Automatic page refreshes are so 1998

Dear CNN.com, MNspeak, and the internet at large, I don't know if you are aware, but automatically refreshing the web page I'm reading is extraordinarily annoying and completely unnecessary. There was once a time many years ago where automatically refreshing a news site or any number of other types of pages was useful. These days, however, I believe it actually drags down your reader's experience on your site. If I want to see the latest version of your page, I will click the Reload button in my web browser, thank you very much. I do not care to be in the middle of reading something then have the page suddenly reload itself. Now I have to hunt down what I was reading and pick up where I left off, assuming the item I was reading wasn't old enough to be archived off of the front page. And God forbid it's a longer item, and I have to go through this process multiple times before I finish.

To eliminate any confusion, the type of page refresh I'm talking about includes those in <meta ...> tags and javascript setTimeout() and setInterval() calls that unceremoniously reload the entire page you are viewing. Why in this day and age of RSS, AJAX, Flash, and hell, even iframes would you still use auto-refreshes? I will concede that there might continued value for mobile versions of websites where timely delivery of information is key (think live sports scores and stock prices), as there are still a great number of mobile devices that do not support Flash (iPhone anyone?). But taking away a reader's choice in the age of Web 2.0 and ubiquitous connectivity tells me that you just don't get it.

Process for generating Netsuite java files, compiling stub classes, and creating jar file

If you've read other posts I've done about ColdFusion and Netsuite integration, you may recall that I solved an issue with MX7 refusing to compile all of the necessary stub files from the Netsuite WSDL by manually compiling them and creating a jar file. This used to be a huge hassle for me each time Netsuite released an upgrade. This time, however, it should be a ridiculously smooth process. I know the following steps will look intimidating if you are not familiar with Apache ANT or Apache Ivy, but trust me, they will make your life a lot easier.

Someone recently wrote me with some questions about this process, and I thought I would post this for everyone's benefit. Or at least I hope it's for your benefit and not your additional confusion. *grin*

Oh, and a couple of notes. I have not done any development in ColdFusion 8, so some of the steps and issues below may not apply. In fact, this entire process may not be necessary at all for all I know. Also I'm quite green when it comes to ANT and Ivy, so as with everything else I post here, if there is a more efficient way to any of these steps, I'd love to hear from you.

Assumptions for this process (modify as necessary for your environment):

• [Netsuite WSDL version] = 2_6_0
• [CF install path] = C:\CFusionMX7
• You are using ColdFusion MX 7 (Notes for ColdFusion 8 will be given where necessary)
• [java install path] = C:\j2sdk1.4.2_12
• [major java version that your CF installation uses] = 1.4
• [stub class target] = C:\netsuiteclasses\2_6_0
• [Apache Axis version] = 1.2.1

Prerequisites:

• You have Apache ANT 1.7.0 or higher installed and have all environment variables set per its installation documentation. (Download binaries and see documentation at http://ant.apache.org/)
• You have Apache Ivy 2.0.0 beta 2 or higher installed and have all environment variables set per its installation documentation. (Download binaries and see documentation at http://ant.apache.org/ivy/)
• A version of the java jdk compatible with the java runtime version of your ColdFusion installation.
• NOTE: This item is only for ColdFusion MX7 and likely does not apply to ColdFusion 8. A modified version of the Apache Axis 1.2 jar file (axis.jar) (distributed by Netsuite to fix a login issue caused by how cookies are passed by Axis in the HTTP header) was copied into [CF install path]\lib, and the ColdFusion server was restarted afterward.

Generate and Compile Process:

1. Generate java class source code (windows dos window).

[java install path]\bin\java -cp [CF install path]\runtime\lib\wsdl2java.jar org.apache.axis.wsdl.WSDL2Java -v -O 120 -a -o [stub class target] https://webservices.netsuite.com/wsdl/[Netsuite WSDL version]/netsuite.wsdl

2. Create Apache ANT build file.

Create a file named build.xml in [stub class target] with the following contents (pay attention to bracketed areas that you will need to modify accordingly):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="netsuite_[Netsuite WSDL Version]" default="init" basedir="." xmlns:ivy="antlib:org.apache.ivy.ant">
<description>
Build file for Netsuite [Netsuite WSDL Version] WSDL.
</description>
<property name="classes.dir" location="classes" />
<property name="dist.dir" location="dist" />
<property name="dist.jarfile" value="netsuite_[Netsuite WSDL Version].jar" />

<target name="resolve" description="--> retrieve dependencies with ivy">
<ivy:retrieve pattern="${lib.dir}/[type]/[artifact]-[revision].[ext]" conf="runtime"/>
</target>

<target name="clean" description="Clean up output directories.">
<delete dir="${classes.dir}" />
</target>

<target name="compile" depends="-init" description="Compile all sources.">
<mkdir dir="${classes.dir}" />
<javac srcdir="." destdir="${classes.dir}" debug="true" deprecation="true">
<compilerarg line="-source [major java version that your CF installation uses]" /> <!—NOTE: The “-source” option may not be necessary for CF8 -->
<compilerarg line="-classpath [CF install path]\lib\axis.jar; [CF install path]\lib\jaxrpc.jar" />
</javac>
</target>

<target name="rebuild" depends="clean,compile" description="Cleanly compiles all sources." />

<target name="-init">
<!-- Create the time stamp. -->
<tstamp>
<format property="TODAY_US" pattern="dd MMM yyyy HH.mm" locale="en_US" />
</tstamp>
</target>

<target name="dist" depends="rebuild" description="Creates the binary distribution.">
<mkdir dir="${dist.dir}/${TODAY_US}" />
<jar basedir="${classes.dir}" destfile="${dist.dir}/${TODAY_US}/${dist.jarfile}" />
</target>

</project>

3. Create Apache Ivy config file.

Create a file named ivy.xml in [stub class target] with the following contents (pay attention to bracketed areas that you will need to modify accordingly):

<ivy-module version="2.0">
<info organisation="apache" module="hello-ivy"/>
<dependencies>
<dependency org="apache" name="axis" rev="[Apache Axis version]"/>
</dependencies>
</ivy-module>

4. Compile files and generate jar file.

Open a Command Prompt window and change directories to your [stub class target] directory and run the following command:

ant dist

You may see multiple warning messages throughout the compile process, but as long as you see a BUILD SUCCESSFUL message upon completion, there shouldn’t be any problems. Copy the generated jar file (the output of the ant command should indicate the filename and location of the jar file) to [CF install path]\lib and restart your ColdFusion Application Server service.

Jeremy to Microsoft Live "quality" bot: you're doing it wrong

I don't recall exactly how long ago it was, perhaps a few weeks or months ago, but I started noticing a few odd referrals in the traffic stats for one of my other blogs. At the time, this was happening at least a couple times a day. I would see one-word searches coming from search.live.com. It took me a few days to realize that this was some sort of Microsoft search bot. Since it only hit my site a couple of times a day, I didn't think much of it. But this morning I checked my stats, and out of 128 unique visitors for the day up to that point, 18 of those visits were from the live.com bots. That comes to 14% of my traffic. I did a search and learned that these are "quality control" bots of some sort. Really, Microsoft? What is so special about your search engine that you have to skew everyone's traffic statistics? I have not once had a human referred to my site by the live.com search engine, so I have no qualms over hiding my site from their bots entirely, or generating completely bogus content specifically for them. Either way, I've set up my web stat software so that range of IP addresses is filtered. Surely Microsoft can find a better method of controlling their quality. Wait, look who I'm talking about. Never mind.

Save yourself the effort of defining the same code for multiple javascript events

If you ever have a situation where you basically want to run the same code for a bunch of different events on an html element like an input, it's a pain in the ass to maintain if you change the logic and need to change all of the event parameters. I discovered you can directly call another event so you don't have to define and maintain the same code in multiple places. I realize you can do something very similar by using addEventListener, but I just thought this was kind of cool.

e.g.
// define the onchange event and call the same code for onmouseover, onmouseout, and onclick

// Now if you make changes to onchange, you don't need to copy those changes to the other events.


<input ... onchange="myFunctionDoYouLikeIt(this, 'valueadded', false, 0); compareSomeValues('placeholder', false, true, 'the google webz');"

onmouseover = "eval(this.onchange + '\;anonymous()\;');"

onmouseout = "eval(this.onchange + '\;anonymous()\;');"

onclick = "eval(this.onchange + '\;anonymous()\;');" />

Combine multiple Twitter feeds on Blogger

This Blogger widget I created is based on the original widget provided by Twitter. This one, however, will let you combine multiple users' feeds into one and sort them by time. This is as opposed to showing your entire timeline, including everyone you follow. Perhaps someone has already written something like this, but damned if I could find it. Constructive criticism is welcome, particularly since this is my first crack at creating a blogger widget.

Configure and add the widget here.

I promise to post more documentation for this feature later, as there are other nifty things you can do to control the style of the output, including creating a "mask" to define the format of your output, and inclusion of data like the user profile, user homepage link, user profile image, etc.

Caveats: The number you are defining in the form does NOT mean that only the last n posts from your pool of users will appear. It means that the last n posts from each user will be shown. For example, you've set the twitter number to 3. User1 posted a single twitter 4 days ago, but User2 posted 4 twitters today alone. You will see the last 3 posts from User1 and the last 3 posts from User2.

A warning regarding calculating sales commissions in NetSuite

Are you seeing discrepancies in your sales commission figures? It recently came to our attention that when calculating sales commissions, NetSuite's sales commission module ignores the first line item on a transaction (invoice, sales order, etc) if it is a markup item, discount item, etc. They claim this is by design but cannot produce any existing documentation that would have clued us in on this "useful feature." Unfortunately for us, a large portion of invoices had markup items or discount items on the first line. Since NetSuite continues to insist this is not a bug, I ended up having to write a script to re-sort the item lists for all of our 2008 invoices for sales commissions to be properly calculated. We have verified that this fixes the aforementioned issue. However, I have to wonder what would happen if an invoice ONLY had markup or discount items on it. Sure, you can argue "why on earth would you not have a service or inventory item on your invoice??" Then I would slap you and remind you that it's the principle.

Screensaver won't start in Windows XP

For several months -- perhaps as much as year -- I grew increasingly frustrated as my screensaver on my Windows XP desktop abso-friggin-lutely refused to start in any semblance of a consistent manner. At first, it seemed to have something to do with Outlook 2003. I'd turn off Outlook, and it seemed to kick in correctly when I left it idle. As it turned out, that perceived behavior was a red herring. Given that I have an LCD monitor, I was growing concerned that burn-in was inevitable. Unfortunately I simply didn't have the time to look into it. That and the fact that I primarily use my laptop put this annoyance near the bottom of my long to-do list.

Finally last weekend, I had enough. I had googled this issue half-heartedly when it first started happening, but this time google yielded immediate results. Users in several forums having similar problems had wireless USB mice like my Logitech laser mouse. The suggested solution? Shut down the computer, unplug the mouse, attach a USB to PS/2 connector, and plug it into the PS/2 mouse port. After one false start where I wasn't paying attention and plugged my Logitech webcam into the PS/2 port instead of my mouse ("Why isn't my webcam working? Durrrrrrr..."), I plugged her in, booted up, and lo and behold, it worked. My screen saver has been consistently working for the last several days with no issues whatsoever. I suspect that using the PS/2 port instead of USB will mean I'll lose nifty features like low battery warning messages from the Logitech monitoring software, but I can live with that if it prolongs the life of my monitor.