I’m using PHP to get each record. There isn’t much on the web about working with timestamp fields in PHP, so I created the function below to convert and store the OLToken as an integer:

function ConvertOLToken ($theToken)
{
   $OLToken = "";
   for ($i = 0; $i < strlen ($theToken); $i++)
   {
      $Byte = dechex (ord ($theToken[$i]));
      $OLToken .= str_pad ($Byte, 2, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT);
   }
   return hexdec($OLToken);
}

This value is passed back to stored procedures as an integer parameter and used in stored procedures:

IF EXISTS (
   SELECT 1
   FROM [Table]
   WHERE [ID] = @pID
      AND [OLToken] = CONVERT([binary](8), @pOLToken))
BEGIN
...
END

Through trial and error, I established the following works:

1. Add the following lines to wp-config.php:

   define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');
   define('FTP_BASE', '/public/');
   define('FTP_CONTENT_DIR', '/public/wp-content/');
   define('FTP_PLUGIN_DIR ', '/public/wp-content/plugins/');
   define('FTP_USER', '---your username---');
   define('FTP_HOST', 'ssh.phx.nearlyfreespeech.net:22');
   define('FTP_PASS', '---your password---');
   

2. Using PuTTY, log-in.
3. Enter the following command: chgrp -R web *. This will change the group ownership of all files and directories to web. This is the required ownership for WordPress to perform the upgrade.
4. Enter the following command: chmod -R 777 *. This will change the permissions on all files and directories to full public access.
5. Perform any WordPress upgrades; core, plugins or themes. It shouldn’t ask for any connection details.
6. Enter the following command: find . -type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 755. This will reset all directory permissions to read-only for everyone except the owner (you).
7. Enter the following command: find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 644. This will reset all file permissions to read-only for everyone except the owner (you).
8. Enter the following command: chmod -R 775 wp-content. This will update the permissions on the wp-content directory to be 775, allowing uploads, including from the media library.

You only have to do steps 1 and 3 once. Steps 4 to 8 have to be performed for upgrade.

Although not essential, the last three steps should be performed, as it is highly insecure to leave permissions set as public (777).

Also using SSH rather than FTP conforms with the view of NearlyFreeSpeech.net that FTP should not be used as passwords are transferred in plaintext.

Thanks to SNARP for the original article.

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# web services back to the SQL Server.

Like the online booking, the AJAX layer is based on "The Ultimate AJAX object" by Patrick Hunlock, which I’ve found to be one of the only objects that elegantly supports concurrency.

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# web services back to the SQL Server.

The AJAX layer is based on "The Ultimate AJAX object" by Patrick Hunlock, which I’ve found to be one of the only objects that elegantly supports concurrency.

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 POSTed values were lost, so no forms could be used.

I thought all was lost until yesterday, I stumbled across an article on Microsoft’s IIS site.

This walkthrough will guide you through how to enable “Pretty Permalinks” for blog posts in the WordPress blog engine installed on IIS 7.0. Typically, without URL rewriting functionality on a Web server, WordPress users have to use “Almost Pretty” URLs (for example, http://example.com/index.php/yyyy/mm/dd/post-name/). This was the primary option for users who chose to host WordPress on IIS. Now, with the URL rewrite module available, you can have “Pretty Permalinks” (for example, http://example.com/year/month/day/post-name/) for WordPress blogs hosted on IIS 7.0.

This solved all my problems for a major project I’m involved in. It involves the URL Rewrite Technical Preview that can be found here.

[Via: IIS.net]

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.

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.

The WordPress plugin I chose is this one by Semiologic.

A very valuable tool if you’re interested in site usage statistics.

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 easier to run PHP on Windows.

It’s about time PHP got the recognition we all know it deserves.

[Via: The Inquirer, Slashdot]