Edward Ford

Really innovative sign up form on Codeacademy's Codeyear campaign website.

It's great to see a new type of form that tells a story.

OSX Lion ships with the open source database, Postgresql, in place of the previous default that most developers have grown accept,m MySql.  I don't know why Apple have made this choice to install the database as default. To be honest, I wish they wouldn't install the databases as default at all so we can choose our weapon of choice on a clean slate.  With the rise of Macports and Homebrew, it is much easier to manage the installations and customised them to how we require them.

Even with the default installation many developers install another version alongside using Homebrew.  For the sake of this article, I wanted to remove the default installation and install a single clean version on my development laptop using Homebrew.

A quick disclaimer:  Check you current installation for data that may be lost. Make backups and if you are unsure, don't uninstall the default database.

Ok, so onto how I tackled the process.

Remove the default Postgresql installation

I used Frankie Inguanez's guide at http://bit.ly/W8zQWE

From the Terminal, run the command:

sudo /Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/uninstall-postgresql.app/Contents/MacOS/installbuilder.sh

Click Yes when asked if you want to uninstall Postgresql and all of it's modules

Remove the data files 

sudo rm -rf /Library/PostgreSQL

and the the ini file 

sudo rm /etc/postgres-reg.ini

Remove the PostgreSQL user

System Preferences -> Users & Groups

Unlock the settings panel by clicking on the padlock and enter your password

Select the PostgreSQL user and click on the minus button.

If you want, check to see if the Postgresql commands work

pqsl

This should return command cannot be found.  Postgreql has now been completely removed.

Install new Postgresql

I use Homebrew as my package manager of choice.  Before installing Postgresql, we want to ensure that Homebrew is completely up-to-date.

This is simple. Run:

sudo brew update

Postgresql can now be installed.  I want to use the additional GIS features available with Postgresql and fortunately Homebrew has a postgis package that bundles all the dependancies we need.  

sudo brew install postgis

If you only require Postgresql without the trimmings, you can run the following command instead:

sudo brew install postgresql

Once the script has successfully finished running, there will be some finishing up instructions to finalise the setup of the database.  Before running the first initdb command, ensure the terminal is pointing to the correct, newly installed binary and not the old, default one by entering:

which psql

If the output shows /usr/bin/psql then the Terminal is looking at the old installation so we need to fix it so it is pointing to our new Homebrew installed version. To fix, simply open up the .bash_profile and export the PATH as follows:

Open ~/.bash_profile with your preferred editor.  I use vim:

vim ~/.bash_profile

Add the following path and save/quit:

export PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/bin:$PATH

Reload the bash_profile

source ~/.bash_profile

I started using Appcelerator's Titanium a few weeks back.  It is a great alternative to Objective-C for making iOS apps, and much easier to pick up, although the error messages could do with some improving.

Error messages regularly raise with Object or File unknown, or the app just crashes on initialise with no error at all.  This has been a little frustrating and I have found that using the handy Ti.API.log("Some Text"); helps step through the code.  Another way is to use breakpoints in the debugger if required too.

One error which I encountered which proved unhelpful was:

Script Error = -[__NSCFDictionary setParentOrientationController:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x9c4b270 at app.js (line 43).

This little snippet stated line 43 in app.js, which is where the application is bootstrapped so not actually the location of the error.  With some backtracking, I found the issue was due changing the code structure to use the Common.js format and not returning anything from a modules main function.  

Whilst working on various different projects using CSS frameworks such as SASS, 960 Grid System and Blueprint I have found overriding with specific files per controller to be a much cleaner process. 

Note: I think Rails 3.1 actually does this out of the box

Obviously it is not always necessary to create a new css file for every controller so I needed a way to include the file if it exists.  This saves on unwanted entries in log files for file cannot be found when we kind of know that already.

So what I did was add a before filter to the application controller.

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base

...

before_filter :controller_styles

private

  def controller_styles

    @all_styles = Array.new     @all_styles = ["reset", "960", "layout", "nav", "text"]     controller_style = File.join(Rails.root, "public/stylesheets/", "#{request.parameters[:controller]}.css")     if File.exist?(controller_style)       @all_styles.push(request.parameters[:controller].to_s)     end

  end

end

What this simple code does is call the method at the start of every request.  The method then creates an array with the default css files already included. 

A lookup is then made in the stylesheet directory for a css file with the same name as the requesting controller.  If it exists, push it on to the end of the array.  If it doesn't, don't.

Then in the main layout.html.erb view file, include:

<%= stylesheet_link_tag @all_styles %>

into the head of the html and you have the option to override your CSS in a clean structured manor.

This little error has been popping up occasionally in my local rails development environment using the WEBrick server.

I generally just use the default 0.0.0.0 ip address with a different port assigned to it depending on the app I am running. There may be a better way of running local development servers that I don’t know about but this has always been quick and flexible enough for my uses.

As default, when starting WEBrick, the server attempts to bind to port 3000.  If you have already got another app running on 0.0.0.0:3000 the following error will rear it’s head.

=> Booting WEBrick => Rails 3.0.0 application starting in development onhttp://0.0.0.0:3000 => Call with -d to detach => Ctrl-C to shutdown server [2010-09-12 15:34:34] INFO  WEBrick 1.3.107[2010-09-12 15:34:34] INFO  ruby 1.9.2 (2010-08-18) [x86_64-darwin10.4.0]08[2010-09-12 15:34:34] WARN  TCPServer Error: Address alreadyin use - bind(2) Exiting10/Users/eford/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p0/lib/ruby/1.9.1/webrick/utils.rb:73:in `initialize': Address already in use - bind(2) (Errno::EADDRINUSE)

Two options are available that will either fix the issue or just get around it.

WEBrick allows the port bind to be defined when start by passing the port number through the start command:

rails s -p=3001

To reuse the default server setting, you wil first need to need to free the address by killing the process.

On a Mac, use the terminal window to view the processes

ps aux | grep rails

You should see something like

eford    14290   ....  /Users/eford/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p0/bin/ruby script/rails s

Depending on your setup, the path will be different but it is the .ruby script/rails s to look for.  Kill the process using kill -9 <pid>.  The -9 will stop the process without question

Once stopped, try starting the server again with rails s

rails s => Booting WEBrick => Rails 3.0.0 application starting in development on http://0.0.0.0:3000 => Call with -d to detach => Ctrl-C to shutdown server [2010-09-12 15:42:11] INFO  WEBrick 1.3.17[2010-09-12 15:42:11] INFO  ruby 1.9.2 (2010-08-18) [x86_64-darwin10.4.0] [2010-09-12 15:42:11] INFO  WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=14290 port=30009=> Booting WEBrick=> Rails 3.0.0 application starting indevelopment on http://0.0.0.0:3000 => Call with -d to detach => Ctrl-C to shutdown server[2010-09-12 15:42:11] INFO  WEBrick 1.3.1[2010-09-12 15:42:11] INFO  ruby 1.9.2 (2010-08-18) [x86_64-darwin10.4.0][2010-09-12 15:42:11] INFO  WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=14290 port=3000

I have just spent a good while trying to get highlighting to work in Dreamweaver for SASS.

Various guides show to change Extensions.txt and MMDocumentTypes.xml configuration files as on http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/164/tn_16410.html.

The explanations are all correct but if you are using Dreamweaver 5.5, save some hair pulling and edit the above files in your User Profile AppData / Support.

After uploading a new site built on Silverstripe 2.4 to my shared host, the following error reared it's head when trying to access the admin area.

[User Error] Uncaught Zend_Cache_Exception: cache_dir is not writable

After some searching through the Silvstripe forums, I finally ended up at finding a resolved support ticket that showed an easy solution in the mysite/_config.php.

First, check the silverstripe-cache folder exists in your site's root directory, and ensure it is writable.

Then add the following line anywhere in your _config.php file.

$_SERVER['TMPDIR'] = '/absolute_path_to_your_cache_foler/silverstripe-cache';

Finally revisit your admin with flushed cache (/admin?flush=1)

This fix worked fine for me but I have seen it hasn't worked for others. A last case solution for those that need a quick fix would be to edit the cache directory in /sapphire/thirdparty/Zend/Cache/Backend/File.php.  Change:

protected $_options = array( 'cache_dir' => 'CHANGE_TO_CACHE_DIR', 'file_locking' => true, 'read_control' => true, 'read_control_type' => 'crc32', 'hashed_directory_level' => 0, 'hashed_directory_umask' => 0700, 'file_name_prefix' => 'zend_cache', 'cache_file_umask' => 0600, 'metadatas_array_max_size' => 100 );

Silverstripe have made great improvements in the memory consumption in version 2.4 but the admin area can still get the frustrating error message.

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted

There are a few options to fix the issue:

In mysite/_config.php - Add ini_set("memory_limit", "64M")

In .htaccess - Add php_value memory_limit 64M

Personally, I have found the 2nd option to be the best and most reliable throughout the website.

After spending time with retro coded content management systems like Drupal, I started getting frustrated with developing.  I started reading about web development frameworks on blogs like Sitepoint & Smashing Magazine.

Content Management Systems definitely have there place in the market to quickly build templated websites that you can hand over to clients but web frameworks are now my option is a project is more bespoke.

I tried a lot of different frameworks, although most were very briefly tested due to my impatience.  The ones that really stood out for me were:

Codeigniter - PHP

Django - Python

Ruby on Rails - Ruby

Each framework has its good points and its bad points.

Django has received great press over the past year with people raving that it is super fast, and quick to develop on with it's built in admin scaffolding.  I just didn't get on Python, its indentation and need to now classes to import.  I had a fiddle around but unfortunately don't have enough knowledge to share with you.

Codeigniter - www.codeigniter.com

When I started trying out CodeIgniter, one of the big pulls for me was Ellis Labs, the framework creators.  They were also (at the time) working on rewriting their popular and highly regarded content managment system Expression Engine on the Codeigniter framework.  I saw a good mix.  A CMS for quickly building templated websites and a framework for building bespoke projects.  I checked for updates on the release of Expression Engine for over 8 months with promise of a beta soon.  Sorry Ellis Lab, I just got board of waiting and went elsewhere.

That being said, CodeIgniter does rock.

Setup & Installation

The first PHP framework that caught my eye, Codeigniter was VERY easy to setup and get started.  Simply download, drop in your desired folder and away you go.  The documentation is also really helpful to get started and show the ropes.  The community is very active with plenty of users in the forum and new blogs popping up with extensions.

Coding

Built using the MVC pattern, and with plenty of classes built in, it is easy to see results quickly.  Every class in CodeIgniter extends from the "Super Object" so the code is consistent and clean when learning.

$this->load->view('myform');

Unlike frameworks such as Cakephp, CodeIgniter doesn't have "automagic" that loads classes and requires you to be more verbose in the controller.

$this->load->library('form_validation');

Frequent used classes can be loaded in the config but this can slow down your app if used too much.

Speed

In benchmark tests on various blogs such as Avnet Labs, CodeIgniter is the fastest of the PHP frameworks... by some way

Community & Documentation

Codeigniter's User Guide is great.  Hands down one of the best I have used.  It is so easy to read and quick to go through that I got through it in an evening and was building apps straight away.

The community Wiki has a good selection of libraries for authentication and databases extensions.

Ruby on Rails - www.rubyonrails.org

A few years ago a friend of mine asked me for help with his web development dissertation for university.  He said "my lecturer has told to give Ruby On Rails ago.  He said it is going to be the next big thing".  My response to him was "what the hell is Ruby On Rails?  I've never heard of it, and it sounds a bit Tomy-like. I would stick with PHP if I were you mate".

Needless to say, he took my advice because he wanted help with his project.  Admitably, Rails was in it's early days when I spat my advice out but I am eating my words now!  I'm partly wondering if I really give the best advice?.

Setup & Installation

Getting my development environment setup was pretty straight forward on my Mac.  Ruby is pre-installed with OS X so you just need a few extras to get started:

Ruby Gems

Rails

A database

Alternatively, just download Aptana (Radrails) and get everything except the database.  Aptana is a great IDE for Rails and includes a simple to use GUI for running servers, generators and rake tasks.

Coding

Having never used Ruby before, there was an extra learning curve to get started on rails.  Ruby is a very simple language to learn and once I grasped the new idioms and syntax such as symbols and instance variables, I could confidently get around.

One of the things I really loved when I got started was the ease and ability to interact with the database through ActiveRecord.  What used to take a few lines in PHP can be done in one line using Ruby On Rails.  Being impatient, I like it when things can be done quickly.

Ruby on Rails advocates the use of RESTFUL Routing which is great when coding from a standard "Scaffold Generated" Controller.  It has taken a few reads of the Rails guide to get an understanding of how non standard routing can be used in harmony.

Speed & Deployment

Rails can be deployed on a variety of servers that each have their own performance.

Mongrel Cluster

Passenger for Apache

Reading the same Avnet Labs as seen for Codeigniter, Ruby On Rails ranks up there with CodeIgniter if not slightly faster on average in other blogs tests.

Rails includes 3 environments, Development, Testing and Production.  Each environment can be configured individually to suit the relevant setup required such as database or caching.

Deployment to the Production environment was pretty tricky the first few times due to required gems and knowing whether the Mongrel Cluster was active (which took a while to find out).  I actually got really frustrated when I tried to move my first Rails app to its production environment and wished for Codeigniter's simple ftp upload.

As with many things to do with Ruby On Rails, simplicity and automation are key to a happy life.  I would strongly suggest checking out Capistrano that will automate all those tedious processes you need to go through when updating your app such as version control and restarting the application server.

Ruby on Rails hosting isn't nearly as available as PHP and therefore don't expect many budget hosts to provide it, at least not flexible enough to allow gem installations. Picking the right hosting can be quite costly when choosing a managed provider but if you don't mind getting your hands dirty in a VPS, I would recommend having a look at providers such as SliceHost.  Their setup and installation guides are great!

Community & Documentation

Although quite young, the Rails community has boomed over the past few years since I brushed it off.  There are plenty of forums and blogs to extend the verbose documentation provided at http://guides.rubyonrails.org/.

We have recently started using the Acquia version of Drupal at work for the past couple of months.

Acquia is the commercially supported version of Drupal backed by the main man himself Dries Buytaert.  With a variety of packages available, the support and auto-updates can be very helpful.  We have found that even though Drupal is opensource, it can be difficult to recieve the help and support you need to keep projects on track.  The packaged support with Acquia can help us get help a little quicker it used to be keeping the boss happier the project is keeping on track.

In my eyes, the main benefit of the system is the pre-installed modules packed into the original downloader.  No longer do you need to drag in all those must have modules such as Views, CCKs, Imagecache, etc... that you use in basically every project.

And don't fret if you don't want to pay for the support but want the pre-installed modules.  Simply download the free base pack, install and then disable the Acquia modules.  You will then have a loaded copy of Drupal to begin your project!