Freelance Web Developer in Glasgow

Hi All,

This blog is about a minor project I completed recently.

I recently done work for a letting agent in Glasgow, UK. They have two branches. The company wanted to integrated Web Service into their company website. They required somebody experienced in PHP.

I've done similar web service related work using .NET 3.5 Framework. I also had some experience in PHP from past projects, though it was not web services.

NUSoap Client was used to call the Web Service. The web service that was invoked from PHP was actually developed using Microsoft .NET Framework. Parameters were passed in when calling a method using SOAP. The web service returned a DataSet as the result.

There was a problem here because there seemed to be no support in PHP for DataSet returned from a .NET Web Service. I can be wrong here, but I researched a lot online and actually found no solution related to this problem. However I came across some DataSet class. That was used between PHP and MySQL.

After a lot of research I thought I would have to spend time developing, as I had other projects to work on too. So I came up with a work-around and converted the DataSet into XML document, which my PHP code would understand easily. This conversion was done in memory rather than on disk to save CPU time.

Now the XML was used to get the results which I wanted to show up on my clients website.

If anyone needs help in a similar issue or if you Need a Freelance Web Developer or Application Developer, give me a call on my number:

07878 557 635 or 0141 404 5128 from anywhere in the UK

+44 7878 557 635 or +44 141 404 5128 from outside of UK.

I got BSc Hons Degree in Computer Science with Software Engineering. I have worked as a Systems Engineer and also a ASP.NET Web Developer


Kind Regards,

M. Asif Ashrafi

Setting a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) on Windows XP and Windows Vista

Intro

Remote desktop allows you to access a computers desktop from a remote location using another PC, Mobile phone, PDA. You can access from any of these devices as long as you make the correct settings. In the case of a PC or laptop accessing the remote machine (another computer), it is very simple to set this up. However if you want to access using mobile phone you will need to set the RDC connection to show up on a web browser.

First I'll show you the simple way using PC to connect and then I'll go on to using a mobile phone to connect using a web browser.

PC (or laptop) to PC Remote Connection

Obtain:
IP Address
Computers Name

Change Routing Information (Port Forwarding)



First Step: Obtain IP Address

In order to make a connection to the remote server you will need to obtain IP address. There are several ways to obtain IP address. One way is to use command prompt and using the ipconfig command will bring up the IP address of the computer. Another way is to get the IP address by typing "my ip" on Google. If you use the command prompt and you have a router which send the internet connection to remote server then you will get a local IP address. This will probably look something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x and it really depends what kind of router is installed. If you are obtaining IP address from a website that will give you the IP address of your router.

In the case of a direct connection, I mean if you don't use a router to get internet connection, it is easier to make Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) work. You will have to

However, if you have a router you will have to change the port forwarding settings on your router. Port 3389 is used for RDC

Problem Showing Shared Variable or Value into Bar Chart / Bar Graph (Crystal Reports 9)

Problem Showing Shared Variable or Value into Bar Chart / Bar Graph


(I am using Crystal Reports 9 in Windows XP)

Hi Everyone,

I am having a problem showing a shared variable into main reports graph / chart. The shared variable is obtained from the subreport. I used the Get and Set terminology in the formulas. The Set formula is setup in the subreport and the Get is setup in the main report.

The value actually shows on the main report when placed somewhere after the subreport, however, it does not show anything on the Graph.

The following are the methods I am using in Subreport and Main Report:

Set Formula:
*********************************************************** *******
//@SetFirstReviewTotalAverage is placed in subreport.

WhilePrintingRecords;
Shared numberVar FirstReviewTotalAverage;
FirstReviewTotalAverage := {#RAvgTotal};
*********************************************************** *******

Get Formula:
*********************************************************** *******
//@GetFirstReviewTotalAverage is placed in main report.

WhilePrintingRecords;
Shared numberVar FirstReviewTotalAverage;
FirstReviewTotalAverage;
*********************************************************** *******

I tried changing the GetFirstReviewTotalAverage formula to replace with an integer and it shows up on the graph. However it does not show when I put the code as shown above in the GetFirstReviewTotalAverage formula.

Changed Get Formula - It shows a bar with value 5 on graph:
*********************************************************** *******
//@GetFirstReviewTotalAverage is placed in main report.

5;
*********************************************************** *******

Kind Regards,

M. Asif Ashrafi
Software Developer


Got an answer, working on it.

I have got the answer from experts at www.expert-exchange.com. I got a reply within 45 minutes after posting the problem question. I'm working on the solution that was provided.

Please visit the following link to see for your self.

www.experts-exchange.com/Database/Reporting_/Crystal_Reports/Q_22887107.html

M. Asif Ashrafi
Software Developer
(Please visit my Blog: http://socomputers.blogspot.com/)


Report works, YES!

The simple way to show a graph on the report is to make a sub-report and send values to it. The graph will be generated on the sub-report and will be shown on the main report once run.

In my case I generated two sub-reports and they passed values to the main report. These values would show up on the main report but a graph would not generate. Thats why I created another subreport and sent it the two values that I obtained from the other two sub reports. These values were sent by setting up a link to the newly created sub report.

Lets call the newly created sub-report SubChart and call the other two subreports SubFirst and SubSecond. And lets call the values sent by SubFirst and SubSecond "FirstValue" and "SecondValue" respectively. Please look at the little diagram below to see a full picture of these reports.

Having three subreports on the Main report we can continue our conversation. Now, the Main report sends FirstValue and SecondValue to SubChart. In the SubChart I created a graph in the Footer section using the Chart Expert. The On Change Of field includes a formula which has no code in it (empty - well in my case I wanted it to be empty). The Show Value field will have the FirstValue and SecondValue.

Back on the SubChart, I have another formula which is named Printer. The Printer allows the graph to print. The Printer formula only had one line of code and it was {Table.Field}, where Table is a name of the table you are using in Main report and the Field is a field from that table. The Printer formula somehow works along with the graph. If you remove the Printer formula the graph would disappear.

In my opinion the Printer formula refreshes the values FirstValue and SecondValue on the graph. The Printer formula has to be placed on the Detail or Footer section of the SubChart report. You can supress the Printer formula because it may not be need along with the graph.

Now the graph works fine.


MAIN REPORT
____________

SubFirst
SubSecond
FirstValue
SecondValue

SubChart
____________



SUBCHART
____________

FirstValue
SecondValue
Printer
OnChangeOf
____________



If you are having a problem with your report please send me an e-mail: asifashrafi@hotmail.com



M. Asif Ashrafi
Software Developer

Building a Simple Web Page

In this tutorial I'll teach you how to create a simple web page and then publish it on the web free of charge.  

[I will get back to this post and edit it soon]

MicroControllers

Microcontrollers and its Applications

Microcontroller allow us to create complicated devices. They allow us to add behaviours to the electronic devices or chips in a way never done before. The introduction of these small and very powerful 'pervasive computers' have saved many a big amounts of money.

A lot of space can be saved if the microcontollers are used instead of just the electronic components. This is becuase the microcontrollers can be programmed similar to a normal computer. And the work which the electronic components are going to do in order to produce a result will all be done in the CPU of the microcontrollers. There are, however, some differences such as the size of memory available and other factors like the cpu speed it provides.

Interesting applications can be created with just a little amount of knowledge of electronics and programming. I'll be discussing more on exactly what kind of knowledge is required in order to create small but powerful projects using the microcontrollers. This will be discussed in one of my next articles.

The following are only a few of the smaller projects which can be created:

Remote Controlled Hoover.
Bluetooth enabled household equipment (allows to turn devices on and off).
Speech enabled e-mail reader (wireless or wired).

Applications such as a remote controlled hoover can be created by.......

[more comming soon...]

Check out the forum: www.webwali.com/forum

Design Patterns

Why Design Patterns are Good Practice

Design patterns as it is known are a best practice to use in software engineering. They help remove problems similar to what other software developers in the past have faced. The software engineers also don't have to really worry too much about testing the code created using any particular design patterns.

This does not however mean that testing is avoided. Testing is also performed, but using design patterns the coder is given the confidence that the outcome will be a good one. Take the Singleton design pattern as an example. It assures the coders that this pattern will not allow multiple instances to be created of the Singleton object.

[more comming soon...]

Software Engineering for Web Design

Whats the best way of designing websites? Software Engineering (SE) tools and techniques are the answer.

Software Engineering is normally used in all sorts of software projects, from big to small, for military to private software applications. If you come to know the benefits of employing SE in your projects then you'll be amazed at how much time and money you could save.

However, Software Engineering and Web Engineering are from the same root of Engineering, but they are both similar in a way. Customer Collaboration is a high priority in both.