Web Development Posts

I have just discovered a conflict between Skype and WampServer that I thought I would share. They both use port 80 which causes the conflict. If you run Skype before running Wamp, then Apache will not run. If you go to a site on localhost, you will probably get a blank screen.

The solution is pretty simple. Just make sure you start all services on WAMP before you open Skype. If Skype is disconnected it will work fine. You can then connect Skype once Wamp is running.

The MySQL Server has gone away error can happen when trying to restore a database. There are a few possible causes for this and one of the most likely is that the database is very big in size and the packet size in MySQL is not big enough.

If you are running WampServer on your local machine, it can be a bit tricky to restore a MySQL database. You need to do it from the Windows command line (DOS prompt), rather then the MySQL console command line. The actual MySQL restore command is slightly different to normal and you need to make sure you are in the right directory first.

Copying an entire directory in FreeBSD (a Unix based operating system similar to Linux) is very easy.

The following example is to copy a directory on a web server. Firstly, you must create the destination directory.

Go to the parent directory and run the following command:

This will create a directory inside the parent directory. Replace DESTINATIONDIRECTORYNAME with a directory name of your choosing.

Next, run the command to copy all of the files from the source directory into the destination directory.

It is often the case that a column such as the ID column on a table will auto increment. This simply means that the next insert into the table will have an ID that is one more then the previous one and therefore all ID's will be unique.

However, if you delete a row from the table, the table will auto increment as if the row had not been deleted at all. The result is a gap in the sequence of numbers. This is normally not that much of an issue, but you may want to reset the auto increment field.

There are two simple steps in resetting an auto increment field:

The mere mention of the word backup makes many website owners panic. "Backup! Um, yeah well I meant to do backups, but I never get around to it". Trust me, when a database fails you need a recent backup. And databases do fail!

There are many scripts available online that can run backups for you automatically. The one problem with most of them is that they can time out if the database is too big.

The alternative is to run a bash script on cron. A what on what you might ask! Don't panic!

I came across WeBuilder about a year ago I started looking into various code editors. I was using Dreamweaver at the time. While Dreamweaver is a good product, I always felt that there was probably a product out there that was better and more time efficient. I was mainly looking for a PHP Editor and was willing to use Dreamweaver for HTML and CSS, but a combined editor would have been ideal.

I spend my working day with my head stuck in the dark inner workings of Drupal, which I love. I get so excited about technology like Drupal that I find myself selling it to random people who really couldn't care less. So I have come to accept that I am a geek at heart and I'm totally cool with that.

After spending several years learning languages like xhtml, css, php and mysql (not to mention other things like SEO, Affiliate Marketing and Drupal), I have decided that I really need to add some more geeky things to the list.

I have always been a fan of the BBC website. It is extremely effective at organising and presenting vast quantities of information. When I visited the BBC homepage last week, I thought I must have mis-typed the URL. It was not the usual BBC website that I know and love. When I realised that it was indeed the BBC homepage, I was shocked, surprised and I immediately closed the browser window. I went back a few times over the next few days so that I could slowly absorb it. I thought, well, all good things change, and maybe I will grow to love the new design.

One of the worlds biggest open source projects is being bought by one of the worlds biggest and richest software companies. Sun Microsystems is handing over $1 billion dollars to buy the worlds most popular open source database, MySQL.