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So, we’re building a blog in CodeIgniter.

So far, we’ve covered:

• Part A :: Understanding MVC
• Part B :: Getting Started with Code Igniter
• Part 1 :: Building a Basic Blog in Code Igniter // Planning out our project
• Part 2 :: Building a Basic Blog in Code Igniter // Getting the Basic Pieces Set Up
• Part 3 :: Building a Basic Blog in Code Igniter // Setting up the Database

Today, we’ll look at getting our config file set up to talk to that database we built.

Go to your site files. Go to system > application > config >

There are two files that we’ll be concentrating on: config.php and database.php

Let’s open up config.php first.

The first order of business is fixing the base url on line 14. In my case, I’ll change it to http://localhost/awesome_ci/ If you’re using MAMP (I wrote a post about getting MAMP up running), then your address will probably look something closer to http://localhost:8888/awesome_ci/ (In either case, make sure you leave that / on the end!)

Next, scroll down to line 220 and look at the Encryption Key. Depending on the type of project you’re working on, you might not need this, but let’s go ahead and set it for fun.

One of the (many) things I love about CodeIgniter, is that they’re code is well documented. Straight from their documentation:

To take maximum advantage of the encryption algorithm, your key should be 32 characters in length (128 bits). The key should be as random a string as you can concoct, with numbers and uppercase and lowercase letters. Your key should not be a simple text string. In order to be cryptographically secure it needs to be as random as possible.

To keep my keys as random as possible, I’ll typically use a generator. A quick google search returned randomkeygen.com. There’s even a section there for CodeIgniter Encryption Keys. Perfect!

Pick one of the 3 options there and copy and paste it into your config file.

That was easy.

Now, let’s look at the database.php file. This is pretty straight forward too. Scroll down to line 40.

The first thing you have to do is set your database host. If you’re developing locally, it will stay “localhost.” However, if you’re building the site online, this might look different. You’ll have to check GoDaddy or MediaTemple or HostGator or whoever’s documentation.

On line 41 and 42, you need to set your username and password. If you’re running MAMP, it will actually tell you all this information on the start screen.

On line 43, you’ll set the name of the database. If you’re following along, in Part 3, we named our databae awesome_ci.

When you’re done, your file should look like this:

I told you it wasn’t anything crazy! Our config file is now up and running.

So you’ll believe me when I say I’ll actually finish this series. Here’s what’s coming up:

• Building the blog listing page
• Building the back end (Part 1)
• Building the back end (Part 2)
• Building an individual blog post page with comments
• Finishing Touches
• Other Tips and Tricks: Creating a United States library
• Other Tips and Tricks: Auto Complete
• Other Tips and Tricks: AJAX

So, get excited!

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Tungle.me

http://www.tungle.me

I had a group of people where we all needed to schedule a conference call. Trying to synchronize all 4 of our schedules proved far more difficult than I expected. This service, however, allows everyone to look at their calendar and mark their availability. At the end, you can see where all your schedules overlap and what time(s) work for everyone.

FreeConference.com

http://www.freeconference.com

Once we had the conference call scheduled, we had to find a service that would allow us to actually make the conference call. Lame, maybe, but I just googled free conference call and this was the first result that appeared. It proved to be quite helpful. With my free account, not only does it allow me to schedule a conference call and send out invitations, but it also gives me a number where I can create a conference call on demand. At the end, as the administrator, I’m emailed a report of the call.

Go To Meeting

http://www.gotomeeting.com

I’ve heard Leo Laporte advertise this service for a few years on his podcast. I had never had any experience witht he service until a couple weeks ago. I was on a call with a freelance client on the other side of the country. He sent me a Go to Meeting invite. It was super easy to set up. Before long, I was looking at his computer screen where he could easily explain the project and what he needed.

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I feel like my blog is proportionate to how busy I am. If I’ve got work to do, I don’t blog (and vice versa). I’m trying to find more balance. I promise. I think blogging is a lot harder, though, than people make it out to be. Besides, you have a few people out there that do it really well (*COUGH* Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuck, Darren Rowse, and Chris Brogan) and make it look effortless to the rest of us.—All that’s neither here nor there. I did want to poke my head up, though, and share some (well one) of the things that I’ve been working on.

I designed this landing page for Kairos on Campus. It’s the college branch of Kairos. They had talked to me a few weeks ago about creating a site. I didn’t have enough time to launch a full site by the time school started back, but I could create a landing page that would at least tell students about upcoming events.

I was really pleased with the way the site turned out. I think we’ve set ourselves up well for the art direction of the full fledge site.

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Two reasons: (1) I knew that if I wanted to upgrade to Lion I would need to upgrade to Snow Leopard first. (2) It was getting to the point that I couldn’t use software / versions were no longer be supported because I was still running Leopard.

Pros

I’ll start off by saying nice things:

• My computer runs so much faster!
• I got 30 GBs of my hard drive back
• I got some new apps in the App Store (Yeah, I couldn’t run the App Store before)

Cons

I ran into a few issues. It took me about a day to get all the kinks worked out. I’ve spent more time the past week in the Terminal than I have in a long time. Fortunately, I’ve waited long enough to upgrade that I was able to Google all my issues and find documentation on everything. So, while I might be repeating information that’s already available on the Internet, I thught I’d document my experience as well.

Snow Leopard broke my local development

All the websites I work on I first build locally. It’s so much faster than having to upload files each time I make a change, however large or small. A while back, I wrote about running MAMP on your computer. (MAMP actually survived the upgrade.) MAMP is the easiest solution to getting PHP and MySQL running, but I actually have PHP and MySQL installed.

It’s one of those things that you get up and running once and then you can forget about it. It became painfully obvioius that that’s exactly what I had done: forget about it. I hadn’t looked at it since 2008, when I bought this machine. In 3 years, I’ve definitely slept some.

First off, I know just enough about the Terminal to be dangerous. — And the Terminal is dangerous. You accidentally type the wrong thing and POOF, a directory is gone. So, my fear of the Terminal is probably a healthy one.

So, my issue: I got ready to load one of the sites I had been working on. PHP was fine, MySQL was not. I went to phpMyAdmin to check my databases. Everytime I tried to log in, I got the following message Error #2002 – The server is not responding (or the local MySQL server’s socket is not correctly configured). Great!

Everything that I read on the forums and blogs said that my database files were still there, the link was just broken. I tried running a few things to fix the link. I tried updating the MySQL socket, nothing seemed to work. I was able to cut my loses. Then, I found a post on MySQL’s site. Their story sounded very similar to mine. Their solution (which worked): download and install a program called MacPorts. It keeps MySQL up to date as well as fixed the broken mySQL links — Follow the link because you have to run a few Terminal commands after MacPorts is installed.

The hardest part about installing MacPorts was that it had to have an updated version of XCode running first.

Snow Leopard doesn’t recognize my printer

I have an Epson Deskjet 5100. I got this printer for free when I bought my first Mac, a G4 PowerBook in 2004. They were running a special deal. Buy a printer for $99 with a mail-in rebate for $99. Sign me up!

As trusty as that printer has been, Snow Leopard didn’t agree with me. I found an alternate driver (GutenPrint /  GimpPrint) that I installed. Since, then it will print like a champ, but it still doesn’t like color. This does the trick for now, but I might be buying a new wireless printer before too long.

iTunes stopped recognizing my iPhone and iPad.

I got ready to sync my iPad and it wouldn’t show up in iTunes. Really? I tried plugging in my iPhone. Still nothing. I finally found this post: Mac OS X v10.6 or later: iOS devies not reognized by iTunes after restart. It did the trick. If you’re worried, I didn’t loose any of my media. I just had to delete some preference files. Since then, it hasn’t been a problem.

Suitcase wouldn’t run Fusion Core

Honestly, I don’t know if this is related to upgrading or not. As a designer, I use Extensis Suitcase to manage all my fonts. For the non designer, it allows me to have thousands of fonts on my computer without bogging it down. I only activate the fonts I need as I need them.

With the version I have, Suitecase Fusion 2, it has to run Fusion Core (whatever that is). If you look under the System Preferences, you can start and stop the Fusion Core. Well, I couldn’t get it to start. When this has happened in the past, I’ve been able to log out and log back in, or restart my computer and it’s fixed it. But, that didn’t work this time.

I found a post on Extensis’s site talking about a corrupted prefernece file. Again, another Terminal solution. I haven’t had any problems since.

Conclusion

Even though I ran into several hiccups along the way, I wouldn’t go back to Leopard. I might get philsophical for a minute, but anytime there’s change that’s bound to be a some pain. — that’s why they call it growing pains. But, in the end, I think we’re all better for it. There were obviously issues with Leopard, otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten 30GB of my harddrive back when I upgraded!

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The humidity finally came down yesterday to something less than what it was. I took advantage of it and went running after work. I’m definitely looking forward to the fall when it’s even cooler than what it was yesterday. I’m such a wimp in the heat.

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This is a tote that I designed this week for the Dot Mom event we’re doing at LifeWay. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication and this will never see the light of day (other than, here).

My favorite part: Mom Jeans. And for that:

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Me and my sisters, in line to get ice cream.

While we were waiting for breakfast at the pier house, I walked out on the pier with my camera.

I just posted some of my favorite pictures from our annual beach trip on my Flickr account.

When I got back last year, I wrote about tradition. This year, I thought a lot about sharing.

My sister is getting married this weekend. Next year, Brent will join us on our annual trip. There’s something sacred about sharing this place with someone else. There are so many memories and traditions we have there. It’s something I look forward to every year. And next year, we’ll be expanding our circle.

But, I think that’s the beautiful thing about marriage. It’s not replacing. It’s not all leaving and cleaving. It’s sharing. It’s about expanding the circle. It’s a blending of traditions and a merging of lives. Living life together. Sharing.

That’s all we really want anyways, right? Someone to live life with. Someone to share moments with. Successes and failures. Joys and heartaches. Laughing and crying. Not just the big, significant milestones, but the small things too, the things that often get overlooked that make up so much of who we are.

Yeah, the beach is about sharing. Sharing part of who we are with each other.

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