rtraction - London, Ontario - Web Design, Web Development and Strategic Consulting » .NET http://www.rtraction.com/blog rtraction blog - Web Design, Web Development and Strategic Consulting Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:08:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Add Sharing to Your Webapps http://www.rtraction.com/blog/devit/add-sharing-to-your-webapps.html http://www.rtraction.com/blog/devit/add-sharing-to-your-webapps.html#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:34:16 +0000 gavinblair http://www.rtraction.com/blog/?p=1167 Share via Twitter and Facebook

When you post an article of any type on the web, it seems almost mandatory that you include “Tweet This!” and “Post to Facebook” links. Of course, you can get plugins that create sharing links automatically for most blog software (Sociable for Wordpress (this is what we use); Service Links for Drupal; Sexy Social Bookmark for Blogger; I could go on), and they usually cover more networks than Twitter and Facebook. However, some circumstances require a more do-it-yourself approach.

Adding “Share on Twitter” and “Post to Facebook” functionality to your web application is a snap! In this post you will learn:

  • -How to prefill a tweet for your user
  • -How to let your users share a link on Facebook, including page thumbnails and description
  • -How to harness the power of bit.ly’s API for short URLs and click tracking

Share on Twitter

twitter.com/home?status=<Your Tweet>

Use the following code to create a “Share on Twitter” link:

<a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Add Sharing to Your Webapps - http://www.rtraction.com/blog/devit/add-sharing-to-your-webapps" target="_blank">Share on Twitter</a>

Share on Twitter

That was easy! Try replacing your link text with a Twitter button:

<a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Add Sharing to Your Webapps -http://www.rtraction.com/blog/devit/add-sharing-to-your-webapps" target="_blank"><img src="shareontwitter.png" alt="Share on Twitter" /></a>

Share on Twitter

Twitter can’t make it much easier than that! When the user clicks on your button, they are brought to their familiar Twitter timeline, with the next tweet prefilled for them.

Prefilled Tweet

Facebook Share Link

facebook.com/sharer.php?u=<Your URL>

Use the following code to create a “Post to Facebook” link:

<a href="http://facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.rtraction.com/blog/devit/add-sharing-to-your-webapps" target="_blank">Post to Facebook</a>

Post to Facebook

Too easy! Now replace the text with a nifty Facebook button:

<a href="http://facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.rtraction.com/blog/devit/add-sharing-to-your-webapps" target="_blank"><img src="posttofacebook.png" alt="Post to Facebook" /></a>

Post to Facebook

When the user clicks on your “Post to Facebook” button, a new window pops up, prompting them to share the link. The user can optionally update their Facebook status while they are at it.

Post to Profile - No Thumbnail or Description

What about Page Thumbnails?

That looks pretty good, but it could use a little more flair. Facebook attempts to add a thumbnail and a description to your link. Facebook scours your page for <img> tags, and uses those for thumbnail options, in the order that they appear on the page. If you want a screenshot of part of your webapp to be the first choice, you’ll have to put the following code near the top (before any other <img> tags) of your page:

<img src="screenshot.jpg" style="display: none" alt="" />

This will not be visible to users due to the inline CSS, but Facebook will pick it up.

Post to Facebook with Thumbnail

What about Page Description?

Facebook uses the page’s meta description. Make sure the following code is present in the header of your page, between <head> and </head>:

<meta name="description" content="rtraction - Add Sharing to Your Webapps - Twitter and Facebook sharing links are a snap to build!" />

Now your Facebook share is complete with a thumbnail and description.

Post to Facebook with Thumbnail and Description

Shortened URLs with Bit.ly

Bit.ly’s API makes it easy to dynamically create shortened URLs. A big advantage of this is that you can make use Bit.ly’s click tracking.

bit.ly click tracking

You can learn how to use the Bit.ly API on your own, or use an existing library. There is a DLL file for .NET projects to use Bit.ly. This is untested by us, but the Hashbangcode Bit.ly PHP Class looks like a promising PHP solution. Let us know in the comments if you have tried this library!

If you have any other tips for creating share links, let us know in the comments.

]]> http://www.rtraction.com/blog/devit/add-sharing-to-your-webapps.html/feed 3 Crystal Reports Images not showing up http://www.rtraction.com/blog/devit/crystal-reports-images-not-showing-up.html http://www.rtraction.com/blog/devit/crystal-reports-images-not-showing-up.html#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:49:43 +0000 David Millar http://www.rtraction.com/blog/?p=500 When deploying a .NET web application with Crystal Reports you will need to install the appropriate crystal reports library on the server to use any reports you’ve built.

I recently ran into an issue where Crystal Reports Images (images in a report) would not show up on a new Windows 2003 Server.  After extensive web research with no solution in sight I decided to try to solve the problem on my own.

Note:  If you’re having problems with the images in the header bar (BusinessObjects toolbar) then please see this site below:
- http://www.gutgames.com/post/Crystal-Reports2c-issues2c-and-fixes.aspx
- or simply google “toolbar images for crystal reports not showing up”

To resolve my error I went into the Web Server(IIS) manager and performed the following steps:

Image showing the configuration variables entered into new Handler1) Clicked on ‘My Website’ where I was using crystal reports
2) Clicked on ‘Handler Mappings’
3) On the right side under ‘Actions’ I selected ‘Add Managed Handler’
4) Request Path: CrystalImageHandler.aspx
5) Type: CrystalDecisions.Web.CrystalImageHandler, CrystalDecisions…….
6) Crystal Reports Image Handler
7) Press OK
Success!


I was able to track down this issue by looking at the URL for non-working images.  All pointed to the following:
http://www.MySite/CrystalImageHandler.aspx?*****useless info******

As you can see, the system is trying to access a handler to read out images specified in the report.

I hope this solution can save you hours of potentially wasted time and frustration.

Millar GolfingDavid Millar, Lead Developer
Millar, as he is known around the office, is a rock-solid, workhorse coder. If anyone really understands what a chunk of code is doing it’s him. Family, friends, sports, and his wife are the most important things in life to him. He plays sports weekly and golf in the summer when he’s not busy hanging out with friends and family. Recently he got married to his wife Kate in a beautiful ceremony surrounded by friends and family on a perfect summer day. A humanitarian at heart, his positive demeanour is rattled most when “society makes decisions without considering more relevant information from the present”, and people “make self indulgent decisions that hurt society and everyone else”.

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