I have enjoyed looking at multiple hosting options through clients in the last few months. Yesterday I worked with Plesk on one account and another who uses Yahoo! for hosting. Just as I was getting ready to write a positive blog post on Yahoo’s web hosting I ran into a snag when uploading and preparing the WordPress site for my client…Yahoo! does not allow you to use mod_rewrite Permalinks. So instead of having nice URLs like /services/ and /contact/ you have to use ?page_d=4. Gross. So in short – if you are using WordPress and want to maintain it yourself (always have the latest, most secure version, etc) I do not recommend using Yahoo! for WordPress sites.
Archive for June, 2007
All posts written in June, 2007.
Jun
27
2007
page shift fix for safari and firefox.
Ever have a site that when clicking through pages would slightly shift to the left or right? This was driving me crazy and finally after doing some research I found a hack that will do until I can find the solution:
/*this is to keep page from shifting to left on load in safari and firefox*/
html { min-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 1px; }
html { overflow: -moz-scrollbars-vertical !important; }Jun
26
2007
w3c link checker.
I have been working on a project with a few clients where they are moving all their static content (as well as creating some dynamic content) into a CMS. They have about fifty pages done and wanted to check the links on their site to see what was broken so I directed them to the W3C link checker. I had not thought about that W3C tool in awhile, but I wanted to mention it here because it is a great free way to check the links on your site. When using this tool, make sure to check the check the “Check linked documents recursively, recursion depth” to make sure it follows all your links.
Jun
25
2007
jappler.com 14.7 update: a tune up.
Over the past few months I have been busy working on client web sites and have neglected jappler.com. I have been using WordPress for a few years now with this site and had a number of plugins, CSS styles, and other items that needed to be pruned while I wanted to spruce up and clean up some other layout items.
Summary of the jappler.com tune up:
- Went through all my plugins and disabled and removed anything that could be replaced with a template tag
- Removed all old and un-used CSS styles
- Removed CSS code that I could do better or that was not needed
- Re-validated my code
- Added the rounded corner/drop shadow boxes around my content
- Re-arranged my post meta information (author, date, tagged, comments, etc)
- Began organizing my categories better
- Removed any duplicative code and either used a WordPress function or an includes file to handle the content/code (links, search, etc)
- Created a WordPress 404 page with my old 404 standby
- Went through my pages and cleaned up the text and updated any outdated information
- Re-organized my sidebars and their content
- Removed any un-used images
Every once and awhile it is good to clean up your sites so they do not become overly bloated. Don’t know where to start – check out the list above 
Jun
22
2007
find your location.
If you ever are not sure of the path to one of your scripts of files (.htpasswd), you can easily find out by creating a new PHP file, and then copying the following code into the file:
After you save the file, view it in your browser and you will see the location of your file. No more guessing if it is /home/username/public_html/ or some other naming convention that your host might use.
Jun
21
2007
Jappler Recommends: Amy Winehouse
I have been in a music rut for awhile now – I have not changed the CDs in my car’s CD changer for multiple weeks, not because I am lazy, but because I cannot think of anything I really want to listen to while driving. I generally listen to either some sort of electronica/DJ music (think Carl Cox or Corderoy) or classic rock of some sorts. A few days ago I briefly switched on the radio and heard something that really grabbed my attention: Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” song which is very R&B/soul sounding. It is a very classic sounding song and I think my mother even like it! Anyways – it is definitely worth checking out! Nice work Amy!
Jun
18
2007
jappler recommends: do not use godaddy.com for hosting.
Over the past few months I have had the chance to look at a number of hosting companies and their “control panels” by working with a number of clients. It seems as a number of people flock to godaddy.com because of it’s price (really cheap), but I have learned – once again – that you get what you pay for. If you want to have a very simple 1-5 page static web site, go for it – use whatever host you want. If you want anything else, after working with over 20 hosting companies, I can easily say that I would not go with godaddy.com. Why?
- The admin area (control panel) is horrible in general. Not intuitive at all.
- No backup on demand (or scheduled) available
- Working with .htaccess files is a pain – as they do not work right away, there is a “wait time”.
- The admin area (control panel) is slow and sometimes even times out
- Free support is almost non-existent
- Creating a database is not instantaneous
- Paid support (talk to someone) is a joke (at least in my experience)
- I am not alone in my recommendation
I could go on, but I have a busy day ahead of me. What would I recommend? First of all, I have found that working with cPanel is very nice and easy to use control panel. After that, there are a number of good and bad hosts you can weed through. Personally, I have had excellent uptime and support from Liquid Web, but anything is almost better than the godaddy.com hosting.
Jun
15
2007
squirrelmail 1.5
I have been a long time SquirrelMail web mail user (Since 1998). I have always relied on it when I needed to check my email if I was away from home or the office. Last month, I decided to dump SquirrelMail for RoundCube Webmail I was sick of the SquirrelMail interface and tired of waiting for the next release. After a few days with RoundCube Webmail – I have decided to go back to SquirrelMail because of it’s reliability and functionality. Although RoundCube Webmail is beautiful, it does not support rules (filters) or much of anything else – your mail is just “there”. SquirrelMail has all kinds of plugins to add in functionality and I have grown to appreciate it. Anyways – if you are thinking about installing a web mail package – I would recommend sticking with SquirrelMail – at least for now. I installed the latest development version (1.5.1) and have noticed that it is a lot peppier than the stable release and I have not had any problems so far. Now to make it prettier…
Jun
12
2007
Safari on Windows XP
As a web developer, new browser releases both excite me and scare me. When I heard about Safari coming out for the PC (Beta available to download) I got pretty excited. I really like the speed of Safari on the Mac and was eager to see how it would perform on the PC.
For quality assurance testing, I have found if I can get everything to work in Safari – it is only a few steps, at most, to get everything working in my core browsers (IE 6, IE 7, Safari 2+, Firefox 1.5, Firefox 2+) so I am eager to add Safari 3 into the mix. At first glance it was odd seeing the Safari icon on the Windows desktop, and the menu bar items within the browser window, but I have to say – all the sites rendered beautifully – finally for all those PC users. I am excited to see how this develops – good work Apple!
Jun
11
2007
New apple.com – Initial Thoughts
After a long showing – the pin strip tabs are out and the brushed metal – grey gradient is in (just a shade or two darker than the active jappler.com nav). My initial thought: the nav bar is too tall – but as soon as I looked at the way to the right and saw the search box, I realized it had to be that height to accommodate the search box with ample spacing. I looked through the site some more and so far – everything looks pretty good.
I did find a few problem areas with their layout/CSS, but I am sure they will address those soon (PS family member that does not know or understand what I really do – this is the type of thing I get contacted about to fix for companies) – especially since they showed up on Safari at first glance. I am sure their web team worked very hard on the new layout/functionality and it shows. I think for the first time in a few years the site feels very cohesive and not so much “stuck in 10.1 here, and stuck in 10.4 there”.
Even with the layout issues, Apple did a nice job of incorporating just enough Ajax into their site without overdoing it. The sidebars use a nice show/hide content thus reducing clutter and there a number of carrousel-like objects in the site that allow you to flip through items without leaving the same page (see Movie Trailers for an example.
To sum it up, I think Apple really did a nice job of pulling everything together, and like I mentioned before – putting just enough Ajax in without overdoing it. I think something is missing though with the top navigation bar. I really liked having a second level for the navigation below the main navigation bar with such a big site. Time will tell, and after I use the site for awhile, perhaps I will write a followup.
PS – Why post the layout issue screenshots? It is a nice reminder that sometimes the “big” companies make errors or overlook quality assurance issues too.
