Epigroove

How to Fix PHP SLIR from throwing 404 - File not found errors

Sat, 15 Nov 2014 14:37:20 CDT

If you are using SLIR, and you're getting 404 errors, it probably means mod_rewrite isn't working. And the reason it's not working is probably your apache httpd.conf file not allowing the .htaccess file in the /slir/ directory to override it.

Step 1: Check to make sure SLIR works using the query method.

Example:

If using the query method works, you know SLIR is working correctly.

Step 2: Check to confirm that the following doesn't work:

Example:

If using the method in Step 2 doesn't work, mod_rewrite is to blame.

Step 3: Open your apache httpd.conf file and look for a relevant <Directory> for your website.

Change this:


AllowOverride None

To this:


AllowOverride All

Step 4: Restart apache, and you should be good to go!

Solve the UI Bootstrap modal error: Failed to load template

Sun, 23 Feb 2014 11:25:17 CDT

Are you getting the following error when attempting to use a UI Bootstrap modal dialog in your AngularJS project?


Failed to load template: template/modal/backdrop.html

Make sure you're linking to the UI Bootstrap library with the templates included (i.e. ui-bootstrap-tpls.js) and not the plain UI Bootstrap library (i.e. ui-bootstrap.js).

UI Bootstrap not loading in AngularJS

Sun, 23 Feb 2014 10:18:17 CDT

If you're adding UI Bootstrap to your AngularJS project, and you're getting an "angular is not defined" and/or "Failed to instantiate module ui.bootstrap" error, make sure you are including the ui-bootstrap.js script file after the angular.js script file in your html.

Using user-defined MySQL variables in Laravel

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:49:44 CDT

I attempted to do the following in Laravel:


DB::query("SET @rank:=0; UPDATE scores SET rank=@rank:=@rank+1 WHERE game_id=4 ORDER BY score DESC");

That is valid MySQL code, and works if you type it directly into MySQL via the command line, but Laravel was throwing an error:


SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL 
syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right 
syntax to use near 'UPDATE scores SET rank=@rank:=@rank+1 WHERE game_id=4 ORDER BY' at line 1

SQL: SET @rank:=0; UPDATE scores SET rank=@rank:=@rank+1 WHERE game_id=4 ORDER BY score DESC

Bindings: array (
)

I attempted to separate the two queries:


DB::query("SET @rank:=0");
DB::query("UPDATE scores SET rank=@rank:=@rank+1 WHERE game_id=4 ORDER BY score DESC");

But Laravel still threw an error:


Method [] is not defined on the Query class.

DB::raw() to the rescue!

Solution:


DB::query(DB::raw("SET @rank:=0"));
DB::query("UPDATE scores SET rank=@rank:=@rank+1 WHERE game_id=4 ORDER BY score DESC");

"General error: 1005 Can't create table" using Laravel

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 10:31:31 CDT

If you're getting the following error when attempting to run a migration, you might be trying to add a foreign key on a parent field that doesn't exist yet.

SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1005 Can't create table 'posts.#sql-XXXX' (errno: 150)

SQL: ALTER TABLE `comments` ADD CONSTRAINT comments_post_id_foreign FOREIGN KEY (`post_id`) REFERENCES `posts` (`id`) ON DELETE cascade ON UPDATE cascade

In the above example migration, the comments table is being created before the posts table, and a foreign key that references the id field in the posts table is attempting to be added. But since the posts table doesn't exist yet, it's resulting in an error.

Solution: Make sure the Schema::create() calls are in the right order, i.e. Schema::create('posts') has to come before Schema::create('comments').

Schema::create('posts', function($table) {
    $table->increments('id');
    ...
});

Schema::create('comments', function($table) {
    $table->increments('id');
    $table->integer('post_id')->unsigned()->index();
    ...
    $table->foreign('post_id')->references('id')->on('posts')->on_update('cascade')->on_delete('cascade');
});

If your Schema::create() calls are in separate migration files, you just need to change the order in which the files are processed during the migration. To do so, change the timestamp values in the names of the migration files so that the files get run in the correct chronological order.

2013_04_14_233507_create_posts.php
2013_04_14_233508_create_comments.php

Then, when you run php artisan migrate, the create_posts migration file will be processed before the create_comments migration file.

Laravel routes not working? Make sure .htaccess is working.

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:32:26 CDT

If your Laravel routes aren't working, and you're getting "Not Found" errors whenever you try and load a page, your .htaccess file is likely lacking permission to do its duty.

The key is the apache AllowOverride directive.

If you don't have AllowOverride set to All, your Laravel .htaccess file (/public/.htaccess) won't be able to enable mod_rewrite, and your routes won't work.

The first step is to open your apache httpd.conf file. In OS X, it is located at:


/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Option 1) Modify your main <Directory> directive

This will change the AllowOverride value for all your websites. In your httpd.conf file, look for the main <Directory> directive:



    ...
    AllowOverride None
    ...

Simply change it to this:



    ...
    AllowOverride All
    ...

Option 2) Add a <Directory> directive to your site's <VirtualHost> directive.



    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/epigroove/public"
    ...
    
        AllowOverride All

Save the changes to your httpd.conf file, restart or reload apache, and your routes should be up-and-running.

PHP Undefined index: extension

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 11:32:12 CDT

If you ever get the PHP error Undefined index: extension, it's most likely because a filename that has no extension is being passed to the pathinfo() function.

Example:


$filename = "/images/company_logo";
$parts = pathinfo($filename);
echo $parts['extension'];

Result:


Undefined index: extension

The filename must contain an extension, because pathinfo() gets the extension from the name of the file, not from the file itself. The file doesn't even have to exist; pathinfo() doesn't care.

Working example:


$filename = "/images/company_logo.png";
$parts = pathinfo($filename);
echo $parts['extension'];

Result:

png

GoDaddy, mod_rewrite, and Preview DNS

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 CDT

WARNING: Most mod_rewrite rules do not work when previewing a site hosted on GoDaddy.com!

If you are testing out a website using GoDaddy's "Preview DNS" feature (e.g. http://domain.com.previewdns.com/), do not expect mod_rewrite rules in your .htaccess file to work. I could only get very basic catch-all rules to work. All other rules resulted in 404 errors.

After much frustration, a GoDaddy representative confirmed what I suspected:

"The mod_rewrite is able to function on the hosting plan. However, due to the dependency of the URL, for the rewrite to function, the Preview DNS may not allow it to function properly. If the rewrite is coded properly then it will function once the website is made fully live through our hosting plan."

So I guess the solution is to cross your fingers and hope that your rules are set up correctly.

I hope this saves someone else a headache.

Use PHP to count number of files in a directory

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CDT

Here's a simple bit of PHP code to get the total number of files in a directory using the glob() and count() functions:


$num_files = count(glob($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/path/to/directory/*'));

Or here's how to only count files with a .jpg extension:


$num_files = count(glob($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/path/to/directory/*.jpg'));

How to kill all MySQL sleeping processes

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 CDT

If you need to kill all sleeping processes in MySQL, here's a quick 'n' easy PHP solution:


$result = mysql_query("SHOW processlist");
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
	if ($myrow['Command'] == "Sleep") {
		mysql_query("KILL {$myrow['Id']}");
	}
}