Code Style: Site log, May 2008

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The Code Style site has evolved by gradual refinement and accumulation of features and content. This review is part of a fully backdated site log and archive that sheds light on when, why and how particular features were implemented.

This log is sometimes updated several times per week, sometimes with a long overdue backlog of items. Many log entries refer to the Code Style Java package that delivers the servlet services and utilities used to manage this site.

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Add This link share button, 28^th May 2008

Added the Add This link share subscription button to the standard sidebar include with new layout and livery styles for the LinkShare div:

#LinkShare {
  float:            left;
  width:            125px;
  clear:            left;
  padding:          0% 4%;
  margin:           1em 0em;
}

New URL field for article feedback, 22^nd May 2008

Added URL reference input fields to article and general feedback forms to ensure that genuine users do not put URLs in the comments field, with configuration to ignore when checking for blank submissions. Configured Soupermail to treat URLs in the comment field as spam.

New URL field for help requests, 20^th May 2008

Added new URL field to the help request form to ensure that genuine users do not put URLs in the comments field. Updated Soupermail form handler configuration to process any URLs in the comments field as spam.

Split the HTTP 500, server error report form from the host to make a server side include with other Soupermail forms.

Section keyword includes, 11^th May 2008

Developed a set of server side include files for section keywords to optimise search engine performance, including new includes for text ad and sponsorship pages. Created PSFTP upload scripts for the keyword include files to upload as a batch. Deleted the old text ad service and sponsored link service booking forms. These are superseded by the relevant product selector servlets.

Product selector modify PayPal subscription option, 8^th May 2008

Added modify subscription options radio buttons to the AbstractProductSelector class for existing customers. The option to modify an existing subscription or create a new one is only displayed when a customer discount key is entered. Set the availability of ads in the TextAds class to 8 for all service areas to support increases in existing subscriptions, not just new bookings for remaining ad spaces. Also adjusted formatting of product key multiples and included it in the subscription product name to support modifications to subscriptions.

Premium stub article output completed, 4^th May 2008

Updated the FaqMenuGenerator class to generate a set of premium content stub articles to promote these questions in their own right, with the inclusion of the premium content subscription form and listings for other premium content questions in the same section. First, had to update the SQL field selection statements to accommodate the new section.premium_url and question.premium_url fields. The PostgreSQL JDBC driver does not seem to support this dot separator syntax, so added AS declarations to name the fields explicitly.

SELECT question.premium_url AS question_premium_url,
       section.premium_url AS section_premium_url
       ...

Created several new methods for the FaqMenuGenerator class to generate all necessary premium content stub menus and pages.

printPremiumStubContent(File, Connection)
printPremiumMenu(File, String, Connection)
printPremiumQuestions(PrintStream, resultSet)
printPremiumQuestions(PrintStream, resultSet, String)

The new getPremiumStubUrl(String) method generates a premium content stub article URL from its equivalent premium content article URL.

Renamed the printSectionCommonQuestions(File, Connection) method to printRootSectionMenus(File, Connection) and adapted to output premium content menu listings too. Also extracted the output of the premium content link and button markup to a new printPremiumContentLink(String, String, PrintStream) method and added System.out status messages for all output.

Added a div with class attribute LocalNav to contain all right hand column content in the FAQ section. The combination of CSS float and clear rules in the sponsor, section and text ad panels was pushing the premium content icon below all. This new container restores the necessary positioning.

.LocalNav {
  float:            right;
  width:            24%;
  clear:            left;
  border:           none;
  padding:          0;
  margin:           0;
}
.LocalNav .RgtBox, .LocalNav .RgtPicBox,
.LocalNav .LftBox, .LocalNav .LftPicBox,
.LocalNav .TextAd, .LocalNav .SponsorText,
.LocalNav .Sponsor {
  width:            92%;
  margin-left:      0;
  margin-right:     0;
}

Also made the new section style more prominent to divide the premium content subscription payment form from the stub article question extract.

.NewSection {
  border-top:       double 3px #039;
  width:            70%;
}

Added a fragment anchor to the premium content subscription form to support links in the standfirst of premium content stub articles. Updated "Why pay..." includes to link to the new premium content stub article index pages.

Java & servlets includes servlet container configuration
CSS style guide with Web fonts and media dependent style sheets
HTML & XHTML questions answered
Javascript & DOM pointers and dynamic menus
Site manager planning and maintenance answers

Completed the conditional inclusion of section premium content stub article listings in the standard HTTP 401, authentication required error page. When users click through to premium content articles without login, the custom error page lists all premium content in the section to encourage subscriptions.

Added 3   entities to tail of last text ad in the local navigation sidebar to work around an IE6 bug that shifts last 3 characters outside of the relevant div!

Added the new premium content stub articles to the PSFTP upload script for FAQ updates.

Draft developments for premium content stub articles, 3^rd May 2008

Wrote an SQL ALTER TABLE script to add a new premium_url field to FAQ sections for premium content menu include files. Also re-formatted the premium FAQ URL check and count query scripts to clarify query conditions. Started a working draft SQL query to select only premium content questions per section.

Created a new standfirst include file for a forthcoming set of premium content stub documents with working draft premium content menu listings per section. Added conditional scripting to the standard HTTP 401, authentication required error page, to include the relevant section's premium question lists in the page based on the path of the request URL.

Previously on Code Style

These backdated pages record detailed changes to the Code Style Web site since July 2000, when development first got underway. Some pages may refer to documents or features that have since changed or are no longer part of the site, but the archive is checked to ensure there are no dead links.

Site log, origins to present

Month: Year:

For a summary overview, see the annotated site log contents.

May 2008 on Code Style