If you didn’t read the post regarding the similar OpenRealty script then this will help explain why something like this may be necessary. There are times people may install Joomla and then not use it for a period of time. Over time memory can fade and recovering your password using the normal process isn’t really an option because the email assigned to the account is no longer accessible. To make matters worse, there are actually hosting accounts that specialize in bulk hosting of Joomla or WordPress type sites that really don’t grant access to things like phpMyAdmin. What do you do? You use the script below to generate a temporary Super Administrators Account in order for you to reset or change your former account then you delete the file along with the temporary Super Administrators Account. Simply upload the script to your Joomla directory, navigate to it, and your done. It will create a super admin account called THEADMIN with the password of “password”. Its important to note that I set the number in the 9000 range because if you are not sure how many members you have this number is big enough to ensure you wont likely encounter an error. However, this number is so high that each and every new account created will follow this number so its something to consider changing if you want to keep the user ID lower.

But you might ask, why bother with creating a new account when we could simply reset the account to password? Well the very small script at the very bottom of this post will do just that providing the admin account hasn’t been renamed. Upload and access it the same way you would if you were creating the new account. Enjoy!

This one resets the existing super administrators account password to “password”

[snippet missing]

This one creates a new account and password.

[php]
<?php
/*
@ Copyright: (c)2007 – 2009 Jared Ritchey Design, All Rights Reserved.
@ Author URL: http://www.jaredritchey.com
@ Author Email: jared@jaredritchey.com
@ License: GNU/GPL Extended.
@ Config Notes: not knowing how many members are in your DB this has been set to create the account in the 9000 range.
*/

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// THIS SCRIPT IS USED TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT FOR THEADMIN WITH THE PASSWORD OF password
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
require_once(‘configuration.php’);
$link = mysql_connect($mosConfig_host, $mosConfig_user, $mosConfig_password) or die("Could not connect : " . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db($mosConfig_db) or die("Could not select database");
echo "Database Host: " .$mosConfig_host."<br />";
echo "Database User: " .$mosConfig_user."<br />";
echo "Database Password: " .$mosConfig_password."<br />";
echo "Database: " .$mosConfig_db."<br />";

$sql= "INSERT INTO jos_core_acl_aro VALUES(9001, ‘users’, ’9491′, 0, ‘THEADMIN’, 0)";
mysql_query($sql);

$sql= "INSERT INTO jos_core_acl_groups_aro_map VALUES(25, ”, 9001)";
mysql_query($sql);

$sql= "INSERT INTO jos_users VALUES(9491, ‘THEADMIN’, ‘THEADMIN’, ‘someone@somewhere.com’, ’7d83778ac1e89412de7bad3e3470dc21′, ‘Super Administrator’, 0, 0, 25, ’2007-03-06 11:55:23′, ’2009-08-11 15:32:15′, ”, ‘editor=fckeditor\nexpired=\nexpired_time=’)";
mysql_query($sql);

//echo "<br /><br />";
die("Your SUPER ADMINISTRATOR Account was added – be sure to make modifications prior to continuing and delete this file.");
?>
[/php]

Have you ever wanted to reduce that long confusing looking and un-necessary search string in your “GET” type forms? In our line of work we may opt to use one of three primary tools in our projects; OpenRealty, UltimateIDX, or our home grown product we use on high end projects. Regardless of product, in each instance the search forms for the MLS Quick Search uses the form action type of “GET” and in doing so it passes the form value to the URL string for the query. But what happens when you have a null value or a field with NO value? Why bother to pass fields to your search string that have no value? Over time we noted that lengthy search strings regardless of empty values or not would reduce the response time for the results substantially when compared to shorter search strings.

This script was written to help in the reduction of processing burdens placed on servers for large search forms that use the GET method for form processing. It was designed in part to reduce the SQL search timeout issue common in Real Estate MLS Search forms that rely on the “GET” method to reduce the number of fields passed in the query string. If a search form field contains a NULL or no value it will not be passed on to the GET string.

With help from coder / blogger Greg Burghardt of Fundamental Disaster we hashed out this little snippet to achieve what we were after. The code has since been modified and has about 4 different variants in use but this one is the most true to the original.

You can download the snippet in a zip file from right here; SearchForms.zip

To use this script you should add a little php to display a variable in the body tag or you can simply permanently alter the body tag as follows;
EXAMPLE:
<body onload=”enableEmptyFields(document.something);”>

You must also add an onSubmit event handler (property) belonging to a Form object as follows:
EXAMPLE:
<form action=”the-name-of-your-script.php” method=”get” onsubmit=”disableEmptyFields(this);” name=”something”>

[javascript]
/* ############################### COPYRIGHT NOTICE BEGINS #############################
@ Copyright 2008 – 2009: WP Realty Team – Chad Broussard and Jared Ritchey
@ Copyright 2008: Greg Burghardt
@ Copyright URL: http://www.wprealty.org and http://fundamentaldisaster.blogspot.com/
@ Published by: Chad Broussard and Jared Ritchey
@ Scripting: In part by http://fundamentaldisaster.blogspot.com/ and Jared Ritchey Design
@ License: GNU / GPL
@ File Name: searchforms.js
############################### COPYRIGHT NOTICE ENDS ############################# */
/*
@ DISCLAIMER AND USAGE AND LICENSE:
You are free to use this script for whatever reason you so desire providing you leave the copyright details above in
tact as required and you do not redistribute this code rebranded as your own work. You are free to include this
code in any commercial or non-commercial application without further permission or obligation from WPRealty or
Chad Broussard. You may NOT republish this code absent of this copyright notice. LICENSED AS GNU/GPL Open Source
with provisions.
*/

function enableEmptyFields(form) {
var i = 0;
var field;
var j = 0;
var opt;
while (field = form.elements[i++]) {
switch (field.nodeName) {
case "input":
switch (field.type) {
case "checkbox":
case "radio":
field.disabled = !field.checked;
break;
default:
field.disabled = false;
break;
}
break;
case "select":
if (field.multiple) {
j = 0;
while (opt = field.options[j++]) {
opt.disabled = !opt.selected;
}
} else {
field.disabled = false;
}
break;
default:
field.disabled = false;
break;
}
}
}
function disableEmptyFields(form) {
var i = 0;
var field;
var j = 0;
var opt;

while (field = form.elements[i++]) {
switch (field.nodeName) {
case "input":
switch (field.type) {
case "checkbox":
case "radio":
field.disabled = !field.checked;
break;
default:
field.disabled = (field.value.length > 0) ? false : true;
break;
}
break;
case "select":
if (field.multiple) {
j = 0;
while (opt = field.options[j++]) {
opt.disabled = !opt.selected;
}
} else {
field.disabled = (field.value.length > 0) ? false : true;
}
break;
default:
field.disabled = (field.value.length > 0) ? false : true;
break;
}
}
}
[/javascript]

One of the greatest techniques ever used by responsible web designers.

I was chatting with Mack McMillan of UltimateIDX the other day when we got onto discussing the subject we frequently encounter with clients.  Many times clients want to see their blogs and websites prior to them going live and many times that isn’t easily done without some clever techniques I’ll reveal herein.  After having encountered this many times I realized that I should come up with a small guide on "how to build and view a site development prior to it going live"  when I came up with a little tool to distribute in order to help. So this post is generically in response to a common question being asked in forums.  

How can I see my site before the DNS resolves or before I switch servers?

Before we answer that I want to toss a few scenarios at you in the form of questions so I can set the frame of mind and reference for you to better understand why this technique is so very important. We look at preserving page urls for page rank along with site migration and server migration while maintaining the old site.

Lets say you have a brand new hosting account and on that hosting account you upload your site to the server and you eagerly wait for your DNS to resolve.  After two hours go by you begin to get impatient (even though dns can take 24+ hours to resolve) and you begin to seek a solution.  After all, you want to install your shopping cart, WordPress blog, or Joomla site and simply cant wait.  How can you view your site with full resolving URL even if DNS hasn’t resolved?  Thats question 1.

Now lets say that you have a site you are migrating from an old service provider, hosting company, designer or whatever and you want to verify that the migration went well PRIOR to you switching DNS.  Lets word this question accordingly;  How can I see and test my site before I switch DNS?  Naturally this would apply to site migrations where switching servers are also involved.  Thats question 2.

One last question related to these scenarios would be instances where you are simply seeking a web site redesign or change in site tools and wish to preserve URL’s   This happens with site migrations where, for instance, Realtors would be leaving a proprietary system and they wish to move to a more widely supported one as in the case of the thousands of recent Real Estate Webmasters and Advanced Access migrations to a CMS solution.  Many times people then ask the question; How can I preserve my links for page rank during a redesign? This question gets a bit more involved when its worded for instances where a site owner wants to keep his or her existing site live while the migration and redesign takes place, most often on an alternative server.  Thats question 3.

Answer: Preserving Page Rank – Migration – URL – Testing

One of the most common techniques used by web designers and developers is to build client sites on servers not accessible to the open web and by doing so a responsible designer will prevent search engines from accidentally indexing the site prematurely.   Although many opt for the sub directory method which can work well, there is a danger in using this technique as referrers can provide Search Engines with a path necessary to view the work in progress.  Follow my logic for just a moment and you will see how this plays out.  We’re going to use a site that is live and online today which was a redesign using a client provided template layout as it was migrated from the old design to the new without missing a beat in the search engines.  This site we use for this article was Go All Pro Realty and the URL I’ll use in this post is http://www.goallpro.com so from this point on I’ll reference that site in the example.

Answering all questions above in those scenarios I take Go All Pro Realty which had been created using Microsoft Front Page.  The site was redesigned for Joomla in which we built the site on a separate IP as opposed to a sub directory where we could use the technique I’m about to reveal for optimal results. After we took all of the content from the old static site and pasted it into the WYSIWYG editor of Joomla we then set out to correct and preserve the URLs and make 301 Redirect changes where links would not be preserved.  The tool we used was a plug-in we offer called OpenSEF for Joomla.  After all the data migration was done we needed to verify the content and the URL’s in a way that we can also verify the page rank, linking, back linking and other aspects without changing the DNS.   How can this be done? How can we view http://www.goallpro.com with our browser and end up visiting the new project location without changing the DNS? Let me explain.

Since I needed a way to view the new site after switching techniques on the new server with the new install of Joomla, what we came up with was a simple modification to a windows file known as the "hosts" file.  For those not familiar with networking and IP mapping, the hosts file is used to contain mapping of IP numbers to host names and each time the file is loaded into cache from reboot, those host names listed will resolve to the IP they are associated with regardless of the actual IP of the domain.  What this means is that if your host file has a reference to a site like say JaredRitchey.com associated to the IP for google, each time you type in JaredRitchey.com it would resolve to google.  This is a common issue with PayPal spoofs and other types of deceptive viruses that modify your host file to get your browser to resolve to a server other than your intended target location.

So in our instance answering those questions above, I need to type in http://www.goallpro.com and have it resolve to a new location on a new IP even though the DNS for the domain has not been switched.  Lets break down the steps and you can try this for yourself.

Fist we modify the hosts file in your windows system; To do this you navigate to this path on your windows system, C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc then you open the hosts file using an editor that does not alter or modify the raw text.  Some ideal choices are simply notepad on your system or NotePad++ which is a free download.

Click on the image below to examine a larger profile.  Basically what we do is take the host file and add in the domain url and assign it to our testing servers IP.  Now for those of you interested in simply resolving the new site on a new hosting company for the purpose of installing you would make sure your IP the domain is associated with follows the format your hosting company provides. This is ideal for sites that are hosted on a shared server where an IP is used on many domains.  The format for instance on one of my servers looks like 123.4.5.67/~accountname/  It will vary depending on hosting company. Look at the example below;

Now we simply flush the DNS on our system and reopen the browsers (again, make sure the browser cache is cleared)

To do this open the command prompt by visiting START >> RUN and type in command to load the command prompt.

At the command prompt you simply type in the following and press enter "ipconfig /flushdns" (no quote marks) then after the DNS flushes you type in "exit" (no quote marks) and press enter.  Now I’ve created a batch file to flush dns because I do it frequently in working with servers and domains and you are welcome to it.  You can verify the contents of the batch file by simply right clicking on it and opening it in Notepad++  Basically you simply put it on your desktop and double click it when you want to flush the DNS. 

A quick note on clearing cache in your browsers.  In FireFox this is easy enough by holding down CTRL + SHIFT and pressing the Delete Key. You end up with a dialog box like this;

Now that all these things have taken place you should be able to just open your browser and type in the URL and have it resolve to the new target location without the need to change your DNS to the testing server.

I’m open for comments and suggestions regarding this so feel free to sound off.

Are you a good PHP coder who can code snippets quickly?  I’m looking to hire another PHP coder to help with some small customization and snippets for projects we are working on.  I’m taking all my years of code that we have held for commercial projects and converting them for FREE resources in my new resource directory.  I’d like a person to be well versed in PHP 4+ and although 5+ is the current thing its not the supported thing universally so I need someone who is conscious of that.  I’d like the coder to also be well versed in code sanitation to prevent potential security issues in these old snippets once updated.

The criteria for the coder is as follows;

1. Commit to a 25 projects minimum and charge accordingly.
2. Have a valid phone number in either the US, UK, or Canada preferably but not required.
3. Can be paid by certified funds or a verified PayPal account.
4. Must use my RTDS (Rapid Template Design Series) coding guideline.
5. Should understand AJAX and certainly databases.
6. Should understand XML at least from a dynamic generation perspective.
7. Must code cleanly with well commented code.
8. Dont Steal other peoples code. 
9. Must be at least casually familiar with a few open source applications and have a good understanding of string replace type template engines.

Please contact me using this sites contact form and in your contact please include a phone number and the times of day or week you can work.  Please be fair and competitive in pricing.

After doing a substantial amount of changes to my 4 main blogs over the weekend I came to discover in my directories that I had about 40 important and very usable code snippets that would be truly beneficial for those who are in the development of Real Estate Websites.

I’ve setup a nice little snippet section on one of my sites and then proceeded to take my licensed copy of Code Warehouse 2007 code snippet application and basically create a web based interface that features many of its features in an attempt to make the new section truly easy to manage code snippets and to provide them in a way that is familiar to those that use code manager applications.

I first started out with Open Realty being the base platform for the design of the online snippet DB only to switch to an old modified version of Joomla where I core hacked the menu section to emulate a desktop application familiar to many Windows applications especially to such snippet managers.

Code Resources for Webmasters IDX / RETS and vieleRETS

Over the years I’ve accumulated literally gigabytes of code that have been either modified, abandoned, semi-discarded and half organized only to just take up and waste space.  A great deal of it is salvageable and over the course of several months I was able to scape enough bits and pieces of time to assemble all of these code elements into my code snippet database.  That’s the good part. The frustrating part is that I can’t share it easily with coders I work with frequently aside from cut-n-past methods.

So, all that IDX / CRON / MLS / RETS and other code snippets will also be going into the new online snippet DB.  I’ll post a link this weekend for those to cruise the code but keep in mind that although the design is done for the snippet DB its very sparse on content as of yet.