Configure a virtual host using XAMPP in windows

In this post you are going to learn how to configure a virtual host from a windows environment using XAMPP. XAMPP is pretty popular for all apprentices who really wanna learn their trade and it can’t get better than even having you own host instead of having to place everything  inside the htdocs folder. 

What do we mean by virtual host? Think of it as this , when you do domain name registration you start by doing a search to make sure that the name you look for is not taken. After you are successful then the next step involves getting a suitable host where your web application files will reside. In this post  we combine both those processes into one but only on your development machine.

1. Edit the file httpd-vhosts.conf found at the directory C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra.  Insert the following configuration script. 

<VirtualHost www.thetaitanstore.com:80>

    ServerAdmin admin@thetaitanstore.com

    DocumentRoot "D:\Virtual Sites hosted here\thetaitanstore"

    ServerName www.thetaitanstore.com

    ServerAlias thetaitanstore.com

   

    CustomLog "D:\Virtual Sites hosted here\thetaitanstore\logs\access" common

    <Directory />

           Options FollowSymLinks

           AllowOverride None

    </Directory>

    <Directory "D:\Virtual Sites hosted here\thetaitanstore">

           Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews

           AllowOverride FileInfo

           Order allow,deny

           allow from all

    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

2. Since we now have told Apache that we have a new site we are hosting let tell the connections controller that if we type the address www.thetaitanstore.com the browser wont try to somewhere on the internet but just redirect around the localhost. This is done by editing the hosts file.  Its located in this path

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

Insert the entry 

127.0.0.1  www.thetaitanstore.com

3. Now go on and restart Apache from services to detect the configuration changes. 

In the next post we will talk about how we can make this virtual host to support SSL(Secure Sockets Layer) communications. 

C# documentation using XML comments

During my initial days in the field of software development when the waterfall method was the in thing, we were told that documentation was a task that was to be performed somewhere at the end of the software development process. However as the number of modules get complex and with constantly changing requirements the agile development methodology has been adopted and also continuous documentation. This means that each developer can write documentation to their code such that if other developers have to access members the classes expose then they can be able to gain the advantages of IntelliSense.

We will need to take advantage of the C#'s XML documentation capabilities .

I will attempt to provide a basic approach subject to improvement that will be used.

If consistently used some of the benefits that we seek to  accrue are:-

1.       Being able to generate documentation using tools such as Ndoc.

2.       Provide Intellisense just like any other  .NET  framework assemblies.

Ok enough with the banter.

Recommended tags

1.       <summary></summary>

Provides a summary of the object

Should  be used to describe a type or a type member.

The text for the <summary > tag is the only source of information about the type in IntelliSense and  will also be displayed in the object Browser Window.

2.       <param></param>

This is the name of a method parameter. Enclose the name in double quotation marks("").

To document multiple parameters, use multiple param tags.

The test here will be displayed in Intellisense, the Object Browser, and in the code comment web report.

3.       <returns> </return>

This is a description of a methods return value

4.       <exception></exception>

This tags will let you specify which exceptions can be thrown. It can be applied for methods, properties, event and indexers.

It takes an attribute cref  whose value is a reference to an exception that is available form t he current compilation environment. Examples of values which go in there are:-

                                                                                             i.            System.ArgumentException

                                                                                           ii.            System.ArgumentNullException

                                                                                          iii.            System.InvalidOperationException etc.

Basic approach

1.       Write the code

2.       When satisfied that everything is complete place the cursor directly above the class, interface,  procedure etc. and  press the backslash(\) thrice(\\\). This will create a template for the XML tags. If it’s a methods with parameters , a param tag  for each one will be created.

3.       when building  remember to configure the  project  properties to export an XML file. This file should be named {projectname}.xml.

Sample code following the convention is given below.

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XP will die, will MySql follow too?

Death is something we have learnt to love to hate and apparently there is nothing we can do about it. The tech world is experiencing some very eminent deaths or maybe not. I will let you be the jury and judge because it is obvious the executioner will be somewhere in some board house.

 Well we now know for sure that the clock is ticking for windows XP and fast for that matter. The deadline for its support is in 2014. In the US windows 7 use has superseded XP and now the 10 year old tradition is about to end. I have a desktop machine that I bought way back when I was an undergraduate. It stacked somewhere and I use when I want to test stuff here and there. So what now for my old guard? Does it mean I won’t have a use for it? Does it mean that I will no longer be able to work with it? It is obvious I can’t run windows 7 on it for its specifications are way below. Of course I can still be able to run windows XP on my machine. The problem is that once Microsoft stops its support then it will instantly become a hacker’s malware haven. Without patches on common known bugs then the only solution may only be keeping the system completely offline, disconnected from the rest of the world. But what is the use of keeping offline in the world where virtualization and the cloud are being mentioned in every second sentence.

 But after reading this article by Microsoft http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/upgrade-to-windows-8, most of my worries were where quelled. They say that I and most of my kind will be able to upgrade to windows 8 without much of a hassle, expect that I will need to re-install the apps after the upgrade.

 On the other hand our so much loved Open source DBMS MySql lies in murky waters after Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems. This is the greatest cause of anxiety as we all know that MySql is a direct competitor to Oracles proprietary products. If the resignations seen by various software engineers are anything to go by, then we know we are in for a ride of our lives.

 During a discussion with a friend, he said that the death of MySql is improbable because the community is quite large and it could also serve as a publicity platform for Oracle. Beside several forks already exist with the leader in line being MariaDB. I actually am already playing around with it and am all loving. I should be blogging about it in the next few weeks’ right here.

Just as I said the execution of these two is totally out of our control. We can blog about it all we want and with Microsoft having already given an ultimatum we will keep our fingers crossed on what Oracle will say about MySql. So different Systems yet so similar destiny. #just saying.

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Creating a MySql view from phpmyadmin

Recently a friend of mine contacted on how to simplify a query. The query in question involved so many joins that were even to him getting a little frustrating trying to master every property . So we set out on the voyage. The solution to his problem being creating a view which would simplify his query from what is shown here below to a simple select * from view_name.
1. Open phpmyadmin by using the address http://localhost/phpmyadmin from your favorite browser.

2. This should list on the left all the databases that mysql server on your machine is hosting. Click on the database that has the tables you are reading data from. Am assuming you keep all related data in the same database.

 3. Click on the SQL tab. This should give you a large text area where you will be required to paste your original apparently large query.

 4. Run the query by clicking “GO”.

5. This should return a result set if the query is ok. It’s at this point that we create a view which upon select * from it will give us exactly the same result as what we currently have from the complex query. A query like the one in the image below might need simplification.

At the bottom of this page you will usually see various options.

6. Click on the CREATE VIEW option. It returns a similar page as the image below. Give the view a name and check the CASCADED CHECK OPTION. When done click “GO”.

NOTES We now have a view which follows the table specified in the query. The cascaded check option means that we have a bidirectional communication between the view and the related tables. If we delete anything from the view it’s deleted from the table and the reverse is also true. We can access the same data now by simply using a simple select query.

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ONLINE STREAMING

If you are reading this post, you are most definitely experiencing a sigh of relief for I have been away and you thought am never coming back. Well I did some serious soul searching about what I really wanna do with this blog and my decision is I have to carry on.

That’s enough banter for somebody who has been away for so long. So today we will be talking about streaming online content. This again is not a definition class but a familiarization one. Streaming basically refers to the transmission of content over some media while the provider is providing (for lack of a better term) it. It so happens that the end-user can begin playing the data before the entire file has been received. The rationale here is that sometime slow internet connections for instance make 3 minutes audio file take 10 minutes to download.

The age old concept of buffering to make viable the playback of multimedia content while it’s still being downloaded is used. A buffer holds a reservoir of content sufficiently large to smooth out the bumps in playback that may be caused by momentary server sluggishness or network congestion.

Now here is the catch about streaming, it’s much more economical in terms of the load on the server. How is this so? This is because it sends out a single stream of data in which all the clients will be able to access. This is different from downloading because here there has to be a separate thread set up to service each request which is costly on the server performance.

Of course YouTube and MySpace lead the way together with the many radio and television channels now streaming live.

One of the Kenyan channels you can check out online and is reliable is:-

 http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/listenlive/

Then I stumbled upon this website. Don’t take my word for it go check it out.

http://www.surfmusic.de/country/kenya.html it claims to have the link to all radio stations for live radio streaming.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

LETS TALK ABOUT PHISHING

This is not a class of definition of terms so am not gonna define what phishing is. However its is important to note that phishing is a serious security issue especially in the face of social networking. Alot of sites will masquerade as genuine sites while attempting to gather personal information such as username, passwords, credit card numbers etc. Oops i think i just defined  phishing, no harm anyway.

Now am gonna use an example here of a website masquerading as twitter. if you click on this link. you will be redirected to a page which resembles the twitter login but after close scrutiny you will realize that there are alot of differences.

So what do users need to look out for?

1. Check out the address. 

The first address  is clearly not twitter and all one needs to do is make sure that they spare just a few seconds to verify the spelling in the address. You know contrary to popular maxim its never a machine error but a human one.

2. check out website identity by use of security certificate.

This might seem like a very complicated process but its simple and based on the step above. If you farther want to confirm the validity of the website click on the left of the address as shown below. 

Well the images are not very sharp but they serve the purpose just as well. what we are relying on here are the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates. The genuine twitter address provides ownership information and the verifying authority also known as certificate authority. On the other hand the other address doesn't provide any information and therefore providing your username and password will only mean that you are selling yourself. 

So make sure you double check and be responsible for your security while in the cyber space.

WHEN WAS THIS WEBSITE LAST UPDATED?

This is one of those questions most people tend to ask themselves quite often. Well ask no more for in this post you will find out precisely when to the nearest second. I am not sure about using other website images on my blog due to copyright issues so am gonna use the sister blog for demonstration. You can visit it by clicking on this link.

As you will see, it’s clearly indicated that the post was made on May 14^th 2012. However we need to ascertain whether that is true.  Am using Mozilla firefox  version 3.6 by the way. 

1.      On the menu bar click on tools.

2.      Then click on page info. 

 

1.      This brings up a popup window as the one show below.

As you will see under the general tab there is just so much information about the current web page. Specifically this one confirms that I actually made that post on may the 14^th. Visit any other site and it will give you the same information and also whether is an encrypted website and if so the algorithm used!!

SO HOW LONG HAS THE WEBSITE BEEN UP?

For whatever reason you might want to find out how long a website has been running. Well you simply follow this link. Use the way back machine which will give you an experience like a time machine on how a certain website looked the first time it went live and all the changes that it has been through.