Andrew Emmett » websites

Change a website image based on a month or season

Andrew — Thu, 20 May 2010 08:05:22 +0000

Recently I posted a very simple php code on the downloads page that changes a website image based on the month or season. A very simple piece of php code, but thought either novices or people not interested in tinkering with php would find it helpful.

The code finds out the month from the web server and then shows an image associated with that month. Instead of the usual static img src in your html code, the php makes the decision.

So how could this be used? Ideal if you want to have a website template header image to reflect a month or season. A business could use it to change an image on a front page promoting a different category each month and so on.

You can find it over on the downloads page.

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Create (write) your own RSS feed file

Andrew — Mon, 17 May 2010 09:30:03 +0000

So I’ve placed a few RSS feeds into the right column on this blog. One of these being for guest posts I write. So people visiting the blog can easily see my latest posts elsewhere.

Now I was going to use yahoo pipes to create the rss feed, but their site wasn’t working when I visited, so I’ve taken a temporary route until I revisit their site. So expect a post at a later date with my yahoo pipes solution or my own coded “less hassle involved” solution.

So here is what I originally wanted:

To create a RSS feed from a file on my server, add some star dust (php code on my site) , say a few magic words (yahoo pipes) and turn this into a RSS feed.

What I actually did:

Wrote the RSS file whilst drinking a mug of tea and chucked it into Google Feedburner. It took five minutes and then I went and crashed on the couch to read.

Benefits of Google Feedburner?

Google feedburner takes a RSS feed and then can present people with a RSS feed more suitable to their requirements. Plus you can view stats, turning email subscription options on, add adsense… okay I didn’t want any of that.

So currently I need to write a new entry in my own rss file for google feedburner to automatically add to it’s own rss file. At a later date when I do look at Yahoo Pipes or code together my own solution, I can just update what Google Feedburner uses and anyone subscribed won’t notice the change or have to fiddle about with a new RSS feed.

Create your own rss file:

1. Using a text editor like notepad++ create a file called feeds.rss
2. Paste the following:

Title of your feed
Description of your feed
http://www.yourwebsite.com

Title of the Blog post
A snippet of the contents of the blog post. A few sentences perhaps.
Link to the blog post.
Sun, 22 May 2010

3. Change the contents to your requirements and then every time you need to add a new RSS entry create a new section above the last.

4. Then optionally add this rss file to Google Feedburner or Yahoo Pipes for further formatting etc if required.

Takes a 1-2 minutes to update your own rss file from now on. Not ideal, but okay for a stop gap.

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Youtube: Http/1.1 Service Unavailable

Andrew — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:27:49 +0000

At the time of writing this post the Youtube service is down… or is it? Not entirely and thanks to http://techcrunch.com for pointing me in the direct you can still use it. Even though it says ‘Http/1.1 Service Unavailable’ when visit youtube.com you can still view videos via other pages. i.e. embedded and search. So to view the videos from my youtube channel you can click here: http://bit.ly/aJRC9T . This is a bit.ly link that takes you to a youtube search of my youtube username.

So you can sit back and be bored to death by my homemade videos. Else you can always use the search box at the top of that page and search youtube for other videos to watch. Just don’t click on my or anyone elses channel pages until youtube resolve the problem.

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free nanoCMS website theme (template) – Sunset

Andrew — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:51:53 +0000

The latest build of nanoCMS Community, a nifty flat file content management system contains my Sunset template (theme). However for those using an earlier version of nanoCMS such as 0.4 or nanoCMS Community build 0.5 (winter alpha) you can use it also and download it here. Plus it doesn’t take much time to modify this theme for other cms’s or even dare I say it…. a static site.

This template is free for personal and business use. However please leave the copyright notice, credit and link for me in the footer.

Please subscribe to this blog via the RSS feed or via email for further template posts and for my other posts.

Enjoy

Download link: Sunset Template for nanoCMS Community (90)

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Isle of Wight Life

Andrew — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:18:45 +0000

We’ve been very fortunate to have lived at some wonderful locations and for the last two years plus, we’ve lived on the fantastic Isle of Wight.

My girlfriend and I have started to put together a website about the Isle of Wight. A guide and resource for tourists and residents. It’s very early days and there isn’t a great deal there yet. Lots of updates to do, such as template work, more content, features etc.

We love the island and we are always taking photos, videos, visiting places, events etc. The website is a fun ongoing project for us and one I’m sure I will blog about here again soon.

If your interested in seeing the early site click here.

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How to Backup and Restore a WordPress Database

Andrew — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:18:11 +0000

Yesterday afternoon a self hosted wordpress blog I maintain died. It just wouldn’t load and then the site would timeout. The database had decided to pack it’s bags and vanish, not even a dear john letter, a note telling me why. A quick communication with support and the quickest option was for me to restore from a backup. Here is the why, where and how rough guide, not too detailed, like a birds and the bees conversation really.

First of all the precaution bit. You could go through phpmyadmin to make backups or….. install the wunderbar wordpress plugin that is called ‘WordPress Database Backup’ over at: http://ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/ . You unzip and upload the directory to the ‘plugin’ directory in the ‘wp-content’ directory via wordpress. Then login to your wordpress installation and via the ‘plugins’ option activate.

Next you need to select ‘Backup’ from under the ‘Tools’ menu. It will probably mention a directory needs to be writable. Fair enough it creates a random directory name, so again via ftp you can make it writable. My favourite ftp application by the way is filezilla and you right click on a directory to change write permissions.

Okay that’s the configuration done and via the very same ‘backup’ page make a backup. Now you can sit there satisfied that you’ve made a backup. Well done you. Wait there is more to it than this! There are different ways and one option is for scheduled backups, sent to you via email. Excellent as automation is usually best when it comes down to backups.

The Restoration

Unfortunately unless you plan on migrating your database, you will need this backup for…. restoring. Yes the moment where something corrupts, gone horribly wrong and you need to restore it pronto. Sweating, pondering the idea you’ve lost all the work, the time and effort…okay I’m being over dramatic here.

Now what I do is create a new database, add a new user and then access it via phpmyadmin. Phpmyadmin usually can be found via your web hosts control panel. Then there is a nifty import option. Just select the backup file you made with the wordpress backup plugin and import. Hopefully et voila!

Now you need to download via ftp your wp-config.php file from the root of your blog directory. i.e. same place the index.php file is found. Open it up (my preferred windows app is notepad++) and then edit it. Simple replace the database name, location, username and password with the new details and reupload the file.

Hopefully your wordpress blog is up and running again. Obviously you follow these instructions at your own risk. There could be further recommendations for different scenario’s, other than the one I went through. So don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I hope this rough guide helped someone, maybe not today, but for a beautiful tomorrow…. over dramatic again? Yes, but not for me, not today after a restoration saved a years worth of work.

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nanoCMS Community (flat file cms)

Andrew — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:55:08 +0000

nanoCMS is an open source gpl licensed content management system (cms) and uses a flat file database structure. So no database engine like mysql for instance. Basically people use it to run fast small dynamic websites. Roughly in existance for a couple of years, created by a brilliant young programmer.

Unfortunately it has had a turbelant short history. Forum posts going missing and two forums later the nanocms website stopped working and disappeared. Leaving behind a strong community of supporters who helped each other, created modules, shared templates and had excellent community spirit.

The project seems abandoned since last August, so I’ve updated a nanoCMS website I run and now call it ‘nanoCMS Community’. I’ve given the template a lick of paint, uploaded modules and repackaged a build to include fixes. Along with information to help get going, which i will update further over time. I hope the new updated site helps bring together once again the community and this great cms continues on it’s journey. www.nanocms.co.uk

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Reading By Candlelight

Andrew — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:18:59 +0000

I always have a book on the go and the topics are varied, as well as the age of the books and thus written material. Generally I read a book a week. So I decided to create a blog and write reviews. The original review blog was created last year over at google’s blogspot service, but I’ve decided to move it to it’s own wordpress home.

I appreciate I am new to writing book reviews, so the quality of the reviews and structure might be horrendous, okay is and will be for a while until I improve. My reviews can be found at: http://www.readingbycandlelight.com/

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