Recently I’ve been searching for a database modeling system in order to complete a documentation for my new project. I found an opensource solution named fabForce DBDesigner 4. I was amazed by its options and functionality. And it’s totally free (open source, the project is available on sourceforge).

I use only PHP/MySQL in my major projects, so I needed the database design tool for this database management system. What DBDesigner can do:

You can create a database model, describe all tables in the database and set relations of all kinds, such as non-identifying/identifying, 1:1, 1:n and n:m relations.

The tool can also be used to synchronize your model with existing database. It can also generate database installation scripts (set of sql queries).

The database model can be exported as JPEG image.

I would recommend the software for people working on complex projects with extensive use of MySQL database. Database modeling before going forward with the coding can save much time later as you will know where you are going and what your aim is.

In the next blog post I will continue reviewing the software for project planning and modeling.

This very website is using vistalicious theme written by DailyBlogTips.com If you like the theme you can also use it on your concrete5-running website.

It supports right sidebar and left sidebar layouts, more details can be found here:
http://www.smartwebprojects.net/concrete5-design/vistalicious-theme/

It’s released under GPL license, so it’s absolutely free.

If you face with an error stating "Invalid file extension" when you try to upload some file to your concrete5 website, don’t worry. You can fix it by yourself.

I got such error when tried to upload a .zip archive. So here is a solution:

1. Open /concrete/config/base.php

2. Find the following line:

define('UPLOAD_FILE_EXTENSIONS_ALLOWED', '*.flv;*.jpg;*.gif;*.jpeg;*.docx;*.xla;*.png;*.swf;*.doc; *.txt;*.xls;*.csv;*.pdf;*.tiff;*.rtf;*.m4a;*.mov;*.wmv;*.mpeg; *.mpg;*.wav;*.avi;*.mp4;*.mp3;*.qt;*.ppt');

3. Append your extension there, for example, I’ve added ;*.zip :

define('UPLOAD_FILE_EXTENSIONS_ALLOWED', '*.flv;*.jpg;*.gif;*.jpeg;*.docx;*.xla;*.png;*.swf;*.doc; *.txt;*.xls;*.csv;*.pdf;*.tiff;*.rtf;*.m4a;*.mov;*.wmv; *.mpeg;*.mpg;*.wav;*.avi;*.mp4;*.mp3;*.qt;*.ppt;*.zip');

4. Save the file (reupload if you are not editing the file directly).

That’s all. Let me know if it helps anybody.

I was really impressed by concrete5. It provides so many ways for its customization. It took me not so much time to convert one of my templates into concrete5 theme. The process is really simple for anyone having basic experience in web development. So the basic steps are:

1. Create a new folder in themes directory.
2. Create there a plain text file description.txt with only 2 lines: the first should have theme title, the second line contains a short description.
3. Create a ‘thumbnail.png’ file with 120×90 thumbnail for the skin.
4. Create ‘default.php’ file with the xhtml or html code of your skin. For the editable area, use the following code snippets:

<?php
$ah = new Area('Header');
$ah->display($c);
?>

Where Header is the name of current block. Very simple!

5. Upload all related files for the theme (like css stylesheet, images, etc.) in to that specific folder.

Basically it takes less than an hour to convert a single page theme. Of course it will take more if your design will be based on several page types.

If your PHP Expert Editor software (author: Ankord Development group) gets very slow, most probably the issue is caused by the fact that there are too many cursor positions remembered in the configuration file of php expert editor.

Php expert editor saves current cursor position for every file you open in php expert editor. All the data is being collected in C:/Program files/Php Expert Editor X.X/phpxedit.ini The larger the size gets the more problem it cause for your operation system (RAM is limited :))

I managed to resolve the problem by editing the phpxedit.ini in the notepad. Find the following line:

CursorPos=

Then all the files you’ve opened will go. Clear all that stuff so the lines are as follows:

CursorPos=
CodeExplorerEnable=-1

Save the file. Start php expert editor.

Enjoy your php expert editor being much faster!

P.S. You can switch the setting off. Open Options, then Editor options, the Advanced and disable Save cursor position for each file

Some time ago I found concrete 5 among the featured products on SF. I was quiet interested in trying that software.

Starting with you. The archive of the latest version is just 3MB (usually heavy cms software takes much more space).

The software is released under friendly MIT license and that is good for developers I believe.

System requirements. No specific requirements have been noticed: PHP5, GD lib, MySQL, XML support. My basic web tool kit has passed the system requirements test without any problem.

Installation. User-friendly and easy. On the first step I was asked for:

• Name Your Site
• Email address
• Database access details

Then I was given a randomly generated password. That was not very strong – only 6 digits (566040). I believe it must be improved as it can be hijacked through brutforce attack.

Installation done? Seems like it is. I’m presented with a website page and some administration buttons on the top.

Edit page The editing mode is very user-friendly. All blocks are highlighted with red dashed border. If you mouse over a block, it is highlighted and a popup context menu appears. For example, you can select there an "Edit this block" item and you’ll get a friendly WYSIWYG area to edit the block. I modiied the block and decided to check the html code it generates.

The changes are not applied immediately on the frontend. You should exit editing mode first. Then you’re presented with "Version comments" window and can type any comment about the change you’ve made. Really good. You can preview edits, discard them and publish it.

I checked the generated HTML code and it is good. No excessive tags and styles.

Dashboard Statistics data is very helpfull. You can see a diagram of your concrete5 views stats per days. You also see form submissions, last edit time, etc. The most important and usefull thing on the main dashboard page is the option to stick notes for yourself. Very useful.

Other sections:

• Sitemap – view your site in explorer style
• File manager – browse all the files uploaded for your site
• Form results – check what users have submitted for you
• Users – manage the site users
• Groups – users group management
• Page types – manage page types available through out your website
• Themes – select a skin for your concrete 5
• Add functionality – select block types, create new ones, etc.
• Maintenance – special tools for cleanup, etc.
• Logging – section for developers, makes debugging and easy thing
• Sitewide settings – enable pretty urls, set name of your site, etc

Add new page Adding new page is very easy. All you need is just select a page type, name the page and click the ADD button. Then you can add necessary blocks to your page and be happy.

To conclude, concrete 5 is a nice content management system that is worth of looking and it. I’ll continue working with this software and maybe I’ll start a new site based on this user-friendly cms. Recommended!

Any webmaster face with a problem when he or she needs to change something due to updated details, for example, SKU#, phone number, or anything else that has been renamed and the change should be done in appropriate mysql table fields. Of course, you can open phpmyadmin and edit records one by one, but why not to use MySQL REPLACE function. It’s very simple. Assuming you need to replace ‘a’ with ‘b’ in column ‘title’ of table ‘table’:

UPDATE table SET title=REPLACE(title, 'a', 'b')

You can add WHERE condition if needed.

Alternatives in other programming languages:

Assuming you want to forward old traffic from old domain olddomain.com to new domain newdomain.com, use the following .htaccess file:


<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?olddomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?olddomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
</IfModule>


I decided to write this post because the first problem I faced being a FIFA manager 09 player was the low energy level of my team. Here is what I do now to avoid the problem:

1. Don’t set hard training if your team plays soon. Even if there is only one match in the week end, don’t set training harder than "Friendly".

2. Some of the training sessions are more energy consuming, some are less. Here are the ones that take less energy from out of your players: short passing, technique, mental skills and other. Fitness training and training for physical skills are the most energy consuming.

3. Focus on fitness training during preseason. I try to get the maximum level in the first 2-3 weeks of the season, usually 90-100 is ok. When the first officials begin, I stop training fitness. It allows me to focus on tactics and other sessions.

4. Don’t use physical training too many. I usually set 5-10 percent for physical skills. It is usually enough to keep players fresh.

5. Even if you don’t make your players die on trainings, it doesn’t guarantee they are always fresh. The more matches in a row a player takes part in, the more fatigue he becomes. Give a rest to your player every 3-5 matches.

6. Focus on training stamina in individual trainings of the player if it is below 60 level (depends on how strong your league is).

I will be updating this post with issues about mod_rewrite and its resolution ways.

1. I’ve faced with the problem when I worked with denwer (dklab solution, author: Dmitry Koterov), the following .htaccess was not working and returned 404 error:


RewriteEngine On
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^something/(.*)$ script.php [L]


How It was resolved:

I opened apache httpd.conf file and removed MultiViews option:

BEFORE:


Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes Multiviews


AFTER:


Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes


It can also be done in .htaccess:


Options -MultiViews