So while I was redesigning my site, I needed somewhere to develop the new design. I didn’t want to have to setup a sub-domain on the live site because that would be a pain to have to FTP files up everytime I changed something. So I installed XAMPP on my computer.
Basically, XAMPP is a all in one Apache web server. It installs Apache, PHP, MySQL…everything I needed.
Once you install it, you get a web directory here C:Program Filesxampphtdocs (or whichever directory you install XAMPP to). That’s great, everything works fine when you put things in that directory and browse to localhost. But what about if you want to setup multiple sites? That is where I really had to do some digging.
I found this really good article that walks you through setting up multiple sites on XAMPP. The article was a little longer than I thought it had to be, so I thought I would clarify some things.
Next, scroll to the bottom, and you can add multiple domains. Here is what mine looks like:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost.trevordavis.dev
DocumentRoot "C:/sites/trevordavis.dev/webpages"
ServerName localhost.trevordavis.dev
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost.trevordavis.redesign
DocumentRoot "C:/sites/trevordavis.redesign/webpages"
ServerName localhost.trevordavis.redesign
</VirtualHost>
Finally, find this file: C:WINDOWSsystem32driversetchosts and open it in notepad. You need to add an entry for each site you setup in the httpd-vhosts.conf file. My file looks like this:
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 localhost.trevordavis.dev
127.0.0.1 localhost.trevordavis.redesign
Once you have done this you can browse to http://localhost.trevordavis.dev and http://localhost.trevordavis.redesign on your computer when you have your web server running. This means that you can view PHP files and execute SQL locally.
It’s great.
Let me know if you have any questions.
";s:10:"bodyBlocks";a:0:{}}i:1;a:6:{s:5:"title";s:27:"Version 2 Redesign Launched";s:4:"slug";s:27:"version-2-redesign-launched";s:2:"id";s:3:"259";s:10:"typeHandle";s:4:"blog";s:4:"body";s:999:"Finally, I launched my redesign. I still have a little bit of cleanup to do in the blog section, but Sunday night football is on, so that’s not going to happen tonight.
The goal for this redesign was to simplify. I’m only using a couple of images, and sticking to a pretty strict grid. I would say the inspiration for this redesign is definitely Khoi Vinh.
So the headings (or at least most of them) are done using sIFR. I’m pulling in my Twitter status next to my logo. I’ve got my Flickr photos, Ma.gnolia bookmarks, and Amazon Astore in the footer.
Let me know if you have any feedback. Hopefully I will be able to clean up some of the blog stuff tomorrow or Tuesday.
";s:10:"bodyBlocks";a:0:{}}i:2;a:6:{s:5:"title";s:23:"Weekly Link Round-Up #8";s:4:"slug";s:22:"weekly-link-round-up-8";s:2:"id";s:3:"260";s:10:"typeHandle";s:4:"blog";s:4:"body";s:3464:"I’ve been busy for the last week or so working on the new site design. Hopefully I’m going to launch it within the next few days…maybe even tonight. I would say the theme for this redesign is simplicity. I’m no designer, so I should stop pretending, right? A lot of good links from this week. I guess once I finally finish the redesign, a real article will come…I promise.
Pretty good article about styling a restaurant menu as an unordered list. Nothing ground breaking, just a good example of the powerfulness of CSS.
Again, nothing ground-breaking, just some simple techniques for creating multi-column lists. My one gripe is with the 3rd example. I'm not sure why they don't just put the class name on the ordered lists instead of wrapping them in an extra div. Sure it’s not that much extra markup
Nice list of definitions relating to the graphic design field. Might be helpful to send to clients so if you mix in those technical terms, they understand it.
Discussion about collecting ideas for interface and design solutions. Always good to help remember ideas from other sites.
I read Chris Heilmann’s article last week, but I like Roger’s explanation.
A series of 6 articles (although only 3 are written so far) covering the basic principles of design.
Accessibility is not just making your site available for those with disabilities. It is making your site available for as many people as possible, disabled or not.
I hate HTML emails. Let’s hope this project can force email client developers to stick to some sort of standards. Not saying I will like HTML emails any better, but coding them will become tolerable. I don’t know how many more crappy HTML emails I can stand to code.
Good article about making your HTML emails look good and making sure they are getting into the users’ inboxes.
Discussing how sometimes when you are starting new and kind or stuck, get away from the computer and go for a walk or something. A chance of scenery sometimes can really get the brain moving.
After a nice short week, and 2 days of eating and football, time to share my links for the week. This collection is only until Wednesday, but I still found a bunch of interesting things.
I need to go back and watch this movie again after seeing all the great typography that is used. Someone definitely put a lot of time and effort into choosing the typography for the movie.
Ready, set, GO! I got 51. How many did you get? I got basically all of the non-depreciated elements, except for a few. The ones I missed were like noscript, frame and things like that.
I got 67. There were some that I was smacking myself for not getting, but then there are a bunch that aren’t really supported.
Can Apple do anything wrong right now? This ad is genius.
A lot of this stuff is things most people probably know, but there is a lot of interesting stuff here.
Take this quick 10 question survey from a class at the Art Institute of Atlanta. The results are about what I figured, except for 1 or 2.
Yeah, I think “Advanced Search” is not a good term. I like what Roger suggests: “Refined” and “Enhanced”.
The Godfather speaks. A great article from Jeffrey Zeldman about how you can’t really design for the web if you don’t understand it.
This was a great issue of A List Apart this week. This article shows different tests of sizing typography. I think the important thing in this article is that Richard is testing to see his vertical grid grow when users resize their text.
I decided to upgrade to the new version of Wordpress tonight. I wanted to get that out of the way before I finish and launch the redesigned site. The upgrade went smoothly, just noticed a couple of issues.
The display of my comments got a little wacky. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but I’m not gonna worry about it too much since the redesign is launching soon.
Also, it broke my AJAX comment submit. I have disabled it for now, but there is a new input element with the name of _wp_unfiltered_html_comment. I tried changing the JavaScript, but I still couldn’t get it to work. Hopefully, it’s something I can address soon.
Finally, it’s the weekend. I had to work basically all last weekend, and it’s great to finally get a break. Got a pretty good collection of links for this week.
Garrett Dimon gives a really good breakdown of a redesign of eBay’s registration form. Forms are easily one of the most important elements of web design, yet they are one of the least thought about elements.
Inspired by Mr. Dan Cederholm, this Wordpress plugin adds a span with a class around all ampersands (edit: not all ampersands, only ampersands in headings) so you can style the ampersand with a more attractive font.
I guess this is like an extension of the Classy Amp plugin. Offers that functionality along with converting quotes and other entities to their correct html values. Also adds non-breaking spaces to try and prevent widows and orphans (hence the title).
Upload a photo and create your favicon on the web. No need to go into Photoshop and crop it, then create an .ico file. This does it all.
10 rules that will enhance the user experience of any website or online application. While I think this is old, I still enjoyed reading it, and I think it all applies still.
Modify your htaccess file to try and prevent hackers from messing with your Wordpress installation.
I promise a real post is coming soon! Along with a redesign…sometime soon.
";s:10:"bodyBlocks";a:0:{}}i:6;a:6:{s:5:"title";s:23:"Weekly Link Round-Up #5";s:4:"slug";s:22:"weekly-link-round-up-5";s:2:"id";s:3:"264";s:10:"typeHandle";s:4:"blog";s:4:"body";s:1793:"Wow, I’m pathetic. I can hardly keep up with one blog post a week. I’m just so busy at work right now. I stopped reading my RSS feeds on Wednesday, so this is really like half-a-week’s worth of links.
I’ve got a big project for work launching on Sunday, so hopefully I will have more free time. I’m also in the process of working up a new design for the site. I don’t necessarily feel like the current design is not good; I just feel the need for a change.
Pretty awesome bookmarklet to generate any grid on any webpage, definitely a keeper.
Google is partnering with the makers of gas pumps to add Google Maps to the gas pump. Genius. Now when you are lost (and you don’t have GPS), but you don’t want to admit to the wife or girlfriend that you are lost, just say that you need gas! Then as you are filling up, find out where the hell you are.
I do think web design is a little lacking compared to print. But if you think about it, the web is still a baby. There is plenty of time for it to grow up.
Sometimes is the key word. Gotta love standard practice between different pieces of software that are supposed to do the same thing (IE6 anyone?). Still good to know.
I didn’t read too many great things this week, but there were a few. A couple of them are a little of topic, but I still found them really interesting to read.
This is a continuation from last week’s entry, Design Watercolor Effect Menu. This entry shows how to create the XHTML and CSS from the menu that was designed last week.
I really like a jQuery a lot. This is an awesome example of what is possible with it.
I don’t know why I found this article so interesting, but it was definitely different to analyze the usability of a bathroom.
Another bathroom article. This one talking about the things that a bathroom needs.
I love that there is an acronym for this. I also love plain old HTML.
Yeah, so I missed last week. What can I say, I was moving into my condo! I almost missed this week too…I got my wisdom teeth pulled this morning. But hey, I felt basically back to normal by about 2 this afternoon. So here’s what I found interesting this week.
So, it looks likes we might be seeing some new entries on the CSS Zen Garden. Yeah the site is been around for a while and a little tired, but it’s still interesting if you have some time to kill.
Kevin Cornell and Matthew Sutter go at it drawing characters with “super” powers. The illustrations are amazing…I’m so jealous of their ability to draw like that.
Ok, so not really web related, but this is one of the strangest/funniest stories I have heard.
Very interesting to see the career path of someone so successful, Jason Fried, in the web development field.
I am so tempted to get one of these.
I love this style of design. Also good to get tips on how to achieve it.
Will be very interesting to see how blog link farms are affected. I guess I need to write more weekly articles too and not just link round ups!
Ok, so Fridays it is. I guess there are pros to posting this on Friday evening. There is plenty of time on the weekends to browse and read articles. Or if you aren’t a weekend reader, they will be waiting in your RSS Reader on Monday morning. Sounds good to me. Just a few good links from this week:
Mod_Rewrite is awesome. While there are plenty of articles about it, this article gives a nice intro, and then 13 real-world examples. Go ahead, try to go to http://www.trevor-davis.com. Yeah you get redirected to http://trevor-davis.com. Stupid useless www.
I wish I was more creative. I feel like there are flashes every once in a while, but not enough. I guess the only way to get better is to keep reading, learning techniques, and just trying stuff. This is an excellent article about adding those finishing touches to sites. The before and after is pretty incredible.
This I found really interesting. Seeing what sites look like through the eyes of someone who is color blind. Go take a look at what your site looks like.
This is something that all of us web developers struggle with. How do we keep our clients from putting out crap code? WYSIWYGs don’t help the cause either. This idea is pretty interesting, to have a sort of warning style when depreciated elements are being used. Interesting concept.
I personally love the big, bold backgrounds…when they are done well. I instantly though of MTV's “new” site. There are so many backgrounds on there. I have refreshed a bunch of times and never seen the same one. If only I had those kind of creative skills. Maybe some day…