Michael S. Clark

I’ve been working on a project where I have to maintain data in a SQL Server database. In order to prevent different users updating the same data at the same time, I’ve also employed optimistic locking by using a “timestamp” field called OLToken on each table which is binary. This field is read out and [...]

I ran into problems with the auto-upgrade facility of WordPress on my sites hosted here, on NearlyFreeSpeech.net. Through trial and error, I established the following works: Add the following lines to wp-config.php: Using PuTTY, log-in. Enter the following command: chgrp -R web *. This will change the group ownership of all files and directories to [...]

The Pro Shop that I developed at Computa Services for the Carnoustie Golf Links, is now live. It uses concurrent AJAX, calling a lightweight PHP+XML web service layer to communicate with a Microsoft SQL Server. The management application that the staff at the Links use to administer the bookings is written in C#, using C# [...]

The online tee-time booking system that I developed at Computa Services for the Carnoustie Golf Links, is now live. It uses concurrent AJAX, calling a lightweight PHP+XML web service layer to communicate with a Microsoft SQL Server. The management application that the staff at the Links use to administer the bookings is written in C#, [...]

Under usual circumstances, hosting WordPress on IIS7 would not normally allow permalinks to be used. There are some commercial solutions, including the ISAPI_Rewrite module (which I couldn’t get to work). Another less elegant solution was to create a replacement 404 error page that would perform the redirection. This worked, but when the redirection occurred, any [...]

I’ve added PicLens support to all of my galleries. The required RSS feed is dynamically generated using PHP as are the thumbnails so you would only have to provide a gallery of images. I’ve zipped up the code here.

I’ve been waiting a while for The Courier (my local paper) to provide an RSS feed for their news stories. Anyway, I decided to do one myself. I’ve zipped up the code here and I’ve hosted it on my employer’s server here. Give me a shout if you find an errors or improvements.

I recently signed up for Google Analytics and added my sites and the sites created and hosted by the company I work for. The WordPress plugin I chose is this one by Semiologic. A very valuable tool if you’re interested in site usage statistics.

I’ve finally got around to launching the website for the 7th Arbroath Boys’ Brigade Company. It will be used to keep everyone informed of news, events, competitions, etc. and also to provide a resource for the boys to look at to familiarise themselves with the Company. It can be found at http://www.7a.bb-network.org.

…the deal will mean that PHP programs will run on past and future versions of Microsoft Web server software including the upcoming Longhorn. Zend’s co-founder, Andi Gutmans, said that while PHP has always worked on Windows it never performed very well. The deal will mean that technical improvements by Zend and Microsoft to make it [...]