Alex Poole

Pragmatic PHP, MySQL, Marketing & Technology

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Sugar Permissions / Cache unreadable / Ensim

February 5th, 2010 by alex
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Took a while to sort this one out. The client was hosted on United Hosting, who use Ensim.

Sugar was successfully creating files in the cache directory (which itself was 0755) but it was then unable to read the files it had created. Which made for a less-than ideal end-user experience.  To say the least.

The fix was here: http://kb.sugarcrm.com/tag/permissions/

Edit config.php and change the permission defaults to:

'default_permissions' =>
array (
'dir_mode' => 511, //0777
'file_mode' => 511,
'user' => '',
'group' => '',
),

Job done. Sugar can now read what it writes. Cambridge CRM working again. Have a great weekend!

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mod_rewrite on Zeus for pretty URLs in Wordpress (namesco)

January 28th, 2010 by alex
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Just been installing a Wordpress blog on a Namesco Zeus server. Zeus servers don’t use mod_rewrite, they use rewrite.scripts instead. The syntax is totally different. The solution is here at Adam Christie’s blog, but I’ll take the liberty of posting it here too in case that’s ever unavailable:

RULE_0_START:
# get the document root
map path into SCRATCH:DOCROOT from /
# initialize our variables
set SCRATCH:ORIG_URL = %{URL}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = %{URL}

# see if theres any queries in our URL
match URL into $ with ^(.*)\?(.*)$
if matched then
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = $1
set SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING = $2
endif
RULE_0_END:

RULE_1_START:
# prepare to search for file, rewrite if its not found
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME = %{SCRATCH:DOCROOT}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME . %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}

# check to see if the file requested is an actual file or
# a directory with possibly an index.  don’t rewrite if so
look for file at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
if not exists then
look for dir at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
if not exists then
set URL = /index.php?q=%{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}
goto QSA_RULE_START
endif
endif

# if we made it here then its a file or dir and no rewrite
goto END
RULE_1_END:

QSA_RULE_START:
# append the query string if there was one originally
# the same as [QSA,L] for apache
match SCRATCH:ORIG_URL into % with \?(.*)$
if matched then
set URL = %{URL}&%{SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING}
endif
goto END
QSA_RULE_END:

Stick this in a file called rewrite.script in the root. Job done. Set up permalinks in the usual way. Cheers Adam. Saved me a world of pain :)

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Spin Backlink Link Text with PHP

January 26th, 2010 by alex
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Quick one: if you’re placing backlinks on sites for SEO purposes and you’re at all worried about over-optimisation, this technique may be useful to you:


<a href="http://www.isvirtual.co.uk"><?php echo rand(0,1) ? "Website design" : "Web Site Design"; ?></a> and <a href="http://www.isvirtual.co.uk/seo-cambridge.php"><?php echo rand(0,1) ? "SEO Cambridge" : "Cambridge SEO"; ?></a> by <a href="http://www.isvirtual.co.uk"><?php echo rand(0,1) ? "ISVirtual" : "IS Virtual"; ?> </a>

You get the idea. Of course you could spin more than 2 varations of each.
You’ll want to “lock” the randomisation too.  Before the first call to rand() use:

<?php mt_srand(crc32($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])); ?>

If you’re very cautious or backlinking a big site, you might want to use “vanilla” variations like “click here” too ;)

Hope that’s useful to you.

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Local SEO - Cambridge

January 12th, 2010 by alex
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Firstly, happy 2010!

Secondly, this is a blatant slice of self-promotion!

If you’re looking for SEO Cambridge specialists, you should be talking to ISVirtual!

We’ve been working with a number of local companies to raise their SERPs profiles and are already seeing good success rates with a number of clients’ sites raised from obscurity to page 1 positions for fairly competitive search terms.

Local search engine optimisation demands a slightly different methodology from the usual “build pages, get links” model, in that there are usually specific local directories where getting links are especially beneficial as they have been “awarded” a Cambridge theme by the search engines already.

Also of course, there’s the importance of submitting a good quality local search listing to Google. When done right this can literally get your company name to the top of page one within a day or two, and get you a pin on the map too.

As with any Search engine optimisation, its easy enough to over-optimise for local results too. Liberally peppering the word SEO Cambridge all over the shop (with or without links,) probably won’t do - its enough to tell the SEs what you’re aiming for without ramming it down their throats.

At the same time, some backlinks are a good thing. Why did you think I was writing this post exactly? :)

Incidentally, I’m not sure quite yet what Google thinks about text volume. Ezinearticles likes long articles - they’ve basically said anything shorter than about 400 words will probably be treated as spam unless its blinding. I try to go for 1000 words or above there (and luckily I can ramble without totally straying off-topic, so writing for EZA is quite cathartic!)

On the other hand, blogs are meant to have short, sweet, to-the-point posts. My previous post about SEO Ely was very short, yet it hit the #1 spot in less than an hour and, touch wood, hasn’t faltered yet (yes OK its hardly competitive!) Now we’re over 300 words on this post but I think I’ll try and get up to a nice round 400 before signing off.

To be quite honest I’m still only dabbling with local search, but its a bit like shooting fish in a barrel in many markets.  The local qualifiers just lower the bar to such an extent that it would be embarrassing not to hit page one straight away…

Cambridge is a slightly different kettle-of-fish though, as our Atlantically-challenged friends had the nerve to give somewhere in Massachusetts the same name and, when used in conjunction with any IT or web-related terms, that small seat of learning MIT rears its ugly head with all the related academic pages so beloved of the SEs. Then of course you have Cambridge University over here too. Big guns in Cambridge search terms!

Often, clicking the “search UK only” radio button gets us down from the multiple millions to a couple of hundred thousand, so optimising .co.uk sites, or those physically hosted here, can be a lot easier. (This blog is on a Slicehost slice, so no dice there.)

So anyway, local SEO is fun, and SEO Cambridge optimisation especially so :)

Now its time to stop drivelling and go and write a backup script in Bash, gasp!

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SugarCRM: Error: Query limit of 1000 reached for Calls / Lead module.

December 17th, 2009 by alex
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This seems to happen when you convert a lead because Sugar updates every entry in the (contacts table) or something. Not entirely sure which tables are in play here to be honest, but the answer seems to simply be to go to admin->settings and set “vCal Updates Time Period” to 0 (zero).

Worked for one of our CRM Cambridge clients just now anyway ;)

There’s further explanation here: https://www.sugarcrm.com/forums/showthread.php?p=191467

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“Boy gets arm crushed by car”

November 30th, 2009 by alex
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I received an email just now purporting to show a series of photos where a young Iranian lad had his arm crushed by a car as punishment for stealing some bread.

A few moments of research showed that it was likely that the photos were taken out of context, and the lad - a performer in a street circus - suffered no permanent damage from the event

Now don’t get me wrong - some of the world’s worst atrocities have certainly been carried out in one of the many names of God. Spanish Inquisition anyone? What bothers me though is when highly emotive content is sent around willy nilly and trusted by the masses at face value.

When I receive information - especially emotionally-charged information that has such a clear intent to rabble-rouse - I ask, “what is the motive?” Usually its a simple question to answer, and that answer can be quite illuminating!

Do you blindly trust what you read at face value, or do you ask yourself who could be trying to manipulate your opinions?

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SEO Ely

November 26th, 2009 by alex
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If you’re searching for an SEO Ely specialist, you should definitely contact ISVirtual.

We specialise in all aspects of Search Engine Optimisation including:

  • Keyword research - finding out what people who are looking for your products and services actually search for, in the real world.
  • On-page SEO - editing and/or creating the following tags to make sure they contain the most relevant keywords which you’ve identified above:
    • Page <title> tag
    • <H1>, <H2> and <H3> heading tags
    • Internal <a href…> links to other pages on your site
    • Image “alt” attributes
    • <meta…> tags  - whilst meta keyword tags are not desperately important for SEO any more, the meta description tag usually provides the search result “snippet” in Google, which can provide a strong call-to-action
  • Off-page SEO - building links to the site to demonstrate to the search engines that the site is a relevant and valuable for them to show to their searchers. We can employ many strategies including the following:
    • Article link-building - writing and distributing valuable and useful content to sites that publish articles, and will then link to the client’s site.
    • Video SEO - producing videos that can quickly insert themselves into the top 10 Google results
    • Guest blog posting  - creating content to post on other peoples’ sites, who then link back to your site
    • Affiliate programs - offering a “cut” of sales to people who refer the customers - this can be a very powerful technique to grow traffic quickly, if the site can convert visitors into buyers effectively
    • Directories - most are pretty worthless but there are a few directories that are still worth submitting to
    • Social Bookmarking - “spreading the word” about useful and valuable content using sites like Digg, Del.icio.us,
    • Social Media - “spreading the word” about useful and valuable content with sites such as Facebook and Twitter
  • Link Bait - creating content that is so compelling (an addictive game, controversial editorial or super-useful resource,) that other webmasters choose to link to it.

We’re finding more and more customers  locally, in Ely and the surrounding area (Cambridgeshire, West Norfolk, North Suffolk, etc) - its great for us because it costs us less fuel and time to go to meetings, and its great for you because we can pop round and talk face-to-face at the drop of a hat. Why engage an SEO company half way across the country (or indeed half way across the world!) when there’s a highly experienced one on your doorstep?!

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SugarCRM issue: CentOS, PHP 5.2.11, Junk Characters, Plesk, OneandOne

November 20th, 2009 by alex
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This post is just a pointer to a solution which it took me a *long* time to find on the SugarCRM forums.

The symptoms are that you install (or migrate) SugarCRM and are presented with a pile of  ”junk characters” instead of a normal login screen.

The reason, I eventually discovered after a tedious amount of trial, error and Googling, is that PHP 5.2.11 has a fiddly Zlib implementation.

The solution, (along with a screenshot of the symptom to ensure that this is indeed the same issue that you are experiencing,) is posted here:

http://www.sugarcrm.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53231

The other keywords in this post title relating to CentOS, PHP 5.2.11, Plesk and OneandOne are things I thought might be causing the problem.  (Turns out the PHP version is significant, whilst the hosting company and hosting control panel are not.) Hopefully others with the same issue will be able, therefore, to find this post quicker than the deeply buried SugarCRM forum entry.

As always - hope that helps :)

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IM Success Notes Down

November 10th, 2009 by alex
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I’m so sorry.

Here’s what happened:

When we set up ISVirtual we bartered a server from a business associate in return for setting up and maintaining a SugarCRM install for them.

I hosted IM Success Notes on this server as it was very over-spec and could deal with huge traffic spikes. (It had 4Gb of RAM and an 8 core processor, if that means anything to you.)

It was a good decision and the site ran smoothly through a very spikey launch.

Well, the other day the server disappeared off the ‘net. No HTTP, no SSH, no nothing. No warning :/

Turns out our associate had neglected to pay their hosting bill - many many hundreds of pounds (it pertained to a large number of servers, not just the one we’d bartered.)

Trusting to the top-notch RAID 5, I hadn’t kept regular off-site backups. I have all the code for IMSN of course, but no up-to-date database backups.

In layman terms, that means I don’t know who I owe commissions too, and I’ve lost the entire user database.

I’m beyond anger on this. I’m doing absolutely everything I possibly can to retrieve the data.

In the meantime, if you know what commission I owe you, please email me at alexpoole (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll paypal you immediately - I know that payments were already overdue.

I understand how badly this has potentially affected my reputation, and I would never have done this on purpose - please believe at least that.

I’ll do everything I can to make amends.

Again, I’m very very sorry.

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Online Bass Lessons and Collaboration Bands - Wikinomics Working

October 14th, 2009 by alex
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I read Don Tapscotts’s Wikinomics a while ago - (in my own interpretation) it proposes that the almost limitless collaboration which today’s internet at last genuinely enables will change every facet of how the world goes around.

Heady stuff for sure and indeed during and after reading the book my head was in a whirl of possibilities for weeks.

Pragmatically though - real world - what does this all  mean?

Well I’ve been happening upon something recently that is a perfect and bang up-to-date example…

I bought a bass guitar the other day. I haven’t played one in pretty much 20 years but thought it would be fun to get blisters again. Naturally enough to help get back up to speed I researched online bass lessons.

Sure the usual info-products are there, as in pretty much every niche nowadays, but also a world of bass lessons on youtube which people had recorded and distributed for free. Which was cool.

It gets a whole heap better though.

Turns out people aren’t just recording and uploading themselves playing Red Hot Chili Peppers covers any more.

Now they’re forming “Youtube collaboration bands” - passing tracks around, editing them up into a vid and posting the finished version. These are people who’ve never met - may never meet - and can quickly and easily form loose networks of collaboration as suits their purpose at the time.

In other words if you’re a drummer or a bass player who wants to show off their talent with a specific song, you can quickly and easily search Youtube and other networks for guitarists who’ve already demonstrated their prowess with the song you want to record, or at least a similar song. That’s the audition taken care of.

Then its a snip to contact the person, move to realtime on IM or Skype, and to send audio or video files to each other across the web.

The result could be something like this stonking version of Higher Ground.

So just think about this for a moment…

Someone with just a laptop with a webcam, an  internet connection and an instrument can now find musical partners anywhere on the planet in pretty much real time, and create a multitrack multimedia recording with them, (using only free software and services if they so choose.)

Now that is f****ng exciting!

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