Web Development

Interesting bug today: A client’s web form takes file uploads and forwards them as email attachments. Script works great for .doc files, but .docx files end up as mysterious attachments with filenames like ATT00010.txt, whose content starts with this: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document; name=”filename.docx” Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=”filename.docx” Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 This “header” is followed … more

After many months of development, integration battles, use-case beta testing, and top-to-bottom system debugging, we finally deployed BookIt; a custom, web-based, NetSuite-integrated, conference room managing and scheduling application for OfficeEvolution. The core BookIt system allows OE clients to login and reserve conference rooms from any of the dozen OE business … more

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Launch the Site

After installing Internet Explorer 9, I began cross-browser testing the DesignDivine sites.  IE9 destroyed the layouts of at least a half of our websites with no discernible or obvious patterns.  Large content areas were missing from new and old sites alike.  Each of these sites was compatible with IE6, IE7, … more

One of our clients wanted two sites—two URLs, two designs, two sets of content—on a single WordPress install. They wanted to be able to log into a single admin area to manage both sites, and to be able to make posts of certain categories show up on both sites, while … more

We’ve integrated in-house Microsoft SQL Server databases with public PHP web sites a number of times, now. Until today, this meant dealing with Windows VPSes for even modest sites, simply because we were unable to find a Windows shared hosting plan which permitted access to remote databases, and all the … more

We just launched a new site for one of our clients, and one small improvement we made was replacing all the old and ugly (and not especially SEO-friendly) URLs like /cand_jobs.shtml with shiny new ones like /jobs. The catch here is that Google’s existing index refers to all the old … more

WordPress automatic updates are awesome. When they work, they’re as easy as a click of a button. When they fail, however, you’re left either reconciling yourself to an eternity of manual updates, or troubleshooting your host–a process that routinely takes much longer than applying the update manually would’ve. In this … more

My name is Alex and I’m a a reality TV addict. Hi, Alex. I admit my guilty pleasure and embrace it. My favorite show is Project Runway, because it neatly sidesteps most of the Real World-esque drama and focuses on the creative process. Truth be told, I’m probably more of … more

A VPS is the standard upgrade when conventional shared hosting won’t meet your needs. The catch, and most hosts try not to make this clear, is that you’re then on the hook for all configuration, upgrades, and maintenance. And as an added bonus, many hosts offer default VPS installs configured … more

Compared to WordPress’s automated self-updates, Drupal’s update process is something of a chore. This chore isn’t made any easier by Drupal’s documentation (also here), which at the time of writing takes up nine pages, is self-contradictory, unnecessarily time-consuming and somewhat paranoid. And it never offers a canonical pragmatic checklist. After … more

We  spent some time trying to remove a nasty bit of malware code from one of my client’s servers today.  On their windows server, this virus used javascript to create a list of invisible links (in an i-frame) to bugged websites in the page footer.  On their Unix/Linux accounts, the virus added … more

We received another inquiry this week regarding Drupal website maintenance — that was enough to get us motivated to learn the basics of the CMS system. We installed Drupal on our new testing site: www.websitedesigndenver.com, and we will be experimenting with the application over the next couple weeks. Feel free … more