Software Development
All articles categorised as Software Development.
Deploying PHP applications with RunCloud on UpCloud
Sunday, 27th January, 2019
My first post of 2019 is a tutorial that’s all about the cloud.
I’m going to show you how to deploy a PHP application with a MySQL database on a cloud server from UpCloud. I’ll be using the brilliant RunCloud control panel to deploy my PHP photo gallery – Blue Twilight – to an UpCloud server.
My friends over at UpCloud have provided an awesome promo-code for free credit to try out their service. Details at the end of the article.
DevOps , Software Development Read more
Variable declaration can be inlined – C#
Thursday, 25th October, 2018
It’s almost two years since I published the post on the Visual Studio IDE information message: “delegate invocation can be simplified.”
While reviewing some error messages in a new MVC project, I recently learnt something equally as simple and eye-opening.
Software Development Read more
Encrypt your database with MariaDB encryption at rest
Sunday, 1st July, 2018
The new EU data protection legislation, GDPR, mandates that every reasonable effort and technology is used to protect personal data. It even goes as far as specifying encryption. The open-source database MariaDB (a drop-in, compatible replacement for MySQL) has supported “encryption at rest” since version 10.1. Use MariaDB encryption to satisify the GDPR recommendation of using encryption to protect your personal data.
Let’s have a look at what it can do and how you can set it up. You won’t have to make a single change to your website or application!
DevOps , Software Development Read more
Install a LAMP stack (Apache, MariaDB, PHP) on Ubuntu Server
Wednesday, 11th April, 2018
Ubuntu Server is a Linux distribution that is ideally suited to server workloads. For example: hosting websites and web applications.
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to install a LAMP stack – that’s Apache, MariaDB (in place of MySQL) and PHP – on Ubuntu Server using the latest available releases, and how to keep it up-to-date.
DevOps , Software Development Read more
Redirect all visitors to a primary domain in Apache
Sunday, 1st April, 2018
There are several scenarios in which you may want to redirect all your website visitors to a single, primary domain in Apache:
- Redirect the www and non-www (root domain) hostnames of your domain to avoid duplicate content and improve SEO
- Redirect an old domain to a new domain, maintaining links and search engine reputation
- Redirect secondary domains (e.g. “spelling mistake” domains, or alternative-spelling domains) to your primary domain
I have recently implemented the following on my own website, and I would like to share this Apache trick.
DevOps , Software Development Read more
Why I prefer self-hosted Git repositories to Github, Bitbucket, etc.
Saturday, 10th February, 2018
It’s the year 2018 and it’s impossible for a software developer to have not heard about (or used) Github, or a variant like Bitbucket. Even self-hosted Git evangelist GitLab is a popular choice.
At the start of February 2018, I provisioned a new Cloud VPS to run my website and other apps. I also chose to migrate all my private Git repositories to it and cancelled my paid Github subscription.
This article explores the reasons why I went self-hosted.
DevOps , Software Development Read more
The Great Big Cloud Hosting Speed Test 2017
Sunday, 21st January, 2018
2017 was an exciting year for the bigger players in the cloud hosting arena.
With all these improvements in cloud hosting, I thought it would be interesting to focus on a key metric of hosting providers that many overlook: network speed.
Most modern cloud hosting providers give your dedicated server or VPS a 100Mbps or 1Gbps network connection. But how close can you actually get to that speed?
DevOps , Software Development Read more
Content Delivery Networks can improve your website’s performance
Monday, 27th November, 2017
Content Delivery Networks were created for one reason: to speed up your websites and web applications. In this article, I explore how you can take advantage of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to improve your website performance for a small cost.
DevOps , Software Development Read more
Upload photos to Blue Twilight PHP photo gallery from your new iPhone
Tuesday, 12th September, 2017
Buying the new iPhone that Apple will announce today? Interested in photography?
Did you know that you can capture a photo and upload it straight into your Blue Twilight photo gallery directly from your new iPhone or iPad device?
Read this article to see how to upload photos using the Blue Twilight photo gallery and your iPhone or iPad.
Blue Twilight , Software Development Read more
Simply Remind Me: my first SaaS application
Saturday, 18th March, 2017
It’s rare for commercial software developers, such as myself, to get to use the software we write. We rely on our users to report problems or suggest new features for the applications we develop.
Therefore when I read about a PHP development framework (Laravel) that looked so interesting I just had to try it out, I came up with the idea of an application where you tell it all the dates that are important to you, and it will send you e-mail or SMS text messages when those dates are coming up.
And so… Simply Remind Me was born.