New PHP book - Guide to Programming with Magento upcoming releaes

May 15, 2008

So, tomorrow (technically *today* in Australia!) is the date for PDF delivery of my brother’s new book - the PHP Architect’s Guide to Programming with Magento (I think that’s the full title).  More details here.  I’m really excited for him, as I know he put a lot of work over the past several months learning Magento and writing the book.  The biggest challenege was dealing with the underlying architecture changes that the Magento team applied in various versions leading up to (and including after!) the 1.0 release.  In some cases, there’s no actual behavioural change, but in describing the functionality, Mark would necessarily describe what was giong on under the hood.   Sometimes those descriptions needed to change to reflect the new functionality, even if to the end user nothing changed.  That’s life when dealing with software, especially writing about beta software - it’s quite a moving target.  If you’re deailng with Magento, I’m sure the book will save you some time getting up to speed with the various aspects of Magento which might seem a bit overwhelming at first.

On a related note, php|a got back to me regarding my book.  I had it turned in to them about 2 months ago now, and it’s been ‘on hold’ while some other projects (like the Magento book) took precedence.  My “PHP Job Hunter’s Handbook” should be out some time in the next month, assuming no major changes.  I wish I’d known about this change in schedule, as I’d probably have gone back and done some more revisions.  Having said that, there always has to be *some* cut off point, and then was probably as good a time as any.  I’ll post more when my book is available too.

Posted in Book, Development, Ecommerce, PHP, Software No Comments »

New grails project - grailskit starter kit

May 14, 2008

I’ve got a small Grails project I started some time ago which I’ll announce here in case anyone is interested in helping or just using it as a base.  GrailsKit is intended to be a small starter kit for Grails projects that need web-based management of user accounts, self-registration, and basic page/controller authentication.  None of it is terribly *finished* right now, but I’m open to some input on what people are looking for and what they expect.

I’ve tried Grails plugins for Acegi, JSecurity and Authentication, and all were some state of non-documentation and were somewhat overkill for my needs.  I understand that there may be situations where people have needs to PAM authentication with fallback to Active Directory (for example) but the projects I work on simply need self-registration and role-based control over controllers.

I’m reluctant to release this on several counts, but figure ‘what the heck?’ at this point.  :)  I’ve actually over-engineered the user portion right now, and will likely strip it back down to an earlier simpler version next week.  Other things on my short to-do list include some type of ‘captcha’, a ‘click this link’ email to finalize the user registration process, web-based management of the controller permissions, and a few small modules (like a News module already started) to show how to build basic applications.

I’ve also been reluctant to do this because I’m not a Java person by training.  I’ve done a bit here and there, but I come primarily from the PHP and ’scripting’ world, so my view on how some of these things should be put together is going to be fundamentally different from how projects and code from mainstream Java-folks will be.  I’m not sure if that’s necessarily a good thing or bad thing, or just a ‘thing’.  Certainly I’ve got more to learn from Java folks, but perhaps my PHP/Perl experience coming through in this code will be an asset to people trying to come to grips with the dynamic aspects of Groovy.

My ‘inspiration’ if you will was/is PHPNuke.  Not so much in style of code or anything like that, but those of us old enough to remember PHPNuke’s arrival on the web scene will remember the massive adoption rate it had, thanks to a simple approach.  In many ways it was *too* simple, and certainly had many flaws, security and otherwise.  But, it provided a complete package - web based user management, self registration, content management, and more, and served as a base platform for many people to extend, customize and add-on, enough so that it spawned several forks, and had hundreds of thousands of installations over the years.  Java certainly hasn’t had any web-based app with anywhere near the same adoption rate or impact, and may never do so.  But with the uptake of Grails, there may be an increase in the need for a base project like phpnuke which can serve as a framework for easy customizations and extensions.  If Grailskit can be that, or help start that process in the Grails world, I’ll be ecstatic.  If not, it’s still a good exercise for me.

In any event, try out the code, join the project site running over there, and send me any questions you have (or post here or there for now).  I’m over in Australia for the next few days, so my response time may be slower than normal - please bear with me.  Thanks.

Posted in Development, Grails, Groovy, Java, Software, Web 2 Comments »

Reset vtiger 5.0.4 default admin password

May 12, 2008

I had to seach around for this, and still had to piece together the info.  Apparently people have some sort of reluctance to just give you the actual SQL statements to run.  Yes, the table names *might* be different if you choose non-default prefixes, for example, or you’ve done major modifications, but I suspect you’ll be able to figure out the diffs based on the following statement(s):

> mysql -u user -ppass

mysql> use vtiger;

mysql> update vtiger_users set user_hash=’21232f297a57a5a743894a0e4a801fc3′, user_password=’adpexzg3FUZAk’,confirm_password=’adoY/6Mlw8kqg’,crypt_type=”  where user_name=’admin’;

This will reset the ‘admin’ username to password ‘admin’ using vtiger 5.0.4.

Hope that helps someone, and I hope I never need to do that again. 

Posted in General No Comments »

Web development job board update

May 6, 2008

I put up a job board for web developers which I’m going to promote in a webdevradio podcast shortly (likely tomorrow) which I hope will get the word out a bit more. I’ve got a couple ideas on promoting it, and also for a couple variations on the idea as opposed to the open-ended ‘any type of web job’ board it aspires to right now. From your perspective, are there any promotional ideas that you can suggest to help get the word out? Are there are features in a job board you’d like to see, either from the employer’s point of view of the job hunter’s view? Let me know!

Posted in Blogging, Job, Web No Comments »

A few people I follow on Twitter (and who else should *I* follow?)

May 5, 2008

I’ve been asked a couple time recently for a list of ‘web’ people that would be useful to follow.  Here’s a partial list of some people off the top of my head.  If you’re not on the list, and I follow you, and you’d like to be, just add yourself and what sort of stuff you twitter about (webwise).

For PHP stuff, following @phpdeveloper and @calevans you’ll get a good gateway in to the community. Cal put together a list of PHP Twitterers here.

For .NET stuff, I follow @shanselman, @joshholmes, @keithelder

For Flash stuff - I know there’s a few names I’ve followed, but I can’t recall who they were.

For Ruby stuff - @ntalbott and @averyj, but they don’t twitter enough about web stuff (come on guys!)

For Python stuff - I don’t have any that I know of - who should I follow?

For Groovy - @galaforge and @dima767 are two I follow to keep up on Groovy

Java - I used to know some, but again, I don’t see enough Java tweets to keep them top of mind.

For other web stuff - who should I follow?  Who else should I follow for various web technologies?

Posted in PHP, Social, Web 2 Comments »

How to prove you didn’t avoid paying taxes (the easy way)

May 5, 2008

Wow - this is one of the few times I’ve had genuinely good dealings with tax officials.  Quick story:  I’d moved away from Michigan in late 2004, and did some consulting work in 2005.  One of the people I’d paid as a straight 1099 lived in Michigan for part of 2005.  In April (letter dated Feb 29) I received noticed from the state of Michigan that I had to file paperwork to explain my business in Michigan (because I may have a ‘nexus’ of business there) and may owe taxes and/or penalties.

Of course, I freaked out.  I’ve spent the past couple weeks looking through old tax returns, trying to find the paperwork I’d filed, receipts proving where I’d lived (and where the contractor had lived) during that time, and so on.  Friday I noticed the letter had a ‘due date’ of April 14 - I was *late* as well on this.  I felt sick.  Truly sick.

But wait - there was a phone number on the letter.  I called it, and the phone was answered by the person’s name on the letter.  How odd was that?  Generally calling state departments is as useful as talking to a brick wall.  Not this time.  I explained my situation, and asked what I should do.  “Give me your reference number”.  Click click click.  “OK, that’s it”.  They took my word (which I can prove if need be) that the work was not done in Michigan, and that was that.

All that fretting over nothing!  I’d registered a business in Michigan, and my SSN had become associated with the state.  Although the work done wasn’t really done under the name of that business, the tax IDs and SSN all ended up implicating me in potential tax evasion, at least from the state’s viewpoint.  Whew!  I’m glad that’s all over…

Posted in Business, Personal No Comments »

WebDevRadio podcast series - Interview with Brian Moon on scaling LAMP

May 3, 2008

This is the last in my MySQL conference series.  Brian Moon, author of Phorum and Sr Developer at Dealnews.com, sat down and gave a recap of his two presentations.  We have here nearly a full hour of his insights in to PHP/MySQL scalability, both with an app like Phorum and a more complex environment like Dealnews.  The sound was pretty good, although there was a hum in the background I tried to get rid of via ‘noise removal’.  I think this still sounds decent.  Let me know if the sound is too awkward and I’ll give it another pass if need be.

Thanks to Brian for going over things in such detail!  I hardly asked any questions, as I was trying to soak up as much as possible for myself, and I picked up more than a few useful nuggets.  He also touched on the future of the PHP//MySQL combination with the MyQSLnd (”next driver”?  I forget now!) driver being developed.  There’s some great info in here - listen up!

Also, as a reminder, if you have any job postings for your company, please help build up the WebDevRadio Jobs board at http://jobs.webdevradio.com, and thanks to the first few posters who’ve helped get things rolling. 

Posted in Conferences, Database, Design, Development, Job, MySQL, PHP, Podcasts, Software, Web 2 Comments »

New jobs board at jobs.webdevradio.com

April 29, 2008

I’ve been meaning to do this some time, and finally found the time to do it - jobs.webdevradio.com is up and functional (though quite empty at this point!) One of the things I mentioned on my podcast (webdevradio.com) one more than one occasion is that I tend to attract recruiters. Rather than just politely decline, I thought offering a web board focused on web development jobs would be more useful. Yes, there are many other boards that have come up in the past couple of years, but I might be able to do something different.

Pricing

I plan on keeping the postings and main system free for use, though I reserve the right to remove spam/mass posting.

Future plans

I have a somewhat unique opportunity to also promote jobs via the podcast. I’d planned a webdevjob podcast some time ago, but have too many projects on my plate as it is. If this new jobs.webdevradio.com web development job board becomes useful for enough people, I will revisit the jobs podcast idea again.

Category specificity

I’ve got categories for PHP, .NET, Java, etc.  I’m wondering if this is the best way to go, considering that many positions do require multiple tech.  Is this too narrow of a focus?  Or do you still think of jobs as primarily a Java job, even if some Python may be involved, for example?

Please post any open positions

If your company has any openings, please consider posting (or reposting) them at jobs.webdevradio.com.  I’m looking to have a few base jobs in many of the categories before I announce it on the webdevradio.com podcast.  As I said before, this may turn in to more of a hybrid job service, with a podcast series to go with it as well.

Thanks!

Posted in Business, Database, Development, Job, PHP, Software, Web No Comments »

New WebDevRadio podcast up - SilverStripe CMS interview

April 26, 2008

SilverStripe is a PHP5-based CMS from down under (New Zealand!).  I had a chance to meet with Sigurd Magnusson, one of the project’s founders, and discuss the project’s history, current status as an open source project (BSD-licensed), and where it’s heading.  Have a listen!

Posted in Conferences, MySQL, PHP, Podcasts, Software, Web No Comments »

Continuous Integration with phpUnderControl

April 26, 2008

I’ve put together a small page with some notes which have helped me during my recent set up of phpUnderControl.  I will probably add more to the list in the coming weeks, but these are a couple stumbling blocks I hit the past few days.  If you’re not using phpUnderControl, you owe it to yourself to check it out, as I think ‘continuous integration’ will likely change the way you think of development.  I’ve used CruiseControl in the past for PHP, but the PHP-specifics phpUnderControl brings to the project are too much to pass up.

Posted in Development, Ideas, Java, PHP, Software, Tools, Web 2 Comments »