Code Style: Site log, April 2008

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The Code Style site has evolved by gradual refinement and accumulation of features and content. This review is part of a fully backdated site log and archive that sheds light on when, why and how particular features were implemented.

This log is sometimes updated several times per week, sometimes with a long overdue backlog of items. Many log entries refer to the Code Style Java package that delivers the servlet services and utilities used to manage this site.

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Text ad and sponsored link FAQs, 26^th April 2008

Created new text ads FAQ and sponsored links FAQ sections based on answers to customers' questions over the past couple of years. Included new FAQ menus in the relevant text ad service and sponsored link service information pages. Also updated the PSFTP upload scripts to put new text ad and sponsored links FAQs independently from standard FAQ uploads.

GoogleAnalytics tracking for FAQ external links, 23^rd April 2008

The GoogleAnalytics onclick tracking added to external links on 19 March was applied to the database generated content of the help & FAQ section, but not copied back to the database. Re-generated the FAQ content and used a combination of Tortoise SVN and a TextPad replacement expression to identify the affected answers, update the links and copy back to the database. TextPad uses a replacement scheme that requires all elements the regular expression to be enclosed in \( and \) markers and enumerated in the replacement, which makes it quite verbose:

\(<a href="/servlets/AnchorPoints\?\)\([^"]*\)\("\)\([^>]*\)\(>\)\([^<]*\)\(</a>\)

The back slash before the question mark in the first selection just escapes its special meaning. The first expression, [^"]*, matches all characters up to the first double quote mark. That's followed by a match for the double quote mark itself. The next significant expression, [^>]*, matches all characters up to the next greater than symbol, the end of the open anchor tag. That's followed by a match for the greater than symbol itself. Next match, [^<]* is the text of the hyperlink, up to the next less than symbol, then the end anchor tag itself.

The replacement expression is much simpler, the back slashes followed by numbers represent the matches from the regular expression, the URL and the link text.

<a href="\2" onclick="urchinTracker('\2');" class="External">\6\</a>

Used the TortoiseMerge program to select and copy the changed text and copy into the FaqDataEditor program.

Created a new text ad bookings overview page using a transitional DTD and iframe elements to call in pages from all relevant areas of the site. The individual iframe pages are minimal HTML with standard text ad server side includes.

Removed the synchronized block from the getParentSection() method in FaqSection because it appeared to have caused a NullPointerException when loading the drop down selector list of sections.

Reduced site sponsorship rates in the SponsorSelector class and created an PSFTP upload script for site sponsorship components, plus a Windows batch script to launch.

Site log archive to January 2008, 13^th April 2008

Archived site log entries from September 2007 to January 2008 and created a site log contents 2007 page with additional archive menu links.

Font survey connection pool bug fixed, 12^th April 2008

Found and corrected a bug in the database ConnectionPool class used by the font survey FontStats servlet to generate survey results. The connection obtained from the DriverManager getConnection(String, String, String) method was not being assigned to the relevant variable, which produced NullPointerExceptions. Also took the opportunity to standardise the code style for these classes; declared numerous variables final, applied clearer conditional logic to check error cases and connection pool status.

Completed latest update to the font survey results and updated the data management scripts for the survey to store submissions in a separate location from the SQL build scripts for the system.

Latest updates to the Code Style font survey results:

Windows font survey results
Mac font survey results
Unix family font survey results
Combined survey results for all platforms

Also made minor enhancements to various utilities and assets:

Reformatted the SQL output of the mailing list file template to ensure that an empty realname value is inserted if none is submitted.
Added new lines to the ServiceLogClientParser SQL output after each statement.
Created and released a final darker blue version of the new Eurostile favicon image:

New text ad service prices, 10^th April 2008

Re-ordered the constants in the TextAdSelector servlet class and adjusted the standard prices for each service area. Added new discount constants to CustomerDiscount and updated customer rates. Also updated the text ad service page with latest prices. Added the server side include for text ad prices to the PSFTP upload script for text ad updates.

JTidy development notes, 4^th April 2008

Published a new JTidy development notes article drawing on notes from the Code Style site log archive and free open source MKSearch project. Added links to the new article to all relevant index pages.

Previously on Code Style

These backdated pages record detailed changes to the Code Style Web site since July 2000, when development first got underway. Some pages may refer to documents or features that have since changed or are no longer part of the site, but the archive is checked to ensure there are no dead links.

Site log, origins to present

Month: Year:

For a summary overview, see the annotated site log contents.

April 2008 on Code Style