that the iPad has been released and web designers know what iPad limitations there are, a number of websites are already underway with their iPad website redesigns.

ABC has announced that they are going to create an iPad app / website design and Wired has a video preview of the site they are going to create.

Large websites and websites with a wide screen layout need to start planning now if they are to support the iPad.

So are you redesigning your website? Let us know in our poll or leave a comment below.

iPad (TM) a no no?

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:28:23 +1100

With the release of the iPad, there's been a lot of chatter about the iPad name, so it got me wondering - Who had the iPad name first?

A search of the Internet Archive for ipad shows the earliest mention of "IPAD" was in an audio track and webpage from 2nd of April 1994 when eSoft talk about adding an internet connection called IPAD ("Internet Protocol Adapter") to their bulletin board system. So popular was the IPAD from 1994 there is the IPAD Owners Association started in 2001 (see their webpage from 2001).

There has also been some news about Fujitsu naming a product the "iPad"

Will your website work with the Apple iPad ?

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:02:54 +1100

With all the hype that is surrounding the launch of the Apple iPad - the big question for website owners must be "Will my website work on the Apple iPad?".

If the iPad gets the same massive uptake by Apple fans and the public - there could be a lot people surfing the web using their iPads. If your site doesn't display properly on the iPad you could miss out on customers.

What is the screen resolution of the Apple iPad?

1024 x 768 is the current iPad screen resolution.

If you site was designed for widescreen monitors (6:9) you will need to check how your website looks in the old 1024x768 size (most old CRT monitors were this size). You can check by changing the your monitor display size and surf your own website to look for problems.

Does the Apple iPad support flash?

No. Just like the iPhone and touch iPods flash does not run on the Apple iPad. Website designers will need to take this into consideration.

More things missing from the iPad

Business Catalyst - Bulk Opt-in of Contacts

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:54:43 +1100

Do you have an Adobe Business Catalyst website with a lot of customers you wish to Opt-In ?

You can request Business Catalyst to set the master opt-in on your site, so all existing customers are "opt-in" to your marketing emails. [Forum thread here]

Send a support ticket to Business Catalyst to have them turn on the master opt-in option for your website and ask them to opt-in your entire database at the same time.

What is double opt-in ?

When a customer signs up to a newletter list on your website, Business Catalyst automatically sends the auto-responder to the customer. The tag {tag_verificationurl} in the auto-responder email is replaced with a link the customer clicks to confirm they want to receive your newsletters. This is known as double opt-in.

What if the customer does not click the verification link?

If the customer does not click the link, they will not be receive your newsletters unless you force opt in for their account in the admin panel, or have used the bypass double opt-in feature in your webforms, or have the master opt-in turned on by BC support.

What if I've turned off the auto-responder for a form?

If you've disabled the auto-responder on your form, the verification link will not be sent to your customers. In this case you will need to either:

use the force opt-in feature on your webforms
or ask BC to opt-in all your customers
or opt-in your customers individually

Why does Business Catalyst use double opt-in?

Business Catalyst uses double opt-in to comply with anti-spam measures and legislation, but a lot of websites have a Newletter Signup form or similar where customers are expressly wanting to join in to your marketing list.

By default all newsletter forms are double opt-in and there are a few things you can do to skip this process.

How to: Force Opt-in on Newsletter Subscription Forms

To ensure your customers are going to receive your newsletters when they subscribe, you need to add the force opt-in parameter to your form.

Edit your newsletter forms and add &OPTIN=true to the end of the form action ( <form action="..." )

All new subscribers will then be opted-in as soon as they subscribe to a newsletter using this form.

Additional references

Wiki page on force opt-in

Adobe Business Catalyst Adds FTP Access to Customise Layouts

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:38:59 +1100

Following on from Adobe Business Catalyst Adds FTP Access to Templates - Business Catalyst now has access to all the custom layouts available via FTP.

You can access the layouts in the /Layouts folder via FTP.

You can now customise the layout via FTP for these modules:

Affiliate
Announcement
Blog
Booking
Comments
Customer Cases
Customer Orders
Faq
Favourite
Forum
Literature
Online Shop
Outbound Emails
Site Search
System Messages
Tell A Friend
Webapps

(Screenshot from my FTP)

Adobe Business Catalyst Adds FTP Access to Templates

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:32:56 +1100

There's been many Business Catalyst customers looking to access their website templates via FTP.

Up until now the only way to edit your website templates was the admin panel (Admin -> Templates) or using Triangle (the Adobe Dreamweaver plugin).

As of today Business Catalyst has allowed access to edit and backup your templates via FTP.

To access you templates in FTP:

Connect to your Business Catalyst website via FTP
Browse to the /Templates folder

You can then download the .html file contents to create a backup, or edit the files on FTP.

Google Analytics code in Business Catalyst Website

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:22:30 +1100

Business Catalyst already includes a great reporting tool - but Google Analytics is still my prefered report engine. You can gain so much information about who and why people are visiting your business catalyst site - more importantly it can help you figure out why sales or contact forms are not being completed.

Eventually this page is going to hold all the tips I have about using Google Analytics with Business Catalyst, but for now I have one tip and that is how to add the analytics tracking code to your templates in a way that works with Business Catalyst and the Dreamweaver plugin Triangle.

Business Catalyst (BC) has a habit of decoding the tracking code and breaking it. (Those "%3C" you see in the google code are actually "<" but they need to be encoded to work).

The problem comes in with this part of the tracker code:

Notice the unescape() call - this is what tells the browser to decrypt the %3C - BC should not touch this - but it does.

So the work around I have been using is:

Notice that I've pre-decoded the string, removed the call to unescape() and broken up the string.

The important part here is that you must break up the <script tag into something like <scr" + "ipt ... this stops the webbrowser from seeing the script tag until the javascript tells it to (with the document.write() ). If you skip this bit you google analytics code will still not work and you will probably get javascript errors on the page.

Queensland SQL Server User Group Meeting Tonight

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:50:58 +1100

QSSUG Meeting This Thursday – 26th of November

The emerging field of "Location Intelligence" brings the worlds of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Business Intelligence (BI) together. These capabilities are now available with SQL Server in a no-coding, user-driven environment provided by the Integeo (www.integeo.com) Map Intelligence product. SQL Server 2008 also introduces a number of spatial features to support the development and extension of spatial applications. In this session, you will see how SQL Server Reporting Services can be used to extend your corporate data to provide interactive, spatial analysis through dashboards, reports and .NET applications.

About the Speaker

Brad Culbert is the Lead Technology Strategist and Solution Architect at Bistech (www.bistech.com.au), the Performance Management experts. Brad has a wealth of experience deploying Performance Management solutions to a number of QLD?s largest corporations and is a leading expert in the field of Location Intelligence.

WHERE Microsoft Brisbane Office, Level 9, Waterfront Place, 1 Eagle Street http://www.microsoft.com/australia/technet/usergroups.aspx

WHEN Thursday, 26th of November | 5:30PM for a 6:00PM start (finishing at approximately 7:30PM)

The QSSUG website can be found at www.qssug.org and contains a repository of materials from past meetings as well as details of upcoming meetings. Other Australian SQL Server related material can be found at www.sqlserver.org.au.

Searching Help for Business Catalyst Sites

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:49:44 +1100

Sometimes finding the help you need with Business Catalyst (BC) or Good Barry websites can be a bit tricky.

There is the online business wiki - their white label help as well as the Business Catalyst Forums.

To save time searching for the answer on both sites I've build a Google Custom Search engine that allows for searching both sites at once. I find this to be very useful so I'm posting the search box here so everyone else can use it too.

Custom Search

Of course you can search directly on each of their own sites - but the above search could save you time.

Beta Testers Wanted CFA Bushfire Warnings and NSW Police Alerts

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:01:00 +1000

Now we need your help in fine tuning our bushfire warnings. We are in the process of adding CFA Bushfire Warnings and NSW Police Alerts to EWN. We will be adding other states soon after.

We are working hard on this now and want to get it right the first time. These alerts could help save lives in a fire or police emergency.

EWN are asking for your assistance in testing our bushfire alerts system. We need your valuable input and comments so we know we are getting things right.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Beta Testers Wanted CFA Bushfire Warnings & NSW Police Alerts

By now many of you will have experienced what EWN can do with severe weather alerts. In the last few days alone we have helped protect thousands of people and property from hail damage and other severe weather events.

Now we need your help in fine tuning our bushfire warnings. We are in the process of adding CFA Bushfire Warnings and NSW Police Alerts to EWN. We will be adding other states soon after.

We are working hard on this now and want to get it right the first time. These alerts could help save lives in a fire or police emergency.

EWN are asking for your assistance in testing our bushfire alerts system. We need your valuable input and comments so we know we are getting things right.

If you are interested in helping EWN become the best warning system in the world – please follow the instructions below:

Login to your account on EWN
Join the “CFA Warnings” and/or the “NSW Police” group
OR email support@ewn.com.au or call EWN on 1300 703 017

Once you have registered you will be sent a welcome message with details on how to report any bugs and give feedback on any Alerts sent to you.