Magento Designer’s Guide

Magento Design Terminology

Magento Knowledge Base – Theming & Design

Magento WIki – How to create a new package / theme

Magento Wiki – Themes and Template Customization

Magento Theme Hierarchy Changes

My main issue was that I kept getting the following error:

configure: error: libjpeg.(a|so) not found.

I looked in /usr/lib64 and both libjpeg.a and libjpeg.so were there. I specified –with-jpeg-dir=/usr/lib64 and continued to receive the above error. It wasn’t until I added the –lib-dir=lib64 that made everything work.

The company I work for RidersDiscount.com is looking for a PHP Developer to help us build our next generation web presence. RidersDiscount.com is a successful, growing online retail company that is seeking candidates in the West Michigan area to fill a full-time on-site position. Below is a link to the official job posting.

PHP Developer Position at RidersDiscount.com

If you are interested feel free to respond to the craigslist job posting or you can email me your resume at aj at ridersdiscount dot com.

$this->getLayout()->createBlock(’search/facet/size’);

The problem was it loaded my superclass Company_Search_Block_Facet instead of my child class Company_Search_Block_Facet_Size. After digging through some of Magento’s source code I found the solution. You need to use an underscore instead of a forward slash to load blocks in subfolders.

$this->getLayout()->createBlock(’search/facet_size’);

Now I can easily store my blocks in a subfolder keeping my Block folder nice and tidy.

When I started working at OpenX my need to switch between various PHP environments arose. As it was required that I test all my code on multiple version of PHP since we supported a wide range of PHP versions. Basically I had it setup so I could test my code on 3 version (5.0.x, 5.1.x, & 5.2.x) of PHP 5 and 3 versions of PHP 4. The solution had to allow me to quickly switch environments with as little human interaction as possible. This is where MacPorts and a little shell scripting magic came into play. The nice thing about ports is you can compile the same application with different configurations and switch between them on the fly.

This is by no means a complete tutorial it’s a quick and dirty get started guide on how you can switch between PHP 4 and PHP 5 as quickly as possible using Apache 2 as the backend. This setup can also be extended to switch between various backends. For example switching between apache + mod_php5 and lighttpd + php5-fcgi. I won’t go into detail but by the end of this guide you’ll be able to figure it out.

Let’s get started by installing Apache 2

sudo port install apache2

Now that Apache 2 is installed we can move on to getting PHP 4 and PHP 5 compiled. Run the command below to use ports to install PHP 4 as a module for Apache 2 and PostgreSQL 8.3 since it’s a dependancey. Ports automates the installation of software. It downloads, configures, compiles and then installs PHP 4 including adding the necessary configuration lines to your Apache configuration.

sudo port install php4 +apache2 +macosx +pcntl +pear +postgresql83 +sockets +sqlite +t1lib +tidy

After it’s installed we need to deactivate PHP 4 otherwise the PHP 5 installation will error out since you can not have both the PHP 4 and PHP 5 ports activated at the same time.

sudo port deactivate php4

Next, we’ll install PHP 5

port install php5 +apache2 +macosx +pcntl +pear +postgresql83 +sockets +sqlite +t1lib +tidy

Note that the PHP 5 port installation will not modify your Apache httpd.conf file and you must do it manually. Once you have both ports installed it’s rather simple to switch between the two by running the two commands below

port deactivate php4

port activate php5

MacPorts will swap out the necessary files for you. However you must manually swap out the php.ini and your Apache httpd.conf file. This was definitely not going to cut it as I needed to be as effortless as possible so I whipped up a little shell script to get the job done.

#!/bin/sh
case “$1″ in
‘php4′)
/opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl stop
/opt/local/bin/port deactivate php5
/opt/local/bin/port activate php4
cp /opt/local/etc/php4.ini /opt/local/etc/php.ini
cp /opt/local/apache2/conf/httpd.php4.conf /opt/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf
/opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start
;;
‘php5′)
/opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl stop
/opt/local/bin/port deactivate php4
/opt/local/bin/port activate php5
cp /opt/local/etc/php5.ini /opt/local/etc/php.ini
cp /opt/local/apache2/conf/httpd.php5.conf /opt/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf
/opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start
;;
esac

Save the above script as php-switch in /opt/local/bin and make it executable. Then copy /opt/local/etc/php.ini to /opt/local/etc/ as php4.ini and php5.ini. Also do this for Apache’s /opt/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf file to /opt/local/apache2/conf naming them httpd.php4.conf and httpd.php5.conf. Execute the script with either ‘php4′ or ‘php5′ as the parameter. The script will then shuts down Apache, deactivates the opposite PHP module, enables the specified PHP module, copies the necessary config files and then starts Apache.

Next lets install another version of PHP 5 that has the MySQL drivers instead of PostgreSQL

sudo port install php5 +apache2 +macosx +mysql5 +pcntl +pear +sockets +sqlite +t1lib +tidy

When switching between two versions of the same app that are compiled with different configurations you must explicitedly express the variants. For example to activate the PHP 5.2.5 port with PostgreSQL driver you’d run the following command

sudo port activate php5@5.2.6_1+apache2+macosx+pcntl+pear+postgresql83+sockets+sqlite+t1lib+tidy

Don’t worry if you forget the variants because if you try to activate a port without being explicted MacPorts will remind you.

root# port activate php5
—> Activating php5
—> The following versions of php5 are currently installed:
—> php5 @5.2.6_1+apache2+macosx+pcntl+pear+postgresql83+sockets+sqlite+t1lib+tidy (active)
—> php5 @5.2.6_1+apache2+macosx+mysql5+pcntl+pear+sockets+sqlite+t1lib+tidy (active)Error: port activate failed: Registry error: Please specify the full version as recorded in the port registry.

This should be enough to get you up. One thing that I don’t cover here that needs to be mentioned is PHP modules usually need to be compiled against different versions of PHP. For example if you use XDebug to debug your applications you’ll need a module compiled agains both PHP 4 and PHP 5. Use all code at your own risk.

There is already an overwhelming turn out because our school systems need change.

Voter turnout higher than expected!

Candidate Info:

League of Women Voters Grand Rapids Voters – Candidate Guide

Candidates Discuss Issues Facing GRPS at Board of Education Forum

outside.in Grand Rapids Election News (The first couple articles)

Union role stirs Grand Rapids school board race

Polling Information:

Grand Rapids Election Information – ALL Polls will be open until 7PM, some will be open until 8PM

We’re building the school system for the children of tomorrow, TODAY! Spare 30 minutes of your life to change the life of thousands for a life time!

Best Regards,

AJ

It looks like tomorrow I’ll be wandering across town to check out the other location which has been in business for as long as I can literally remember. As for today it looks like I’ll have to wait until the rain stops to go for my daily jog. Which doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon and when it does it’s projected to be about 85 degrees out. Not the greatest weather to jog in but I’ll survive.

After dinner I grabbed the next CalTrain up to San Francisco on which I met someone else playing their PSP. Sadly, I had left all my games back home because I accediently grabbed the wrong case on my rush to get out the door. I would of rocked to do some fragging on a train. Roughly an hour or so later I was in downtown San Francisco. I left the CalTrain station and jumped on the BART which dropped me off about 2 blocks from my hotel. Upon rising to the surface I encountered a colorful character who politely gave me directions and a free map. Man what more did I need to look like a tourist, wasn’t the winter coat, luggage and camera a big enough hint. Anyway, since this was his main source of income I kindly gave him a tip and went on my way.

I strolled down Market St and hung a right on Mason. Not paying enough attention to the direction I had recieved (He said on the right not take a right) I wandered up Mason a couple blocks. Knowing I had gone to far or the wrong way I asked the Bellhop at the Nikko Hotel. He pointed behind me at the building with the gigantic stop sign. As I walked away he asked, “Why don’t you bomb the hill on your board?” I replyed, “The luggage wheels couldn’t handle it.” Headed back down Mason I found my hotel. The outside didn’t do this place justic at all. Upon entry it all was redemed, the walls & ceiling were lined with beautiful woodwork and a floating waterfall on the wall. I checked in and went upstairs to my room. Which was your average room aside from the 42″ (my guess) HD TV. Nice little touch aside from the fact I don’t normally watch TV.

After unpacking I went downstairs and got the key for the Business Center. I spent a few minutes checking email and double checked my flight details. Next I headed upstairs to do some running in the cardio room. I put a half hour run on the books. While in Cali I’ve ran pretty much every day. I headed back down to my room where I watched some TV (how could I not it was sitting there taungthing me) and crashed out early. I wanted to get a start on things ASAP.