Today, I updated the code for this blog entry:  Web Sitemap to Google Sitemap Tool

 I needed to regenerate a Google sitemap for my store, http://store.ezburn.com, and couldn't find my source code.  That's not unusual.  One very good reason to keep these things in a blog entry, actually!  So, I went to my blog, typed in "sitemap" and found the entry where I describe how to do this.  I could not understand a word I was saying.  haha.  Anyway, I downloaded the code, opened the project, adjusted the connection strings in web.config,  set Default.aspx as my startup page, and ran it in the debugger.

 First of all, I didn't realize that the links to generate the web.sitemap and the google.sitemap were right there in the Default.aspx page.  So I moved those to the Top of the web.sitemap display.  Next, I clicked the link to generate my web.sitemap from my ecommerce database.  That didn't work because my stored procedure expects a parameter and the code I downloaded didn't pass a parameter to it.  So I fixed that.

Next, when I clicked the link on Default.aspx to generate my web.sitemap from my store's product and category lists - I got a web.sitemap.  When I pushed the back button to load that web.sitemap - I got an error.  Bad characters in the description were the problem this time so I fixed up my SQL and ran it again.  Here's the SQL I ended up with, in case it helps.  I had to just remove the html tags from the description.  Could be done better but as always, I'm in a big time crunch.

The updated code is available here:  http://faxt.com/code/websitemaptogooglesitemap.zip

Manifest Digital won the competition and the People’s Choice award at the Chicago PhizzPop Tour stop. According to one who was there, ALL the entries were extremely compelling. And there were over 500 people in attendance, as the event sold out.

The PhizzPop Minneapolis Tour Stop is next, and I already have my ticket.

Being a small member of the team that won second place in the 2008/2009 PhizzPop Design Challenge New York event was a great experience for me and I want to take this opportunity to brag about the amazing job they all did.

This team had five days to prepare their entry, from planning to completion. I was able to participate on some of the Silverlight development. Even though time was short the design team did not let that compromise their vision of what the application needed to accomplish. If you want a great team to work on your Silverlight design, you need to think about calling these guys. Magnet360, Popular Front, Hello Viking, Insite Software.

The challenge was to create a K-12 Learning Interface.

OH! I'd dearly love to participate on one of the teams that will be competing when this event comes to Minneapolis in January! Hint Hint

Now, it's been brought to my attention that there's a PhizzPop for everyone.  Actually, there's an online design challenge and we can all compete there.  http://phizzpop.com/main/HomeOnline.aspx  I hear that HP is about to contribute some cool prizes.  The first phase ends very soon!  But there are still three left and they will each be more challenging.