Categories
Support

JavaScript Dates

JavaScript gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to date functionality. You can easily pull out any segment individually with just a simple function call. However if you want to format a date, you’ll either need to use the built-in format function, or do a long string concatenation which makes your code look messy.

In my spare time, I made a Server Side JavaScript function for Classic ASP. The source and an example is posted on my personal blog. This function allows you to format dates similar to how PHP’s Date function works. I decided it would be amazing if I could just go ahead and tweak this to work with JavaScript on the client side, so I went ahead and modified my current script to extend the JavaScript date object. Here is a quick peak at how to use this.

console.log(new Date(2012, 1, 25, 10).formatDate('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
// 2012-02-25 10:00:00
console.log(new Date().formatDate('l, F jS, Y'));
// Monday, February 27th, 2012
console.log(new Date().formatDate('r'));
// Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:03:40 -0600 

Download formatDate.js

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Blaine Schmeisser

Categories
Support

Windows Compatibility

Recently, while trying to make a Win95 program run correctly in Windows 7, the UAC (User Account Control) was giving me problems. After searching high and low for a solution, I finally found this on the Microsoft Website. Here’s a little text from the page about this software. The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 5.6 contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Windows 7, Windows Vista, a Windows Update, or a new version of Windows Internet Explorer in your environment. I was really impressed with the size and ease of use.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Tony Purkey

Categories
Support

Should you worry about Non-JavaScript Users?

This is a very common question, and the answer varies upon what you are doing. For instance, what is the site’s intention? Who is your target audience? How far can a user without JavaScript get into your website? These are a few of the questions you should consider before building a website.

Less than 2% of users disable JavaScript or don’t have support. This number is rather low, but does that mean they aren’t worth considering? I’ll try and put that into perspective. Let’s assume you have an eCommerce website and sell $10,000/month of product. If you decide to make users have JavaScript in order to check out, you could be losing $200/month or $2,400/year!

I’m not saying you should always make your website plain and boring with no fade in effects or fancy JavaScript rollovers, because users love things like that. However, crucial parts like registering for the website, checking out, emailing support, and other crucial items should all still work without JavaScript.

Yes, you can still make the contact box fade in when they click “contact,” but make sure there is a fallback for users without JavaScript, so they can still contact you. This is easy to accomplish by making the default link go to the real contact page, but use JavaScript to attach a click event to the link. You can still have fancy JavaScript form validation, but make sure you validate on the server and display appropriate error messages as well.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Blaine Schmeisser

Categories
Support

Cannot Update Android Market App

So I clicked on the Android Market icon on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 only to see Client is out of date, an update will download shortly.

I clicked OK and waited for this magic update. Unfortunately, nothing happened. So I went and consulted the almighty Google, only to find outdated posts and similar issues from back in 2010.

I did confirm there was a recent Android Market update on January 25th 2012. I found out that my tablet that was brand new in November of 2011 shipped with version 1.0.28!!

I emailed Google and have yet to get a response. I started searching for Android Market APK and found tons of links to MultiUpload.com. Unfortunately, they have been shut down due to the wonderful new version of Internet Censorship.

Good news though; I did find a semi-recent version of the APK here:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/11/19/download-updated-android-market-v3-3-12/

This is not the newest version of the Android Market. The most recent version is 3.4.4. I downloaded the above version, and it updated itself after that.

I did hunt down another link that is for version 3.4.4, and it is not hosted by MultiUpload.com or BtJunkie.com. You can download it here:

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/12/14/download-new-android-market-version-3-4-4/

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Jed Parmenter

Categories
Marketing

Does your Company Need a Mobile Site?

Your website is your company’s face on the web. It is the avenue through which you either sell your products, or it can be a source of information for your potential customers. Either way you want to put your best foot forward and make the best impression possible. This means you must have not only current, meaningful content, but you must also have a fresh look and feel. All companies that want to maximize their exposure need to have a mobile site. Mobile web browsing is growing at a rapid pace due to increasing smart phone and tablet usage.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Joe Hart

Categories
Marketing

Social Networks Predictions

Google Plus has attained over 62 million users, adding a little over a half a million users daily. Still no reason to abandon Facebook, it seems as if most of Google’s users are fairly inactive. The news stream is pretty slow; people just aren’t posting random status updates on Google Plus like they do on Facebook. From what I can tell, most of the people posting on Google Plus are artists and more tech savvy people. In fact, if I have a tech question, I have found that Google Plus and the networks I have built on it are quite useful tools. It’s still a little disappointing that Google Plus has 62 million users, and my news feed consists of nothing but art, tech news, and kittens.

Facebook has made lots of changes, and even though there has been a public outcry against the changes, most of them are pretty awesome. The new timeline feature is a little confusing at first and takes a few minutes to get set up, but I, for one, like it. Fan pages are still the best free advertising a company could ever dream of. They are also a great means of customer service, and if used correctly, they can give businesses an opportunity to really connect with their most loyal customers. Companies can also offer these loyal customers special deals and incentives on fan pages.

There has been a common conception that people fed up with Facebook changes would leave Facebook for Google Plus. I am not so sure about that. Google Plus is kind of plain and in most cases, people dislike change and new things (hence people leaving Facebook due to all the changes). I have heard some rumblings of people leaving Facebook and going back to MySpace. It makes sense to me; most people already have a MySpace account with all their friends and family connected. They don’t have to set up a new profile, and MySpace has been copying Facebook for a couple years now. So the new MySpace is basically the old Facebook. There is some data now giving further credence as Hypebot reports, with comScore’s latest figures showing that MySpace notches up more unique visitors each month than both Tumblr and Google+. At its peak, MySpace was valued at $12 billion. Even though last year it was reportedly losing 10 million users a month, they are fighters. In fact, at CES, it emerged that MySpace and Panasonic are working on a MySpace TV. With more people getting fed up with changes to Facebook and all the hype behind Google Plus, I think MySpace will entice people to come back.

(Source: Skynet Solutions)

By Ryan Williams