Tag: web

Posted on in Security, Software

SSL unable to get local issuer

If you have installed an SSL certificate and appears to work fine in the browser, but does not work on places like the W3 feeds validator or iTunes Connect, a good way to debug it is to use cURL from the command line.

You may get back an “unable to get local issuer certificate” error.

$ curl https://www.your-domain.com/
curl: (60) SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate
More details here: https://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html

If so, this means that you have successfully installed your SSL certificate, but you have not included the intermediate certificates. These form an essential part of the chain up to the root certificate and need to be included when you install it.

They are typically distributed in .bundle files that come with your .crt file.

Posted on in Programming

What is CSS?

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets.

CSS Styles are used to define how to display HTML elements. Styles are normally stored in internet or external style sheets. Styles were added to HTML 4.0 because developers disliked having to define every bit of text using tags like <font>. External CSS files are stored using the .css extention though they can be saved in HTML format. Multiple style definitions will cascade into one,

External style sheets can save you a lot of time, as you can change the look of the page, just by changing the external file. CSS Style Sheets are supported by both Nescape 4.0 and Internet Explorer 4.0.

CSS cascades

You may have multiple style sheets saying different things in your document. In this case they will be ordered in priority as follows:

1) Inline Style Sheets (inside an element)
2) Internal Style Sheets (inside the head tag)
3) External Style Sheets
4) Browser Default

So for instance an inline style tag would overrule and internal style sheet, but a browser default would not overrule an external style sheet.

Posted on in Programming

Opening pop-ups in Flash

You can call JavaScript functions from your flash movie. This tutorial will show you how to call a pop up window opener function from your movie when a user clicks a button. You can create the html page in any text editor.

1. Create a simple button in Flash. You could also just drag one out of the shared library. You then need to open up the actions menu and insert the following code:

on (release) {
getURL("JavaScript:popup();");
}

This code will call the JavaScript when a user clicks on the button. Once this is done goto File > Publish and publish your movie. Make sure the publish settings are set to publish the file with a html document.

2. Now you need the code for the JavaScript function.

<script language="JavaScript">
function popup() {
window.open('http://www.hardwaretutorials.com/','','toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,
scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=400,height=400,left=0,top=0');
}
</script>

This code can be modified. The first section is the page URI. The second section is your options such as do you want to make it resizable and have scrollbars. The first section has width, height and location from left and top in. Make sure the “window.open” line and the line below are on the same line.

3. Now open your text editor and find the html file generated when you published your movie. Open it and insert the JavaScript function just below the tag. Now save the page.

4. Open the file in your browser. Clicking the button should now open up the pop up window.

Posted on in Programming

Making your Flash movie transparent

Making your movies transparent allows you to see the background on bits where there is nothing in the movie. However this is actually nothing to do with the settings in Flash when publishing movies. The trick is in the html file that the movie is added into.

Transparency in movies will only work in Internet Explorer 4+ and won’t work in Netscape.

To make your movies transparent, simply paste this code in between the HTML Object tags.

<param NAME="wmode" Value="transparent"

And so, the embedding code for the SWF file for the second example (transparent) is as follows:

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" ID="himalayas" WIDTH="250" HEIGHT="100">
<param NAME="movie" VALUE="himalayas.swf">
<param NAME="quality" VALUE="high">
<param NAME="wmode" Value="Transparent">
<embed src="himalayas.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
WIDTH="250" HEIGHT="100" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash">
</object>

Note: the above source file doesn’t include some key information like the Base Code URL due to the text width limitations.

Limitations

The transparency (as well as any other cool new technology) doesn’t work in Netscape at all. Use Internet Explorer to be able to view transparent Flash Content.

For the transparency effect to work as desired, don’t add a filler background element to your movies. Many developers add a large, white rectangular box, etc. to simulate white color. Make sure the drawing area behind the main movie is clear of any unwanted colours, etc (it will show up in the final animation).

Posted on in Programming

Turning a form button into a link using JavaScript

Bored of ordinary links? Then try using buttons. This can work well if there are a series of them lined up in a navigation bar especially if you using image backgrounds or CSS styles to make them look good.

First of all, there is the script that goes into the head of your page.

<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
function goToURL() { window.location = "http://www.hardwaretutorials.com/"; }
-->
</script>

Amazingly simple. Your normal JavaScript tags with a link function. Now for the button which goes in your pages body tag:

<input type=button value="New JavaScripts" onClick="goToURL()" />

Of course, you should never use buttons, or JavaScript links, because they create usability problems. Also, this is also invalid HTML. But it will work in almost all browsers.

Posted on in Programming

JavaScript pop-up windows

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to create a pop up window using java script. There are many tools to do this but most of them create pop up windows that open when a page loads. These are fine for pop up ads but what do you do when you want to open up a pop up window when a user clicks a link? This tutorial will show you how to write a function to do this.

This will be a function and it will be embedded in a standard java script tag.

<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
</script>

Now before we start lets look at the whole source code, then I will explain it all

function launch(){
jim=window.open("http://www.hardwaretutorials.com/","Hardware Tutorials","width=400,height=300,top=0,left=0,resizable=no,
scrollbars=yes,menubar=no,toolbar=no,status=no,location=no")}

Thats the function in full. Lets start at the beginning. The variable name is ‘Jim.’ Inside the window.open part there are all the configurable components of the pop up window. Lets start with the address. In our example I used http://www.microsoft.com but you could relace this with ‘www.yoursite.com’ or ‘information/popuppage.htm’.

The name for the window (the name that will appear before the title appears) for my example is Microsoft. Now is the window settings. You can set the width and the height as well as the top and left margin. You can also choose whether the window is resizable, scrollbars, a menu bar, a tool bar, a status bar and a location bar.

Once you have configured these just put them in a standard tag, in either the body or head tag.

<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function launch(){
jim=window.open("http://www.microsoft.com","microsoft","width=400,height=300,top=0,left=0,resizable=no,
scrollbars=yes,menubar=no,toolbar=no,status=no,location=no")} 
</script>

Thats the full code. Now all you need to do is create a link ‘javascript:launch().’ If you want to change the java script to ‘function whatever()’ instead of function launch(). You must do this if you have more than one pop up scripts on one page as you will need each hyperlink to activate a different pop up script.

Posted on in Programming

Very basic JavaScript password protection

This will show you how to make a password page. This should never be used for anything! Ever! It’s purely just to show you how it could be done. But it is literally less lecture than leaving your front door wide open.

In you you put in your password and if it is correct you go the another page. If you are incorrect you go to a wrong password page. Take a look at the script.

<script language="JavaScript">
function passwordOK(anystring) {
anystring = anystring.toUpperCase()

if (anystring == "GREEN" || anystring == "BLUE" || anystring
== "RED" || anystring == "YELLOW") {
/*Add more passwords if you'd like, but ALL PASSWORDS MUST BE IN CAPS!*/
alert('You got it right!')
alert('Now taking you to the hidden page.')
location="page2.htm"
//Change page2.htm to your hidden page
}


else {
alert ("Please enter the CORRECT password next time.")
location="wrongpage.htm"
/*substitute your own wrong page for wrongpage.htm*/
}
}
</script>
<form>
Password:
<input type="password" name="pass" Size="20" onChange="passwordOK(this.value)" />
</form>

As you can see the input box triggers the javascript function ‘passwordOK.’ Below the function name, in the next paragraph and what to do if the password is correct. Below that is the alert if the password is incorrect. Have a play around with the script and see what you can do. The whole thing can be copied in the body tag of your page.