I have nearly completed my new portfolio site. I developed the Flash Movie on my Windows machine, but the rest of the development (Joomla, etc) has been done on my Ubuntu box. I’m using ActionScript’s ExternalInterface Class for this project. During integration, I learned that the Javascript code on Linux is a bit different than the code needed for Windows.
Posts Tagged ‘Ubuntu’
I’m redesigning my portfolio site and decided to use Joomla. I just installed it on my Ubuntu box. It wasn’t difficult, but it could have been easier.
First I downloaded Joomla from here. I had the option of download a nightly build, but I wanted the latest stable version.
For some reason that I still have not been able to determine, I can no longer open Aptana Studio on my Ubuntu box. The splash screen displays, then nothing. Aptana closes. No error. No nothing. I think it has something to do with the JRE and/or XULRunner versions. Not sure. I used it one day, but couldn’t use it the next.
I have been upgrading an web application for a client. I initially created the application using a custom php framework – spliced together however awkwardly, but it worked. In version 2, I included YUI 2.8, but have been using the same backend.
The site is nearly complete (ajax functionality, and database development), I decided that I needed a more structured php framework. I chose CakePHP primarily because I could bake the models, views, and controllers. With only 17 tables, The application is not very large, but the thought of creating models, views, and controllers for 17 tables did not sound exciting.
I could not bake on my Mac. I got an error, “Call to undefined function mysql_connect()”. I searched for hours trying to figure out why I was receiving the error, but to no avail. I think that I need to re-install PHP. Not going to happen. I instead decided to setup Cake on my Ubuntu box (See my post: Setting Ubuntu For Web Development).
After installing CakePHP on my Ubuntu box, I viewed the default home page in my browser and noticed that the page was not styled. Cake did not know the path to the CSS file because I had not enabled mod_rewrite. Although I could opt to setup CakePHP to work without mod_rewrite, I decided to enable it.
I have used Dreamweaver on my PC for many years. I think that it is the best IDE on the market. Why? Because both novice and seasoned web developers can use the same tool. And both will find it beneficial.
That being said, when I began to use my Mac for web development, I did not want to dish out the bucks for Dreamweaver, so I started using Aptana Studio.
I was moving deeply into Ajax development and I like the fact that Aptana Studio had built in support for many Javascript Frameworks (JQuery, YUI, Dojo, etc).
I also am a PHP developer, so Aptana Studio’s built in support for PHP was also a consideration. I’ve used this IDE when developing with CakePHP and CodeIgniter.
More recently, I have used Aptana Studio on my Ubuntu box while doing Django development (see my post: Setting Up Ubuntu For Web Development).
So what is your favorite IDE and Why?
I was working on a project where I needed Helvetica fonts on my Ubuntu box. Helvetica fonts are on my mac, but stored in a .dfont file (System/Library/Fonts). First I copied the Helvetica.font to my Ubuntu box (I placed them in my home directory). I then installed Fondu.
sudo apt-get install fondu |
Now navigate to where you copied the .dfont file and enter:
fondu Helvetica.dfont |
The dfont file will be converted to .ttf files. Depending on the font type, this will create multiple .ttf files.
Copying Fonts to Font Directory
Now you can move the .ttf files into the font directory (/usr/share/fonts/truetype).
This was not as easy as I thought. I opened the file browser and tried to copy/paste the fonts into the fonts directory, but I received a permission denied error because I was not root.
Open terminal (Application->Accessories->Terminal).
gksu nautilus /usr/share/fonts/truetype |
Using ‘gksu’ will open the file browser with root privileges. Now open another file browser to the location where you copied your fonts to:
gksu nautilus /home/les/ |
Now both are opened with root privileges. Now just drag/drop the files into the font directory.
Note: You may have to create a folder with the font name first. If you only have a single font file, then you can just copy it into the Truetype directory (or the appropriate directory – opentype, etc). If you have multiple font files (Helvetica.ttf, HelveticaBold.ttf, etc), then you should first create a folder named helvetica under the TrueType folder and then copy all helvetica files under the helvetica directory.
That’s it.
I’ve developed in the Windows environment for most of my career. About 4-5 years ago I began to migrate to the Mac. Now my Mac is my primary computer.
I recently worked on a project where the target OS is linux, so I installed Ubuntu 9.04 desktop on an old PC. The following are the steps I took to create a web development box. This post assumes that you have already installed Ubuntu. Click here or here for installation instructions.
After you have installed ubuntu, you may want to select/download a theme for your box. Click Install Instructions to learn how to install gnome themes.
First, I will set up LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and phpMyAdmin. AMP is my default web development environment, regardless of OS.
Next, I will install Python, Django, PostgreSQL, phppgadmin, and pgAdmin (needed for my new project). I will also install Aptana Studio and Java (need JRE to run Aptana). I have been using Aptana Studio on my Mac for over a year, and it has become my default development IDE.
