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MAMP testing environment for OS X
Hey everyone, I’ve recently moved most of my development systems over to OS X (since I have a brand new Macbook that my company gave me), so I’ve been looking into the options that are available for website development when using OS X. OS X comes by default with a great deal of things built in, one of which is the ability to run a local version of a LAMP webserver (LAMP stands for Linux Apache MySQL PHP and is a description of the most common webserver setup to run sites like WordPress). Well, you actually need to install MySQL yourself, but it’s pretty easy. The problem is that this built in server actually does take some configuration to get working, and it’s different depending on if you have Panther (10.3), Tiger (10.4), or Leopard (10.5) installed. For someone who is new to the whole webserver/website dev thing, it can be a bit too much to do right off to get this all working.
That’s why MAMP is such an great thing. Mamp is an all in one package that will install the entire webserver set up for you using a standard OS X installer. Oncde installed it basically just requires you to start it up just like any other program. The basic free version gives you very few options to change from the GUI, so it’s probably the best choice for new people. The only change you will probably want to immediately make is to go to the preferences–>Ports settings page and click the option to “set to default Apache and MySQL ports” button. The rest is pretty straight forward and explained on the “start page” that you can open MAMP. Just note that to get to your site you need to place “localhost” in your web browser as the url.
So now both Windows and OS X have really easy ways of setting up a basic local test server for WordPress–so there’s no reason for you not to test new plugins or theme changes there first so as to not blow up your live site, right?
AWSOM Pixgallery 4.5.2 released
AWSOM Pixgallery version 4.5.2 has been released. This version of the image gallery plugin for WordPress fixes a problematic bug related to the EXIF function, and finishes the Individual Comment system by displaying pre-existing comments on the main gallery level (as opposed to not showing them at all :) ). It also adds in a new debug mode for admins that will allow them to see extra information about their gallery set up to help fix display issues–it also displays the sort order number attached to an image or gallery in the thumbnail view to help in using the numerical sort option.
It is strongly suggested that all AWSOM Pixgallery users upgrade to this new version.
Upcoming Dev items, plus Uninstaller
I just wanted to let everyone know that AWSOM Pixgallery will soon be getting a few new features to help both the admin and debugging side of things. I’m adding a “debug” mode which will display information to the admin that will help in determining why certain issues are occurring, plus it will also help with certain things like numerical sorting by displaying the current position number next to images in the thumbnail view. A fix is also in place for the individual comment system so that pre-existing comments now will properly appear on the main gallery level. Lastly, a new “plugin” is being developed that will allow a full uninstall of all AWSOM plugins . This AWSOM uninstaller plugin will be able to remove all database elements of any of the AWSOM plugins to help fix cases where there is a install or upgrade problem.
I hope to have the newest Pixgallery update (4.5.2) as well as the uninstaller plugin finished soon. (as in the next week). Please note that the uninstaller will NOT be a part of Pixgallery or the other plugins but will be it’s own separate plugin–this is to cut down on the possibility of malicious manipulation or mistaken uninstalls–the workflow will be to upload it, activate it, use it, then remove it.
If anyone has any feedback on this or any other feature of any of the plugins please contact me or post comments here or at Harknell.com
AWSOM Pixgallery 4.5.0 beta with IIS Test Fix code Released
Hi everyone, a beta of the AWSOM Pixgallery 4.5.0 plugin is now available for download from the AWSOM.org website from this link or directly from the Pixgallery Product page. This beta does not contain any new features, but is a test of a fix for people using Pixgallery on Windows IIS servers with Fancy Permalinks enabled. (so you Linux people can skip out on bothering with this version) I will stress that this is *really* beta code since I don’t have a real test server to utilize, so please remember that. With that said, the odds are the worst that would happen is the same behavior that currently exists on some of these set ups, which is incorrect links to the images.
If anyone wants to help out and try this out on their system and send me feedback that would be a huge help to me in fixing this issue. Thanks.
Further Information For Windows IIS users and Pixgallery
After more extensive investigation it appears that Windows IIS users who are utilizing WordPress and Pretty Permalinks might need to consult the following webpage for information on a fix that is needed to fully support this Apache feature: http://neosmart.net/blog/2006/100-apache-compliant-request_uri-for-iis-and-windows/.
It appears that the use of certain standard Server variables is not followed under the standard install of Apache on Windows IIS, which causes issues when mod_rewrite (that which allows the Pretty Permalinks to exist) is utilized. This has lead to some issues using my AWSOM Pixgallery plugin on IIS servers with Pretty Permalinks enabled. I can’t guarantee that the information on actions described on the above website will correct all issues when using AWSOM Pixgallery on these types of set ups, but it’s probably most of the reason why the issues are occurring. I’ll try to see if there is anything I can do from the plugin side of things, but incorrect information at the server level makes it very difficult to compensate for this issue.