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Table names and case sensitivity - bad MySQL
This issue has wasted a good part of a day trying to figure out why my database-driven pages failed to work correctly after dumping a database from my Windows dev machine into a Linux box - I just had to whine about this.
Following database naming conventions (actually, there are many, not all of which advocate using mixed case naming schemes), I decided to use mixed case table names when developing on my Windows box. So a table containing localization (or L10n) information for widgets would be named `Widget_L10n`, and the lookup table for widget to purchases would be named `Widget_Purchases`. No problem. Everything worked fine on the dev machine.
When the time came to move into live testing, I dumped the contents of the database into a file and proceeded to import into the production database server. Of course, nothing worked. I checked the database contents - everything was there. I checked the scripts - everything was good to go; if it works in the dev machine, it should rightly work in the production. I then checked the dump file, thinking it unlikely that something was wrong there but checking anyway - everything seemed fine. I went back to the MySQL client (I was using MySQL Front) and it hit me - the table names were in lowercase. And the PHP scripts were (correctly) using the mixed-case table names. Gah! The database dump file contained queries with the table names in lowercase, so they were lowercase in the Linux box while I was using queries with mixed-case names. At that point I hated myself for forgetting how MySQL stores table names - as a name of the file that stores the table. The manual said so and I even read that before.
Lesson learnt: use all lowercase identifier names in MySQL for portability across Windows and operating/file systems where lettercase matters (such as Linux and Mac OX X UFS volumes). Throw the existing database naming conventions you have out the door.
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Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7 freshly roasted
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7 has just been released. Go get it (or go to the Thunderbird 0.7 release FTP directory for the zip build).
New and noteworthy is the inclusion of the extension and theme managers (derived from that in Firefox). This is also a static build so performance has significantly improved.
Update: just saw this Promoting Mozilla Thunderbird page pointed to on one of the TrackBack pings I received. Nice buttons.
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Mozilla Firefox 0.9 (One Tree Hill) is out
Mozilla Firefox 0.9 (code-named "One Tree Hill") has been released! Grab it from the main Firefox page, or from the mozilla.org Firefox FTP directory itself (where you can find the zip version, if you don't like the installer). You can also get the torrent.
Noteworthy in this release are:
- a new default theme, Winstripe (screenshot courtesy of Neil Turner), that replaces the old Qute theme (a subject of much acrimony, as well as dislike and praise alike)
- extension manager
- theme manager
- update notification for Firefox, extensions and themes
- a far more complete browser migration tool that imports everything from bookmarks to cookies and autocomplete data from other browsers
- a smaller file size (for the installer version only) of 4.7MB thanks to 7-zip compression
- ability to delete individual autocomplete results (using Shift-Delete)
A Mozilla Update site has also been launched and lists extensions and themes that implement the new extension and theme API for 0.9. This will be the "go to" site for extensions and themes in the future, being the "official" extension and theme website.
Firefox 0.9 is a feature-complete release, meaning that the next release, 1.0, will not contain any new major features. Bug-fixing is the key activity between 0.9 and 1.0, as evident in the Mozilla Firefox Roadmap. Interestingly, release 1.0 is code-named "Phoenix" - and so it shall be reborn.
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Who cares about Web standards?
The Web Standards Project asks of anyone and everyone "involved in web production in any capacity" to take a survey on Web Standards and it's relevance to you in a recent press release, Web Standards: Who Cares Anyway?.
Most salient question in the survey: What roadblocks or challenges have affected your use of Web standards?
"All of the above" applies to my position to a certain extent, but the biggest challenges I experience in my capacity of as a web developer for muvee Technologies (yes, I just got employed, 2 weeks ago) relate to that of lack of team and management knowledge and support. The current webpages are coded in old school tables, using Dreamweaver. Everyone else on the web team uses Dreamweaver. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, because a WYSIWYG editor is the best for productivity. And I take nothing away from the frontend designer and media designer - they are a class act when it comes to design.
I'm probably the oddity in the team, the only guy using a text editor to crunch out PHP scripts using the HTML webpages that are done by the creative department. And I am the only one to see invalid HTML, unclosed tags, and spacer images that Dreamweaver generates. Does it matter to the designers? Not one bit because they don't see it and the pages still turn out find in the important browsers. Does it matter to me? Yes, it is annoying because I've been coding to Web Standards wherever I can, but it is something I can and should live with. There are honestly far more important things to do, as I have been reminded, than cleaning the HTML towards Web Standards-production code. I can't argue with that. The website works (well, it doesn't work in Opera, but fixing it is going to be a touchy subject I'll bring up after I'm more settled into my position), so what's the point of wasting time making changes that don't produce any tangible benefit (to them). I can't argue with that too, yet.
But when the time comes when there aren't more important things to do, I will be faced with an urge to propose a shift towards Web Standards. How will that turn out? One word - badly. Why? Because the designers are not going to like it. They (nor the company, I'd guess) would not be willing to toss away what they've used for years to produce their webpages. Unless Dreamweaver starts becoming a far better webpage editor in terms of the code it generates, I don't think they'd like looking at raw HTML code (and I don't blame them either). I'd probably become public enemy number one in the web team if I start proposing these changes, even if I suggest to undertake the conversion to Web Standards all by myself. I don't have a case, yet.
Anyway, take the survey, let WaSP know what's happening in the real world, and also let me know if and how you've managed to convince your department/company to switch to Web Standards. Please do share your experiences, especially those that end in sucess, because that's where I believe everyone has lots to learn from.
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Gmail invites for sale everywhere
OK maybe not everywhere, but seeing threads offering Gmail invitations at a price over at the Trading Post at SitePoint Forums is new (besides the old news on Gmail invites put up for auction at eBay and also gmail swap).
Someone is even offering a Gmail invite for logo design. Look at these threads all offering Gmail for cash or kind - 1, 2, 3, 4.
And no, I don't have a Gmail account so don't ask me for one. If you want a 2GB email account, try AventureMail.
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