With a couple of tweaks we’ve managed a nice stable single instance WPF application for Xtractor following this advice from John Melville’s blog.
Of course using your own Main method causes problems for Blend, so we also made use of this advice from the Blend and Design Team’s blog.
If like me you run an installation of DasBlog in a sub folder/app then you may run into this error message when you start using ASP.net 2.0 membership/role providers in the base app.
The SSE Provider did not find the database file specified in the connection string. At the configured trust level (below High trust level), the SSE provider can not automatically create the database file.
All that is required to fix is to add:
<roleManager enabled=”false”/>
to system.web in the DasBlog web.config.
Gigajam have started a blog, one of the exiciting entries is that they have released all their TV shows online for free.
That’s over 6 hours of video lessons for guitar, bass, keyboard and drums.
Updated post: http://www.teknohippy.net/2008/03/04/paypal-ipn-pdt-analytics-tracking-getting-there/
Trying to track E-commerce transactions with Google Analytics (GA) and PayPal can be problematic.
PayPal has two ways of returning data to your server. Payment Data Transfer (PDT) and Instant Payment Notification (IPN).
PDT can be used to setup GA tracking by including the relevant GA scripts on a receipt page, processing the PDT data server-side and populating those scripts. Instruct PayPal that this page is your “return” page and when visitors return to it the e-commerce and goal data will be tracked.
The big problem with this is that PayPal users do not have to return to the receipt page, even if you’ve turned on the auto return feature. The pause before redirecting is very long and many people just abandon on the PayPal pages.
IPN on the other hand will always get triggered. The problem is it calls a script on your server from PayPal’s server-side scripts. This means your IPN script never runs in the users browser and so the GA JavaScript is never executed and no tracking will happen.
Now at it’s heart all the GA script really does is assemble a call to an image on the GA servers, __utm.gif to be more specific. Appended to this request is a lengthy querystring with all the information for Analytics to log.
It should therefore be possible to capture users info or the actual __utm.gif querystring on the page just before leaving for PayPal, temporarily store this in a database against the users SessionID, and pass the SessionID to PayPal as a custom pass-through variable.
The easiest way to collect the querystring from the pre-PayPal page is to set “_userv = 2;” in the tracking code. This means that __utm.gif will be requested from both the Analytics server and your server. Trap the call to _utm.gif with some server-side script and you’ve got the whole querystring very easily, as well as the corresponding SessionID.
The user is now off to PayPal to complete their transaction.
Then in your IPN script, lookup the SessionID and recover the __utm.gif querystring, change the utmp path variable for the path of the reciept page and then use your server-side script to make an http request to __utm.gif.
This will then at least track and goal reporting will work. The IP address will be wrong but the rest of the data will be correct.
More complex is building the querystring for the __utmSetTrans() call. I’ve had a look into what’s sent and a separate call is made to __utm.gif for the transaction and each item within it.
I suppose it would be possible to set _userv to 0 and only have a local __utm.gif request on the checkout page. Then the Ecommerce tracking data could also be included. All the script hiding behind the local __utm.gif needs to do is record all requests when visitors hit the checkout page. It can pass on the actualy request for the tracking (but not the transaction), when it happens. Then in the IPN script the tracking request path can be rewritten and replayed, followed by the transaction requests. Sounds like it should work.
I guess I should go make it happen and test it!
Google have combined Google Spreadsheets and Writely into Google Docs.
Logging in I discover that both my Google Spreadsheets and Writely documents are all there available to me, nice.
Someone just said this to me and it really sums up how I’m feeling today.
“Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they’ve got me parking cars.”
I’ve just wasted half an hour of my life working out why IMG tags are missing and have been stripped out of the HTML source on my directors laptop.
The key to it was some Javascript that had been injected.
Function SymError()
So if you see this it’s Norton Internet Security and it’s advert blocker at work, seems there’s a list of banned words for images. One of which is “banner”.
So there I am using a perfectly self descriptive image name of main.banner.jpg, which just happens to be an innocent header image spanning the page, and it’s gets wiped out by some lazy cunt at Symantec.
Seems many strings are just wripped out. Here’s a full list. Images of certain sizes are also stripped out as well.
Blocked Strings
CLink
%23CLink
%2Fads%2E
%3Fad%2E
&ad_
&banner=
-ad.cgi
-ads/
.ad.
.ads.
.ads/
.bluestreak.com
.eshop.
.net-on.com
.webconnect.com
/199.78.52.
/?ad.
/ad-
/ad.
/ad/
/ad_control
/ad_image
/ad_track/
/adbot.
/adclient.
/adcontent.
/adcouncil/
/adgifs/
/adgraph/
/adimages/
/adinfo/
/adjuggler/
/adlog.
/adman.
/adnet.
/adnet/
/adpics/
/adpopup
/adproof/
/adredirect/
/adrevolver/
/ads-
/ads.
/ads/
/adsales
/adserv
/adspace
/adsrc
/adv/
/advert/
/advertentie
/advertise/
/advertiser/
/advertisers/
/advertising/
/adverts/
/adview.
/banner.
/banner/
/banner=
/banner_images/
/banners/
/by.banclk?
/clickover.
/cyberfirst
/follow_ad?
/generate_ad.
/graphics/advert
/htmlad/
/jbanner/
/liveads/
/nph-bounce?
/nph-load?
/nph-redir?
/promo_gif/
/promos/
/promote/
/promotions/
/rankem.cgi?action=
/sponsor.
/sponsor/
/sponsors/
/videobanners/
/viewad/
1-2-free.com
199.172.144.25/2
?acb=acb
?ad.cgi
?ad=
?Adcode=
?adlink
?adserv
?adv=
?advertID=
_ad.
_ads/
a32.g.a.yimg.com/7
ad.doubleclick.net/click
ad.infoseek.com
ad.linkexchange.com
ad.preferences.com
ad.tw.doubleclick.net/ad/
adbanner
adbot.com
adcenter.in2.com
AdClick
adcount.hollywood.com
adlink.htm
adlink.preferences.com
adman.medius.net
adoptimizer
adredir.asp
ads.adsmart.net
ads.clickagents.com
ads.imagine-inc.com
ads.imdb.com
ads.infospace.com
ads.lycosasia.com.sg/RealMedia/ads/
ads.narrowline.com
ads.realmedia.com
ads.softbank.net
ads.usatoday.com
ads.washingtonpost.com
ads.web.aol.com
ads.web21.com
adserver.adtech.de
advertisements
advertising.com
alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=
allpolitics.com/ads/
ar.atwola.com
badservant.guj.de
banner_ad
bannerad
bannerexchange.com
bannerpower.com
bannerswap.com
BF_Home_AD
bfast.com/booklink
cc-dt.com
click1.wisewire.com
click100.genesis.com
click2.wisewire.com
click2net.com
clk_thru^
commonwealth.riddler.com
count4all.com
crosswalk.com/click.ng/transactionID=
dirtycash.com
ds.cybereps.com
exchange-it.com/click.go?
eyeblasterscript
fastclick.net/w/click.here
findcommerce.com/tracking
flycast.com
focalink.com
GeoAD?
globaltrack.com
globaltrak.net
hg1.hitbox.com
home.keycity.com/addd2000/ok.shtml
http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/a
images/mainad
imgis.com
impartnet.de/cgi-bin/
infoback.net
infoseek.com/redirect
java.yahoo.com/a/1-/flash
java.yahoo.com/a/1-/java
java.yahoo.com/a/a-/flash
java.yahoo.com/a/a-/java
linkexchange.com
linksynergy.com
mantel/
maxcash.cgi?
mediahits.com/click.fcg
mediaserv.247media.com
mirror.qkimg.net
movielink.com/media/imagelinks/MF.ad
movielink.com/media/imagelinks/MF.sponsor
netads.hotwired.com
netbanner.com/cgi-bin/
nrsite.com
pagecount.com
pathfinder.com/r0/marketing
pathfinder.com/sponsors
pegasoweb.com
pennyweb.com
progcgi.ads/
qksrv.net
rd.yahoo.com/M=2
rd.yahoo.com/M=3
rd.yahoo.com/M=4
rd.yahoo.com/M=5
rd.yahoo.com/M=6
rd.yahoo.com/M=0
rd.yahoo.com/M=1
rd.yahoo.com/M=7
rd.yahoo.com/M=8
rd.yahoo.com/M=9
register-it.netscape.com/
mbclick.com/
rn11.com
safe-audit.com
service.bfast.com
showad.asp
smartclicks.com
spinbox.
stats.hitbox.com
submit-it.com/images
telecom-pros.com/images
test1234567890
textchange.com/cgi-bin/
tracker.clicktrade.com
tracker.tragedoubler.com
us.a1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/a
valueclick.com
vk4Voam2y
vwWzJwWLv9m2Cr
websponsors.com/cgi-bin/
webunion.com/cgi-localbin/click.cgi?
weg352o643t322c463h321a
ww3.cybercity.com/tw/adexe/
www.247media.com.tw
www.admax.com.tw/
www.admax.com
www.ads.warnerbros.com
www.anonymozer.com/cm/door.cgi?
www.asiad.net/
www.banner.com.tw/
www.bannerwomen.com
www.clickadhere.com/
www.clickxchange.com/fr.phtml
www.cyberone.com.tw
www.epaper.com.tw/cgi-bin/adm/ad_red
www.halee.com/advert/
www.link4link.com/cgi-bin/
www.marketspace
www.modchip.com/clickcgi/click.cgi?
www.netvigator.com.tw/popad/
www.nj.com/adverts
www.nrsite.com
www.search.com/Banners
www.warehouse.com/netbuyer/ticker/
www.whispa.com/tracking/
www.wishing.com/webaudit/
yahoo.com/adv/
yahoo.com/CategoryId=0
yimg.com/images/compliance
Blocked image sizes
Images:
125x125
160x600
180x150
234x60
240x400
250x250
300x250
336x280
468x60
88x31
120x90
120x60
120x240