I read an incredible post from Smashing Magazine today. It is a collection of 53 links to various CSS tips and tricks, techniques for developing different types of navigation, image mapping, table techniques, etc. It is definitely worth reading: 53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn’t Live Without.
css, smashing magazine techniquesArchive Page 2
Today I found a great post about migrating from MS Access to MS SQL Server 2005.
The tool used is called “SQL Server Migration Assistant for Access”. According to the description it “Automates database migration from Access to SQL Server 2005″.
If you want to migrate to MS SQL Server 2000 you can read my previous post “How to migrate from MS Access to MS SQL Server 2000″.
Problem
From the practice lessons I’ve learned I came to the conclusion that Access databases can be used for simple CMS (Content Management Systems).
In most cases Access is not appropriate for creating complicated business logic. The case that I’m writing is about migrating an Access database to MS SQL Server 2000. The main goal was to achieve stable and scalable application based on MS SQL Server 2000.
Research
After some research I came upon different methods for migrating to MS SQL Server 2000. Below I’ll describe in details three of them:
- By using DTS (Data Transformation Services) in SQL Server 2000
- By using additional software which is not free (SSW Upsizing Wizard Pro, MSSQL Migration Toolkit, etc.)
- By using the “Upsizing Wizard” - an MS Access utility
Now I’ll describe the pros and cons according to my experience for each of the methods:
Pros:
- All the tables are migrated successfully
Cons:
- The relations between the tables are not migrated
- The indexes are not migrated
- The views are not migrated
Use of additional software (not free)
The pros and cons here depends on the software. The tools I tried are:
- SSW Upsizing Wizard Pro - This software checks the Access database structure in depth and gives suggestions for improving the database tables. Implementing all the suggestions guarantee that Access Upsizing Wizard utility will be executed without errors.
- MSSQL Migration Toolkit - Here you can find some tools for migrating from one database to another. The cons are almost the same as for using DTS
MS Access Upsizing Wizard
Pros:
- All the tables are migrated successfully
- All the relations are migrated successfully
- All the CASCADE DELETE and CASCADE UPDATE definitions are migrated successfully
- All “default value” column definitions are migrated successfully
- All NULL column constraints are migrated successfully
Cons:
- The views are not migrated at all
- If there is a cyclic CASCADE definition between some tables, the relations between them are not migrated correctly.
Tip: Triggers can be used in MS SQL Server 2000 to create the functionality of the CASCADE definitions that cannot be migrated - Some of the indexes appear more than once so all of them must be checked and cleared
- PRIMARY KEY index must be set manually as CLUSTERED
Database structure migration
Considering the above pros and cons I decided to use the MS Access Upsizing Wizard utility and check after that which objects migrated successfully and which not.
Below are the steps that I executed after the Upsizing wizard had done its job:
- I created all the views manually
- I created some triggers because of the cyclic CASCADE definitions between two tables.
- I checked and created (where needed) manually the relations between the tables with the cyclic CASCADE definitions
- I cleared the redundant indexes
Data migration
I used simple DTS transformation of type “Copy column” for each table and each column in it.
How much time?
All of the research and migration took me about 3-4 days.
The database consisted of 30 tables and 30 views.
If you’re interested in databases and SQL you can read my previous post to find out How to refresh database views in SQL Server 2000/2005.
dts, migrate, ms access, ms sql, upsize upsizing wizardAdd scrollbar to DIV tag content
Published December 29th, 2006 in HTML, CSS and Javascript. 0 CommentsProblem: Add horizontal and/or vertical scrollbar to the content of a DIV tag
Solution: There are different ways to add a scrollbar to DIV tag content. The easiest one is to use the CSS “overflow: scroll” property. Unfortunately in this case the scrollbar looks like the standard browser one and can be styled only in IE.
The best solution I found is the one provided by Dynamic Web Coding.
It’s very easy to use and also the scrollbar can be styled as you wish. Go to Dynamic Web Coding Scroll examples to read more about this.
Do not forget to read the purchase information before using the code.
css, div scrollbarThe problem:
Recently I developed a site using DIV tags. They are floated on left or right in order to take the appropriate positions. I was very excited because the layout was perfect in IE 7, Firofox for Windows and Safari, Firefox for MAC.
Some days ago I took a look at IE 6 and I was very suprised because some of the images were moved to left in double. After some tests I realized that the “margin-left” style property I initialize is doubled in IE 6. It turned out that in-line elements adjacent to a floated div appear to be indented from their expected location.
The solution:
Add “display: inline;” to the style of the floated element which has the double margin problem.
Go and read “Floats, Margins and IE” article for more information about the problem.
css, div, double indent, double margin, doubled margin bug, float internet explorerToday I read a really cool article about creating image rollover effect using CSS and one image. This totally eliminates the usage of Javascript and OnMouseOver and OnMouseOut attributes.
Browsers supported: IE 5.5+, Firefox 1.07+, Opera 7.23+, Mozilla 1.7.12+, Netscape 6.02+, Safari 2.0+, Konqueror 3.4.3+
You can review the full artcile with example how to achieve this on Find Motive website.
button, css, image rollover, javascript, OnMouseOut OnMouseOverIf you receive this error in the error log of your project here is its description and solution.
Prerequisites: Your application must have custom login functionality based on Forms Authentication method implemented. Also built-in functionality for Roles, Users and Membership must be used.
Problem: The visible issue is that the user cannot login to the application and the following error appears in the Event Viewer (Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tool -> Event Viewer):
Error in Event Viewer:
Event code: 4006
Event message: Membership credential verification failed.
Event time: 28/08/2006 12:30:12
Event time (UTC): 28/08/2006 09:30:12
Event ID: 04b22a752da345baabe19236fb25675f
Event sequence: 2
Event occurrence: 1
Event detail code: 0
Here is the solution: The “ApplicationName” value in “aspnet_Applications” database table and the “applicationName” property value for all providers in web.config (Membership provider, Role provider, Profile provider etc.) must have the same value.
You can read more in this article.
application name, asp.net, event viewer, membership verification failedForms authentication failed for the request. Reason: The ticket supplied was invalid.
Published October 29th, 2006 in ASP.NET. 5 CommentsRecently I experienced a strange problem with custom login functionality based on Forms Authentication method. The visible issue is that sometimes I login successfully to my application, sometimes - I can’t. In all the cases the same login details are used. When I reviewed the Event Log I found the following error:
Event viewer error:
Event code: 4005
Event message: Forms authentication failed for the request. Reason: The ticket supplied was invalid.
Event time: 30/08/2006 15:43:33
Event time (UTC): 30/08/2006 12:43:33
Event ID: 8bffe75e7ff344c78fe1af8c1124e217
Event sequence: 894
Event occurrence: 388
Event detail code: 50201
Below you can find a short explanation and the solution how to prevent this behaviour.
In fact the application uses “machinekey” definition to generate the authentication cookie. If “machinekey” properties are not initialized in the web.config file, the application uses different values on the different servers. This way when you have been logged in on server X and then try to login on server Y it may happen to use the cookie from server X which is different from the one that server Y uses. Then you cannot login.
Therefore machinekey properties must be always defined for applications that are moved from server to server. Here is an example of “machinekey” definition:
You can generate it by using this .exe file: http://omar.mvps.org/pics/SecurityKey.exe
Here is how you can run it: SecurityKey.exe 24 64
You can read more about this problem and its solution in the following article: http://msmvps.com/blogs/omar/archive/2006/08/20/108307.aspx
asp.net, fail login, forms authentication, invalid ticket machine keyMaybe some of you use the following approach to create “back” links:
<a href="#" onclick="javascript:history.back();">back</a>
I used to do it this way until it turns out that this is not working under Firefox.
Fortunately I found the solution while I was reading an article posted at Code Project website. The back button there was working even in Firefox. The code used is really simple:
<a href="javascript:history.back();">back</a>
Enjoy!
back, back link, Firefox javascript
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