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Apache listing directory – I swear I have index file!

OK, the ultimate wisdom is you will put your index file on the webserver accessible directory and your website would be visible – right? Well, not all the time.
Apache might decide to list your files even though you put your index.php in the directory you are expecting..
The thing lies on the default configuration of your server. If the default http.conf file has the directory setting to list then it will list even in the virtual hosts.
The fix Add your DirectoryIndex

So typical .htaccess or your setting in http.conf file would look like

...you other configs
   DirectoryIndex index.php //or whatever you want it to start from 
....your other configs

vOILa

Setting new Vagrant machine for PHP-Mysql development

As a developer you would know how stressful it would be to setup a machine. Even once you figure this out and set your machine working, you might be surprised by how it would get wacky easily when you update OS for specific packages. This is specially true mostly for *nix boxes.
Also this holds true for the new developer joining the team. Someone has to help him and all the time something might now work b/c of newer version of OS or something else.

The solution? Vagrant
Vagrant is relatively the new kid in this area. In short, it is like having a computer in your computer that is preconfigured with all what you need so that you can just start coding without having the hustle of installing 40+ packages.

Lets have PHP+MySQL+Memcached+.. setup using Vagrant

1. First thing first Get the provider
I am assuming the dev machine in this tutorial so the provider would be VirtualMachine
Get your share from Here

2. Install vagrant from Here

Go through the above links, download them and install them.. I am sure you rock star on this one :)

3. Start the provision. The advanced way to have provision would be either through the puppet or chef files.
But, for the php there is awesome site for simulating this. Go to Here and invest sometime there..
For now, just follow the wizard there until you get the box, we will replace the config file anyway.

4. Once you got your zip file unzip it wherever you want and replace the config file with the following 

---
vagrantfile-local:
    vm:
        box: puphpet/ubuntu1404-x64
        box_url: puphpet/ubuntu1404-x64
        hostname: 'vagrant-local'
        memory: '1024'
        cpus: '1'
        chosen_provider: virtualbox
        network:
            private_network: 192.168.56.101
            forwarded_port:
                BXfJQibZ50h1:
                    host: '8640'
                    guest: '22'
                mysql:
                    host: '3307'
                    guest: '3306'
        post_up_message: ''
        provider:
            virtualbox:
                modifyvm:
                    natdnshostresolver1: on
            vmware:
                numvcpus: 1
            parallels:
                cpus: 1
        provision:
            puppet:
                manifests_path: puphpet/puppet
                manifest_file: site.pp
                module_path: puphpet/puppet/modules
                options:
                    - '--verbose'
                    - '--hiera_config /vagrant/puphpet/puppet/hiera.yaml'
                    - '--parser future'
        synced_folder:
            K2NewVabIO4S:
                owner: www-data
                group: www-data
                source: ./
                target: /var/www
                sync_type: nfs
                rsync:
                    args:
                        - '--verbose'
                        - '--archive'
                        - '-z'
                    exclude:
                        - .vagrant/
                    auto: 'false'
        usable_port_range:
            start: 10200
            stop: 10500
    ssh:
        host: null
        port: null
        private_key_path: null
        username: vagrant
        guest_port: null
        keep_alive: true
        forward_agent: false
        forward_x11: false
        shell: 'bash -l'
    vagrant:
        host: detect
server:
    install: '1'
    packages:
        - build-essential
        - memcached
        - vim
        - curl
        - git-core
        - imagemagick
        - sendmail
        - libmemcached-dev
        - htop
        - unzip
        - mercurial  
users_groups:
    install: '1'
    groups: {  }
    users: {  }
cron:
    install: '1'
    jobs: {  }
firewall:
    install: '1'
    rules: null
apache:
    install: '1'
    settings:
        user: www-data
        group: www-data
        default_vhost: true
        manage_user: false
        manage_group: false
        sendfile: 0
    modules:
        - rewrite
    vhosts:
        ekjd369uxkx8:
            servername: my-local-website.com
            serveraliases:
                - www.my-local-website.com
            docroot: /var/www/local-website
            port: '80'
            setenv:
                - 'APP_ENV dev'
            directories:
                twe3plnvcymi:
                    provider: directory
                    path: /var/www/local-website
                    options:
                        - Indexes
                        - FollowSymlinks
                        - MultiViews
                    allow_override:
                        - All
                    require:
                        - all
                        - granted
                    custom_fragment: ''
            engine: php
            custom_fragment: ''
            ssl_cert: ''
            ssl_key: ''
            ssl_chain: ''
            ssl_certs_dir: ''
    mod_pagespeed: 0
nginx:
    install: '0'
    settings:
        default_vhost: 1
        proxy_buffer_size: 128k
        proxy_buffers: '4 256k'
    upstreams: {  }
    vhosts:
        ayer2gfhqh9a:
            proxy: ''
            server_name: my-local-website.com
            server_aliases:
                - www.my-local-website.com
            www_root: /var/www/local-website
            listen_port: '80'
            location: .php$
            index_files:
                - index.html
                - index.htm
                - index.php
            envvars:
                - 'APP_ENV dev'
            engine: php
            client_max_body_size: 1m
            ssl_cert: ''
            ssl_key: ''
php:
    install: '1'
    version: '55'
    composer: '1'
    composer_home: ''
    modules:
        php:
            - cli
            - intl
            - mcrypt
            - curl
            - memcached
            - sqlite
        pear: {  }
        pecl:
            - pecl_http
    ini:
        display_errors: On
        error_reporting: 'E_ALL & ~E_STRICT'
        session.save_path: /var/lib/php/session
    timezone: America/Los_Angeles
    mod_php: 0
hhvm:
    install: '0'
    nightly: 0
    composer: '1'
    composer_home: ''
    settings:
        host: 127.0.0.1
        port: '9000'
    ini:
        display_errors: On
        error_reporting: '-1'
    timezone: null
xdebug:
    install: '1'
    settings:
        xdebug.default_enable: '1'
        xdebug.remote_autostart: '0'
        xdebug.remote_connect_back: '1'
        xdebug.remote_enable: '1'
        xdebug.remote_handler: dbgp
        xdebug.remote_port: '9000'
xhprof:
    install: '0'
wpcli:
    install: '0'
    version: v0.17.1
drush:
    install: '0'
    version: 6.3.0
ruby:
    install: '1'
    versions:
        t4DlEFgKoFSk:
            version: ''
nodejs:
    install: '1'
    npm_packages: {  }
python:
    install: '1'
    packages: {  }
    versions:
        juTtbSrrnLMG:
            version: ''
mysql:
    install: '1'
    override_options: {  }
    root_password: '123'
    adminer: 0
    databases:
        YET9UxaCD4KV:
            grant:
                - ALL
            name: dbname
            host: localhost
            user: dbuser
            password: '123'
            sql_file: ''
postgresql:
    install: '0'
    settings:
        root_password: '123'
        user_group: postgres
        encoding: UTF8
        version: '9.3'
    databases: {  }
    adminer: 0
mariadb:
    install: '0'
    override_options: {  }
    root_password: '123'
    adminer: 0
    databases: {  }
    version: '10.0'
sqlite:
    install: '1'
    adminer: 0
    databases: {  }
mongodb:
    install: '1'
    settings:
        auth: 1
        port: '27017'
    databases: {  }
redis:
    install: '1'
    settings:
        conf_port: '6379'
mailcatcher:
    install: '1'
    settings:
        smtp_ip: 0.0.0.0
        smtp_port: 1025
        http_ip: 0.0.0.0
        http_port: '1080'
        mailcatcher_path: /usr/local/rvm/wrappers/default
        from_email_method: inline
beanstalkd:
    install: '0'
    settings:
        listenaddress: 0.0.0.0
        listenport: '13000'
        maxjobsize: '65535'
        maxconnections: '1024'
        binlogdir: /var/lib/beanstalkd/binlog
        binlogfsync: null
        binlogsize: '10485760'
    beanstalk_console: 0
    binlogdir: /var/lib/beanstalkd/binlog
rabbitmq:
    install: '1'
    settings:
        port: '5672'
elastic_search:
    install: '1'
    settings:
        version: 1.4.1
        java_install: true
solr:
    install: '1'
    settings:
        version: 4.10.2
        port: '8984'
php_memcached:
    install: '1'

** I have used 1G memory size for the guest. You can increase or decrease based on your physical memory accounting.

**Notice the usage of nfs here. In the case of windows OS, it might not work as expected so you might have to select samba or something to for the file synching part. I haven’t tried anything on windows for a while so don’t quote me on this.

As you might have guessed it, this is the heart of the provision. This will telling your little box what it should stuff to itself to be ready for PHP coding.
4. Now you have all the necessary stuff to get started. So far your machine has php, apache2 web server, mamcached and radis for your caching, mongodb incase you need it, git and mercurial for your versioning and more server goodies.
So if you want to add server based packages, go under the server and add your package. In this provision, ubuntu distro is used. There are many flavors out there. So, when you add the server package make sure the appropriate bundle is sited there to get away from surprises.

Being on the same directory as your config.yaml file, run

vagrant up

This one liner, will read the config file and populate your box with all the packages you listed with web server and and everything.

** If you see something strange like a bunch of red lines, please read it carefully and try to research it. You can also ask here and I will try to help.

Hopefully, it will all run nicely

5. Now you can say hi to your new machine by logging into it using 

vagrant ssh

The above command will land you the virtual machine packed with all the software you have requested.. Feel free to move around, check apache, memacache and the like..

6. Now, if you notice, there is a part on the config.yaml file that mentions local-website
Lets talk a bit about it.
Vagrant will sync the folders between the host and the guest boxes. That is a great relief. You can work on any files from your favorite IDE on your host and all the changes would take effect on the guest machine – the trick is you are updating the same file. Thanks to nfs.
So, Vagrant will sync anything on the host directory that hosts the Vagrantfile to the guest sync folder in accordance to how you tell it. We have told it to match anything in the aforementioned folder to be syncd with /var/www inside the guest machine. So if you go to your /var/www folder inside your guest box, you will see the replica of the files and directories there.

Create a folder local-website inside the directory where you unzip the zip file, that is the one holding the Vagrantfile file.

mkdir local-website

And create an index file inside it

touch local-website/index.php

Inside the index.php just put the phpinfo() 

<?php
phpinfo();

7. Moment of truth!
We will try to access the web from our guest machine being on the host machine.
Before that, we have tell to our host machine what my-local-website.com mean. See how this is used as server name in the config.yaml file

Go to your host’s /etc/hosts file and insert 192.168.56.101 my-local-website.com

sudo echo "192.168.56.101 my-local-website.com" >> /etc/hosts

What this does is, when you type my-local-website.com on your browser, before it is relayed to the outer DNS, it will check if it has to do something with it. In this case it will forward it to 192.168.56.101.
If you lookup for this ip-address in the config.yaml file we created, you will see it under the network. This is the ip-assigned for the host in the little host-guest network vagrant provides.

Now you can go to your favorite browser and type my-local-website.com to see the phpinfo() of your guest machine’s php settings.

This will end up the journey. Now you have a fully working box that you can save it somewhere and reuse it anytime.

8 Bonus.
To shutdown the box use

vagrant halt

To destroy the box – this will, as the name implies remove everything

vagrant destroy

If you update the config file, you have to re-provision it by 

vagrant provision

A new entity was found through the relationship doctrine error

Doctrine error: New Entity was found through relationship

This is typical problem of doctrine with joined relations.

How to use MySQL keyword as column in doctrine

And, to be specific, this would happen when trying to save an entity with relationship and the one being joined is fetched from memcached/redis or from other entity manager or you just populated it and not getting through Entity Manager

Solution to the doctrine error

Use the merge on EntityManager before you persist the object

Say you have an entity for pen and entity for color as well.. You want to save a new pen but you assigned a color from memcached object


$color = $this->memcacheGiveMeColor('blue');
$color = $em->merge($color)
$pen->setColor($color);
$em->persist($pen);
$em->flush();

Make sure you are using the object that is returned from merge!

If you are not reading from the memcached or other factory, and you are reading directly from Entity Manager then you wont have this error.

Start using mongoDB with nodeJS even though you haven’t been using it before

What is http raw data? what is php://input and where to use which?

Using unquoted json formatted result set in symfony2 twig

In the request->process->response world of the MVC infrastructure, Symfony2 fits just perfect.

I was working on some data intensive site. All I want was to get the set of records from the mysql database and pass it to the front end through the controller. The front end wants the JSON format of the result set. The front end is getting the polished output of the twig

The problem
Front-end is not happy since it is getting quote-escaped version of JSON

The solution

Very very very simple. Rather than passing the json_encode(all_cars), where all_cars being the array of results coming from database or whatever it is, just pass the array it self

{{ all_cars | json_encode | raw }}

Yup, twig will not try to escape the quotes in this case since it is told to present raw.

Additional View

As you can see in this menu, both JSON and html views are together as combo. From design point of view this is not a good approach.

Better approach

You can bake the whole view right in the view and you might not want additional javascript logic on your view

OR
Have specific API to return 100% JSON response for the request like 

some domain dot com/all/cars

By hitting this from, say your ajax call, you will be provided with json formatted list of all cars.

Since you are calling it from javascript, it will be directly coming to its home and no funny business would be there.
Then you will have another url call to load the page say:

some domain dot com/cars

where it will simply load the bare html format to the front-end and the front-end will know what to do with it.

Of course, this would have two trips and even more so it would be suitable for 80-90% of ajaxy sites..

EnJoY!

lmagick works from command line but not from php script, sh: convert: command not found

Working with something that needs a shell access, like working with awesome imagick function and stuck with sh: convert: command not found

The thing is it works when the same command that run from php script is run on the command line.
It is a path issue.

exec("convert soruce.ext converted.ext", $report);

Here the report would tell how it goes and it will get back with the news 

sh: convert: command not found

Now do 

which convert

To get the full path of the command and use it 

exec("full-path-to-convert source.ext converted.ext", report);

The above would work for any command that creates related problems.

Installing Imagick on mac for php 54

Here is a step by step installation for imagick on mac

brew install ghostscript
brew install ImageMagic –with-ghostscript
sudo pecl install imagick

if you don’t have pecl
cd /usr/local
culr -0 http://pear.php.net/go-pear.phar
sudo php -d detect_unicode=0 go-pear.phar
add extension=imagick.so to php.ini

restart webserver

Doctrine orm:convert-mappings errors on primary key

Doctrine error orm:convert-mappings

Doctrine orm error like above? I have been there.

The solution I am providing is not that great solution but it can keep you going for a while.

A tool for generating entities for doctrine orm from the database table without primary key might complain as:

has no primary key. Doctrine does not support reverse engineering from tables that don’t have a primary key.

From the code base search for DatabaseDriver.php file:

Go to DatabaseDriver.php

Search for reverseEngineerMappingFromDatabase method in the given file.

uncomment the the following part as follows

           //if ( ! $table->hasPrimaryKey()) {
              //  throw new MappingException(
                //    "Table " . $table->getName() . " has no primary key. Doctrine does not ".
                  //  "support reverse engineering from tables that don't have a primary key."
                //);
            //}

            //$pkColumns = $table->getPrimaryKey()->getColumns();

Add the following line

$pkColumns = array();

Then search for method getTablePrimaryKeys and comment everything inside it and return empty array.

The above method will remove the has no primary key. Doctrine does not support reverse engineering from tables that don’t have a primary key. error when using entity generation tool.

Check if the variable is defined in symfony twig

In twig, specially for the templates being used by many controllers, there might be variables set by one controller but not by others.

Well one way to address could be to have dummy data on each controller and either to check for that dummy value and do something or just to print it

But, symfony has a way to check if the variable has made it to the template or not

{% if some.variable is defined %} what a world {% endif %}

so the usage of defined can rescue us.