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What is MySQL?

What is MySQL?

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What is MySQL?

If you are going to do some advanced stuff on your website, you will need to learn about MySQL. Knowledge on it is very important, especially if you are going to create websites that need to store data like usernames, passwords, comments, content, and many more. In addition, basic knowledge of this database is needed if you are going to proceed on learning advanced web development language like PHP. Moreover, it is a widely known and used database on the internet, lack of understanding of this database can give you a difficult time on progressing as a web developer. If you want to know the answer to “what is MySQL,” continue reading.

mysqlMySQL is the most famous open-source database system on the World Wide Web. MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that stores both data and the data’s relationships on the same table. Asides from that, a user can reassemble and access its data in many ways without the need of creating any changes to the tables. With MySQL, you can create up to 4,096 columns and store an almost unlimited number of records.

Just like any other databases, it can handle values like timestamps, dates, chars, floats, integers, and Boolean values. In addition, there are two ways that you can manipulate MySQL. You can use the regular SQL syntaxes like select, insert, update, join, show, and delete to edit tables. On the other hand, you can use a graphical administration application like the popular phpMyAdmin to manage your MySQL tables.

Even if you are going to rely on a content managing system (CMS) for the materialization of your website, you must still familiarize yourself on this database. This is generally because most of the popular CMS today, like WordPress and Joomla, are using this database as their data manager. In addition, common forum applications on the internet, like phpBB and MyBB, are using this database too. When your content management system or forum application goes down, you might want to recover all the data and content that application accumulated. If that happens, the only way to do that is to check its MySQL database manually.

Moreover, many webhosting services are using this as their database. This is especially true to those web servers that take advantage of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Phyton/Perl) software stack. That is why many popular websites are taking advantage of this database, and a few of them are Wikipedia, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. It can handle small to massive websites, and it can support huge volumes of users and data. Because of that, it is recommended that you use this in case that you will create a new website.

It is absolutely required to learn this database. If you are familiar with how databases work, learning MySQL will not be difficult for you. Whether you will manually code your website, or you will use content management applications for your websites, understanding this database will be beneficial for you. As of now, many learning sources on the internet can be found for you to start familiarizing yourself on this popular RDBMS.

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What Is PHP?

What Is PHP?

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What Is PHP?

What is PHP? PHP or Hypertext Preprocessor is a popular and widely used server-side scripting language. It was originally made to create dynamic webpages, but because of its capabilities, it has found its way to be one of the best server-side scripting on the internet.

php-script2This language is capable of running scripts for a server, and it can carry out specific server tasks. Few of the common tasks it can perform are database manipulation and content management. The scripts will be saved on the server just like the web pages, and they will only be triggered when users request it to be executed.

In contrast to JavaScript, which is a client side scripting language, PHP codes are usually saved separately from a webpage, and its saved code will have an extension of ‘.php’. If the developer wants to integrate the code inside an HTML file or web page, he must make sure that he enclosed the code in PHP’s special start and end processing instructions, which are “<?php>” and “?>”. In addition, between the difference of PHP and JavaScript, PHP can generate contents of its own, and because of that, a single PHP file can produce thousands of pages, and the developer would not need to create files for those pages.

On the other hand, new users can instantly appreciate PHP because of its simplicity. However, they must familiarize themselves first on basic programming and JavaScript for them not to have difficulties on learning the language. Alternatively, experienced developers enjoy the numerous possibilities that can be achieved with PHP.

Many people are using this software because it is free. Moreover, this scripting can run on every virtually known operating system and platform, and it is compatible to many relational database management systems like MySQL.

In addition, its major competitors are Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP), mod_perl, and Sun Microsystem’s JavaServer Pages. As of now, it is being used by numerous websites on the internet. A few renowned websites that use PHP are Facebook, Digg, and Wikipedia. On the other hand, many popular content management systems (CMS) today are written using PHP. A few of those CMS are WordPress, Joomla, MediaWiki and Drupal.

Alongside with PHP’s usefulness as a great server-side scripting language are its vulnerabilities. It has been reported that almost 30% of vulnerabilities recorded on the National Vulnerability Database are related to PHP. However, most of the vulnerabilities can be eliminated if developers follow best practice programming rules of PHP. In addition to that, programmers can apply advanced protection patches to enhance PHP’s security. On another note, a few of the vulnerabilities of PHP are denial-of-service (DoS), remote file inclusion, remote file execution, directory traversal, header injection, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting (XSS).

If you want to add more dynamics, interactivity, and functionality to your website, it is best for you to learn and implement PHP. It is easy to learn, as long that you already mastered the basics of web development and program writing. In addition, before you implement PHP, it is best for you to research on how to overcome PHP’s vulnerabilities.

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The Five Major Types of Website Hosting

The Five Major Types of Website Hosting

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What is Web Hosting?

Understanding the answer to, what is web hosting, will help you if you plan to make money online, create a small business website or even put up a personal blog. Without hosting, you won’t be able to do any of these things. Don’t worry, it only takes a basic knowledge of hosting to choose the right type and get everything set up for your website or blog.

Hosting is split into a few different categories and the type you choose depends on what you plan to do. In order to thoroughly explain the answer to, what is web hosting, we will start with a basic definition, move onto the types of hosting and finish with a few of the finer points. When you are finished with this post, you should be able to choose the best hosting for your needs and get started with your project.

The Definition of Web Hosting

Web hosting involves a server that holds information much as your computer does. This server will store the files necessary for others to access your website and will give you the ability to see it the way you planned. Without hosting, you cannot put up a website, blog, forum, online store or any other online entity for world to see.

The way it works is simple. You create the files and code that makes your website look, function and read the way you want. There are many tools that can help you with this process, so even if you don’t know how to write any type of code, you can create a website or blog. Then, when someone types in your domain name, they gain access to these files in the form of your website.

The Five Major Types of Website Hosting

The second part of answering, what is web hosting, is to go through the main types of hosting. Within each one of these types, there may be some others types of hosting, but they all fall into five specific categories listed below.

1. Shared Web Hosting

Shared hosting is the most popular and will fit the bill for nearly everybody searching for hosting. It’s the least expensive and offers the user the ability to put up a website, blog, forum, online store or other online entity without spending very much money. Most shared hosting packages come with site builders, content management systems and many other tools that will allow you to do everything you need to do.

The server used for shared web hosting contains information for more than just one hosting account, usually quite a few per server. You will get access to all the resources of the server, but you will shared these resources with other hosting accounts on the same server. This type of hosting can handle up to about 5,000 visitors per day without the need for an upgrade.

2. Cloud Web Hosting

The next type of hosting is called cloud hosting, which is the newest type of hosting. This type of hosting is much the same as shared hosting, but allows for more accounts to be spread over a network of servers. It is more expensive than shared hosting and if you use private cloud hosting, it can get very expensive.

The major advantage comes in the form of a private cloud, which allows a company to use less servers for the same data as they spread it across more than just one server. It will pull resources from all of the servers within the network, but there are some security issues with public cloud hosting. It can be quite powerful, but it’s new and still has a few bugs to be worked out.

3. Virtual Private Server Hosting

Virtual private server hosting or VPS hosting is the next step up. This type of hosting still shares a server, but it doesn’t do so in the same way. With shared hosting, it’s a bit of a “free for all” with the resources, but with VPS hosting you get a specific set of resources assigned to you. The resources you get, all depends on the size of package you purchase.

VPS hosting can start at a little above shared web hosting for a smaller package, but will get quite expensive as you upgrade for more resources. The major downfall of VPS hosting compared to shared hosting is that it doesn’t offer the same unlimited options for space and bandwidth. However, if you need added security or you see a large volume of daily traffic, you may need to upgrade from shared hosting to VPS hosting.

4. Dedicated Sever Hosting

The most expensive type of hosting is dedicated server hosting. It can cost thousands of dollars to buy and maintain your own server, but you can also pay for a company to maintain the server for you or get fully managed hosting by renting a server. It’s the most secure, the fastest and the only type of hosting that will give you full access to your own server without sharing it with anybody else.

There is no doubt that dedicated server hosting is the best overall hosting, but it’s not necessary for most projects. Some small businesses may need a dedicated server, but most of the companies that need a server or more than one for themselves are larger corporations and internet marketers with a ton of daily traffic.

5. Reseller Web Hosting

The final type of hosting is one that most will not need, but is still important. Reseller hosting packages allow you to use the resources you need for your website and sell the rest of your package to others to use. This is the only type of hosting that you can use to make a direct profit from. With reseller website hosting, you can open your own hosting company without spending money on servers and staff.

A Bit more About What is Website Hosting

You should have a basic understanding of the answer to, what is web hosting, but it’s necessary to understand one more thing. Before you buy a hosting package, you want to make sure you get the tools you really need. There’s no point in paying more than necessary and it won’t benefit you to get dedicated hosting if all you really need is shared hosting. You will just leave a ton of resources unused.

Take the time to figure out what you really need and in most cases it will be shared web hosting, and then choose the right hosting for you. The hosting companies that offer more than one of the above types of hosting will allow you to upgrade at any point, so if you do start with shared hosting and find that you need VPS hosting, you can make the transition very easy.

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Joomla vs WordPress

Joomla vs WordPress

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Choosing the Right CMS: Joomla vs WordPress

Blogs and websites are becoming more popular by the minute. In fact, companies are not the only ones with blogs and websites. An individual also has one or both since these are helpful in establishing connection with the readers, clients or future employer. However, having a blog or website entails time and proper management.

To ensure that posts are properly placed and sites are updated regularly, companies even individuals need to use CMS or content management systems such as Joomla vs WordPress. The term content management systems may be new to some people. But this useful tool has been around for a long time and has been widely used.
In fact, since Internet was born and evolved three website construction techniques were used.

First is the Hyper Text Markup Language or HTML which involves codes. Second is the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) system which allows the editor to view the results while editing. Third is CMS which allows the site owner or developers to enter data easily due to the pre-set fields.

wordpress vs joomla
The advantage of using content management system is that it helps build and manage sites easily. For instance in organization, CMS makes documents, music, photos, text and video posting easier. There are pre-set fields that allow the user to place the data or information without dealing with codes. This also saves time since and allows the site owner to maintain it on a certain time through scheduled posts.

Moreover, CMS is also helpful in designing the overall appearance of the site through CSS or Cascade Style Sheets. This helps the developer create templates easier and faster. Lastly, CMS also offers add-ons which upgrade the functionality of a certain application. These are easy to install on a blog or website.
The CMS is indeed the easiest technique wherein an individual without html knowledge can use. In addition, the most popular CMS are Joomla vs WordPress. Though both are CMS, it is still essential to understand and know which one is right for a website.

Defining the Best
As mentioned, Joomla vs WordPress are the most popular content management systems but what are the differences between the two? Below is a detailed analysis of the two most popular content management systems.

Joomla is a free open source project released in 2005 and was upgraded and re-launched three years later. It was created by the makers of Mambo, another CMS application. This free system is mainly used for publishing and empowering various sites. It can be used for the church, community-based, corporate, e-commerce and online reservations, government applications, online media, non-profit organizations, personal, school, small business and anyone interested in developing a site.

Joomla is user-friendly and easy to install which enables the user or web developer to create and manage the site. But there are instances that the users require more features beyond the basic Joomla packages. Not to worry because there are thousands of available extensions that adds functionality for the site’s applications. Moreover, the add-ons do not only enhance the application but also extend the power of Joomla creating a better website.

With Joomla’s framework the developers are able to build and manage application bridges and communication tools. In addition, Joomla can also help manage complex business directories, custom product catalogs as well as data reporting tools. But it does not end there, integrated e-commerce systems, inventory control and reservation systems are also included.

WordPress, on the other hand, is the newest version of b2/cafelog. This free open source project was developed in 2001 and was released in 2003. From enhancing a simple typography for a number of users, it has grown in to a bigger and powerful blogging tool used by millions.

Though the CMS started as a blogging tool, it is actually more than that. It can also be used as a full content management system where users can explore and choose thousands of themes and plugins available. Moreover, there are also widgets that can be dragged and dropped on the page. Users can also include social media sites to be able to share the content easily.

Furthermore, WordPress is also a multi-user and multi-blogging platform. Prior to WordPress 3.0, there was WordPress MU. To enhance the features and offer something new, but both were merged later on. Besides that, WordPress.org also brought in WordPress.com so that that a larger audience will be able to experience a hosted version. This version also has thousands of themes, plug-ins as well as widgets.

Joomla vs WordPress
There is a tight competition between the two best CMS in the world. As written above, both are useful tools for websites; however, both still differ from each other.
Joomla is excellent in managing and maintaining e-commerce and professional sites because it offers the right features for adding and updating images, pages and navigation menus. It also increases functionality of a website due to extensions and provides flexibility in design a website.

Meanwhile, WordPress is ideal for bloggers because it is easy to install and use. It can be customized accordingly due to the easy to install plug-ins making the site dynamic. In addition, it also allows and posts comments automatically.
These show that both CMS caters to different audiences. Moreover, both also differ in terms of how easy an individual will get the hang of it. Between Joomla vs WordPress, WordPress is more user-friendly, quick and at the same time classy.

First, though both are PHP / MySQL based WordPress uses less server resources and less codes. This enables the site to load and display faster. In addition, the site owner can easily and quickly publish data or information. Second, WordPress themes can be installed easily and are adaptive. This means that the site displays different resolutions depending on the device used.

Third, creating and publishing content is extremely easy in WordPress. There is no need to be knowledgeable in codes or other programs. Fourth, WordPress is good in SEO. Due to the plug-ins, themes and other features, WordPress is able to balance the contents making the pages light and SEO friendly. This also helps in raising traffic and in good site ranking. Lastly, it is more fun creating and managing a website in WordPress because it gives the user everything he needs.

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Introduction to PHP MySQL Tutorial

Introduction to PHP MySQL Tutorial

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Introduction to PHP MySQL Tutorial

 

For this PhP MySQL Tutorial, you should always have at least a basic knowledge on how to use these particular server-side scripting language (SSSL), which is actually one of the easiest to learn yet is also the most powerful. The primary reason people would like to learn scripting languages is for displaying simple lists (such as updating forums, banner rotation, feedback forms, etc. by changing one script only) to running a whole website (for example, updating website design) from a database. You need only three (3) things to run PHP scripts, which access MySQL databases, as follows:

php scriptsFirst, you would need a computer server, which is either your own computer or one from a webhost provider. Any web server program should work with this general-purpose scripting language; however, one of the best free software to use nowadays is Apache.

All administrative database options can be done through means of “personal home page” scripts but it is strongly suggested that you install a copy of PHPMyAdmin on your hosting server. You would have excellent, free scripts through the use of an administrative interface for your relational database management system (RDBMS) or simply referred to as MySQL databases. You can then add, edit, backup, view, remove and troubleshoot your databases.
Second, PHP also needs to be installed on the host server. If it is not yet installed, you can install it yourself or ask your webhost to do it for you. Nonetheless, it can simply be downloaded for free from PHP.net. If you cannot install or if your web host does not allow for this particular type of SSSL/RDBMS, you may opt to use another webhost. There are also many free web hosts with this preinstalled scripting language that support banners and with extra features.

There is a simple test for both PHP/MySQL. You can open a text editor, type in “<? phpinfo(); ?>” and save it as phpinfo.php. Upload it to your own server space and then go to your browser. If it is installed, you would be able to see a detailed page containing its installation and then, scroll down until you find a section of MySQL.
Third, you should have MySQL, which is the actual database program. Still, you can opt to use other types of database such as Oracle, SQL, etc.  However, the focus on this brief introduction to PhP MySQL tutorial is, as explicitly stated, MySQL where commands work also with SQL databases. Using specific SSSL/RDBMS together, you can create a web-based contact management program. This will allow you to store names with their e-mails, phone numbers, etc.

You can even search the database and update records.  There will also be an option for you to send an email out to all of your contact lists in the database. As a reminder, please do not use this system for spamming or send unsolicited an email.

You can also access or download a free PhP builder with the tutorial of your choice and then learn further about database setup, information insertion, record singling and error trapping, updating and deleting, finishing scripts, displaying info and variables, if statements, loops and arrays, emails and forms and view full script codes.
If you become more familiar with this scripting language, you can open up new possibilities and many benefits for your website. Although you would be able to download premade scripts at various Internet sites, they will often include advertising from the creator, which will not perform according to your preferences. With proper PhP self-training, you can easily create or edit scripts to suit your needs. Other interactive features using these particular scripts include advanced features such as content management, advertising managers, portal system and a lot more. So, start your actual PhP MySQL tutorial now!

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How Important to Back up you Hosting Files?

How Important to Back up you Hosting Files?

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How Important to Back up you Hosting Files?

How important to back up you hosting files depends on your preferences for a good web hosting provider. Many hosting companies would include website backups as part of their server package. They also sometimes do free backup or a minimal backup fee, but it is still much important for you to have your own backups, as well.

backupFirst, you have to backup your hosting files because you have to expect inevitable events. Your service provider could experience technical difficulties or a server crash that could wipeout your data temporarily or permanently. Although this is rare in most cases, it does happen in reality. When you read hosting reviews, take note of the details concerning the provider’s redundant power sources, backup generators and data center.

Your web hosting firm remotely monitors all website status on their server. If they noticed that your website is dysfunctional due to any kind of hardware error or system crash, they will take action immediately toward recovery. In most cases, if disaster strikes, your remote storage provider will restore your site to reduce downtime and prevent loss of contents and revenue. Hence, it is really a great option backing up your website data.

Second, it is not just the web hosting company that can run into trouble. Your own computer might get stolen, suffer damages or experience a crash. No matter how good your web service provider is, there are cyber crooks (for example, hackers) who might actually break in and wreak great havoc on your website. If you do not save your contents elsewhere, you may lose huge quantities of data. Hence, you have to back-up data on your computer, external hard drive, DVD or subscribe to other online backup service providers.

When you use other online backup storage programs/systems, you would be able to save copies of your web-based data. Your backed up information would typically include web contents such as access logs, images, plug-in scripts and databases. So, how important to back up you hosting files depend, on a large part, if you consider using other backup systems as well.

Third, you may want to read your service provider’s review details when it does regular backups of your website contents. Is there up-to-the-minute scheduled backups? Or, are backups done daily, weekly, monthly, or only when the company is available? By having regular backup schedules, you ensure the security of all your information and that your web pages are made continuously available to your visitors and customers.

Backing up your website is a great solution for restoring any tampered or damaged web page contents quickly. It is thus important to also easily access your backup files whether they are stored by your service provider, on in an external drive located in other remote servers. While there is no assurance how long your web service firm will be in existence, most storage media can last for many years when handled with care and stored properly.

Start with website hosting reviews for you to see what your service provider’s offer. Most reputable web hosting companies guarantee data security at their best. So, how important to back up you hosting files is for quick restoration of all your data in case they were corrupted or lost accidentally.

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NginX: Load Balancing, Failover, and Geo Location (Part 3)

NginX: Load Balancing, Failover, and Geo Location (Part 3)

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Okay we continue to the third part of this post title, on the previous part we use NginX as load balancer and failover, now we use NginX with Geo IP based to determine the best backend for the visitors to put, here is the illustration.

For instance, we have two backend servers located in UK and DE, then we put the visitors from United Kingdom to the UK backend, visitors from Germany to DE backend, and the rest will be divided into those two backend servers, let’s deal with it.

I assume you have installed NginX in your frontend and two backend servers, you can check the previous post for NginX installation. This GeoIP based location needs GeoIP database for the frontend server to determine where to put the visitor, so first we download and extract Lite version of GeoIP database from Maxmind with geo2nginx.pl script from http://markmaunder.com.

wget https://serversreview.net/pkgs/txt/geo2nginx.pl
chmod 755 geo2nginx.pl
wget http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoIPCountryCSV.zip
unzip GeoIPCountryCSV.zip
./geo2nginx.pl < GeoIPCountryWhois.csv > geo.conf
mv geo.conf /etc/nginx/

GeoIP database has been added to NginX directory, now to the configuration, here is the example of main configuration

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NginX: Load Balancing, Failover, and Geo Location (Part 2)

NginX: Load Balancing, Failover, and Geo Location (Part 2)

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On the previous post we were talking about simple dns failover using two nameservers / ip addresses, now we will move the conversation to the more exciting one, we will use frontend server to control the backend servers, here is the illustration.

One frontend server decides whether to put the visitor to the server A or server B, here i am using NginX as frontend and also NginX as backend server.

Why don’t you use another web server as the backend?

I like NginX, for me it is easy to understand NginX configuration than another web server. Before we start to configure it, install NginX on the frontend and backend servers. I’m using CentOS 5 by the way.

wget http://pkgs.serversreview.net/files/nginx-1.1.13.tar.gz
tar -zxvf nginx-1.1.13.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.1.13
useradd www
passwd www
./configure --prefix=/usr --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log --pid-path=/var/run/nginx/nginx.pid --lock-path=/var/lock/nginx.lock --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/tmp/nginx/client/ --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/tmp/nginx/proxy/ --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/tmp/nginx/fcgi/  --user=www --group=www --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_flv_module --with-http_mp4_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_realip_module --with-http_addition_module --with-http_xslt_module --with-http_image_filter_module --with-http_geoip_module --with-http_sub_module --with-http_dav_module --with-http_flv_module --with-http_random_index_module --with-http_secure_link_module --with-http_degradation_module --with-http_stub_status_module --with-http_perl_module --with-mail --with-file-aio --with-mail_ssl_module --with-ipv6
make
make install

in the configurations above, as usual i am using “www” user and group for NginX. Next download NginX init script and make it executable.

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