Category: Web

WordPress URL Rewrites On Plesk 10 Windows

May 19, 2012

We needed to get URL rewrites working on a Plesk 10 Windows server for a client wanting friendly URLs in WordPress. Turned out to be pretty easy …. 1. Make sure the Microsoft IIS URL Rewrite 2 extension is installed. You can find it here: http://www.iis.net/download/URLRewrite 2. Create a web.config file in the folder where you have WordPress installed with the following:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
<rewrite>
    <rules>
        <rule name="Main Rule" stopProcessing="true">
            <match url=".*" />
            <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
                <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
                <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
            </conditions>
            <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php/{R:0}" />
        </rule>
    </rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<system.webServer>

<rules>

</conditions>

</rule>

</rules>

</rewrite>

</system.webServer>

</configuration>

WordPress Development Sites

March 30, 2012

Had a conversation with a client yesterday about how best to develop a new WordPress stie before the domain name was pointing to the server. This might be the case if you’re building a new site while the domain is still pointing to the old site. If the new site has to be publicly available then the only real solution is to develop on a subdomain or alternate domain. So in Plesk or CPanel create the target domain like “acme.com”. Then create an alias domain like “dev.acme.com” or “acme.greatdesigns.com”. Now you’ll install wordpress and do the development on the alias domain. When you’re ready to go live you can point the final name in DNS to the new server. But there’s are several possible issues that you’ll see when you go live: WordPress stores the domain name of the site at installation in the wp_options table under the “home” and “siteurl”

Magento Upgade Notes

August 4, 2011

Here are some useful notes for upgrading Magento: Before starting the upgrade, block all access to the site by turning on password protection. It is critical that only one browser execute the database upgrade. Next make a full backup of all files and the database. If the upgrade fails you’ll need these to restore. Using the command line seems to give the most stable results. Here’s a great article that shows the command line upgrade process: http://blog.nexcess.net/2011/03/11/upgrading-to-magento-1-5-0-1/ In the above instructions, if Step 2 fails then try running:


./pear pear-setup .

./pear pear-setup .

Then try Step 2 again. After the upgrade you’ll need to rebuild indexes and clear caches before products will display. If you get an exception like this:

PHP Fatal error:  Call to a member function toHtml() on a non-object in ...

1	PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function toHtml() on a non-object in ...

Then use the fix described here: http://screencastworld.com/2010/07/magento/how-to-fix/php-fatal-error-call-to-a-member-function-tohtml-on-a-non-object-in-layout-php-on-line-529 If you get an exception like this:

Invalid method Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List_Toolbar::isLastPage...

1	Invalid method Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List_Toolbar::isLastPage...

Then follow these steps: Create folder at app/code/local/Mage/Core/Block/ Copy app/code/core/Mage/Core/Block/Template.php to app/code/local/Mage/Core/Block/Template.php Edit app/code/local/Mage/Core/Block/Template.php and paste this code:

Install WordPress on Ubuntu virtual server at Media Temple

May 25, 2011

Server is a MediaTemple “ve” server which is a Parallels Virtuozzo container with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid installed as the operating system. The first step is to install packages:


apt-get update
apt-get install mysql-server
apt-get install apache2
apt-get install php5
apt-get install php5-mysql

apt-get update

apt-get install mysql-server

apt-get install apache2

apt-get install php5

apt-get install php5-mysql

Now set mysql service to start automatically:


update-rc.d mysql defaults
service mysql start

update-rc.d mysql defaults

service mysql start

Next create a database for wordpress:


mysql -p -u root
create database wordpress;
grant all privileges on wordpress.* to 'wordpress'@'localhost' identified by 'YOURNEWPASS';
flush privileges;
exit;

mysql -p -u root

create database wordpress;

grant all privileges on wordpress.* to 'wordpress'@'localhost' identified by 'YOURNEWPASS';

flush privileges;

exit;

Next we’ll download and install wordpress:


cd /root
wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xvzf /root/latest.tar.gz
rsync -avz wordpress/ /var/www/
rm /var/www/index.html
cp /var/www/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/wp-config.php

cd /root

wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

tar -xvzf /root/latest.tar.gz

rsync -avz wordpress/ /var/www/

rm /var/www/index.html

cp /var/www/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/wp-config.php

Now set the database credentials in /var/www/wp-config.php:


replace 'database_name_here' 'wordpress' -- /var/www/wp-config.php
replace 'username_here' 'wordpress' -- /var/www/wp-config.php
replace 'password_here' 'YOURNEWPASS' -- /var/www/wp-config.php