Author Archives: Ben

Programmatically Setting a Magento Item’s Price When Adding It to Cart

Using code, how would we give a Magento item a one-time special price then add that item to the shopping cart? The process is simple: Create an instance of the Magento product, give it a custom price by calling setSpecialPrice, … Continue reading

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Can you force .Net garbage collection?

Confusion exists on whether .Net’s GC.Collect() simply suggests or actually forces garbage collection (GC). Thankfully, developers don’t usually need to worry about such mundane details. However, in unusual circumstances—like WeakReference testing (which may rely on predictable, guaranteed destruction of unneeded … Continue reading

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New Feature: Make the Store Address’s First Line Stand Out on Magento PDF Invoices

Want to make your store name stand out on your PDF invoice (example to the right)? By default, Magento’s PDF invoice displays your entire store address/information block using the same font/font size. Now, Ben Gribaudo’s Customizable PDF Invoice Module gives … Continue reading

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WPF: Separate Grids, Auto-Sized Columns/Rows With Synchronized Dimensions

The design specification calls for two Grids. One column in each is to auto-size its width to its content. “No problem—<ColumnDefinition Width=”Auto” /> will take care of that,” you think. Then you notice a footnote: “The widths both auto-sized columns … Continue reading

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New Feature: Display Coupon Code on Magento PDF Invoice

This new feature replaces Magento’s PDF invoice’s default “Discount” line with “Coupon (code)” when a coupon has been used on the associated order.

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Released: Customizable PDF Invoice Module for Magento

It’s released! Use Ben Gribaudo’s Customizable PDF Invoice Module to style your Magento PDF invoices. Choose the font/font size for each component on the invoice. Use one font for store info, another for item details, make the totals section larger…. … Continue reading

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SSRS: Dataset Field List Is Empty Even After Refresh Fields

Problem: Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services won’t populate the data set’s field list. Clicking Refresh Fields does nothing—the field list remains empty. Is something wrong with the query? Is there a database permissions issue? Let’s check. Click the Query Designer … Continue reading

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New Module Feature: Customize Magento PDF Invoice Item Columns

New feature—the forthcoming PDF invoice customization module now allows item columns (item name, SKU, price each, tax, etc.) to be customized in three ways: Show/Hide: Selectively remove item columns from the invoice. Perhaps your products are sales tax exempt—use this … Continue reading

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Canon EOS Utility—Automatic Camera Clock Synchronization

Daylight savings time comes or goes, I travel to a different time zone, clock-drift occurs—all reasons why my Canon EOS camera’s date and time might be incorrect. Today, I was thinking about how nice it would be for Canon’s EOS Utility to … Continue reading

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SSRS Date/Time Parameter Disabled When Default Value Expression Is Used

After inserting a date/time parameter with an expression as its default value into a Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2008 R2 report, I noticed that the date/time control would be disabled when I’d preview the report. Strange.

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