Brian's writings in the category Joomla
When you're developing a website, it's always best to make your local development environment match the live server as closely as possible. That includes using the same versions of PHP, the web server and, importantly, the same database server.
As my host (ScalaHosting) uses MariaDB 11.8 it makes sense for me to use the same database server in my local dev envionment.
If you're using Laragon for local development, I've written before about why I think it's such a good development environment and how to make Laragon pretend to be a real domain. I also eventually added a missing feature to Laragon because apparently I wasn't content with leaving well enough alone.
In this tutorial I give you step-by-step instructions on using MariaDB with Laragon.
Twenty-one years ago, Joomla was born.
At the time, none of us knew what the future would hold. We had an idea, a belief that there was a better way to build software for the web, and a determination to create something that would give people the freedom to publish, share and build online.
What we could not have imagined was the journey that would follow.
On 17 August, Joomla turns 21 years old.
Twenty-one years.
In human terms, that's old enough to buy a drink almost anywhere in the world.
In technology terms, it's practically prehistoric.
If you are studying computer science, software engineering, web development or anything else involving computers, I have a suggestion for you: take a few days away from university.
No, I haven't suddenly decided that education is a waste of time. Quite the opposite. I'm suggesting that you spend a few days doing something that will complement what you are learning in lectures, seminars and textbooks in a way that university simply cannot.
Your website has been hacked. What do you tell your users?
Please don't tell them the site is “down for maintenance” when you know perfectly well that it has been compromised. Being hacked is bad enough; misleading the people who trusted you with their data is considerably worse.
As the Joomla World Conference gets closer, someone always asks me the same question.
"Is it really worth it?"
It's a fair question. A conference ticket isn't free, and once you add travel and accommodation, it can seem like a lot of money. We all know that times are tough, and it's tempting to decide that you'll just watch the recordings afterwards.
Most website owners like to think about security in terms of preventing attacks. We install updates, choose strong passwords, enable extra protection and hope that nothing ever goes wrong. But the reality is that if your website is online, there is always a possibility, some would say probability, that something unexpected will happen.
Your website may be hacked. A server may fail. An update may break something important. The question is not whether these things can happen, but whether you are prepared when they do.
"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time' is like saying 'I don't want to.'"
Whether Lao Tzu actually said those words is almost beside the point. The quote survives because it forces us to confront something we'd rather avoid.
"I don't have time."
Laragon makes local development on Windows incredibly simple, automatically creating local domains like myproject.test with HTTPS already configured. But sometimes you need your local site to pretend that it is a real production domain.
This article explains how to make Laragon locally respond to a real domain name, including creating a trusted SSL certificate, without making any changes to the live website.
Congratulations, you discovered a hidden secret!