Web Development Story

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 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:

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.

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!

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 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.

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.

Displaying random images on a home page can add real impact. It ensures that your home page is always fresh, because when a visitor returns to the home page, a new image will appear.

Here are a few examples of random images in action. When you visit the home page on these sites, keep clicking refresh and you will see that the main image changes.

A friend sent me this site and I was so impressed that I felt compelled to blog about it. So that is my first point about this site, it is great link bait!

I have been on the hunt for a better PHP editor or IDE (Integrated Development Environment). phpDesigner made my short list and has received positive reviews elsewhere. I have tested it out, and here is what I think of it:

phpDesigner is one of the most popular PHP IDE's on the market. At 39 Euros it is an absolute steal compared with the more expensive IDE's, like Zend Studio ($299). It is packed with features that should speed up your development time.

Ok, so there are plenty of sites for PHP geeks. But this is the daddy geek site! It is a directory full of really useful PHP websites. It is great for finding open source class libraries, tutorials, articles, tools and the like.

PHP Directory

I have finally had enough of coding PHP in Dreamweaver and am on the hunt for a dedicated PHP editor or IDE (Intergrated Development Environment) to use instead. Dreamweaver is great for HTML and CSS, but does quite cut it for PHP. My objective is to improve productivity.

The PHP development team have announced that PHP 4 will not be supported from the end of 2007. That means that there will be no more releases of PHP 4 from then on. Critical security fixes will be made on a case by case basis up to August 8th 2008.

A photo speaks a thousand words

In a web world where content (text/words) is king, web masters often ignore photographs on web pages because all they are thinking about is content for search engines. And that means text and lots of it. The result is an Internet full of text heavy sites.

The trouble with most blogs is that visually they all look very similar. This is particularly true for Wordpress blogs where a lot of people tend to use the same templates. Because Wordpress is such a popular platform, you get a lot of sites looking almost identical. But occasionally I find blogs that are truly unique. Design Bit is one such blog.

Developing a legal contract to bind the agreement between a web designer or developer and its clients can be a very expensive and time consuming exercise.

Thankfully the kind folk at Media Surgery have gone through the expense for you and put together a legal agreement that a freelance (or agency) web designer, developer or search engine optimiser can use.

Many web developers ignore the threat of SQL Injection, or are oblivious to it. It is one of the most serious security threats and can result in a corrupted, amended, viewing of sensitive information or even a deleted database. Thankfully, it is fairly easy to protect websites from SQL injection attacks.

Favicon has become very popular in the past few years and is an important part of enhancing the branding of your website.

What is Favicon.ico?

A Favicon is the icon at the beginning of the URL bar in your browser. It is also visible in the favourites list when your site is bookmarked by a visitor (although, not all browsers support this). Favicon is an acronym for Favourites Icon