About Web Development by Activo http://www.activoinc.com/blog Web Development in a Web 2.0 World Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:36:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 en hourly 1 Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesSubscribe with PlusmoSubscribe with Live.comWe hope you enjoy reading our articles. Thank you for subscribing. Embedding Videos in Ektron http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/PlGFKP4yAeQ/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/07/02/embedding-videos-in-ektron/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:36:16 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=244 video_icon_fullAlmost every other day what seems to be a simple task will reveal itself as a mini project. Perhaps a side-effect of the paste of which things change in the web development world. This is exactly what happened when I tried to embed a movie from backlight.tv in to an Ektron site. It did not work and the issue was not trivial.

This is the code that needed to be embedded into the body of the page which will trigger a flash player and stream a flash movie in to the browser:

<object class="cantaloupe_video" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0"
width="480" height="294" id="backlight_player" align="middle">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" />
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />
<param name="movie" value="http://player.backlight.tv/player/?video_code=VDF2upIPH8s6239EQ90L" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" />
<param name="flashvars" value="" />
<embed src="http://player.backlight.tv/player/?video_code=VDF2upIPH8s6239EQ90L" flashvars="" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" width="480" height="294" name="backlight_player" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>

Well, after I open a new content block and paste this code in the richtextarea/html input field and publish it, no video is displayed on the front page. After various debugging sessions I discovered that Ektron automatically strips out the <embed> tag. This is done probably because Ektron is trying to produce valid XHTML/HTML code and the embed tag is not.

How do we overcome the issue? We really have two options:

  1. Force Ektron’s new WYSIWYG editor to accept the invalid code and display it with the embed tag (not recommended, will not be covered here).
  2. Find a better way to embed the video with valid code.

While option one is not recommended and I’ll not cover it here, option two is quite easy and clean. To produce clean code use the following few lines of HTML instead, you can edit the original video code manually in an editor and then insert it into the content block:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" style="width:454px; height:278px;"
data="http://player.backlight.tv/player/?video_code=VDF2upIPH8s6239EQ90L">
<param name="movie" value="http://player.backlight.tv/player/?video_code=VDF2upIPH8s6239EQ90L" />
<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
</object>

What you need to focus on in the object tag which includes the width and height in the style element and the data element which includes the URL to the movie itself. Only one parameter is really required here: ‘movie’ which has the same URL to the actual movie. Everything else is not required and may not be necessary.

So, after cleaning up the original code, I inserted this new one into the content block, published it and vuala! it worked.

Thanks to Jeff Martinez for pointing it out on the Ektron Fourms.

Most Commected Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/07/02/embedding-videos-in-ektron/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/07/02/embedding-videos-in-ektron/ Method Overloading Workaround in PHP5 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/3sJnnRPQJAk/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/06/25/method-overloading-workaround-in-php5/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:35:50 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=237 This past week I had the need to use overloaded methods in PHP 5. Overloading a method in object oriented design is especially helpful when trying to achieve the same operation while the code needs to be triggered from different states of the application or even different locations of the application. In my case, I needed an overloaded constructor to a PHP class. Yes, constructors are also a bit different in PHP 5 but still workable.

overload_cargo

To make a long story short, in PHP 5 there is no real way to overload a method like you can with Java. However, it seems like the developers of PHP 5 did have overloading methods in mind and allowed some form of it. It seems like allowing a real method overloads in PHP would be a special case of what the core developers actually allowed to do. The reason behind the current syntax is beyound me. I even tried to look for a PHP roadmap and see if proper method overloading will be introduced in the future but I could not find anything relevant.

A user with the name Noel has posted on DZone a little snippet of code that shows exactly how method overloading in PHP5 can be achieved.

Do you know of any intentions on including real method overloading in PHP6?

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/06/25/method-overloading-workaround-in-php5/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/06/25/method-overloading-workaround-in-php5/ The Case for ZenCart: Supporting the Long Tail of eCommerce http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/CAsDYhFc0qU/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/06/18/the-case-for-zencart-supporting-the-long-tail-of-ecommerce/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:52:43 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=232 While Zen-Cart is one of the best open source ecommerce platforms it has plenty of deficiencies, however I recently understood that it will always be able to keep its niche and therefore always have a market.  Of-course this will remain the case as long as its leaders remain true to its spirit.

the_long_tail_of_open_source_ecommerce_platforms

Zen-Cart is an unwilling offspring of the popular osCommerce. Like all offsprings, it is an improved version of its predecessor with better templating system, class oriented design, and notification systems but still maintains its characteristics of spaghetti code and somewhat convoluted and non-flexible checkout process.

Zen-Cart’s strengths are its simplicity which gives many non-programmers the opportunity to tweak and add (or remove) features to their likings with no major effort. This means that implementing a Zen-Cart ecommerce website is usually inexpensive and fast. Another great benefit of the system’s simplicity is speed. Zen-Cart is many times lighter than many other ecommerce systems even without complex caching technologies. Together, these benefits support a specific market: the market of light ecommerce. I am talking about online shops with 1 to 100 daily transactions or even less. It can obviously support more than that but the simplicity and the light weight features will attract the small business which is budget oriented.

The light ecommerce market while being small in terms of overall sales figures is relatively large and will get larger and larger with time. This is also known as the long tail of any market, in our case it is the long tail of the ecommerce market. This means that the numbers of installations will most likely be large and not insignificant. It also means that it is a valid market and will not vanish overnight with any other solution such as Magento who now charges a hefty amount for licensing its Enterprise version.

Before you rush to declare this light and feature packed ecommerce platform the kind of the long tail ecommerce market, don’t underestimate the challenges that it is facing. With over a year and a half of no significant updates its market share is shrinking fast. The default template and the admin panel need some serious reworkings to get up to par in UI and design with other open source challengers and a major cleanup and reorganization of the backend configurations is way overdue. While it supports XHTML and validates correctly, the default template needs to be reworked without the tables.

In any case, Zen-Cart still serves its purpose as a free and light open source ecommerce platform. And here at Activo we have recently developed a Recurring Orders payment module that comply with PCI requirements and integrates well into the ARB module of Authorize.net. I’ll soon post links to an initial free version, a commercially licensed version should be available in about a month or so.

What do you think of ZenCart? here to stay or yet another open source project that will be lost in oblivion? somewhere in the middle perhaps?

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/06/18/the-case-for-zencart-supporting-the-long-tail-of-ecommerce/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/06/18/the-case-for-zencart-supporting-the-long-tail-of-ecommerce/ Manage Application Pool Recycling in IIS7 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/mlzPLlNmBmM/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/21/manage-application-pool-recycling-in-iis7/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 23:05:48 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=226 If you manage a website that is hosted with the latest Windows Server 2008 and IIS7 you probably want to be aware of the Application Pool settings in general, and in particular the Application Pool Recycle settings. As it turns out, by default, Windows Server 2008 sets the Application Pool to recycle every 1740 minutes. Which is exactly 29 hours or one full day and 5 hours or the number of lattes I had in the winter. All kidding aside, this number is a bit random, especially because it determines when the website’s application pool will recycle and the website will need to recompile, recache, etc. Here is a screenshot:

edit_app_pool_recycling_settings_default

Instead, what I recommend is that you uncheck the regular time intervals checkbox and use the Specific time one. I chose here 2:00 AM because it is when the site sees the lowest numbers of hits and it is the best time to handle a recycle. You should setup your webserver to recycle when your site is experiencing the lowest traffic levels. So, you’ll probably need to dig into the analytics a bit. Here is a screenshot of how I setup my server:

edit_app_pool_recycling_settings_recommended

Pros:
- Recycles during off peak hours
- You actually control when it recycles
- Typically a performance boost on average

Cons:
The application will now recycle every 24 hours, instead of 29 hours. In fact, if you are certain that your website has no major problems and no memory leaks you can potentially set the application pool to not recycle automatically at all. This state needs to be monitored but may result in a longer smooth ride. Enjoy!

Most Commected Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/21/manage-application-pool-recycling-in-iis7/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/21/manage-application-pool-recycling-in-iis7/ Avoid editing ‘hosts’ file by using FoxyProxy plugin for FireFox http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/EVvHNTjHl68/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/15/avoid-editing-hosts-file-by-using-foxyproxy-plugin-for-firefox/#comments Sat, 16 May 2009 04:55:21 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=223 I love it when small utilities like this make web development so much easier. In my everyday development, I religiously edited the ‘hosts’ file. Yes, that file hidden away in the Windows folder that also requires special Admin security elevation in Vista. I managed to overcome all these items by locating a shortcut on my desktop that would open it in Notepad and be ready for editing. That was great for a while.

foxyproxy_patterns_screenshot

This method had a few downsides to it. When I try to switch between the localhost version of a site and a remote site many times within a short amount of time, the not so many steps that are needed all of a sadden seem a lot. More problematic is the fact that there is no indication as to which state a specific site is set at the moment: localhost or remote? and in some cases I ended up sending a completely broken site to the client who probably thinks I am a rookie with an internet connection. Don’t forget that when you change your hosts file, you also need to either restart the browser or go to the file menu, choose ‘work offline’and then ‘work online’ and refresh the site. None of that is necessary with a simple add-on to FireFox: FoxyProxy.

FoxyProxy acts as a proxy server between the Firefox and the internet. You set a ‘proxy’ which essentially allows you to direct traffic to a single point - I use one that directs traffic to ‘localhost’ - then you can add as many patterns as you want that will be associated with the Proxy. Once all is setup, you can then turn this Proxy on or off with a single right click at the bottom of the browser. For me, the setup is quite simple and it works great.

Ok, so there is one caviat here: sometimes I do need to test the websites in different browsers. In this case, this browser add-on will simply not cut it. But for most of my daily web dev needs - it is great!

Most Commected Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/15/avoid-editing-hosts-file-by-using-foxyproxy-plugin-for-firefox/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/15/avoid-editing-hosts-file-by-using-foxyproxy-plugin-for-firefox/ Cleaning an entire subversion working folder from ‘.svn’ folders http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/z3h2akajuGQ/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/12/cleaning-an-entire-subversion-working-folder-from-svn-folders/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 19:11:22 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=220 Rarely I need to clean an entire folder from all the hidden ‘.svn’ folders which makes it a working copy of an existing repository. Unfortunately my projects tend to be large in the number of files and fairly complex. When I upgrade the project, say from Ektron 7.0.4 to Ektron 7.65 SP2, there are a lot of changes in the files. In the upgrade process, some folders loose their ‘.svn’ subfolders which makes it difficult to use the ‘SVN Update’ + ‘SVN Commit’ walk in the park method. What we need is a ‘SVN Reintegrate’ option, lets create one.

subversion_svn_reintegrate

Until now, what I end up doing is removing all the ‘.svn’ subfolders, checking out the project to another folder, removing all the files from the checked out folder (SVN Delete), copying over all the current set of files/folders, and checking the whole thing back in to the SVN repository. This works well but it requires some serious file manipulation efforts. Here are two usefull tools I just recently discovered that can help tremendously with this process:

1. Cleaning an entire subversion working folder from ‘.svn’ folders:

Ryan Christensen describes how to remove all .svn subfolders from a SVN working copy. In short, you need to create a small ‘.cmd’ file that will live in the top folder that you want to detach from SVN and write this command in it:

for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%i in ('dir /s /b /a:d *svn') do ( rd /s /q "%%i" )

I saved it as cleansvn.cmd and run it from a command line window after changing the current directory to the project folder. You will need to wait until the TortoiseSVN checks all the subfolders because it keeps a bunch of info in cache and with this util - it doesn’t refresh veru quickly. But it works great.

2. The new Rsync for Windows, called RichCopy:

Apparently, Microsoft has recently (April 2009) published this free utility called RichCopy which comes to replace the RoboCopy GUI tool from 2006. According to the article, this utility is also many times more efficient and handles multi threading, network connections, etc. I tried it and it worked great for me.

Here are the new steps for my ‘SVN Reintegrate’ procedure:

  1. Backup all working copies before proceeding
  2. Clean working copy from all ‘.svn’ folders
  3. Checkout latest project from SVN repository to another folder (not a subfolder)
  4. Use RichCopy to copy over all the files, these are the settings:
    1. Source: the new clean working folder
    2. Destination: the latest SVN checked out folder
    3. Use the ‘Purge’ option
    4. Exclude all ‘.svn’ folders from this process
  5. SVN Commit the SVN folder that was overwritten by the working folder

A bit confusing but if you know what you are doing it can save you a few white hairs. Enjoy!

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/12/cleaning-an-entire-subversion-working-folder-from-svn-folders/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/12/cleaning-an-entire-subversion-working-folder-from-svn-folders/ Browser Wars: IE Share Dropping while User Base Still Growing http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/qyynlHxbQIA/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/05/browser-wars-ie-share-dropping-while-user-base-still-growing/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 06:26:54 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=218 What am I talking about? First you need to look at this graph of browser usage over time since 1996 by Asa Dotzler. Please note that the sources for this graph are not clearly identified but still this makes a strong point of paying attention to the entire picture, not only market share.

Basically, while Internet Explorer’s market share continues to drop drastically and FireFox’s market share continues to increase the rate of new internet users is so vast that the total number of IE users is still increasing. In addition, it is obvious that Microsoft is paying a lot of attention to its browser and packs it with features. Furthermore, it will be the default browser in the highly anticipated Windows 7 new operating system, which is expected to gain significant higher adoption rate than Vista. In short, it is wise not to write IE off and keep the Virtual Machines with the various IE versions handy.

Another observation is the market share that FireFox has commanded and the short amount of time it did so. Remember that users who download FireFox and use it do so because they truley believe it is a superior browser. Unlike other browsers that come bundled with the OS (IE, Safari), or have a deep-pockets corporation behind it (Chrome).

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/05/browser-wars-ie-share-dropping-while-user-base-still-growing/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/05/05/browser-wars-ie-share-dropping-while-user-base-still-growing/ Visual Studio 2008, Run as Administrator, Application Cannot Start http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/-yTDzeUt2-Q/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/04/30/visual-studio-2008-run-as-administrator-application-cannot-start/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 07:37:41 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=215 If you ever wondered why is this happening there is a nice blog post written by Alex Riley. Alex explains and shows how to copy two DLL files that are needed and expected in a certain folder. This description helped tremendously, however I wanted to make things clearer and distinguish between 32bit and 64bit environments:

If you get the error “Application Cannot Start” when you try to ‘Run as Administrator’ VS2008, this is what you need to do:

For 32bit environments (follow Alex’s steps):
Copy dte80.dll and dte80a.dll from “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSEnv” to “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE”

For 64bit environments:
Copy dte80.dll and dte80a.dll from “C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSEnv” to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE”

You should be good to go now!

Most Commected Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/04/30/visual-studio-2008-run-as-administrator-application-cannot-start/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/04/30/visual-studio-2008-run-as-administrator-application-cannot-start/ Will Visual SVN Server remain a for-Free product? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/eIPEpyuRyAc/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/30/will-visual-svn-server-remain-a-for-free-product/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:17:42 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=211 After writing about Visual SVN Server, I was wondering will the software remain free… Since I was thinking to myself, what is the logic behind giving it away like this. I already though of some reasons but I wasn’t sure and their website did not indicate any future plans but niether it indicated that the product will remain free. Hence I emailed the sales team and got this response back:

we’ll always keep VisualSVN Server free with the current set of functionality. We’re not going to take money in future for the functionality that we distribute free of charge now.

This means that we should expect another version that is a paid version of this product. It also means that we can certainly enjoy using this version without getting blocked from future upgrades or locked in to this solution with no way out.

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/30/will-visual-svn-server-remain-a-for-free-product/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/30/will-visual-svn-server-remain-a-for-free-product/ iNove theme from mg12: Pros and Cons http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/SoR63rZlwMQ/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/29/inove-theme-from-mg12-pros-and-cons/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:12:06 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=205 As you can see I am using the iNove theme offered free by mg12. I have spent about an hour this weekend to tweak and set it up to my liking and overall it is a great theme. The look and feel of this theme is awesome, clean, and easy to read. While playing with it over the weekend I did find some room for improvement. I am going to limit  my pros/cons to max 5 for each and please remember this list is provided with constructive intentions only. So here is a short pros/cons list for the iNove theme:

inove_theme_on_activo_blog

iNove theme Pros

  • Clean look & feel.
  • Allows for custom meta tags, google search, notices, rss feed, and email feed.
  • Neat usage of icons.
  • Well balanced main content area versus sidebar.
  • Fantastic set of default hard-coded widget set for the sidebar.

iNove theme Cons

  • Not using the wordpress widgets engine, hence it is difficult to edit and tweak. In some cases will require editing theme files.
  • Scalability and performance is impacted due to the large number of css and javascript files. Using local jQuery file instead of the google hosted one.
  • Not using CSS sprites while having a classic example of one such possible usage (icons).
  • Javascript files are not minified.
  • Some external plugins are required for all the functinoality to work.

Overall, it is a thumbs up for anyone who is considering this great theme. However, like everything else, there is always room for improvement.

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/29/inove-theme-from-mg12-pros-and-cons/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/29/inove-theme-from-mg12-pros-and-cons/ New theme, updated wordpress - 2.7.1 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/8Lf-rPoxyh0/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/28/new-theme-updated-wordpress-271/#comments Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:42:32 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/28/new-theme-updated-wordpress-271/ Yes, I am sure you have noticed. I just finished updating the blog a bit. The current theme is iNove by mg12 - I love the use of the icons. I also updated the underline wordpress to the latest 2.7.1 - yes it is about time.

Expect more positive updates soon and always let me know if you have any feedback. Enjoy.

Most Commected Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/28/new-theme-updated-wordpress-271/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/28/new-theme-updated-wordpress-271/ Recommended: Visual SVN Server, now with Subversion 1.6 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/AOsg9jXhb78/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/27/recommended-visual-svn-server-now-with-subversion-16/#comments Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:28:00 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=193 Sometimes we are so busy with our projects that we miss interesting changes, some may influence us positively. Here is a change that I wanted to share with you: new subversion version 1.6 and Visual SVN Server.

In the last three years we have used both VSS that integrates seamlessly with Microsoft’s Visual Studio, of-course and subversion which can be handled simply from the Windows Explorer window under windows or by using the simple but useful subversion client. Through our development years, it was subversion that took over all our source code repositories. It was simple to use, great to manage, and most importantly - reliable.

Just recently I needed to use the ‘merge’ feature and I discovered that it was only available in version 1.5 and on. So, I went on trying to upgrade the subversion binaries to the latest stable on an Ubuntu server. If you have been reading my blog, you already know that I do not like Ubuntu, well this is the only Ubuntu server left in our arsenal. To make a long story short, after trying to upgrade but giving up since it requires a major Ubuntu release upgrade, I decided that I should look somewhere else. This is where I turned to Visual SVN Server.

After purchasing a copy of Visual SVN - which is a great little plugin to Visual Studio that allows you to integrate with your subversion repository seamlessly and efficiently, we noticed that the same company created Visual SVN Server. Hence, I tried it. I can start by saying that it was well worth it. Yes, Linux is great but for the simple stuff that we do with SVN a windows box will do just fine. Not to mention that with Ubuntu it is a nightmare and waiting for CentOS to adopt the latest version of subversion may take some time, Visual SVN Server is very convenient. If you check their download page, the latest download-able version is already using subversion 1.6. Great!

So, if you are looking to build a subversion repository or in need of upgrading due to need of features/bug fixes - I strongly recommend upgrading to Visual SVN Server.

By the way - moving your existing repositories is a no brainer, especially with Visual SVN’s repository import feature.

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/27/recommended-visual-svn-server-now-with-subversion-16/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/27/recommended-visual-svn-server-now-with-subversion-16/ Tightening up iptables for a dedicated DB server (MySQL and CentOS) http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/XK1FzrQk0to/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/25/tightening-up-iptables-for-a-dedicated-db-server-mysql-and-centos/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:40:38 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=191 In a typical high performing web servers environment I have a few web servers running apache/php and a separate DB server to support them. If the need ever comes to increase the capacity of the DB server it can easily be done via the MySQL clustering configuration. In any case, one of the most redundant tasks before setting up all servers is to tighten the security. In particular, setting the firewall is a repetitive task. Hence I am setting this page as a guide to myself and anyone who cares, Enjoy!

  1. SSH to the server, login as root
  2. type vi myiptables-mysql
  3. Insert the following commands:
    NOTE: you will need to insert the web server’s ip addresses where I placed <ip address#>. These are the ip addresses that MySQL queries will originate from.

    #!/bin/bash
#
# iptables example configuration script
#
# Flush all current rules from iptables
#
iptables -F
#
# Allow SSH connections on tcp port 22
# This is essential when working on remote servers via SSH to prevent locking yourself out of the system
#
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT

iptables -I INPUT 1 -i lo -p tcp --dport mysql -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT 2 -i lo -p udp --dport mysql -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT 3 -i eth0 -p tcp --dport mysql -s <ip address1> -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT 3 -i eth0 -p tcp --dport mysql -s <ip address2> -j ACCEPT

#
# Set default policies for INPUT, FORWARD and OUTPUT chains
#
iptables -P INPUT DROP
iptables -P FORWARD DROP
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
#
# Set access for localhost
#
iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
#
# Accept packets belonging to established and related connections
#
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
#
# Save settings
#
/sbin/service iptables save
#
# List rules
#
iptables -L -v
  4. save and exit
  5. Allow the file to execute by typing this command: chmod +x myiptables-mysql
  6. Run the file by tying this command: ./myiptables-mysql
  7. Test it and Enjoy!

Security notice: yes, for an even tighter security it is possible to change the ports.

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/25/tightening-up-iptables-for-a-dedicated-db-server-mysql-and-centos/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/03/25/tightening-up-iptables-for-a-dedicated-db-server-mysql-and-centos/ Zend Studio 6.1: Wrong Way to Enhance a PHP IDE! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/bMxYN9TOIxs/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/02/16/zend-studio-61-wrong-way-to-enhance-a-php-ide/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 06:24:57 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=185 In the past two weeks I have been doing some serious PHP development. Unlike .NET development where Microsoft’s Visual Studio is second to none, in PHP there was never a clear winner. So, I have decided to take the latest Zend Studio, version 6.1 on eclipse, for a spin.

As always, I give Zend, the company who created PHP a lot of respect. But with my usage of the Zend Studio IDE I have found more annoyances than features that helped me gain productivity. Here are some of the bad items I could not resist but rant about:

1. The entire solution now seems ‘gummy’. Where are the days when we can go through multiple PHP projects, and multiple PHP files in a few clicks and the IDE still feels ‘light’? Well, it doesn’t. In fact the more I use it the more this new IDE feels ‘yuck’.

2. My experience with the file/project manager on the left hand side was poor at best. If you have some scripts that update a file with fopen(), fwrite() - I had to force refresh on the parent folder of the updated file otherwise the IDE shows an error message when I try to open the updated file. What?

3. Auto complete is a little wierd. Ok, maybe a lot wierd. I really miss the auto complete that Zend Studio 5.5 used to have. While it is evident that the algorithms are trying their best to be smart, the whole user experience with the location of the auto complete windows, tabs vs enter keys to confirm the selection, and some inconsitencies in UI brings my frustration to uncharted levels. Dear Zend Develop team, can you please download and try Visual Studio and copy the ease of use? not hard to do.

4. Do I really need to create a new project, give it a name, choose a folder if all I want is a new PHP file? really? Do you ask your online users to fill out a 20 field form for a simple contact inquery? I DONT THINK SO.

5. Two files that I need my IDE to handle well: XML and SQL. All I ask for is to show me the text, dress it up with color, and handle nice any auto completion in a smart way. In this new versin of Zend Studio I was simply not able to open some XML files or the rigid editing of it made it impossible to work within the IDE, Notepad served nice in those cases. But this means failure to the IDE’s interface.

Conclusion
I do not know what made Zend decide on choosing a wrong turn with the latest version of Zend Studio (6.1). But it seems like the Zend team have decided to sacrifice a lot of functionality in order to cut on development efforts that the eclipse IDE supposedly provides. The only problem here is that eclipse’s features are weak and not good enough to be considered a good starting point for any PHP IDE who wishes to be claimed the best.

Time to try something new, the buzz seems to favor the latest PHP IDE by NuSphere: PHPEd.

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/02/16/zend-studio-61-wrong-way-to-enhance-a-php-ide/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/02/16/zend-studio-61-wrong-way-to-enhance-a-php-ide/ Open Source eCommerce: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/UIC9ST2Xj6E/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/01/28/open-source-ecommerce-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:01:53 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=182 A few days ago I read Karry Watson’s article titled Open Source E-Commerce: Twelve Promising Programs. Karry provides a good overview of the current state of open source eCommerce options for online vendors. From our experience with many different vendors and from recent trends I wanted to discuss three open source ecommerce systems from Karry’s list that power most of the shopping carts out there, now and in the near future. Ugly first:

The Ugly: osCommerce

There is no hiding for this huge collection of 3 line scripts that somehow compose a shopping cart. I think any web developer that took a few classes of computer science knows that it is a big hack not a piece of software. Any additional functionality needs to be glued somehow and made work. Oh, by the way - good luck trying to use two extensions at the same time. Anyway, you see where I am going with this. Easy to setup, easy to use, not programmed well, hell to maintain, nightmaire to develop. Ugly.

The Bad: Zen-Cart

I personally fell in love with this shopping cart back in 2004 very close to the split from osCommerce. What a great energy this project had. The sky was the limit. Someone recently pointed out that open source fatigue happens to many projects: starts great, reaches pubirty, and starts lingering. Great codgin techniques, not complete by any means but every release converts more code into clean, object oriented, design pattern oriented beauty. Unfortunately, recently development has stalled. Ok, it didn’t, the developers are saying that they are very close to the next release which got extended (and additional features got added). Bottom line, no releases in 2008 at all. Meantime, where is our improved admin interface? Web 2.0 features? quantities by attributes? Bad.

The Good: Magento Commerce

Still new and growing fast. The new kid on the block. What I like about Magento is the solid foundation which is based on the Zend Framework. In a way, forcing good development practices: MVC, templating, scalability, layering, etc. Magento is here to stay, moreover, it will quetly revolutionize the open source ecommerce space and force all the players to push the envelop. This includes all the small size commercial shopping carts ($1-$2,000 per license). Good. Great!

What are you using? What are you going to use?

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/01/28/open-source-ecommerce-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/01/28/open-source-ecommerce-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ 2009, the year of Open Source Software http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/HG32qahHyko/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/01/07/2009-the-year-of-open-source-software/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:15:23 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=176 We are lucky to live in our times. No, it is not fun going through (steep) downturn economy. But it is exciting to see the changes that such a recession will bring. One of the exciting changes that I predict for 2009 is a general boost to open source projects: increased usage and adoption by corporations while communities and ecosystems grow. Perhaps even to a point of competition with commercial products (in some cases). This is another question by itself: Can an open source project compete with a commercial product?

This year, 2009, we will see how open source projects will make huge strides and erase the gap with commercial projects, if not gain an advantage over them. Here is why:

1. Unbeatable Price: free! I know, it is not entirely true, you still need services around open source products and arguably more than in commercial products. But as the market learns to adopt more and more open source products the TCO can be lower with open source than commercial products, especially if you have the right team on your side.

2. Gain from the ‘wisdom of the crowd’, instead of wisdom of one as is often the case with commercial products. We see examples of this all over, in particular in the web development industry: Umbraco is gaining huge marketing share compared with Ektron. Magento Commerce is gaining huge market share over any other open source ecommerce platform and some of the low and mid-level commercial products in the ecommerce industry. Similar thing is happening with ASP.NET: the framework is now adopting the MVC design pattern mostly due to the fact that other platforms like Zend Framework and Ruby are free and product amazing websites. Top it off by the adoption of jQuery in almost any commercial web product today including ASP.NET framework which dumped AJAX.NET in favour of jQuery.

3. This is the sad-but-true part: developers are being laid off and hence join open source projects. It is known that the IT industry lags about 6 months after the indicators have come in, in other words, hi-tech layoffs will continue to come. In any case, more developers will be out of a job and will have plenty of time to collaborate and volunteer in open source projects - a great way to polish a resume…

To summarize, in 2009 we will see a great boost in open source adoption. Now, I am not saying that commercial products will not see any upside this year, but the competition will certainly be tougher then ever before. I am excited to see how it plays out. We certainly are going to focus our energies and our client’s energies on the leaders of each industry. You?

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/01/07/2009-the-year-of-open-source-software/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/01/07/2009-the-year-of-open-source-software/ pdnsd - Decrease DNS response time and save bandwidth http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/SbiPMkHl60w/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/25/pdnsd-decrease-dns-response-time-and-save-bandwidth/#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 07:55:11 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=162 Sometimes, when you realize that you could have improved the system with so little effort, we blush. This is what happened to me when I realized that most of the neworking delays could have been avoided with this tiny but wity utility. I knew that having a local caching DNS or the like is the answer but I did not want to use a full fletched DNS server. I found pdnsd - a small proxy DNS server with permanent caching. Perfect!

In a nutshel, pdnsd is a small utility that caches DNS translations locally on the HD, hence next time the server queries the address the response time is likely to be minimal. Usually, the server has to query your ISP’s DNS or whatever DNS server you specified in the /etc/resolve.conf file. In a high performing web servers you are constantly competing with other packets on the network or your network resources. This is a great advantage. By installing pdnsd you achieve the following:

  • Decrease the average DNS response time sharply!
  • Increase your server performance, especially if this server needs to communicate externally a lot like an eCommerce server which constantly needs to communicate with shipping and credit card servers.
  • Save on bandwidth.

Here is how you go about setting up pdnsd on a CentOS server:

1. Download the latest stable rpm:
go to pdnsd download page and look for your relevant rpm. For CentOS 5.2 64bit I got the latest version as of yesterday:

wget http://www.phys.uu.nl/~rombouts/pdnsd/releases/pdnsd-1.2.7-par_sl5.x86_64.rpm

2. Install the rpm:

rpm -i pdnsd-1.2.7-par_sl5.x86_64.rpm

3. Configure pdnsd to use your current DNS servers:

vi /etc/pdnsd.conf

Paste the following, of-course you should use your DNS servers instead:

server {
label="opendns";
ip = 207.47.4.2,216.237.6.36;
}

4. Start pdnsd and test that it is actually working

service pdnsd start
 dig @127.0.0.1 yahoo.com

If you get the IP, it is working. Notice the response time, if you try again you will see a sharp decrease in response time. My servers’ second response time is almost always between 1-0 ms.

5. Set pdnsd to start automatically on boot

vi /etc/default/pdnsd

Enter the following and save:

START_DAEMON=yes

Also make sure the daemon is set to auto start on boot. I use ‘ntsysv’, you can use chkconfig or whatever you are used to.

6. Set your server to use the pdnsd instead of your DNS servers

vi /etc/resolv.conf

Make sure that the first nameserver line is ‘127.0.0.1′. Should look like this:

nameserver 127.0.0.1

7. Restart your network service:

service network restart

How do you know that it is working? try to use any script that needs to go outside to the network, like ‘yum update’. In most cases, you will notice that the second time is much faster. Enjoy!

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/25/pdnsd-decrease-dns-response-time-and-save-bandwidth/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/25/pdnsd-decrease-dns-response-time-and-save-bandwidth/ A list of CMS and eCommerce systems that officially support jQuery http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/C8PVF6x7Vsk/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/07/a-list-of-cms-ecommerce-and-blogging-systems-that-officially-support-jquery/#comments Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:49:48 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=155 Last updated: December 7th, 2008.

Recently, jQuery - the agile JavaScript Library - has reached a tipping point. Here is a list of CMS and eCommerce systems that our clients are most interested in and their status with regard to jQuery.

Systems where jQuery is officially supported:

1. Microsoft has adopted jQuery and will offer intellisense support in its dominant IDE: Visual Studio 2008.

2. Umbraco - an open source CMS now offers jQuery by default and using jQueryin Umbraco is a matter of adding a simple call in order to include the jQuery files in the page.

3. Drupal - is an open source CMS and Framework CMS, as of version 5 it offers jQuery streight from its core. There are plans to build a centralized jQuery plugin in Drupal version 7.

4. Typo3 - is an open source CMS Framework. Typo3 has a jQuery extension that allows advanced integration with jQuery.

5. DotNetNuke - an open source ASP.NET CMS. Since October 2008 DotNetNuke offers built in jQuery support beginning with version 5.

Systems where jQuery is not supported:

1. Joomla - seems to favor Mootools over jQuery. Here is an article on how to support jQuery within Joomla and avoid conflicts with other libraries.

2. Zend Framework - the leading PHP Framework following the MVC design pattern. A press release was issued in May 2008 announcing Zend Framework and Dojo partnership.

3. Magento Commerce - an open source eCommerce platform that is gaining huge market share in the eCommerce industry. Currently Magento Commerce supports prototype JS library instead of jQuery, but offers ways to integrate jQuery easily.

4. Zen-Cart - an open source eCommerce (competing with Magento). At the moment Zen-Cart is not supporting any JavaScript library in its core.

Other systems and their relationship to jQuery:

1. WordPress - an open source blogging software. Uses jQuery for its core functionality and is avilable for any third party plugin.

2. Ektron CMS400 - Ektron has an enterprise level CMS with advanced content editing features. Oddly enough, Ektron seems to have embedded their own version of jQuery in their code.

While jQuery seems to be favored the favored JavaScript library by many developers, it has yet to be declared as the default one for many projects and systems. I’ll be keeping this list updated in the following months. Let me know if there is a system that interests you and I did not list it here.

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/07/a-list-of-cms-ecommerce-and-blogging-systems-that-officially-support-jquery/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/07/a-list-of-cms-ecommerce-and-blogging-systems-that-officially-support-jquery/ Can Magento and Typo3 be integrated? Yes, with TypoGento http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/vIH4EMuTYkE/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/04/can-magento-and-typo3-be-integrated-yes-with-typogento/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:00:50 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=152 Magento is now able to connect to Typo3. The connector is called TypoGento. At the moment it is only version 0.1.0 and the demo did not show any sign of integration. But, if you ever wanted the best in ecommerce and the best CMS framework that are both open source and free - you got it.

Now, I also heard that Magento and Joomla will be integrated pretty soon. Any idea when?

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/04/can-magento-and-typo3-be-integrated-yes-with-typogento/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/04/can-magento-and-typo3-be-integrated-yes-with-typogento/ Securing Joomla! CMS based sites http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Activo/~3/Rr6NH52_ZCs/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/03/securing-joomla-cms-based-sites/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:00:58 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=149 Looks like turbulent water in the Joomla Security Forums, again. Let’s ignore this and focus on securing a Joomla installation:

1. Set the right file and folder permissions according to the Joomla guide:

Once your site is configured and stable, write-protect critical directories and files by changing directory permissions to 755, and file permissions to 644. There is a feature in Site –> Global Configuration –> Server to set all folder and file permissions at once. Test third party extensions afterwards, and carefully review the code of any extension that has trouble with such settings. Note: Depending on your server’s permissions, you may need to temporarily reset to more open permissions when installing more extensions with the Joomla! installer.

2. Think twice before installing an extension - do you really need it? Most security vulnerabilities come from third party extensions. Especially ones that are pre-release or ones that have not been updated lately.
3. Upgrade to the latest stable version of Joomla. The core team is hard at work for the community partly addressing security bugs and issues found. If you run a site based on an old version of Joomla - you are at risk because the security issues are well documented and available for anyone by exploring the tracker.
4. Change your admin username. Very basic security tip that is recommended for almost every server out there.
5. Avoid shared servers. Virtual hosting is great if you are not in a position to afford a VPS or a full dedicated server, but it is not secure.
6. Protect your DB. Use a user other than the root, and do not allow connections from outside the machine. Even better, block the MySQL port completely.
7. Use an SSL. Simple, when you login and submit your username and password without an SSL, the information is not encrypted between you and the server. Potentially dangerous for packet sniffing exploits or in todays world, if you decide to work from a WiFi/Hot Spot.
8. Separate your development from the production server. Avoid unclean code or left overs that may leave a back door.

9. Remove unnecessary files from the site: remove the XML RPC server part of Joomla if you are not planning on using it. This service allows desktop applications to post directly to the site. Essentially providing access via this protocol. And if you just moved the site from another server delete the zipped files, since they contain your passwords in an unencrypted form!

10. Monitor the logs for hack attempts. Who is trying to login to the administrator section when I was eating my turkey? :) you get the idea…

Related Posts

]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/03/securing-joomla-cms-based-sites/feed/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/12/03/securing-joomla-cms-based-sites/