I recently had the need to display an XML configuration file directly in the browser window for purposes of quickly identifying issues with a particular application. I quickly realized that the XML code that is exported on a nightly basis all came out in one long line before being stored in a blob field in a mySQL database.
The demo site for 4minds is now operating at http://demo.4minds.com. You can log in with a demo client or admin account (details provided on the demo site) and try out the features of the Weboffice Portal module for Drupal.
A forum is also being developed for anyone who wants to leave feedback on the module, or if there are any questions about how it works. I'll also take feature requests and for anyone who is interested in helping make the module better, some assistance may be welcome.
Our CVS account on Drupal.org has been approved, and the Weboffice Portal module is nearing version 1.0 completion, so I expect to be uploading is fairly soon. A demo site is also being prepared for visitors to test out. The link will be provided in the entry in CVS. For now, enjoy the first snapshot of the available progress meter styles allowed for showing your customers the status of their projects.
After struggling for the last month to figure out why my signon.com account would not let me authenticate to this site and others, I finally registered with myopenid.com and got that account to work perfectly.
For those who are not familiar with OpenID, visit OpenID.Net to find out more about it. Check out my Favorite Sites section for links to other information sites about OpenID. If you are a web developer, these links will provide some examples of how to link your existing sites up to authenticate with OpenID accounts.
Last week, I spent a few days in San Francisco at the Burton Group Catalyst Conference, and I heard some new information regarding the usage of OpenID technology on the Internet. OpenID allows users of the Internet (referred to as Netizens) to manage their identity in a single location on the web, and use that identity to authenticate to multiple sites on the web, thus creating a single sign-on of sorts. I have to admit that I'm still a bit skeptical about its widespread use, but I have enabled the ability for users to authenticate to 4Minds using their OpenID identity.
Over the long memorial day weekend, someone managed to get into my Paypal account and initiate a money transfer between my account and my bank. I have to admit that I don't know how this could happen. I got the email alerts stating that a new email address had been added to my account, and another that said a funds transfer had been initiated. I decided to get in touch both by Paypal and my bank.
Unfunded initiatives. They happen everywhere from small mom and pop shops to major multinational Fortune 20 corporations. Everywhere that *I* have ever worked, I've had them, I know. If your unfunded initiative happens to be related to "Configuration Management" within the ITIL space, you just may have found a site to bookmark. As I develop it, I'll blog here on how to accomplish this staggering task. Just because you're doing it without funding, doesn't mean that you get a pass for a half-baked solution. If you're coding it, you should be able to ensure that it's as granular as you need.
I recently ran into the issue of wanting to use fonts that were on my local PC to build nice looking headers for this site. While doing the research to find out how difficult it would be to embed a font into the page for those who don't have it on their PCs, I remembered my encounters with GD while testing out an image validation script.
The image headings that you see at the top of each page were created dynamically using the GD libraries and PHP functions with the Brushstroke Plain true type font. Allow me to show you an example complete with code.
I've come to the conclusion tonight while working on a VERY old PERL sendmail script that it's very difficult to shake the old scripts that I never thought I'd have to support even again. Those scripts which started off my career in web programming seem to pop up unexpectedly with issues or changes that need to be made.
Finally the day is here. I've decided to take all of my hard work on the Drupal site for 4minds and move it live for the world to see. Being that I've spent the past 10 years or so working on scripts for the web and having to tackle all of the complexities that come with building secure sites, I was strongly attracted to Drupal at first sight.
