However this is not one post which should bring JIRA near to you. But if you know that you need it, now is best time to get it, because Atlassian started their “Get Startet” Price, which now allows you to by full functional JIRA for 10$ for ever even with one year support. All you need is a little bit of free CPU time, root access, 10$ and if you buy it outside of USA, you will need a credit card.

I installed it  for my private purposes and it works fine! I just followed Atlassian documentation (Read it carefully). Maybe, the easiest way is to install the “all in one” solution which comes with Apache Tomcat. I choosed that one. But don’t forget to switch to serious database before you start really using it. Take MySQL for example like I did.

I will not provide here step by step how to do it, because Simon has already described some of the important configurations moments as he heard about new pricing and as already mentioned the Atlassian installation guide is good and really answered all my questions.

Nevertheless feel free to ask questions here, about installation and configuration to.

Also i would like to discuss other Atlassian developer tools which also available for 10$. Is here outside someone experienced in bamboo?

However the copy procces of  Magento shop has following main steps

• duplication of database schema
• duplication of core sources
• duplication of downloader sources

Database

First, let me say say, that it is good idea to not install two Magento instances to the same database. Magento in  version 1.1.8 s has 198 database tables. Most of them are of type  InnoDB and they are  related with each other by checked foreign key constraints. That is background information.

So new database for every  Magento instance save you from having headaches  and this not only because having just two magento installation i one DB leads too approx. 400 tables in one database but more to avoid possible problems or side effects with constraints and Co. (e.g. ) .  .

The easiest way to export the database is to use phpMyAdmin. Go to export dialog of original database, select “zipped” option, select tabbles, let other options on their defaults (See screen 1) and get zipped download. Switch to new database and  upload the downloaded  there in the import dialog.

Sound as a piece of cake, but sometimes the import of the SQL files will not work. I have already seen many different exceptions bu trying. Beginning with “SQL Syntax..” and ending with “constraint violation…”.  In my opinion the purpose of problems is size of some tables and therefore of whole backup. There are few MyISAM tables that are full with (useless) log data. And the amount of this data makes problems to the import routine. Don’t export them first at time! they don’t have any constraint to other tables so you can import them on second or third turn. Alternative  you can export only the DDL-Statement of this table not the data itself.

Here are tables you can  omit in first step:

• log_url
• log_url_info
• log_visitor
• log_visitor_info

Don’t forget to change configured URL of origin shop to the  URLs of new shop in the table core_config_data. You can also use Search-Tool of phpMyAdmin and identify every record where old URL is used – but outside of core_config_data table  they are not so important and could be changed later in the Shop interface.

Core Sources

That is most easiest part. Just copy the source of magento to the new location, but don’t copy the following:

• downloader dir
• any content of dirs inside of var but .htacces file.
• media/tmp dir

If you use another DB for new Magento installation don’t forget to change DB setting in app/etc/local.xml file. Var directory hold any temporary content like sessions, caches and error-logs. Downloader is used by Magento connect module, before copy must do some preparations.

Magento Downloader

Warning! do not copy unchanged downloader to new location on the same server it may break your origin magento installation!

Now I got your attention The problem is that downloder stores serverpath in many many configuration files. And if you don’t change the serverpath  and  starts updates on  new shop copy, you will update the origin shop and not the new copy of it!

The server path of origin magento shop is stored in many many files in the downloader directory, you can’t change all of them manually. But you can do it automatically. If you have SSH access to your web-space  following command will help you:

//shows all files with OLD_PATH element

find  . -type f -exec grep -q "OLD_PATH" '{}' \; -print

//Replaces OLD_PATH string in all occurrences in every file to NEW_PATH

find . -type f -print | xargs sed -i -e ’s/OLD_PATH/NEW_PATH/g’

If you have only ftp access, then you can use [Alt+F7]-search in Total Commander. Then open each file with Notepad++ and then use “Search and Replace” functionality of Notepad++ on each file. Whole replacement willtake you max. 5 minutes.

After replacing old path you can upload downloader to the new instance of Magento.

Now everything including “Magento Connect” should work properly and independent form each othen on thow instances. The last thing my be useful   is to clear all caches in admin back-end of new instance. Good luck!

Open Question

This article describes how to double the Magento instance once. The next question which i didn’t answered for me yet is how to make permanent  mirroring of data from production environment to the test installation. Maybe someone has cool ideas?

Disclaimer

Please consider that I can’t guarantee that everything described here will work in your environment as it worked for me. Please use this tutorial as incitement and adopt my methods to your own situation. Be sure that you don’t peril origin Magento installation or other data. Do regular backup befor you begin!

The Problem

Every time on  the installation of Magento i saw following  exception.

Error in file: ".... app/code/core/Mage/Core/sql/core_setup/mysql4-install-0.8.0.php" - SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1005 Can't create table './db203484_1/#sql-1dd4_17baf.frm' (errno: 121)
Trace:
#0 .../app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Resource/Setup.php(286): Mage::exception('Mage_Core', 'Error in file: ...')
#1 ...app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Resource/Setup.php(166): Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Setup->_modifyResourceDb('install', '', '0.8.11')
#2 .../app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Resource/Setup.php(154): Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Setup->_installResourceDb('0.8.11')
#3 .../app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Resource/Setup.php(120): Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Setup->applyUpdates()
#4 .../app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Config.php(215): Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Setup::applyAllUpdates()
#5 .../app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/App.php(236): Mage_Core_Model_Config->init(Array)
#6 .../app/Mage.php(424): Mage_Core_Model_App->init('', 'store', Array)
#7 .../app/Mage.php(443): Mage::app('', 'store', Array)
#8 .../index.php(52): Mage::run()
#9 {main}

I tried installation with version 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.6 and 1.1.8 nothing helped…

You can find many threads on Magentocommere Forum to this issue. Some hints may help you once but do not solve the problem. I guess I don’t have solved problem globally. But I found the cause of the problem so everybody can solve it on his own way.

Cause of the exception

During the installation routine  many DB-Tables should be created in your Database. We talk here about MySQL Database.  So Magento begins with SQL-Statement that are holded in the mysql4-install-0.8.0.php. This file is also pintet in the Exception message as the causes of the problem.

I analysed the Statement and this came out..

Before any CREATE-Statement – Magento executes this:

SET SQL_MODE=''
SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@
FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0
SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE='NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO'

Then, after all tables and indexes  defined in  mysql4-install-0.8.0.php are created, magento executes following Statement.:

SET SQL_MODE=IFNULL(@OLD_SQL_MODE,'')
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=IFNULL(@OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS,0)

An the last row causes #1231 – Variable ‘foreign_key_checks’ can’t be set to the value of ‘0’ Exception which is finely identified by me as  the cause of such installation problems!

Solution

I did’n spend much time to find out why the Varibale SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS can’t be set to ‘0′, because it looks like MySQL bug.

However, it’s maybe not the finest solution but it helps. If you can drop the whole the database and create new one, then the installation works. It seems to set all the before settings back and installtion works fine on “vergin-Databases”.

If you  feel experienced in MYSQL and has an Idea how to overcome this problem without creating new Databases please make your comment !

I have fixed this problem now. Please use newest version of W-Popularity Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

No other functionality was changed in this release.

Google is kindly enough to try contact you i such case, when they about to throw your site out of the index because your site is malware infected or even is a malware distributor. In such one unlucky case you get the Malware Notification. Normaly this Notification goes to following addresses of your domain.

• abuse@
• admin@
• administrator@
• contact@
• info@
• postmaster@
• support@
• webmaster@

Therefore you are good advised to listen to at least one of them on your own domain.

The Malware Notification Mail points you to some affected URL’s (In my case there where two). Alterantive the same information could be found in Google Webmaster Tools

As next, you have to investigate the cause of this notification and clean your site. In best case you should find and fix the bug which was used for infiltration.

As you maybe remember my side was already attacked in the past, so I do not wander as much that such thing happen. Also in my case i did found the modifications on some post, where commented iframe with a linked to a bad site with and .php script was included. Maybe just some tracking or something like that. I wonder if such construct works still in any modern browser, but I’m not expert in such.

However as I think I also have found the source of the problem. I do not exactly understand how could it work in my case. But i seems to be the bad Trojan (By Antivir): HTML/Crypted.Gen.

Dancho Danchev describes a similar case. Maybe someone can tell me how exactly it worked in my case.

However. Now I have the newest version of Wordpress, newest Version of Plug-Ins and clean posts. I have notify Google through Google Webmaster Tools to check my site again. Hope they’ll do it in the nearest time.

What Google thinks about subdomains

Michael Wyszomierski answer this question in Official Google Webmaster Central Blog:

“What’s the difference between using subdomains and subdirectories? When it comes to Google, there aren’t major differences between the two, so when you’re making that decision, do what works for you and your visitors. Following PubCon, our very own Matt Cutts … on his personal blog. In addition to those considerations, if you use Webmaster Tools (which we hope you do!), keep in mind that you’ll automatically be verified for deeper subdirectories of any sites you’ve verified, but subdomains need to be verified separately.”

Google say it does not matter what you use for them, gives you only some more headache with using of Webmaster tools, but they refer to Matt Cutts – highly cited CEO Guru.

What Matt Cutts thinks about sub-domains

Mat Cutts says in his Subdomains and Subdirectories article:

“My personal preference on subdomains vs. subdirectories is that I usually prefer the convenience of subdirectories for most of my content. A subdomain can be useful to separate out content that is completely different. Google uses subdomains for distinct products such news.google.com or maps.google.com, for example. If you’re a newer webmaster or SEO, I’d recommend using subdirectories until you start to feel pretty confident with the architecture of your site. At that point, you’ll be better equipped to make the right decision for your own site.”

Even Google lies, we know that also Matt Cuts believe, that it does not matter what you use, but subdirectories are easier to maintain.

Conclusion

So this is a very good situation, when subdirectory and subdomain has no relevance in SEO sense. We can arrange them semantically and forget to consider strange optimisation rules you can find on the world wide web. Therefore i think sub-domains should be used to satisfy the following:

• Separating of Responsibility. E.g simon.zambrovski.org domain is part of zambrovski.org family’s domain. So when Simon does the administration for his subdomain, maybe his Grandpa does it for the zambrovski.org
• Separating of Subject. Subject must be in some own hierarchy. So e.g. Google.com of cause owns their product adsense.google.com witch is good example of separation Subjects.

In other cases i would use subdirectories.

By making of TusoCalendar I gained some experience in using of LightWindow, and recognize some disadvantages of that. First it is not really cross browser thing. Internet Explorer 6.0 does bad job, by non showing the window properly. And even 7th version of that Browser causes some confusing by some of people. Second i didn’t find the way to define the size of window hard, even greater as the visibly area of browser window. I would find it useful.

But now enjoy the calender! but be careful, it should not lead to an addiction like socialolism.

But there is one small problem i found, LightWindow does not work till the whole page is loaded. But that is not good, when i have multiply images on the same page and network speed is not good. LighWindow bases on prototype and I’m not familiar with that in the moment, and so unsure whether there is a way to quick as possible enable javascript execution.

I know, in jQuery it would work, cause there is a way to start execution of javascript already when DOM is loaded. Just put your code inside of:

$(document).ready(function() {
// put all your jQuery goodness in here.
});

Is there something similar in the Prototype? Does anybody know?

P.S. PlugIn Wordpresss that enables LightWindow for Wordpress, i have not testet it.

Everybody who ever searched for open source online shop system have heard about osCommerce. My first installation of this online shop was at least two years ago. For two years that system does not much impression on me, but i will install it again and try it out, cause it might be the one of the mightiest shop systems on the web (please correct me if you know better ones). Of cause mighty is not automatically good.

OsCommerece is based on PHP and MYSQL, the advantages of that are clear for every blogger. But there may be also many disadvantages that of such constellation. But they are not the theme of that article.

19:30

I have downloaded osCommerce v2.2 rc1. And now it’s in uploading process. That takes pretty much time, cause there are many files in the base already in the base installation. So there was time to check mails and write this post till here in parallel.

19:45

Upload is ready. Begin of setup…

19:46

Cool I like it. Nice Ajax front end provides possibility to setup DB credentials and server-path. After that you are able to set up the Store Name, Store owner name and password.

That’s it.

19:50

I can start play around. I see that default template that makes me ill… But let’s continue.

20:20

First impressions. Not bad, but also not so good. The base installation has awful template. But it works and brings already in base installation enough functionality to use shop productive. Functionality at glance:

• Support of Products and product categories.
• HTML based Product description.
• Definition of product attributes. That nice and allows user to define some characteristics of product instead of defining thousands of products with few varieties.
• Support of manufacturers management.
• Supports of bargain offers is nice to, but is may be to simple.
• Tax calculation support.
• Many payment possibilities, that can be enabled in the admin console.
• and other things like “awaited products” or user evaluation.

All in one the osCommerce system appears to me to be usable. Of cause with other template and maybe some additional plug-ins.

On the osCommerce site you can read about thousands of plug-ins, handling every situation of life. OK, i have to search them, then base functionality is not enough for my needs. Especially reporting system is not really provided in base version. But i need one extended in any case.

20:45

Thanks for your attention! I’m gone to search for new templates and useful plug-ins.

P.S. Please give me hints about other online shop systems and links to good osCommerce plug-ins!

As Ajaxian reports Sun has ground up rewritten the browser java Plug-in. Following was done in this rebuild.

• Improved scripting support (So java/javascript integration is better)
• Improved reliability
• Supports more powerful applets (applets can ask for more memory)
• Better windows vista support (signed applets)
• Enterprise features (run one applet in a particular JRE version)

The last point sounds very interesting for me. Earlier i have had much to do with applets, developing them for particular (old ) java version (corporate standard), but using in development newest version. So it was not always comfortable thing.

We will see what that plug-in brings!

New is, that there are two versions available Commercial and Free edition. But Free edition seems to bi still very functional, but of cause without support and some other obsolete features.

Some of the new features added to Aptana Studio 1.0 Community Edition:

• CSS Preview
• HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Formatting
• Code drag and drop
• Visual ScriptDoc Explorer
• Enhanced Dynamic Help System
• Tons of User Interface Polish

Some of the extra features added to Aptana Studio 1.0 Professional:

• JSON Editor
• Internet Explorer Debugging
• Remote Project Creation
• FTPS and SFTP Support
• Reporting Engine

Release notification!

Download

Enjoy!

You can select some famous Java Scripts(AJAX) Frameworks that will be automatically added to your project.

In the created project you will find already working examples wit the core libraries you has selected in the wizard before.
Finely here is an screenshot of auto-help, and auto-suggestions. This looks real powerful at for me.

Aptana is a new IDE, the current version is 0.2.7 but it already has some interesting features and it the best for me and my Java-scripts. Aptana rapidly gains community, and i thing this project will succeed in the future, and do it already right now. With new versions of Eclipse PHP IDE and Aptana, developers have, open source web development oriented IDE of the first class!