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*UPDATE*

Chad Keck recently put a video tutorial which explains how to do this in a much simpler manner than what I have described below.  I suggest you first try and follow his video. http://www.rackspacecloud.com/cloud_hosting_demos/cloud_computing_word_press_install

Here is a quick step-by-step guide to install WordPress on a site hosted through Mosso (Cloud Sites).

Assumptions:

• You know how to manage your domain
• You know how to upload files to your website

1. Set up your Cloud Site.
1a. Login into Mosso then navigate to Cloud Sites under Hosting in the left-hand menu.
1b. Below the currently hosted websites you will see a section Add a New Website. Fill in your details here.

1c. Add the website as you have any others, make sure to allow for 1 database and set the Default Technology to Linux/Apache/PHP

2. Download WordPress. You can get the download at, http://wordpress.org/download/.

3. Extract the zip file to your local computer.

4. Open the extracted directory wordpress and rename the file, “wp-config-sample.php” to “wp-config.php”

5.Set up your MySql database for the website.
5a. After your site is created you should be in the management section of the newly created site. Click on the Features tab to go add a new database.

5b. Once you have navigated to the Features page click on the “Add” button in thee Databases section at the top.

make sure to remember or write down what you fill out in the next two steps.

5c. Step 1 – Give your database a name, I usually choose the domain name of a shortened version of it.  Choose MySql * as your Database type.  Continue.
5d. Step 2 – Enter a database username, I always use the same as you used for the database name to keep it simple.  Enter and confirm your password.  Finish.

6. Update the WordPress file, wp-config.php.
6a. While the database is being created you can go ahead and update this file. Open the file up in your favorite text editor.  You should see where you need to enter your database name, database username, password and host.  The name, username and password you just created.
6b. The host can be found once the database is created under the Features tab you should be able to click on the name of your database to edit it. On this page you will see a section title Database Information.  You will see “Hostname” under the Name and Hostname section.  Use this to replace, localhost below.

update the fields in red below

6c. Update the Authentication Unique Keys in this file.  In the file it gives a handy link to generate the keys, https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/. Open up a browser and go to that url.  Copy the output of it and replace what is in the file with it.

6d. Save the wp-config-.php file.

7. Upload all the wordpress files to your site via ftp.  Go grab a bite to eat, this may take a few minutes.

8. Now you’re ready to start configuring the blog. In your browser navigate to: [yourdomain.com]/wp-admin/install.php.  If you haven’t  set the domain to be live yet you can use the testing url here.
Fill out the info on this page.
Uncheck “Allow my blog to appear in search engines..”  Once you have the blog ready to go live you can check in this settings.
Click the button Install WordPress.

9. Note the username and password and then “Log In”.  I just copy the password to my clipboard.

10. Login and change password.
Login and click on “admin” in the upper right corner of the page.  This will take you to your profile where you can update your password to something you’ll remember.

11. Create and Upload a .htaccess file so you can have friendly urls for your posts.
11a. Open up a text editor and create a new file.  Add the text below:

11b. Save the file as “.htaccess”.
11c. Upload this file to the root of your blog.

12. Update the blog to allow for friendly urls.
12a. In the WordPress admin section under Settings in the menu found at the bottom click on Permalinks.
Under Common Settings update it to one that you like and Save Changes.

13. Delete the index.html file located in the root directory.  This is just a placeholder page created by Mosso until you have your site ready.

YOU’RE DONE.  You should now be able to go to your domain and see your blog.  Some of the steps could be done out of order but following it will get your blog up and running.  I hope you find this beneficial.

Filed under: Blog   Tags: Rackspace Cloud, WordPress,
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Scenerio: I had a web application that I developed on my local machine.  When I finished it I made a backup of the database to deploy to the staging server.

I uploaded it to the server then went to restore the db on the server, that is when I received this error:

Solution: The location of where my database on my local machine was different than that on the server.  I had to update the database location on the server. 

This was done by when restoring clicking on the options tab.  Then updating the paths of the Original File Name to where the database data is stored on the server.  I found this path out by looking to see where the current ones were stored.

Filed under: SQL Server   Tags: MSSQL,
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It seems lately Twitter has finally gained facebook buzz. Everyone is hopping on Twitter. You can probably say it has now gone mainstream.

I’ve been on Twitter for about a year now and had an account even longer. I’ve always used Twitter as my techie community. Posting cool tips and links and asking questions when I’ve been stumped. I can always be sure to know what the latest tech buzz is by using Twitter.

Lately with so many more people coming on board it’s actually turn into a business lead avenue. Here are some things that I’ve done to help me get the most out of it.

1. Follow people in your industry. Follow people that are in your industry and start to communicate with everyone, get active in it.
2. Get Tweetdeck. This really turns Twitter into an entirely different form of communication. It is a desktop application written in Adobe Air that is always running in the background aggregating all the updates of the tweeple you are following. The great thing is you don’t have to constantly open up twitter.com in a browser, in fact I don’t think I’ve gone to twitter in a browser for about a month now. You get everything through TweetDeck.
   Another powerful feature in TweetDeck is the ability to have a filtered “Search”. For example I do a lot of development work using the Kentico CMS. So in TweetDeck I have a search column for “Kentico”. Anytime anyone tweets with the keyword “Kentico” in it I see it. I then can reply to their tweet if I want. It helps me network within this niche and make my known as an active developer in this community. Bonus with Tweetdeck it now integrates with Facebook. You can post directly to Facebook using this and see your all your friends updates about how they wish it would stop snowing, if you want to.
3. Synch Twitter on your phone. Now if you want you can get every update of your friends as a text message on your phone. I tried this for about a week but found it became way too much. I do however allow any Direct Message to me to go through to my phone. A Direct Message is well just that, someone writing a message directly to you. Others don’t see these tweets. You know someone really wants to get a hold of you when they Direct Message you. I’ve had people DM about my hosting packages, help with Kentico, and new contracts. Being able to be contacted easily and respond quickly is huge now a days.
4. Add your info to your Twitterback. You can’t design your Twitter page anyway you want, but you can style it a bit and add a background image to it. I’ve themed mine to match my site, made sure to add my business logo and contact info. Just another way to let people know what I do and how to get a hold of me. If you need help there are many sites out there with backgrounds already created that you can use.
5. Tweet. You have to be active yourself on Twitter. Anytime you find something that you think others would find useful or read a good blog post tweet it. If you can answer someones question quickly respond. It helps build your reputation as someone who is knowledgeable in your industry. People will start to recognize you and remember you.

Now that is just a short overview of how I use Twitter to help business. Lets hear how you use Twitter for business. Here is a great post on how Twitter has helped a coffee shop.

Update:
I found this video thanks to chirpup on “How to Use Twitter for Marketing & RP.

Filed under: Business   Tags: twitter,
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