Ronda, Spain, Spanish, Themes, and Everything Else

You may recall in a previous post I discussed securing your xampp test server so that xampp could be run as a windows service, and not be accessible to the outside world. When you're running a test server this is a significant security breach, and would also allow others to see your test sites before they are complete.

I was satisfied that my webserver was now secure but I didn't reckon on SSL. Thankfully I received a private message from another xampp user who told me I need to also ensure that port 443 is closed to outside traffic. SSL means 'secure sockets layer' and is the extra security applied by your browser to a webpage. You know your browser is using SSL when the address bar says https://some.secure.website, as compared to the more usual http://an.ordinary.website

Xampp ships with SSL because it can actually be used as a production webserver if needed, but to peple like me who only want to test my themes on serendipity blog I don't need these extra facilities. Sometimes I wish a dedicated plain old test server could be packaged up by someone, but until then Xampp is the best.

Now, to secure our test server from outside interference on port 443 we need to bind apache to our local IP (127.0.0.1) on port 443. This time we're going to open 'c:\program files\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-ssl.conf' in wordpad, and once again you will find the listen directive close to the top of the page. Insert this line,

Listen 127.0.0.1:443

Your test server should now include the additional security needed, but you will need to restart xampp for the changes to be applied.

Xampp is the most useful piece of software I have on my computer, allowing me to test my websites and themes without having to be connected to the 'net.

Once you start working with more than one website however, you have to create extra sub-folders, which is fine, but then accessing the folders from your browser either means bookmarking your sites or typing the sub-folder name into the browser address bar.

Call me lazy, but I don't want to use bookmarks or type a folder name into my address bar. I decided I just wanted to have http://localhost configured as my browser homepage, and I wanted to simply replace the default xampp page with a new page that simply lists the important links like phpMyAdmin, and all my sub-folders. Worked lke a charm, except I still need to edit the links to add new sub-folders.

Now as fate would have it, I'm trying learn a little php so I can be more knowledgeable when talking to other s9y users in the forums. And to cut a long story short, my search for php tutorials led me to a short script that automatically searches my web folder for new sub-folders, then creates the links without any intervention from me. Read More

One of the issues I grappled with was how to keep my test server running as a Windows service, yet also make sure that nobody else over the Net could access my test server. I figured this would be a security breach that might allow someone to hack into my computer.

For those of you who wonder whether this article applies to you, I am using Windows XP Home, and because this version of Windows doesn't come with a webserver, I downloaded and installed the Windows version of Xampp. I am also using the standard firewall that comes with Windows. Read More

From a previous post you would know I'm using Xampp as my preferred test server to run Serendipity so I can develop my themes, type articles and experiment with plugins without actually doing any of this on my real website.

Problem is when you're editing image files, or constantly opening and closing the stylesheet or one of the .tpl files in the templates section it can be really painful to have to go back and forth between My Documents and the htdocs folder within Xampp. Windows Explorer is not the best file manager I've ever used, and saving locations as bookmarks doesn't always remove the frustration. Also, because I use the Gimp as my preferred image editing program, and its designed for the Linux system, everytime I want to save something I have to go through a painful series of clicks to get from My Documents to htdocs.

Well its been annoying me like you wouldn't believe, and then I stumbled across something in the Apache documentation that made me wonder if I could move htdocs to My Documents, and you can. Yeehah! You have to edit a file known as httpd.conf within 'c:\program files\xampp\apache\conf'. Do a find [Ctrl-F] for DocumentRoot. It should only be listed twice. At both locations change the path from the Xampp directory to a new directory (I created a folder called www) in My Documents, now save and close this file. Next, copy everything from your htdocs folder to the new folder you created in My Documents, open the Xampp Server Control Panel and restart Apache.

Test this by changing something in one of the files in your new location, it should work, and also means no more going back and forth between program files and My Documents when you're working on one of your websites.

When I first started working on my own websites I only used HTML pages, which are great, but you reach a point where you want to spend more of your time writing content, and less time working on your HTML coding. Then you start to realise that a content management system (CMS) is needed. I guess you could use Dreamweaver and its templates, but your website will still be HTML, and this reduces your flexibility somewhat.

Of course the problem with most cms software (and blogging tools are included here) is that they are usually written in php and have a database to manage your pages. This is great because it lets you do so much more with your website, but now you can't test your website on your own computer anymore, it needs to be tested on a webserver. If you have 'Windows XP Home edition' installed on your computer, you'll know that a webserver doesn't ship with our version. Thankfully I found a solution. Read More

EditCheck out Installing Serendipity

Wow, that went well, and it even looks pretty hot if I do say so myself

This article shows you everything you need to know to make Serendipity blog work. If you're not familiar with webservers, don't panic, I know they can be confusing but I promise to explain everything in plain english. Also, feel free to register at the Serendipity forums where I (my username is carl_galloway) and hundreds of other users are waiting to help you with your installation.

Before we get involved with installing Serendipity I want to share a couple of the reasons why I use Serendipity. If you've seen any other Serendipity blogs you'll know that my blog is completely different. It looks different, and it includes multilingual translations. I've done this deliberately to demonstrate what can be achieved with a little patience. Your blog could also be wildly different from the average blog. This is Serendipity's major strength, and all this is possible because the developers of Serendipity have incorporated two major features into the software. The first is the smarty template language that allows theme designers to create spectacular themes without having to know PHP programming. The second is the Spartacus online vault for templates and plugins which enables any user of Serendipity to automatically install new templates and plugins when you select them from a list within the administration suite. Read More