As I described in my previous post, I’m experimenting with a number of new technologies. I have started to build this framework for a WordPress theme which will showcase the power of CSS3 @media queries. So, while you’re here, scale your browser to see the different @media queries in action, and why not take a peek using your smartphone, or if you have one, your iPad. When you’re there, give it a twist and see what it looks like in portrait and landscape.

Funky EH! Right, I’m off to do a little more coding before going to visit my nephew, who’s celebrating his first birthday.

Using a raft of the latest tech plenty of testing and experimentation has been creeping it’s way into my daily routine. Armed with a laptop with two external screens, a couple of ‘standard (single screen)’ laptops and PCs accompanied with a small handful of smartphones and a tablet:

• Lenovo T500 – 1680×1050 – Windows 7
  • Dell P2210H 1080×1920 (portrait)
  • Dell P2210H 1920×1080 (landscape)
• Toshiba Tecra – 1024×768 – Ubuntu 10.04
• Dell Optiplex GX520 – 1280×1024 – Windows XP
• Apple iPad – 1024×768 – iOS 3.2.2
• Apple iPhone 3G – 320×480 – iOS 3.1.3
• HTC Desire HD – 480×800 – Andriod 2.2

These tools of the trade allow me to see my projects on many different devices, so, as a result I’m going to be using this blog as a testing area for a ground-up build of a wordpress blog incorporating a bunch of ideas. Many of which may fail, so if it’s spannered at any time you’ll know why.

So, first up is Elliot Jay Stocks‘ Starkers WordPress theme, this awesome bad-boy of a theme is right up my street as a web designer, it provides me with the bare-bones ‘naked’ theme for me to apply a bespoke design from scratch.

Couple that with the baddass HTML5 Boilerplate code, giving me access to the most top-notch tricks to get a full-on HTML5 website started off on the right foot.

Then….. An even awesomer revelation!! Aaron T. Grogg has got his shizzle out and performed an amalgamation of Starkers and Boilerplate in the form of a WordPress theme called Boilerplate: Starkers WordPress theme!.

I can hardly believe my eyes.. So much help and assistance out there on the interweb these days.. – love you guys -

THEN…. (Yup, it’s not over yet…) I scoot on over to Less Framework 3 and shave the CSS from here with all it’s @media queries. Providing me with a foundation for tailoring the theme to a number of different width layouts. I strip out the reset stuff as that exists in the Boilerplate theme by default. Rock on over to WordPress.org Child Themes and use this info to create myself a child theme of Boilerplate.

As a result, I end up with this wonderful baseline of a theme, all ready and waiting for me to apply my limited knowledge to. I’m certain that I’ll learn plenty from this process and expect to be able to apply this new found wealth to my lucky customers.

So, far, so good.. I’ll now evolve this theme steadily as I learn how to utilise all this wonderment.

The following day I attempted to login to the Magento admin area only to be presented with a 404 error!  Geez, what a pain.

After doing a bit of forum bashing I found the solution I was after:-

http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/37202/P30/#t121336

For those with the same problem as mine… (can’t login after upgrade, and don’t have ssh capabilities,) I have found a workaround. It worked for me, but I can’t guarantee it will work for you, so proceed at your own risk. I am not the most tech-saavy guy, I just figured it out by looking at the error.

1.)The first thing to do is download the entire magento 1.3 package. Unzip it, and go into Magento->app->code->core->Mage->Adminhtml->Model->Url.php Grab the Url.php file.

2.)Go to your server, and into your directory where you have magento installed. go to app->code->core->Mage->Adminhtml->Model and replace the Url.php file.

3. Clear the cache in your browser and try logging in again.

4. At this point, if you were able to get in, I suggest that you go to magento connect and properly upgrade. Worked for me. I hope it works for you.

After following these steps I was able to login without a problem. -phew-

Then, to top it off the dropdown menus were not working in the admin area!  Checking Firebug I found this was due to the javascripts 404-ing.  Another dose of forum searching it was apparent that this was a common problem (I had experienced it before myself) the /js folder and contents had the wrong permissions following the upgrade.

I opened FireFTP logged into the site and changed the permissions on the /js folder and all it’s contents to 755.  This has sorted that problem, so I’m happy now.

All in all it looks like these problems I encountered after the upgrade are now sorted, let’s hope that’s the last of them and the next upgrade will go smoother.

]]> http://andij.com/2009/04/16/problems-accessing-admin-after-upgrading-to-magento-1_3_0/feed 3 http://andij.com/2008/10/15/sfimagetransformplugin-released http://andij.com/2008/10/15/sfimagetransformplugin-released#comments Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:34:46 +0000 andij http://andij.com/?p=69 Continue reading →]]> Stuart Lowes has released sfImageTransformPlugin 0.1.0 for Symfony. This plugin is for manipulating images using the GD or ImageMagick libraries.

A simple to use and flexible image manipulation symfony plugin. The plugin allows you to perform “transforms” on an image. A transform maybe simple like a resizing or mirroring or more complex like overlays and pixelizing. The transforms can be chained together or applied individually. New transforms can be simple created by extending the sfImageTranform abstract class.

Download

http://plugins.symfony-project.org/sfImageTransformPlugin

Plugin page

http://www.symfony-project.org/plugins/sfImageTransformPlugin

Examples

Starting with the original image:-

Here is an example of a transform that:-

• scales ‘logo.png’ by 50%

public function executeDemo1()
{
 $img = new sfImage(sfConfig::get('sf_upload_dir') . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'logo.png', 'image/png');
 $response = $this->getResponse();
 $response->setContentType($img->getMIMEType());

 $img->scale(0.5);

 $response->setContent($img);

 return sfView::NONE;
}

Result:-

Here is an example of a transform that:-

• flood fill’s ‘logo.png’ at ‘x100,y170′ with #000000
• scales by 50%
• rotate by 120%
• draw a rectancle of 5 pixels around edge and colour it #00FF00
• write the text “bathcamp 2008″ at ‘x10,y10′ 10px Verdana coloured #FF9900

public function executeDemo5()
{
 $img = new sfImage(sfConfig::get('sf_upload_dir') . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'logo.png', 'image/png');
 $response = $this->getResponse();
 $response->setContentType($img->getMIMEType());

 $img->fill(100,170)->scale(0.5)->rotate(120)->rectangle(1, 1, $img->getWidth() - 1, $img->getHeight() - 5, 5, '#00FF00')->text('bathcamp 2008', 10, 10, 10, 'Verdana', '#FF9900');

 $response->setContent($img);

 return sfView::NONE;
}

Result

Stunami has provided a collection of transforms for the GD and ImageMagick libraries.

]]> http://andij.com/2008/10/15/sfimagetransformplugin-released/feed 1 http://andij.com/2008/08/31/stop-the-annoying-camera-connected-dialogue-when-connecting-iphone-to-windows-xp http://andij.com/2008/08/31/stop-the-annoying-camera-connected-dialogue-when-connecting-iphone-to-windows-xp#comments Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:02:33 +0000 andij http://andij.com/?p=26 Continue reading →]]> Every time I dock my iPhone on Windows XP I get a popup asking me if I’d like to launch an application. Well you know what? All I wanna do is stand it in it’s dock and allow it to charge.

So, to get round this pain in the arse problem follow these simple steps:-

1. Ensure that your iPhone is connected
2. Open ‘My Computer’
3. Right Click on the ‘Apple iPhone’ icon
4. Select Properties
5. Pick the Events tab
6. Choose ‘Take no action’
7. Click ‘OK’

Now when you dock your iPhone the popup will not annoy you.

]]> http://andij.com/2008/08/31/stop-the-annoying-camera-connected-dialogue-when-connecting-iphone-to-windows-xp/feed 34