Strictly Software

Displaying Flash and Video content

2009-11-08T19:35:00.005Z

The various methods of outputting flash and video contentI was looking at some YouTube videos earlier and the code that they use to allow users to embed the movies into other HTML has changed. I know it changed quite a while back actually but it got me thinking about the various methods for displaying video content on the web.I am pretty sure that they used to use the old combo method which used

Possible fixes for protocol violation errors

2009-11-07T23:02:00.004Z

HttpWebRequest object returning a protocol violation errorI have just been working on my robot which is written in C# and I was trying to resolve some issues with redirects on certain pages which the bot wasn't following. The default setting for the HttpWebRequest object is to follow up to 50 redirects however you can override the default settings with the following properties:HttpWebRequest

Testing for browser event support without sniffing

2009-11-06T18:26:00.002Z

Browser Event Support by object detectionOne 0f the things I have often wondered since I really got into Javascript a few years back was whether there was a way to check for event support without resorting to browser sniffing.I had a task the other day which meant that I had to add some code to prevent a user from pasting in content into an email confirmation box. I used the onpaste event for

Debugging Regular Expressions

2009-11-02T23:09:00.002Z

Regular Expressions - A guide to debuggingRegular expressions are a powerful tool to master and a great skill to learn as a good expression can save many lines of procedural code. They can be used for many tasks and are especially great for validating user input such as form validation as well as great for cleaning content such as HTML entered from a content management system. When used with

Google Chrome Unresponsive

2009-10-25T23:46:00.003Z

Googles Chrome Browser Raising Page Unresponsive ErrorsToday I have just come across an intermittent problem with the latest version of Google Chrome 3.0.195.27 which has meant that the browser opens correctly but then freezes when trying to load any page including the homepage.I first had this problem this morning and thought it was down to a slow connection but all my other browsers worked fine

Window.Event support cross browser

2009-10-21T23:34:00.009+01:00

Accessing window.event in Chrome, Safari and OperaSomething that I found out today, which you may or may not know related to events and browser support, is that the global event object used by Internet Explorer:window.eventIs also supported in Chrome, Safari and Opera. I presumed Opera would support it as it also supports IE's event model as well as the DOM 2 model. By this I mean you can attach

Using Document onLoad instead of Window onLoad

2009-10-18T22:14:00.004+01:00

Why we should use DOMReady instead of window.onloadI know this is a topic that has been extensively covered by many developers but I thought I would give an example of a good reason to use a function that tests for the DOM to be ready to start running your JavaScript functions instead of the window.onload event to fire.JQuery users will be used to writing code like this:$(document).ready(function

Using SYNONYMs in SQL 2005

2009-10-08T12:45:00.003+01:00

Synonyms are great ways of using an alias to reference one or more tables in your database.They were implemented in SQL 2005 and designed so that you can reference one or more tables by a single name. For example say you had a category matrix that held thousands of rows of data used on a results page. Instead of recalculating the data every time the page is loaded you have a database table that

Build your own framework

2009-10-04T21:14:00.022+01:00

Creating your own frameworkLets build our own mini framework. Not to replace the many brilliant frameworks already out there but to educate ourselves in how we would go about such a task. Many of you maybe using JQuery, Prototype. YUI or MooTools but have no idea how that code actually works and looking at the source code may just put you off wanting to know. Therefore this article is going to

Writing your own framework

2009-10-04T18:20:00.002+01:00

People always ask me why I don't use one of the big frameworks like jQuery, Prototype, Mootools, YUI etc. My answer is that its not that I don't think their code is good although I have found numerous bugs or issues in all of them over time but rather that I prefer to write my own code because that way I get to understand the language and become a better coder. I don't claim to be a brilliant

Correctly measuring element dimensions

2009-10-03T02:18:00.005+01:00

Obtaining an Elements correct width and heightShould be easy shouldn't it? You could check the elements style.width and style.height property but if they haven't been set by an inline style or with Javascript this won't help. You can use the browser specific style functions to return the current value but there are big differences between IE's currentStyle and the standard getComputedStyle

Two Stage SQL Injection Attack

2009-10-01T19:50:00.004+01:00

SQL Injection in two easy stepsRecently I came across the following SQL injection exploit which I thought I would post about as it tries to deliver its payload in two steps and unless you have actually spent the time decoding the varbinary strings they use you might not realise what its doing. Its based on a very successful exploit which has been doing the rounds for a couple of years now and

The database owner SID recorded in the master database differs from the database owner SID recorded in database

2009-09-30T18:11:00.005+01:00

Problems with database ownership SID valuesI recently came across a problem which I have had a couple of times now which seems to be related to database backups in SQL Server 2005.I was carrying out a manual backup of a database on the production server which was taking a very long time. During this process I came across another problem which needed solving quickly and I couldn't wait until the

Using Lazy Function Definition

2009-09-26T18:57:00.005+01:00

Redefining functions in a good wayJavascript is a language that lets you overwrite existing objects and functions very easily. This can be a curse when it happens without you realising which is why namespaces are always a good idea when you are developing a site that makes use of numerous scripts, frameworks and add-ons. I even blogged the other day about some trouble I had when a helper function

Javascript Usage Browser Breakdown

2009-09-25T22:48:00.004+01:00

A breakdown of browser usage for users who browse with javascript disabledI was just looking at some traffic statistics from one of my largest sites and I thought I would run a report to see the breakdown of browsers for those users who visit my sites with Javascript disabled. From looking at 30,000 visitors (all identified as human and not crawlers) the breakdown of enabled versus disabled is:

SQL Injection Case unsensitive

2009-09-25T20:19:00.004+01:00

SQL Injection Hack StringsI have just had a look at some recent hack attempts on one of my large systems and I noticed that a lot of the SQL injection hack attempts are using a mixture of cases e.gdeClaRE @s vArchAR(4000);SeT @S=caSt(

Trouble with this keyword and namespaces

2009-09-20T17:32:00.012+01:00

Namespaces, duplicate functions and more IE nightmaresI was working on some code the other night which belonged to a site similar to my own in which numerous scripts and "semi frameworks" were being included. By semi framework I mean an add-on script that includes numerous functions that will almost certainly be replicated elsewhere in the site (DOM manipulation, event handlers etc).The code

Useful Bookmarks to overcome IE 8 / Firebug

2009-09-04T18:01:00.008+01:00

Two useful bookmarks to aid web developmentOver the last month I have been moaning a lot about IE 8 and Firebug and have started working without these two developer tools that have had started causing me problems such as:-Very slow load times on certain sites or pages (IE 8 dev toolbar / Firebug)-Hanging of the browser and maxing out CPU (50% on a dual core) (IE 8 / Firebug)-Errors related to

Browser Usage and other Traffic Statistics

2009-09-02T01:59:00.002+01:00

Browser Coverage and Other Visitor StatisticsA year ago I wrote an article about Browser Usage, graceful degradation and support levels for different browsers. As I was investigating Operas new browser today Opera 10 I thought it would be good to run a few reports to check out the current state of browser usage on my sites. I have posted the reports here as you may or may not find the data

Opera 10

2009-09-01T21:33:00.003+01:00

Opera 10 installationEven though Opera counts for a tiny percentage of the traffic on my main sites its still a level 1 supported browser along with IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari and therefore when new versions come out some time is spent investigating the browser and checking how our sites look and hunting down any bugs caused by new features being added or old ones being removed from the

Compression Comparison

2009-08-30T19:05:00.004+01:00

Comparing Compressor ToolsThere are many Javascript compressor tools online and they all do wonderful jobs. What makes the tool I made slightly different is that it allows you to customise a number of compression options which can aid you in getting the best compression rate possible. Whilst most tools offer a simple crunch method and maybe a pack method (changing the code to run through an eval

Firebug So So Slow

2009-08-28T17:56:00.004+01:00

Developer Toolbars Slowing Sites DownFollowing on from my whinge the other day about how IE 8.0's developer toolbar is causing pages to hang, CPU to max out (50% on dual core). I have noticed on a few sites now since upgrading to Firefox 3.5.2 and Firebug 1.4.2 that I have similar problems.I have just been to my football site www.hattrickheaven.com and was clicking some of the leagues down the

Firebug and Hightlighter.js Problem returns

2009-08-25T18:53:00.004+01:00

Code Highlighting Disabled with Firebug 1.4.2The other month I wrote an article explaining how after upgrading to Firebug 1.4.0all my code highlighting went haywire with bits disappearing all over the place. I thought I had fixed the problem as the code highlighting has been working fine in FireFox for a couple of months now but I have recently upgraded to FireFox 3.5.2 and Firebug 1.4.2 and now

Compression and Unpacking Javascript

2009-08-23T09:15:00.004+01:00

Reverse Engineering the Strictly Compressor with the Unpacker ToolI have just put up a cut down version of my own compressor tool on my website. The compressor has a number of advanced options which allow you to customise the compression process as well as take care of some very common global objects and function calls such as window and document. If you choose these options the tool will add in

Strictly Javascript Compressor

2009-08-22T23:46:00.003+01:00

Introducing yet another Javascript compressorIf you read a previous article about creating a script compressor you will know that I like to write my own code purely for sadistic reasons and mainly due to a rare form of OCD that makes me unable to stop coding until something is complete. I am sure this a rather common infliction amongst some in the coding community however it does have its