garywaddell.com

Understanding Simple Positioning with CSS

garywaddell — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:14:44 +0000

While learning CSS, the one thing I kept (and keep) messing up was the ability to position elements correctly. I found I had a hard time getting the correct way to use position absolute and relative. The trick that I was taught was when you use position: absolute to define your specific co-ordinates (ie top: 10, left: 20), you need to make sure that element’s parent CSS class (ie a container class or ul tag) is defined with the position: relative) and then you’ll find you can position the children element much easier.

Good luck with it!

Centering with CSS

garywaddell — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:11:42 +0000

If you have a container (ie a fixed size frame) and you want to center that container in the page, the traditional, old fashioned way was to use a table or the < center > tag. With CSS, you simple use this in your container class:

margin: 0px auto;

You can always use a top or bottom padding if you wish to give some space to your container class, but this will keep it centered on the page nicely.

width:auto width:100%

garywaddell — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:03:07 +0000

Great article that explains something I know I have had issues with for CSS in the past wondering the difference between width:auto and width: 100%, but not anymore

http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201112/the_difference_between_widthauto_and_width100/

CKEditor – Change the background color using JavaScript

garywaddell — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:34:21 +0000

I found a great article on how to change the background color of CKEditor on the fly. This became a great approach when performing form validation:

Link is here, but for a quick reference, here’s how you reference it:

this.document.$.childNodes[1].childNodes[1].style.backgroundColor = 'Blue';

this refers to your CKEditor Instance (CKEDITOR.instances['instanceName'] or CKEDITOR.instances.formFieldIdName)

Some useful Mac keyboard tips

garywaddell — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:26:05 +0000

http://www.usingmac.com/2007/11/21/mac-os-x-leopard-200-productivity-booster-hotkeys

WSWS3740E: Error: No SSL configuration is available for endpoint

garywaddell — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:23:01 +0000

You may get this error when you try and run a Java client to a SSL based web service. If you do experience this problem, you need to point to the WAS ssl.client.props file and add the cert to the chain. You will probably be prompted, and when you do, you’ll need to answer Y to add this cert to the keystore and you’ll be good to go from there on.

-Dcom.ibm.SSL.ConfigURL=file:C:\IBM\WebSphere61\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\properties\ssl.client.props

There may also be a need to have your client code (either Java or via a websphere deployed app) call into an SSL based web service. And if so, you will first need to make sure you run the ikeyman utility in the bin folder of WAS and install the cert from the vendor or provider (simply add the cert to the DummyServerTrustFile.

The trick here is having your application know about the trust file. If you want to make use of your trust files and keystores, thenyou will need to add the following JVM parms in the server instance (note the password is typically WebAS):

-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=C:/jks/DummyServerTrustFile.jks -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=WebAS -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=C:/jks/DummyServerKeyFile.jks -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=WebAS

Java Decompiler

garywaddell — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:34:08 +0000

Found this Java Decompiler from a colleague. Very impressive, especially if you use Eclipse

http://java.decompiler.free.fr/?q=jdgui

Getting Query String from a JSP

garywaddell — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:56:31 +0000

public String getQueryString(HttpServletRequest req) {
Object reqUrlObj = req.getAttribute(“javax.servlet.forward.query_string”);
StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer(“”);
if (reqUrlObj != null) {
result.append((String)reqUrlObj);
}
return result.toString();
}

Connecting to and Testing Oracle

garywaddell — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:56:33 +0000

Let me first start by saying, I am not an Oracle expert. I learn what I need to in order to get things done. I don’t go digging into learning Oracle proactively, frankly because I am not a huge fan of it, I still prefer DB2, but enough of that

This blog simply talks about the quick items you need to know to about creating a database, connecting to and testing the datababase using SQLPlus, user IDs/password, roles etc etc.

So first, to create the database, I use the Database Configuration Assistant to create the database. There are some very important things you need to remember, the SID and the password. For the most part, all other settings you see in the UI can be defaulted, although you may want to set the character set to UTF-8 as you go thru the screens. So write down the SID (choice of your name) and the password.

Let’s explain some things a bit here with Oracle. When you create a database, you typically will create a user and assign your tables (or schema) to that user. It takes a bit of getting used to this approach if you are a DB2 or mySQL person. The best way to create a user and assign that user to the database is to use SQL Developer, a free download UI program from Oracle, strongly recommend this.

Once that is done, you’ll want to make sure you can connect to the SID (or the database). So here’s your intro into SQLPlus.

Run SQLPlus from a cmd prompt using this command: sqlplus /nolog
Run this: connect /@dbname-aka-sid (optionally include as sysdba on the end of the command if you need system access). Alternatively, you can run this command connect sys/@ as sysdba to connect as the root user of the database.

Now if this works, you’ll see a message indicating the connection was successful (ie connected message shows).

A note about roles.

Oracle ships some default roles, and the ones you will probably be most interested in is the sys and sysdba user. I tend to think of sys as the root user of the database and sysdba as the role of the database.

CSS Background Image Hacks

garywaddell — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:50:06 +0000

Great article on CSS some great things you can do with CSS Background Images:

http://nicolasgallagher.com/css-background-image-hacks/