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Old Site History
May 2nd, 2003
Added My CV
- Just minor changes this time, added a link to my CV and a few minor redesigns
of some pages.
May 1st, 2003
Added Stored Procedures section
- Added a Procedure section to SQL. Presently contains a stored procedure template with controlled
transaction handling
April 28th, 2003
Powerbuilder Components Update
- Updated the datatype conversion objects, it is now a complete solution and
can now be used with minimal code.
- All the Powerbuilder objects can now be downloaded in a single PBL, so
you don't have to import the objects individually.
April 26th, 2003
Finished "proper" links
- Main thing changed is that now all internal links (hopefully) use the standard
directory structure, rather than parameter passing. External links and downloads
still use the old parameter method, and will continue to do so. For external
links it is a security feature, so that session information cannot be
referred to other sites. For downloads it is primarily so that the number of downloads
can be counted.
April 24th, 2003
Site changed massively, but you proably wouldn't notice!
- Overhauled the directory structure, link pages are no longer read through a single
control page (although mainpage still works if you have it bookmarked).
For those interested in this kind of thing originally there was a single page called
mainpage which took parameters to tell it what to display, this allowed the whole
site to be controlled through a single page, thereby keeping a consistent layout and
allowing things to be changed very quickly for the whole site.
All fine and dandy, but web spiders (the servers that index webpages) consider this
to be a single page and ignore all links! This effectively means that my page
does not appear in search engines, so I've had to redesign the site a little. I now
use stub pages (for want of a better description), which include the mainpage code
to keep consistency and effectively calls the original functionality direct. Gives
me a tiny bit extra work, but means that each page is different and so gets spidered.
As a by product it also makes the URLs a bit nicer! Hopefully I haven't messed up
to much during this process, but if you notice any broken links please let me know and
I'll be very grateful.
Also note I haven't quite finished this yet, all the links in the content section of the
site link via the original mainpage, I'm trying to avoid hitting the database
constantly, so I need to rethink the linking mechanism I'm using for the
pages themselves.
- Again, minor changes to the layout, primarily the way the links are displayed.
- Still planning to release the PB stuff towards the end of this week / beginning of next.
April 22nd, 2003
More PB Tips
- Added a few more powerbuilder tips. One checks that an object class exists
in your application, another allows you to get the filename and pathname of
your application through code, the other is a tip to include dynamic objects in your
application.
- Fixed the registration page, I seemed to have moved a php function to another
library without including it in the registration page (oops). Fixed this during the
evening of April 16th!
- Completed some more minor reformatting of the page layout
- Not quite got round to completing the datatype conversion components yet, they
should be done by the end of the week, so look out for an update at the end of this
week or the beginning of next. I'll also release all the PB components created so far in
a single PBL with their relevant documentation, for those that don't like to use
the import facility in PB.
April 15th, 2003
Another PB Component
- Added a powerbuilder component to convert between unix timestamps and standard
powerbuilder date and times (and vice versa).
- A few minor updates to the layout, primarily tweaks on the main stylesheet.
- Planning another update to the datatype conversion component, it should be complete
for the next update (approx. 1 week).
April 2nd, 2003
Powerbuilder component update
- Datatype conversion powerbuilder component is now much more useful. I've added
a service object which automates the conversion process, meaning that you no
longer need to manually instantiate an object based upon the source datatype.
Worth a download, it's only 15k!
March 20th, 2003
More stuff
- Modified the forums, there is no longer any need to register to post a message.
- Related links now work, so on some pages you will see links to useful sites related
to that page's content (only a small number of links at the moment)
- You can contact me more easily now, just click Wayne Jones under the contacts
on the homepage or click Wayne Jones on the copyright notice on any page
(or just click here).
The only thing you need to include is a message, although I'd suggest you include
an email address and preferably a name if you'd like me to reply to you :)
March 19th, 2003
New PB component
- Added a powerbuilder component called Datatype Conversion. It's a set of objects
which allow you to control conversion of datatypes at an enterprise / application
level.
- If you're interested in a component drop me an email wayne@thisiscode.com,
and I'll see what I can do.
February 13th, 2003
Still here!
- Been a bit busy recently, but updates should become a bit more frequent again now.
Unfortunately I'm out of work at the moment, so I'm trying to broaden my technical knowledge a bit,
and its taking a lot of my spare time up. By the way if anyone is looking for a
good Powerbuilder / SQL / PHP / C developer in the UK let me know :)
- Minor tweaks to the stylesheets.
- Added a C / C++ section, which currently has an file splitter program I wrote a few years ago.
January 11th, 2003
Guestbook
- Added a Guestbook
- Pages should now look better at higher resolutions, and should adapt to your browser size more appropriately, providing you have javascript enabled.
- Quick fix to search, now displays page name correctly instead of displaying the section name, when page is found
- Will probably have to update the internals of the website, search engines
don't seem to like the dynamic structure of this website, may take a bit of
time, although I'll probably do it in stages.
January 7th, 2003
Happy New Year
- Had a bit of a break from the website for Christmas / New Year
- Realised how bad some of the pages look at resolutions greater than 768 lines high, will try to do something about that next release
- Added a Powerbuilder components subsection to the Powerbuilder section, includes a generic parameter parser
- Other minor updates
December 18th, 2002
Redesign!
- Didn't much like the look of the site, so redesigned the layout, colours still may not quite be right.
December 16th, 2002
Minor update
- Added another PB tip, this one checks if the application is running as an executable
- External links are now done through db, for consistency.
- Added Powerbuilder links to the Powerbuilder section.
- Added Search Engines link to the main section.
December 15th, 2002
Forums
December 13th, 2002
Login / Logout
- Improved login and logout process
- Removed a few bugs too
December 12th, 2002
Searching
- Added simple search facility, which allows searching of this site via keywords.
Very simple at the moment, it isn't going to rival yahoo!
- Added tips section to Powerbuilder, first tip is adding timer events to datawindows.
December 10th, 2002
Extra functionality
- Added user comments, members can now add comments to selected pages (tips at the moment).
- Small navigation bar at the bottom of the page, links back to the hompage and the top of the page
- Have submitted site to a some search engines, so hopefully should get some site traffic soon!
- Next version should include a simple search facility, as well as some Powerbuilder stuff.
- Quick 2nd release of today:
Fixed logging in problem, this was due to the lack of support for session variables
of my webhost. Fixed problem by emulating sessions using my database.
- Also reversed the chronological order of what's new, makes more sense this way round!
December 6th, 2002
Another SQL tip
- SQL section: added tip for date and time comparisons.
- Some minor fixes to the code, left a couple of open tags (whoops).
- Next version may take a bit longer, I'm planning to add quite a lot!
- Added webrings between versions, didn't modify any code for this, just linked in via database
December 5th, 2002
Cosmetic improvement and another SQL tip
- Cosmetically changed the look of the site, hopefully for the better, changed some style sheet properties and added a border to the main part of the page.
- SQL section: added tip for multiple outer joins.
- Changed some underlying code, so keywords are stored in the database and dynamically
assigned. This should allow the individual pages to rank more highly on search engines
when I submit them.
December 2nd, 2002
First working version of the website
- Using PHP and MySQL to dynamically build menus.
- Login / Register working - special features for members soon.
- SQL section has its first tip, replace text embedded in database fields.
- Labelled with ICRA.
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