My X-Mas Wish
This WebDNA talk-list message is from 1999
It keeps the original formatting.
numero = 22963
interpreted = N
texte = When people start asking me this year what I want for Christmas, I'm going to tell them that I want back all of the time that I had to spend designing workarounds for WebCatalog shortcomings.GotD (Gripe of the Day): Today I learned all about how once again the [date] is not actually the [date]. You see, I was trying to send an email to a fulfillment house after someone placed an order (via my thankyou.tpl page). The email composition has to have a very fixed format, with date and time indicated in a very certain way. No problem I think, I'll just plop in a formatted date tag, and away we go... (ie. [date %a, %d %b %Y]) However this produced the result: 01/25/99%a, %d %b %Y] which isn't what I wanted. After literally hours of trying to figure out why [date] with formatting wasn't working, it occurred to me that I had been had. That's right kids, (and for those of you in the back seats who might have missed it) There is a field in the shopping cart called date, and if you use a [date] tag on a page being shown using a $showcart or a $purchase then you get the ascii values of the date field in the shopping cart, and not the variable of the date. You can Kiss Off using the methods that are documented to work with [date] to show a formatted date. Finally, I evolved the following code to make it work: [format days_to_date %a, %d %b %Y][math]{[date]}[/math][/format]Some of you may remember my suggestion, some months ago, that the [date] variable should be renamed [today]. PCS basically responded that any confusion on the part of programming of interactions with the date and a database field named date was the programmers fault, and perhaps the programmer should not name fields in databases date. Beyond that, PCS was content that date was indeed just a fine term to use as a variable, and there would be no further action on their part. Ok, so here's the deal PCS, tell me how I change the name of the field in the shopping cart that represents the date of the order to not be date.Speaking of Stupid WebCatalog Pet Tricks (tm) here's another: If you use a setheader command to fix info in an old order file (to fix info in the order for archiving) the order file resets it's date and time fields to right now, which has NOTHING to do with when the order itself was placed. It would seem to me that shopping software would hold the Order info as set in stone, especially the date and time of the order.Want More? the cart number is not actually stored inside of the shopping cart file, so that if you rename the order file while archiving it, you have no way of finding out the original cart number.For some reason I continue to have problems with WebCatalog's very nonstandard ways of dealing with dates, and yet being touted as serious e-commerce ware. But sometimes I forget that WebCatalog is in actuality a ram based database with a programming language interpreter. Actually, come to think of it, database is kind of a strong term, as I know if no other database that doesn't allow (read: require) you to predefine field types. I'm sure PCS had their reasons (the biggest I can see is the ability to use any old tab delimited file as a database), but I fail to believe that with the advent of the database header file this couldn't be improved to give added functionality of defining field types, and perhaps even error validation by field (unique values only). Therefor, WebCatalog is more of a Pretty Good Large Memory Array Manager, with a Scripting Engine.Actually, Pretty Good Large Memory Array Manager isn't even so hot, as my copy of WebCatalog keeps popping up WebCatalog Ran Out of Memory errors, even though, according to PCS, that isn't possible. I do sincerely hope that the next revision (3.0.4) fixes all of these pesky memory leaks for once and for all.Other then that, I'd like a 200 Disc DVD changer. Brian B. Burton BOFH - Department of Redundancy Department --------------------------------------------------------------- MMT Solutions - Specializing in Online Shopping Solutions 973-808-8644 http://www.safecommerce.comAre you a Web Programmer? I am today.
Associated Messages, from the most recent to the oldest:
When people start asking me this year what I want for Christmas, I'm going to tell them that I want back all of the time that I had to spend designing workarounds for WebCatalog shortcomings.GotD (Gripe of the Day): Today I learned all about how once again the
[date] is not actually the
[date]. You see, I was trying to send an email to a fulfillment house after someone placed an order (via my thankyou.tpl page). The email composition has to have a very fixed format, with date and time indicated in a very certain way. No problem I think, I'll just plop in a formatted date tag, and away we go... (ie. [date %a, %d %b %Y]) However this produced the result: 01/25/99%a, %d %b %Y] which isn't what I wanted. After literally hours of trying to figure out why
[date] with formatting wasn't working, it occurred to me that I had been had. That's right kids, (and for those of you in the back seats who might have missed it) There is a field in the shopping cart called date, and if you use a
[date] tag on a page being shown using a $showcart or a $purchase then you get the ascii values of the date field in the shopping cart, and not the variable of the date. You can Kiss Off using the methods that are documented to work with
[date] to show a formatted date. Finally, I evolved the following code to make it work: [format days_to_date %a, %d %b %Y]
[math]{
[date]}[/math][/format]Some of you may remember my suggestion, some months ago, that the
[date] variable should be renamed [today]. PCS basically responded that any confusion on the part of programming of interactions with the date and a database field named date was the programmers fault, and perhaps the programmer should not name fields in databases date. Beyond that, PCS was content that date was indeed just a fine term to use as a variable, and there would be no further action on their part. Ok, so here's the deal PCS, tell me how I change the name of the field in the shopping cart that represents the date of the order to not be date.Speaking of Stupid WebCatalog Pet Tricks (tm) here's another: If you use a setheader command to fix info in an old
order file (to fix info in the order for archiving) the
order file resets it's date and time fields to right now, which has NOTHING to do with when the order itself was placed. It would seem to me that shopping software would hold the Order info as set in stone, especially the date and time of the order.Want More? the cart number is not actually stored inside of the shopping cart file, so that if you rename the
order file while archiving it, you have no way of finding out the original cart number.For some reason I continue to have problems with WebCatalog's very nonstandard ways of dealing with dates, and yet being touted as serious e-commerce ware. But sometimes I forget that WebCatalog is in actuality a ram based database with a programming language interpreter. Actually, come to think of it, database is kind of a strong term, as I know if no other database that doesn't allow (read: require) you to predefine field types. I'm sure PCS had their reasons (the biggest I can see is the ability to use any old tab delimited file as a database), but I fail to believe that with the advent of the database header file this couldn't be improved to give added functionality of defining field types, and perhaps even error validation by field (unique values only). Therefor, WebCatalog is more of a Pretty Good Large Memory Array Manager, with a Scripting Engine.Actually, Pretty Good Large Memory Array Manager isn't even so hot, as my copy of WebCatalog keeps popping up WebCatalog Ran Out of Memory errors, even though, according to PCS, that isn't possible. I do sincerely hope that the next revision (3.0.4) fixes all of these pesky memory leaks for once and for all.Other then that, I'd like a 200 Disc DVD changer. Brian B. Burton BOFH - Department of Redundancy Department --------------------------------------------------------------- MMT Solutions - Specializing in Online Shopping Solutions 973-808-8644 http://www.safecommerce.comAre you a Web Programmer? I am today.
Brian B. Burton
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