Expression Web Guest Book

So you need a simple yet effective guest book for your expression web – web site? This is a very simple example that whilst working – needs to be tested well.

It is easy to change to suit your own needs.

http://www.expression-web-help.com/ExpressionWebHelpDownloads.aspx

Expression web 3

OK so we just get used to version 1 the along comes version 2. No time to really dig around and make v2 fly, now we have version 3 in the pipeline.

http://www.expression-web-designer-help.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3723&PID=22140#22140

Windows 7

Vista is on its way out and windows 7 is set to replace it!

Windows 7 is due to be released in October (22nd) this year ahead of schedual. W7 will replace the much talked about vista operating system.

Many users had troubles with Vista especially upgraders – it remains to be seen what if any problems arise from the introduction of the new operating software.

The upside is – i read – that vista users will be able to upgrate for free.

Example shopping carts

Its hard to build a shopping cart if you dont sell any thing. Most of these examples have products for sale but i will not send you anything if you purchase something – lets treat it as a donation. It can be as little as £1.50. But in now way is this a requirement, the examples are simply to show how Microsoft access and expression web can work together to produce a simple shopping cart solution.

http://www.expression-web-designer-help.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3697

Free expression web shopping cart

I have now completly rebuilt our expression web shopping cart.

If you have Microsoft access – then this free shopping cart is for you.

Have a look to see how easy it is and if you want the files drop into the forum and i will forward them to you no charge.

The data in the example is very basic and onlt there for visuals. And most of the links go nowhere, but are very easy to create

Free expression web shopping cart

Expression Web Forum Feed

I have updated our Expression Web forum feed (RSS)Its a very handy feature, which i use to keep tracks of what is going on in the forum and it means i dont have to keep visiting the forum to see whats going on. Each post is displayed with the title of the post also. I read mine via outlook 2007, but if you dont have this, you can find rss reader software by simply doing a Google search for rss reader.

Alternativly, you can just add this link to your favorites.

http://www.expression-web-designer-help.com/forum/default.asp

 

Regards

Jim

I goofed up!

Just a quick heads up. I made some updates a couple of weeks ago to our forum. Just basic formatting and SEO stuff really, However, in the process, i have some how messed up or forum index page in that the last post showing was months ago! So if you come direct into http://www.expression-web-designer-help.com/forum/

The forum stats show as follows……

Our users have posted 15,285 Posts in 2,582 Topics in 17 Forum(s) Last Post; Today at 3:27am By ttime27514 We have 1,742 Forum Members The Newest Forum Member is Barkcloth

However, if you come in direct to a post or via http://www.expression-web-designer-help.com/forum/default.asp the correct stats are shown – as of this post,

Our users have posted 21,223 Posts in 3,517 Topics in 21 Forum(s) Last Post; Today at 11:18pm By jimd We have 2,252 Forum Members The Newest Forum Member is Danchris

Den notified me of this before nippiong off on holiday (a well deserved one too) and has a solution – i just don’t remember what it was but upon his return i am sure he will post it.

Sorry for the inconvinience.

Regards Jim.

ASPX links not working?

An interesting post on our expression web forums asked how links in an aspx based web sites might not be working. Fortunately i had experienced the same issues with many of the aspx data driven sites i build.

One such site ,a mortgage, insurance and debt advice web site threw up exactly the same issues. For example if i wanted to view information on Cheap Car Insurance, the link would look like this

http://www.firstfinancialdirect.com/cheapcarinsurance/

the trailing slash at the end finished the link but i just happen to have a default.aspx page in the folder cheap car insurance so the link actually looks like this…

http://www.firstfinancialdirect.com/cheapcarinsurance/default.aspx

In the case of an aspx which is driven by a master page, this is an issue to be aware of. In my case my master page was in the root of the web site and i used relative links that simply pointed to default.aspx! Wrong because if you are in a folder like the examples above, the link is simply looking for default.aspx. So no problem with the link then! Well no but it was navigating to the cheap car insurance folder default.aspx page

http://www.firstfinancialdirect.com/cheapcarinsurance/default.aspx

instead of the site default (root) which looks like this…

http://www.firstfinancialdirect.com/default.aspx

In the posters case, the same thing applies except in this case, the folder did not contain a default page so hence the error message – that the default.aspx could not be found.

So the lesson to learn is DONT use relative links and if you do make sure that you use a tilde (~) in front of the relative link example:

~/default.aspx this link looks for the root default.aspx page.

I actually went a different route. I used xml to build the above site and was able to make an absolute link by appending the the site address to the file name in the hyperlinks dialogue.

Hope you find this useful.

Microsoft Security Bulletin

I try not to take up your time by posting for the sake of posting to this blog – but this is something you should be considering! Local, national and international media interest adds clout to the importance of this update. Hope its helpful. Regards JIM Abstract Please find below a level 3 critical product vulnerability alert email, the 17thDecember Microsoft Security Bulletin Release from the Microsoft CSS Security Team.

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Background What is the purpose of this alert?   This alert is to provide you with an overview of the new security bulletin being released (out-of-band) on December 17, 2008. Microsoft has released security bulletin MS08-078, Security Update for Internet Explorer (960714), to address a vulnerability in all currently supported versions of Internet Explorer . This security update was released outside of the usual monthly security bulletin release cycle in an effort to protect customers.

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Executive Summary This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way Internet Explorer validates data binding parameters and handles the error resulting in the exploitable condition. This security update also addresses the vulnerability first described in Microsoft Security Advisory 961051.

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Recommendations   Microsoft recommends customers prepare their systems and networks to apply this security bulletin immediately once released to help ensure that their computers are protected from attempted criminal attacks. For more information about security updates, visit http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

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New Security Bulletin Technical Details   Identifier MS08-078 Severity Rating This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 6 SP1,  and Internet Explorer 7. Impact of Vulnerability Remote Code Execution Detection Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer can detect whether your computer system requires this update. Affected Software Internet Explorer 5.01 (Windows 2000), Internet Explorer 6 (Windows 2000), Internet Explorer 6 SP1 (Windows XP and Windows Server 2003), and Internet Explorer 7 (Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008).  For information about Internet Explorer 8 (Beta) please see the FAQ section of the bulletin. Restart Requirement The update will require a restart only if the required files are being used.  If this occurs, a message appears that advises you to restart. Removal Information ·         For Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003: Use Add or Remove Programs tool in Control Panel or the Spuninst.exe utility ·         For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008: WUSA.exe does not support uninstall of updates. To uninstall an update installed by WUSA, click Control Panel, and then click Security. Under Windows Update, click View installed updates and select from the list of updates. Bulletins Replaced by This Update None. Full Details: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS08-078.mspx   Public Bulletin Webcast   Microsoft will host two Webcasts to address customer questions on this Out-of-Band bulletin:   Title: Information About Microsoft December Out-of-Band Security Bulletin Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 1:00 P.M. Pacific Time (U.S. & Canada) URL: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032399448&Culture=en-US  Title: Information About Microsoft December Out-of-Band Security Bulletin #2 Date: Thursday, December 18, 2008 11:00 A.M. Pacific Time (U.S. & Canada) URL: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032399449&Culture=en-US   Regarding Information Consistency   We strive to provide you with accurate information in static (this mail) and dynamic (Web-based) content. Microsoft’s security content posted to the Web is occasionally updated to reflect late-breaking information. If this results in an inconsistency between the information here and the information in Microsoft’s Web-based security content, the information in Microsoft’s Web-based security content is authoritative.   If you have any questions regarding this alert please contact your Technical Account Manager or Application Development Consultant.   Thank you,   Microsoft CSS Security Team

Expression web and asp.net controls.

I have been spending a great deal of time looking at many of the asp.net controls that ship with expression web.

File upload. Nice simple control to get images and other files upto your server.

membership control. Actually quite easy to get working if your host is supportive. However i also found a way to localise the concept where, you give the user a user name and password to gain entry to a specified protected folder/s. This is quite nice as you control who can go there.

Data views grid views and other database tools. Some will remember my xml shopping cart which is quite popular but not an easy set up. So  it though i would do the same with a gridview and an access database. Bingo, very basic but very simple shopping cart which is essentially 2 pages and a simple access database.

Outside of all this activity, i have been pushing expression web to the limits with XML – well i like xml it is so simple. But i digress, i say push its limits and that i have. A great friend and i have been building a monster 700 page xml driven web site that is near completion. The only real issue is the expression web slows to a crawl with this much data. We hope to publish in the very near future.

Everything i have written about is in my strange little head but i hope to write up some tutorials in the very near future.

Check out my expression web help forum for ongoing details.

www.expression-web-designer-help.com

Regards

 

JIM