New Software Galore

It's amazing just how many new iterations of well-known server and browser software has been released in the last few months:

Apache 2.2
Php 5.1.x
MySql 5.0
Ruby On Rails 1.0
.NET 2.0
SQL Server 2005
Firefox 1.5

It will likely take a bit of time (and kicking the tires) before these technologies are considered ready for mass consumption by the server admins. All the same, they continue to signify a steady march forward for internet growth and development...

Moving from Mac Mail to Outlook Express

These days it's not too difficult to change email clients if need be. Most clients come with powerful import and export tools, allowing for a fairly smooth transition. This week, however, I ran into an exception when trying to move email messages from Mac Mail 2.0 to Outlook Express 6. The experience left me with the impression that these programs are bitter enemies and loathe the idea of interoperating with each other. Here's some instructions on how to make it work (note: you will also need Eudora 6.2+ free edition installed on the PC):

Starting in Mac Mail do the following for each mailbox you wish to transfer (In, Sent, Deleted, etc.):

1. Select all messages and choose File -> Save As from the main menu. Choose "Raw Message Source" as the format and a name for the group of messages and click the "Save" button. Even though there are no obvious "export" commands from Mac Mail, this will effectively create a file in standard mbox format. However, Outlook Express will not directly import this file type so we'll have to play with it a bit.
   
2. Transfer the file you just created to the PC.
3. Open the directory C:\Documents and Settings\[Account Name]\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora (you will need to go to the View tab under the Tools -> Folder Options menu and select "Show Hidden Files and Folders" to be able to view this folder).
4. If appropriate, rename the file you created in step 1 to match one of the mailboxes in this folder (In, Out, Junk, Trash, etc). Assign this file a .mbx extension.
5. Copy the file from the previous step into the folder you opened in step 3. (Important! Only do this if you don't mind overwriting the email in your Eudora application).
6. Open Eudora and view the mailbox you just copied. This will firmly establish your .mbx file as a Eurdora mailbox. Don't worry if the text in your messages doesn't look quite right - this will soon be remedied.
7. Open Outlook Express. Select File -> Import -> Messages from the main menu. Choose "Eudora Pro or Light" and go through the rest of the wizard. This should properly import all your messages from the selected mailbox into Outlook Express.

A twisted solution? Yes, but it's the only one that I could get to work! If you know of an easier one please post a comment detailing your experience.

The Challenge for Server-Side Java

I'll start with being up front about my Java background. In all honesty if given the choice between Java, .NET and PHP, Java would be my weakest subject. I've written a total of two relatively small Java projects at work and have read two Java related books (one detailing the syntax of the language and the other demonstrating how to use JSP). As such I'm not an expert with this technology, yet all the same I feel as if I've gleaned some observations throughout my limited experience that are worth sharing.

It's a rare thing to find Java being offered from your average web hosting company. Most of them advertise ASP.NET or PHP/PERL as part of their plans...but make no move to go beyond these options. Some of the managed, dedicated hosts (such as Rackspace) offer Java but only by way of do-whatever-you-want-with-your-root-account. And even if a viable Java host is located, the price for such a service tends to be comparatively high.

This is a problem. If server-side Java is to have a future, it must continually be opening itself to new audiences. With less options in small to mid-sized hosting environments, Java is sending an erroneous signal that it isn't as flexible or powerful as competing technologies. Is this because servlet administration is more expensive? To cut down the need for additional hardware, perhaps the JVM can be shared among several applications on one box (similar to the way that ASP.NET shares one worker process among many AppDomains)? Myservlethosting.com describes why a shared JVM might not be a good idea for production applications, even if it might save money on hardware:

A shared JVM is when you share your Java Virtual Machine with other clients on the server. You will use the same memory space as they do. This can mean it being less secure and less robust. Typically there is no security issues, but we felt that we should just mention it. Since you are sharing the JVM with other clients you will not have full control over starting and restarting the servlet engine. Typically a shared JVM is ok if your application is not in production or you are just developing it.

A private JVM is when you have your own servlet engine installed into your home directory and its dedicated to you and only you. This is great for serious developers that need the FULL control over the configuration files, start and restarting the engine, and much more...

I recognize that Java has other barriers to entry. But with tools like Eclipse and Netbeans and a thriving community in the JCP, many past complexities are starting to fade. Hopefully hosting availability for server-side Java will grow to the point where it is affordable, stable and inviting enough to catch the eye of any hesitant hobbyists or small businesses.

The PHP Collaboration Project

Over the course of the last couple of weeks the PHP Collaboration Project has been unveiled. This effort is being supported by many big players in the industry (such as IBM, Oracle, MySQL and Intel among others). So what does this group aim to achieve through this collaboration?

The full description of goals indicate that initially two primary agendas will be pursued. The first is to team up with the Eclipse Foundation to create a new development IDE specifically optimized for PHP developers. While this isn't exactly a new idea, I must say that I would welcome such a standardized tool with the support and weight of most of the industry behind it. Dreamweaver is nice, but it's pricey and not really designed to address my object oriented programming needs like a full IDE could.

The second goal of the PHP Collaboration Project strikes me with less enthusiasm. It calls for the creation of a new framework called the Zend PHP Framework, described as follows:

A Web application framework which standardizes the way PHP applications are built. The Zend PHP Framework accelerates and improves the development and deployment of mission-critical PHP Web applications.

I was under the impression that this framework is already in place...and that it goes by the name PEAR. I guess I'm mistaken. The Zend PHP Framework documentation is rich with words like "simplicity", "clean" and "extensible". In my humble opinion whatever framework they devise will likely be a little clunky until someone gets around to adding namespace support (currently implemented in PAT). Namespaces would likely go a long way towards helping them achieve the organizational goals of this proposed framework.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as if Zend or their partners have released any code yet. Perhaps I'm a bit of a skeptic, but I find it difficult to ignore the coincidence that this collaboration was realized mere months after the EDC reported a significant decline in PHP's adoption and usage. You can almost hear Zend exclaim "Oh snap, PHP kind of sucks for larger enterprise sites and people are starting to notice! We'd better do something!"

Well, they've announced something. Hopefully they'll follow through and help usher in some standardized tools that will continue to make PHP a viable option for web applications.

Data Models

One of the many features that was celebrated by the introduction of .NET was the flexibility of the new ADO.NET data model. For the first time developers had an opportunity to address in-memory data in a standardized way thanks to the System.Data namespace. It allowed access to the data source of choice either via DataReaders (a similar concept graced classic ASP) or by using the new DataSet object. With DataSets developers no longer had to rely on hitting the database each and everytime they required a result set for their pages. Instead they could load the result set once as an in-memory representation of their data and then proceed to work with it as necessary.

While DataSets allow for a great amount of flexibility, they are not a perfect solution for every occasion. For instance, they're generally not a great option to use if you need to cycle through an incredibly large result set. Using a DataSet in this circumstance will likely strain the memory of your server. Additionally, DataSets are a tad bit slower than DataReaders. These are important considerations when planning your solution.

So what is PHP's equivalent of ADO.NET's rich data model? Well...there isn't such a thing. At least as of this writing there is no component within the standard PHP distribution that allows for this kind of behavior. PDO is on the way for PHP 5.1, but this only offers a standard API for addressing multiple databases - not anything in the way of an abstact in-memory representation of the targeted data.

For the most part I get the sense that the PHP community doesn't see this as a problem. There are other worthy priorities that are currently steering this open source project (for example, Unicode support in PHP 6). And even though PHP supports object-oriented features, its extensions are widely functional (SPL and MySQLi are among the small group of exceptions). With this in mind, PHP doesn't strike me as an environment where a heavy object like a DataSet is likely to flourish.

All the same there are times when something like a DataSet would come in handy in PHP. Say, for example you pull a small to medium-size result set from your database. The page that you are working on requires you to sort or transform this data and display it in several different ways. In ASP.NET this would be no problem. You could simply use a DataView object on your DataSet and be on your way. But how could this be addressed in PHP? You could query the database each and every time your page needs to order/organize this result set...but this is bound to slow down your application.

You could definitely write your own data model in PHP or search for an open source implementation - these are very viable options. Here's a cheap way to emulate partial functionality of the DataSet in PHP:

<?php
//Select resultset and save it's rows as elements in an array
$sql= "SELECT * FROM TABLE";
$result = mysql_query($sql, $db);
$resultarr = array();
$resultcount = 0;
while ($resultrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
  $resultarr[$resultcount] = $resultrow;
  $resultcount++;
}

/*
Now throughout this page you can use PHP's array functions to transform the result set for each of the times the data has to be displayed differently
*/
?>

This approach is quick and dirty but it may allow you to reduce the queries on your page while you are preparing or searching the web for a more robust open source option.

Access Denied

In many web shops it's all too often the case that accessibility features get ignored. Either the schedule doesn't allow for the extra time involved in implementing and testing these features, or they just don't bubble up the chain of importance to become any sort of priority. For some unexplainable reason it can be easy for the development community to forget that there are millions of people in the United States alone who have disabilities that can affect the way they interact with software.

What strikes me as morbidly amusing is the notion that sites might generally become more accessible as a result of the recent SEO hype, rather than recognizing the value of accessibility in and of itself. For example, making sure alternate text is available and formatted properly for webcrawlers is also likely to benefit those who surf with screen readers. While many business owners might simply shrug and approve of this two-birds-with-one-stone mentality, it seems as if the ethical implications go silently unaddressed. Don't developers have a responsibility to try to make their software as inclusive as possible for all different kinds of people?

Watchfire has a good site that allows you to test pages for "quality, accessibility and privacy issues". In addition to summarizing other concerns, it gives a good run down on instances in your source where you are not meeting accessibility needs as defined by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative and Section 508 standards. After playing around with this tool I was surprised to discover that even large portal sites have some accessibility problems that need to be fixed. It may be helpful and make you more aware of accessibility issues within your own sites to run this or a similar tool during testing.

Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2

For the past several months I've been evaluating the "Web Developer Express" flavor of Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2. So far, my experiences have been quite positive.

Although not unfamiliar with .NET, up until this point it just hasn't been much of a priority for me to consider this proprietary solution, especially given the outrageous price points on MS SQL Server, Windows Server 2003 and Visual Studio 2003. PHP does all I need for small to mid-sized projects, for the appealing price of free. To quote a famous muppet, "C is for cookie - is good enough for me." As you can imagine, I approached this new release with some hesitation, but was encouraged by the results.

First of all, Visual Studio 2005 loads up much faster compared to older versions. Additionally, old versions of Visual Studio required developers to have IIS installed on their local machines in order to be able to test their web applications. The 2005 version has thankfully done away with this requirement, so ASP.NET applications can now be tested directly from the IDE via an integrated test server. This time around they have also added an FTP utility to the Solution Explorer. Though unessential, it's a nice touch.

The 2.0 version of the Framework is filled with many more choices. To start with ASP.NET now has over fifty new controls! The Toolbox is packed with additional data model components, navigation tools, login controls, webparts and more. Some, such as the login controls, should really help speed up development of sites requiring authentication. Likewise, many of these new controls seem to be focused on saving time and making it easier for developers to achieve functionality that has required a good amount of coding in the past.

If you're anything like me, you probably feel most comfortable in the source view of your .aspx pages. Visual Studio 2005 now respects your style of coding. Changes in design view will not equate to massive reformatting in source view. Additionally, the HTML that is rendered by your work will now emit standards compliant XHTML. Finally!

The main item that disappointed me is the new ASP.NET Configuration Tool. It seems like a nice concept to be able to have one central area where you can manipulate application settings, security settings and provider models...but it just feels like a glorified web.config editor that was tacked on as an afterthought. I think this tool has potential, but it might take another release or two for it to fully mature.

However, when all is said and done, Visual Studio 2005 is shaping up to be a nice product. The "Express" family will be available for $49.00 and includes a stripped-down free version of MS SQL server. So much for using the cost barrier as an excuse to ignore .NET...

Feel free to dig in and evaluate it for yourself:
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/

Evil Robots of Questionable Canned Meats

Like anyone else, I hate spam. It takes up computer resources and wastes time. So I'm happily pleased with the performance of the junk filter integrated with Thunderbird. It seems to do the trick, keeping the unwanted mail in my inbox down to an acceptable level. Dandy.

Lately, however, spam has been biting web developers in a new way. The bots are on the loose. And these aren't your typical run of the mill crawl-the-web-and-collect-email-addresses spam bots. These nasty creatures appear programmed to target forms, intent on finding a way to hi-jack the underlying mail server.

On many forms, especially contact forms, the content from the users submission is used to create the headers of an outgoing email (to, subject, from, etc.). The spam bots now seem to be posting to these forms, attempting to inject additional headers and a message into the existing headers. If unprotected, one of the spammer's injected bcc headers would alert them of their success. Once they know a machine is open to this type of attack they can strike again, loading up the headers with spam recipients and a message of their choosing. Unless you are watching for this, your server can unwittingly deliver these emails, doing the dirty work for the spammer.

In many cases mail servers are already protected against this form of attack, disarming the danger to a mere annoyance. But what if you aren't sure if your mail server is protected? What if the injection attempts are failing, but receiving the fallout from these attempts is cluttering your inbox and driving you nuts?

In PHP, you can protect yourself by making sure your mail headers don't contain the new line character '\n'. Stripping this from your headers before sending your email prevents the spam bots from injecting any additional destructive elements.

<?php
$cleanheader = str_replace('\n', '', $_POST['incomingheader']);
?>

To keep from receiving their failed attempts you might want to revise the code above to try and detect the new line character and kill the script if you suspect foul play.

Flipping Bits

As a web developer I find myself faced with the task of creating reliable, secure, stable code on a daily basis. If you're like me you are constantly looking for a better solution, a way to polish the instruments in your digital toolbox and keep pace with an Internet that is constantly changing and growing.

In this web space I hope to provide informative content that will specifically explore the world of ASP.NET, PHP, Java and how these technologies mesh with the Internet. Additionally, I seek to generate meaningful commentary as a vehicle to interact with other developers.

In other words, welcome!