Web Teacher » OpenSource

Htaccess Magic: 4 Tips for a Better Website

vdebolt — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:23:24 +0000

Congratulations! You have a website! Now that you have one, you also have the responsibility of taking care of one. Website optimization is not always easy, but it can be with basic knowledge of how they work. One tool you can use to optimize your website is an .htaccess file.

Web servers that use Apache HTTP Server to publish websites have an override feature that allows web hosting users, even ones with shared hosting accounts, to change some web server settings on a local level. If the host has the AllowOverride setting enabled on the web server, the user can use .htaccess files to enable any desired Apache directives. The following are four directive types that can bring a little magic to your website.

1. Custom error docs

When a user mistypes a URL to a page on your site or visits one for a page that no longer exists, one of two things will happen. Either the user will end up at a plain white page with the words “404 Error. File Not Found” or at an error page created by your web host, promoting their services. Neither is good for your services or your site.

By creating custom error documents, you can let users know they did actually make it to your site but might have made a wrong turn. You can also use it to suggest a better starting point for them to navigate through your site.

To create custom error docs, the first step is easy. Make normal HTML files for each error you want to include. You can find a list of Apache error codes on the web.

The next step is to create a file called .htaccess and place it in the root directory of your website – the directory that holds your HTML files. In the .htaccess file, place the error code redirects:

ErrorDocument 500 http://your-domain.tld/docs/500error.html
ErrorDocument 404 http://your-domain.tld/docs/404error.html
ErrorDocument 403 http://your-domain.tld/docs/403error.html
ErrorDocument 401 /local/path/401error.html

As you see, you can use a local path or full URL to each error HTML file that you have created.

2. Rewrite rules

You can use rewrite rules for a wide variety of purposes, the most common purpose is for search engine optimization. Dynamic web apps use very long URLs, and you can use Apache’s mod_rewrite engine to make them shorter. If you are running a content management system like WordPress or Joomla, it will likely add the correct rewrite rules to your .htaccess file for you. If, however, you are creating your own web app, you should also create some rewrite rules.

Rewrite rules follow a simple pattern:

RewriteRule Pattern Substitution [Flag]

For example, a simple rewrite rule is:

RewriteRule ^killer-whales.html$ orcas.html

In this example, people who access the page “killer-whales.html” will be redirected to the actual page: “orcas.html”. Apache also offers many more rewrite options you can try to make your site easier to access.

3. Restrict access

Htaccess files can also have security benefits. One example is that you can restrict access to a particular file or directory. For example, to deny access to a single IP address, you would enter:

Order Allow,Deny
Deny from 155.55.555.5.
Allow from all

Anyone attempting to access your site from that IP address will be denied. More information about mod_access is available in the Apache documentation.

4. Allow or Prevent Directory Browsing

When an index file is not present in a directory, Apache will display the contents of the directory. Many file repositories will use something like this by default to make it easy for people to browse the files. If, however, you do not want people to browse the files in a directory, you can easily disable browsing.

Options All -Indexes

On the other hand, if your web host has disabled browsing but you want it enabled, you do so with this directive:

Options All +Indexes

Taking Control

The whole point of .htaccess is to give the user some limited control over the server without affecting the other users who share it. This is only possible if your web host has enabled the “AllowOverride” setting in the web server’s configuration. The best hosting providers usually do, but even if yours does not, you may be able to convince them to make special arrangements for you. It will make your website better and make your job as web administrator easier.

Guest Author Tavis J. Hampton is the author of the upcoming book KDE for the Graphical User. You can find more of his writing at TavisOnline.com.

Review: Moodle for Dummies

vdebolt — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 12:16:25 +0000

Moodle For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech), written by Radana Dvorak is aimed at the institutional user who is required to use Moodle instead of one of the education management systems like Blackboard. It is not meant for the individual user who might want to set up Moodle on his or her own server.

The book consists of screen by screen and menu by menu explanations of Moodle and its capabilities. It covers creating and managing courses, adding modules to courses, administering courses, setting up questions, grading, and more. There are explanations of how to add chat, blogs, and wikis to a course, and of using databases to share material with your students. You can learn how to set up for different languages, set security, and change the appearance of your course. There’s a chapter on getting reports and statistics and viewing your logs.

The last chapter talks about ways to keep your learners involved, but the suggestions are pretty mundane.

There’s nothing very exciting about Moodle for Dummies, but if you need to learn to use Moodle, this book will get you there.

Summary: A utilitarian explanation of absolutely everything you can do with Moodle.

A review by Virginia DeBolt of Moodle for Dummies (rating: 4 stars)

BlueGriffon

vdebolt — Thu, 12 May 2011 12:48:15 +0000

A new web standards compliant WYSIWYG web editor is now available at bluegriffon.org. Features include that it’s open source and free, plus it does:

HTML5 – including forms, video and audio
CSS3 – including D Transforms, Transitions, Shadows, Linear/Radial Gradients and Repeating Gradients, Border Images, Columns, Flex Box Model
SVG
MathML
a user interface to work with some important ARIA attributes

It’s based on the Gecko rendering engine and works in Linux, Mac and Windows. Although the software is free, they are selling add ons for a few Euros each. The MathML, for example, is an add on.

You can, of course, toggle between code and design views.

A hat tip to @mollydotcom who tweeted the news.

Proud of @glazou – he made a very sweet WYSIWYG editor. x-platform, HTML5, CSS3, SVG, MathML – very cool! http://t.co/qnoV3CeWed May 11 11:54:36 via Tweet ButtonMolly E. Holzschlag
mollydotcom

How to Find the Right Online Shopping Cart for You

vdebolt — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:22:05 +0000

An efficient and user-friendly online shopping cart is an essential tool for any business or website owner involved in e-commerce product sales. But with so many online shopping carts available, it can be hard to decide which cart application will be up to the task at hand.

To begin with, there is the issue of selecting a free product or opting for one that has service charges. Naturally, everyone would choose the free option if they could, but there are occasions when free software may not possess the level of sophistication required. If this is the case, then purchasing a licensed product may be necessary, but then which one will be the right shopping cart for your transactional requirements?

Free Shopping Carts versus Paid E-Commerce Platforms

There are many well designed and functional free online shopping carts available. Most of these are open-source and operate under a GPL (General Public License). A lot of high-end shopping cart designers also produce free versions for smaller businesses or individual users.

Businesses or websites that have a larger product base or high sale yield may need to opt for a more substantial e-commerce platform. This will be a commercial licensed product that has advanced features and greater transactional control. Some of these platforms will charge a reoccurring monthly fee, while others may simply charge a one-off license payment.

The first decision should be whether the online business or product-based website can justify the price of a fully-fledged e-commerce platform, or will a good free GPL product suffice? This depends on stock levels, projected sales and expected consumer interaction. Once this decision has been made, it is then time to evaluate available products that meet the necessary criteria.

Online Shopping Carts: The Essential Features

In order to clarify things, it is probably best to initially outline a few necessary features that every online shopping cart and e-commerce platform should possess. This will help eliminate some feature-deficient products and help focus on only those products that meet, or surpass, the primary criteria.

Catalogue Support – The ability to arrange products into accessible sections
Customer Database – Keep track of customer information
Order Management – Real-time status of current orders and refund organization
Payment Processing – Wide range of commercially acceptable payment options
Shipping & Handling – Email notification of orders and delivery fee calculation
Statistical Analysis – Analyze orders, sales and conversion rates
Multi-Lingual Capability – Translate into other languages
Localization – Accept foreign currency and calculate taxes
SEO Consideration – URL rewriting and provision for sitemap creation
Security Measures – Secure logins. SSL compatible.
Efficient Administration – User management and site maintenance
Optional Customization – Advert insertion and featured product options

These features should come as standard, even in free versions. The more exceptional e-commerce platforms will come incorporated with more advanced features. Many of these full-feature platforms may charge for their product.

Advanced Features

Additional Levels of Security – PC DSS (Payment Application Data Security Standard) compliant. This is a regulation enforced by the PCI SSC (Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council). You can find more information about these regulations and standards at the official PCI DSS website.
Gift Card and Coupon Facility – Customers can purchase physical cards and use coupon codes
Store Credit Available – Issue store credit for refunds etc.
Rewards Systems – Ability to encourage return custom by awarding customers with redeemable loyalty points
Customer Subscription – Allow customers to subscribe to newsletters, promotional emails etc.
Advanced Analytics – Geo-location statistics, integration with Google Analytics.
Social Media Compliant – Ready for integration with your favorite social media sites
Advanced Customer Assistance – Breadcrumb trails and one-click bookmarking features

This is not an exhaustible list. Nor should a product be penalized if it happens to neglect one or two advance features, but then excels in most of the others. These are simply guidelines to help weed out the lower-quality shopping carts and e-commerce platforms.

Recommended Shopping Carts and E-Commerce Platforms

Now that the required and desired features have been highlighted, here are a few products that readily possess the above features and functions. (Note: Some of the free versions may not possess advanced features).

Magento: Free and commercial versions
PrestaShop: Free and commercial versions
Able Commerce: Paid version only
1ShoppingCart: Paid version only
Zen Cart: Free
Shopify: Paid version only
osCommerce: Free
Avactis: Free and paid versions
Product Cart: Paid version only
Shopping Cart Elite: Paid version only

Shop Around to Find Your Ideal Cart

The selections above are an ideal place to start looking for an online shopping cart. But there are many alternative options. For anyone that has never used e-commerce software, it may be prudent to start with one of the free platforms and see what features and functions are preferred.

Every platform will have its own user interface and different modules and sometimes finding the best online shopping cart is a matter of locating a respectable product that you feel comfortable with. It is true that some versions will require more interaction and individual development while others will be more novice-friendly and possess almost one-click functionality. Finding a platform that you can use with ease is a large part of the selection process.

Don’t be afraid to try before you buy. Many paid versions will offer limited-time trials and even if that option does not appear available, in many cases the designers will gladly allow you a free test if you contact them directly.

Finding the right e-commerce platform will optimize you online business, help you to organize your storefronts, generate return business, and efficiently process and manage sales and transactions.

About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Roko Nastic of WebmasterFormat.com, a website focused on delivering advice and actionable tips on writing, website promotion techniques, best web hosts and the latest trends in web development technologies.

Useful Links: Open source, STEM programs, iPhone unavailable–sometimes

vdebolt — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:21:36 +0000

Say Hello to the Open Source Decade by Laura Scott.

Open Source has been around for quite some time, but odds are most people you ask won’t know what “open source” is. This isn’t because open source is obscure, but rather it has slipped into the mainstream, and unless you’re already in the know, there’s no real reason you will have noticed it.

Planting seeds of science interest in kids of all ages is a great list of resources leading to programs of all sorts meant to bring kids into STEM fields.

Live in New York and want an iPhone? Forget about it. AT&T Customer Service: “New York City Is Not Ready For The iPhone”. Apparently AT&T decided the solution to their lack of coverage in the Big Apple was to stop selling Apple phones there. The blackout on iPhone only extends to online sales, according to TechCrunch, where we see Relax, You Can Still Buy an iPhone in New York City. Just Not Online. The end of this story will be to learn what happened to the poor AT&T service rep who pronounced the fateful sentence, “New York City is not ready for the iPhone.”

Summary of eHow articles for August

vdebolt — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:21:58 +0000

The image above is a Wordle, and shows you some of the things I was talking about here lately.

Below is what I did at eHow in August.

Useful Links: Open Web Tools, HTML 5 nav, CSS 3 Cheat Sheet

vdebolt — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:42:57 +0000

The Open Web Tools Directory lists the best available tools for Design, Code, Test, Debug, Deploy and Docs in a very cool HTML 5 display using the canvas element.

HTML 5: nav ambiguity resolved at zeldman.com is interesting because The Zeldman has the same problem I have with the HTML 5 specs, and also because the discussion that follows is fascinating. Don’t just read the article—read the comments, too.

CSS 3 Cheat Sheet (PDF) is another freebie from Smashing Magazine that is just begging to be used as a class handout. Match that up with the HTML 5 Cheat Sheet from SM that I mentioned a few days ago.

Women in Tech: Addison Berry

vdebolt — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:40:24 +0000

Meet Addison Berry, a woman who traveled a roundabout path into tech and is now one of the most visible leaders in the open source content management world of Drupal. My thanks for Addi for agreeing to answer some questions and let us get to know her.

Q: Let’s start off with Drupal. You work for Lullabot, a company that does Drupal books, podcasts and videos. And, you’re head of the Drupal.org documentation team. How did you become so interested and involved in Drupal?

A: Well I was a WordPress user for a while and had started doing little side jobs building sites with it. I managed to do quite a bit with it. Then at my old job, in the midst of redoing the website there, I told them that it didn’t make sense for me to hand-code the whole thing and be the only one who knew what was going on. I convinced them that we needed to use a CMS instead. The only problem was that I didn’t know of one to use. I quickly realized that WordPress would not stretch that far for us. So I sat down and started reviewing open source CMS. I needed to decide quickly and honestly Drupal just made more sense to me, more quickly than the handful of others I was looking at, so I put my stake in the ground and started building.

As chance would have it, a few months after I decided on Drupal, Lullabot offered their first Drupal workshop and it was located in Washington, DC – literally three blocks from my office. It was an easy sell to the boss. After the workshop, I really grasped the full potential of Drupal and got really excited about what I’d be able to do with. That got me excited about the software and they mentioned some community stuff, but ya know, I needed to get my work done. Several months after that a new thing called the Drupal Dojo started up and I plunged in full-speed ahead. It was a great learning opportunity, but more importantly I really got to know people and finally engaged with the community. The Drupal community is just amazing and once I was there, I jumped in everywhere I could. Lots of people helped me and so I did what I could to help others. That ended up coming back to me in a job offer from Lullabot that allows me to work with Drupal full-time.

Read the full interview at BlogHer.

Women in Tech: Shelley Powers

vdebolt — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:04:46 +0000

This is the first of several interviews with women in technology. Today you’ll learn about Shelley Powers. Shelley is perhaps best known as a writer. Her most recent books are Learning JavaScript and Painting the Web. She’s also a programmer and web developer, and she applies a powerful and logical mind to everything she does.

Q: I looked you up on Amazon and found a list of books you’ve written that includes Learning JavaScript, Painting the Web, Adding Ajax, Learning JavaScript: Add Sparkle and Life to Your Web Pages, Unix Power Tools, Practical RDF, Powerbuilder 5 How-To, Developing Asp Components, Dynamic HTML, Dynamic Web Publishing Unleashed, Javascript How-To: The Definitive Javascript Problem-Solver, and Using Perl For Web Programming.

Wow!

How did you get started on a career as a writer? What was your education and background?

A: I’m a late bloomer educationally. I quit high school when I was 15 and joined a religious cult, Children of God. When I came to my senses and left the group, I went from the frying pan to the fire by marrying, at 16, a man who had learning disabilities and resented the fact that I liked to read. We lived in a house in the country and if it weren’t for the fact that the local library would send books out, and allow you to return them in pre-paid envelopes, I would have had very little to read for two years.

. . . Read the full post at BlogHer.

Useful links: Palin, ARIA, Open Office, CSS Systems

vdebolt — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:51:51 +0000

Palin’s experience in just 12 minutes. An analysis from Lawrence Lessig.

ARIA on the fast track. Ian Lloyd’s thoughts on the Web Accessiblity Initiative’s Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite and what it might do to validation.

Open Office for Aqua. Burningbird puts the open source office suite through its paces and finds it a good substitute for the office suite from that big corporation (you know the one).

CSS Systems for writing maintainable CSS. A presentation about “CSS Systems” with links to slides and notes. The author describes CSS Systems as,

A CSS System is a reusable set of content-oriented markup patterns and associated CSS created to express a site’s individual design. It is the end result of a process that emphasizes up-front planning, loose coupling between CSS and markup, pre-empting browser bugs and overall robustness. It also incorporates a shared vocabulary for developers to communicate the intent of the code.