More Questions Than Answers

Textmate autocomplete html tags

Just watching some tutorial videos on Treehouse, I noticed some interesting code completion going on, much like when I used to use Dreamweaver where adding a tag would prompt with a dropdown for options within that tag ie the input where we may have name, type, class, etc.

The tutorial videos show Textmate in use and similar code completion options going on. So here’s a few steps you can take using a Mac, but presumably it’s the same on PC.

1. Type a tag name (ie input)
2. Press ctrl-alt < (less-than sign) – the tag gets a wrapper < >
3. Press alt-esc – we get a dropdown list of options
4. Select an option, the menu disappears

For tags that need closing, ie <span> press ctrl-alt . (period) for tag completion.

Nicer still, press ctrl-Shift-w for paragraph tags – and after that, use alt-esc for tag options.

Tags: code completion, Textmate

Login to Windows 2008 domain over wifi

Had a problem with connecting to Windows 2008 domain from Windows 7 Pro laptops connecting wirelessly to an access point linked to the server. The catch 22 is not being able to login till the network is available, and that doesn’t happen till the user is logged in. Lots of hours Googling later, O’Reilly’s Windows 7 Resource Kit book comes up with the simple answer to this:

Use Netsh wlan connect {wifi profile name} to connect to an exisiting profile. You can then add this into the registry HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run as a new string. This will start the network connection before logging on. Obviously there may be security issues, so do more investigating before using this on your network.

Other factors than can cause errors are security software. An HP Connect program instance caused issues and had to be uninstalled.

See: http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/1180-how-to-configure-wireless-settings-in-windows-7/

Tags: wifi, wifi domain access, wifi domain logon, windows 2008 server, windows 7 pro

Joomla 1.7 strips html code from articles

The issue of html tags being stripped from content vexed a lot of people in version 1.5 of Joomla. Using the JCE editor helped, along with turning off the WYSIWYG editor.

In Joomla 1.7 it’s a lot simpler to add html code, like an embedded Google map, using the editor. But first you need to turn off or update filtering for the user type in question, using the Article Manager settings.

Go to Article Manager, select Options, Text Filters and change the option for the User Group. No filtering allows all content to be input in the editor. You can also update the blacklist for other users.

I found the answer to this here: http://nabtron.com/joomla-editor-removing-flash-object-code-tags-when-saving-article-fixed/6472/

Tags: editor, google map, JCE, joomla

Delete Magento 1.5 test orders

Before putting your Magento site live, you’ll probably want to clear out test data. Plenty of searches for Magento pull up older versions of the software when the database tables also differed. This is a new version of the script that deletes test data from Magento 1.5 and you can paste it all straight into phpmyadmin (after backing up your database first)

http://www.myscienceisbetter.info/delete-test-orders-in-magento-1-5-x.html

Tags: 1.5.1, magento, phpmyadmin, test data

Trying to custom rewrite URLs in Joomla

I’m trying to rewrite a URL in Joomla 1.5.21 so that instead of it showing as page.html?query=first+second it shows as page/first/second/

There’s some very useful recipes here: http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/RewriteQueryString

And my question in more detail is here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7255243/using-rewritequerystring-with-joomla if anyone has an answer.

Tags: apache, joomla, mod_rewrite, stackoverflow

WordPress sidebars and widgets

In WordPress we can often see sidebars and widgets in use, from a list of recent posts to a search box, blogrolls and RSS feeds. But widgets can be used for a lot more – the text widget for a start allows for all sorts of custom html. And they don’t have to be sidebars (as the name implies). Making boxes editable anywhere on the website is also possible by  using a carefully placed dynamic_sidebar() in the template file.

And with different templates, a sidebar on one page can be replaced by something very different on another page.

Some useful reading: http://justintadlock.com/archives/2010/11/08/sidebars-in-wordpress & http://www.rvoodoo.com/projects/wordpress/wordpress-tip-different-sidebars-on-different-pages/

Tags: sidebars, widgets, wordpress

WordPress media upload error

A quick fix, but very helpful to know. If you have a WordPress website which is password protected this can result in media file uploads failing with a message saying “http error”. This is caused by the .htaccess file in the root of the site which provides password protection.

This post: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/media-upload-http-error provides a solution, adding some lines to avoid the upload script being blocked.

# Exclude the file upload and WP CRON scripts from authentication
<FilesMatch "(async-upload\.php|wp-cron\.php|xmlrpc\.php)$">
    Satisfy Any
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    Deny from none
</FilesMatch>

Which came from the WordPress Codex User:Hakre/Htaccess

WordPress Admin Dashboard shows on website

From WordPress 3.1 there’s a new feature whereby the admin dashboard shows on the website you’re editing if you’re logged in. This can be annoying, especially if it doesn’t even show (some CSS / Javascript conflict I think). Anyway, Scott Explains has a simple answer here which simply involves changing a profile setting. Easy!

Scott Explains: Disable The WordPress Admin Bar

WordPress 3.1 released

There’s a new version of WordPress released in February 2011. Version 3.1 (codename Reinhardt after jazz guitarist Django) has improved workflow including internal linking and hiding some features in the write window. The full list of features is on the WordPress site: http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.1 but for a an easier to grasp version try the WPBeginner site page.

Joomla 1.6 Released

The new version of Joomla has now been released according to their website and this story: Joomla!® 1.6.0 is now available for immediate download

Features include Finer Access Controls for user groups and viewing levels, configurable categories and style improvements. There’s much more.

I gave the Release Candidate a go and it was a great experience with some nice streamlining and some of the complexity removed.

More info about Joomla 1.6

Download Joomla 1.6

Contact DJA for help on how to install, using Joomla or setting up your content managed website.