Category Archives: Clippings

Clippings, Tools

Generate CSS sprites from cmd with css-sprite and node.js

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Update: I’ve also found a different method, this time instead using a Python script called “Glue“.

I did this about 12 months, but recently had to setup a new development environment.
Here are some notes on setting up css-sprite.

  1. Install node.js
  2. Install css-sprite 
    npm install css-sprite -g
  3. Have fun.

Usage:

  1. Create two folders src (add png files here) and images
  2. run the command from cmd: 
    css-sprite images/ src/*.png -p scss -s sprite.scss
  3. (Here I'm using scss, you can choose from LESS, SCSS or CSS, depending on the project).
Clippings

Spago BI Installation

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TL;DR

Installing Spago BI.

  1. First install JDK and set 3 system paths:
    • JAVA_HOME: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk<version>
    • JRE_HOME: C:\Program Files\Java\jre<version>
    • Add to PATH: ;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk<version>\bin
  2. Now run the SpagoBI installer.
  3. Run SpagoBI from Start Menu
  4. Open up a browser and enjoy.

Here are some rough notes from installing Spago BI in a somewhat blind way. (I should have probably read the docs first.)

Installation Platform:

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 x64
  • 2gb ram
  • 2 vcpus
  • XenServer 6 as host.
  1. Download the SpagoBI 4.2 installer and unzip and run.
  2. Run installer, I ticked all the options (not sure that this was the best idea).
  3. Each package selected in Step 2 has to be individually downloaded, so it takes a while.
  4. Java needs to be installed. I grabbed the JDK from Ninite.
    But the System Path Variables also need to be put in place before Spago will run. (I used the Program Files (x86) folder in the paths below).

    • JAVA_HOME: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk<version>
    • JRE_HOME: C:\Program Files\Java\jre<version>
  5. After startup, open your browser at:
    http://localhost:8080/SpagoBISpagoBI login page will appair. Log yourself as:
    – biadmin/biadmin (technical user)
    – biuser/biuser (business or functional user)
    – bidemo/bidemo (showcase user)
  6. Nothing loaded for me. Trying a reboot.
  7. Reading the console output, I possibly shouldn’t have left everything ticked in step 2, now that it has to try and load them all.
    Finally it loaded and reported the following in the console:
    INFO: Server startup in 630557 ms (that’s 10.5 minutes!)
  8. Can’t connect to sample database, I found a “start.bat” file which complained about not having access to “JAVA”. Looks like I need to add JAVA bin folder to the System Path. Restarting Spago / Tomcat
  9. This time round, a second command prompt window has also opened loading the foodmart database.
  10. Demo now appears to be working.
Clippings

asp.net Clean up CSS output

How to get rid of all the ugly auto markup generated in ASP.net:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/03/30/cleaner-html-markup-with-asp-net-4-web-forms-client-ids-vs-2010-and-net-4-0-series.aspx

New ClientIDMode Property on Controls

ASP.NET 4 supports a new ClientIDMode property on the Control base class.  The ClientIDMode property indicates how controls should generate client ID values when they render.  The ClientIDMode property supports four possible values:

  • AutoID—Renders the output as in .NET 3.5 (auto-generated IDs which will still render prefixes like ctrl00 for compatibility)
  • Predictable (Default)— Trims any “ctl00” ID string and if a list/container control concatenates child ids (example: id=”ParentControl_ChildControl”)
  • Static—Hands over full ID naming control to the developer – whatever they set as the ID of the control is what is rendered (example: id=”JustMyId”)
  • Inherit—Tells the control to defer to the naming behavior mode of the parent container control