Morshed Alam

Multiple login in google talk

2012-01-10T14:07:00.000+06:00

Most of us have multiple google talk IDs and used third party software to login at a time. But, anyone can do multiple login to gtalk by using a simple trick below:

Right click gtalk icon and select properties

Add /nomutex at the end of target property like following way

"C:\Users\Morshed\AppData\Roaming\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe" /startmenu /nomutex

Click to Apply and Ok

Done! Now click on gtalk icon and open as many as gtalk windows you want. Cheers!!

HTTP basic authentication using email address

2011-12-31T14:18:00.000+06:00

In my previous article, I have written about HTTP basic authentication in rails using a plain user access YML.

Last few days ago, I have modified the logic to log-in using email address and password. So that anyone don't need to remember another new password. Hope it might help you...

Written a news private method

def login_by_email(user_name, password)
    is_logged_in = false
    if (user_name.match(/.+\b@yourdomain.com$\b/i))
      require 'net/imap'
      require 'openssl'
      client = Net::IMAP.new(host, port, true, nil, false)
      begin
        client.login(user_name, password)
        client.logout
        is_logged_in = true
      rescue Exception => error
        logger.error "Unable to log-in :: #{error.message}"
      end
      client.disconnect
    end
    return is_logged_in
  end

On line#3 I have checked the domain name to provide access for a specific domain. After that modified the authentication method following way:

def authenticate_for_staging_server
    authenticate_or_request_with_http_basic do |user_name, password|
      login_by_email(user_name, password) == true
    end
  end

HTTP basic authentication in rails to protect staging server

2011-12-04T10:59:00.001+06:00

Sometimes, you may need to protect your staging server from outside world. It can be done easily by using http basic authentication in rails3.

I did following things to use HTTP basic authentication to protect my staging server:

YML file with username and password pair:

devuser: devpass
testuser: testuserpass

Loaded YML data from application initializer:

HTTP_AUTH_USERS = YAML.load_file("#{Rails.root.to_s}/config/staging_server_users.yml")

Callback and authentication in the application controller:

before_filter :authenticate_for_staging_server, :if => lambda { Rails.env.development? }

private
def authenticate_for_staging_server
  authenticate_or_request_with_http_basic do |user_name, password|
    password == HTTP_AUTH_USERS[user_name]
  end
end

Hope it will help a lot who wants to protect their staging server.

XForms in PHP

2011-11-20T00:00:00.000+06:00

The next generation of HTML form is XForms which is more flexible than the HTML forms and saves a lot of time and effort. It enables the separation of data and logic from presentation as well.

In the XForms, XML used to define forms data, stores and transports data in the XML documents and has two different parts:

XForm model - defines the form, what it should do, what data it contains
XForm user interface - defines the input fields and how it will displayed

You can see a basic hello world example here - XForms/HelloWorld. You must have to install XForms extension for your Firefox version.

Some more resources are given below:

How to deactivate facebook account

2011-11-19T18:57:00.001+06:00

Now a days Facebook became part of our busy life and couldn't think without it. But, if you need to deactivate your account then can do that by following steps below:

Once, you deactivate your account, your profile and information will be instantly inactivated. But, information will not be lost however, and will be available to recover whenever you want within 14 days.

Steps are given below to deactivate the Facebook account:

Go to Account menu on top right corner of the page and select Account Settings.
Click to Security from right side menu
Click to Deactivate your account link from bottom
And, then select reason and click to Confirm button
System will open a pop-up box for your password and captcha text. Enter those and click on the confirm button.

After confirmation system will redirect to Facebook's home page, where you will see a message confirming that your account has been deactivated.

To cancel deactivation, log-in again and choose cancel deactivation within 14 days.

Rails application deployment using shell script

2011-10-31T12:51:00.000+06:00

I have used following shell script to deploy one of my Ruby on Rails applications:

DATES=`date +%Y%m%d%H%I%S`
service apache2 stop &&
mysqldump -u[user] -p[pass] [yourdbname] > "your backup directory"[yourdbname]_${DATES}.sql
git pull &&
bundle install --path [your bundle path] &&
bundle exec rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production &&
mv [your application's production log file] [your application's production log backup path]/production_${DATES}.log &&
touch [your application's production log path]/production.log &&
chown [user]:[group] [your application's production log file] &&
service apache2 start

In the above code snippet,

Line 01: Used to get the current date time
Line 02: Stopped the Apache server
Line 03: Used to take database backup in the backup directory
Line 04: Getting update source from repository
Line 05: Bundle install to update gem list
Line 06: Run database migration to migrate latest script if any
Line 07: Rotating log in every deployment
Line 08: Creating new production log file
Line 09: Providing proper user access to write log
Line 10: And, then start the server again

That's all. Your application should run without any issue if you configure third bracket's([]) information perfectly.

But, now a days - Capistrano allows you to deploy a Rails applications easily. You can try that and can customize if you need to.

Using helper method from action mailer views

2011-10-17T10:48:00.001+06:00

Action Mailer of Ruby on Rails(RoR) allows you to send emails from application using a mailer model and views. Sometimes you may need to use any helper method though it does not allow by default. In that case you have to include helper(module) in the Mailer class.

Say, you may need to use method(s) from ProductsHelper module, then you need to write following line in the Mailer file which will provide accessibility to use all methods written in ProductsHelper

add_template_helper(ProductsHelper)

Cheers!!

Disable a user account in Linux

2011-09-29T12:46:00.000+06:00

There are some different approaches to do that. The easy way to disable a user account is to alter stored password which is stored to /etc/shadow. In that case password will be lost unless you save save the password in different file.

You can alter the password by using following command:

passwd {username} {new password}

It might better to lock a account rather than change password if you need to re-activate again. By following command a user account can be lock easily:

passwd {username} -l

If you will ever need to re-enable the account just unlock using following command:

passwd {username} -u

If you don't need to keep the account anymore then use following command to delete a user permanently.

userdel {username}

The above operation will keep his home directory, mails, etc. Use following command to delete all his files on the system.

userdel -r {username}

Be careful to do that, your mistake may destroy all files of the server.

Note: User still will be able to connect using ssh via key-based auth on changing the user password or locking. If this is used, then the user’s authorized_keys must me moved to a different location.

How to resize Facebook UI dialog

2011-09-26T12:54:00.000+06:00

Once, I had to re-size the facebook UI dialog while working on friends invitation widget for greenarrow.com The widget was loaded under a popup which was wrapped up by an iframe as well. In this case it was not showing properly, the widget was not accommodate in that popup. That's why had to re-size the widget.I did that by following way..

var old_size = FB.UIServer.Methods["apprequests"].size;
FB.UIServer.Methods["apprequests"].size = {
 width:320,
 height:430
};
FB.ui({
 method: 'apprequests',
 message: 'A nice customizable first page application, visit - http://www.greearrow.com'
}, function() { });
FB.UIServer.Methods["apprequests"].size = old_size;

I have stored the old size first and then assign the size which i was needed. After that re-assign the old size again so that it does not broke my another UI dialog. Because in other case i have used default size.

Ruby interpreter has stopped working

2011-09-24T09:27:00.002+06:00

From last couple of days, I was facing a problem with my ruby interpreter. It was crashing continuously after few page requests and getting message:

Ruby interpreter (CUI) 1.9.2p180 [i386-mingw32] has stopped working

I have tried to find out the reason and frequency to stopped but couldn't find the actual reason. After googling got a suggestion about css media link. But it does not solved the problem as well.

Finally, I have identified that it happens for missing file. The ruby interpreter was crashed after two request for me if the file missing exists, it may differ for others.

Install mysql2 gem on Windows 7

2011-07-26T20:22:00.007+06:00

Last couple of days ago, I was stuck to install mysql2 gem on windows7 for rails3 and tried lots of instructions by googling. Unfortunately, those were not worked for me.

Finally, I have specified a older version of mysql2 during installation which worked for me. Following are the steps which i did:

Install Mysql 5.5

Open command prompt and run following command

gem install mysql2 --version=0.2.6 --platform=ruby -- '--with-mysql-include="C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.5\include" --with-mysql-lib="C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.5\lib"'

Copy libmysql.dll from C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.5\lib to [Ruby Installation Directory]\bin\
Specify mysql2 version to you gem file
Run bundle install

How to disable logging in Rails application

2011-02-24T22:34:00.000+06:00

It's not a good practice to do though depends on your needs. It can be done by two ways, one is to disable for whole application and another is to disable for specific environments. You're probably looking for some or all of the following settings:

config.logger
config.active_record.logger
config.action_controller.logger
config.action_view.logger
config.action_mailer.logger
config.active_resource.logger

If you set any of them to nil like following way:

config.active_record.logger = nil

It should disable logging for that specific component. You can experiment with these to disable logging for specific components or set all of them to nil to get no logging.

How to use mutliple ruby version on windows

2011-02-14T17:00:00.008+06:00

I have found a nice ruby version manager for windows named pik. It's pretty easy to install and manage multiple ruby versions.

First install the pik gem:

gem install pik

After installing the pik, you have to use pik_install script to install the pik executable. You must install pik in a different directory other than your ruby\bin directory.

pik_install C:\Windows\System32

If the installation gone smooth, you should see like ..

pik is installed

if you want to use pik with git bash, add the following line to your ~/.bashrc:

  [[ -s $USERPROFILE/.pik/.pikrc ]] && source $USERPROFILE/.pik/.pikrc

Now you can see the list of available ruby versions by using following commands:

pik list

Add, you can install a ruby version and add to version manager using below command:

pik add C:\Ruby192\bin

To switch the ruby version use command:

pik switch [Version Name]

That's all to use multiple version of ruby on windows machine.

Click here to know more about pik

LF will be replaced by CRLF

2011-01-31T16:01:00.000+06:00

I was getting following message while trying to add files to GIT index:

Warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF ....

By google search I found that - whenever tried to add files to the repository, git thinks that, the file is a text file and all files automatically will have their LF line endings converted to CRLF endings.

It's an important warning for a binary file because git incorrectly assesses a binary file to be a text file but it's OK for text file.

The line-ending conversion can be prevent by setting false of core.autocrlf attribute. By default it remains true.

The command is as follows(in Bash mode):

git config core.autocrlf false

Unpacked gem has no specification file

2011-01-22T12:43:00.000+06:00

I started working on a new rails project and in every time from command line operation getting this type of irritating message:

config.gem: Unpacked gem ..... in vendor/gems has no specification file. Run 'rake gems:refresh_specs' to fix this.

I run rake gems:refresh_specs but the problem isn't fixed. Moreover, tried by creating specification file as well.

After that, removed the irritating message by a single line of code to place in the environment file:

# Bootstrap the Rails environment, frameworks, and default configuration
require File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'boot')

Rails::VendorGemSourceIndex.silence_spec_warnings = true

Rails::Initializer.run do |config|

’rails’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

2011-01-20T11:55:00.000+06:00

You might experience the problem due to the following reasons:

You haven’t installed Rails
Rails path cannot be found
Installed Rails using a ‘special’ installer

To resolve the issue, uninstall rails installation from your PC and try a normal installation through command prompt by using following command:

gem install rails –include-dependencies

Note: Be sure, you are connected with internet

Remote mysql backups on windows

2011-01-18T17:34:00.001+06:00

In our day to day job needs to backup remote mysql database and sometimes may needs to synchronize with another one.

It can be done by using following code snippet, no matter the remote server is windows or Linux.

Save the following code snippet as a batch(.bat) file and setup a task scheduler.

set DATET=%date:~-4%_%date:~7,2%
"your mysql bin directory\mysqldump" --host="remote-host" --user="remote-database-user" --password="remote database password" remote-database-name > "backup-directory"backup_%DATET%_csv.sql
"your mysql bin directory\mysql" -uuser -ppassword -t csv < "backup-directory"backup_%DATET%_csv.sql

‘nmake’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

2011-01-11T11:32:00.000+06:00

I have experienced the problem due to the version difference of rubygems installed on my developer PC with gems.

I have downgraded the rubygems, to choose the right versions and solved the problem. After completing the installations, updated all of my gems which did not generate any errors.

If you still experience the problem then try the link below to resolve the problem:

‘nmake’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

Mysql backup on linux using ssh and cron

2010-10-12T18:45:00.000+06:00

Sometimes, we may need to backup and synchronize mysql on linux as a background process. Linux has a great program for this called cron. It allows tasks to be automatically run in the background at regular intervals.

Create a script file(.sh) using following code snippet to backup and restore database in to another database:

ssh user@remote-host "mysqldump -u my-remote-db-username --password=my-remote-db-password my-remote-db-name" | mysql -udb-username --password=db-password --host=host-name -C db-name

Open a terminal and run:
sudo crontab -l

To edit the list of cronjobs you can run following code which will open default editor to let us the crontab:
sudo crontab -e

You can configure your script in to crontab by following code:

* * * * * /bin/execute/this/script.sh

The above five stars represent different date parts in the following order:

minute (from 0 to 59)
hour (from 0 to 23)
day of month (from 1 to 31)
month (from 1 to 12)
day of week (from 0 to 6) (0=Sunday)

How to do custom redirection of a website

2010-06-22T23:35:00.000+06:00

Usually the redirection needs when a website changed/move to different location though it may use for lots of other purposes. In this post, I have explain how you can do it by using .htaccess

Say, your site has lots of URL and you want to redirect some of those which query string has a parameter name “option” and the value is “redirect”.

Below are the codes to redirect into new URL:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} option=redirect
RewriteRule (.*) http://newsite.com/index.php?%{QUERY_STRING} [R=301,L]

Just copy above lines into .htaccess file and place it to root directory in your application.

Some helpful posts:

Change file extension in URL

2010-06-20T23:04:00.000+06:00

In my previous article I have shown how you can use different extension of a file instead of .php explicitly but in this post I have explain how to rewrite the URL instead of renaming the file extension explicitly.

To rewrite the URL you must add following lines in a .htaccess file and place it to root directory of your application.

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.htm$ $1.php [nc]

The above code will rewrite the product.php to product.html.

And following is the code to pass parameters with URL

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html(.*)$ $1.php$2

Some related posts:

Hide the fact that web pages are written in PHP

2010-06-20T01:52:00.000+06:00

Sometimes you may want to hide the fact of your web site’s written language to visitors then you can do it easily by using .htaccess Say, you have developed your site by using PHP and wanted to show it as ASP then you can do it by using following tricks:

Just add following line in the .htaccess file and place it to application root directory.

AddType application/x-httpd-php .asp

Now everyone have to use all files of the application by using .asp though the application was written in PHP.

The bundled mysql.rb driver has been removed from Rails 2.2

2010-03-21T22:56:00.000+06:00

After two months, I have started working on rails again and upgraded Rails to 2.3.2 on my laptop. After upgraded when I have tried to run a sample rails application and got following errors:


=> Booting WEBrick
=> Rails 2.3.2 application starting on http://0.0.0.0:3000
!!! The bundled mysql.rb driver has been removed from Rails 2.2. Please install the mysql gem and try again: gem install mysql.
=> Call with -d to detach
[2010-03-21 04:39:09] INFO  WEBrick 1.3.1
[2010-03-21 04:39:09] INFO  ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24) [i386-mswin32]
[2010-03-21 04:39:09] INFO  WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=5032 port=3000
=> Ctrl-C to shutdown server

After getting the above error I have installed newer version of mysql gem but problem was not solved. Then just copy the MySQL dll from mysql/bin/libmysql.dll to ruby/bin/libmysql.dll. And it worked perfectly.

Specify rendering engine of IE

2010-02-16T00:19:00.000+06:00

Internet Explorer 8 supports different document compatibility to ensure that your web pages have a consistent appearance in future versions.

If you are having trouble on a site in different IE, you can use specific rendering mode to display your web pages by using simple META tag. Below is the META tag to use IE7 rending in IE8:


<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

Details of defining rendering engine in IE

Related link:

Most useful htaccess tips and tricks

HTML coding guidelines

2010-02-12T04:51:00.000+06:00

This is my third article about coding guidelines. In this article I wanted to give you some general guidelines for HTML coding that will help to improve readability, maintainability and code reuse. It will reduce browser related problem. Following are some guidelines:

Must be use doctype in your web page.
Everyone should be write well-formed HTML code.
Indent HTML code constantly
Use small letter constantly. It will increase readability.
ID should be unique in a page and pick a meaningful name for this. Should be follow a standard constantly. Can use underscore (_) to separate meaningful words.
Name tag can follow a same standard like ID. It will be easier to read.
Should be use ID for dynamic element.
Avoid inline CSS. Use separate file for CSS stylesheet.
Avoid longer line. Break the line when a statement will not fit on a single line.
Use commenting as less as possible but use sensibly.
All nested attributes must be properly nested.
Attributes must be quoted.
Validate HTML code using W3C validation service at - http://validator.w3.org

Some related posts:

JavaScript coding standards/conventions

2010-02-05T22:14:00.000+06:00

The long-term value of software is depended of the quality of codebase and it helps to reducing the weakness of programs. That’s why we should follow standards while writing Js code which will increase the code quality. I am trying here to give you some idea/suggestion to write better Js code.

Below are some suggestions which should follow everyone:

Try to avoid embedded JavaScript code in HTML files. It will decrease page loading time and increase caching and compression opportunity.
Avoid longer line. Break the line when a statement will not fit on a single line.
All JavaScript programs should be stored in a separate Js file and should be placed as late in the body as possible. This reduces the effects of delays.
Indenting should be followed constantly. Now a day’s space is not a matter because you can eliminate by using minification.
Function name should start with small letter and all meaningful word should be capital letter.
Should not use space between the name of a function and left parenthesis and separate parameters by a space.
```
function showFlashMessage(message, message_type){

}
```
Global variable should be all caps, local Variable in small letter and all meaningful word should be separate by underscore (_)
All variables should be declared before using though JavaScript does not require this. The variable declaration statement should be the first statement of a function. It will make your code easier to read.
Must be use semicolon (;) at the end of the every statement and each line should contain only a statement.
Use left curly braces in the same line of the function or a statement and a line break for curly braces.
```
for(){
if(condition){
 statements;
}
}
```
Try to avoid comma operator except for disciplined use.

Some related posts:

CSS coding guidelines/conventions

2010-01-03T00:27:00.001+06:00

While writing CSS code, everyone should be follow a standard or convention. It is not important to remember a convention what should be follow. Important is to follow any style constantly, actually it is a common sense though it is not common sense to everybody. I am just writing it to provide others with one point of view and a starting point of their own style sheet coding standards.

Below are some ideas for writing CSS code:

Must be placed CSS code in a separate file as much as possible instead of in-line CSS.
Give the descriptive and meaningful name of CSS files
Use class instead of ID as CSS identifier. IDs to be used if there is only one instance of that element on a page and classes must be use to style several elements in the same way.
Write meaningful class name instead of short one and use a dash (-) as a separator of a CSS class name.
Always use lowercase while writing a CSS class name Otherwise it may occur browser problems.
Add opening curly bracket on the same line as the selector identifier.
Should write a common design for Input, Button, form and other html elements for whole application at the top of the stylesheet
Group the rules for same type of elements and its pseudo-elements together.
Use spacing while describing attribute of a class to improve readability.
Can use empty line between different CSS class to improve readability.
For visual emphasis use space to separate property and value.
Try to use shorthand property instead of long property because it will increase readability. Use background-color, background-position, background-image, and background-repeat etc. instead of background
Use em instead of pix for sizing, line heights etc to allow visitors to use the built-in browser text sizing. See the CSS Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 for more details.
Must be use semicolon at the end of the line/statement.
Try to avoid presentation specific words as identifier, like black, green etc.

There are lots of benefits to follow a standard some of those are given below:

It makes your code more predictable and understandable.
Anyone can change/debug and pick a design easily.
Reduce time for design/development, update and maintenance
Increased accessibility
Adhere to W3C recommendations, improving interoperability and ensuring
greater longevity etc.

I am just trying to give you some ideas and inspire to adopt a CSS coding standard. Hopefully it will be very helpful to all of you.

Some related posts:

Implementation of fly-out flash message in your application

2009-11-10T00:36:00.000+07:00

Now a days usability is one of the major issues for web application. Many web applications with good functionality did not get enough popularity because lack of usability. Flash message is one of the most important things of any application which may improve usability of an application.

Here, I have explain steps for implementing fly-out style flash message like as Twitter, Gmail and Scrumpad etc.

Step 1: Add following JavaScript in your application which is for showing/hiding a message:

function showFlashMessage(message, message_type)
{
 var FMD = document.getElementById('flash_message_div');
 message_type = (typeof(message_type) != 'undefined' && message_type != '') ? message_type : 'success';
 message = message.replace(/^\s+/,""); //remove blank space from left
 message = message.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,"");//remove blank space from right

 if(message != '')
 {
   FMD.childNodes[1].innerHTML = message;
   FMD.className = message_type;
   //FMD.slideDown();
   FMD.style.display = 'block';
   window.setTimeout("hideFlashMessage()", 6000);
 }
}

function hideFlashMessage()
{
 var FMD = document.getElementById('flash_message_div');
 //FMD.fade();
 FMD.style.display = 'none';
}

In the above code,
Line 11 is used to set css className for success and failure message to show different type message.
Line 12 and 20 used to add visual effect during show/hiding a message by Prototype library.

Step 2: Add following Css style in your application:

#flash_message_div
{
 left: 0;
 z-index: 999;
 position: absolute;
 width: 100%;
 text-align: center;
 vertical-align: middle;
 font-size: 16px;
 font-weight: bold;
 display: none;

 filter: alpha(opacity=90);
 filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=90);
 -moz-opacity: 0.9;
 opacity:0.9;
}
div#flash_message_div
{
 top: expression( ( 0 + ( ignoreMe = document.documentElement.scrollTop ? document.documentElement.scrollTop : document.body.scrollTop ) ) + 'px' );
}
div > div#flash_message_div
{
 position: fixed;
 top: 0px;
 vertical-align:middle;
}
div.success
{
 background-color: #709397;
 color: #FFFFFF;
}
div.failure
{
 background-color: #709397;
 color: red;
}
div#flash_message_div div
{
 padding:10px;
}

In the above css,
Line 17-26 is used to adjust flash message in any resolution.
.success and .error class is used to show different type message for success and failure.

Step 3: Now add given Html code under top of the body section for flash message:

<div id="flash_message_div" class="success">
 <div>
   <!-- Call showFlashMessage(); method from here by app language(PHP, .Net etc) -->
 </div>
</div>

To use it during Ajax request just call showFlashMessage() method with parameters.
Hopefully it will be very helpful for all to improve usability of your application. Enjoy!

Ruby on Rails in Bangladesh

2009-10-31T10:09:00.000+07:00

Ruby on Rails has created a buzz in the web development though everything is changing continuously in all over the world. It is open-source, free and highly productive technology which is creating a new highway to connect WEB.

It facilitates web-developers to write good code and providing a beautiful atmosphere with the considerable decrease in the code length and volume. Also capable to challenge big caps like Microsoft ASP.Net

Currently, we did not have enough RoR developers in Bangladesh but growing day by day. Code71 are working on RoR from three years ago (from the very beginning of Bangladesh). I am one of them and feel proud to work on RoR in Code71.

One of our best applications is Scrumpad.com (Agile project management and collaboration tool) which was built on RoR. We have a good number of paid clients who takes the service and manages their project using Scrumpad. Also we are providing efficient service in Ruby on Rails.

Hopefully, in near future Ruby on Rails community will be the largest one in Bangladesh!

How to print a hidden block of an HTML page?

2009-09-04T16:31:00.000+07:00

One of my previous blog I have written "How to prevent printing a block of an HTML page?" then some of my blog readers wanted to know how he/she can print a hidden block? That's why I have written this one. Anyone can do it by using simple css which is described below:

First, Have to write a css class by which you can hide a block from an Html page.
Second, Override that one in your 'print block css' to show it during printing.

Let's have a look at the css example:


  <style type="text/css">
    .print_this{display:none;}

    @media print {
     .noprint{display: none;}
     .print_this {
       display: block;
     }
    }
  </style>

In the above css,
2nd line is used to hide a block from Html page which is overriden in 6th, 7th and 8th line.
5th line is used to prevent printing of a block which class name is noprint.

Now let's take an Html source example:


<html>
 <head>
  <title>Print controll of an Html page</title>
  <style type="text/css">
    .print_this{display:none;}

    @media print {
     .noprint{display: none;}
     .print_this {
       display: block;
     }
    }
  </style>
 </head>
 <body>
  <div>
   <div class="noprint">Sample text block which will not print...</div>
   <div><h3>Sample text block which will print normally</div>
   <div class="noprint">Another text block which will not print...</div>
   <div class="print_this">Hidden text block to print</div>
  </div>
 </body>
</html>

In the above HTML will print following lines when print this page from File > Print


Sample text block which will print normally
Hidden text block to print

Out of range value adjusted for column error

2009-08-28T05:17:00.000+07:00

This is a known bug of MySql5 which I got while customizing one of my PHP projects. In the older version of MySql offered lots of freedom to developers. Previously anything can insert/modify into its tables but it does not seem to be practical anymore.

No need to worry about the error. You can fix it easily. Below are the reason and solutions for this error...

Reason:
Let's see an example query:

Insert into users(id, name, country) values(‘’, ‘Morshed Alam’,’Bangladesh’);

In the above query “id” is an integer field and trying to insert empty string into it. That’s why MySql encountered the error.

Solutions:

Rewrite the query correctly. Below is the example to write above query correctly.

Insert into users(id, name, country) values(‘1’, ‘Morshed Alam’,’Bangladesh’);
or
Insert into users(id, name, country) values(1, ‘Morshed Alam’,’Bangladesh’);

Revert your MySql into older version(ex. MySql 4)

Sprint review meeting is very helpful in Agile/Scrum process for project development

2009-07-10T17:55:00.000+07:00

From April 2007 I am working for Code71 and developed all projects by using Agile/Scrum software development process. Also we have developed Agile project management and collaboration tool during this time.

Our sprint review meeting is very helpful in my point of view which is held on the test release day though agile suggest it on the last day of sprint. During this meeting we shows what works are accomplished in the sprint to make sure that all the works are enclosed correctly. It is type of demo of new features and not spend more than two hours.

At that time we sit together and use projector to review our sprint works and discusses state of our works. Also recommend about the implementation if needed. Most of time we got many early feedbacks/recommendations from team members/product owner though we perform following things during implementation:

Design discussion
Write Unit/Functional/Integration test codes

Also this session needs for the following reasons:

To reduce risk.
To determine the overall project is on track?
For evaluating the delivered functionality.
Determining the sprint goal is achieve or not?

To know the details about Agile/Scrum project development process click to following links:

Import contacts from Address Book

2009-06-06T01:12:00.000+06:00

For one of my PHP project, I have written a class to import contacts from yahoo address book and at the same time search in web for others email provider such as Gmail, Hotmail etc. to save my time. Then I found an excellent open source plugins to import contacts (address book) named OpenInviter^TM.

It is written in PHP5 and free for all. Anyone can customize and use it easily. Also it has ‘Tell a friend’ features. Currently it supports:

57 Email Providers
21 CMS
45 Social Network Applications

Click here to download the plugins.

Disable text selection on website by using javascript

2009-06-01T19:27:00.000+06:00

Sometimes you may need to disable text selection of an HTML page. It is very easy way how you can do it. Below is the source codes:

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">
function disableText(e){
  return false
}
function reEnable(){
  return true
}
//For browser IE4+
document.onselectstart = new Function ("return false")

//For browser NS6
if (window.sidebar){
  document.onmousedown = disableText
  document.onclick = reEnable
}
</script>

Just copy the above JavaScript codes into your page under head section. Then whatever you write in your page everything will show in read-only mode.

Most useful htaccess tips and tricks

2009-05-17T02:36:00.000+06:00

An .htaccess is a simple file which is being detected and executed by Apache Web Server. You may need to CHMOD the .htaccess file to 644. This makes the file usable by the server, but prevents it from being read by a browser, which can seriously compromise your security. Always you have to place .htaccess file to the root directory from where you want apply any tricks. It is widely known to use improve access control, implementing custom error page, hide actual URL, password protection and URL redirection etc. Below are some .htaccess tricks:

Change URL:
Sometimes you may need to hide actual URL from visitors. Say you have a page index.php which takes a parameter category_id but you want access it by category1.html, category2.html and category3.html etc where 1, 2 and 3 is the value of category_id. Below is the some sample code for this type of things.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^category(.*).html$ index.php?category_id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^page_(.*).html$ index.php?pagedb=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^index.html$ index.php

Show user friendly error page for different types of errors:
A web application may occurred different types of error such as 404 – File Not Found’ etc. It is very easy and useful way to show user friendly error page for different types of error. Below is the example code to show custom page for error:

RewriteEngine on
ErrorDocument 400 /errors/badrequest.html
ErrorDocument 401 /errors/unauthorized.html
ErrorDocument 403 /errors/forbidden.html
ErrorDocument 404 /errors/pagenotfound.html
ErrorDocument 500 /errors/internalservererror.html

Change Directory Index:
When any user request an URL or directory apache serve default directory index(which is loaded as your default page whenever a directory or url requested) page which is configured in httpd.conf but you can specify it easily. You can also specify multiple files. Apache will look from first to last file if found then will run that file:

DirectoryIndex myfile.php main.php

In this case when a user request an URL/Directory then your site first look for myfile.php in your root directory if not found then look for main.php

Redirects
Sometimes you may need to redirect from old location to new one. You can do it in many ways but by .htaccess you can do it easily by following way:

Redirect /oldloccation/index.html http://morshed-alam.blogspot.com

Deny/Allow IP
Sometimes you may need prevent access your site from IP of allow only for specific IP address. You can do it easily by .htaccess. Below is the sample code to deny an IP address:

order allow,deny
deny from 192.168.0.1
allow from all

Below is the sample code to access for specific IP address:


order allow, deny
deny from all
allow from 192.168.0.1

Control Directory Access:
If any DirectoryIndex file is not define in any directory and user request that directory browser shows all files of that directory. So sometimes you may need to restrict to access those file directly. You can restrict it easily by following sample code:

IndexIgnore *

You can also restrict direct file access by extension. Below is the sample code to restrict all gif, pdf file from a directory

IndexIgnore *.gif *.pdf

Enabling SSI:
You can esily enable and use SSI by htaccess. Sometimes hosting provider not support for SSI so before using this ask for permission to hosting provider. Below is the sample code to enable and use SSI:

AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes

To use SSI no need to rename all of your pages to .shtml, just add below line between first and seconfd line which will force the server to parse every page names .html for SSI, even if they have no SSI commands:

AddHandler server-parsed .html

Prevent viewing of .htaccess
Below is the sample code to prevent viewing of .htaccess file:

<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

Prevent Delete
Below is the sample code to prevent to delete:

<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>

You can do lots of other things by using .htaccess such as Login, Adding Mime Type etc.

What should be your approach to establish in your life?

2009-05-12T18:31:00.000+06:00

In my professional life I have seen people having said following things:

I feel frustrated about my status.
I am confused what should I learn?
How should I learn?
How can I learn?
I am not interested in subject "Database" or "Design" etc.
I Know enough!!!
I have not enough time to learn.
I don't know my goal etc.

I want to say the following things for them:

Don't feel you have learnt enough because nothing is enough. So Learn, Learn and Learn....
See what other people are doing who is established in professional life and think about them.
Try to find, what they did and what they didn't do?
Think about you, what are you doing? Are you doing the right things?
If not then why you are not doing this?
Define and prepare your goal...
Determination the plan to achieve that goal.
Now prepare the steps to achieve your goal.
Don't try to achieve it at once. Start from first step...
Always think what are you doing? Are you doing in the best way?
Try to find the best approach if you are not following the best way.
Put your experience in your work.
Always try to learn anything you are feeling uncomfortable.
Never stop your learning....

Once upon a time one of my favorite person told me that "If I read one hour, I deposit money to bank". Click here to see his relative post.

Keep in your mind that, learning is a type of investment. You will surely get return for your investment. Take a look at the biography of our governor Atiur Rahman to get inspiration.

By reading the biography of our governor you will believe that, if you really want to achieve something in your life, you can…..

How to prevent print a block of an HTML page?

2009-04-13T00:10:00.000+06:00

Sometimes you may need to prevent printing a block of an html page. You can do it easily. Create a CSS class by following way and add it to your header section:

<style type="text/css" media = "print">
.noprint{display: none;}
</style>

Note that the media of the css script will be print. Now simply add the css class noprint to any elements in your HTML which you do not want to printed.

Below is the sample example to prevent printing a block:

<html>
<head>
<title>Prevent to printing a block of an html</title>
<style type="text/css" media = "print">
.noprint{display: none;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div>
  <div class="noprint">This is the sample block which will not print...</div>
  <div><h3>This is the sample text which will print when print this page from File > Print</h3></div>
  <div class="noprint">This is another block which will not print...</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Just make a html page by above code and print it from File > Print

Background color or image problem of an iFrame in IE

2009-03-13T14:05:00.000+06:00

Few days ago I have faced background image problem for iFrame in IE and search in web for the solution but i did not get any help. Then I have tried to solve it and finally I have solved this by using following two attributes background: transparent; and background-color: transparent;
Below is the source HTML of main page from where iFrame has been included which is used frame.html:


<html>
<head> 
<title>iFrame</title> 
<style type="text/css"> 
.iframe { 
 background: transparent; 
 background-image: url('sample.jpg'); 
} 
</style> 
</head> 
<body> 
<iframe src="frame.html" height="100%" width="100%" allowtransparency="true" class="iframe"></iframe> 
</body> 
</html>

Below is the source code of frame.html:


<html>
<head> 
<title></title> 
</head> 
<body style="background-color: transparent;"> 
<table> 
<tr> 
 <td height="200" width="300" valign="middle" align="center"> 
  Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text 
  Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text 
  Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text 
  Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text 
  Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text Sample Text 
 </td> 
</tr> 
</table> 
</body> 
</html>

Though I have solved the background problem in IE by above code but i am suggesting to use color in place of image for following two reasons:

It may create problem to load bulky file by Ajax request.
Sometimes it may flicker white color before loading file.

Ruby on Rails Plugins and uses

2009-02-04T02:38:00.000+06:00

Plugins is type of programming scripts by which either you can extend existing functionality or add new feature in your application. Plugins generally have well-defined boundary to their possible set of actions. There are many reason to use plug-ins, some of the main reasons are:

To reuse the code/functionality so that developer can avoid to built any feature from scratch.
To separate source code from existing code.
To reduce the size of application.
To give other developer to create capabilities to extend application.

The installation process of plugins are very easy. By following command you can install your plugins in your application from command prompt easily:

<your project path> ruby script/plugin install protocol://host.com/path/to/plugin/repository

There are lots of plugins for Ruby on Rails which you can use easily. Following is the link where you will get lots of plug-ins link.

You can write a plugins and publish too. Following are the link by where you can you can learn how to write a plugins:

Implementation of CruiseControl.rb and RCov

2009-01-11T04:13:00.000+06:00

CruiseControl.rb is Ruby based continuous integration tool which is used for continuous build process including testing, email notification. Also provide the details of all build.

On the other hand, RCov is very well known code coverage tool for Ruby. It is used to get the information of test coverage.

These two tools are so good together and their implementation is incredibly simple which is describe below:

Download: Click here to download. After completing the download unpack it.

Add project: Go to the unpacked directory from command prompt and execute following command:
cruise add <project-name> --url <project-url>.
This will create a directory under cruise data, then checks out your project to ./cruise/projects/<project name>/work/

Start Cruise: Execute command: cruise start. It will run your CrouiseControl on port 3333. Browse - http://localhost:3333/. If everything is going well, you will see the the CruiseControl dashboard with project list. You can build your project and see the build report.

Create database: You have to create test database and edit database.yml to connect with database, performing rake RAILS_ENV=test db:migrate, running rake test and making sure that it passes.

Install rails_rcov: Install RCov gem to CruiseControl server by using gem install RCov and plugin to project folder by using following command:

 ruby script/plugin install http://svn.codahale.com/rails_rcov

Add rake task: If you installed the plugin into your project you have some useful rake tasks. Now you have to add “cruise.rake” task to the “lib/tasks” directory of your Ruby on Rails project with following:

desc 'Continuous build target'
task :cruise do
out = ENV['CC_BUILD_ARTIFACTS']
mkdir_p out unless File.directory? out if out

ENV['SHOW_ONLY'] = 'models,lib,helpers'
Rake::Task["test:units:rcov"].invoke
mv 'coverage/units', "#{out}/unit test coverage" if out

ENV['SHOW_ONLY'] = 'controllers'
Rake::Task["test:functionals:rcov"].invoke
mv 'coverage/functionals',"#{out}/functional test coverage" if out

Rake::Task["test:integration"].invoke
end

That’s all, now your project has code coverage. You can browse the source within the browser from dashboard and see which lines are covered and which are not. Enjoy!!

Most useful tutorials to develop web application using Ruby on Rails

2008-12-03T03:43:00.000+06:00

Some of my friends asked me how he/she can develop web application using Ruby on Rails. So I have written following two articles about web development using Ruby on Rails:

Also, I am sharing some tutorials that I found most useful to develop web application using Ruby on Rails which is listed below:

Hopefully above articles and tutorial will be very helpful for anyone to develop web application using Ruby on Rails. For any other help contact with me, I will be pleased to help you.

How can I create sample application using Ruby on Rails?

2008-11-30T14:36:00.000+06:00

To create a sample web application using Ruby on Rails needs to setup environment first which I explain in my previous blog. Now we will create a sample application to manage (CRUD) user information by using NetBeans IDE.

Below are the steps to create a sample application:

In the NetBeans IDE, choose File > New Project.
Select Ruby in the Categories field and Ruby on Rails Application in the Projects field. Click Next.
Type sampleapplication in the Project Name field.
Select Ruby as a platform in place of JRuby in Ruby Platform field. Accept all the other default settings.
Click Finish to create the new project. You will see a list of files in the project directory and database.yml file in the editing area.
Create a sample database and edit the database.yml by providing the database information in the development configuration.
Save the database.yml file.

Creating Model, View, Controller and migration script for user management:

Go to the project folder from command prompt and run following command:

ruby script/generate scaffold user name:string email:string address:text phone:string

It will create model, views, controller and migration script in respective directory in your project and below is the output for the command:

exists  app/models/
exists  app/controllers/
exists  app/helpers/
create  app/views/users
exists  app/views/layouts/
exists  test/functional/
exists  test/unit/
create  test/unit/helpers/
exists  public/stylesheets/
create  app/views/users/index.html.erb
create  app/views/users/show.html.erb
create  app/views/users/new.html.erb
create  app/views/users/edit.html.erb
create  app/views/layouts/users.html.erb
create  public/stylesheets/scaffold.css
create  app/controllers/users_controller.rb
create  test/functional/users_controller_test.rb
create  app/helpers/users_helper.rb
create  test/unit/helpers/users_helper_test.rb
route  map.resources :users
dependency  model
exists    app/models/
exists    test/unit/
exists    test/fixtures/
create    app/models/user.rb
create    test/unit/user_test.rb
create    test/fixtures/users.yml
create    db/migrate
create    db/migrate/20090504184109_create_users.rb

In the Projects window, right-click the sampleapplication node and choose
Migrate Database > To Current Version.
Notes: If it generates error then run gem install mysql command from command prompt and copy libmySQL.dll from C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin to C:\ruby\bin.

Run and test the Application:

Open routes.rb under configuration node of project folder.

Edit following line by removing # and change welcome to users.

# map.connect '', :controller => "welcome" or
# map.root :controller => "welcome"

Delete index.html under public node which is used to show default welcome page. Rails first look to this file then look to routes.rb to figure out what page to display.
In the Projects window, right-click the sampleapplication node and click to Run or you can run project from command prompt by following command under project:
```
ruby script\server
```

Project creation has been completed and you can browse it in http://127.0.0.1:3000
Now you can create, edit, show and delete user by clicking respective link.

Validating inputs:
If you want to ensure users must provide values for both name and email fields, add following lines to User class under app/model folder of your project:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_presence_of     :name, :email
  validates_format_of       :email, :with => /^([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,})$/, :message => "Invalid"
end

Now system will give error message if you try to create user without name and email.

OK, Finally we have completed the sample application with data validation. To continue development using Ruby on Rails and skills up you will get lots of resources in web.

Click here for some good resources for Web development in Ruby on Rails

Memory overflow issue

2008-10-08T23:24:00.000+06:00

I am writing this one to share my experience to you. In the very beginning of my professional career, I have developed an web application for Shylhet Chamber of Commerce using LAMP and delivered it successfully. Almost three months(Couldn't remind exactly) later we have notified from client that they couldn't log into the application. Then i had gone there and investigate the problem. First I was very confused because..

System not given any types of error message while trying to log-in.
There is no error message in logger
There is no problem in code
Even though, tried to run a sample script in server but I didn't

Think about that, What was the condition that time!!!

Then tried to narrow down the error scope by checking PHP, Apache, Mysql settings and check the application storage and got that "There is no space in document root." which was the culprit for this problem. Even though application couldn't flash a single message because there was no space to show a message.

That's it. So, I think anyone should keep it in mind about storage.

Developing Web Application using Ruby on Rails

2008-10-04T13:30:00.000+06:00

Rails uses the MVC pattern to organize application programming. Its provides scaffolding which can automatically construct some of the models and views for website and intended to emphasize Convention over Configuration, and the rapid development principle(DRY) and it has various packages, namely ActiveRecord(for database access), ActiveResource(web service), ActionPack, ActiveSupport and ActionMailer.

Developer can make plugins to extend existing packages. It is highly time consuming portion for a developer is the writing of reusable packages of codes that are often called during the main application – frame works.

It’s built in web server WEBrick by default, but they do use Apache or Lighttpd. Has excellent potentiality in loading the extension libraries dynamically with less maintenance. Ruby creates an environment that makes the programmers to work more clearly, faster and be more meticulous and highly imaginative.

Below are the steps to install Ruby on Rails on Windows:

Download ruby from ruby site or click here to download the ruby installation package.
Run the executable file with default setting unless you have specific needs.
Open command prompt and run following command:
```
gem install rails --include-dependencies
```
It will take some times to install all dependencies. Make sure that you are connected to internet.
Download the latest MySql and install with detailed configuration.
Run following command to update ruby gem:
```
gem update --system
```

Congratulation! The Ruby on Rails development environment setup has been completed. Now you can start developing web application using Ruby on Rails.

You can see my another blog where I explain how you can create a sample application using Ruby on Rails.

Liquid design : Importance and Considerations

2008-09-11T10:15:00.000+06:00

The term "liquid" implies that a Website should flow smoothly into whatever space it is given. If you use a high resolution monitor, this may mean that you need to re-size your browser a little, which most people in that situation do. If you have a low resolution monitor, you will still see the information, it will just be a little more compact.

If you do Liquid Design right, you should be able to make your pages display on almost anything and still make sense to the user.

Not everyone has perfect vision, and many of your potential customers may indeed be blind. If you build your site using relative font units and percentage based widths for common elements, you'll already be making life a lot easier for a portion of your visitors. Maybe even many of them.

Importance of 'liquid design' in creating web design
The goal of liquid design is providing similar experience to people and eliminate possible irritating design flaws such as too much white space, disappearance of certain sectors of information due to lack of space etc.

Resolution statistics and interpretation
A web designer's task is to predict the available space the web site can use to display. One must consider first of all what the web site's target audience is. For example, people who work with computers every day (programmers, other designers etc) often like to have a "bigger picture" of things hence they are more likely to have high resolutions - 1024x768 or even higher. People who access the Internet from universities or educational institutes are likely to use older computers and may use 480x640 or 600x800 resolutions.

Recent statistics show that most people use 1024x768 resolutions (nearly 44%) and 600x800 resolutions (50%). Until recently, the number of those who used 1024x768 resolutions was much lower, while 480x640 resolution was the preferred resolution by users. As technology evolves, the percentages change. Nowadays, web designers have started designing for the 600x800 and above.

The effective screen space is smaller than the actual number of pixels (e.g. width of 800 pixels and height of 600 pixels for 600x800 resolutions). The reason is that people use up space by adding toolbars and different additional buttons to their browser window. For example, when designing for a 600x800 resolution the web designer should in fact design for 409x741 (width of 741 pixels and height of 409 pixels) although this is not fail-proof for every situation.

The secret of liquid layouts

work out a basic layout grid before you begin coding
include gutters so that your columns will not spread too wide
use percentage units for widths of all containers and gutters
do not define containers that use the full width of a page - allow for browser rendering issues (such as percentage rounding)

Liquid Design: Can it be Done?
Yes, without a doubt! Fixed layouts are slowly becoming a thing of the past. And the principles and considerations involved in creating a liquid layout (rather than a fixed layout) are very easy to implement on your site.

However, the whole liquid idea does require a shift of focus. Stop thinking of the Web as a medium you can control, stop thinking for your users, and you'll be happier, your visitors will be happier, and the Web will be just a little more pleasant for everyone.

Is liquid design adequate for any web site?
In order to make a decision whether liquid design is suitable for a web site, factors such as type of content, structure, amount of information must be taken in consideration. Liquid design is ideal for sites with a lot of information. The elasticity of such sites increases readability.

Pros and Cons of Liquid design..
Pros: The major benefit of a liquid design is that the layout will adjust to fill a variety of resolutions. You can create a site that will work well at both low and high resolutions without all the empty space outside of the design. A liquid layout with it’s use of ‘em’ or percents instead of pixels will be more accessible to viewers with poor eyesight as they can more easily resize the text. It can also be easier to fit all of your content into the design for those viewers with higher resolution monitors.

Cons: A liquid design does have it’s drawbacks though .... It is time consuming. You do lose a certain amount of control over how everything will look and some of the empty space of a fixed design will work it’s way internally into the liquid design. There is also the issue of line length growing to wide which will make you text difficult to read. Using max-width is an option for browsers outside of Internet Explorer. IE will need it’s own workaround to keep your lines of text from becoming too wide. A liquid layout can often be more difficult and time consuming to develop and test.

Click here to download sample application on liquid design.

Importance and considerations to make a user friendly web application

2008-08-21T14:46:00.000+06:00

From my 4+ year’s professional experience I realized some important things to build user friendly website. Actually this will help to increase users of your website. These things are not big deal. Users first want a stable and easy application which is easy to use. After this they compare features with another application.

Always assume that a web user have a short attention spans. Remember that the user will use your site is interested in your contents, not the capabilities of design software. They will think usability in place of your internal architecture. So before building any web application, you need to consider who will access your site and how they use the features.

I don’t think start-ups usually realize that it’s not only important to have a functioning site, but a functional site as well.

Check for errors regularly:

Every stable/unstable web application needs to be checked at least once a month for any broken links. Also you can get help some tools to check link; such as Link Defender. Make sure that your site is stable and reliable in different browser and avoid any unnecessary downtime. Add details explanation for any failure.

Never assume that the viewers have the latest browser. If you have to include anything that will only work with the latest version, try to make sure that it is not crucial to the workings of your site

Other important things are to check spelling or grammatical mistakes. If needed, you can consult with trusted ones who can help you in this regards.

Site working properly:

This is the main thing for any application. Ensure that all things are working well which you provided. If any feature is not working well then you should not provide that feature.

Consistent design layout:

It is the most important thing for a web application. Try to keep your site consistent. Don't use too many fonts, especially special fonts that may not be available on the computer of the person viewing your site. Make sure to use a consistent design and layout for each page on your site. Ensure the same general text color scheme, logo, consistent navigation menu, button, list style, entry form and header and footer in the

same place with consistent attributes. You should use template based design which will help u to create consistent design.

Navigation structure:

Display meaningful navigation menus, logical headings, link descriptions and logical breadcrumbs (e.g. Home ? Products ? HDD) which will help users to know current browsing place and guide visitors. Add easy and meaningful links for next task and add help texts if needed. Use a text-based navigation menu instead of a graphical or drop-down JavaScript menu.

Site map:

You should include a text and image based site map with a link of every page, and add short details of every page. If you use good site map then you don’t have to add links to every page from your home page. Many sites use site maps, but does not update regularly and keep these well descriptive to find pages.

Search tools and search engine:

To build intuitive applications you need to provide search facility in the site. It will be helpful for users.

Ensure that your site is search engine compatible. If possible use texts in place of graphics. Avoid frames, flash and graphical text. Use logical title and META tags for each page and include meaningful keywords to META tag.

Other things:

To build an intuitive web application you should consider following things too:

Include contact details. If you don’t provide the way to contact, then people will hesitate to trust you.
Add feedback form so that anyone can give feedback which will help to build excellent application.
Use simple language to understand which is helpful for all type of user’s (regional users). Minimize texts as far as possible. You need to prioritize user’s interest most.
Make user friendly URLs. A user friendly URL must be short, lowercase, plain language and conventional. URLs are often the single barrier that prevents millions of users from visiting a site.
Always try to minimize fancy stuffs.
Remove unnecessary image which will help to load your page quickly.

2008-07-25T23:33:00.000+06:00

Contact with me