Linux and ASP

Traditionally, web developers that based their work on open source tools use with PHP and Linux OS. Those who prefer Microsoft or are more used to Windows based tools, use ASP Classic or ASP .NET to create their dynamic web pages.

But sometimes, you need to use Windows technologies while working with Linux.

This is one of those cases: a dedicated server with a Linux distro installed... and a website that has been created with ASP. This dedicated server has Plesk Control Panel.

Using Plesk, it is easy to install support for ASP. As easy as updating Plesk and clicking the right option from the update list displayed. And done! Well, done, except if your ASP is not based on Perl. After all, what Plesk installs is the mod_perl plug-in for Apache.

If your ASP uses VBScript (Visual Basic Script), you will have accomplished nothing. You'll have to find another solution. If your page is based in .NET with C#, you may want to use mono, an open source solution, free and available for various linux distros.

But, again, that's not possible if your site was created with VBScript... You can't rely on this solution. What next?

There is only one more thing that you can do: Installing Sun Java System Active Server Pages. Now, this is something that has not been updated since 2007. It is very annoying that Oracle, who bought Sun, changes the name of this product every single time they release a new version. It used to be Chili! Soft, and after that it was named Sun One Active Server Pages... and now Sun Java System... But that's a minor nuissance.

Finding the download page in Oracle's website, but Google definately is your friend here (and mine).

This download is completely free and if you use Jave web server, then it will remind free forever. Now, it may be different if you use Apache. The download is free but the license is simply for a trial period of 30 days.

For Apache users, the license is supposed to be free for development and testing, but not for production websites. And how much does a license cost? That's a terrific question. You go to Oracle's web and visit the store, but finding the product is really tough.. it is not listed. Probably, it is part of bundle.

Fortunately, Oracle does have a telephone number to help you with your shopping... yet, if you live outside the US, it is a nightmare and the automated system that greets you will not help you at all. Are you a Gold, silver or other member? But, maybe you're simply a developer, and maybe you don't work at a big company, with lots of resources and cash to pay... and maybe, you're not a member at all... so what department should you contact?
Then, you have the office hours which may not be the same for you if you live on the other side of the world.

FireFox 3.6 and the Web Developer toolbar (cont)

A couple of moths ago I was a bit annoyed because I couldn't get the Web Developer toolbar to work with my FireBug plug-in in FF 3.6. It seemed to be some kind of problem or conflict and I didn't have the chance to figure out what was going on...

While I visited Chris Pederick's forum (the guy that created this plug-in) and tried to find info, it was clear that it was going to take a bit of digging (if not a lot) to find out what was going on...

The last two months have been hectic and busy, not in a very positive way, and I only had one bad news after another... Last week I removed the toolbar and then download it again... then I saw that there was a new plug-in: The Web Developer toolbar for FF 3.6

Obviously, I have not been the one suffering the same issue, and some people didn't want to suffer in silence... and Chris Pederick decided that he should solve it. This new version works perfectly, and now I can have all my plug-ins working at once, as I used to have.

Thank you, Chris. You saved me a bit of time and I appreciate it :-D


Firefox For Dummies

FireFox 3.6 and Web Developer Toolbar

I use FF as my browser of choice since I've got so many plug-ins installed... that it would be a nuissance to move them to Opera or any other browser. I use the automatic upgrade to install the latest version as soon as it is out but I'm thinking about chaning this option. A few months back something funny happened. I had version 3.5 in my computer and upgraded to version 3.6 and... my Web Developer Tool bar disappeared!

Well, the bar was still there but the buttons were not. I could only use the bar options through the Tools menu.

It was extremely annoying but I didn't worry much as I had version 3.5 in my laptop and I was going to be on the move anyway. So for the past few months, I've done nothing about it. Yet, the time has come to sort it out... and I found out that there are some kind of conflict with some other plug-in and this caused the problem.

Next step: Figure out which other plug-in was giving the problem. I turned off all the plug-ins and turned on each of them one by one, re-starting the browser all the time. A bit time consuming, but the cause was worth it. To my annoyment, for some reason, the plug-in that conflicts with the Web Developer Tool bar is... FireBug!

I honestly didn't expect it. FireBug is the second plug-in I use the most... both are esential to me! How can I live with any of the two?

I'm a bit saddened by the news, of course, but I've decided that before taking a drastic decision I will try to figure out if there's any way that I can have both as I used to...even if I have to use some other browser for my daily navigation. I hope to keep FF though. I have so many good plug-ins installed and its JavaScript debbuging tool is the best, in my opinion.

It will have to be the week after thouhg. Next week is going to be hectic for me!

New designs for blogger

Been ages since I've written anything in my blog. I do a lot of things, but writing my own, personal blog... obviously, that's something that I do not!

I've created this blog quite a while ago to test blogger.com and do some experiments with my own web server. While the blog is kept at blogger.com, my domain is not and I have a shared server to host it. I was impressed that blogger did offer the option to redirect to my own host and it was quite straight forward. Basically, I only had to create the right NAME entry and direct it to my blogger web address.

Today, thanks to the question of a newbie that needed some help with his blogger account, I entered and logged into my blogger account and I found another nice suprise. I know, if you use your blog often, it is late news for you. But, as I said, it's been ages since I logged in. I'm taking to the new designs. There are some really cool ones and very trendy. Finally, I've changed the look of my blog with one of these new designs. I used to have the most basic one.

Although I guess that I should do something more personal and create my own design. Maybe one of these days...