{"id":2958,"date":"2002-08-29T10:02:47","date_gmt":"2002-08-29T15:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2958"},"modified":"2002-08-29T10:02:47","modified_gmt":"2002-08-29T15:02:47","slug":"cant_win_for_lo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/08\/29\/cant_win_for_lo.html","title":{"rendered":"Can’t win for losing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned <\/a>the other day the quotations database <\/a>I have.<\/p>\n

My biggest problem that I have with it (aside from its care and feeding) is actually publishing the damned thing. I keep it in Access, but translating from that to some nice, simple static web pages is an ongoing lesson in frustration.<\/p>\n

First of all, you can’t. Access doesn’t want to produce static web pages. It wants to generate some sort of active web page, with scroll buttons and searching this-n-that, and acts on the assumption that you’re running on an IIS server with all sorts of other Micro$oft bells and whistles installed.<\/p>\n

(Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.)<\/p>\n

Well, really, it will actually do a static page. Or a set of them, as it will take the report\/query and “print” it onto multiple web pages.<\/p>\n

I don’t want that. I want all of the quotes by authors whose last names begin with “B” to appear on the “B” page. A single page. Should be simple. ‘Tis not.<\/p>\n

I have gotten around this for the past few years by outputting the quotations through a report that has the frelling HTML codes embedded in it, and saving that report to a text file, then massaging that file further (correcting the odd artifacts this approach adds) with all the proper formatting into an HTML file, then uploading that<\/i>.<\/p>\n

You can see why I only publish an updated version once a year or so.<\/p>\n

I have a MySQL database on my host. I don’t know how to use it, and I’m not sure I want to go to the effort of moving my quite-functional(-except-for-the-frelling-output) Access database onto a strange, hosted platform, then learn how to present from MySQL into HTML.<\/p>\n

It occured to me, though, a couple of days ago that Access can output to XML. And, hey, XML is this universal databasey kind of thing that I should be able to format a nice front-end to and solve my problems. This would allow me, among other things, to more frequently update the online version.<\/p>\n

Just one catch. The frelling thing doesn’t work.<\/p>\n

If I start with a clean database, I can export a simple table to XML. But when I do it from my WIST database, it crashes. “So sorry!” the little dialog box exclaims. “An unexpected error has crashed Access. Do you want to recover your database and send us a report about it again <\/i>which will have all the effect that pressing the crosswalk button a dozen times has on making the signal change faster?”<\/p>\n

I’ve upgraded everything to the latest release (probably my first mistake), and it just frelling doesn’t work. I’ve imported the tables into a fresh database. It works a few times, then starts crashing (stupid Micro$oft POS).<\/p>\n

I am sure there is a better solution.<\/p>\n

I’m just grumpily stumped as to what it is at the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned the other day the quotations database I have. My biggest problem that I have with it (aside from its care and feeding) is actually publishing the damned thing….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2429,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/26\/rfq.html","url_meta":{"origin":2958,"position":0},"title":"RFQ","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Jun-02 9:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a quotations database which I call WIST (Wish I'd Said That). I keep it online here. It's a pride and a joy and a pain in the ass...","rel":"","context":"In "Quotations (WIST)"","block_context":{"text":"Quotations (WIST)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/wist"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5459,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/08\/static_about_dy.html","url_meta":{"origin":2958,"position":1},"title":"Static about Dynamic","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 8-Mar-04 10:09am","format":false,"excerpt":"If you look out on the web, you'll find that one thing that many people criticize Movable Type is that it creates static pages. You'll also find that one thing...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":280,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/10\/feeling_the_sta.html","url_meta":{"origin":2958,"position":2},"title":"Feeling the static","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-May-03 7:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been feeling more and more uncomfortable with the static nature of my personal web pages, which date back to early\/mid-2001, and haven't really been updated since. So one thing...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12520,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/04\/03\/movable_type_static_publi.html","url_meta":{"origin":2958,"position":3},"title":"Movable Type: static publishing with dynamic CGI script names","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Apr-08 3:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, that little digression turned into a big time sink. A few weeks back I converted my WIST quotations site into a static published site, rather than dynamic. That took...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging - Technical"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging - Technical","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogging-technical"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138005,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/01\/links-to-a-given-word-or-phrase-are-coming-to-chrome.html","url_meta":{"origin":2958,"position":4},"title":"Links to a given word or phrase are coming to Chrome","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Mar-19 8:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, this is pretty cool. It's not \"standard\" HTML, so I waggle my finger at Google ... but it's useful enough that it's not a serious wiggle. A feature coming to Chrome will allow you to create an URL that is effectively a search string within the web page otherwise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Chrome-logo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2480,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/17\/its_all_about_m.html","url_meta":{"origin":2958,"position":5},"title":"It’s all about me, of course","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Jun-02 11:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've create a new \"About Me\" page, due to frequent complaints by my thronging fans that just pointing at the main Hill-Kleerup web page (which content really needs to be...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}