May 2006 - Posts

31 May 2006
CS Tidbits #11: Add Code Highlighting Capabilities
Today’s tidbit is aimed towards site admins who run websites geared towards programmers. Programmers are a finicky bunch, and most of us would rather look at code that is color coded similar to what we would see in Visual Studio as it just makes for…well, better readability. About a month ago, a new wrapper was released for the FreeTextBox editor that ships with Community Server that provides this functionality and supports color coding for the following languages: C# VB.Net CSS HTML Asp.Net Xml Sql JavaScript (use the C# option) This is the same wrapper that is used over on forums.asp.net and is quite useful. Installation is painless (simply copy a couple of files to your website) and requires no configuration file entries, unless you want to make this editor the default for your site in which case you need to do the following: To specify this editor as your site default editor, set the textEditorType in the communityserver.config file to: textEditorType = "Telligent.FreeTextBoxWithCodeEditor... Read More...
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30 May 2006
Dead Sea Scrolls -- A Must See
The Dead Sea Scrolls (well, portions of them) have been in Charlotte over the past couple of months…so I went and saw them yesterday (courtesy of TLC). All I can say is “wow”…first off I was surprised at how small the actual pieces are, secondly I was surprised at how small the writing on the scrolls themselves is, and thirdly how well they’ve been preserved. Simply amazing. If they ever make it to a town near you, I highly recommend having a look. Read More...
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30 May 2006
CS Tidbits #10: Troubleshooting Assembly Binding Failures
This is probably the number 1 source of headaches for new Community Server installations, a runtime exception stating something similar to “Couldn’t load <foo> assembly” or whatnot. Folks new to .Net, or system administrators who may not be intricately familiar with the bevy of tools that ship with the .Net framework don’t realize that the framework ships with a GUI tool that can aid in diagnosing why CS can’t load a specific assembly: The Assembly Binding Log Viewer (NOTE: the article states that you need to run this from a command line…it’s actually the .Net Command Prompt that you need to execute fuslogvw.exe from). I’ll let the article speak for itself, but this tool is invaluable for figuring out issues with assembly load failures. Read More...
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28 May 2006
Why Is It That...
…at most outdoor street events (in the US at least) the drink/food combination is a recipe for disaster? You have your choice of cheap beers, and more greasy food than you could ever possibly hope to consume…cheap beer and grease do not mix, as I found out last night. Three Budweisers + 1 polish sausage hoagie (complete with what looked like they used to be peppers/onions in a previous life) = Jayson throwing up on the walk home. It was definitely the hoagie’s fault. At least I got to see Gin Blossoms …brought back a lot of high school memories. And I ran into my old buddy Adam who just happens to work at a new upscale boutique that recently opened here in Charlotte (any Charlotteans who read this blog know that we’ve lost almost all of our boutiques and have been resigned to shopping at the mall…bleh)…well, a new location at least, much closer to where I live. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some shopping to do. Read More...
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27 May 2006
CS Tidbits #9: Display Full Posts On The Aggregate And Roller
Today’s Community Server tidbit is an easy one…in that it’s very easy to overlook as it isn’t documented anywhere. A common request is “how do I display full blog posts on the aggregate pages and/or my roller page.” By default, CS limits the amount of characters on the aggregate to 250 letters, and the roller truncates at 500. Also, all HTML is stripped out, so you basically just have an excerpt with a “read more” link…some folks want to limit the number of clicks it takes to get to content, so it’s a valid request. To enable full posts along with all HTML on the aggregate/roller pages, simply do the following: For the aggregate pages, navigate to <root>/controlpanel/BlogAdmin/Options/SkinOptions.aspx and set Aggregate Post Excerpt Size to 0. For the roller page, navigate to <root>/ControlPanel/Reader/Settings.aspx and set Truncation Length to 0. Full posts (along with all HTML) will now be displayed on the aggregate... Read More...
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24 May 2006
Rednecks Converge On Charlotte
Well it’s that time of year again…the one weekend where every redneck (wow, there’s a Wiki on rednecks???) willing to shell out enough money to A) travel to Charlotte and B) buy a ticket for the Coca-Cola 600 converges on downtown Charlotte for an event affectionately called Speed Street . There are a few good things about Speed Street: The people watching is absolutely wonderful…more mullets than you can shake a stick at. They sell both kinds of beer…Budweiser and Bud Light. Yum. Did I mention the people watching? It brings in a shitload of money to Charlotte…500,000 ‘necks who want to spend money (though of course I get no personal benefit from this other than knowing that rednecks love Charlotte…it is is the birthplace of NASCAR in case you didn’t know). It’s free to attend, and invariably at least one somewhat decent band shows up. It’s free to attend, and invariably at least a dozen or so rednecks end up making... Read More...
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24 May 2006
Thus Begins Another Year
As is commonplace amongst bloggers, for some reason I feel the need to announce my birthday. Today begins my 29th trip around the sun (for those who are mathematically challenged, that means I’m now 28). The past year has been a crazy one…regular readers will know that it’s all kind of denouement’d into a giant…hmm, what’s the word…well somewhat of a mess. But it’s looking to be a controllable mess, and I think one way or another it’s gonna be all good. Would love to post details but I just haven’t decided exactly how much to share yet. Regardless, I think number 28 will be a good one. I certainly hope so. No parties this year, just a quiet dinner with my family. Which is fine by me. Read More...
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23 May 2006
CS Tidbits #8: A Couple Of CS User Tips
I’ve seen this pop up on the CS.org forums on more than one occasion so I thought I’d mention them in this edition of CS Tidbits (another two for Tuesday deal): How do I restrict my CS site to only registered users? How do I redirect users to their profile page after they register so they can update their preferences (by default, CS redirects back to the page the user last visited before registering)? Both of these can be accomplished by simple edits to your configuration files, and some site admins may not be familiar with the locations to do this. The first bullet can be accomplished in your Web.Config file by first commenting out all of the <location> elements, and then adding the following directly under the closing </authorization> element: <authorization> <deny users="?" /> </authorization> Also you will need to add the following <location> element so that anonymous users can register for a new account: <location path="CreateUser... Read More...
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20 May 2006
Weblogs.Asp.Net Being Upgraded to Community Server
[update] looks like they pushed the date back to today. [/update] It looks like the kind folks over at Telligent are upgrading weblogs.asp.net to Community Server over the weekend. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that it’ll be CS2.1, which is pretty cool. The bloggers over there have been pretty vocal in recent months about getting upgraded (or the lack thereof) so hopefully this will appease them a bit. The other good news is that they’ll be taking new registrations for bloggers as well. The bad news is that the attrition rate over there has been pretty dramatic, enough so that it’s not even a daily read for me anymore…I really hope things will pick up over there after the migration. And I really can’t wait to see if Telligent is going with a theme that’s similar to the existing one, or if they wrote something completely baddass and awesome. Guess we’ll know at 11pm EDT. Read More...
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19 May 2006
Well That's A Bummer
I’ve lived in my current apartment for two and a half years. I love it…it’s absolutely perfect for me. 780 square feet of goodness located smack dab in the middle of downtown Charlotte. Awesome view, can walk pretty much anywhere I need to get to, etc. Unfortunately the building was bought by a mega-conglomerate a while back (and they absolutely suck by the way), so I knew it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened: They have informed me that my rent will be going up almost 40% come July 1st. There is absolutely no way I’m going to pay that much for an apartment…I could find something cheaper in Manhattan if I had to. So, it looks like I’ll be moving. Again. I hate moving. The dog hates moving. My stuff hates moving. *sigh* Read More...
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