lewro’s blog - 2.1 - web designer beginner

Next week I suppose to go on holiday as I planned at the beginning of the year. It is going to be Grand Canaria island. After very busy half year I really feel I do need to re-charge my batteries. The plan is to relax and enjoy the weather but at the same time I am taking my Canon 40D so I expect to get some pretty good shots in those conditions. That was the second target for this year. I hope I can get at least one excellent shot which I can then enlarge and frame.

If I am right, Grand Canaria is the biggest island in Canary Islands so do not expect us to lay on the beach all the time. We will explore the country around us. I am also taking my PHP book so I will not get bored from all that relax on the beach bellow umbrella.

Taking a book with me (which is quite massive - about 700 pages) brings me into the dilemma I am having for last couple of weeks. Should I be buying more paper books? The reason for this question is new technology. There are devices on the market which can store hundreds of books and the readability comfort is very high. They do not use back-lighting so your eyes are not going to be tired after half an hour of reading. Another reason why I am thinking about this option is space in the room I live. I have collected about 30 books during the last 2 years and there is really no more space in our room.

Do you guys have any experiences with eReaders? My favorite so far is the lattes Sony one even I would prefer one from Apple if there was one but unfortunately there is none. The Amazon one seams to be OK but I am not very keen on design…

As you might know from my previous posts I have been studying PHP course during the last 2 months. I have really been enjoying the course. I found it very interesting and useful. Just imagine, after only 9 lessons I am able to create simple web application. Actually it is blog again. I have not chosen the subject. It came from our professor.

What have I learned during those 2 months?

Short story long I have learned how to use php functions, how to interact with database using SQL language.

What it means in reality?

I am able to insert and retrieve data from MYSQL database using html forms for example or have login and registration system, using sessions to define what content is user able to see when he/she is not loged in. I have also learned how to send data from the web form using POST and GET methods. How to pass variables from one page into the other. This is for example used on the blogs when you click on the category and you can see which blog posts belong to this category.

What next?

I want to use the knowledge I got from this course in my fist private web application. It is going to be project management tool which I will start developing immediately after I build lewro’s blog 3.0 . I am also going to sign up for the advance PHP course which is going to start in October. I have not finished yet reading my 2 PHP books but there are not that many pages left. I might buy another one though. There are some PHP podcasts I have found so all these will keep me in for the next couple of months.

Oh yeah and the most interesting at the end. Here is the link for the blog I have build for the course-work: my php blog . You can register (just name and psw) to see the whole application. I have only use simple CSS just to give it some kind of structure so it is not pretty, pretty.

What is subversion? Subversion is a software which allows you to create archive of your source code where you can clearly see what and when has been changed and If you need to you can still use previous versions of your code.

Why and when it is useful?

It is mainly used by developers working on the same project who need to access the same source code files. Every developer can access the actual version of every file. Whenever the changes has been made the developer commit the changes to the source so the other developers can access the code including his changes. You might be asking, what if I work alone on my project? That is actually my case here. I still use subversions because it allows me to go back in the history of my code and see changes which has been done and if something goes really wrong I can use the previous version of my code. Another advantage is that your different versions of the code are your backup files as well.

What do I need?

• Subversion software (software which keeps track what has been changed)
• Subversion user interface (it is not necessary but it is lot more comfortable then using command line)
• Repository - the place where you store your files (versions of your code)

So here are the simple four steps which has to be done.

1. Install subversion 1.4.4. http://homepage.mac.com/martinott/
2. Instal svnX which is GUI http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/community/subversion/svnx/download/
3. Create account in Google Code http://code.google.com/
4. Fix the certificate problem with SVN list. Use your user name and psw from google repository when executing this command in command line
   

   svn list https://whatever.server.com/repository

There might be a new version of SVN when you read this article so take the most recent one. User interface - SVNX I am using here is beautiful application with easy to use interface. Repository - I have chosen here the Google Code as my repository. We could chose different free server but I use google applications a lot so I am going to stick with google.

Everything installed, what is next?

1. Create working copies - path to your projects on your computer
2. Commit everything to the repository. Just double click on working copy and click Commit. If it does not work try to create the folder in the repository yourself and drag and drop the files from you machine into the repository window (in the bottom section directly into the folder). You might need then remove the files from your machine and press update to get the actual version from remote server (which is at this moment the same so nothing will be lost but to be absolutely sure make a backup….just in case)
3. Whenever you change a file it should appear in the working copies. Just press Commit and file will be updated in the repository

How can I see what piece of code has been changed in 2 different versions of my code?

You can check the changes in the SVNX or directly on google code web site. If you just want quickly scan and check 2 versions of the same code go to the google code site and you will find that you can see 2 windows next to each other and the changes are highlighted with colour so it is very easy to spot the difference.

If you want to have some idea how it looks you can check my repository on google code - http://code.google.com/p/lewro/source/list, you can see all my new blog source file and the changes I have made. It is also a good source of information for new developers so you can learn from other people’s code.