noel alanguilan

for php development i use a local php/mysql web server to make dev work a bit faster. these are the steps we followed for a workstation running linux.

download xampp from apache friends. the version available was 1.7.2.

extract the downloaded archive with:

sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.2.tar.gz -C /opt

note: if you have xampp already installed, the above command will overwrite it. careful.

xampp is now installed in /opt/lampp

to start xampp:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

you should see something like this:

Starting XAMPP for Linux 1.7.2...
XAMPP: Starting Apache with SSL (and PHP5)...
XAMPP: Starting MySQL...
XAMPP: Starting ProFTPD...
XAMPP for Linux started.

which means the server is ready. i don’t need an ftp server for dev work so i decided to stop proftpd:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp stopftp

note: issuing the above command will deactivate the proftpd server permanently–it will not start when you start xampp. see the command cheatsheet somewhere below to find out how to reactivate it.

to test our setup fire up your favorite browser and type:

http://localhost

you should see something like this:

you’ll be able to see the status of the installed components, the status of the security of the system, links to documentation and most importantly, detailed information about the server system via phpinfo() as well as database administration panels–phpmyadmin and phpsqliteadmin.

at this point, we have an apache webserver running with php and mysql support.

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some issues came up with my web development setup when i did a clean install of ubuntu 9.10 (karmic koala) and migrated my data from backups.

i have a web/php server running off my workstation on localhost being used to test html and php pages i develop. i have apache serving up name-based virtual hosts–one for each client website. accessing http://client1 would give me the local index page of client1, accessing http://client2 would give me the local index page of client2 and so on. this little webdev symphony got messed up when i performed a clean install of ubuntu 9.10. all i could get was a “403 forbidden” error message which i eventually attributed to a permission problem rather than to my server setup.

click to enlarge

the not-so-elegant solution i found is to move all of my development files inside the public folder in my home directory, edit the httpd-vhosts.conf file to reflect the move and changed the base directory in bluefish. i also propagated the permissions from the public folder to all the files and folders it contains by right-clicking on the public folder, click on properties, choose the permissions tab, and clicking on the “apply permission to enclosed files”.

and you’re done. hopefully. i consider this a temporary solution and it worked for me. it may not work for you. your mileage might vary. don’t do this without a proper backup.

special html characters i use in my web development tasks.

it is  confirmed. the latest opera aces the acid3 test taking 100/100.

and its fast too. but don’t take my word for it. ars technica has a “first look” review with screenshots already.

opera 10 has just been released. i heard that it gets 100/100 on the acid3 test. i have not confirmed that though but if its true then “wow”. to put that in perspective, firefox 3.5.2 gets 93/100.

for ubuntu users, just download the .deb package and double-click on the thing once its done downloading and let the package installer perform its job. if you have an older version of opera installed it will just replace it.

ps. i like the graphic. it kind of gives you that wheeeee! feeling.

firefox 3.5 just came out. and from the reviews of the release candidates, 3.5’s javascripts’s performance is twice as fast as the previous release (3.0.11). its also a good chance for me to play with html5–the up and coming web standard.

i have been preoccupied of late with security stuff. the first one is what they’re calling conficker.c which will activate on the first of april. no one knows what it will do but i would bet a beer that its not entirely good. symantec has a removal tool for this and previous versions of conficker (aka downadup).

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another news item that has been in that particular corner of my brain is the network bluepill aka psyb0t botnet. its a new botnet targeting routers/modems instead of pcs. these router/modems are the gadgets that give you access to the internet. imagine what bad things can happen when that’s been compromised. you can’t scan for the botnet either because the botnet code is not on your pc. according to dronebl–a real-time tracker of abusable ips–you are vulnerable if:

• Your device is a mipsel (MIPS running in little-endian mode, this is what the worm is compiled for) device;
• Your device also has telnet, SSH or web-based interfaces available to the WAN, and
• your username and password combinations are weak, OR the daemons that your firmware uses are exploitable.

the best way to ensure that you don’t get infected (or reinfected) is to perform a hard reset of the device, update the device’s firmware to the latest and change the administrative passwords to stronger ones, maybe use a passphrase instead.

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and then there’s the next version of ubuntu–jaunty jakalope or version 9.04–coming out by april (2009.04). that’s something to look forward to. at the same time i’ve been studying/ evaluating the server version of ubuntu as a replacement for some (or all my server installations).

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i have taken on a new project making a new website which will act much like a repository of information about a famous person. this will replace another project that i had to let go. its another php/mysql/apache install (spelled as web 2.0). this should prove interesting.

its really one of my pet peeves — work that’s half done. i rarely get to fall into that pit but when i do i’d hate myself for it for weeks.

i finally got my hands on a website design that i have been asking for for several months now. to be fair, i don’t think that’s the fault of the desiger. but all i got from them are two psd files (adobe photoshop layered images) and that’s it. there’s no stylesheet (css) file, no javascript/dhtml for the menu mouseovers, there’s no gif or jpg images for the mouseovers. i can live without the javascript for the mouseovers, heck i may be able to get by without most of the graphics but the lack of a css file is really a letdown.

css or cascading stylesheets is a file or a group of files that governs how a web page, and to a larger extent, the whole website is formatted. i have designed and help design websites for years now and cascading stylesheets are an essential part of the design of a modern website. without it the design is only half useful. or half useless. the designer should only be paid half of the fee.

so this leaves me cramming and “making do” which i terribly, terribly dislike.

i need to hit something…

i was messing around with some css and html pages and going back and forth between the browser and css/html editor to preview how a page would look like and i suddenly missed using topstyle lite (css editor). it came with homesite 4.5.2 (html editor) but it can run standalone as well. what i like about tslite is that it has a preview window — you can see how your css would make the text/page look like almost immediately. i was thinking since i have wine installed why not try and install topstyle?

the latest version of topstyle lite is 3.5 so i downloaded that. i was able to install the program but with a few glitches.

every time i launch the program it gives out an error message telling me that it cannot “create the internet explorer browser object”. well, of course, since i don’t have ie installed. clicking on “ok” and the error goes away and gives me the topstyle editor. ok. i can probably live with that ie error and just treat the thing like a nag screen.

at this point the program is running on linux so i proceeded to open some of my css files just to give it a spin. everything works except for the preview pane. apparently topstyle uses internet explorer as its css previewer. a little digging in the newsgator knowledgebase and i found a guide to use netscape gecko as the previewer instead of ie. but that path didn’t work for me — the provided mozilla activex control installer just couldn’t list linux’ hidden subdirectories and, therefore, couldn’t find the mozilla layout engine. pity. i really like the program but without the preview, the topstyle just doesn’t work for me.

web standards project press release:

The Acid3 Test is designed to test specifications for Web 2.0, and exposes potential flaws in implementations of the public ECMAScript 262 and W3C Document Object Model 2 standards. Collectively known as DOM Scripting, it is these technologies that enable advanced page interactivity and power many advanced web applications such as web-based email and online office applications.

in other words, its a test to check if the browser you’re using follows web standards — how it presents the web page to you. ideally, a standards-compliant web page would look the same when rendered on different standards-compliant browsers. but we all know that is not always the case.

if you want to test your browser for yourself, the links are below along with the reference rendering (how the page should look like). acid 3 is for the newer standards and most current browsers would fail. acid 2 is for the most used standards today.

acid 3 test | acid 3 reference
acid 2 test | acid 2 reference

so why is this important? for me, its an indicator on how much i should trust the browser i’m using.