DanielKelly.me – Webmaster's Blog

Onward and Outward..

July 4th, 2010

So over the past few years I had developed quite the grudge towards Microsoft, I stopped using Windows completely. I started learning a few programming languages while using Linux and this made me decide again that I really wanted to pursue programming. Starting with a few simple websites, then too outsourcing a more professional looking design so I could program it and bring it together. Linux isn’t exactly the most efficient for graphic and video editing. I then found a program I’m sure many of you have heard of: Gimp. Actually, I got fairly good at using this software for web design and up until now had used exclusively.

I have finally come to the realization that I will need to conform on this issue in order to compete. I have setup a second computer in my office with a KVM (keyboard, mouse and monitor switch) running good ol’ Windows XP. Windows Vista was the final straw with Microsoft for me and I’m not comfortable paying close to $300 towards Windows 7 when its not needed. I’ve installed Adobe Photoshop, all I can say after one day is: WOW. I’m glad to have made the switch and feel its was well worth it. I’ll still be using Debian (linux) as my home and programming computer, but the PC will be my media and graphic editing machine.

Anyways here’s a preview of what I’ve started on using Photoshop.

Website Design for a new company I've started working with, Infinitum Energy

Tags: Photoshop
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Busy, busy, busy

May 14th, 2010

The past couple week have been crazy busy! Between landscaping and website work I’m pulling around 80hrs per week!!

I setup the blog for Younique Country Retreat as planned and it went super smooth. WordPress is awesome! I installed a number of different plugins, which I will be including a number of here. Various SEO plugins, Google Friend Connect, automatic blog newsletter, a favourites plugin and a few more. Templating the site was really easy too. I just started with the “Default” template and edited it to match their current websites, Younique Shop and Younique Country Retreat. The templates use CSS style sheets for design and PHP files for layout. Check out their new blog, Younique Blogs, to see my work!

I am currently updating my homepage, DanielKelly. me, to include more of the work I’ve done and to complete some unfinished business as well.

Cheers for now,

Dan

Tags: CMS, CSS, PHP, WordPress
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MediaWiki

April 3rd, 2010

Installing a MediaWiki, wiki-style website was very simple. Configuration and customization was fairly simple. All the design styles are based on css stylesheets and it is PHP/MySQL-based so further customization will be easy for anyone proficient in these languages.

There are many command line “maintenance” PHP scripts included with the system which make it very simple to write scripts in other languages and initiate mass imports, editing, listing, etc.

Some useful links:

Page/Article Templating

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Templates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Template

Citing/Referencing

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite/Cite.php

General Technical Details

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Contents

General Help Conents

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents

Maintenance Scripts

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Maintenance_scripts

MediaWiki Posting Reference Card

Tags: CMS, MediaWiki, MySQL, PHP
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ZenCart Installation and Upgrading

March 26th, 2010

I recently moved a ZenCart installation to a new domain. Some useful information to remember:

Copy existing directories to keep design aspects: /zencart_dir/images, /zencart_dir/includes/languages, /zencart_dir/includes/templates
Make sure to apply the database patches located in the zc_install directoy of the package. If you have a table prefix make sure to adjust the SQL file accordingly.
Update PayPal IPN information with PayPal if you have an account, as well as any other payment gateways.
Make sure you update any modules, make sure they have compatible versions before performing the upgrade.
Always apply the security measures provided, http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Important_Site_Security_Recommendations
Check /zencart_dir/includes/configure.php and /zencart_dir/admin/includes/configure.php for changes compared to the new dist-configure.php files and copy them over or just hand edit the dist-configure.php files and rename to configure.php. /zencart_dir/admin/includes/configure.php must be chmod’ed to 444 for security and to display properly.
ALWAYS create a clone website and database to work on before making the changes final on the destination.

Installation Wiki

http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Installation

http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Installation_-_Upgrade

Moving ZenCart Wiki

http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Server_Admin_-_Switch_Servers

http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Server_Admin_-_Change_Folders

Tags: CMS, MySQL, PHP, Zen Cart
Posted in All Posts, CMS, MySQL, PHP, WordPress | No Comments »

HTML Cheat sheet

March 22nd, 2010

Here’s a great cheat sheet I used way back when, learning html in my room when I was only 9 years old. Its a great reference for beginners still learning HTML and still good to have for more advanced writers. Courtesy of WebMonkey.com:

Basic Tags

<html></html> Creates an HTML document

<head></head> Sets off the title and other information that isn’t displayed on the web page itself

<body></body> Sets off the visible portion of the document

Body Attributes

<body bgcolor=”pink”> Sets the background color, using name or hex value

<body text=”black”> Sets the text color, using name or hex value

<body link=”blue”> Sets the color of links, using name or hex value

<body vlink=”#ff0000″> Sets the color of followed links, using name or hex value

<body alink=”#00ff00″> Sets the color of links on click

<body ondragstart=”return false” onselectstart=”return false”> Disallows text selection with the mouse and keyboard

Text Tags

<pre></pre> Creates preformatted text

<hl></hl> Creates the largest headline

<h6></h6> Creates the smallest headline

<b></b> Creates bold text

<i></i> Creates italic text

<tt></tt> Creates teletype, or typewriter-style text

<cite></cite> Creates a citation, usually italic

<em></em> Emphasizes a word (with italic or bold)

<strong></strong> Emphasizes a word (with italic or bold)

<font size=”3″></font> Sets size of font, from 1 to 7

<font color=”green”></font> Sets font color, using name or hex value

Links

<a href=”URL”></a> Creates a hyperlink

<a href=”mailto:EMAIL”></a> Creates a mailto link

<a href=”URL”><img src=”URL”> </a> Creates an image/link

<a name=”NAME”></a> Creates a target location within a document

<a href=”#NAME”></a> Links to that target location from elsewhere in the document

Formatting

<p></p> Creates a new paragraph

<p align=”left”> Aligns a paragraph to the left (default), right, or center.

<br> Inserts a line break

<blockquote></blockquote> Indents text from both sides

<dl></dl> Creates a definition list

<dt> Precedes each definition term

<dd> Precedes each definition

<ol></ol> Creates a numbered list

<ul></ul> Creates a bulleted list

<li></li> Precedes each list item, and adds a number or symbol depending upon the type of list selected

<div align=”left”> A generic tag used to format large blocks of HTML, also used for stylesheets

<img src=”name”> Adds an image

<img src=”name” align=”left”> Aligns an image: left, right, center; bottom, top, middle

<img src=”name” border=”1″> Sets size of border around an image

<hr /> Inserts a horizontal rule

<hr size=”3″ /> Sets size (height) of rule

<hr width=”80%” /> Sets width of rule, in percentage or absolute value

<hr noshade /> Creates a rule without a shadow

Tables

<table></table> Creates a table

<tr></tr> Sets off each row in a table

<td></td> Sets off each cell in a row

<th></th> Sets off the table header (a normal cell with bold, centered text)

Table Attributes

<table border=”1″> Sets width of border around table cells

<table cellspacing=”1″> Sets amount of space between table cells

<table cellpadding=”1″> Sets amount of space between a cell’s border and its contents

<table width=”500″ or “80%”> Sets width of table, in pixels or as a percentage of document width

<tr align=”left”> or <td align=”left”> Sets alignment for cell(s) (left, center, or right)

<tr valign=”top”> or <td valign=”top”> Sets vertical alignment for cell(s) (top, middle, or bottom)

<td colspan=”2″> Sets number of columns a cell should span (default=1)

<td rowspan=”4″> Sets number of rows a cell should span (default=1)

<td nowrap> Prevents the lines within a cell from being broken to fit

Frames

<frameset></frameset> Replaces the <body> tag in a frames document; can also be nested in other framesets

<frameset rows=”value,value”> Defines the rows within a frameset, using number in pixels, or percentage of width

<frameset cols=”value,value”> Defines the columns within a frameset, using number in pixels, or percentage of width

<frame> Defines a single frame — or region — within a frameset

<noframes></noframes> Defines what will appear on browsers that don’t support frames

Frames Attributes

<frame src=”URL”> Specifies which HTML document should be displayed

<frame name=”name”> Names the frame, or region, so it may be targeted by other frames

<frame marginwidth=”value”> Defines the left and right margins for the frame; must be equal to or greater than 1

<frame marginheight=”value”> Defines the top and bottom margins for the frame; must be equal to or greater than 1

<frame scrolling=”value”> Sets whether the frame has a scrollbar; value may equal “yes,” “no,” or “auto.” The default, as in ordinary documents, is auto.

<frame noresize=”noresize”> Prevents the user from resizing a frame

Forms

For functional forms, you’ll have to run a script. The HTML just creates the appearance of a form.

<form></form> Creates all forms

<select multiple name=”NAME” size=?></select> Creates a scrolling menu. Size sets the number of menu items visible before you need to scroll.

<option> Sets off each menu item

<select name=”NAME”></select> Creates a pulldown menu

<option> Sets off each menu item

<textarea name=”NAME” cols=40 rows=8></textarea name> Creates a text box area. Columns set the width; rows set the height.

<input type=”checkbox” name=”NAME”> Creates a checkbox. Text follows tag.

<input type=”radio” name=”NAME” value=”x”> Creates a radio button. Text follows tag

<input type=”text” name=”NAME” size=20> Creates a one-line text area. Size sets length, in characters.

<input type=”submit” value=”NAME”> Creates a Submit button

<button type=”submit”>Submit</button> Creates an actual button that is clicked

<input type=”image” border=0 name=”NAME” src=”name.gif”> Creates a Submit button using an image

<input type=”reset”> Creates a Reset button

Tags: HTML
Posted in All Posts, HTML & CSS | No Comments »

Secondary DNS Servers

March 22nd, 2010

Since yesterday I’ve been experiencing some DNS issues with my home provider. I had updated some DNS records for a domain I’m currently working on, http://YouniqueShop.com, and was waiting for the changes to appear on the web. We had changed the name servers for the site, so I thought maybe it was taking a little bit longer. I thought nothing of it but to wait the recommended “Up to 24hrs”, but usually it takes less than half hour to view the name server changes.

This morning I tried the website on my cell phone and it directed fine. After further investigation I figured that my hosts DNS servers aren’t updating but are still operating with the old records. Anyways….. I changed my primary name servers to one of Google’s, they have got to be reliable.

Credit to TopBits.com, here’s a list of public DNS servers you could use:

Google

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

Level 3 Communications (Broomfield, CO, US)

4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4
4.2.2.5
4.2.2.6

Verizon (Reston, VA, US)

151.197.0.38
151.197.0.39
151.202.0.84
151.202.0.85
151.202.0.85
151.203.0.84
151.203.0.85
199.45.32.37
199.45.32.38
199.45.32.40
199.45.32.43

GTE (Irving, TX, US)

192.76.85.133
206.124.64.1

One Connect IP (Albuquerque, NM, US)

67.138.54.100

OpenDNS (San Francisco, CA, US)

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Exetel (Sydney, AU)

220.233.167.31

VRx Network Services (New York, NY, US)

199.166.31.3

SpeakEasy (Seattle, WA, US)

66.93.87.2
216.231.41.2
216.254.95.2
64.81.45.2
64.81.111.2
64.81.127.2
64.81.79.2
64.81.159.2
66.92.64.2
66.92.224.2
66.92.159.2
64.81.79.2
64.81.159.2
64.81.127.2
64.81.45.2
216.27.175.2
66.92.159.2
66.93.87.2

Sprintlink (Overland Park, KS, US)

199.2.252.10
204.97.212.10
204.117.214.10

Cisco (San Jose, CA, US)

64.102.255.44
128.107.241.185

Posted in All Posts, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hello world!

March 20th, 2010

This is my new experimental blog. I will try to post new information and resources I learn daily, mainly to preserve knowledge in a more organized database then the “bookmarks” or “favourites” system. Having hundreds of bookmarks is quite cumbersome and very hard to navigate. Hopefully this way, I’ll be able to write a description in my own words (easier for me to search) and add pictures, multiple links, embedded videos. In this sense it will also preserve the data, its not uncommon for articles to come and disappear on the net, i.e. trying to find that specific picture or funny video you once found.

WordPress Blogs have become the universal webmaster’s choice for blogging. It is very simple to setup and doesn’t require a degree in rocket science for regular internet users to add and edit their own content. I highly recommend this system for anyone who wants a something highly configurable but still easy to use. Many webmasters support and have knowledge and experience with WordPress. So far, installation was very standard, easy for anyone experienced with another database driven web-application installation to install.

I have not worked with WordPress explicitly but consider this my entry point. I will be working on matching an existing website with a blog in the near future so I’ll build this to match my website as a learning experience. I’ve worked with a few different PHP/MySQL content management systems and program custom application in PHP/MySQL, so I am confident in the use of this system.

Below are a list of links I decided would be useful in the near future.

MySQL Cheatsheat

March 20th, 2010

While trying to look for some relevant information to post I found this great cheat sheet for MySQL.

MySQL Cheat sheet

Tags: MySQL
Posted in All Posts, MySQL | No Comments »