Monthly Archives: January 2007

The Online Office Journey

Web Office ChoicesThe movement dubbed “Office 2.0″ alongside “Web 2.0″ is a array of applications that aim to increase desktop productivity without a desktop. The average business man is no longer bound by geographical boundaries, and his respective office should reflect that.

The Journey

I decided I was tired of e-mailing documents to different computers to work on them. I wanted a single sign-on place to work on my office documents (particularly word processing but also spreadsheets and presentations). I need a place to work on these documents in a “live” fashion. I wanted to hit save and push it to a server that could be accessed anywhere with a browser and internet connection.

I started with Zoho. Actually, I was comparing, at that time, Writely (now bought by Google), with Zoho; but I ultimately went with Zoho. It was a decent application. The Ajax made it quite fast, but it always lacked interoperability, a familiar UI, and I didn’t like the presentation application (Zoho Show). I used it for a while, and it did the job; but it didn’t appease me. One of the biggest things was the export feature was horrendous, and I couldn’t put in my needed footnotes (a necessity).

I then went to Think Free. Even though it was slower due to the Java, the UI was more like MS Word, the export feature was really good, and I could add my treasured footnotes. The interoperability problem was still there. I couldn’t cut ‘n paste from one of the documents to another retaining formatting, values, etc. They did drastically improve the back end by allowing the user an actual “office” with access to all your documents (word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations) in one spot (to be fair, Zoho now has Zoho Notebook). I could also create folders and other cool stuff. Overall, I was very happy with Think Free.

Then Why Would I Switch?

At work we use MS’ Team Foundation Server for developers. It is an amazing application, and it uses SharePoint natively for all the document collaboration. I loved using SharePoint, because instead of having to emulate MS Office I was actually using it! The integration into the OS was also a nice surprise; all the Office products allow dynamic collaboration inside the application.

I got more addicted to SharePoint when I found out that they just made version 3 of Windows SharePoint Services free for anyone with the Server 2003 OS. I downloaded, installed, and loved it. Version 3 is amazing! The web parts made it a great dynamic tool, and I am a big fan of the UI. But I had problems accessing it externally which defeated the whole purpose (I had problems with the URL in the load balancing).

Free SharePoint!I knew I would never find SharePoint hosting free or reasonably price—until recently. Enter FreeSharePoint.com. It really is a no-strings attached SharePoint workspace (version 2)! The limitations are 25MB and 5 users, but for simple document management it is plenty. Plus you can create workspaces, add tasks, contacts, and much more; and it integrates seamlessly with the Windows OS and Office!

Conclusion

If you want a virtual office like MS Office then just use it! That’s what makes SharePoint such a powerful tool. In the world of collaboration tools–SharePoint rules.

(Editor’s Note: Mad props to my co-worker Justin Kohnen for showing me WSS 3 and working out the kinks.)

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Host Your Own Website Tutorial

My roommate asked me to create a website for his upcoming wedding. Well, I decided it would be a good opportunity to attempt to host my own website. I didn’t know where to begin, but I knew what I had. I had an extra computer that had a 2.4 GHz processor, 512MB RAM, and a 160 GB hard drive running Windows XP Professional SP2. Now, you don’t need two computers to do this, but I had the luxury.

There is a little bit of leg work, but I promise that you will learn a ton; and it will be a very rewarding experience.

What Needs To Be Accomplished

Here is a list of items that needed to be taken care of in the scope of this project.

  1. Set up Apache, PHP, MySQL (my native design environment).
  2. Get a domain name and point it toward my box.
  3. I also need to configure FTP to do remote changes.
  4. Set-up e-mail.

Setting Up the Server Environment

WAMPI found a good tutorial at Lifehacker, but I need some additional information. To set up my Apache, PHP, and MySQL I needed a WAMP (WindowsApacheMySQLPHP). I tried many, but I found that WAMP5 was by far the easiest to use. While packages like XAMPP have more “stuff” I could never get it to work.

Go download WAMP5 and run the install. You can choose where to install it, but I would suggest on our C: (or maybe partition a drive just for this). You should then go to http://localhost/, and you should see the WAMP home page.

Here is where you should pause and create all of your content. Create a directory under [WAMP Path]/www/, and that is where you can create your application.

Configuring Your Router

Now that your application is ready to go online it’s time to get a domain name! First, we need to configure your router for port forwarding or else no one will get to it.

I use a Linksys router, but you can Google how to port forward on your router and firmware. I went to my router’s admin section which for Linksys was http://192.168.1.1/. I then went to “Applications & Gaming” and put in the following values for both HTTP and FTP.

LinksysThe HTTP box is from port 80 to 80, and I assigned it the IP of the computer I want to forward to (to find your IP go to Start — Run — Type “cmd” (no quotes) — Enter — Type “ipconfig /all”). I also put in the values for FTP which is from port 21 to 21. Remember to check the “Enable” checkbox for both settings and save your changes.

Getting Your Personalized Domain Name

I would suggest going over to DynDNS to grab a domain name. You can get a free forwarding address, but if you want your own domain name you’ll have to pay for it (it’s worth it).

DynDNSCreate an account, and go to Services — Custom DNS. Go through their wizard to purchase your domain name. After your purchase goes through then we’ll need to point your domain name towards your local computer. Go to Services — My Zones and click on your domain name. When you get the options dialog then enter your external IP (get it the same way you get your local IP). If you’ve set your IP to be static or dynamic then choose accordingly (there is no reason to not use a dynamic IP, because DynDNS has an application to dynamically update your settings which I’ll show you).

Be sure to make sure that “Put Online” is selected in your WAMP menu (image above). After a few hours it will resolve, and you will see your website on the WWW! If you selected a dynamic IP then go grab the free IP update client for DynDNS and configure it.

Oh wait, there is one more important step! We need to add an alias on your Apache server to tell the server where to forward requests. Get the WAMP menu (right click on the taskbar icon), and go to Config Files — httpd.conf. This is where we will add an alias for your new domain. (I should tell you that you can get a GUI editor similar to IIS for Apache, but it is shareware.)

Scroll to the bottom to where you see the Virtual Host example. You will add the following information. This tells the server to listen on port 80 for requests made with a certain domain name, and when that condition is true it forwards it to a local directory on your server.

ServerName www.yourdomainname.com
DocumentRoot [WAMP directory]\www\yourprojectfolder

FTP and E-mail

You’re doing good! Hang in there! You now have a working domain name, but you’ll want to add FTP capability and maybe e-mail as well. For the FTP simply download the FileZilla Server. In there you can create users and assign appropriate permissions.

As for e-mail, instead of trying to set up your own POP/SMTP server why not get Google to do it for you? Google has free apps for your domain that you can utilize. Simply sign up for a free account, and configure the Gmail section. There is a tutorial in there where you’ll have to add MX records in your DynDNS configuration panel, but it’s painless. Now you can set up accounts that have 2GB of storage and use the Gmail interface!

You’re Done!

Congrats! You are done! For only $40 you have your own server, personal domain, e-mail, and FTP! If you have questions be sure to provide plenty of information in the comments, and I’ll attempt to steer you straight.

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WordPress Post Information Plugin

This is my first contribution to the WP community! It is a start, and I hope time permitting to advance the features in this plugin. This plugin aims to consolidate your post information into a collapsible panel (using jQuery) that can save space on your page.

You can see what it looks like below on this post, and you can test the interaction from the main page.

Usage

  1. Download, upload, activate.
  2. Add the following code somewhere in The Loop.
<?php
if (function_exists('postinfo')) {
  postinfo();
}
?>

Changelog

1.6

  • Fixed word count when using the read more command (was giving word count for excerpt not post).

1.5

  • Added CSS sprite to reduce image flash.

1.4

  • Added JavaScript callback to designate graphically box can be minimized
  • Changed text for toggle to be more descriptive
  • Tweaked CSS

1.3

  • Altered link for comments on single post entries

1.2

  • Added graceful degradation for users without JS

1.1

  • Converted to jQuery from script.aculo.us (uses jQuery bundled with WordPress)
  • Added support for tags
  • Added extensive styling including the famous Fam Fam Silk Icons
  • Reorganized code

1.0

  • Initial release

Considerations

I’ve noticed different styling results when using the function on single post pages and the loop on other pages. Be sure to test both for differences.

To Do

  1. Add an option page to choose the toggle effect and select information to be displayed. (Obselete)
  2. Add icons.
  3. Add ability to degrade for users w/o JS enabled.
  4. Clean up plugin code.
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