Marketing mixed with IT, design and coding, all these things are part of a webmaster’s job.
At least they were.

I am not a server administrator, but 7 years ago that was still part of the webmaster job. This is impossible in todays world and most webmaster jobs nowadays focus on the communication side. Communication and marketing, usability and user experience: these are are all the hit words of 2011 and you have to have them on your CV.

One thing is very clear about what a webmaster does: handle communication between business and IT. You have to be able to talk to a programmer/sysadmin as well as talk to one of the board members.

Can you handle a sentence that consists of nothing but acronyms?
Can you say one that a business person doesn’t understand, but IT does?
Can you do the same for the IT person?

Hiring people is not my job, but I am a webmaster and I was asked to create a questionnaire to check the technical knowledge of the webmaster candidate.
The questionnaire focuses on 4 areas:

• Marketing / SEO / Communication
• Web development, client side
• Usability / Accessibility
• Web development – server side

The 4 fields are a bit crammed together, I know, but you need to limit the number of questions a bit. Below are the questions and answers with some remarks. Candidates took between 45 minutes to 1 hour to answer all of them.

The questions are both specific and open. Not everything (definitely no server setup questions anymore) is covered but it is a good start to measure the technical knowledge of you webmaster candidate.

XSLT was the main reasons why I started with Umbraco way back in 2005 when Niels Hartvig was surprised that someone actually wanted to come to their conferences. Things have changed since then. And now I am hearing voices about dropping XSLT in Umbraco and inline C# code mixed with HTML, what is this?

Do we really want to go back to spaghetti code? I really hate to see Umbraco go down the path of so many module based, spaghetti code producing CMS‘s.

Razor, the new inline coding style in Umbraco, seems interesting, simple and easy to learn. People have said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication but is Razor really the way forward?

I don’t know. There are so many reasons to love and stay with XSLT: it is verbose ( if you prefer obscure syntax rules try Perl ), it creates clean and valid code and it’s fast.

XSLT is too verbose.

Is it? I took the liberty to rewrite the functionality to display a paged list of articles found on the cultiv.nl blog. The Razor code is around 60 lines, but XSLT only needs 30 lines. At least if you use XSLT for what it is meant to do. If you find yourself in a loophole, the first thing to do is stop digging and look at what you need.

• Solution 1: 29 lines
• Solution 2: 28 lines

Have a look at the presentation from Chriztian Steinmeier, learn how to call and apply templates, learn XSLT grouping and design patterns, learn how to use keys and your life with XSLT will be so much easier.

XSLT is faster than your shadow

Some say Razor is slower. I don’t know about that but I do know that I solved several performance problems by using XSLT instead of usercontrols.

If you have to create a navigation bar and check each page against 8000 groups to see whether the user belongs to one of these groups, you will love the speed of XSLT. In such a case it is much easier to select what you need with XSLT, and compare against the imported access.xml file than iterating over each membergroup in C#. Other examples are the XSLT search from Douglas Robar and the many XSLT related projects on our.umbraco.org

XSLT creates clean and valid code

Looking at the Razor examples it is easy to create invalid code. XSLT enforces valid code, and you really have to jump through a lot of hoops to write invalid code with XSLT.

True, valid code doesn’t matter for the end product, not for SEO and not even for your visitors, but having a consistent presentation tree will save you from a lot of cross-browser headaches and css bugs. Write clean code. Save hours of debugging. Eat more fruit.

The best way out of a difficulty is through it.

There are 2 main rasons for dissing XSLT that pop up regularly on the forums. The first one is that XSLT is difficult to learn. The second reason is basically a result of the first one and boils down to using procedural programming concepts in a declarative language (thinking for else loops instead of apply template). Programmers who are not familiar with XSLT have a hard time learning how to use XSLT and as a result, turn to what they know. It’s a vicious circle.

Imagine yourself spending all those hours you spent on learning OOP logic and procedural programming, learning XSLT instead. I am guessing you would have a hard time writing C#. Don’t diss XSLT because you don’t understand it. The more you learn the easier XSLT becomes.

The numerous questions on the internet and on the umbraco forum on how to do for loops already says enough. If you are thinking “loop” in XSLT, forget it. It’s going to be annoyingly verbose, slow and difficult to maintain. It is not about how ( if then that else this) you are going to get it, you already have everything, you just have to select what you need.

Let it be a warning. Every-time you think: why the f#$k can I not increment that counter, take a step back and realize that you are going the wrong way. Remember that if you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

Isn’t it necessary to look at what XSLT really is? Why it was chosen in the first place, and whether we really need to go yet another way of doing the same thing?

I used macports before for this sort of thing but I ditched them in favor of MAMP. But not without any disadvantages. DBD::mysql doesn’t install nicely when using MySQL used by MAMP.

The new MacBook is running Snow Leopard which comes with several installations of Perl, the default being version 5.10, 64 bit. MAMP runs a 32 bit MySQL version (the one I run is 5.1.44 ).

The install problem is a result of the difference between the SQL versions and some missing files.

These are the prerequisites:

1. Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
2. Developer tools installed
3. Perl v5.10, 64bit (verify with terminal: perl -v should give you something like this /This is perl, v5.10.0 built for darwin-thread-multi-2level/)
4. MAMP

First install the DBI bundle.
perl -MCPAN -e 'install DBI'

Before we continue and try to compile the DBD::mysql module, we have to add the necessary libraries to the MAMP MySQL folders. Since we are using 64 bit perl we need to download the 64 bit version of MySQL, one that is the same as the one we have running with MAMP (I used version 5.1.54).

Unpack the archive and copy the following folder into the MAMP folders:
include -> /Applications/MAMP/Library/

Copy the contents of the following folder:
lib/* -> /Applications/MAMP/Library/lib/mysql/
Don’t overwrite the existing files and folders.

As suggested in the comments, instead of the copying everything, you can also make symlinks and run the following command:
ln -s /Applications/MAMP/Library/include /usr/local/mysql/include
ln -s /Applications/MAMP/Library/lib/mysql /usr/local/mysql/lib

If you got all that, open up terminal and cd into the expanded DBD::mysql module directory and issue the following command:
perl Makefile.pl
--mysql_config /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql_config
--testuser root
--testpassword root
--testhost localhost
--testport 8889
--testsocket /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

Please double check both the path to mysql_config and mysql.sock. The variables set here are so different from the common installation of MySQL that many people fail in getting this module to work properly with MAMP.

The following commands should be a known sequence:
sudo make
sudo make install


Were are almost done: create a mysql directory in /usr/local:
sudo mkdir /usr/local/mysql
sudo mkdir /usr/local/mysql/lib

In that directory copy the missing libraries
cp -r /Applications/MAMP/Library/include /usr/local/mysql/
cp -r /Applications/MAMP/Library/lib/mysql/* /usr/local/mysql/lib

And you are done. Test your configuration with the following simple connect script:
#! perl
use DBD::mysql;

my $dbh = DBI->connect(
'dbi:mysql:test:localhost:8889;mysql_socket=/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock'
);
$dbh->disconnect();

If you have, then you probably found out that running Ant on a Mac just doesn’t work as expected.

Most common tasks like FTP and SCP are not available by default. And looking around on the internet, you are not the only one expecting these tasks to just work.

It seems that many resort to downloading and compiling Ant from scratch. After that they add the libraries to do common tasks like FTP and IF/THEN/ELSE structures.

But it’s just as easy as using the buildin Ant from Mac. You just have to add the necessary jar files
into the necessary directories and it will just work (hopefully :-).

To make life easier for you and me, I created a build file that installs the most common tasks for ant. Download the file and run ant against the anttasksformac.build:

ant -buildfile anttasksformac.build

Let me know if something is not working for you.

Update

When running the SCP task, it hangs. So I checked and there is a conflict in the jsch jar, so I replaced jsch with version 0.1.29 and everything seems to work.

The package provides a toolbar to editors who are logged in to add sticky-notes to any page in a website. It provides a way to communicate about changes and remarks on a page.

As many other Umbracians, I have several bookmarks that help me debug Umbraco web-pages. I thought if I add them to this package, I will have them available at all time, no matter on which PC I am working. The toolbar has buttons to debug the page, and to provide the list of data available in the XML cache.

Credit where credit is due: please have a look at the service ProtoNotes, as the idea of the design for having notes or comments on the page is coming from that services. No code has been copied, but the interface is somehow based on the ProtoNotes service.

See how it works

Screencast showing how to install and use Webstickies for Umbraco

Try it

If you don’t know how to install a package, the community website has a small how to.

Files to download

• Project website: report bugs, ask for features
• Download the Umbraco package
• Get the source code from Beanstalk

The code is provided as is, no garanty, blabla … though should not harm anyone.

You can download the dll and adjust your xslt configuration settings in Umbraco or download the full VS2008 project [1.5 MB] and have a look at the code.
Just for the reference, below is a list of methods available in the class with a short description

XPathNodeIterator QueryDatabase(string conn, string query )

Query the umbraco database or any other database that you need.

string createMemberGroup(string memberGroupName)

Create a member group

string isMemberOfGroup(string memberGroupName, string memberId)

Check if the member supplied belongs to the group supplied

XPathNodeIterator GetAccessingGroups(int documentId)

Not working, will be removed …

XPathNodeIterator getAllMembersFromGroup(string groupId)

REturn all the members that are in a group

string getMemberGroups()

Returns the list of groups the current memner belongs to

XPathNodeIterator getAccesXml()

Returns the full xml document that contains the list of protected pags and groups.

string getMemberFromFirstLetter(char letter)

Well, get member from the first letter

XPathNodeIterator getMemberFromFirstLetterXml(char letter)

Well, same, but then in xml.

string addMemberToGroup(string memberGroupName, int memberId)

Add a given member to a give group

string addPageToGroup(int currentPage, int groupId, int loginPage, int errorPage )

Protect a page with a membergroup

bool updateProperty(int DocumentId, string propName, string propValue)

Update any property (not the umbraco properties) for any given document.

Download

• only the dll
• the full xslt extension VS2008 project [1.5 MB]

They (as in your wife) don’t give a flicking flick about your stupid religious enthusiasm for making web browsers which conform to some mythical, platonic “standard” that is not actually implemented anywhere. They don’t want to hear your stories about messy hacks. They want web browsers that work with actual web sites.
Martian Headsets | Joel Spolsky

And besides he has a point, he is also a very funny writer:

FireQx 3.0 treats snow as rain, because you need windshield wipers in the snow, Qxyzrhjjjjukltk 5.0 does not, because the programmer who worked on that feature lives in a warm part of Mars without snow and doesn’t have a driver’s license anyway. Yes, they have driver’s licenses on Mars.Martian Headsets | Joel Spolsky

If the last quote doesn’t make any sense to you, go and read the article: Martian Headsets by Joel Spolsky.

I recently bought 2 books on project management (PM), a thin and concise one, and a large volume with all the bells and whistles that come with project management.

The last one didn’t arrive yet, but the one that was delivered was “The One Page Project Manager” (OPPM). You can read it in 2 hours: it’s short, to the point, and it seems to work for me.

The book is not a study about Project Management but a story about a project manager that came up with a great format (spreadsheet) for communicating project status to anyone who is involved or just want to know what is going on with the project. The author is not focusing on planning, it’s about communication, making sure people are involved and helping these people getting things done, on time.

The excel sheet, because that’s what it’s all about, is structured around 5 main areas: how / objectives / timeline / cost / owners. The tasks are each connected to an objective. That way, objectives are done when all takss in that row are finished, simple and effective

The sheets really give a good overview of the how (tasks), the objectives (goals, what to achieve?) and on who owns the tasks, something I think is crucial. Less attention is given to the timeline, and the cost which is measurable and therefore better communicated in a different way. The timeline is still there, but the focus is on getting closer to the objective of the project.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Well, the book is great and so are the excel sheets. Unfortunatly I am not using the excel sheets, because it is a generic approach, it works for every project, true, but not for every manager.
Some people need different info, and that is why I am not using the sheets at the moment, though I am connecting the 3 areas (how, objectives, owners) to make sure everyone knows what need to be done, when and why.

ID and NAME tokens must begin with a letter ([A-Za-z]) and may be followed by any number of letters, digits ([0-9]), hyphens (“-”), underscores (“_”), colons (“:”), and periods (“.”).

W3 HTML 4.01 Specs

Alex Wright goes through several names that wrote about concepts like a keyboard, networks, terminals even before a computer was even thinkable.
If you need more stuff, here is a list of some names and their corresponding Wikipage:

• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
• Charles Ammi Cutter
• H. G. Wells
• Paul Otlet
• Visions of Xanadu, by W. Boyd Rayward
• Douglas Engelbart
• Vannevar Bush
• Eugene Garfield