Blog Entry: 3/25/2006 4:25:35 PM
I encountered the same problem and eventually found out that my Norton protection was not allowing scripts to work so I had to uncheck the setting before the banners reappeared., It should be released sometime late May 2004 or early June 2004 but no gurantees as I am pretty busy right now with some projects.
There will be upgrade instructions and it should be a fairly easy upgrade.
,
Hi Chris,
Our company has a big dilemma on how to manage the database for accounts that are expiring/expired.
We saw the function to email a batch of users who are expiring soon but this doesn't help us to complete the renewal process.
Once the email is sent, what happens afterwards? how can we setup the system so that we can renew their expiry dates or accounts without too much hassle?
The system currently doesn't have any renewal functions or to allow batch changes on multiple accounts at the same time so we have to manually edit one account at a time. This is extremely tedious if we have over 1000 accounts to manage (and we will).
If you have anything to suggest on all this I would appreciate it :)
Thanks alot
Sylvain
, I really do not know.. maybe it is a conflict with something else..
I run many instances of aspbanner on my servers and I have every item to log enabled for my iis log files... my stats server software which reads those log files (livestats and smarterstats) have never reported any 404 errors related to (aspbanner/those images)...
I do not know what is happening in your situation..
sorry.
, I am really starting to get the hang of your
software. It seems to me, you have thought of everything a person could
possible want. Before I try to tackle
setting up Pay Pal subscription payments is there really any difference
between a file include and a virtual include statement? Is one more
secure than another?
, I swapped a few emails with CJW regarding support for ASPMail.
This application works with this software. I host my site with a
private hosting company named 'Intermedia.net' and this is what I had
to do to make this application work.
1 - Change email settings to 'SASMTPMail' installed
2 - Find all instances of the following code:
If ASPMail_Installed = true then
&nbs p; Set Mailer =
Server.CreateObject("SMTPsvg.Mailer")
Else
&nbs p; Set Mailer =
Server.CreateObject("SoftArtisans.SMTPMail")
End If
Change this code to simply:
Set Mailer = Server.CreateObject("SMTPsvg.Mailer")
3 - that was about it. The files that I needed to change are:
/users/email_password.asp
/users/add_new_account.asp
/gallery_admin/approve_album.asp
/email_friend.asp
I believe that's all i needed to change. Any questions I'd be
happy to try to help out. [CJW -- for some reason i needed a
restart on the server, it's all good now
http://www.iphotosite.com/galleryapp/default.asp. I'll be putting
in a redirect for that location/domain later today.
Kurt Tietjen
, I am testing this now and there is something wrong.
PayPal is hitting the ipn.asp but the database is not being updated.
I will figure it out shortly though and post the anwer here.
, Thanks for the info. We'll do as you suggest.
NPA
, I've been working on it for quite some time.... doesn't seem to be working as of yet :(, Christopher,
Thanks for the reply. I think I've found my problem, but can't test until later in the evening as it is on a live site.
Darrell
, its one or the other... you cant protect upload.asp at the same time if upload.asp is included in another page..
I mean sure you can protect upload.asp from running when another page calls it by password protecting the page calling it.
And sure you can protect upload.asp by itself if it also runs all by itself. But you can not include the "check_user_inc.asp" more than once in any order of execution scenario. That includes pages being included.
Generally anytime a page is included in another that included page is not meant to run by itself and wouldn't produce any outcome if run by itself so this would never be an issue.
if you don't want "upload.asp" to ever be run by itself in that scenario put it somewhere in your web site that is not web browser accessible.
I would also suggest you look into using Virtual includes. It will save you a lot of time figuring out this sort of thing "../../../../../" becuase once you figure out the virtual include path you can use the same server side include from any directory level.
http://www.powerasp.com/content/code-snippets/includes.asp
, If you are using an ACCESS Database try to avoid using a system DSN. They are much slower because they go through ODBC which then uses the Jet Drivers to access the database. They also have to do a registry lookup.
ttp://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/070399-1.shtml
http://www.powerasp.com/content/database/dsn_vs_dnsless.asp
It's funny because in the 4guys article they ask the question..
"Hmmmm... so who was right, Microsoft or Wrox?"
I'll tell you who was right and who said it 1st. It was me and I said it on my old powerasp.com site before anyone else ever did.
I found it out on my own by experimenting when I was the Systems Analyst for an large ISP. We we had web servers that were not running well. I didn't read about this solution anywhere because no one was talking about it at the time. Microsoft said use System DSN's so everyone just took their word for it.
I took a lot of heat for saying that back in the day but over time everyone started saying it.
, Regarding (ASP Photo Gallery Pro)
If you are looking to import a very, very, large number of images, the upload feature might not be sufficient for you. I have done some work using a unix terminal to be able to upload as many images as I would like by simply placing the images in the directory and renaming the images. There are other ways to rename the images, but I am very familiar with Linux, so I chose to do it this way. If you are running Linux, MacOS, or another Linux-based OS, you can simply pull up a terminal and run the following command in the appropriate directory. If you run Windows, I'd suggest CygWin, which creates a Linuxenvironment (Linux shell). It can be found at www.cygwin.com In order to be recognized by the ASP software, the images must be in the format of pic_"Album Number"_"Picture Number".jpg . Therefore, the following code is run to accomplish the file name change (on one line without wordwrap):
ls -1 DSC* |
sed 's/DSCN//g'
sed 's/.JPG//g' |
awk '{print "mv DSCN"$1".JPG pic_9_"$1".jpg"}'
This command will change all files beginning in "DSCN" to "pic_9_*Picture Number*".
This does have a slight problem however. If there is a large number of pictures, 0's become a problem. For example, if there are 200 pictures, picture 1 will show up as pic_9_001.jpg. This can be fixed by the following command, which will eliminate unneccesary 0's (All on one line once more):
ls -1 --color='never' pic_9_0*
|sed 's/_0/_/g'
|sed 's/pic_9_//g'
|sed 's/.jpg//g'
|awk '{print "mv pic_9_0"$1".JPG pic_9_"$1".JPG"}'
This command eliminates 1 zero. It should be run as many times as needed to eliminate all zero's.
Please Note: These commands will only show the resultant set (The list of picture names). In order to execute them, they must be output to a shell script using the ">" character as follows:
ls -1 DSC* |
sed 's/DSCN//g'
sed 's/.JPG//g' |
awk '{print "mv DSCN"$1".JPG pic_9_"$1".jpg"}' > temp.sh
Then, the shell script must be run using the following command:
sh temp.sh
This might take a few moments, depending on the amount of picture names that are being changed.
IMPORTANT: BACK UP all files before changing file names. Also, view the resultant sets to make sure it's what you want before outputting to a shell script.
If you have any questions, please feel free to post or e-mail me @ JPortnoy@checkernet.com
cwilliams38210.5703009259, I think I've found the problem..
The password "abcdefgh" works
The password "abcdefghi" does not
(username "ace45")
Passwords can obviously only contain up to and including 8 characters... By some coincidence I only used short passwords with MS Access.
, I think you can either change some things in your PayPal account settings regarding your default currency..
or add a hidden variable to the PayPal form code ASPProtect uses like this guy did.
http://support.cjwsoft.com/code/code_info.asp?TID=237&KW =paypal
The hidden form variable code would go next to all the other hidden variables in no particlar order.. just look through the paypal code in notepad till you find a bunch of those hidden form variables lines in a row. ,
I have been using ASPBanner for a while and am very pleased with it. Congratulations on a good product.
Only one feature is missing that would really help me and this is being able to display banners dependent on some condition (/aspbanner/aspbanner_inc.asp?BannerZone=6&condition=xxx ).
I think this would be a good idea as it would allow users to present adverts based on different criteria; for example; specific country/region related ads, ads based on time of day, ads based on user preferences, etc.
To achieve this I was thinking of adding a field to the database so that I can enter a set of comma delimited conditions for which the banner can be displayed.
I have looked through some of the asp code with the intention of seeing how easy it would be to implement the functionality. Not knowing the code however, I think that modifying it myself would be risky as I may inadvertently change things, which would have a negative effect.
Would adding this type of functionality in ASPBanner be of interest to you. If not, can you let me have your opinion as to whether this would be relatively simple change for me to do myself or would it be too risky and I should give up the idea. Any guidance or feedback would be appreciated.
, That carrot doesn't really exist in the file, so I'm not sure.
I did download and place the ASPTEST file in www.drsweisberg.com/asptest and when I try to load the 2 pages it fails to load. I have another site on the same server and I uploaded the same exact set of files and the asp pages load. www.klarman.com/asptest
http://www.drsweisberg.com/asptest/server_info.asp
http://www.klarman.com/asptest/server_info.asp
This is how I set the connection:
ConnectionString = "DBQ=D:\clients\rklarman\klarman\asptest\_database\asptest.m db;Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};UID=Admin;Password=temp"
ConnectionString = "DBQ=D:\clients\rklarman\drsweisberg\asptest\_database\aspte st.mdb;Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};UID=Admin;Password=temp"
, Hi Chris,
Thanks for the answer. No, I am not using Paypal since these are employees and sales reps. I guess i'm on my own on this one. :)
Thanks
Sylvain
, DONE IT
DON'T WORRY!
DON'T ASK HOW, BUT NOW IT WORKS!!
THANK YOU IF IT WAS YOU, OR THANK YOU GOD IF IT WAS ME!!!
, and the permissions, how exactly were they set ?
I find a lot of customers think they are setting permissions correctly when they really are not. That's why I wrote that long article on the subject.
As you probably know a data connection is a very low level thing. It is the foundation of any ASP application that communicates with a database. Unfortunatly it sometimes takes a while to get the hang of setting them up without issue.
Everything must be perfect.. the ODBC drivers must be up to date, folder permission are critical, sometimes you must use a new version of the access database.. etc etc etc The errors and things that happen when all these things are not perfect and not helpful as you have found out.
I would suggest you download and get ASPTest from CJWSoft running before you go any further. It is designed to be as simple as possible and helps get a hang of the database setup process.
, The count is in the album area where the small pictures and description of album. Viewed 1 time(s) This count never changes.
Thanks
John
, Whenever you are running software that can block scripts from certain things you are going to have issues like this.
I imagine many complex asp scripts you will download will do things like this as well.
A highly doubt it is anything to worry about regarding people that use your site.
ASP code delivers standard html to the browser... nothing weird goes on as far as that goes.
This system has been sold for 6 years and this is just not something to worry about. Trust me.. though you may want to tone down black ice so it doesn't give you issues as it tries to block various things.
If I were you I would do some google searches on black ice and issues with it blocking asp scripts.. etc etc
Now, if you are running black ice right on the server that a whole other story and something you as a server admin need to decide what to do about. I doubt that is the case as black ice is not probably suitable for a commercial webserver but I just thought I would throw that out there.
, Banners no longer show up on my site ?
If banners were working fine and now they are just not showing up.
1st check to see that you are calling a valid zone with live banners in it.
If you are then most likely this it what hapened.
The web server must have crashed or lost power and now the application variables are in limbo/not working.
I have seen this happen 3 times. Twice on my own server when the power went out for 2 hours and once on a customers server.
Basically the application variable system gets all messed up because it was not shut down properlly.
The ways to possibly cure it are as follows.
Edit and save a banner in the system. Hopefully that gets things going again.
If not... keep reading for the more drastic cures..
Go to the command prompt on the server and type "iisreset"
Sometimes that is enough.
Reboot the server.
Sometimes that is enough.
Stop the web in the IIS console.
Sometimes that is enough.
Stop the individual processes for each web in iis
"you must really know what you doing and be very careful about doing this"
Remove and recreate new applications in IIS for the web in question.
And sometimes it just takes a combination of the things listed above and a few reboots. I don't know the best way to cure it but I do know why it happens and the steps listed above can get things back on track.
Again, this is because the server lost power or crashed as far as I know.
It was not allowed to shut down properly which sometimes happens.
You'll know things are ok again when you see your banners show up on your site.
cwilliams38295.0183101852, Chris: You are right about a little extra coding to make it work. I am still learning .ASP coding, so I did a little web searching and used IF THEN statments to confirm a member logged in with a valid Access Code. If valid, the protected page executes, with the Member's Name and Access Level on a single line at the top of that page. Looks sharp! If not logged in, or a non member (who found the page via Google), I used a Redirect to send s/he to a login page with optional links as you suggested (http://www.vspa.com/aspprotect/vspa-password-failed.asp) . I couldn't get it to work when using Group Access, but I am sure that is just because I am a novice at .ASP (I will post that example when I figure it out). Meanwhile, here's the code I used that works:
<%@ LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" %>
<!--#INCLUDE FILE="dataconn_inc.asp"-->
<!--#INCLUDE FILE="check_user_inc.asp"-->
<!--#INCLUDE FILE="config_inc.asp"-->
<% =Session("First_Name") %> <% =Session("Last_Name") %>:
<%
If Session("Access_Level") = "6" Then
Response.Write "VSPA Active Member Access Level 6"
End If
If Session("Access_Level") = "7" Then
Response.Write "VSPA Life Member Access Level 7"
End If
If Session("Access_Level") = "8" Then
Response.Write "VSPA Officer/Staff Access Level 8"
End If
If Session("Access_Level") < "6" Then
Response.Write "Access Level 1-6 NOT AUTHORIZED RESTRICTED AREA ACCESS"
Response.Redirect("vspa-password-failed.asp")
End If
%><!-- http://www.vspa.com/aspprotect/vspa-password-enter.asp -->
<!-- *** End ASPProtect Code *** -->
<html>
<head>
, It looks like your product is perfect for my new site, but I have one question. One of the pages I want to protect on my site will be called by an application running on a remote server every 15 seconds. The application can include the username and password in the URL it is calling. Will your product allow access to the protected page on my server? , We have no add-ons for anything but accepting payments through paypal and 2checkout... if you want to accept payments through some other setup you have make a payment directory addon and write code to do it based on the system you are using..
We provide the ASP source code so that is doable for someone that is good with ASP. If not then it won't be doable.
, (User Search & Contact Mod) for ASPProtect Version 7.x
This will allow an individual user to search for other users as well as email or call them.
Notes: This is a down and dirty mod. The users page from the admin area was used as a starting point. I then edited it up real quick to be used as a user search. The way it is it shows the user email as a regular email link. If you want to set it up so emailing is done from the application and emails are not actually shown you will have to do some extra work. If you don't want phone numbers shown you will have to remove that column which is not very difficult.

Directions:
Back up your existing ASPProtect installation.
copy "search.asp" into your "users" folder
2006-03-10_143253_User_Search_Contact_Mod.zip
Direct your users there. They will have to be logged in to view the page.
WARNING: This has not been extensively tested for SQL Injection attacks.
I think it is perfectly fine the way it is by looking it over quickly, but use it at your own risk.
, I would look on the pictures folder on the server and see what is there for pictures. Also, when you see a broken X on the site right click and see where it is trying to get the picture from and what the pictures name should be.
I would also be sure to clear out your temporary internet files in IE. clost and restart all browsers..
maybe show me the site ? so I can see this happening ?
cwilliams38348.9748726852, I downloaded v7 3/7/2005
I entered a password that was supposed to be all caps with only first letter caps.
it is odd, if I go to other user and enter wrong password that does not come up. it apprpriately goes to a screen that says Access Denied.
thx
, Then, you would have to add those users to the aspprotect user database. You would do so using the built in import/export features of msaccess and being very carteful about it. It is not a process we support and the technique used would be unique to any situation. Its basic database work though but still you have to be able to do it.
ASPProtect uses its own user database and you have to use that database. ASPPortect can not authenticate users using some other existing database.
Does that make sense ?, How do I customize the validation email that is sent to users when they first register?, I assume that if I am using this product, search engines such as Google cannot access and index my content. Can somebody confirm that; I want to be 100% sure.
In case it matters, I am using a basic, cheap ISP setup where my site is on a shared server.
Thanks in advance.
, ok, I moved this thread..
The code in the ASP application handles all encryption and un-encrpytion of passwords in the database. I uses the vbscript RC4 function and the password encryption key specific to your installation to do this.
The whole idea is that if someone gets your database and opens it up that they will not get the passwords (utilitiies to crack access databases are common and work well so they can easily get by the main password)
That being said when you open the database manually your not supposed to see clear text passwords. Your also not supposed to have an easy way to make them clear text. It's a security thing.
Though I am not officially supporting it I will tell you what I think would be the easisest way to make an export file with clear text passwords in it.
Use the export fire creator in the admin area of aspprotect.
Mosdify "export.asp"
change
Password = CmdDataExport("Password")
to
Password = RC4(CmdDataExport("Password"), PasswordEncryptionKey)
Then make an export file and see if that worked.
you can then import the export file into and access database or do whatever you like with it.
, Actually it would because you would just count records for that user that are also active
and yes, users cant delete albums.. they can only turn them off which really means the albums lose their active status
only the admin can truly delete an album the way the code is
(that's just the way I did it for some reason.. I don't remember why)
cwilliams38433.0343865741, Need to clarify something..
Your talking about the page where a new user registers right ?
Your not talking about adding a new user from the admin area ?
Either way under no circumstances do I see anything like you are saying happening nor has any other ASPProtect user ever mentioned this probem.
I am going to need to see your site and see this happening. It just makes no sense the way you are describing it.
Also. did you edit the registration page code in any way. If so please revert back to an original copy to ensure this is not some sort of problem introduced by editing the code.
cwilliams38164.8115046296, The random password is generated during signup and the function that creates it is located on this page of code.
users/register.asp
it looks like this
Function RndStr(Length, UseChrs)
If IsNull(UseChrs) OR (UseChrs = "") Then UseChrs = "0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz!@#$%^&*()_+=-"
NewStr = ""
Randomize(CByte(Left(Right(Time(),5),2)))
For gpIndex = 1 To Length
NewStr = NewStr & Mid(UseChrs, Int((Len(UseChrs)) * Rnd + 1), 1)
Next
RndStr = NewStr
End Function
For example go to this page and hit refresh and watch the password change.
http://www.aspprotect.com/demo2/users/register.asp
Yes, sometimes if you hit refresh quickly over and over you'll get the same password, but not generally. Also that is not something that would happen normally as a user isnt going to sit at that screen and hit refresh over and over.
Anyway... when signing up the new user of course has the option to change that password to something they would like better...
As far as... "selecting the same user name and password every time"
I need more information. That does not make sense for a lot of reasons.
Most importantly because usernames are not generated. The are inputed by the user during signup. They are then checked to ensure they do not already exist before the user is allowed to complete their signup.
So under normal circumstances there can never be duplicate usernames in the system or even users with duplicate emails as that is checked as well.
Now of course if you edited the code in any way it is possible all this is not working correctly ?
cwilliams38164.8059143519, humm, I dont know then..
If you want PM me your site info and I will go in and troubleshoot.
Frontpage or frontpage access, either way
and also the site URL
, Editing using Visual Studio.NET
Here are directions for editing the application using Visual Studio.NET
2002 or 2003 version.. either should work
Some of you are wondering why I didnt just give you the project files.
It is best you go through this process and really understand what is going on.
Also, I dont use VS 2002 so I wouldnt be able to give you project files that would work with that. Not to mention there is 100% chance my prject files wouldn't work for you anyway because of path differences and other things.
Anyway.. on with the instructions...
1st.. make sure IIS, ASP.NET, .NET Framework, and Visual Studio.NET are all installed correctly and up to date.
Open Visual Studio.NET
File - New Project
Select a New Visual Basic ASP.NET web application.
give the new web to be created a name.. I called mine "aspprotectdotnet"

Hit Ok..
Now. once the project opens up we need to delete a few things in the solution explorer window.
So delete "webform1.aspx" , "deletestyles.css", "Global.asax", "AssemblyInfo.vb", and "web.config"
Basically all the files under the project...
Now... you should have the aspprotect.net files unzipped somewhere on you hard drive...
open that folder and select all the files and folders like so

Now drag those selected files and folders to the solution explorer window of Visual Studio.NET right on to the name of the web. In my case "aspprotectdotnet"
It might say this folder already contains a folder names Bins.. just tell it to copy over and continue on any prompts like that.
You'll notice your project is now populated.
Open up the references tab in the solution explorer window as we need to add some references to the dlls in the bin folder of this project. This is needed so the compile process and function correctly.
Right click on references.. click add reference
Then browse....browse on your hard drive to the location of the new web and the bin folder within it.
In my case... "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\aspprotectnet\bin"
Choose "aspprotectlicense.dll"
Hit open...
Now do the same thing again until you have added all the dlls in that bin folder to the references..
Now.. click add-references again and this time choose
"system.management" from the choices in the .NET tab
Once all of that is done your references should look like this

Now in the Visual Studio.NET menu system up top..
Choose Build - Build Solution
If you did everything right you will see something like this in the build window
------ Build started: Project: aspprotectdotnet, Configuration: Debug .NET ------
Preparing resources...
Updating references...
Performing main compilation...
Building satellite assemblies...
---------------------- Done ----------------------
Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped
You now have the visual studio side of things all set up.
To make the project actually run we now have to set some permissions and edit the web.config file.
Using windows explorer browse to the web the app is in. Right click on the "_database" folder and give that folder and all the child folders within it. Modify permissions for both the Anonymous webserver account and the ASPNET account. These accounts might not show up until you dig into the advanced tab and click find now to show all the accounts on the machine.
Permissions screen looks like this...

Once that is done go back the solution explorer window in visual studio.
Open the docs folder.. right click on "sysdiag.aspx" and choose view in browser.
It should complie the project again.. and then run that page in either the internal or external browser depending on how you have that set up.
That page will report back path information.
"BTW.. for security reasons this page should be removed from any production server after installation is complete.. this is very important"
In my case it looks like this.
Probabale AppRootPhysicalPath
c:\inetpub\wwwroot\aspprotectdotnet
Probabale AppRootUrlPath
http://localhost/aspprotectdotnet
Probabale Path to Access Database
c:\inetpub\wwwroot\aspprotectdotnet\_database\aspprotectnet2 002.mdb
Now we need to edit the web.config file... your going to need to know some of the path information above.
In solution explorer double click on web.config.
Now edit the AppRootPhysicalPath, AppRootUrlPath, and CN keys accordingly.
In my case they will look like this.
Notice tha part in bold that we added.
Now, you may also want to check the temp license key info while you are in that file and make sure it is not expired but I am not going to get into that here.
New Power Supply and a new (CPU Fan/Heat Sink) seemed to do the the trick. She's running like a champ now...
Hopefully it keeps doing so. Only time will tell.
It she's stable I can get back to designing some new software.