Not Just AJAX: May 2008

Friday 23 May 2008

RSS Directories & Blog Directories

After many hours of surfing around the web I have found some great places to submit your RSS feed

Feedburner.com - Great site to create and manage your blog stats and feed

RSS Network
Syndic8
RSS News Feed Directory
CompleteRSS
RSS Feeds
Feedster
Search4RSS
Finance Investing
FeedPlex
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/my/cgi_rss_submission
RSS Locator
ping.in - this is a way of informing the world about changes to your blog

There are also a few places to submit your actual blog
http://www.bloggingfusion.com/submit.php
http://www.technorati.com/ping.html
http://www.icerocket.com/c?p=addblog
http://www.addyourblog.com/submit.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/add.jsp
http://www.blogexplosion.com/
http://www.google.com/addurl/

for a full list why not visit http://www.toprankblog.com/rss-blog-directories/ if you want to just submityour blog or rss to the whole world.

I do not intend to list all the blog or RSS directories out there, but I will list the ones I have found that actually work and bring traffic to your blog.

So stay tuned

Thanks
Sean J Connolly
Visit AJAX Web Development Store

DMS - Document Management, Webmail
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting

Monday 19 May 2008

Ebay Partner Network and Blogger - Basic

I realised that I am too techy ad a lot of people out there don't want a techy answer to a techy problem. So I am going to explain how to change the code given by the Ebay Partner Network and make it work in Blogger.

1. Get you code from Ebay Partner Network

Looks like this

2 . Remove the <noscript> section, leaving

3. Copy the Hyperlink (highlighted below)

The link looks similar to

http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/55956/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&mpt=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*999999999999) + "&adtype=3&size=468x60&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc=

4. Paste the link into the PUT YOUR LINK HERE section below

and end up with something that looks like

Now paste the <noscript> section remove above after this new section, to leave something that looks like.

If you have any problems using this code, or need more help, just drop a comment and I will give you a helping hand.

Saturday 10 May 2008

301 - 301, 404, 500 What does it all mean?

I started thinking about the world and me heddy days as a cicso bod, yes I was a network engineer, I hold the coverted CCNP for my sins.

Now I have heard lots of talk in my current world of development about what response codes mean, from both a code point of view and a web SEO (search engine optimisation) point of view.

The normal thing to happen when a request for website or web object is made is that the server will give a response, and the response is a number reflecting the state of the intended destination.

We have all heard of the dreaded 404 - page not found.

The Response Codes

The response codes start at 100 and go up to 500. I am going to give an overview of the meaning of the most common types.

Note 1## means the 100 range.

1## - Anything in this range is purely an informational response and tells you the destination can receive a request. This is a part response and normally occurs dur to proxy before another response is returned.

2## - This means you had a successful response.

200 - Success - request was successful

The 200 response is the most likely success response, but there are also the following success responses

201 -Response was created succesfully
202 - Response was accepted.
203 - Response was successfuly but is non-authoritative.
204 - Response was successful but is enpty of content.
205 - Response was successful but the content sent has been reset.
206 - A partial response, only part of the content was returned.
207 - Successful but a multi status response, i.e in parts.

3## - This is a redirection, the client browser needs to do further action to reach content

This response is the most likely one to cause issues with your website in the search engines, if you are moving your website you should carryout a permanent redirect.

301 - Resource has moved permanently from this location (this redirection is normally done within the server software, not in the coding on the server)

There are other 300 response codes that you should be aware of

302 - Resource has been moved, this is seen as a temporary redirect (mornally done in server code)
304 - The resource is not modifed and neither is the path to it, normally seen by search engines when you use any proxy.
307 - Resource has been moved but only temporarily (normally done in server code)

One note on the redirection responses codes, it is better to do a 301 redirect, that is do it with the server.

To do a permanent 301 redirect - the one the search engines like.

In IIS

1. Go into IIS Manager
Expand you website list and go into the properties for the site you want to redirect
Click on the Home Directory Tab
Select the A Redirection to a URL option
Enter the new URL in the Redirect to box (including http://)
Tick the exact URL entered above box
Tick the A permanent redirection for this resource box
Click Apply

This mean you have permanently moved your website. If you do not select the permanent redirect option, the redirection will be seen as a temporary redirect or a 302.

4## - This mean a client error has occurred, such as it cannot find or get to where it was heading, and is most commonly cause by an incorrect link or a typo.

The most common type of 400 error is the 404.

404 - Page Not Found or resource not found

There are alot of 400 errors that can occur but the other most common ones other than 404 are

400 - this is a bad request
401 - Access Denied - the client cannot access the resource because of credentials given
403 - This means the client cannot access the resource as it is forbidden to do so, normally caused by either a file error or IP restriction problem, or if your lucky just too users accessing your website at one time.
406 - client browser does not support server MIME type, can occur dut to old browsers

5## - This is a server error, most commonly due to coding problems

The most common 500 error is

500 - Internal server error - probably an error in the website code

About response codes

There are lots of error codes and this blog is aimed at giving you an idea of the most common ones and the causes of them.

Checking for response codes

If you are listening for a response code to be returned, teh best way is jsut to listen for the parent response, such as checked for a 200 reponse for a successful request.

Search Engine Listing and Redirection

The main things to take into consideration are when moving your website, and follow the instructions above to help you with your search engine listings, if you are moving your website make sure you do a 301 redirection.

Thanks
Sean J Connolly
Visit AJAX Web Development Store

DMS - Document Management, Webmail
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Ebay and Blogger - the Explanation

In this post I am going to explain the steps of turning your ebay Partner Network code into code that works in Blogger.

Ok so here we go.

Step 1 - Get your code from Ebay Partner Network

Looks like this

<script language='JavaScript1.1'> document.write("<sc"+"ript language='JavaScript1.1' src='http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/55956/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&mpt=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*999999999999) + "&adtype=3&size=468x60&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc='></sc"+"ript>");</script><noscript> <a href='http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-7/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc='> <img border='0px' src='http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/710-53481-19255-7/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&mpt=[CACHEBUSTER]&adtype=1&size=468x60&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc=' alt='Click Here'> </a></noscript>

Step 2 - Remove what we dont want

Ok firstly let me explain Ebay gives you a bunch of code that works for browsers that support JavaScript and for browsers that dont' support JavaScript or have it disabled.

So the bit we are only interested in really is the bit before the <noscript> section or in other words the bit that looks like.

<script language='JavaScript1.1'> document.write("<sc"+"ript language='JavaScript1.1' src='http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/55956/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&mpt=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*999999999999) + "&adtype=3&size=468x60&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc='></sc"+"ript>");</script>

A small word of warning you need the <noscript> section when you post your code to blogger, unless you do not want to cover non JavaScript browsers with your advert. So just cut this bit out and paste in into a text editor for later use.

So cut out the bit that looks like

<noscript> <a href='http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-7/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc='> <img border='0px' src='http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/710-53481-19255-7/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&mpt=[CACHEBUSTER]&adtype=1&size=468x60&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc=' alt='Click Here'> </a></noscript>

WE NEED THIS LATER SO KEEP IT SAFE

Step 3 - Breaking it apart

So now we have the bits of code from Ebay that we want, we need to remove what we dont want. Start by removing the following bits.

Remove the <script lanuage='JavaScript1.1'>
Remove the </script>

You should now be left with a JavaScript statement without the code enclosure, in other words something that looks like

document.write("<sc"+"ript language='JavaScript1.1' src='http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/55956/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&mpt=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*999999999999) + "&adtype=3&size=468x60&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc='></sc"+"ript>");

Ok now remove the following bits

document.write("<sc"+"ript language="JavaScript1.1" src='
'></SC"+"RIPT>");

You should now be left with something that looks likes the following

http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/55956/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&mpt=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*999999999999) + "&adtype=3&size=468x60&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc=

As you can guess this is the basic link to Ebay for our product. Copy and paste this link into a blank notepad document or into another text editor or development program.

WE NEED THIS LATER SO KEEP IT SAFE

Step 4 - Rebuilding what we want

Now we have the basic link for the link to ebay we need to assemble this into something that will work in Blogger.

Its a good idea to start building the new link from scratch either in your web development program or in notepad.

For this example we are going to start with a blank notepad document.

In your blank document

Type <script language="JavaScript1.1"> press enter/return
Type document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='
Paste directly after this the link you save earlier in step 3i.e http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/55956/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&mpt=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*999999999999) + "&adtype=3&size=468x60&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc=
Type ' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); press return/enter
Type </script> press return/enter
Paste the <noscript> section we saved in step 2

You now should have code in your document that looks like

<script language="JavaScript1.1">

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/55956/1?campid=5335857286&toolid=55956&customid=&mpt=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*999999999999) + "&adtype=3&size=468x60&def=u7v&n3y=1&u7v=1&a3h=1&mpvc=' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));

</script>

Step 5 - Adding it to Blogger

Now we have the code we need for our advert we simply login to our blogger dashboard and do the following

Click Layout Tab
Click the Page Element tab - if you dont see this you need to click to customise your template.
Click add page element where you want your ad to appear
In the pop up click the add HTML / JavaScript option
Paste in your code from above and click save.

Congratulations you now have Ebay Partner Network code working on your website.

Thanks
Sean J Connolly
Visit AJAX Web Development Store

DMS - Document Management, Webmail
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting