Diary of a Grunt (Jason Holden's Blog)

Copy Table Schema with SQL Server Management Studio

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:05:00 -0500

Quick way to copy the table schema using SQL Server Management Studio:

Right-Click table to copy
Script table as
CREATE To
New Query Editor Window
Find & Replace all instances of the table you are copying with the table you wish to create

NOTE: Pay attention to any Primary Key and Foreign Key indexes listed in the SQL script. They may require updating as well.

Leadership Tulsa

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:29:00 -0500

I was accepted to Leadership Tulsa Class 42 in June. It's a great program designed to develop community leaders. They are attempting to groom/prepare people for volunteering and operating programs that help or enrich the Tulsa community. Last month was "Government Day" where we heard from Tulsa's (then) mayoral candidates and learned the role local, state, and federal goverment plays in community development. This month was "Education Day" we toured several community schools in the Tulsa area and learned about the challenges facing the Tulsa area education system. Tulsa has some really great educational institutions. I always assumed that the Oklahoma public education system was broken. These schools are really taking steps to ensure that kids actually learn. The state of education is leaps and bounds above what it was five years ago. There are so many inovative programs that I wish had been available to me when I was in grade school. [More]

Stopped Again.

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:10:00 -0500

This is starting to become more and more frequent: I'm coding along, making excellent progress on a project only to be stopped dead in my tracks by yet another Coldfusion limitation. I love Coldfusion, but all the stripped down and half-assed features are starting to get in my way. [More]

Quick CF Builder Beta 2 Note.

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:24:00 -0500

I installed the standalone Beta 1, downloaded Beta 2 today and it noticed the standalone install was disabled. I uninstalled the previous version and the reinstall picked up my workspace. My guess is because it was in the default location (Vista x64 Ultimate): C:\Users\%USER%\Adobe ColdFusion Builder workspace

FCKEditor in Coldfusion

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:27:00 -0500

I began using FCKEditor long before it was included with Coldfusion. I've continued to use my own implemenation even after the release of Coldfusion 8. There was a vulnerability found in the included FCKEditor: http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb09-09.html I applied the patch to my server and it also broke my own FCKEditor instance. I received "403 Access Denied" errors when using the FCKEditor file browser. After much time and effort the solution is pretty simple: Add this to your JVM args in jvm.config: -Dcoldfusion.fckupload=true ***CAREFUL about copying an pasting the text above. Hidden carriage returns will cause CF to fail on startup.*** Even if you are not using the Coldfusion FCKEditor you still need to enable FCKEditor uploads. The updated JAR must have a built-in request filter for "filemanager".

Digsby

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:23:00 -0500

I'm officially a Digsby fan: http://www.digsby.com This little piece of FREE software is exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a single piece of software that I could use to manage all my social networking, IMs, etc. Digsby fills that role and more. Chatting with your Facebook friend is as easy as chatting with a GMail contact. All in one interface. Additionally, Digsby provides a chat widget (right side of this website) that allows visitors to chat with you in real-time right from your own website! I've been wanting this for a long time and was contemplating writing something myself. Now I can have my cake and eat it too!

Coldfusion 8 and 9 on Windows Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, and Windows 7 (x86 and x64)

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:37:00 -0500

I wrote index.cfm/2008/5/6/Coldfusion-8-on-Windows-server-2008?force=true">a blog entry over a year ago discussing how to install Coldfusion on Windows 2008. With the imminent release of Windows 7 and several user comments I decided to update the instructions for myself and anyone else who finds it useful. I've installed Coldfusion 8 and 9 on most versions of Windows. I used the default setup options. To make the Coldfusion install as painless as possible you need to take a few pre-installation steps. [More]

Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo) Won't Start / Splash Screen Crashes

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:39:00 -0500

I ran across an interesting problem using Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo). After an unexpected crash caused by an unrelated program, I was forced to reboot my computer. After the reboot I could not get Eclipse to start. The splash screen was visible and then it would disappear. Eclipse was not in the Task Manager. It simply didn't start. [More]

Loading/Waiting images.

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:28:00 -0500

Since I've been creating Web 2.0 interfaces I always need some kind of graphic to indicate that I'm waiting on a response. Usually I just use Google Image search, but today I found this cool site: http://ajaxload.info Will make customizable graphics for your Web 2.0 applications.

Eclipse CSS Editor

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:31:00 -0500

Started searching around for a good CSS editor plugin for Eclipse. I've used Aptana in the past, but was very disappointed. Mostly due to Aptana's intrusive takeover of my Eclipse IDE. I wanted something simple that provided some code highlighting. Enter Project Amateras. An Eclipse based HTML editor. Has all the usual charactaristics of a good code editor:

HTML/CSS/Javascript code assist
Code highlighting
Code folding

Very nice and FREE plugin.

SQL Server 2008 Active Connections

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:29:00 -0500

Went digging around for ways to view the active connections in Microsoft SQL 2008. To my surprise Microsoft moved the Activity Monitor. Apparently they did this way back in SQL 2005. I skipped 2005 so I missed that. To view the open connection:

Open Management Studio.
On the standard toolbar is a little graph icon. That is the Activity Monitor (CTRL + ALT + A).
Click on Processes

Simple as that!

Flash Builder / Flex 4 and Flash vars.

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:24:00 -0500

I don't know if this has changed since Flex 3, but I couldn't find any information about how to access Flash vars from within a Flex 4 application. Since the beta was only recently released it's no surprise that documentation is lacking. One thing that I couldn't find was how to access flash vars passed via HTML from within a Flex 4 application. In Flex 3 I used this:

[Bindable]
protected var someparam:String;

protected function applicationCompleteHandler(event:FlexEvent):void {
     this.someparam = Applcation.application.parameters.someparam;
}

In Flex 4 it's a little more intuitive, but not documented (at least not where I could find it). In Flex 4 do this to grab the flash vars:

[Bindable]
protected var someparam:String;

protected function applicationCompleteHandler(event:FlexEvent):void {
     this.someparam = this.parameters.someparam;
}

Pretty simple, but elusive.

Neat USER-AGENT parser.

Sun, 10 May 2009 20:33:00 -0500

I was trying to decipher a user agent setting and stumbled across this handy website: http://www.useragentstring.com Give it a browsers USER-AGENT string and it will parse it and give you some helpful information.

Internet Explorer 8 Impressions.

Sat, 02 May 2009 19:32:00 -0500

I've been using IE8 since it's official release. Microsoft recently started pushing it as a recommended update. For me the most compelling reason to upgrade is the new interactive Javascript debugger, included in the Developer Toolbar. Anyone who is doing web development understands just how difficult it can be to debug javascript code. A debugger makes it so much easier. Think Firebug for Internet Explorer. IE8 includes the Developer Toolbar by default, which can be activated by pressing F12. The new tools inlude the usual DOM and CSS explorers as well as the new debugger. The debugger interface is pretty straighforward and should be easily accessible to anyone who has used an interactive debugger. [More]

A Very Inspiring Day

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:32:00 -0500

Today was very inspiring! I just hope our new leader is as great as he seems. Time will tell and I wish him the very best.