My current eCommerce system has been a total failure. I've been watching it with Clicky, and noticed that a lot of people were trying to buy, but couldn't. This is no good, so I decided to take it down today.

This was basically a half-assed system. I took a DNN module and integrated the licensing system with custom code. The main issues that I had were that I could not change the fields that were requested to something more reasonable. Also a lot of people were confused by its navigation. I'm yanking it today, rather than allow it to create even more frustration for me and potential customer.

I'm going to try my hand with FastSpring. Hopefully, this will allow me to outsource this part of my business. This will allow me to concentrate on making my products better, and not having to fiddle with stuff that I'm not familiar with. One feature that I'm looking forward to, is the ability to allow potential customers to pay in their own currency.

I'm going to be resetting the 30 day trial for PainlessSVN 1.1, so everybody will get another 30 days to play with it.

Frustrating, but good learning experience.

I had an interesting day yesterday. I had a bad migraine that lasted until around 7 PM, and that was after taking 6 Excedrin Migraine during the day. I was wide awake by the time the pills took effect, so I just went and worked on furthering PainlessSVN along.

I got the realms working at the level I want at this stage. This version is taking a lot longer than I expected, so I'm only going to show what realms are available. I'll add editing in the next version or so. Here's what I got:

The most interesting part of the night was when I was tracking down a bug when deleting a repository. It appears that some hook scripts try to fire when the repository gets created, or when it gets deleted. On top of that, the hook scripts that fire are different with different versions of Subversion. I ended up just showing a dialog, when one of the hook scripts is locked by another process. Here's the dialog:

In order to get this to work, I had to go and refactor SVNManagerLib, which is basically the "kernel" for a lot of my Subversion related utilities.

I've extended the 50% off sale for PainlessSVN until December 6, 2008. Use the code "black_friday_2008", without quotes, at checkout to get your discount.

Just wanted to let everybody know what I've been working on...

I'm almost done with Realms. A repository uses its Unique IDentifier when there is not an explicit realm. The UUID is basically a GUID.

I've also done some prettifieying of the server info view. Just some subtle UI touches, nothing fancy.

I'm also adding a new action to the server node. I'm adding the ability to set svnserve.exe as a Windows Service.

These things will be released with version 1.1. I just wish I could work on this full time, but PainlessSVN doesn't pay for bills just yet. This means that I have to keep my day job for a while longer. ;)

I've been a little bit peeved at the so called discounts that retailers have been hawking. They have been complaining about bad sales, but have not really done much to get the shoppers' attention. Their Black Friday sales are pathetic, at least to me.

In order to let out some of my frustration, I thought I give everybody a 50% off deal for the rest of the month. Enter "black_friday_2008", without quotes, at checkout to get half-off on PainlessSVN Professional. That's right, it will be $24.98 until November 30.

I'm currently working on 1.1, which will be a free update to anybody who purchases PainlessSVN now.

UPDATE
This offer has been extended until December 6. Enjoy!

The integration that I had with my ecommerce DNN module (ActivePurchase) broke when I moved the site to PowerDNN. I have been fighting with this for a couple weeks now.

Here's what happened:
The part that sends the serial number did not work anymore, because the SMTP server was not on the same network. Changing the settings did not work at first. I went googling for sending emails from DNN. I got some good hits for sending email from inside DNN modules.

The API for this is fairly simple (relatively). You first make a reference to DotNetNuke.Services.Mail. Then you make a call to the Mail.SendMail() method, with the appropriate parameters. There are 5 overloads. The call from a module would look like this:

DotNetNuke.Services.Mail.Mail.SendMail(FromAddress, SendTo, "", Subject, Body, "", "", "", "", "", "")

Well, that didn't work. So now I was scratching my head.

I am using a special type of integration called a custom step, which is just an assembly in the bin directory for the DotNetNuke install. I had to go and dig into the event log that DNN keeps. There were several exceptions there. The message was that the SMTP connection needed to be authenticated. WTF??

Custom DNN modules use the SMTP settings that the administrator has setup. However, the custom step does not get treated as a module. So I had to do this:

DotNetNuke.Services.Mail.Mail.SendMail(FromAddress, SendTo, "", Subject, Body, "", "", "", "", UserName, Password)

Once I did that, the custom step started sending emails like before. YES!

Now that this is fixed, I can get my undivided attention back to PainlessSVN and SVN Backup Widget stuff.

My grandma died at 4:30 AM this morning. It wasn't unexpected, but it is still leaves me feeling sad. I got a call from my father this morning letting me know that it happened. I talked with my mom afterwards, and she seemed quite upbeat.

Grandma Petra had a stroke a while back, and my mom has been taken care of her (Petra is my mom's mother). My mom was really sad that her mom was in such condition. I think we all feel a sense of relief that she's not suffering anymore.

I did get to talk to Abuelita last week on the phone. That was the first time since her stroke that she sounded lucid. I knew that was going to be the last time I would be talking to her.

I did not want to hold this in, and talking about it here gives me a sense of closure. I hope that Abuelita finds Braulio, her husband, soon on the other side.

One good thing that I got as her legacy is a warm feeling towards blonds. She was naturally blond, so that's where I get that. ;) It took me a long time to figure that out. Thanks Abulelita!

I spent last night working on SVNManagerLib. I was adding support for the new global configuration command-line switch that came with Subversion 1.5. I got the bulk of it done, but I still need to make sure the ancilliary code works correctly. I found that the user code was not working correctly. It was time for bed when I got to this point.

I'm wishing that I had integration tests done already, for exactly this sort of situation. I ordered Working Effectively with Legacy Code to help me with unit and integration testing. I haven't had the chance to do unit testing in the workplace, so I have to take this into my own hands.

Anyways, this feature will be pushed out with PainlessSVN 1.1. I still have a couple more features that I need to get completely done, before I get 1.1 out the door.

I got a view attached to the server leaf in PainlessSVN. This will give you at a glance info on what version of svnserve you are running, and whether or not it is running as a service. Here's a screenie:

Since Murphy is not messing with me anymore, I have been able to get a flurry of stuff moving forward. I'm also working on finishing up the load dump file feature. Here's a screenie of this: