Creating Transparency

To create a transparent region using css. Use the following
<style>
#image1 {opacity:0.4;filter:alpha(opacity=40);}
</style>

opacity is used by firefox and other modern browsers and has the value 0 - 1 (ie. 0.5 is a valid entry). 0 being the most transparent.

filter:alpha(opacity=40) is used by internet explorer and opacity can have value 0 - 100 (0 being the most transparent).

Image at 40% transparency

To make an object in javascript transparent use the following code (where 0.8 and 80 represent 80% transparency)

style.opacity=0.8;

style.filter="alpha(opacity=80)";

Forcing an image to refresh

When you refresh a web page the images on it are normally cached. This means if you make a change to an image and refresh the page that it is on, the image will appear unchanged because the browser is using the cached version.

To get round this you can force the image to be reloaded by adding parameters to the image url.

ie for image

<img src="/images/image1.jpg" >

To force refresh change to
<img src="/images/image1.jpg?id=11" >

incrementing the value of the id variable in the url will force the image to be reloaded. Therefore a counter is required . The easiest way to set the counter in php is to set the id to the time function which is a number that increments with the time.

<img src="/images/image1.jpg?id=<?=time()?>" >

Adding scroll bars to an image

If you have a large picture or text box and you want it to fit on to the page without widening the page in the past you would have used frames both ordinary and inline frames (can hang anywhere). However there is an easy way to do this with css (cascading style sheets).

Heres some sample code
<style>
#scrollbox {width:400px; height:200px; overflow:auto;}
</style>

<div id='scrollbox' >
<img src="http://www.ianskipworth.com/suig/images/wallpaper/005xga.jpg">
</div>

This will show a box 400px by 200px with scroll bars which let you scroll to see the rest of the image. Its the overflow attribute defined in #scrollbox which makes this happen. There are two settings that are useful : auto which shows scroll bars if the image is bigger than the box but none if its smaller or you can force scroll bars with the overflow value of "scroll".

Below is the example working.

What browsers should I support

It is my belief that your site should support the following browsers

Internet Explore 6
Google Chrome
Opera
firefox 2
Safari

If you support IE 6 and firefox 2 your website should work with most modern browsers

Installing MYSQL

Download and Extract mysql-1.1.22-win32 and run setup
Choose typical install

Choose to skip registration

Choose to configure mysql

Choose standard config

Accept the defaults

Set a password for the root

Finish the install

For php5 copy
C:/php5/libmysql.dll to c:/windows/system32

Configuring the MYSQL
One of the best tools for database manipulation and modification is phpmyadmin.

First configure virtual host database as you configured your site1 etc use directory for both apache configurations ie

C:\program files\apache\apache\database

Download and extract

Phpmyadmin-2.9.1.1-english
to
C:\program files\apache\apache\database

under
C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\database

Copy
config.sample.inc.php
to
config.inc.php

edit config.inc.php in both apache and apachephp5 directories

change youpasssting and yourrootpass to the passwords you set in following
$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'youpassstring’

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = 'yourrootpass';

now

Run a cmd prompt and
Cd c:\program files\mysql\mysql server 4.1\bin

Now to configure the connection from phpmyadmin

Mysql –u root –p
Enter your root password then at mysql prompt

Set password for root@localhost = old_password('yourrootpass');

Where yourrootpass is your root password for mysql
Quit your command prompt By typing
quit
In your browser access http://database/index.php

and login as root with your password also try

http://database:8080/index.php for php5


In phpMyAdmin find one of the two files in the scripts folder:
If you are using a mySQL version lower than MySQL 4.1.2, then find and run create_tables.sql

If you are using a mySQL version higher than MySQL 4.1.2, then find and runcreate_tables_mysql_4-1-2+.sql

Scripts are in myphpadmin directory under scripts

Setting Up PHP

Download php-4.4.4-win32 and php-5.2.6-win32.zip to a folder on your hard disk. Different releases of php can be obtained from

http://www.php.net/releases/

Next extract to the following by right clicking on the zip file and choosing extract

php-4.4.4-win32 to C:\php4
and
Php-5.2.6-win32.zip to C:\php5

Under c:\php4 copy php.ini.recommended to php.ini
copy php.ini to the Apache directory
copy php4ts.dll to c:\windows

Under c:\php5
copy php.ini.recommended to php.ini
copy php.ini to the Apachephp5 directory
copy php5ts.dll to c:\windows

Under Apache directory edit httpd.conf add

# Add to the end of the LoadModule section
LoadModule php4_module "c:/php4/sapi/php4apache.dll"

# Add to the end of the AddModule section
AddModule mod_php4.c

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Restart the server from a cmd prompt
Net stop apache
Net start apache

Under Apachephp5 directory edit httpd.conf add


# Add to the end of the LoadModule section
LoadModule php5_module "c:/php5/php5apache.dll"

# Add to the end of the AddModule section
AddModule mod_php5.c

# Add this line inside the <IfModule mod_mime.c> conditional brace
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Configuring php

In each php.ini file uncomment

;extension=php_gd2.dll

;extension=php_myql.dll

By removing the ;

make sure the extensions path is set correctly in the file ie

extension_dir = "c:/php4/extensions";

Configuring Email Server

In each php.ini file set SMTP to the address of your mail server and sendmail_from to your email address

[mail function]

;For Win32 only

SMTP = localhost

smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.;

sendmail_from = me@example.com

Restart the server from a cmd prompt

Net stop apache8080

Net start apache8080

Configuring Multiple Projects in Apache

You can set up different websites on the same server. They are refered to by changing the server name ie Instead of referring to the website on the local machine as localhost you can refer to them as Instead of

http://localhost/

it would be

http://site1/
http://site2/

You must first add your host names to the hosts file in windowsTo do this edit C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Add an entry for each virtual server ie - The tcpip address for your local machine is

127.0.0.1 site1
127.0.0.1 site2
127.0.0.1 database

You will need to make these entrys in each computer you use to access your test server. If you need to access the server on a LAN I recommend setting up and using a domain name server.

Next Edit the httpd config file and at the bottom add

# Use name-based virtual hosting.
NameVirtualHost *

And for each site add


<virtualhost *>
ServerAdmin admin@site1
DocumentRoot “c:/program files/apache group/apache/site1”
ServerName site1
ErrorLog logs/site1.log
</virtualhost>

Where site1 is the name of the virtual server

DocumentRoot should point to a separate directory for each site it should be contained in quotes

If you have more than one server on your machine you should make these modifications to each httpd.conf configuration file.

After making the modifications restart the servers. Do start run and type cmd.

From the cmd prompt

net stop apache
net start apache

and if second server installed

net stop apache8080
net start apache8080

If a server fails to start then check the error log in the apache log directory ie

c:\program files\apache group\apache\logs

Setting up the Apache server

Part 1 Installing Apache multiple times
The following procedure allows you to install 2 copies of the apache server one accessed at localhost and the other at localhost:8080. Installing multiple copies of the server allows for testing of php with both version 4 and 5.

This configuration is for development purposes only and should not be used for a live server.

Install Apache 1.3.22-win32-x86.exe or above to c:\program files\apache group

Install as a service by default the service name will be apache

Test by visiting
http://localhost/

in your browser

To install a second server copy the apache directory to

Apachephp5

Your Configuration file will be c:\program files\apache group\apachephp5\conf\http.conf

In the apachephp5/conf directory


In the file httpd.conf

#
# Port: The port to which the standalone server listens. Certain firewall
# products must be configured before Apache can listen to a specific port.
# Other running httpd servers will also interfere with this port. Disable
# all firewall, security, and other services if you encounter problems.
# To help diagnose problems use the Windows NT command NETSTAT -a
#
Port 80

Change port to 8080
Run a command prompt using start run and entering
Cmd
Cd c:\program files\apache group\apachephp5
run apache -i -n "Apache8080" -f "c:\program files\apache group\apachephp5\conf\httpd.conf" Start the service with Net start apache8080 In your browser visithttp://localhost:8080/ to check the service is working You now have two webservers running on the same machine.

Hello

Hello and weclome to my blog. In this blog I'll be sharing those nuggets of information that are hard to find but can make all the difference to both inexperienced and hardened software developers.
Ill be sharing this information as and when i come across it.

Happy blogging
Richard Pearson