WebSoftware (RSS)

WebSoftware related posts, upcoming products, website changes etc.

Blog moved to WordPress and new domain...

I've moved my blog to my own domain and onto a WordPress engine, CS + SPAM was driving me nuts!

Catchup posts: Oh yes, I've been in Japan for a couple of months, first 2 weeks of photos are uploaded on Flickr, I still havent had a chance to upload the thousands after.

Whats more, I've actually written some information about me so you can finally find out my sad sad way of life. See About Thushan Fernando.
posted Sunday, June 29, 2008 2:57 PM by Thushan Fernando

HOWTO: Changing the default browser in Visual Studio.NET

I've grown fond of Opera the last few years, it seems like even though i've firmly planted myself into the shoe's of Firefox I'm finding the continuously growing memory foot print a little hard to swallow at times (having to constantly restart Firefox isnt ideal no matter how much RAM you have), especially when your working with several Visual Studio instances. So I've resorted to using Opera, a lightweight finely tuned browser when working on a recent PHP->ASP.NET port for a project at work.

Question is, how *do* you make it the default browser in Visual Studio.NET? Its not as intuitive as you would have figured, but dead easy:
  • Right click on a ASPX page in your solution and select "Browse With..."
  • Click Add and find the browser you want (or if its already in the list ignore this step).
  • Select "Set as Default"
  • Thats it, click Browse and you'll be fine and dandy.
Sweet!
posted Saturday, September 15, 2007 10:46 AM by Thushan Fernando with 0 Comments

HotHTML 3 Professional FixPack 5 Released!

Well I decided to take some time off (sleeping) and finalise FixPack 5 for HotHTML 3. The build number is now 3000 (epic milestone!) and mostly caused by alot of rework to make HotHTML 3 load faster, initially I intended to add a new Ftp Editor to make it easier to upload/manage websites, but due to a rewrite of the Ftp core taking longer than expected I decided to postphone it till FixPack 6.

This release is "IE 7 friendly" (atleast Beta 1, Beta 2 and builds inbetween the two) and recognizes all recent releases of Firefox & Opera also:-)

Change Log(View Text)
=========
BUG FIXES
=========
22806. DocumentData > Loading an empty document gives 'No Document Loaded' in 'DocumentData::Core Engine Runtime' which is invalid.
22805. Core > Checkboxes sometimes may raise errors in validation on some dialogs.
22804. Core > **** EXPERIMENTAL **** New fix for the crash when saving documents every now and then (rare to reproduce).
22803. IDE > VS.NET Tabs sometimes doesnt repaint after recieving the focus again.
22802. WebManager Account Manager > Selecting first item causes a save to be placed into the pending queue when it shouldnt.
22801. Tools > SpellCheck raises a fatal runtime error because it cant locate the 'custom.dic' dictionary file.

=========
ADDITIONS
=========
1.DocumentData can now have a padding of '0' (Zero) so it will ignore file-legth checking.

=======
CHANGES
=======
1. Welcome Dialog > When selecting a file from the recent list, if its not found/non-existant it will prompt and leave the dialog open.
Download HotHTML 3 FixPack 5 and have ago, use our servers (Tucows/Download.com havent been updated yet!).

(NOTE: Updates to the website to reflect FixPack 5 will happen in the next couple of days!)
posted Wednesday, February 08, 2006 11:48 PM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

COOL TOOL: Internet Explorer 7.x Public Preview!

Finally after so long IE7 came out of private testing phase and into your hot little hands...

Download the preview build of IE 7 and take a look at the funky new features! if your bored at work why not take the IE7 Tour. Internet Explorer is definately more refined and some unique features make it really attractive (love the thumb nails) but its still got some work to do...

There are a couple of rendering issues (IEFrame) in HotHTML 3 (and subsequently HotHTML 4 preview builds) that relies on the older IE shell, I'll be releasing FixPack 5 for HotHTML 3 soon(ish! ~ March) which will address several bugs and some funky new performance improvements. The main delay has been free-time to work on these things:(
posted Wednesday, February 01, 2006 6:14 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

UPDATE: Security update for WMF Security issue from Microsoft

You heard it here first folks, the update patch to fix the WMF flaw just got released by Microsoft:

HIGHLY recommended download!
posted Thursday, January 05, 2006 11:21 PM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

HotHTML 3 at Wikipedia... oh and wiki's rock!

Someones posted a definition of "HotHTML" at WikiPedia... Check it out! and see the complete list. Kinda cool to be inside an internet encyclopedia, although the descriptions from a download site somewhere...!


In conclusion, Wiki's are cool!
posted Monday, August 01, 2005 12:40 PM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

HotHTML 3 FixPack 4 Final Released!

Well after close to three months of intense testing, I've finally gone live with FixPack 4 for HotHTML 3.

Anyone who has the pre-release betas, alphas or Release Candidates (from builds 1930-2278) you'll need to uninstall it and install the new FixPack 4 release as we're now fully switched to InstallShield 10.5 (we bought 10.5 a month before 11 debut'd but it shall do!)

Download:
http://www.wsoftware.biz/downloads/http/hothtml3/hothtml3eval.exe [ 11MB ]

ChangeLog:
http://www.wsoftware.biz/downloads/http/hothtml3/changes_1900.txt

NOTE:
Website(s)/KB's should be updated in a few hours!

Thanks to everyone who reported issues and spent time testing and messing with the fixes!
posted Saturday, July 30, 2005 3:52 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

HotHTML 3 FixPack 4 Release Candidate 5 Release

Thanks to everyone who reported issues with the previous Release Candidate, I've pushed Release Candidate 5 out and is available right now for download.

Download:
http://websoftware.customer.netspace.net.au/hothtml3/beta/FixPack5_RC5.hdp [ 875KB ]

ChangeLog:
http://www.wsoftware.biz/downloads/http/hothtml3/changes_1900.txt

NOTE:
The link above is ONLY for those who installed Release Candidate 4 release. If you want to try RC5, first install FixPack 3(if not already installed), then Release Candidate 4 Update file and finally download and run the link above which will install the new version.

This is because the WebSoftware installer (the HDP file) cannot update a core component (wRegistry.dll) that was updated for FixPack 4 as its being used by the installer - I know I know! Thats why I love .NET!
posted Tuesday, July 19, 2005 3:42 PM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

HotHTML 3 FixPack 4 Release Candidate 4 Release

Well FixPack 4 for HotHTML 3 is nearing release. Unfortunately this release will not have Mozilla previewing support as I mentioned earlier as the priority for FixPack 4 changed to fixing up mutli-lingual/region issues and various other bugs.

This is an 'Update' of FixPack 3 to make it FixPack 4, and as such you need to have FixPack 3 Installed.
 
Download:
 
ChangeLog:
http://www.wsoftware.biz/downloads/http/hothtml3/changes_1900.txt
 
NOTE: You must have FixPack 3 installed for this release to update properly. There are NO UPDATED HELP FILES as they are still being written/updated.

Send feedback to developers@wsoftware.biz and we'll take care of the rest:-)

posted Saturday, July 09, 2005 5:50 AM by wsoftware with 1 Comments

SoftPedia: HotHTML 3 spyware clean!

SoftPedia has awarded HotHTML 3 the "Spyware Free Certification".

No suprises there, we're against spyware and adware, its another disease in the virtual world which we want to irradicate not distribute:-)

 

posted Friday, May 27, 2005 2:18 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

Beta 2 issue with OpenFileDialog() eating subclasses of ATL components

Well i've hit my first (show stopper) snag with Beta 2 of Whidbey. It seems using a ATL Com component and the Open/SaveFileDialog() with the Beta 2 release has a problem with the ShowDialog() method. If hte parent window has an ATL COM component (in my case the excellent DockStudioXP control) and you call the ShowDialog() method, as soon as the dialog is closed the control looses the subclassing and renders the control unusable. Pretty major bug (although it serves me right for using COM Interop)...

I reported this to Innovasys and Paul Wilde has already posted a report on BFC about this and a couple of days ago MS have reported it to be "reproducable"... now its time to wait for a fix:-(

The plan of having HotHTML 4 early preview releases to some folks may change now that this issue has come into light, theres always rolling out a temporary "lame" solution - what i've been doing is making the parent an empty temporary form while the dialog is shown, and unloading it after its closed... it works great internally but its not a very professional workaround;-)

posted Sunday, May 15, 2005 12:22 PM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

First International Resellers for HotHTML 3, BTSoftware:-)

BTSoftware is our first international reseller for HotHTML 3! I'm still a little hesitant on putting HotHTML 3 at ComponentSource (they charge farrr too much) but eventually I presume it'll get there. Some more resellers are coming around mid to end this year once we sort out some legal issues...

posted Thursday, May 12, 2005 2:19 AM by wsoftware with 2 Comments

Dammit someones ripping off our logo:(

A friend was registering a TK domain (which is currently free so go grab one while you can) but i tried websoftware just for kicks to see if someone had registered it. To my surprise the site was registered and not ONLY that, it was using our WebSoftware logo and our business name (which is OK as long as they dont use it in Australia)....

View the site here and see our site. Notice that to logo's are the same (with the HotHTML 3 logo ripped as well).

So now i'm wondering what I should do, I'm pretty sure its a kid running a site but it is infringing our copyright for the business/product logos... I tried to contact the author of the site and tell them to remove our two logos, as they misdirect our users to thinking that its the "WebSoftware Forums" when infact its not.

but apart from that I have no clue what to do...

UPDATE:

I found the related sites also quite disturbing, using our images, logos, WebSoftware name and an inspiring mission statement (taken from here http://www.idearesource.com/services/) , heck even the HotHTML 3 splash screen was stolen:

http://www.barlad.narod.ru

http://websoftware.uv.ro/

I am so pissed off right now... :-(

Update 2:
Did a search on the main graphic (fourzero.gif) i found on the main page for the websoftware.uv site, thanks to google it turns out to be the product of Roxen Internet Software as well as the design which seems to come from them too. I've contacted Roxen's webmaster about this just now:-)

For safety reasons I've taken shots and placed them offsite here as proof:
http://websoftware.customer.netspace.net.au/websoftware/

Final Update:
The sites have been removed after our request.

posted Monday, May 09, 2005 10:29 AM by wsoftware with 1 Comments

HotHTML 3 FixPack 3 released!

Well after a long long wait - almost a month after Beta testing finished - I've finished FixPack 3 and uploaded it to the WebSoftware website.

This new release is quite a milestone, it brought massive - truely massive - changes to the core of the editor, which resulted in many changes and lots of testing to ensure nothing breaks (especially plugins). One major area i've tried to address is startup times. Compared to pre-FixPack 3 (Download FixPack 2 for a benchmark) the startup times should atleast be half of what it used to be or sometimes even less. The initial loading of the new version straight after installation will always be slower than subsequent times - it builds the GUI for the first time and creates default caches etc which does take time, but I'm happy to say that on some machines - Centrino P4M 755/1GB RAM -> 1.0 Second or less (Notebook) for instance - the load times are so fast its insane!

While working on this release I remember back when HotHTML 2000 was the 'thang' I actually made the splashscreen forcefully stay atleast 2 seconds before showing the editor because it loaded too quickly. My how those days have changed.

Download a copy of the final FixPack 3 release and enjoy!

Looking ahead to FixPack 4

I've been doing some extensive work since FixPack 2 back in November 2004 about allowing Mozilla and IE web controls to be loaded in the IDE and I'm finally starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel to get this supported. Basically using IE as a means to show a preview is great, but having that optional Mozilla preview will be beneficial for everyone. Using a slightly modified Mozilla ActiveX control i've got this to work on private builds of HotHTML 3, so its something that will appearing in FP4.

Thats it for today, tomorrow's ANZAC day here so I'm going to take the day off and relax a little. Atleast this weekend wasnt as crap as the last:-)

posted Sunday, April 24, 2005 8:13 AM by wsoftware with 1 Comments

FixPack 3 Compeition ends, release by Monday 18th April 2005.

Well I've been ubber busy with uni but we officially stopped counting bugs on the first of april and any reports there after were'nt included for the Gift Certicate offer we had going. Congratulations to Georgina Stein from Indianapolis for being the top reporter with a total of 48 fixes and change requests filed. She tells us that she'll be spending the $75 to buy some books on ASP.NET and UML from Amazon!

At the moment I'm updating the documentation as well as writing up a "Getting Started with HotHTML 3" guide (in PDF) both of which should be finished by the end of the week after which the final build testing will be done over the weekend making Monday the 18th the hopeful day of release for FixPack 3.

posted Wednesday, April 13, 2005 5:48 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments