I just spent several hours trying to find out why my virtual domains were redirecting to https on XAMPP when just last week everything was fine. I had experimented with doing a security certificate for my local development sites, so I thought maybe that had something to do with it. However, I backed out all my changes last week and so there shouldn’t have been any issues. I was searching everywhere with XAMPP thinking I had broken something.
Category Archives: Web Development
Datepicker and Usability on a Mobile Device
I’m currently working on redesigning a website for a hair salon in Atlanta Georgia by using WordPress, Bootstrap, SASS, jQuery, etc. The site currently is not responsive and it is looking very dated and I am working to bring it into the 21st century.
One of the things that too many web developers forget about while developing is usability and UI/UX TESTING. Oh – they make sure their code works, but often times forget about whether it provides a good user experience. I on the other hand, am CONSTANTLY TESTING the UI/UX design. As I make changes I test it on various browsers and ON ACTUAL PHONES. One thing I have seen developers ignore is the testing on the actual phones.Continue reading
Extending Bootstrap 4.0 Beta 3
I have been experimenting with Bootstrap 4.0 Beta 2 and there seems to have been a lot of questions on how to extend this new version. While this may not be final or the only way to do it – this is what I have come up with so far. Here we will set up _custom_variables.scss and _custom_mixns.scss files that modify or extend the default Bootstrap and then use these variables and functionality within our own styles.scss file. I will show you how to modify default Bootstrap variables such as $blue, and add a new custom color which will not only be reflected in our custom Bootstrap, but then can also be accessed from our own styles.scss file. In addition we will create a mixin to create a gradient for the background. Finally we will add a new size variable that we will then be able to access in our styles.scss file. What we will ultimately end up with is something that looks like the graphic above.Continue reading
Customizing Bootstrap 4.0 Beta 2 – Overriding Default Theme Colors
I’m currently working to get up to speed on the latest version of Bootstrap which is currently Bootstrap 4.0.0 Beta-2 and I don’t want to use their predefined colors – such as “blue” for primary, “gray” for secondary, etc. I wanted to be able to customize the color scheme.  Finding out how to exactly do this wasn’t the easiest thing. It seems there are a lot of pieces out there, but nothing that defines exactly how to do it. What also made it difficult was the fact that this is just Beta and so there have been changes. The way to customize the theme in Bootstrap 4.0 Alpha is completely different in Beta. After trial and error it seems I got it to work properly.Continue reading
What is Gulp and How to Use It for Web Development –
Setting Up Gulp
When I developed my first website in 1995 there wasn’t much involved – it was basically just HTML with a few animated GIFs, text and links. There wasn’t even CSS to worry about and no JavaScript. Today that is NOT the case. Today not only do we have HTML, CSS and Javascript, but we also have SASS, LESS, Bootstrap, JQuery, Angular, TypeScript, minification, concatenation, image optimization and the list goes on and on. All these extras require tasks to be run either to compile into what the browser will understand as is the case with SASS, LESS and Typescript. Or perform a specific action such as minification. In addition, the task can also be to simply add a specific library or framework that we always use in our website such as jQuery. This is where using Gulp comes in.Continue reading
Changing a WordPress Site from HTTP to HTTPS
I have had to move two WordPress sites from HTTP to HTTPS (https://www.rrosetta.com  and https://magazine.AboutNewJersey.com) and both times I ran into the same problem – the site going into an infinite redirect.  There was a key piece that was missed and not well documented so I figured I would put those steps down here and hopefully not only help myself in the future, but others as well.Continue reading
Setting a Local Virtual Domain with XAMPP
It is actually very easy to create a virtual domain. It only requires two files to be modified and you don’t even have to store your site’s files within the XAMPP directory structure.
UPDATE: do NOT use .dev as the virtual domain. Read this for more information – Chrome AND Firefox Now Redirect .dev Domains to HTTPS.
Installation of PHPUnit on a Dreamhost Account
I know it’s been awhile since I posted here. I needed to get some other web work complete, such as the Trenton 1784 website, which took me away from the Zend Framework for a bit. Now I am back at it.
Since I have the Zend Framework in Action book, in order to fill out my knowledge of Zend, I wanted to get my server fully set up for the applications in this book and this required the downloading of PHPUnit in order to do the Unit Testing. Now it doesn’t seem like this would be a requirement to actually go through the book, but I had always done unit testing when I was a consultant developing desktop apps for Fortune 500 companies. Since Zend Framework in Action also explains how to use PHPUnit, I might as well take advantage of it.Continue reading
Trenton 1784
I’m currently working on a new website for a client – Trenton1784.org. A lot of what I would like to do requires JQuery. I would like to make it much more “interactive”. For instance, on the main page there is the vignette. Each day a photo with description will be displayed on the main page. There could be about 55 vignettes total. Continue reading
Zend Framework in Action
Well I got my Zend Framework in Action book in today. I figure it will help me to understand more fully what I am learning in the Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP. Since this is the first time using Zend Framework, I am trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible – so the more information I have at my disposal to cross reference, the better. This is generally how I have always learned – it was how I taught myself PowerBuilder. I would use five books at one time sometimes – using each to supplement the information I was looking for. One book may not explain something in a easily understood manner, or may leave something out, but by combining the books, it helped in understanding the complex concepts.Continue reading