Archive for the ‘Web’ Category

Intro to WordPress

WordPress is one of the many options available to bloggers who are looking for a free online software which makes it incredibly easy to publish their own blog. This software is easy to use, provides a variety of templates and offer excellent support for new and experienced bloggers alike. Again this is just one of the options for starting a blog as there are many options available to bloggers and other blogging programs may offer slightly different features but many bloggers are quite pleased with WordPress. This article will offer some useful information for those who are interested in starting a blog with WordPress such as: reasons to choose WordPress, tips on starting a blog and information about the support offered by WordPress. Based on this information as well as their own research you as an individual can decide whether WordPress is right for you or whether you should seek out a different blog network.

Reasons for choosing WordPress

There are many great reasons to choose WordPress to start a blog. Some of these reasons include a great variety of templates, the ability to categorize and tag posts easily, features such as spell check, previews and autosave, the ability to post text, audio files and video files, a variety of privacy options and the ability to track statistical data related to the blog in addition to other great features. WordPress also offers a vast amount of third-party plug-ins which can add additional functionalities. Some of these features may be more important to some bloggers than others so deciding whether or not WordPress is right for you will largely be a matter of personal preference. For example bloggers with little or no programming experience may enjoy the myriad of templates available on WordPress while bloggers who are concerned about privacy issues may be more interested in the privacy options available through WordPress. Carefully investigating these features will help you determine if you should start a blog with WordPress or look elsewhere to fulfill your blogging needs.

Starting a Blog with WordPress

This is a very simple process, I guarantee it. If you opt to start a blog with WordPress you will certainly not be disappointed by the amount of time it takes to start a blog. A blogger can literally start a blog with WordPress within minutes. This is tremendously important to bloggers who are eager to get started and do not want to deal with a long process to start a blog. The only requirements for starting a blog are a valid email address and a username. You, the blogger enter this information into the signup page and receive a password almost instantly. Next the you simply have to check your email, follow the activation link provided and use the password provided and the process is complete. You can start blogging immediately.

Support Offered by WordPress

For many first time bloggers the type of support offered is very important. This is because first time bloggers may have quite a few questions about the process of starting a basic blog and once they establish a basic blog they may have additional questions about using advanced features and customizing the blog. WordPress offers a great deal of support for bloggers of all skill levels. The support offered by WordPress includes the ability to contact the support staff as well as the ability to receive support from other members through online forums.

This seems to be a very popular topic and some of the directions out on the web are not very clear as to how to accomplish this. As it is something I myself have had to revisit lately I thought I would share my collected info with you.

First off, there are two different ways to increase the memory limit on a hosting account (if the host permits it.) You could either change it in the .htaccess file or the php.ini file. I will be covering both, so if one method doesn’t work for you please try the other.

The servers php.ini file is normally located in unreachable location (unless you are on a VPS or virtual  private server), which means that only the hosting company would be able to edit it. There is however a catch, you can, in most circumstances, create one in your root directory and it will override the servers. To do so follow the steps below. I will be covering cPanel as it is what I and most others on shared or reseller hosting are using.

1.) Login to cPanel. If you don’t know how to do this I will create another article for that specific purpose.

2.) Scroll down until you see the “File Manager” and click to select it.

3.) Another window will pop-up. Select “Web Root” and check the box that says “Show Hidden Files“, it should be the first check box.

4.) Once in the file manager window, in the upper left hand corner click on “New File.” Enter the name “php.ini” without the quotes. Then click Create New File to save it.

5.) Click on your file in the file list to select it. Then click Code Editor to open it in the web editor. In the pop-up window just click Edit.

Here is where we will enter the code to override the server configuration. Again this will only work if your web host allows it.

The code is:

memory_limit = 8M

Also be sure to replace the number “8″ with how many megabytes of memory you need. Also be warned that some host will not allow more than a certain amount of memory to be used by a single user so check with your host first to avoid any confrontation.

(Note: If the above works for you, you do not need to edit the .htaccess file. You will only need to edit one or the other. Do not edit both!)

Now for the .htaccess file:

Follow the above steps 1-4 only this time name the file to be created .htaccess instead of php.ini.

Then add this line of code and replace the “16″ with the amount of memory in megabytes you need.

php_value memory_limit 16M

(Note: After editing either the .htaccess or php.ini files click the Save Changes button in the upper right-hand corner.)

That should be it! Easy as pie. If this helped you or even confused you in any way please post a comment so that I may try to help solve the issue. Thanks.

To access a email account created with cPanel you have two different options.

1.) You can access it through cPanel; or
2.) Directly via a web address.

1a.) To access your webmail accounts through cPanel you must first go to cpanel.yourdomainname.com (Note: Be sure to replace “yourdomainname.com” with your correct domain name and extension.)

1b.) A login window will pop-up. Enter your cPanel credentials.

1c.) Next look in the right hand side of the cPanel window for a box that looks like the screenshot below. Click on “Webmail“.

1d.) Then click on the “Secure Webmail Login” icon. It should look like the one pictured below.

1e.) This should bring up another window that will require you to enter your username and password. Your username will be your full email, (i.e. webmaster@eternalphoenixworld.com), and your password will be the one you entered when setting up the email address.

(Note: The following method is easier and more direct.)

2a.) In your web browser navigate to webmail.yourdomainname.com (Remember to replace “yourdomainname.com” with your domain name and extension.

2b.) Enter your full email address for the username and your password for that email address and you should be good to go!

That concludes the third installment of the cPanel Series. If you found this useful please leave a comment. Like wise if it was difficult to follow, also leave a comment so I may correct the confusing part. I am here to help.

This tutorial will show you how to add a database in cPanel. This is useful for manually installing content management systems, blogging softwares, and any other scripts that rely on a database to function. (Basically anything that uses PHP) Let’s get started…

1.) Log in to your cPanel Hosting account. To access cPanel you should navigate to either http://cpanel.mywebsite.com or http://mywebsite.com:2082 (Note: You will need to replace “mywebsite.com” with your domain name and extension, this is normally .com)

2.) Once logged in, look on the right hand side for a box similar to the one below. Click on MySQL Database Wizard.

3.) This is the easiest way to create a database as all you really have to do is fill in the fields and it does the rest of the work for you. As seen in the first screen shot, you will need to choose a database name, on the second screen you will need to choose a user name, and password. Then on the third you will need to select the permissions your user will have to the database specified in step one.

(Note: When entering the database name and user name into your script such as Joomla! remember that your cPanel user name with an underscore will precede the database name and user name for the database. e.x. If your database and user name are both “test” and your cPanel user name is “testing” then your full database and user name will be “testing_test”)

4.) If you found this tutorial useful please leave a comment. Thanks.

This tutorial will show you how to add an email address to your cPanel web hosting account.

1.) Log in to your cPanel Hosting account. To access cPanel you should navigate to either http://cpanel.mywebsite.com or http://mywebsite.com:2082 (Note: You will need to replace “mywebsite.com” with your domain name and extension, this is normally .com)

2.) Once logged in, look on the right hand side for a box similar to the one below. Click on Email Accounts.

3.) Here is where you will add your email address. type the username you want into the box next to the word “Email,” either type a password and confirm it or click on the generate password to have a random one made, and set the quota to your desired limit. The default of 250mb in my opinion is more than enough for a regular email address. Once completed it should look similar to the screen shot below.

4.) Click create and it will be added to the list of email addresses below.

(Note: If you look to the right of an email address in the list you will see four icons. Delete account (its pretty obvious what that does), Change quota (this will let you change how much space the mail box is allotted), Change Password (also obvious and equally useful), and Configure Mail Client which will show how to configure Microsoft Outlook and other mail clients. The icons are shown below.

5.) If you like this tutorial please leave a comment. Thanks!

MeasureIt 0.3.9

by Kevin Freitas

Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.

Support:

Support for this add-on is provided by the developer at http://www.kevinfreitas.net/extensions/

Comments:

I, as a web developer, have found this to be very useful. I have many a time been stuck in a situation where a client likes the size of something on another website, and until this add-on it was very difficult to judge what the dimensions where. I would recommend this to novice and advanced users because of its ease of use, and scale of usefulness.

Web Developer 1.1.8

by chrispederick

The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.

Support:

Support for this add-on is provided by the developer at http://chrispederick.com/work/web-developer/help/

Comments:

Ever needed to know what CSS styles were being applied where on a website? Or maybe just wanted to understand more about the layout? Then this is the add-on for you. It allows for the display of numerous important information about a website. Including: Cookies, CSS, Forms, Images, Misc. Information, Outline, Source Code, and many other options. Though this is a very useful tool, I would not recommend it for anyone below a moderate understanding of web design as it does have a learning curve.