Reddybrek.com

How to transfer a domain away from GoDaddy.com

Filed under Blog , General , websites

I've used GoDaddy.com for a number of years but recently noticed that their pricing was not as good as some of the competition. I also had my domains "protected" by DomainsByProxy.com which meant that I was locked into paying an extra $8.99 per domain for the privilege of having my whois details hidden.

Recently I decided that enough was enough and that I wanted to move my domains. A simple enough job you might think. Well, just like everything with GoDaddy.com things weren't quiet as easy as they should have been.

The first issue I had was to do with the DomainsByProxy.com. I could not remember my login details at all. I didn't have the username or the password to login. So, how do you turn off domainbyproxy.com when you don't know the account information? The following steps will guide you through this process:

NOTE: You must ensure that you have access to the email account used to register your domain. GoDaddy.com and DomainsByProxy.com will both send notifications, logins, domain transfer codes, etc all to this account so make sure you have access to the email before you start!

• Head over to DomainsByProxy.com and click on "My Account" on the top nav bar.
• Next, click on "Forgot Your Password".
• First you'll want to get your customer number so click on "Retrieve customer number" and enter your domain name along with the little code underneath. An email will be sent to your email account registered for this domain. This can take up to 10mins to arrive so don't worry if you don't get it straight away.
• Now that you have your customer number you can retrieve the password for the account. Go back to DomainsByProxy.com and click on "My Account" again. Click on "Reset Password". Enter in the customer number that you were just sent along with the email address used to register with DomainsByProxy.com. Wait a few minutes and you should receive an email with a link to reset your DomainsByProxy.com password. Click on the link (it only lasts for 2hrs so make sure you do it by then) and change you password to something you will remember.
• Now that you have your username and password, you can log into your DomainsByProxy.com account and turn it off for your domain. Once this is turned off you can continue with your domain transfer.

Turning off the DomainsByProxy.com is vital if you are to transfer your domain as without it your new registrar will not be able to verify your account details and your transfer will fail. Next up you need to unlock your domain for transfer and request the authorization code for transfer.

• Go to GoDaddy.com and click on "My Account" to log into your account.
• Click on Domain Manager from the left hand side menu.
• Next, click on the domain you wish to transfer.
• There should be an option called "Locked". Click on the "Manage" link and a popup will appear with a checkbox checked. Untick this box and click on the OK button to unlock your domain. You should see a success message. This process can take a few mins for GoDaddy.com to process so go make a cup of tea before continuing as the system won't let you do anything else while it's waiting to unlock your domain. You will know once your domain is unlocked as the little padlock symbol on the domain listing will be shaded on your domain. GoDaddy.com will also email you to let you know.
• Once your domain is unlocked, go back to the Domain Manager and click on your domain for transfer. Now go to the "Authorization Code" and click on the "Send By Email" option. This will email you the transfer code required for moving your domain to another registrar.

You are nearly there! Your final step is to actually move the domain to your new registrar. The next few steps are dependent on the registrar you are moving to but typically you would enter in your domain and either click on Renew My Domain or Transfer My Domain from their site. You will be asked for your authorization/transfer code which you can enter and then continue on to pay for your domain. Domain transfers should be free and you should only have to pay for the extra year you purchase for your domain.

Hopefully some of you will find this guide useful.

Simple Resx Editor - A good alternative to using Visual Studio for Resx / Resource Files

Filed under C# , General , Visual Studio , work

I've noticed that some members of my team were having difficulties with Visual Studio when using resource files. Any time they would open a file it would crash Visual Studio. As you can imagine this was very frustrating for all involved.

After a quick search I found a pretty neat alterative editor called 'Simple Resx Editor' by Matías. Currently this resource editor is at version 0.6.2 but it is being worked on at the time to improve the functions available.

The main benefit I like about this editor is that you can open all your resource files, side by side and edit them all in one quick go. This is a perfect setup when dealing with multiple languages as it really speeds things up. If you just want to work on one resource file and you need to know what the Key Name values are simply click on the big Key icon on the top of the app. This little app is small, quick to use and really offers a benefit over the built in editor in Visual Studio in my opinion.

The only snag I noticed while working with the editor is that if you had a very long Value field there are no scrollbars showing. I've left a message to Matías about this issue and I'm sure this will be fixed in the next version of this software.

How to fix the jQuery live event not firing for submit buttons in IE

Filed under General , jQuery

I was recently working on our new website for Dragnet Systems when I stumbled onto an issue with submit buttons not working as expected in Internet Explorer when I was using the .live event for jQuery. Everything works as intended in Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome but Internet Explorer was completely ignoring the form submit clicks.

After doing some reading over on the jQuery forums it turns out that this is an issue quite a few people have run into. The solution I went with was to use a third party plugin called LiveQuery. This plugin ensures that after the DOM has loaded my elements are correctly registered to my events and will work as expected.

Using the script couldn't be easier, simply download the file from the LiveQuery plugin page and in your code use .livequery instead of .live.

There's a good chance that this will be fixed in later releases of jQuery but for now (1.4.2) this is a nice workaround.

How to 'Find All' in Visual Studio

Filed under General , Visual Studio

Before I moved over to Visual Studio I used to code in Dreamweaver. One feature within Dreamweaver that I always found handy was the Find All option for finding all occurrences of the search criteria I had entered.

I always thought that this was a feature missing in Visual Studio as there was no option on the 'Quick Find' (ctrl + F) to find all. The only option on the quick find is to 'find and replace all' which usually isn't what I want to do.

The good news is that Visual Studio has a Find All built into it. To find the option (excuse the pun!) all you need to do is hold Ctrl and Shift and press F or click on Edit -> Find and Replace -> Find In Files. This will open up a dialog box that will let you enter your search criteria. Simply hit the Find All button and you will see a list of results returned to you that match your criteria. You can then double click on any of the search results to go directly to that line of code.

It's a small thing but it's handy to know where to go to use that option. Hopefully it will help someone else out.

How to stop Visual Studio renaming ID values when pasting content

Filed under General , Visual Studio

I actually really like how Visual Studio renames my ID values when pasting content to ensure that all ID values are unique - as they should be. However, the designers on my team always give me a hard time over this as they say it slows them down and that they would prefer if the system would let them decide when to rename ID values. I can see their point if they are copying and pasting code from other project that this 'feature' would soon become very annoying.

So to turn off this feature all you need to do is follow the steps below:

Step1: Go to the menu bar and click on 'Tools' and then 'Options'.

Step 2: On the popup screen than appears there is a little checkbox in the lower left corner that says 'Show All Settings'. Make sure that is selected.

Step 3: Expand the 'TextEditor' option and expand the 'HTML' option.

Step 4: Click on 'Miscellaneous' and untick the option 'Auto ID elements on paste in Source view'.

Step 5: Click OK and now when you paste any html content or code with the same ID values as what is in your project Visual Studio will not rename the IDs.

How to add one day to the calendar date selected using jquery ui

Filed under General , jQuery

I recently has an email come into me asking about a previous post I did regarding the jQuery UI date picker. This person was looking for a way to add some extra functionality to the date picker example I had that would auto default to setting the drop off date textbox value to be one day ahead of the pickup date.

To do this all that is required is to add an extra function within the document.ready() function that fires when the pickup date is changed, add one to the date entered and then put that value into the drop off box. The code to do this is:

$('.pUpDate').change(function() {
    var nextDayDate = $('.pUpDate').datepicker('getDate', '+1d');
    nextDayDate.setDate(nextDayDate.getDate() + 1);
    $('.dOffDate').datepicker('setDate', nextDayDate);
});

Building on the previous examples demo, below is a link to download a working example that includes the above new code snippet.

Download this demo

Top tips on how to be successful with your new website

Filed under General , websites

Over the last few months of this year we've seen a lot of new customers come to us who want their first website. The customers are always great to deal with as there is nothing more exciting that delivering a site to them and seeing their eyes light up when they see their vision become reality. However, one thing I see happen time and again with these customers is that they fail to realise that a website is something that requires constant love and attention. For this reason I'm putting together my list of top tips for people who might be in the same boat and who are looking for advice on how to keep their site relevant after 6 months of taking ownership of their new site.

This guide isn't for regular internet designers or developers but people who might never have owned a website before. These points are all common sense to people who work in the industry but for someone starting out you'd be surprised how many of these points get overlooked. A lot of these points are also just good business tips. This is also a nice follow on guide to my tips for running an online store that I posted in the middle of last year.

Don't expect to get rich overnight - This is one of the most common problems I see. People expect to be "Internet millionaires" as soon as their new website or online store launches only to find that 'Hey, this thing requires a lot of work to get off the ground'. One thing I always tell them is that if this was a get rich quick scheme I'd be loaded by now but unfortunately it's not. Like any new business, it requires a lot of hard work, late nights, and constant marketing to get a new website noticed.

Update your content regularly - You can spend thousands on marketing your website, get the most expensive designer to create a beautiful theme for your store or go to every 'How to run your website' conference going but unless you keep your site fresh by updating the content regularly then people just won't come back.

Answer emails or phone calls from users of your site - New business owners are often a little shy starting off. It's OK, it's natural. Being nervous at the start of your business career is expected but never ignore a phone call or an email from a user on your website. You never know what the user might want. They could be calling to offer you tons of money (doubtful) or just to check if you can deliver item X from your site by next Monday if they order today. No one expects you to work 24hr/7 days a week but even a quick 'Thanks, I'll follow up in the morning' mail would be ideal to let the user know that you got their mail and will be in touch when you get a chance.

Request feedback from your users - Always have a contact form on your site. I'm always amazed at the number of clients who don't want to receive any emails or calls from site users. Think of all the missed sales opportunities you would have without a phone. It's the same thing with a contact form. If you run an online store I would also strongly suggest you put up a contact number for people to call if they have any queries. It all helps add to the confidence for the end user that your website is a proper, legit organization.

Follow up on any enquires or sales queries - Never expect the customer to come back to you about a question they asked a few days ago. If a user asks you about a service you offer or a product for sale then follow up with the user after a week if you hear nothing from them. Never harass the user by sending 44 emails in 30mins. Just a simple one liner asking if they require any further assistance or if they have further questions is all you need to do here.

Do market your new site as best you can - Ok, I know. You've read this one a million times already on other blogs. You need a blog, a Facebook account and a Twitter account, blah blah blah. Unless you are someone who is going to keep site content up to date (see point 2 above) then be careful going down this route. Nothing stands out more than a dead twitter account with 5 posts from that week 12 months ago when you first set it up or from a blog on your site with only 3 posts. Dead social networking accounts are not marketing.

If you don't have loads to say then look into Google AdWords or something similar. Don't overlook tradition marketing mediums either. TV, radio and newspapers are still enjoyed by millions of people. Market your site where your customers will be. If you run a website about fishing then advertise in fishing magazines or local free ads if that's where your customer base will be. Be smart about your marketing and don't let the web designer force you into setting up expensive ad words or pointless online accounts.

Interact with your users - When you have a new website there is nothing harder than getting the name out there. Marketing can help when it's done right, as I've mentioned in the point above. Another option you can do is to offer competitions or polls for users to come to your site and give you feedback on. If you offer services then allow web users to avail of discounts if they make a booking online. If you run a store offer free post to all orders of a certain amount. It all helps make the user think they are getting a benefit for using your site.

Allow users to send links from your site to their friends - A good trick to do on a website is to allow the end user to send a link to the page they are viewing to their friend. Nothing gets your site noticed faster than word of mouth. Make it as easy as possible for end users to spread the word and you're nearly half way there.

Spend your money wisely - You've spent money getting your website or new online store made, you show it to some friends and family and then they come back to you and say 'love it but it's missing feature X'. I don't know how many times I see this with new website owners. They all fall into the same trap of thinking that they need to have this feature on their site for it to success. They're losing millions because it's not online. How could we all have overlooked such an obvious feature?! You can have as many whizz bang features as you want on your site, you can spend thousands building them but unless you have the business basics in place you're wasting your time. All the features in the world are not going to get your site noticed.

You need to focus on marketing and getting the name out there first. All the new super features can wait until version 2 of your site. Of course, no web designer or developer will tell you otherwise as we will happily take your hard earned cash if you want to spend it so keep asking yourself if you need this new feature or if you would just like to have it.

So there you have it. These points are just some little tips to help get you started on your web master journey. The key points are really just what any new business requires to make it - marketing, keep clients happy so they tell their friends and hard work keeping your site up to date with fresh content to encourage users to come back to you. Let me know in the comments if you think I've overlooked anything. If you're a new website owner why not let me know how you're getting on or if you have any tips for other new website owners out there?

Where to go for BlogEngine.net Themes

Filed under Blog , BlogEngine.NET

[Nov 24, 2010 Update]

My theme is now BlogEngine 2.0 compatible. Click here to download it now for your blog.

[Nov 07, 2010 Update]

I've just created my first BlogEngine theme. Download it now over here. More to follow so come back soon.

[June 08, 2010 Update]

I have updated my own site to use a theme called Scruffy. This theme has been updated to take full advantage of the new Blog Engine 1.6 feature set. To download the theme head on over to John Rummell's site here.

[Feb 24 2010 Update]

I just wanted to update this post to help keep it fresh. If you head over to CodePlex there is a download pack containing every existing theme for BlogEngine...well that's what they say but I know of a few that it's missing. Still, it's handy to have over 90% of the themes in the one download. I have also cleaned up the list below as some of the links were dead. If anyone has any new sites with more than 1 theme on them please let me know and I will update the list below.

[Original Post]

Since I started using BlogEngine.net I noticed that the one thing everyone complains about is that the themes are hard to find. I'd have to agree. There are theme sites out there but for some reason they're a little tricky to find.

Below is a list of the current BlogEngine theme sites I have found. These links aren't in any order. I'm also fairly confident that there are tons more sites out there with themes so feel free to add them to the comments and I'll update the list.

blogenginetheme.com - This is one of the larger theme collection sites out there for BlogEngine. The site promotes theme authors to upgrade their themes to be BE 1.5+ compatible by offering to place them on the first page of results if they do. This is a great idea to get some of the better BE 1.3/1.4 themes updated for use on the newer BlogEngine codebase.

onesoft.dk - some fantastic themes here and this is actually where I downloaded my first theme from. Unfortunately the site isn't updated as much as it was in the past but there are still some really nice themes to be found here. Mainly BE 1.3/1.4 themes here.

jankoatwarpspeed.com - This is one of my favourite website to visit. Janko is an ASP.NET guy like most of us (or at least I'm assuming you are because you use blogengine.net!) and regularly has great posts on .net and jquery that you might find interesting. As for themes he has a small collection (compared to the above list) but there are some nice themes here. You might find that you click through for the themes but stay for the content!

mooglegiant.net - There is a small collection of themes on this site. The themes are fairly basic in structure but sometimes that can be exactly what you need. I'm adding here because these themes can be easy and quick to modify and adjust. When you just want to knock out a blog for a client and need just a simple theme, one of these could hit the spot.

rtur.net - A small selection of themes (by which I mean 2) on this site but the developer keeps them up to date for BE 1.5.

geekiest.net - This blogger has a few blogengine themes up on his site. Many of the themes use designs from open source design sites but the list is always growing.

Obviously there is of course the BlogEngine.net site itself which has a large collection of themes on it's theme page and over at the unofficial forum. Most of the themes on those links appear to be older themes for BE 1.3/1.4.

Finally, if you're looking to get stuck in and making your own theme you can read a quick how to over at Al Nyveldt's blog. The screencast is targeted at slightly older versions of BE but the process is pretty much the same for 1.5. He is one of the main developers of BlogEngine and his site has tons of tips and tricks to get the most out of BlogEngine.

If you have any suggestions for some great theme sites out there for BlogEngine let me know and I'll be sure to include them on the list.

Book a taxi online using GlobalTaxiNetworks.com

Filed under C# , General , work , Linq to SQL

GlobalTaxiNetworks.com has finally launched! Now any business can book a taxi, know how much it's going to cost in advance, save favourite journeys, re-book previous journey's, add via routes and even print off invoices all in the click of a button....ok it's a few clicks but it's still a slick system if I say so myself :D

Using the power of Google maps with help from jQuery, C# and Linq to SQL we're able to work out rates for your journey anywhere in Ireland. This system has been built with multiple markets in mind and we're hoping to help roll out the system for Tiománaí Services Ltd (the site system owners) into the UK, western Europe and further over the next 12months.

Initially when I started building the system I wasn't sure if it could be done but from trial and error - and countless late nights! - the site is finally up and running. I have to say that it's been one of the best projects I've worked on while at Dragnet Systems. It's also one of the first systems powered by our newest admin tool technology. The owners of this new system can look after any aspect of this complex system with ease. Everything from approving users who sign up, setting pricing and saving locations on Google maps can all be easily added/updated/deleted in a matter of seconds. As with everything we develop we have ensures that the admin tools get as much love as the front end of the website itself.

I'm really excited by the possibilities this site brings to the market and I'd like to wish everyone in Tiománaí Services Ltd all the best with the site going forward!

Dragnet Systems launched it's newest online store for HennessyCycles.com

Filed under General , Online Stores , work

Dragnet Systems has launched its newest online store for Hennessy Cycles in Fermoy, Cork - http://www.hennessycycles.com. This new store is designed to help Hennessy Cycles race ahead of their competition and offer their customers something a bit different from the usual online bike stores.

Hennessy Cycles will deliver throughout Ireland and UK. Irish deliveries are free. UK orders over €50 will also get free delivery which is fantastic.

It's great to see such a fresh take on the design for our stores, which to date have typically had white backgrounds. I think the darker design really works with the images used on the site. Unfortunately I didn't have any input into this project as it was handled by others in our team but I thought the finished product turned out so well I had to blog about it. Go Team Dragnet! *ahem*