Jerry Dixon

Interesting PC Magazine Articles

I've was reading PC Magazine tonight, and I came across two very interesting articles.  I thought they were worth passing along.

The first article is called “No-Cost Ad Blocking” and is written by Sheryl Canter.  (You can read her on-line version here.)  It shows you how you can block web page ads, for free, by using a Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) file.  Sheryl's Web page explains the concept, and includes links to freely downloadable files that implement this.  This is a good read.

The second article discusses a product called SeePassword that can display passwords that are hidden by asterisks or dots in Windows forms.  I've seen this kind of thing before on Windows 9x, but I thought NT and XP weren't vulnerable to this.  I guess I was wrong.  You should also check out the View Passwords bookmarklet on www.squarefree.com for another way to reveal passwords.

Deploying the IE Web Controls with your Application

I have an ASP.NET application that requires the IE Web Controls.  (If you don't know what these are, read this.)  I wanted to create a deployment project for my application, and of course, ran into trouble.  How does one install the Web Controls along with the application?  (See Jon?  I'm blogging it!)

First, what needs to be installed?  Here is my list:

• Application Root
  • BIN directory
    Microsoft.Web.UI.WebControls.dll
• webctrl_client virtual root
  • 1_0 Directory
    MultiPage.htc
    webservice.htc
    treeview.htc
    toolbar.htc
    webserviced.htc
    TabStrip.htc
    • images Directory
      folderopen.gif
      folder.gif
      root.gif
      html.gif
    • treeimages Directory
      f.gif
      fminus.gif
      fplus.gif
      i.gif
      L.gif
      Lminus.gif
      Lplus.gif
      minus.gif
      plus.gif
      r.gif
      Rminus.gif
      Rplus.gif
      T.gif
      Tminus.gif
      Tplus.gif
      white.gif
      • rtl Directory
        F.gif
        Fminus.gif
        Fplus.gif
        I.gif
        L.gif
        Lminus.gif
        Lplus.gif
        minus.gif
        plus.gif
        r.gif
        Rminus.gif
        Rplus.gif
        T.gif
        Tminus.gif
        Tplus.gif
        white.gif

Setting up the application BIN directory is easy.  You just add the project's primary output to the Web application folder in the normal way, using the deployment project's File System Editor.  Getting the deployment project to include the other files, in the correct folder, caused me a bit of frustration.  Of course, once I stumbled upon the answer, if was painfully obvious.  Here are the steps:

1. Using the File Editor, create a new Web Folder and call it whatever you like.  In the Properties dialog box, clear the entry called VirtualDirectory.  It must be blank.  This is the key.  When this property is set to nothing, the Web Folder is placed in the Web Root folder.
2. Add a Web Folder under this called webctrl_client.
3. Add a Web Folder under webctrl_client called 1_0.  Place the appropriate files in this directory.
4. Add a Web Folder under 1_0 called images.  Place the appropriate files in this directory.
5. Add a Web Folder under 1_0 called treeimages.  Place the appropriate files in this directory.
6. Add a Web Folder under treeimages called rtl.  Place the appropriate files in this directory.