MySql Emergency is problem-solving community for MySql, ideal for users seeking quick, succinct answers they can’t find in any MySql forums. MySql Emergency is also great for established MySql developers who want to help problem-solve and be paid fairly for their efforts.

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1. Edit your wp-config.php so it works on various environments. I do this like so:

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
switch ($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']) {
  case 'mysite.local': // local dev environment
    // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
    /** The name of the database for WordPress */
    define('DB_NAME', 'mylocal_db');
    /** MySQL database username */
    define('DB_USER', 'root');
    /** MySQL database password */
    define('DB_PASSWORD', '');
    /** MySQL hostname */
    define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
    break;
  default:
    /** The name of the database for WordPress */
    define('DB_NAME', 'yourlive_db');
    /** MySQL database username */
    define('DB_USER', 'yourlive_dbuser');
    /** MySQL database password */
    define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourlive_pw');
    /** MySQL hostname */
    define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
    break;
}

That will let you use the same wp-config.php file on either server.

2. I dump my local database. I do this using a little shell script that will search the mysql dump for my local url and replace it with the live one. I put the following in a file called dbdump.sh:

#!/bin/bash
 
# dump database
mysqldump -u root mylocal_db > mylocal_db_dump.sql
 
# search inside the mylocal_db_dump.sql file for 'mysite.local' and replace with 'thelivesite.com'
perl -pi -e 's/mysite.local/thelivesite.com/g' mylocal_db_dump.sql

Then I can run this script with the command “./dbdump.sh” anytime I want to export my local database to an sql file to import on the live site.

3. I use rsync to sync my local version of the site up to the server. Alternatively, you could use FTP to upload the entire local site, but it’s harder to keep things in sync this way. If you want to use SSH, I put the following into a file named something like “upload.sh” and put it in my blog folder.

#!/bin/bash
GO=$1
: ${GO:=""}
 
if [ "$GO" = "go" ]
then
  ARGS="-avc"
else
  ARGS="-avcn"
fi
 
rsync $ARGS --stats --progress --exclude-from=rsync_exclude.txt -e 'ssh' . username@yourserver.com:/home/path/to/your/public_html

Basically what this does is execute the “rsync” command with a few arguments. It will look at the files in the current directory on your machine and compare them with the files on the server. If you execute this script with a “go” parameter, it will actually perform the copy; otherwise it does a dry-run to show you what changes would occur. I put a list of a few files to ignore while syncing in “rsync_exclude.txt”. I ignore any hidden files like .DS_Store, my custom upload shell script which we just created, and temporary files and uploads.

Here is what mine usually contains:

.DS_Store
.htaccess
upload.sh
dbdump.sh
rsync_exclude.txt
/wp-content/cache/*
/wp-content/uploads/*

You can then run the upload.sh script by executing the command like this:

./upload.sh

And if it looks ok, you actually perform the sync with:

./upload.sh go

4. Now we have all our files synced up… we just need to update the database. You can either either use something like phpMyAdmin to upload your “mylocal_db_dump.sql” file, or if you have SSH access you can execute it using your live mysql user:

mysql -u yourlive_dbuser -p mylocal_db_dump.sql > yourlive_db

This may seem like a lot of steps, but if you are rapidly developing your site and need to re-upload to a staging server frequently, this ends up saving a ton of time. Once you have the files in place, updating the live site is a simple matter of running these commands:

./dbdump.sh
./upload.sh

and then insert your SQL file into your live database, either through the command line or phpMyAdmin.

Now that I have these files I just copy them into any wordpress site I’m working on and I’m ready to upload as often as I want and it only takes a few seconds. I hope you find some use out of them, too.

If you want to download a bundle of the sample files I mention above, you can download a zip archive of them here.

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By participating in this promotion, entrants agree to release and hold harmless Sponsor from any claim or cause of action arising out of participation in the promotion.

I took some notes during TUAW’s Dev Clinic discussion on the process to compile your app and upload it to iTunes:

• Application Target
  • Make sure you are using the “release” configuration, and not “debug”
  • Base SDK: iPhone Device 3.2 (or 3.1.2 or 3.1.3 for Universal)
  • Architecture: armv7 (you’ll have to select “other” and type this in)
  • … for a universal app select “armv6 armv7″
  • Code signing identity: Distribution
  • Targeted device family: iPad (unless you are doing Universal)
  • Deployment target: “iPhone OS 3.2″ for iPad-only, “iPhone OS 3.1.x for Universal”
  • Icons: use a 72×72 icon (not 48px as some have said), you may or may not want to include a 57×57 icon
• Signing and Uploading
  • Set your configuration to “Release” in the Target Info window and in the Project window
  • Compile for the device, not the simulator
  • trash your previous builds (the entire build folder, even!)
  • double-check your code-signing identity, update your distro provision if necessary
  • after you compile, locate the binary using Products < [app] < Locate in Finder
  • zip up the app and submit it to apple

Other helpful resources:

• Re-signing applications http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/09/sdk-devsugar-re-signing-applications/
• If you want to triple-check everything, you can use this hint to try out your distribution build on your device: http://furbo.org/2008/11/12/the-final-test/

At some point I realized that the AirPort Express wasn’t able to keep up with the full speed of our internet connection. Here is a speed test using a direct connection to our cable modem:

Connected to our wireless network (802.11g, with 2 – 3 devices connected at a time):

So, we were losing a little bit of speed there. (I think the upload speeds were just a fluke in my not-so-scientific benchmarks… all subsequent tests showed more consistent upload speeds.) This may or may not matter to you depending on how you use your connection. As a web developer I’m downloading large files all the time, and I also like to try and gauge the comparable speed of our web servers against other websites out there, so having a fast connection is important.

If we upgraded to 802.11n, we needed an access point that was “dual-band,” since an iPhone and one of our computers only supports 802.11g. Without dual-band support, the entire network would slow down to support the lowest common denominator.

Setting up the Airport Extreme was easy. It even copied the settings right off our old Airport Express (same network name, security settings and passwords). After it was connected, I reconnected the Airport Express to use just to stream music to our stereo.

Here are the new speedtest results using the Airport Extreme:

As you can see, this is pretty close to connecting to our cable modem directly through an ethernet connection. The 802.11n band, at the moment, is much less congested and it’s a lot more resistant to outside interference (no more internet time-outs when microwaving!). Our older devices can still connect at their speeds without limiting the performance of the whole network.

Overall I think it was a worthwhile upgrade. If you are thinking maybe your wireless network isn’t so hot, try testing your connection to see if your router is to blame. If your computer supports it, upgrading your network 802.11n can definitely speed things up, and if you have older devices (or iPhones) using the same network, make sure you go with something that has dual-band support.

Update: Here was my result when I connected to the AirPort Extreme via ethernet. Obviously one test in each setup isn’t enough to get highly accurate results, but it was good enough for me. In this case, connecting through the APE with an ethernet connection added no latency to my internet connection, and was only slightly faster than connecting wirelessly.

I wanted to ignore timestamp and permissions differences, which wasn’t possible using the default configuration due to the -a (which stands for ‘archive’ mode) parameter added to the rsync command. If you want to override the default settings, all you have to do is add a ‘parameters’ key to your properties.ini file. Here is an example:

  [staging]
    host=yourhostname
    port=22
    user=yourusername
    dir=your/path/to/your/app
    parameters='-rlDzC --force --delete --exclude-from=config/rsync_exclude.txt'

Keep in mind if you set your own custom parameters you won’t benefit from any of the default settings so you should include them yourself (like –force, –delete, and your rsycn_exclude file).

“Make something great. Tell people about it. Do it again.”

from Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists by Derek Powazek:

The problem with SEO is that the good advice is obvious, the rest doesn’t work, and it’s poisoning the web. I’m going to tell you about the problems, and then tell you the one true way to generate traffic on the web, based on my own 14 years of hits and misses.

This is a great post, which I discovered through daringfireball. It’s worth a read, either if you manage a website and have wondered about what “SEO” can (or in this case, can’t) do for you, or if you are a web developer and you get clients asking how they can improve their search visibility.

Good app ideas are a dime a dozen. Your great idea isn’t guaranteed to make any money in the app store. Why should a developer develop your whole app for just a percentage of the money you are going to make? Just because you have a good idea? Most developers have good ideas too, and if they are going to risk not making anything for their hard work, they might as well balance that by doing their own work and making 100% of the profits.

Read the post here.

Springloops has a feature that will automatically copy your latest code to a server you specify, either automatically with every commit, or manually whenever you need it. Immediately I ran into a problem: Springloops will not fetch any code in an external repository and copy it to your server. This means that when we tried to auto-deploy our little app, all of the symfony files were missing!

Here is what their support (which was speedy, I might add, even for a free account like ours) says:

Unfortunately deploying externals is not supported at the moment. The reason is it slows down the entire process because our engine would have to download changelog and file contents from remote servers. We are working on a solution to speed it up, but for now you will have to upload it manually just like you said. You might consider using svn export rather than checkout to avoid placing “.svn” control directories on your server.

Good to know. So, given that information, here is a list of possible ways to easily deploy changes to your project:

• Use rsync. With symfony this is easy with the “project-deploy” command line tool. This is my preferred method because it’s just so darn easy, and lets me get away upload changes that aren’t yet committed to svn (gasp).
• Checkout a version of your project from SVN on your server. When it comes time to upgrade, do an “svn up” or “svn switch” to get the latest changes or switch to another tagged release.
• Do an svn export as suggested by the support guy to avoid placing the “.svn” directories on the server. If you don’t prevent access to these directories on your web server, it can pose a serious risk.