Editor's Note: Today marks a special day for WordPress. Powering many websites (and yes, Smashing Magazine is one of them), it celebrates its 13th birthday today. Happy birthday, dear WordPress! Here's to many more!
Do you remember when you could run a “fast” WordPress website with just an Apache server and PHP? Yeah, those were the days! Things were a lot less complicated back then.
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Node.js is a rapidly growing technology that has been overtaking the world of server-side programming with surprising speed. MongoDB is a technology that’s revolutionizing database usage. Together, the two tools are a potent combination, thanks to the fact that they both employ JavaScript and JSON.
At first glance, coming to grips with Node.js and MongoDB can seem both time-consuming... Read More
When people talk about WordPress security, file permissions and ownership are usually the last thing on their minds. Installing security plugins is a good practice and a must for every WordPress website. However, if your file-system permissions aren’t set up correctly, most of your security measures could be easily bypassed by intruders.
Permissions and ownership are quite important in... Read More
Editor's Note: Today we are happy to present to you the second part of the sample chapter from the upcoming printed Smashing Book #4: New Perspectives on Coding, written by Paul Tero. You might want to read the first part of this chapter beforehand — if you haven't already. Also, feel free to download the full chapter from the Smashing eBook Library.
Imagine that you wake up one morning,... Read More
Imagine that you wake up one morning, reach groggily for your laptop and fire it up. You’ve just finished developing a brand new website and last night you were proudly clicking through the product list. The browser window is still open, the Widget 3000 is still sparkling in its AJAXy newness.
You grin like a new parent and expectantly click on “More details”. And nothing happens. You... Read More
In the construction industry, a “firewall” is a specially-built wall designed to stop a fire from spreading between sections of a building. The term spread to other industries like car manufacturing, and in the late 1980s it made its way into computing.
On one side of the wall is the seething electronic chaos of the Internet. On the other side is your powerful but vulnerable Web server.... Read More
Imagine that your biggest client calls because they are having trouble retrieving their email. Or they want to know what their best-selling item is right now. Or their most popular blog post. Perhaps their website has suddenly gone down. You can hardly reply, “No problem, I’ll get back to you in 24 to 48 hours.” And yet DNS gets away with it! If you need to move a website or change the way a... Read More
Have you ever heard a colleague answer the phone like this: "Good afterno… Yes… What? Completely?… When did it go down?… Really, that long?… We'll look into it right away… Yes, I understand… Of course… Okay, speak to you soon… Bye." The call may have been followed by some cheesy ’80s rock ballad coming from the speaker phone, interrupted by "Thank you for holding. You are now caller number 126... Read More
Having a good relationship with your hosting provider is perhaps not crucial, but pretty darn close to it if you want to maintain a fully functional website. Remember that even though you are the client, you still need to abide by the beloved ToC (Terms and Conditions) of your hosting provider. You should also research hosting plans to prevent future quagmires. Listed below are ten points to... Read More
