Bandhigaan oo ahaa mid wax ku ool ah ayaa waxaa si wada jir ah u soo qaban qaabiyey hay’adda Iftin Foundation iyo Rugta Ganacsiga iyo Warshadaha Puntland.

Shirkadda Ramaas Software oo doorkeeda qaadatay ayaa waxaa goobta uga qayb galay agaasimaha guud ee shirkadda Siyaad Cali Yuusuf kaas oo ka hadlay arimo badan oo ku wajahan sida gabdhuhu ay shaqo u heli lahaayeen iyo guud ahaan sida ay uga faa’iidaysan lahaayeen aalada casrigaa ee Internetka.

Waxaa shirkadda Ramaas Software tustay gabdhaha Soomaaliyeed ee reer Puntland in fursad badani ka furan tahay isticmaalka Internetka ayna shaqooyin iyagu abuuran karaan. Waxaa la wada ogyahay in Internetku uu fursado aan hore loo arag caalamka ku soo kordhiyey asaga oo awood siiyey qofka shakhsiga ah inuu abuuran karo shaqo ku dhisan internetka ama onliine ka.

Shirkadda Ramaas Software agaasimaheeda ayaa u dulmaray gabdhaha goobta soo xaadiray inay haboon tahay inay wax ka bartaan sida Internetka looga faa’iideysan karo ayna bartaan cilmiga la xiriira samaynta websiteska, ka ganacsiga Internetka iwm.

Waxaa kaloo shirkadda Ramaas Software balan qaaday inay laba gabdhood siin doonto Internship iyo training hadii gabdhuhu  ku guulaystaan internshipkana ay shirkaddu shaqo siin doonto. Waxaa kaloo shirkaddu balan qaaday gabdhihii la yimaado fikir fiican iyo barnaamij dhaqan geli kara in ay shirkaddu u samayso websites bilaash ah oo ay barnaamijkooda ku gudbiyaan ugana shaqeystaan.

Xafiiska Wararka ee Bosasotimes.com

Waxaa maalintii khamiista oo ku beegnayd 14ka Bisha Janaayo shirkadda Ramaas Software u soo xirtay tababar muddo u socday shaqaalaha xafiiska Iibka Qaranka. Tababarka ayaa ku saabsanaa isticmaalka iyo ku shaqeynta bogga cusub ee baahinta Iibka Qaranka (Public Procurement and Concessions Authority Portal) (PPCA) kaas oo shirkadda Ramaas Software oo kaashanaysa Activis Ireland ay qayb ka ahayd samayntiisa ayna mas’uul ka ahayd bixinta tababarada shaqaalaha.

Shaqaalaha xafiiska Iibka Qaranka oo dhan 13 xubnood oo isugu jira dhamaan qaybaha uu ka kooban yahay xafiiska Iibka Qaranka ayaa tababarka ka qayb qaatay. Waxay shaqaaluhu halkaas  ku qaateen aqoon ku saabsan sidii ay u maamuli lahayeen boggaas casriga ah ayna ugu shaqeyn lahayeen qaybihiisa kala duwan.

Bogga Internetka ee Iibka Qaranka wuxuu ka shaqeynayaa diiwaan gelinta shirkaddaha Soomaaliyeed ee danaynaya inay ka qayb qaataan mashaariicda dawladda federaalka Soomaaliya ay soo bandhigayso hadey noqon lahayd qaadasho mashruuc horumarineed, dhismeed, adeeg bixin iwm.

Waxa kale oo boggu qabanayaa in lagu daabaco dhamaan qandaraasyada Qaranka, nooca qandaraasku yahay, qiimaha qandaraaska, meesha laga fulinayo, isla markaasna lagu sheego shirkadda ku guulaysatay qandaraaska.

Marka shaqada qanadaraasku dhamaato waxaa bogga lagu soo gudbinayaa warbixino ku saabsan sida shirkaddu shaqadii u qabatay iyo inay wax ka dhiman yihiin howshii loo igmaday.

Wuxuu boggu sidoo kale noqonayaa goob lagu sheego shirkaddaha aan shaqadooda sidii la rabay uga soo bixin, hadii shirkadda ay si xun u maareyso howshii loo dirayna waxaa bogga lagu sheegayaa in shirkaddaas la mamnuucay, dadweynahana ay la soconayaan shirkadaha ceeboobey oo shaqooyinkii loo diray aan qaban.

Boggan (Portal) wuxuu si weyn wax uga bedelayaa habka la socoshada Iibka Qaranka, wuxuuna meesha ka saarayaa nidaamkii hore ee ahaa in dadweynuhu suuqa ka maqlaan wararka qandaraasyada dawladda Soomaaliya bixisay iyo sida loo maamulay. Wax kasta oo ku saabsan Iibka Qaranka (Somali Public Procurement) wuxuu soo marayaa boggan cusub dadweynhuna si toos ah ayey ula soconayaa iyo cidkasta oo danaynaysa.

Waxyaalo kale oo fara badan ayuu boggu qabanayaa, wuxuuna ka kooban yahay qaybo badan oo kasii badan inta aan kor ku sheegnay.

Shirkadda Ramaas Software waxay u hambalyeynaysaa dhamaan shaqaalaha Xafiiska Iibka Qaranka ee tababarka ka qayb qaatey. Waxay kaloo si gaar ah ugu hambalyeynaysaa  Wasiirka wasaaradda Maaliyadda ee dawladda federaalka Soomaaliya Mudane Maxamed Aadan Farkeeti, Wasiir ku xigeenka wasaaradda maaliyadda Federaalka Mudane Maxamuud Xayir Ibraahim, Agaasimaha guud ee wasaaradda Maaliyadda Federaalka Drs. Aamina Sh. Cusmaan, Agaasimaha Tababarada, Shaqada iyo Shaqaalaha ee Wasaaradda Maaliyadda  Shukri   Xasan Cusmaan, Maareeyaha Xafiiska Iibka Qaranka Abuukar Cabdule, ku xigeenka maareyaha Xafiiska Iibka Qaranka Ismaaciil Aweys Cali,  ciidanka amaanka Wasaaradda maaliyadda iyo dhamaan shaqaalaha wasaaradda Maaliyadda ee dawladda Federaalka Soomaaliya sida wanaagsan ee ay noogu fududeeyeen inaan howsha tababarka si wacan u gudano iyo soo dhoweyntii wacnayd ee aan kala kulanay.

I installed everything Perl required (including the DBI and the DBD::mysql) to run a Perl based app on XAMPP, however MovableType is so weird that it still says DBD::mysql is missing, attempt to reload DBD/mysql.pm failed and such crap… but I swear I had all that stuff, updated and genuinely running… weird!

Then, I remembered SQLite. mt-check.cgi says its installed.

DBD::SQLite

Your server has DBD::SQLite installed (version 1.25).

How to install MovableType Pro on XAMPP running on Windows XP

Download and install XAMPP. The version I am currently using is XAMPP 1.7.2 (the latest). The good news is that the guys at Apache Friends decided to include the Perl Add-On in the basic package of XAMPP so you don’t need to install Perl Add-On separately.

I am not going to tell you how to install XAMPP, you will find a lot of documentation about it if you google it.

I installed mine at C:\web-server\.

Now, download MovableType Pro 4 from the MT website. I downloaded the free blogger version, which costs you nothing!

Your downloaded MT package should be something similar to MT-4.32-en.tar.gz, the version and language may be different.

Extract your downloaded MT package into a temporary folder. There is something called the Perl shebang at the top of every Perl script, and it tells the web server where to find the Perl executable. This way it knows how to run the code following that shebang. The Perl shebang is written as #!/usr/bin/perl.

By default all the .CGI files in your extracted package use the Linux based shebang. We need to correct this. Using Notepad (or other plain text editor), open every .CGI file and at the top of the file change #!/usr/bin/perl -w to #!C:/web-server/perl/bin/perl -w, use the forward-slash (/), not the backward-slash (\). Remember to use your exact path to Perl.exe.

Next, create a folder inside C:\web-server\cgi-bin, I called mine mt. Then copy all the files inside the extracted MT package except mt-static folder and paste them in C:\web-server\cgi-bin\mt\, then copy mt-static folder and its contents to C:\web-server\htdocs\.

Create another folder called sqlite-db under C:\web-server, then create an empty file called mt-database.db under C:\web-server\sqlite-db\, this will be the SQLite database file of your MovableType installation.

Open the MovableType configuration file (mt-config.cgi-original) found at C:\web-server\cgi-bin\mt\mt-config.cgi-original. Save the file as mt-config.cgi, and make the changes below:

CGIPath    http://localhost/cgi-bin/mt/
StaticWebPath    http://localhost/mt-static

Since we are going to use SQLite we don’t need the MySQL and PostgreSQL properties in our configuration file. Either delete or comment the following lines:

##### MYSQL #####
ObjectDriver DBI::mysql
Database DATABASE_NAME
DBUser DATABASE_USERNAME
DBPassword DATABASE_PASSWORD
DBHost localhost

##### POSTGRESQL #####
ObjectDriver DBI::postgres
Database DATABASE_NAME
DBUser DATABASE_USERNAME
DBPassword DATABASE_PASSWORD
DBHost localhost

Now, make the following changes to the SQLite settings:

ObjectDriver DBI::sqlite
Database C:/web-server/sqlite-db/mt-database.db

Note the forward-slash used for the database path.

Go to http://localhost/cgi-bin/mt/mt-check.cgi, we don’t care if DBD::mysql and DBD::SQLite2 were reported missing, only make sure that the other requirements are OK.

If everything went well, visit http://localhost/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi and install MT on your machine.

Enjoy.

Likewise, every PHP newbie would ask the same frustrating question and would want a description of the mystery behind the error.

Here, I will show you a quick tip to turn your test environment into a study center. Follow the steps below and enjoy your time with PHP.

Hint: I assume you are using XAMPP (the all-in-one suite of Apache, mySQL and PHP) running on Windows machine. You can still implement this technique in any PHP installation though.

Preparation

Download and install XAMPP on your computer.

Visit the PHP manual download page, and select one of the downloads under the ‘Many HTML files’ column. There are many languages to choose from but the English version is the most accurate.

Extract the downloaded archive. Inside the extracted archive you should find a folder named ‘html’. Copy that folder —and its contents— into the following directory:

C:\<your-xampp-installation-path>\

After successfully copying the folder into the XAMPP installation directory, rename your copied folder to ‘phpmanual’. It should be something like this:

C:\<your-xampp-installation-path>\phpmanual

Installation

Well, we placed the PHP manual above the DocumentRoot, just in an out-of-web-reach directory, the reason is that there may be multiple domains or hostnames maintained on the machine via VirtualHost containers, so we need to make the manual work on every domain or hostname on the machine.

Open the XAMPP configuration file:

C:\<your-xampp-installation-path>\apache\conf\extra\httpd-xampp.conf

…then insert these lines in it:

Alias /phpmanual "C:/<your-xampp-installation-path>/phpmanual/"
<Directory "C:/<your-xampp-installation-path>/phpmanual">
    AllowOverride AuthConfig
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

Just make sure to change C:/<your-xampp-installation-path> to your XAMPP installation drive and path, respectively.

Configuration

Next, open your PHP.INI file found at: C:\<your-xampp-installation-path>\PHP\php.ini and find the following line:

;html_errors = Off

Uncomment the above directive, then turn it on like this:

html_errors = On

Find these two lines:

;docref_root = "/phpmanual/"
;docref_ext = .html

Uncomment the above two directives, they should match the code below:

docref_root = "/phpmanual/"
docref_ext = .html

Save your changes and close the file.

—

Restart Apache.

Testing

Now, lets see if our effort is working properly. Create a PHP file with the following code inside it:

<?php

include 'a-php-file-that-does-not-exist.php';

?>

Save the file as test-manual.php in C:\<your-xampp-installation-path>\htdocs\, then visit the following URL in your browser:


http://localhost/test-manual.php


If everything was correct, you should receive an error like the following one:

Warning: include(a-php-file-that-does-not-exist.php) [function.include.html]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\web-server\htdocs\localhost\test-manual.php on line 3

Warning: include() [function.include.html]: Failed opening 'a-php-file-that-does-not-exist.php' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:\web-server\php\pear\') in C:\web-server\htdocs\localhost\test-manual.php on line 3

function.include.html should be hyperlinked and when you click it you should see a page describing the error, otherwise, there is something wrong with your configuration.

Warning

Never use this feature for production boxes. This feature was intended to support your development since it makes it easy to look-up an error or function description. However it should never be used on live websites (e.g. systems connected to the Internet).

One visitor emailed me recently asking me if I could tell her how I managed to display recent, related or random posts in my sidebar.

Well, I neither use a plugin nor SQL statements for this part.

I used the conditional tags to check the current page and to execute the right part of the code.

The Code in Pieces

I divided the code into three pieces, so you can understand it easily.

Recent Posts

<div class="widget">
<h2>Recent Posts</h2>
<ul>
<?php $posts = get_posts('numberposts=3'); foreach($posts as $post) { ?>
<li><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?><br />
<span><?php the_excerpt(); ?><br /><em>&mdash;Posted on <?php the_time('n/j/Y') ?></em></span></a>
</li>
<?php } ?>
</ul>
</div>

The above code picks the latest three posts. You can change the number of posts displayed by changing number in get_posts('numberposts=3'); to whatever you like.

Related Posts by Category

<div class="widget">
<h2>Related Posts</h2>
<ul>
<?php $posts = get_posts('numberposts=3&category='.$category->cat_ID.'&exclude='.$current_post);
foreach($posts as $post) {
?>
<li><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title() ?>"><?php the_title() ?><br />
<span><?php the_excerpt(); ?><br /><em>&mdash;Posted on <?php the_time('n/j/Y') ?></em></span></a>
</li>
<?php } ?>
</ul>
</div>

We used get_posts('numberposts=3&category='.$category->cat_ID.'&exclude='.$current_post); to make all the business easier. $category->cat_ID pulls the current post’s category, exclude='.$current_post makes sure to exclude the current post from the related ones.

You may use related posts by tag also — WP Recipes

Random Posts

<div class="widget">
<h2>Random Posts</h2>
<ul>
<?php $posts = get_posts('orderby=rand&numberposts=3'); foreach($posts as $post) { ?>
<li><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?><br />
<span><?php the_excerpt(); ?><br /><em>&mdash;Posted on <?php the_time('n/j/Y') ?></em></span></a>
</li>
<?php } ?>
</ul>
</div>

Our code uses orderby=rand. So WordPress will pick 3 random posts from the database every time our site loads.

Final Thoughts

The above codes can be merged together and displayed on the sidebar using the WordPress conditional tags.

If you have enjoyed this post or have any questions or recommendations, please share your views in the comments section.

Problem

I was working on PHP/MySQL based small project which is all about students’ registration system, where the students can register themselves then they’ll be able to receive school transcripts and such stuff by email.

When I finished the project I tested the application to see if it was working properly but I got a problem with PHP‘s mail() function, which was not sending any email messages out.

I was feeling frustrated for a while before coming up with the solution below.

Solution

To make our locally hosted web applications talk to any SMTP server including those on the Internet, we will configure that by using the PHP‘s configuration file called php.ini which can be found in the following locations (assuming you are using XAMPP installed in drive C:/):

C:\<xampp-installation-path>\php\php.ini
C:\<xampp-installation-path>\php\php5.ini
C:\<xampp-installation-path>\apache\bin\php.ini

Okay, that was locating the configuration files; let’s move to the next steps.

Method 1:

– Open php.ini file and uncomment the php_smtp.dll extension. This is required when sending emails to a remote server.

– Scroll down and find the following lines:

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
;SMTP = localhost
;smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
;sendmail_from = me@example.com

– From the lines above, uncomment SMTP, smtp_port and sendmail_from
directives, then add SMTP server, SMTP port number and your preferred email address to SMTP, smtp_port and sendmail_from directives respectively, your final code should be similar to the one below:

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = mail.server.com
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
sendmail_from = something@server.com

– Replace mail.server.com and something@server.com with correct values. The defualt SMTP port number is “25”, therefore, you have 99% chance of not changing this.

– Restart your server.

Everything should work properly now. If not, double check your changes again. If you think you made everything correct, but there is nothing working, try method 2 instead.

NB: You should be aware that once you assign an email address to sendmail_from PHP will force all the senders’ emails to that address.

Method 2:

This method is more easier than the steps described in method 1. We’ll use fake Sendmail Program for Windows (sendmail.exe) which is a simple windows console application that emulates sendmail's "-t" option to deliver emails piped via stdin. sendmail.exe is bundled with XAMPP so you don’t need to install it unless you are using hand made server.

– In method 1 we have enabled SMTP, smtp_port and sendmail_from directives, please make sure that these directives are commented out since we don’t need them anymore. Then scroll down and find the following two lines in your php.ini file:

; For Unix only.  You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail -t -i").
sendmail_path = "C:\<xampp-installation-path>\sendmail\sendmail.exe -t"

– Make sure that the sendmail_path directive is not commented out, and the path is correct, then save php.ini and close it.

Edit Sendmail Configuration File (sendmail.ini):

The fake Sendmail program is found in the following location:

C:\<xampp-installation-path>\sendmail\sendmail.exe

…and its configuration file is found here:

C:\<xampp-installation-path>\sendmail\sendmail.ini

Okey. That was that. Let’s configure it, so it will work the way we wanted.

– Open sendmail.ini file and use the following settings:

[sendmail]

; you must change mail.mydomain.com to your smtp server,
smtp_server=mail.mydomain.com

; smtp port (normally 25)
smtp_port=25

– Replace mail.mydomain.com with a valid SMTP server and assign port number (usually 25) to smtp_port.

Your SMTP server may require an authentication. If this is the case, scroll down the file and find the following lines:

; if your smtp server requires authentication, modify the following two lines

auth_username=username
auth_password=drowssap

– Modify the above two directives. Add your SMTP server’s username and password.

Some SMTP servers use POP3. If yours is one of those servers, then you need further modifications.

; if your smtp server uses pop3 before smtp authentication, modify the
; following three lines

pop3_server=mail.mydomain.com
pop3_username=username
pop3_password=drowssap

– Change the values of the above three directives to fit your needs and save your file. Then restart your server and try to send a test message to your email address.

If everything is correct, you can send emails to any server now. The following snippet is a header of message sent from my localhost server:

Return-path:
Envelope-to: jmehmett@host.com
Delivery-date: Sun, 15 Jun 2009 17:18:55 +0200
Received: from [192.168.3.134] (helo=mehmett)
     by host.server.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.62)
     (envelope-from )
     id 1MFrTy-000CQx-OY
     for jmehmett@host.com; Sun, 15 Jun 2009 17:18:55 +0200
To: jmehmett@host.com
Subject: Taste email from localhost
Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2009 19:18:39 +0400
From: J Mehmett
Message-ID:
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: PHPMailer (phpmailer.sourceforge.net) [version 2.0.4]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

That was easy, huh?

Final Thoughts

This is a simple mail configuration. I tested it using the SMTP settings of my host and it worked properly.

Gmail users may check Brett Shaffer’s solution, alternatively, AOL users may see KahWee’s solution.

If you have enjoyed reading this post don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments section.