David Slack - Web developer

Latest content

Settings (multilingual)

We need to change some settings before adding in any languages so the site knows how to translate everything. There are many ways to do this but this is the way I suggest.

Language switching block (multilingual)

First thing to do is give yourself a way of switching languages that no-one else can see so you can test and while you get the languages working. To do this we will enable the language switcher for Admin only.

Modules (multilingual)

You have an up-to-date site but you need to add in the modules to make your site multilingual, to do this go and get the following modules and install them to your site. Search for them on www.drupal.org

Multilingual (Drupal 6) Website

So you have a Drupal website and you want it multilingual? Easy! First you need to make sure your site is up-to-date, then install the correct modules, then translate away. Read on if this sounds like what you need.

You'll probably want to use a test server for this

eCommerce (Drupal and Ubercart) Website

There are a few ways of creating a website with eCommerce, my choice is Drupal 6 and Ubercart

CMS (Drupal 6) Website

So you've chosen to use Drupal as your CMS of choice for your new website? Read on to find out how to create a basic CMS website. From here we will go on to add user profiles, blogs and other social aspects like Facebook, MySpace or twitter. We will then go on to add translation to the site and finally add eCommerce.

Design

How do you go about designing a perfect website? Well, I can't answer that, but follow along and I can give you a few pointers and maybe stop you doing something stupid!

First things first, tables are for data, not for layout! Get it out of your head now, before you start. We wont use any tables for layout or design.

What we will be doing is designing a basic website for a client who sells 'stuff' but more importantly the client will be writing content to share. The site is 'Dodgy Dave's Discount'

The order I create a website is:

Starting a website - The client

The first thing to do with any website is to get a client and find out what they want!

The client may be a friend, family, yourself, a business or whoever, but try to treat your client like a client and try to keep business and personal separate if you can to save a falling out later.

Domain and Hosting

At this point you will know what the client wants so you can judge if the client will need a CMS, eCommerce, huge web-space, dedicated server or what ever. So the first job is to buy the domain and hosting. I use Dataflame because they have good prices, a good help service and the servers are in London so relatively quick. I've also been with them for a long time so I trust them which I cannot say for the 'bigger' companies I've worked with.

Creating a website

Creating a website is fraught with problems! Whether your a salesman, Graphic Designer, programmer or whatever there are many things you know and many you don't (you don't know you don't know them until you find you don't know).

Here are my musings on what to do. There are other ways and bits I've missed so feel free to comment and let me know

DS Card

This is a website selling everything to do with Nintendo DS and the accessories that go with them. The client wanted a basic eCommerce website with basic styling so the product could take front stage.

How to create an ebay theme

So you have an ebay shop, but you want it to look more like your website or just want to brand your ebay? Theming ebay is very simple, but very, very long-winded.

You'll need hosting and domain name to store your images and css files. So go and get that and get it all set up ready to go. If you need help with that read this

There are a few things you need to get before your start:

SATandCABLE

SATandCABLE is a company in Merseyside specialising in household entertainment. The site was created using Drupal 5 and later upgraded to Drupal 6.

DynDNS setup

Grab an account with http://www.dyndns.com and enable it
Choose a domain name you can remember!

Useful Linux commands

This is some of the things I keep forgetting and things I always use. Might be usefull to someone (including me)

Find the hostname:

{syntaxhighlighter brush: as3;fontsize: 100; first-line: 1; }hostname{/syntaxhighlighter}

Change driectory:
cd

{syntaxhighlighter brush: xml;fontsize: 100; first-line: 1; }{/syntaxhighlighter}

E.g. To change to the root directory use

{syntaxhighlighter brush: as3;fontsize: 100; first-line: 1; }cd /{/syntaxhighlighter}

Rename a file:

Installing Parallels Plesk 9 on Linux CentOS 5.5

To install Parallels Plesk 9 on Linux CentOS 5.5 I folowed these instructions

First make sure you have the correct install, see my CentOS 5.5 install page for more. Once you have CentOS update the whole thing with:

yum update

Wait for the updates to run answering 'y' to any update. Now we have a fully up-to-date system we need to find the version of the OS (I use CentOS 5.5). To do this use:

cat /etc/*release*

Installing Windows 7

Programmes to install

Time to install all the programmes needed, here is a list of mine

Installing Linux CentOS 5.5 to add cPanel

To install Linux for cPanel you really want the minimum install. I have chosen CentOS 5.5 for this as it is small and easy and works with cPanel with no problems.

VI Cheat sheet

vi is a family of screen-oriented text editors which share certain characteristics, such as methods of invocation from the operating system command interpreter, and characteristic user interface features. The portable subset of the behavior of vi programs, and the ex editor language supported within these programs, is described by (and thus standardized by) the Single Unix Specification and POSIX.

Projects

These are some of the projects I (David 'Dave' Slack) have completed lately as part of one of the companies I work with, for or alone as frelance.

Pages

Latest content

There are lots of developers out there with varying degrees of experience and expertise, some mid level, some junior and some senior. Some...
First thoughts are Symfony is ace!Only been using Symfony for 1 project but the amount of coding it has saved has been worth the time spent...
The Lost and Found website was built by myself (David Slack) and designed by Arm & Eye.The site was created to promote a bar and...

Social networks

Contact me here or catch me on one of
the social networks below


What I'm listening to

My blog

Wednesday, 2 August, 2017 - 06:56
There are lots of developers out there with varying degrees of experience and expertise, some mid level, some junior and some senior. Some developers...
Tuesday, 5 March, 2013 - 09:49
First thoughts are Symfony is ace!Only been using Symfony for 1 project but the amount of coding it has saved has been worth the time spent learning...
Monday, 3 December, 2012 - 10:07
As a web developer and web designer I need to take into account everything on a site from SEO, marketing, usability across devices, the look and feel...

Try this on your mobile

Use your QR reader to read this

You should be able to use this right from the screen

Latest tweets

Calendar

M T W T F S S
 
 
 
 
1
 
2
 
3
 
4
 
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9
 
10
 
11
 
12
 
13
 
14
 
15
 
16
 
17
 
18
 
19
 
20
 
21
 
22
 
23
 
24
 
25
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31
 

You are here

Back to top

Copyright David Slack - Web developer