Sitemap Generator

This standalone sitemap generator script is really a timesaver, not only when it comes to creating sitemaps but also finding broken links and inspecting the site structure. It also keeps a log of changes - new URLs that’s been added and URLs removed from the site.

I’ve been working on an enormous site recently and wouldn’t get by without this tool - it found all broken links (about 800 of them..ugh)

PayPal Field format error: Invalid or missing START/NEXTPAYMENTDATE field

This error appears when you try to submit an initial recurring transaction to PayPal’s Payflow Pro gateway.

I was puzzling over this issue for days and had no clue why it was happening. The form worked fine most of the time, and once in a while I would get this error. A similar setup for one of my other clients worked fine 100% of the time. So after some googling and code-digging I found the root of the problem: the “ProfileName” field was being dynamically generated, and if it had strange characters, like “&” (ampersand) or was too long, that would trigger the Start/Nextpaymentdate error (because the “Start” field immediately follows the “ProfileName” field in the string sent to PayPal). To fix this, make sure your “ProfileName” value is something static, like “MonthlyPayment”. That should take care of this.

Gmail stopped working in iPhone after update

Ugh! It was so annoying. Here’s what fixed mine:

- Delete Gmail email account from your iPhone. Settings -> Mail -> Account -> Delete Account

- Reset your network settings. Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings

- Add Gmail account again . Settings -> Mail -> Add account -> Other

- Follow the instructions from Google: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=77702

iPhone/iTunes “not authorized” error

If you see this errorĀ  saying “You are not authorized to install the apps” go to “Store” - > “Authorize computer” in iTunes and click on “Authorize”. This should fix it.

I got this error when I installed the new update on iPhone and was trying to download apps from my work computer.

Screenshot capturing software - Jing

Very cool program (from the creators of Camtasia) to make screenshots and video - lets you save it as file, upload to Jing’s online storage (free!) or Flickr or FTP.

http://www.jingproject.com/

As cool as email testing can get

I’m having a crazy morning trying to troubleshoot an email template for Lotus. The problem is that it shows fine in Lotus 7 and 8, but one person on the client side is using weird Lotus 7.0.2 and it just wouldn’t show normally there. Black text on white background inside a table cell is missing! WTF! Once I calmed down ands stopped screaming “Just tell them to get a normal email and stop bothering me” I looked around for a solution that would allow me to test the template in all those weird lotus versions. And here’s an awesome one: LitmusApp. The interface is superslick and they also give you a 1 hour pass to test it! I was able to view and troubleshoot my email in that hour. So if you’re having email testing pains like me, give it a try.

Creating Print Versions of Pages

I was just thinking about how best to handle having web version of a page and a print version. There’s two approaches, one of them is having 2 separate pages www.tanyanam.com/contact and www.tanyanam.com/contact?version=print. But when you think about SEO, you’d have to either put “NOINDEX” on every printable page or block them in robots.txt. That’s a lot of work, and what I hate most about it is that you have to have 2 versions of each page on your site!

So a much better approach would be to have a stylesheet for the printable version and just switch the CSS files based on whether it is a browser, printer, mobile, etc. A great article on how to accomplish this: http://www.alistapart.com/stories/goingtoprint/

HTML/CSS/PHP code editors

An excellent article from Smashing Mag with the list of editors for different platforms. Also includes features and pricing.

The one I like? EditPlus! (yeah yeah, I’m on Win, so what? :) It’s lightweight, loads in seconds, yet has all the features I need. I would suggest improving the regular expression support for search & replace, other than that I’m pretty happy.

EditPlus Screenshot

My favorite photoshop tutorials

Basics: http://www.myjanee.com/tutorials.htm

Intermediate: http://laughingsquid.com/you-suck-at-photoshop-by-donnie-hoyle/ (warning: super hilarious)

Advanced and all levels: http://psdtuts.com/ http://abduzeedo.com/

How to improve your website - quick and easy

Great roundup on site improvement - from copywriting to design and SEO to legal stuff.

http://www.insidecrm.com/features/101-web-site-fixes-031808/

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