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Aaron West's entry on SES URLs with Apache mod_rewrite

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:54:00 GMT

Somehow I totally missed this entry when Aaron posted it until he mentioned it on the Mach-II email list today. He has written a really nice and very detailed blog entry on how to configure your application to use SES URLs with by using mod_rewrite in Apache, and then goes on to show how the flow continues to his Mach-II application. We took some similar approaches with the URLs you see here on InstantSpot.

For those wondering how all these pieces fit togther, I strongly recommend you check out his blog entry entitled: Using Apache's mod_rewrite: SES URL's and More.

Creating the equivalent of IIS Virtual Directories in Apache

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 01:36:20 GMT

I have to admit that I used to be guilty of laziness on one aspect when I began using Linux/Apache a couple of years ago as a convert from Windows. I didn't immediately understand how to create the equivalent of virtual directories in Apache that are available in IIS. I soon found that I could just do symbolic links at the file level that would effectively give me the same effect at the broswer request level. However, one big negative is that there is a linked directory sitting there in the parent directory, which is a pain in the tail when it things like source control such as subversion comes into play. When I browse to a directory in a terminal or my IDE, I don't necessarily want to see it either. The answer is to use the "Alias" directive in Apache.

Example:

As a ColdFusion developer, I like to have a CFIDE directory available in my webroot as I develop so that I can access the ColdFusion administrator. I keep my CFIDE directory in /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/CFIDE.

To make that available as a virtual directoy, I need to add the following to my Apache virtual host definition:

    Alias /CFIDE /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/CFIDE
    <Directory /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/CFIDE>
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    </Directory>

Just remember to remove that one before you put it in production!

Problem installing VMWare Tools

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 04:07:02 GMT

In the past year I have "discovered" how cool VMWare is. This virtual machine software allows you to run a huge variety of operating systems as guests under your host operating system. On my laptop, I have run ... errrr.... I mean I know someone who as run Mac OSX, a handful of different Linux distributions and even Windows. For most supported operating systems, VMWare recommends that you click a menu option to install the VMWare tools on the guest operating system. I have tried this repetitively but I always have the same result. It acts like it is going to start doing some type of installation but just never advances. If you look in the menu the option changes from "Install VMWare tools" to "Cancel Installation of VMWare Toos" so it thinks it is doing something. Inevitably after 10 minutes or so, I give up and cancel.

Tonight, however, I was a bit more curious. I noticed that when I began the install the CD icon on the task bar flashed a bit. After logging into the guest Windows operating system, I saw that the virtual CD was labeled VMWare. When I clicked into it, I found the setup program for VMWare tools. It ran it without issue!

I just thought I better document this in case anyone ran across the same situation.

We have landed

Sun, 10 Jul 2005 05:00:00 GMT

Well, I have installed my blogging software. Time to play. :)