The HOME and END keys move to the top and bottom of the document instead of start or end of the current line as expected. The HOME and END keys lay dormant on the keyboard, because the need to move to the top or bottom of a document is, like -ALMOST NEVER !!!
Now, the shortcut key to the start or end of the current line in Mac OS is the CMD+RIGHT/LEFT ARROW shortcuts.

Too bad, these are not as easy to remember, oh well.

So anyway, if you’re going MAD like me trying to figure out a quick “end of line” key now you know. Hope this helps ! : )

Tags: Usability, User Iterface Design, bbEdit Tips by admin
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Rather than scanning one photo at a time to create digital files of older photos, I scanned multiple photos at once.  The re

sult was a page of pictures in Photoshop linked as one file.  The dilema as to how to separate them individually to work with and save them, appeared to be a tedious chore of using the marqee tool to cut them out, creating

layers of various pictures….you get the idea!  Much to my joyous surprise, Photoshop has a very amazing tool under the File pull down menu.  Simply go to Automate then Crop and Straighten.  Make sure you are on the root layer containing all your pictures and Photoshop does the rest.  Each picture will be a separate file to work

with.  When scanning, make sure there is a space around each picture to make

it easier for Photoshop to differentiate the photos.  Once you have made your adjustments or manipulated your photos, do not forget to name and save your photo

before closing.  Now you are ready to archive all those older photographs and priceless memories!

Tags: Photoshop Notes, Web Design by Reniroo
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I have been working on a project on the Drupal 6 platform that requires the web application to recognize dynamically created sub-domains so the functionality of the database can be adjusted according to what sub-domain is in the current URL.

To get Drupal 6 to do this, I am creating a custom module. One of the things I have learned about creating a custom module in Drupal 6 is the implementation of the module’s “install” file.

If you create a module named say,  my_module.module then the module’s install file name would be  my_module.install and will reside in the directory named my_module located at….

my_site/sites/all/modules/my_module

Drupal 6 Module Install File Documentation

The  .install file will be run by Drupal 6 the 1st time my_module has been enabled. The my_module.install file will then be used to run setup procedures as stipulated by your module. The most common task for the my_module.install file to perform is creating database tables and fields. There is no special syntax for the install file. It is simply a PHP file with a .install extension to properly identify it to the Drupal 6 platform.

There is special function used in the .install file called hook_schema(). Where hook would be replaced by the name of your module. For example, if  the module you create is named my_module, then you would create a PHP file and name it my_module.install. Inside that file you will create a function named  my_module_schema(). The my_module_schema() function is used to create arrays representingthe database tables you wish the module to create in the Drupal database. You can see how this works here.

Why do it this way?

Once you build the Drupal API Schema there is no more need for  separate CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statements on each database. As a module developer, you only need to create a schema structure and/or use the Drupal Schema API functions, and Drupal takes care of the rest. This greatly simplifies  writing install and update functions.

This way of creating the module install files also allows for support in multiple database platforms.

According to Drupal’s Blog this also allows for “Several advanced capabilities, such as incremental database updates, a simple and consistent CRUD API, form scaffolding, simpler CCK and Views, schema and data validation, become much easier to implement in future enhancements.”

Schema Data Structure Documentation by Drupal

Tags: Drupal 6, MySQL, PHP, Web Design by admin
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I am working on a web site that will be taking on many Individual Business Owners. The web site is designed to create sub domains created dynamically according to the input of users as they sign up for the service. Since the web site is expected to accommodate up to 30,000 users it would not be practical to edit the httpd.conf configuration file in Apache for each one. The file would simply grow to be enormous. The solution? Create wild-card sub domains.

Wild-card sub domains can be a great way to handle multiple sub domains that need to be created dynamically by making a simple edit to Apache via the terminal and some creative PHP programming.

The first step is alter Apache. There are a few ways to do this depending on how your server is set up.
Here are some links I have found on how to do this in various server environments;

• PLesk
• cPanel
• In Apache

NOTE: In the case of the project I am working on, we have a dedicated server by RackSpace. It was necessary to register the wild-card sub-domain ( *.you-domain.com ) with their name servers as well in order for this to work.

Step One: Set Up a Wild Card DNS Record

The first step is to create a wildcard DNS record. Your DNS server is already resolving visitors to domain.tld, but it doesn’t know where to resolve them to find subdomain1.domain.tld.

You’ll need to create what is called an “A record,” which is short for “address record.” As the name implies, “A records” tell what IP address a host is pointing to.

The way to do this will vary based on your DNS server and what control panel (or command line) you are using, most are somewhat similar. When you create a name record of type “A” pointing from *.domain.tld to your web server’s IP address.

If you are using a control panel, then likely you can set this using a web form. Sometimes have to get your web host to do this.

Your web server’s DNS service may need to be restarted. You can expext it to take a few hours or even up to a few days sometimes to propagate throughout the Internet.

Step Two: Set Up a Wild Card DNS Record

Test and make sure it working by typing in a random sub-domain url to your site ( ie. Http://random-name.your-domain.com  ). It should resolve to your site’s home.

Now that any sub-domain will point to your domain, you can use some PHP to determine what URL brought your user to your site. Once you have that knowledge you can manipulate the functionality of  your site accordingly. Pretty cool!

Recognize Which Sub Domain Brought Your Visitor With PHP

One way to “recognize” the subdomain from the URL that brought you visitor is to use the a supper global ( which means they are available in all scopes throughout a script. There is no need to do global $variable; to access them within functions or methods) server variable called $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].

This super global variable will return the host name.
ie.   sub-domain.your-domain.com
( if there is no sub- domain then it would just be the domain.com)

If you use PHP’s explode with “.” as the delimiter, you can isolate the sub-domain by separating out the first element of the resulting array of URL parts like this…

$url_sections = explode(”.”,$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']);
$subdomain =$url_sections[0];

Knowing what sub-domain you’re dealing with gives you the PHP power to make you scripts act accordingly. In my case, I used the extracted information for the “virtual” sub-domain to query the MySQL database.

Wild card sub domains can useful for content management platforms like Drupal. With wild card sub domains and a little cleverness you can handle multiple sub domains within a single installation of Drupal.

A Special Note Regarding  SEO

It is very important that you do not have more than one URL (including the sub domain) point to identical content. Google penalizes for “duplicate content” so be sure not to carelessly point various unknown sub domains at your sites home page. With wild card sub domains, if a user makes a mistake and types in a misspelling then use PHP to redirect their page in some way that corrects them and then points them to the right page.

If you are dealing with this already and have any comments or suggestions or corrections feel free to post a comment.

Tags: Apache, PHP, Web Design by admin
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Just a note in case your pulling your hair out. If you have a form that for all intents and purposes SHOULD be working but does not allow user input in a text field then perhaps this cold be your problem.

Try taking a look at the CSS on the element following the form. In my last encounter with this problem, it was a <p> that followed a form within a div.

The <p> had  a CSS declaration of float:left and was inside a div that was floated to the right.

The followinghad 2 declarations:

p {
float:left;
clear:left;
}

To my surprise, this is what broke the form inputs -weird.

I fixed the <p>’s CSS to declare clear:left; and the form straightened back up.

So if you’re having trouble with form inputs and you have narrowed it down to CSS, I hope this helps.

Please feel free to make any comments or even give an explanation.

Tags: CSS, Uncategorized, User Iterface Design by admin
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