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List:       quanta
Subject:    Re: [Quanta] PHP
From:       Neill Jones <neilljones () yahoo ! co ! uk>
Date:       2008-07-06 11:47:37
Message-ID: 4870B0D9.3000105 () yahoo ! co ! uk
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Apologies that this post has now drifted away from Quanta - but just to 
add a few points on this post ...
> 	I have setup both Apache and PHP without any problems on my Kubuntu 
> machine and my little 386 Debian server.  One of the two main problems I 
> have is with the MySQL.  It is a pain and a considerable amount of work 
> to set it up and to make sure all the databases and user names are the 
> same as my website.  If I was writing a PHP/html site without MySQL I 
> would use a local test machine for sure.  Unless you know an easy way to 
> get all my tables and users over to my local machine
>   
MySQL has quite a few methods for backing up a database, which you would 
want to be doing anyway and you could download a backup to get a version 
over. Otherwise you just need the structure of the databases, and some 
test version of data on your local machine. MySQL can help you with all 
of that - their documentation is pretty extensive on this.

For example on mine, I have a million users which I added through a test 
PHP script, so I can see how the site will behave under load. I have 
written a bash script which will output the structure of the database 
which I send to the server, plus marked which tables must be kept in 
sync in terms of data, and those I copy the data across too using other 
scripts.

It might be a bit of a pain to set up in the beginning, but the effort 
to understand how to do it will repay itself many times over. For 
example, it took me a couple of hours to write the scripts, but now 
keeping the system in sync takes one command line call, and enough time 
to make a cup of tea. The best bit (especially if you don't like tea) is 
I don't need to think about it each time, and can be pretty certain the 
process has worked correctly.
> 	The second problem I have is that even if something worked on my local 
> test machine that does not necessarily mean that it will work on the web 
> server.
>   
This is true - however you should not test out new code on your live 
server.

If you are renting the entire server or know the exact layout of the 
server in terms of Apache, PHP and MySQL config files, you could use 
Virtual Box to make a test version of your server locally. Then the 
process is simply

1) code local
2) Transfer to test version of server and test out
3) If successful use same method and code to transfer to live server. 
Otherwise remove from 2 and go back to 1

If you can make sure the configuration and versions of software are 
identical on the Virtual Box version and the live version and you will 
minimise problems (you might still hit some, but these will be much rarer).

Couple this with some test programs that you write which will give you 
confidence that the machines are functioning properly, and you can now 
upgrade the server with relative safety.
> 	When my site goes "in service" I will seriously think about using your 
> advice because at that point it would be nice to make sure something 
> works before putting it online.  At the moment I am just developing the 
> game and it is not in use, so I can play with it as much as possible 
> without bugging anyone :).
>   
Very true, but I would say the earlier you do it the better it will be 
for you as you will be more practised at it before you need to do it for 
real. The amount of effort is about the same, but you are doing it at a 
safer point in the project when, as you say, you wont bug anyone.
> 	You can take a look at my site if you like at 
> http://engarde.elementfx.com.  It looks very bland at the moment because 
> I decided to do the html and css at the end.
>   
On a minor point and away from Quanta and PHP I use Smarty for the html 
pages. I would highly recommend it (although I know some others don't 
like it). Makes for a very clean front end in terms of code.

Regards

Neill
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