Blog Entry: 3/25/2006 2:44:05 PM
Not really sure how to do this.... i think you know what i am looking to do.. is there anyway you can show me or create that solution for me? It would prob. take you minutes as its been taking me hours  , This post unfortutely needs to be here because this application has been the biggest pain in the neck for me you could possibly imagine. This is not because of problems with the application, but because of people's general lack of knowlegde regarding ASP.NET. This post totally voices my stance on what sort of knowledge you need to have and also the fact that I am not going to support anything but general installation on a correctly and professionaly set up live server.
ASPProtect.NET is a great application but using ASP.NET requires a lot more basic knowledge than using classic ASP and there are a lot of basic low level ASP.NET things that need to be set up correctly for an application like ASPProtect.NET to run. These are things I do not cover because you should know the ASP.NET basics when using an application as complex as this. It's just that I don't have time to nor should I have to teach people the basics of ASP.NET. I don't charge nearly enough for ASPProtect.NET to offer that kind of support.
So, I will say it one more time. ASPProtect.NET is targeted towards experienced Visual Studio.NET developers that know how to work with Code Behind VB.NET and are familiar with basic ASP concepts such as IIS application settings, the .NET framework, the aspnet_client folder, and the basics of the web.config file. If you are using ASP.NET for whatever reason you need to know about these things. The best way is to get some good books and do set up ASP.NET on a local development machine so you can start learning.
If you are one of the ASP.NET challenged let me say this as well.
Stick with Classic ASP. ASP.NET is a step in the wrong direction for the average user which I like to refer to as "Joe Coder". Classic ASP is very powerful and easy to pick up. ASP.NET is not easy to pick up and never will be for a lot of people. In my opinion it’s actually the wrong technology to use for anyone other than big corporations who need extreme scalability in their applications or for the hobbyist or object oriented programmer who just wants to use the latest and greatest. Ask yourself if you really want to deal with compiling Code Behind code each time you make changes to your web site as opposed to just editing some files in notepad real quick like you can do with classic ASP ? Do you have the money to purchase and use Visual Studio.NET or are you going to struggle with compiling all your ASP.NET pages using a command line compiler and a batch file ? Yes, you can build ASP.NET code that isn't code behind but why even bother if that is the case because your missing the point of ASP.NET if you do that and missing out on a lot of powerful new features and concepts.
When I do custom projects for bigger clients I usually end up using ASP.NET because they want to go that way and understand the time and money involved. When I do any of my own projects I use Classic ASP because the truth is you can still make some rockin busy scalable web sites with Classic ASP just like you can still make great web sites with CGI, PP, Cold Fusion.. etc etc. Look around the web because a lot of the biggest sites out there still use those scripting technologies and their stuff runs very well. ASP.NET is a lot of hype and although some things about it are plain awesome it is an environment best suited for real object oriented programmers, not the weekend code warriors.
The other thing to keep in mind about classic ASP is the shear abundance of applications and scripts available for it. ASP.NET can be expensive for that reason alone as there still is a shortage of good time tested applications out there and what is out there is always priced a lot higher.
In addition to that half of the ASP.NET applications out there are just half baked poorly converted versions of their Classic ASP counterparts. Is that the kind of thing you want to sink twice the money into or would you rather have something that runs well and has been tweaked year after year into a rock solid product?
To make things worse a lot of the hosting companies out there offering ASP.NET hosting are severely limiting the basic abilities of ASP.NET because of various security concerns. This means if you go with a Host that does that 75% of the asp.net stuff out there won't run on the hosted server. Isn't that wonderful ?
Now, Let's make things even worse. So far every time Microsoft has released a new version of ASP.NET a lot of things from the previous version have stopped working and needed to be modified to work correctly. Is that really something you will have the time, resources, and energy to deal with.
You may ask "but is classic ASP going to be around 5 years from now?" Though you never really know until the new version of windows server ships I say "Hell Yes" it will be. According to my sources at Port80 Software who work very closely with the folks at Microsoft (as well as many other sources out there) it will almost certainly be in Longhorn which is the next version of Windows Server. Longhorn probably won't come out until 2007 and will be popular for 3-4 years after that. The version of windows server after that will most likely support Classic ASP as well and if it doesn't I am sure there will be a way to make ASP run on it. If you really look around a lot of hosting companies are still running Windows Server 2000 which is 5 years old at the moment. The bottom line is Classic ASP helped put Microsoft web technologies on the map. Microsoft can not simply drop it because if they do they give up a dominate market share to the scripting competition being PHP, CGI, Cold Fusion.. etc etc PHP for instance a huge installed base on many platforms which are essentially free. ASP.NET can not compete with that in any way and not supporting Classic ASP would put microsoft in a bad position.
Take it from me. If you are a weekend code warrior/script kiddie. You'll be a lot happier sticking with classic ASP. You will also have save a lot of money and you can still have great web sites. There are tons of great applications out there in ASP and ASP still is and always will be the easiest scripting language to work with and learn. Better yet look around on sites like www.4guysfromrolla.com and see if you actually understand any of the latest articles. If it looks like Greek to you that is yet another sign that you should stick to classic ASP.
Personally, I will be focusing just as much time and effort on ASP.NET as I will on Classic ASP in the years to come for a few reasons.
- Because I sell software I obviously need to convert/re-write most of my appIications to work with ASP.NET. My living may eventually depend on it.
- Because I love using the latest technologies I want to continue to develop using ASP.NET.
- Because I do many custom projects for various clients using ASP.NET is a must.
- Because in some cases using ASP.NET over classic ASP makes total sense.
Just don't fall for the HYPE folks. I am one of the few established developers out there that has a set of Balls and is willing to put the truth out there and see past the bullsh*t. If you go ASP.NET do it because you seriosuly think you need the power and scalabilty and money and time is not an issue or because you are a hobbiest and object oriented programmer who likes working with and has time to work with the latest and greatest web scripting technolgies out there. I truly believe that so far ASP.NET is as much a success as it is a failure. I am sure some of you out there know what I mean by that.
All this being said you should also realize that ASPProtect.NET is a little different than your average ASP.NET application because it uses a lot of advanced ASP.NET techniques and you essentially use it to password protect your existing scripts meaning you need to integrate your stuff with our stuff in a sense. If you just go buy some random ASP.NET application like a classifieds system or storefront it is probably just going to run on it's own an therefore will be a lot easier to set up and deal with.
Here are some links you folks should read as well.
http://rtfm.atrax.co.uk/infinitemonkeys/articles/asp/905.asp
http://www.itnewsgroups.net/group/microsoft.public.inetserve r.asp.general/topic2074.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;%5Bln%5D;L ifeWin
Chris Willians
http://www.cjwsoft.com/about.asp ,
This relates to a part of the new documentation that wasn't ready yet.
I just made a thread about it though.
Here you go.
http://support.cjwsoft.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=198& ; ;PN=1&TPN=1 cwilliams38419.5353587963, Am very interesting in purchasing ASPProtect, but am curious as to whether anyone has had success/failure with Network Solutions "standard windows hosting" solution? Thought I would ask just in case someone has had recent experience. thx, , If you can would you do it for a price as a mod or will this be added to the new version. , Has this been resolved ?, Yes, that was it! I had not created the banner for that zone yet. Once I did it came up fine. Do I win the Bonehead of the Year award?
I am just implementing the product, and I deleted the included zones instead of renaming them. That is why it is up to 6. I am migrating banners from my current system before I implement the code onto my pages.
If I may, I'd like to ask another question. I use rotation on all pages of my site except for the home page, where the banners are all smaller and static - an advertiser can expect their banner to always be in the same spot on the page.
I am currently hard coding this via html, but then I do not have the ability to collect stats on home page banner clicks, so I want to use ASPBanner. My question is, can I do this without creating a seperate zone for each banner? In other words, is there a way to modify the html code (that works just fine) so that in addition to indicating the zone, it can indicate the specific banner I want to appear? I would then paste the code in each cell of the table, and alter the banner #. If I do this with just the zone, I expect that the page will randomize the position of each banner across the page. You can see what I'm talking about by clicking here: http://www.PoconoCommuter.com/
Thanks for your help! , I post new ads , can view it in admin area
but when go to first page no ads show
all categories show (0)
How solve this problem ?
PS: I set default auto approved ads ,
IMPORTANT UPDATE - READ THIS
http://support.cjwsoft.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=205& ;PN=1
The IPN Support Pack which is built in to ASPProtect 7 contains all the pre-built scripts you need to implement PayPal IPN with ASPProtect. IPN stands for (Instant Payment Notification). It allows you to set up scripts on your server so whenever a PayPal web accept order is processed the PayPal server sends info to your server regarding the transaction and vice versa. This is a fully automated process and allows you to charge users for access by the month or however long you like.
This Support Pack basically gives you an additional signup and registration directory "paypal_signup" and it should not interfere with any changes or customizations you have made to your ASPProtect setup in general. New users can register in this directory and pay for membership at the same time. Existing users whether active or expired can be sent to this directory where they can lookup their account and buy additional membership time online. You can also assign various Access and Group Levels during signup and you can set up various prices for various amounts of time as well. This is a real-time setup for the most part. As soon as a user pays via PayPal your system is updated and they will have access.
To use this all you need to do in ASPProtect 7 is enter your PayPal account name into the settings screen. It will be an email address. You'll need a business or premier account with PayPal and you will need log into your PayPal account and turn on IPN in you profile. They make you enter a default IPN URL. We do not use that so if you already have something there leave it there. If you dont have something there you can type in any the full url to any page on your server. It's probably best to send it to an empty ".asp" page or something.
Changing Payment Options
In the "paypal1.asp" file there are form options set up.
They look like this and you can have as many as you like.
<option selected value="30,9.95,3,">30 Days, 9.95</option>
In this option... A user has the option to purchase 30 days for $9.95 and he will be set to Access Level 3 when payment in completed.
Here is how it works.
The value setting (red) is essentially and array that can be made up 4 elements separated by comma's
They must be separated by a comma and there can be no spaces. In this example the 4th value was not used but the last comma must still be there. If you didn't want to set an access level and left out the "3" there would 2 commas at the end. etc etc
Basically there must always be 3 commas but you only have to set the 1st 2 values which are days and price.
days,price,access level,groups
The 1st value is the amount of days.
The 2nd value is the price for the amount of days.
The 3rd value is the access level you want to user assigned to.
The 4th option is the groups you want the user assigned to. (see PayPal subscription thread for examples of specifying group info)
Now, the label for the option in (blue) can say whatever you like. cwilliams38421.7143981481, SQL Database Creation (NEW INSTALL)
If you are creating a new database do so using SQL enterprise manager.
Create a new database called whatever you like and keep all the default settings. If using an existing sql database skip that step.
Now open up SQL Query Analyzer
unzip the following sql script and open it in query analyser.
2005-02-20_132116_aspprotect_v7_sql_script.zip
VERY IMPORTANT
On the drop down box at the top right make sure your intended database is selected. Otherwise your changes may effect the wrong database in your SQL server.
Then load the script into the Query Analyzer. Click the green play button at the top. If everything goes well the response should read something like this.
******************************************************
(1 row(s) affected)
******************************************************
If so the tables have been created in your existing database.
Now make sure an existing or new SQL user has (public / datareader / datawriter) permissions for the new tables. You will be referencing this user in the asp code connection string so this user must be set up correctly. You may need your SQL server admins or hosting company to help you on this step as you may not have access to do this. You may not need to create a user and set permissions as the sql user you were logged in as to use query analyzer may by default get the correct permissions on anything you create.
Regardless, as you can see from this screenshot I made a SQL user called "aspprotectuser" and proceeded to set the permissions for that user. Under database access giving him (public,datareader, and datewriter permissions).
Now, in the ASP files provided with ASPProtect edit "dataconn_inc.asp" with a text editor and modify the connection string info. Be sure to change the info to match your server,username, and password.
Below is an example of valid connection string.
ConnectionString = "Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=poseidon;Initial Catalog=aspprotect;User Id=aspprotectuser;Password=temp;"
The "Data Source" setting is either the Network Name for the SQL Server or the IP Address. For local servers you can sometimes use an IP of "127.0.0.1" or the name of the local server.
"Initial Catalog" is the name of your database.
Now, in the ASP files provided with ASPProtect edit "dataconn_inc.asp" with a text editor and set the DatabaseType variable to SQL like so.
DatabaseType = "SQL" cwilliams38403.6834953704, When I add a user, I can not activat it.
It sends me back to log on and will now allow me to log in as admin???
I can restart the APP and log in as Admin, but the user I added
is still not activated??
My system will also not allow me to set the Stay Loged in FLag.
It just ignores it....
, ya,
any variation of a site url is going to have its own set of application and session variables.. soy you have to be consistant with your navigation links
example (for anyone that comes across this thread)
http://www.examplesite.com/somepage.asp
is going to have a different set of application and session variables then
http://examplesite.com/somepage.asp
even though they are basically the same page , It appears there was a flag problem. When reading it into SQL Server, it converted the True/False in Access to 1/0 in SQL Server.
, Not a problem. Have a good time at your wedding.
thanks! , probably.. better than what we are accomplishing here LOL
or if you like send me the import file and your encrpytion key and I will try it out here and see what happens
either way PM me any sensitive info if any
, Message :
I purchased the V8 of the software yesterday. It is running on a 2000 Server with a MSSQL database. It is installed and I get the successful connection to database screen but when I click to enter the admin. console I continually get:
"Connection string not saved in (data/config/aspbanner_unlimited_config.asp) file.
Most likey the data folder does not have proper permissions set on it.
That folder and all of the folders within it need (R,W,X,D) Permissions set for the anonymous webserver account.
These permissions can generally only be set by your hosting company."
I can save the string manually by hitting the button and I have checked that I have granted the proper access permissions. Any suggestions?
Ken, thats actually just the xml parser component barfing out on you.. it can't handle the load of being called so much on that server
you might want to try some of the other methods of calling banners, check the connection string in the dataconn_inc.asp file. If using MSAccess it will show the location. If using SQL Server it will show the SQL Server details in which case there is no physical database file., Humm, I can see all those pages loading just fine at both domains so you got me pretty confused at this point as you just said they didnt load.
regardless, the data connection tests are failing with both of them.
so let me ask you again how are you setting permissions on the database folders? , These are 4 valid examples of calling a flash movie.
The more simple examples may cause problems for people that don't have the flash plugin installed. I really do not know as I am no flash expert. All these work fine for me. Of course I have the latest flash plugin installed. Perhaps some of you can shed some light in this. The 3rd and 4rth examples are obviously only slightly different and mention different versions of flash as far as downloading the plugin goes.
<EMBED src=" http://www.aspbanner.com/test/aspbanner/images/banners/power asp.swf" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="60">
<object width="120" height="22">
<param name="movie" value=" http://www.aspbanner.com/test/aspbanner/images/banners/power asp.swf">
<embed src=" http://www.aspbanner.com/test/aspbanner/images/banners/power asp.swf" width="468" height="60">
</embed>
</object>
<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase=" http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swfl ash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"WIDTH="468 " HEIGHT="60" id="myMovieName">
<PARAM NAME=movie VALUE=" http://www.aspbanner.com/test/aspbanner/images/banners/power asp.swf">
<PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high>
<PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF>
<EMBED src=" http://www.aspbanner.com/test/aspbanner/images/banners/power asp.swf" quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="60" NAME="mybannername" ALIGN="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>
<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase=" http://active.macromedia.com/flash2/cabs/swflash.cab#version =4,0,0,0" ID=banner WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="60">
<PARAM NAME=movie VALUE=" http://www.aspbanner.com/test/aspbanner/images/banners/power asp.swf">
<PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high>
<PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF>
<embed src=" http://www.aspbanner.com/test/aspbanner/images/banners/power asp.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#3CBDCD" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="60" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE=" http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Pr od_Version=ShockwaveFlash">
</OBJECT> cwilliams38089.6129513889, This is great FREE SQL Server Web Data Administrator App from Microsoft..
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=C03 9A798-C57A-419E-ACBC-2A332CB7F959&displaylang=en
It is an ASP.NET web application that you install locally on your development server and then use to connect to a SQL database whether remote or local.
It can do nearly everything enterprise manager can do.
I have tested it and it works great for me. cwilliams38325.7453587963, I just installed the software, but I can't find any place where I can see when users logged in, can someone please tell me where I can do this?
Thanks , let's try this... edit that page with a text editor like notepad...
Carefully replace any instance of "Cint" with "CDbl".. I may have missed some of those when testing the last time I edited the code. , No can do. In both cases there is an icon that says "Not uploaded". I click in it and nothing happens. There is no link to upload. Am I missing something?
By the way, I appreciate and am impressed with your rapid response. Thanks.
, To finalize this thread.. a target was added to the form by the customer by accident thus causing the situation, I noticed that is grabbing the wrong URL for some reason. Even when i mouse over the URL its somehow getting the users sub directory. How.. i dont know... when i erase that users in the url it works perfectly.
I am looking at the code in the .vb file and i dont see anything that could be causing it to do that... but then again i am no programmer LOL
Its obviously kicking in that users subdirectory somehow... what are your thoughts? , Just checked XML Parsing with your file. Got a clean bill of health on that: It's working.
Got the right code for the location of the ipn.asp in my paypal1.asp, from http:// all the way to .asp.
I think since everything is set up properly from the looks of things,
I'll wait and see. If I get another one who flubs things, then I'll
start the testing of the account. But if it goes through just fine,
then maybe the Internet just hiccoughed on the first guy... thanks
again!
, it's ok
one step at a time and at each step testing things.. then when you mess something up you can figure it out a lot easier cwilliams38456.1106018519, Then you should have current enough code.
If you PM me the encryption key you are using and the plain text password for this user I can see if I can reproduce the error and come up with a fix.
I believe you found one of the rare examples where the encryption creates a strange character that messes up things. Sometimes those characters are not even visable.
Changing the password should solve the problem in the meantime., Unfortunatley, I dont have an easy answer for you. It is certainly doable but adjusting the code so people assigned to certain groups get specific expiration dates means a lot of code work and time. It would probably even take me a long time to figure out.
The fact that users can belong to more than one group also greatly complicats the whole idea.
You can certainly assign an expiration level when someone signs up. That is easy and explained in the forums. , I am having problems with a password a user wants to use. He wants HANNAH. When he (or I) try to log in with his username and password, I get a syntax error -
Syntax error in string in query expression '(Username = 'changedforsecurity') AND (Password = ' éG'.
pathOnComputer../1protect/check_user_inc.asp, line 114
I've obviously changed the username and the server path in the info above for security.
I have not messed with the encryption.
What is it that the system doesn't like in the word HANNAH as a password? I would just change his password for him but this guy has enough trouble just turning the computer on! Confusing him with a new password would take weeks to set him straight.
Thanks,
Mick
, Thanks, I know, I have it all figured out and have thought about it before. Just no time yet to do it. It will probably be an add-on/mod when I get time. , That is by design and how it is designed to function.
There is no easy way to do what you are asking about.
Can it be done ?, sure!!
But it is a lot of custom coding to sort it all out and not something we support.
If I were you I would simply edit the login box screen to show some hyperlinks and options should a person need to use them. , ok, that does not work but that still is not enough to help me troubleshoot.
I'll probably need to look around in your admin area and check things out in order to figure anything out.
I will also need to see the protection code you put on that page exactly as it appears.
PM (private message) the admin usersname/password to me if that is ok with you and I will check it out
it's really the only way I can help with an issue like this. I have to make sure you didn't do something wrong and then go from there , rrabago
I have been looking over the code and also doing some tests.
So far everything in the code looks correct and everything I have tried has worked correctly. If I select an access level and active users it is not sending emails to inactive users as you stated.
Are you using the option pack ? cwilliams38103.9618402778, Hello,
for an admin..
you view albums for a user.. make a new album... then click manage pictures
for a regular user you log in.. go to user user area.. create an album..then click on manage your albums , Sorry, not really.. not without a lot of changes to the code.
the recent activity info recycles.. it is not meant to be day by day
My suggestion there would be to look at both the log files and the user activty screens...
, I really need more information..
SQL or Access database ?
If Access are you using the newest version of the .mdb file
Is this a new item ?
Show me your connection string ?
perhaps the url to the site as well so I can look around?
things like that that will help me troubleshoot.
If any info is sensative send me a PM..
,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I will consider editing the code. , Just as an FYI, I found the problem. FP2003 has an "Optimize" feature that removes so called not needed spaces and comments from the pages. It also completely screws up .ASP code.
I turned off the optimization feature and all the pages I was having problems with worked. However, I would still recommend not using it too! ,
Timecard Entry: 3/25/2006 2:44:05 PM
PREPARATION FOR AMY'S MEETING WITH BRESEE FINISHING DETAILS, Meet with Tim Badour, Howard Bastedo & Paul Barton, Emerald, test Grindstone Island setup in the lab, WHOOHOO lunch!!!!, taco bell and ice cream! i'll regret it later, but damn it was tasty, Donation to a local auction for leukemia- 6 months free access, business cards for Jeff, Keep up with what is going on in the office. techs, follow up with other phone calls, etc., sick time, Travel between offices (10 miles), Lunch, E-Mail, Voice-Mail, Etc., email, voicemail, call backs , Cash flow reports for Gisco & USA1Net; changes to Excel format, sorted the mail, did radlog calls, worked on Deferiet inventory admin/database (deferietpaper.com, programming, billable), Setting up office and other software on my computer. Monitoring and maintinence software., PO with Ed and going over bills he had still, continue relocation of ICI PVC from Watertown to Syracuse
, Working on getting a soft auto and soft vendor up and running for Applied Theory to have as a demo, E-Mail, Voice-Mail, Packup, Leave, petty cash and the copier, Meeting with Nic, sales and marketing group, Channel Banks, **Agency Ideas - still trying to figure out the add user part, check and reply to e-mail, Receiving - NOC, customer service, receipts, receipts, sign ups., entered payroll into QB,
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