QuickerSite is available on GitHub as from 2020.
You may want to star, fork, follow, download and/or contribute to the project over there. Thank you!
My development rage is running at cruising speed. You can read everything about it on https://asplite.com/
Demo: https://demo.asplite.com/
Download: https://github.com/PieterCooreman/aspLite
Always happy with some feedback or a bug report.
For some weeks now I'm on a crazy development trip. It's really serious. Terrifying. Ever since this Covid crisis I'm basically doing nothing but code my way through numerous ideas and issues. Day by day. From the moment I wake up, I start making to do lists from everything I've been thinking of during the night. I remember I went to the exact same thing when I developed QS, back in 2007-2008. I haven't changed a bit apparently.
And yes, it's all about ASP/VBScript. I am developing a new framework: https://github.com/PieterCooreman/ASP-VBScript-Framework. How stupid is that??? It's incredibly stupid. But I like it so much.
This thing needs a name... Can't think of anything.
My development trip sure has been given an amazing boost by GitHub. GitHub has made me feel comfortable as a developer again. It takes care of versioning, keeps track of the history of scripts, releases, etc. GitHub Desktop helps a lot to synchronize my local development environment with the online repository. I discovered "Markdown" as an easy way to write release notes and documentation. Anyway, GitHub adds a lot of professionalism. And I need that.
GitHub also serves as a basic free CMS: https://pietercooreman.github.io/ASP-VBScript-Framework/.This "projectpage" lists all Markdown (.md) files in a given branch. You can select a template (basic). That page gets automatically updated when I write documentation in my Markdown files. In theory, a GitHub repository can be *just* a bunch of Markdown files - thus a simple website. And it has SSL. See https://pages.github.com/
ALL FOR FREE...
I'm waiting for a contributor to jump-in on any of my repositories. I have 8 of them. So far, nobody has presented him/herself as a contributor. But I understand. I'm on such an intense trip that I would not be able to cooperate with anyone anyhow.
Programming is a very very very lonely business after all. I really think it is. Pretty much like writing songs is. It's me, myself and I. But that does not mean getting input and feedback from others is not important. It usually drives the developer towards even better results.
Happy programming!
Weird times. As a father, I love being stuck with the children. As a developer, I love having time on my hands to focus on new technologies and learn new things. As a musician, I love the silence around me. But people are getting infected and are dying at a rapid pace. Very ambiguous.
For some time now, JavaScript seems to be the most popular programming language on the globe. I've recently created a GitHub account and when browsing the most starred repositories, they're basically all about JavaScript. Often combined in HTML and CSS frameworks. React, Vue, Next, Electron, Node, Angular, Three, jQuery, Reveal, Atom, etc...The list is endless actually. A little too long to my taste maybe... Anyway, one thing is very clear: any JavaScript-app will work in all current browsers, from the smallest mobile phone to the biggest desktop computers. No doubt about that.
Bootstrap is still doing very well too. The first version of Bootstrap was released in 2011. That was around the time I stopped the active development of QS. I somehow regret not having adopted Bootstrap for the QS backsite (and some front-end modules). I once added a Bootstrap 3 compatible menu-tag: QS_BOOTSTRAPMENU_3. I guess it still works. But Bootstrap is on version 4 now.
On a side note... Given the popularity of this uncompiled scripting language for both frontend, backend and even mobile app-development, Microsoft could have been much more successful by extending their own (more visual) variant named VBScript, the scripting language that is most often used in ASP classic code. That is... instead of creating their bloated .net monsters. Have I said that before?
So it looks like it's the perfect time to learn how to write good JavaScript code. On GitHub you can find some "repositories" that collect all sorts of ebooks and tutorials. THE most starred repository is freeCodeCamp - a full academic curriculum mainly on JavaScript, including various certifications. All for free.
Keep it safe out there. Or better... stay inside!
Time has come to realize that QuickerSite has come to an end. Active development stopped somewhere in 2014 already. I will keep on hosting QuickerSites for my customers as well as for some resellers.
This is a tough decision, but it feels like the right thing to do. I have finally made up my mind about offering hosted services only, rather than freely redistribute and support codebases that need updates and patches on a regular basis.
This website QuickerSite.com, the forums and some other functions will be available for many years to come. Existing users can always contact me on info@quickersite.com to receive the latest version of QS or discuss any issue. I will no longer offer the QuickerSite-codebase to new users however as from February 2020.
This has been a wonderful adventure and as is often the case, the most important thing that remains is friendship. Thank y’all for this wonderful time.
Take care!
Pieter Cooreman
developer QuickerSite
I recently discovered a neat trick in Google Photos. I needed an easy way to isolate and upload 1000's of photos and movies that were stored on old disk drives (they were about to crash). I found out that the easiest way to do that, is to search for *.jpg of *.mp4 files by using Windows search, and next drag and drop these results into the Google Photos webpage (the one with the overview of your photos). Make sure to use Chrome. You can easily upload 10.000 images/movies in one go. It may take a while to upload that many files, but it sure is worthwhile.
Update 1: forget about the "search for" trick I mentioned above. In fact, it's even much easier: just drag 'n drop a complete folder or even a complete disk drive in the Google Photos webpage. This will automatically upload all images and movies (and not the other files). I uploaded over 30.000 images and movies in the past 48 hours this way. Amazing.
Update 2: Apple users would typically use the Pictures app to sync their photos accross various devices and integrate with iCloud. However, they only have 5GB free storage wich is not much when dealing with images and movies. They then need to buy an online storage plan for a monthly fee. Google photos could be a solution for them as well. You need to export pictures from the Pictures app before uploading though. That's a little inconvenient...
Immediately after your upload, Google will automatically sort the uploaded material by day, month and year. The hours and days that follow, you'll get dozens of suggested collages, animations, movies and styled images. Wonderful. Also, Google will automatically remove double uploads. Very useful. And with the built-in face-recognition you can easily see yourself growing older and uglier year after year. That's a minus. There are also very useful search-capabilities. If you're looking for a guitar, just search for "guitar" and all images with a guitar will show up. You can also combine keywords in your searches, as well as people's names. Very powerful. For instance, a search for "Pieter drinking beer" returns these images that I turned into a collage for the occasion:
(actually, on 2 pictures, it's not me drinking beer, it's my brother and sis... )
Another example, this comes up when searching for all firstnames of my family.. Google finds all our family-pictures taken over the years. There were many more, but I made a collage again. All I had to do to get this going, is tag my family members on a handful of photos (few days ago). Google did the rest. I would never have been able to find them myself in my collection of 50.000 photos.
Above all... it's all 100% free. The only "limitation" is that Google reduces photo's to 16MP and movies to 1080p. These are not even limitations... You really don't need a paid solution to store and backup images and movies these days. At least....
How about privacy? What if Google suspends my account? I'm less worried about privacy. I have not one single photo that I need to hide from the outside world (except the ones where I drink beer perhaps). I am more worried about Google suspending my account for some reason. Or what if Google simply disappears at some point? I will then lose all my pictures, movies and memories.
Thinking about this ... maybe it's a good idea to store everything on a local disk somewhere as well...
I have recently been (re)doing some sites.
https://www.schoonheidsinstituutveerle.be/
Actually, the first one is a QS on a Mobirise template. The 3 others are pure Mobirise, nothing to do with QS. I recently bought myself a copy of Mobirise. It's an amazing simple little tool that creates great sites... I'm using it for some years already and I must admit it has grown to a very mature state. Especially when you combine it with some custom JS, CSS and/or iFrames, the sky is the limit.
It's a sad day for QS. Today, I have given the installation ZIP files a try. It was a major shock to find out that none of the downloads (the regular QS nor the Mobirise edition) actually worked. They caused an error when installing.
I have meantime fixed the issue. But I have absolutely no idea how many people must have tried to download and install QS, without any luck. It may have been going on for more than a year. And nobody has ever reported any issue.
It somehow makes sadly clear how dead QS is today. I'm not blaming anyone, let me make that clear. It's just sad. That's all there is to say I guess.
"It is important in life not to be strong, but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once. If you want something in life, reach out and grab it."
I'm quoting Christopher McCandless - the man from Into The Wild. For some odd reason, his story only came to my attention today, after yet another adventurer died when searching for the Magic Bus in Alaska.
For most people, measuring yourself, "reaching out and grab it", would typically mean: get a decent job, make a lot of money, raise the kids, freak out on weekends and keep yourself in good shape by working out. And last but not least: live a fake second life on Facebook.
But for me, these couple of words mean something else. I can relate to McCandless's story. I feel like I have not yet measured myself to the bone. I always feel like the best is yet to come. For some years now I have tried to make it as a singer-songwriter and as such I have often tried to reach out and grab something. But I've never known what there really is to grab, other than expressing myself through my songs, my guitar, the lyrics and my voice.
But I'm 47 years old. And I fear that my best years are behind me. It's a sad feeling. And I know that this is the case for most people. But still...
Developing QuickerSite back in 2006-2014 sure also felt like reaching out. But I didn't grab anything with it ;) Story of my life.
I was told years ago to never run real time virus protection software on Windows Servers. They would slow down the whole thing, especially when lots of file I/O is done. Like is the case when using Access databases in classic ASP web applications. But WordPress also seems to generate a lot of disk i/o, more than what I had expected.
I noticed that on my AWS server, by default, real time virus protection (known as Defender by Windows users) is switched on. So I took the challenge and checked out the difference in loading speed of my hosted websites with and without Defender switched on. The difference is ... massive.
With Defender switched off, websites load up to 70% faster. Good to know I think... I bet there are better virus scanners than Defender for Windows... but they all cost a fortune. Not sure they're worth it... I better stick to a good backup plan in case a virus hits.
It's amazing how Mobirise keeps on coming up with things I added to QS years ago. Check out https://mobirise.com/extensions/popup-builder/
Their next big thing would obviously be a way to provide content behind passwords. This can be done with just JavaScript. Mobirise *could* encrypt html that can only be decrypted with a given password. This library seems to do the trick. This solution comes nowhere near the QuickerSite intranet area, but in many cases that is not needed.
SendGrid turns out to be a working solution for sending out emails in QuickerSite. The settings below (/asp/config/web_config.asp) work fine for me. You have to signup and create an API key. Finally, use the password for that API key. You can send up to 100 messages/day for free.
UPDATE: it turns out that AWS as well throttles port 25 in case many emails are sent at once (like is usually the case when sending out newsletters). You can ask AWS support to lift that throttle though...
A while back I was very excited about Google Cloud. Remember? Well, it’s over. Google Cloud Servers block outgoing port 25, meaning that you cannot run an SMTP service on that port. So there is absolutely no way to host websites (with contact forms, or any other forms) on a Google Cloud server. Exit Google Cloud.
So I had to go find another solution. I decided to give Amazon Web Services a try. Check out https://aws.amazon.com/
So far so good. I’m very impressed. Things are a bit more complex coming from Google Cloud, but that has its reasons. AWS has a longer tradition in cloud hosting. It feels like they have been thinking a lot about it over the years. They do cloud hosting the object oriënted way... Sort of.
Some things to keep in mind when using AWS:
All in all, I think AWS is a very interesting way to go. I will make up my mind about it very soon.
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