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 objects)—particulars like this become vitally important. Continue reading
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 you separate font/font size settings for both the store address’s first line and the rest of the address. Continue reading
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 should match. Both columns should be the width of the wider column’s content.”
How do you implement this? Continue reading
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. Continue reading
It’s released! Use Ben Gribaudo’s Customizable PDF Invoice Module to style your Magento PDF invoices.
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 button, then the red “!” (execute) icon. The query runs and…a normal result set is returned. Since the query executes correctly, the query and permissions must be fine. So, the blank field list indicates an SSRS bug—correct? Not necessarily. Continue reading
New feature—the forthcoming PDF invoice customization module allows item columns (item name, SKU, price each, tax, etc.) to be customized in three ways:
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 have an auto-clock synchronization feature. Each time I’d plug my camera into my computer, this feature would automatically synchronize the camera’s clock with the current date and time from the computer. Continue reading
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.
Yesterday, while building the admin interface for a Magento module, I wanted to populate a select control (a.k.a. combobox or drop-down list) with a custom list of options. Inserting the select control was simple. Building the custom options class also was easy. However, figuring out how to wire in the custom options list took a little bit of time. Continue reading