Author: Ollie Cronk

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Categories
Open Source PHP

Upgraded to WordPress 2.5.1…

This blog is now running the latest version of WordPress which offers an overhauled admin area one of the first enhancements you notice is a nice new dashboard with metrics.

WordPress 2.5.1 dashboard screenshot

Widgets management in WordPress 2.5

I’ve discovered the dynamic sidebar (which allows widgets to be added using the visual admin interface rather than editing code in the template files) and switched on the tags widget in this version (I’ve been tagging articles for a while they’ve just never shown up). See the bottom screenshot – what you can’t see is the nice drag and drop re-ordering of the widgets in the sidebar.

Some playing around was needed to get the tags looking reasonable in the sidebar. By default tags are just rendered in text or flat mode. However by changing the line 1362 in widgets.php from

wp_tag_cloud();
to:
wp_tag_cloud($args = array('format' => 'list'));

The tag cloud will then render as a HTML list which looks a bit better (until I can get around to doing some styling and turn it into a true tag cloud – where the tag words get bigger the more popular they are).

Categories
Sony Stuff Technology

One less Vista Machine!

I’ve lost patience with Vista and have gone back to Windows XP on my Vaio (using the Sony recovery DVDs which actually work pretty well!) as even Vista SP1 didn’t seem to fix much!

I’m going to be dual booting with the newly released version of Ubuntu which is 8.04 “Hardy Heron” I am trying to make the switch over to Linux on the desktop but there are somethings I miss. I am also going to try VirtualBox which is Open Source Virtual Machine software (like VMware) which seems to be backed by Sun Microsystems…

Categories
Cycling Mountain Biking

Just got back from Coed y Brenin (Mountain Biking in Wales)

Amazing weekend up in the Welsh Mountains. Pictures are here and some videos to follow…

Categories
Open Source PHP Technology Web Development

MediaWiki is brilliant! Oh and so is FishEye!

Really impressed with the latest release of MediaWiki (the software that runs Wikipedia). Just upgraded the Wiki we use at work from 1.9 to 1.12 – the upgrade was pretty much problem free – some new features I’ve found useful:

  • Will now email you pages that change on your watchlist – if you give it your email address in the preferences section
  • Nice WYSIWYG editor – using the latest FCKEditor Plugin which is now hugely easier to setup (was an absolute pain and a hack to get it working before)
  • Discovered the Geshi syntax highlighting – thanks to Lorna‘s (from iBuildings) Blog

If you are looking for Wiki software (and don’t have the budget for Confluence – which looks very nice indeed) then check it out – mega easy to install and dead easy to use once you install the FCKeditor plugin (as Wiki text can be a bit of a barrier to adoption).

FishEye

Setup FishEye this week – if you have SVN or CVS then you have to check this out – has instantly made my life easier – and I think it will really help the growing dev team at AEA too…

Categories
Open Source PHP Ubuntu Web Development Zend Framework

Zend Framework to be bundled with Ubuntu Hardy (8.04)

Interesting & good news – Zend Framework is being bundled as part of Ubuntu Linux: http://devzone.zend.com/article/3232–Zend-Framework-to-be-part-of-Ubuntu

Direct link to article: http://andigutmans.blogspot.com/2008/02/zend-framework-to-be-part-of-ubuntu.html

Also found an interesting presentation on version 1.5 of the Zend Framework.

Categories
Open Source PHP Web Development

Trying out Web Forum Software (written in PHP)

Update: We have now gone for Vanilla forum which is really nice. PHP4 but has a really nice interface, next step Framework integration!

This is more for notes to myself for now – that I installed bbPress (by the same developers as WordPress that this blog runs on) and Phorum 5. To see if they are any good / worth using at work (eg will they integrate well with other web tools/the Zend/AEA Framework, how well are they written and documented, whats the licensing etc).

Dev site links and notes:
bbPress Logo

bbPress: https://blog.cronky.net/bbpress/

This integrates quite nicely with WordPress (uses the same users) would be good if it could use more of the WordPress installation stuff (eg templating). Also has a nice Poll plugin (although code for this looks a bit hacky).

Cons: PHP4 based, Doesn’t look very mature from its version number, GPL license might cause issues when integrating.

Phorum 5: http://sucrose.cronky.net/phorum/

Particularly interested in this one as it looks good / feature rich but it is also BSD licensed making it more flexible to customise and incorporate into other frameworks without having to re-release an Open Source version.

Cons: Again PHP 4 based.

Silverstripe Forum Module (need to install on dev box)

The other thing to consider is whether a dedicated tool like one of the above offers compelling advantages over the Silverstripe Forum module (although the Forum module is a bit alpha in our experience so far – but then it is at v0.1.2!)

Some benefits of the SS module include PHP5 / MVC implementation, that we are already using SS for CMS anyway…

Categories
Linux Open Source Sony Stuff Technology Ubuntu

Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04 alpha), Sony Vaio Memory Stick slot reader

Desktop of Hardy HeronBit of a techy one here (so skip this if your not into Linux!) but sometimes these posts are useful to others!!!

Whilst trying to get my Sony memory stick slot (Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD) working on my Vaio under Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) I came across this bug report where someone recommended trying the live CD of the latest release (Hardy Heron) to see if that fixed the issue.

Not sure is progress on the issue with the memory stick reader has been made – instead of:

[10321.605008] tifm_core: MemoryStick card detected in socket 0:0
[10321.611165] tifm_ms: Unknown symbol tifm_has_ms_pif

I now get:

tifm_core: MemoryStick card detected in socket 0:0

Which is possibly a bit of a backwards step!

However what I did discover is that the alpha (development) version of Hardy – the new 8.04 version of Ubuntu which is due for release next month – is pretty stable. So I have decided to take the plunge and did a dist upgrade (changing the /etc/apt/sources to reference hardy rather than gutsy and then running upgrade-manager -d). So far working well (hopefully not famous last words!!) writing this from it.

This thread (SONY VAIO MEMORY STICK: tifm_7xx1: sd card detected in socket 0)
and another on Ubuntu Forums discusses a similar issue / mounting SD cards and the latter suggests using

sudo mount /dev/tfa0 <mount point>

but this doesn’t work for me – if anyone knows how you look up what a device is likely to be listed as I’d be keen to know (need to do a bit of digging on this). I think I need to resolve the tifm_ms bit first.

I have been contributing the bug report (feels good to give something back after all the years of being a Linux user – now on the way to becoming a tester / bug reporter – who knows one day I might write some code for it!!)

Hardy comes with Firefox 3 beta 3 which seems really good also (hope I won’t be eating my words!) unfortunately Firebug and Google Brower sync (two plugins I can’t live without!) don’t seem to be available for it yet – so I am mostly using FF2 still.

Categories
Cycling Mountain Biking Technology

Another nice Mountain Bike route in Berks…

…plotted on Google. Really mixed terrain and views. Decided to extend a loop round the village out to Greenham Common (ex USAF base) which is now a Nature reserve/ex runway play area. Only annoying thing about google maps is that they don’t have RoW marked on them (just roads). Hopefully this will change soon (although maybe they’d have to switch to using to Ordance Survey cartography?)

Enjoy!

Route plotted on Google Maps

p.s. Whilst putting this route together my laptop froze. Turns out firefox was using 1.5GB of RAM (yes just firefox – see screenshot below!) Turns out having Firebug switched on whilst using Google Maps isn’t the best of ideas!

Firefox using 1.5GB of RAM!

.

Categories
Cycling Mountain Biking Technology

Using Google Maps to Plot Mountain Bike Routes

Here is a route I went on today on my Mountain Bike, thought I’d share it as its a good one. Helps explain the mysterious red “Works Unit” sign from the M4! Also gave me a chance to try out Google Maps plotting tools.

Some Photos:

Categories
Open Source PHP Web Development

www.travelf1.com – redone using Silverstripe

Recently re-worked the website I put together for LSA Ltd: www.travelf1.com to allow for easier updates by Lynden and the team.

It now uses Silverstripe 2.2.1 – an excellent open source Content Management System (we are using it extensively at work for “brochureware” – or sites that would otherwise be static HTML files – put together in Dreamweaver or similar).

Check it out if you are looking for a CMS – has some great features for both the end administrator (nice visual interface) and the developer (uses PHP5 and MVC).