Team NewMedia muggin'

Well, it’s the day after Drupalcon 2012. I had the privilege of attending with my coworkers from NewMedia. My head is filled with a dizzying amount of new information and new curiousities.

One topic that seemed to be on many a person’s lips was Dries Buytaert’s announcment that Drupal core will be leaning on Symfony2 for, well, something.

It’s not completely clear to me yet what that something is, though Symfony’s founder, Fabien Potencier, described this holy union at a session during Drupalcon. If you’d like to watch it, here’s a linky –> http://blip.tv/drupalcondenver/drupal-8-meets-symfony2-6039079

As a Drupal developer, this is a rather uncomfortable revelation. In the same breath, it’s an awesome revelation. I’ve been itching to learn more about object oriented php for some time; The ecosystem is rife with php frameworks, and wading through them all is daunting. The decision about which framework to learn just got a lot more simple.

I’ve started fooling around with Symfony2 on my local server. Which happens to be a MAMP server. And it’s not a painless process. I thought I’d describe the steps I’ve gone through to get a working install of Symfony2 under MAMP.

Step 1 – Install php with Hombrew

Now, something interesting about php frameworks is that they rely heavily on cli interactivity to ease the creation of multiple files. You know, that MVC stuff. Not only does MAMP’s php need to meet the requirements for Symfony2, OS X needs an appropriately configured build of php. Let’s knock that out.

I’ve never really liked messing around with the programs that are pre-installed on OS X. I’d rather leave the system more or less pristine, and build myself a nice little sandbox where I can do anything with minimal fear that my computer will explode. Enter Homebrew. Homebrew is a nice little package manager that allows me to install packages like git, ruby, etc… without fear of configuring them and inadvertenly nuking them. Homebrew can be found at –> http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/

Install it. Shit is tight.

Once you’ve got Hombrew installed, open a command prompt(terminal). Type “brew install php” into the prompt… And be disappointed. Turns out php isn’t in the default Homebrew repo. But! As luck has it, there is an alternate repository for brewing php related stuff, and it’s very easy to grab.

Follow the instructions at –> http://github.com/josegonzalez/homebrew-php. Now you’ve got a whole bunch of brew formulas for php. You’ll need to point brew directly at the package you’d like to install, instead of simply typing “brew install php”. You’ll end up typing something like brew install /usr/local/LibraryPHP/Formula/php.rb.

Now you’ve got a copy of php to use and mess with, absent of any fear that you might fuck up the copy of php that came with OS X. Check that this fresh php install is the php you’re using with your cli by typing “which php” into command prompt.

Terminal should kick back /usr/local/bin/php. If it doesn’t, that’s because of some secret magic that’s happening with your $PATH, and your cli is still finding OS X’s php before it’s finding yours. This is easily fixed with .bash_profile, by basically letting your brew installed packages cut to the front of the line.

Add the following lines to your .bash_profile. If you don’t have a .bash_profile in your home directory, make one.

# Put /usr/local/{sbin,bin} first
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:$PATH

For more on installing php with Homebrew, check out –> http://notfornoone.com/2010/07/install-php53-homebrew-snow-leopard/

Step 2 – Install intl-php

Now that you’ve got a nice install of php to wreck, type brew install /usr/local/LibraryPHP/Formula/intl-php.rb into command prompt. intl-php is a library that Symfony2 requires to work correctly. The install takes a little while, so go smoke a cigarette or partake of some similar vice.

Once intl-php is installed, type cd /usr/local/Cellar/intl-php/5.3.10/ into a command prompt. Now type open .

You’ll now have a Finder window open, and you’ll see a file called intl.so. Copy that file. You’re going to add the intl.so extension to MAMP’s version of php. Whoosh.

MAMP seems to be undecided as to where things belong. So, find where your copy of MAMP keeps php. My copy of MAMP keeps php at /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6. You can use Finder to navigate here, or just type cd /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6 into a command prompt. Then, open .

You’ll want to add intl.so to php’s extensions directory. Mine is at /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626. Paste intl.so here.

Step 3 – Edit php.ini

Okay. Now you’re almost there. You need to edit some php.ini files. php.ini is a file that instructs php how it oughta behave and which modules it should load, amongst other mystical things. You’ll need to edit MAMP’s php.ini, as well as the php.ini that belongs to your Homebrew installed php.

MAMP’s php.ini lives at /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/conf. Before you edit it, make a backup copy. If you’re not already in the habit of making .bak files of things that you’re not sure what they do, get in that habit. Right now.

Once you’ve got a backup of php.ini, you’ll need to make some edits to the one that php will be using. Find the line that says short_open_tag = On and change it to read short_open_tag = Off.

Next, look for the line that reads magic_quotes_sybase = Off. Below it, add a line that reads magic_quotes_gpc = Off.

Finally, find the “extesions” portion of your php.ini, and add a line that reads extension = intl.so.

Alright, that’s it. Restart MAMP, and start a new terminal session. You’re ready to install Symfony

Another great article for getting an environment ready for Symfony2 is at –> http://thewebfactory.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/setting-up-symfony-2-on-mac-os-x-lion-with-mamp-2-0/

Step 4 – Download Symfony2

Now that OS X is warmed up, let’s get crackin’ on a Symfony2 environment. You can grab a Symfony2 package at –> http://symfony.com/download.

I use git heavily, and the project page suggests that, if you use git, one should download the “without vendors” package.

If you opt to use the Symfony2 package that doesn’t include vendor libraries, you’ll need to fetch the “Vendors” directory in order for Symfony2 to work. In a command prompt, cd to your Symfony directory, and then run php bin/vendors install.

If you’ve added your Symfony directory to OS X’s hosts file and MAMP’s httpd.conf, you’re ready to start working through the Symfony2 tutorials at –> http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/index.html

PS – Drush & Stuff

If you’re really fancy, and using drush (you should be), then you’ll be disappointed to know that installing php with Homebrew seems to upset drush. After following the above steps, drush will begin to throw errors. It’s easily fixed, though. All you need to do is make some changes to your Drupal settings.php. In your setup, where it says “localhost”, change this to read “127.0.0.1″.

I find that certain practices help me refocus. Doing something unrelated, quick and dirty, helps me remember that, ultimately, all it’s about is creating. A thoughtful design, a piece of well crafted code, a useful jQuery script. Regardless of ones approach, it’s about creating something good, not creating something within the framework of fashionable tools.

One of the easiest ways, I find, to bring myself back to attention is to create wallpapers for my computer. Something of zero consequence, that requires only the intuitive opinion of one person. Myself.

So, I feel like posting some of my recent wallpapers. Most are sized for a 13″ Macbook Pro (1280×800), but there’s a few others in the mix.

I inadvertently melted/demolished every picture that existed on the drearlight.com. Which ain’t a big deal, ’cause there were about 5 of them. Such is life. I had to migrate thedrearlight.com into a new directory, as I get kinda compulsive with things like organization. I’ll fix it later.

-edit-

I didn’t fix it. Let’s move forward.

I’ve quickly found out how much more opportunity there is here for web development, graphic design and art. There’s so much of it everywhere; no one looks at you funny when you say “I’m a designer”. This is where things can happen.

I’m inspired by the feel of a new place, of new possibilities. And I’ve already gotten a steady job with an awesome shop called Rehab Creative. I’m pretty enthusiastic about what they expect from me. I’ll be getting real dirty with Drupal, something I haven’t had much opportunity to use in the past. It’s probably the most versatile Open Source CMS available today, and though I love WordPress and Joomla, I feel like it’s the next level.

With all this new new in my head, I did a quick redesign of thedrearlight.com. Some new color, some new font action. I like it.

Here’s a photo. Click it for the close-up.

A show like this, being “Offsider”, creates a nice opportunity to do more or less whatever I’d like to. There are 22 artists in the show, so there was no limitation really that would restrict my design to one that was primarily typographic. There’s a pool of graphic resources to draw from. Rad!

Since the show is a ways out, I decided it could definitely benefit from a presence on that hip as shit thing called The Internet. I’ve created a microsite for the show. It’s live at everydayartfluxus.com.

I’ve been itching for the chance to create a microsite, as it’s more akin to print design than a typical website, and allows for some seriously interesting graphic solutions. This is because microsites are built using static html, instead of utilizing pHp driven CMSs, such as WordPress. CMSs are generally the best solution, but not of a microsite. I think it came out nice like. For those of you who do the code thing, view the source of everydayartfluxus.com, as I’ve notated it a bit to explain how it works.

One such interesting local gallery is Rubbish Gallery. And most months, I make them a handbill for their upcoming opening. I like doing it.

As I’m creating handbills for gallery openings featuring other peoples art, the design adheres to some obvious standards. I use artwork given to me by the featured artist, which limits my design choices to mostly typography. Rad! Picking typefaces, and figuring out how to use them is a good thing for me to think about.

Here is the latest handbill, for a show that starts October 8th and features new works by Holly Conlon.

To celebrate, here is a picture of my dog.