Monthly Archives: September 2010

Windows 2008 and MSSQL Server 2005 not allowing remote connections

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If you think you checked every setting in MSSQL Server that allows remote connections, you may have missed the Windows firewall setting. I have installed MSSQL 2005 many times on Windows 2000 Server, 2003, and 2008 and never ran into the remote connection problem. What’s happening is I’m unable to connection using the Management Studio on another machine into the server.

  • Checked the Configuration Tools/SQL Server Configuration Manager
  • Checked SQL Browser service is running
  • Pinged the IP address
  • Checked the Surface Area Configurations and made sure it allowed local and remote connections using TCP/IP only

It turns out that Windows firewall didn’t add MSSQL to the exceptions list. So here’s how you do it. Run firewall.cpl to bring up the Windows Firewall settings. On the left click on “Allow a program through Windows Firewall”. Make sure you are on the “Exceptions” tab and click on “Add program…”. If it’s not on the list, browse for the sqlservr.exe. You will find this in [INSTALL_DIR]\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe.

I never had this issue before. Not sure what caused it. Maybe Windows 2008 SP2. The versions I’m using are Windows Server 2008 RC2 and MSSQL Server 2005 Standard.

Debian5 Lenny and MySQL Server 5.1.x

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I am running Debian5 Lenny which is running Virtualmin and Webmin. The default configurations install MySQL server 5.0.51. MySQL’s website has version 5.1.x. I wanted to update the version on my Debian box. Unfortunately, Debian considers MySQL 5.0.51 as the stable version, while version 5.1.49 is considered unstable. You can install it by updating your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Add the following lines and save.

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ sid main
deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ sid main

After saving the file, update the apt-get.

apt-get update

You can continue to use apt-get and install the newer version of MySQL server or use the Webmin web gui. You can search for it under System/Software Packages, then search for “mysql-server”. You will see the newer version. Before you install it, make sure you have backed up your database, it will remove the old one.

It took some time to find the information. I had to browse different websites and piece together the information. It’s funny how something this common, is hard to find a solution to on one web page. I hope this helps Linux noobs like me out there. Do keep in mind that Debian considers this version of MySQL unstable.

Creating a CakePHP environment using MAMP and OS X

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This will show you how to create a CakePHP environment in MAMP on OS X. Here list of softwares used and their version.

  • OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard
  • MAMP version 1.91 (using PHP5.2.x)
  • CakePHP 1.2.8

You shouldn’t have to use MAMP 1.9.1. I have it working on version 1.8.x. You will need to change Apache’s port from 8888 to 80. Make sure there aren’t any other web servers running on the same port. Leave MySQL running on port 8889. We will be creating a /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/sites file that will store your virtual sites. It isn’t necessary but it’s easier to manage new sites on a separate file. You will need to edit the /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf file by adding the following lines of code.

# virtual hosts file
Include /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/sites

This will tell Apache to check the new sites file for additional configurations. So now, whenever you need to add or create a new site, you will edit the sites file and add the following code.

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /Users/username/Sites/projectname
ServerName projectname.local
</VirtualHost>

The value of DocumentRoot can be different. I just chose to put it in that folder. Now you will need to edit your /etc/hosts file by adding the following code.

127.0.0.1          projectname.local

Restart your MAMP server. Now unzip the CakePHP files into the projectname folder. You should now be able to view your new CakePHP site by directing your browser to http://projectname.local. This page will tell you that you need to change the default Security.Salt value. All you need to do is change at least one character and you will meet the requirement. You can also use Terminal to generate your own.

echo -n ‘foobar’ | openssl sha1

This will give you a 40 character string. You can use a mixture of upper and lower case on the letters. Copy and paste this value from Terminal to give a new Security.Salt value.

The next warning is your database. Rename the database file and edit it. Provide your database server information. Because MySQL in MAMP is using port 8889, you will have to edit the array and add the following.

‘port’ => ’8889′

There are notes in this file to help you further with additional array elements.

To use Terminal with the cake command, you will have to edit you ~/.bash_login file and create aliases. Here is the code to add to your .bash_login file.

# php
alias php5=”/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5.2/bin/php”

# cake for this project
alias cake=”php5 /Users/username/Sites/projectname/cake/console/cake.php”

To apply

. ~/.bash_login

You should be able to run

cake help

If you get a permission denied error, give it executable access with this.

chmod +x /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5.2/bin/php

That’s it. You can now start baking in a development environment. I know I have skipped a few steps but I’m assuming you know the basic commands and configurations. If not, please feel free to comment and ask questions. I’m still new with the MVC framework and CakePHP so go easy on questions regarding those. I am learning, slowly… haha!

Still looking for fast web development techniques

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I’ve been developing web sites for almost 10 years now. I’m still in search of a way to develop faster. I find myself doing things over and over again.

I use PHP as the programming language to develop the web apps with MySQL database. I started to look for different frameworks – but most use MVC and I don’t have time to learn it.

Some have suggested to do validation using MySQL. This helps a bit so I don’t have to write more PHP code to validate whether or not the record exists, foreign key constraints, etc. Plus it really is good practice to have these in place in the database layer.

Next I looked in to template engines to help with the layout of the site. It does help quite a bit but I’m still left with a lot of PHP code. I use Dreamweaver to write code and I used to use its automated code writing but I found it too messy and inefficient. Now I only use it because the FTP client is built in, has a file checkout system and in CS5 it can read included files so I have easy access to them. The error check is nice too. It catches many syntax errors right away. It can read used variables and be a part of the autocomplete feature.

I tried using existing systems like CMS or blogs (Joomla and WordPress). I figured I can create add-ons on top of an existing system. Joomla uses the MVC framework. WordPress on the other hand is easier to figure out how to build on top of it. Plus their documentation is really easy to follow. One of the limitations I found is the lack of access levels. Another is the pre-existing environment may not fit with a project since it’s so customized – better to be built from the ground up.

I’ve been peeking into the .NET framework off and on. I don’t primarily use Windows at all. I’m mostly on a Mac or using some sort of Linux flavor. I do have Windows7 running virtually on my MBP and iMac so I can play with it. I have played with Visual Studio and it felt easy to use plus it seemed to make developing quick. The drawbacks I’ve found are Windows hosting is more expensive than Linux hosting, IDEs are expensive and run mostly on Windows OS, and I don’t like creating online applications that can potentially only work with Internet Explorer (does not support web standards and only available on Windows OS).

Rails looks promising with the DRY (don’t repeat yourself) approach. I’ve tried to look into it and even bought some books and watched some screencasts. It’s a great language but I can’t seem to understand how to authenticate/authorize different users. They have many different plugins that I can use but each one uses their own way of doing it.

I guess I’ll keep looking. Either I’ll find time to learn MVC framework, get better at Rails, or someone will develop a new platform to speed up web development.