Web design blog

Mitchell Torrens website launch

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:02:45 +0000

Just launched a website for Mitchell Torrens. Fans of Mitchell will be able to keep up to date with his movements and what he is up to.

The website is built using the SilverStripe CMS and uses jQuery and a bit of CSS3. Check out the blog page and hover over one of the images and be amazed :)

Mater Fire Safety

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:21:18 +0000

I worked with artshak who supplied the creative to create the layouts for the Mater Fire Training module. What I created was HTML5 layouts which uses HTML5 video which works in all browsers.

Central Coast Coatings website recently launched

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:47:25 +0000

Recently launched a website for a local Gold Coast Painter. If you are looking for a experienced, professional and reliable painter, I would suggest that you give Joel a call on 0488 196 776. You have a look at his website also. centralcoastcoatings.com.au

Now for the tech details, the website was built using the SilverStripe CMS, HTML5 and jQuery.

Axis Marine website launched

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 06:57:16 +0000

I worked with creating demand to launch the Axis Marine website. Basically its a website which lists premium quality brokerage listings.

Should we use WordPress

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:43:35 +0000

WordPress is great at what its designed for (a blog) but it seems to be an insecure system. I have lots of enquiries to build WordPress websites and this is my attempt to convince people to consider an alternative secure CMS system.

To support this argument, he is some recent press related to WordPress.

As many as 100,000 WordPress blogs infected 700,000 Macs with malware

21rd April 2012 - BetaNews

If computer security is your thing -- it really should be everyone's -- and you own a Mac, Kaspersky's analysis of Flashfake malware, also called Flashback, is a must-read. Gasp, this is only part one. There's more to come from the security software developer.
Read original article

Flashback Spread via Hijacked WordPress Blogs

20th April 2012 - Security Watch

If you found Flashback on your Mac, chances are you were infected after visiting compromised WordPress Websites, according to the latest analysis from Kaspersky Lab.
Read original article

Flashback Trojan spread by Wordpress web sites

20th April 2012 - The Inquirer

COMPROMISED Wordpress web sites have been sending visitors to malware hosts that infect Mac OS X systems with the Flashback Trojan, security outfit Kaspersky Lab has reported.
Read original article

Hackers booby-trap WordPress site with botnet-weaving Trojan

23rd March 2012 - The Register

Malware-flingers are taking advantage of vulnerable WordPress sites as part of an attack ultimately designed to spread an information-stealing botnet agent.
Read original article

Compromised WordPress sites serving client-side exploits and malware

21st March 2012 - ZD Net

Security researchers from TrendMicro are reporting on mass compromise of WordPress sites, currently serving client-side exploits and malware to users who click on malicious links in the spamvertised emails connected with the campaign.
Read original article

Compromised WordPress sites Drive Users to Blackhole Exploit Kit

21st March 2012 - Trend Labs

We were alerted to reports of a mass compromise of WordPress sites that lead to CRIDEX infection. To lure users to these compromised sites, the cybercriminals behind this employed spammed messages purporting to come from known legitimate sources such Better Business Bureau and LinkedIn, just to name a few. These spam use social engineering tactics to entice unsuspecting users to click the link found in the email.
Read original article

Rogue Antivirus Campaign Tricks WordPress Users, Infects 30,000 Sites

8th March 2012 - Web Host Industry Review

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Research by security firm Websense has found that about 30,000 WordPress websites have been infected with malicious code that distributes rogue antivirus software, according to a blog post published on Monday.
Read original article

Security Firm: Injection Hit 200,000 Sites

8th March 2012 - The Hosting News

(The Hosting News) –WordPress represents one of the largest online blogging platforms, used by a variety of companies and entities for the purpose of maintaining their web presences. Not surprisingly, the platform itself has also long been a common target of those who seek to disrupt stability on the web – hackers.
Read original article

30K WordPress Blogs Attacked by Malware

8th March 2012 - Business 2 Community

Do you have a WordPress website? If so, the latest news regarding WordPress’s security should have you more than a little concerned. According to Slashdot, 30,000 WordPress blogs and websites were infected with a recent malware scam.
Read original article

Rogue AV Campaign Infects More Than 200,000 Web Pages

7th March 2012 - Dark Reading Protect The Business

Researchers at Websense have detected a widespread rogue antivirus campaign targeting more than 200,000 Web pages and close to 30,000 unique Web hosts.
Read original article

Rogue Antivirus Campaign Targets WordPress

8th March 2012 - Tech Week Europe

A new wave of mass-injections of a fake antivirus campaign that appears to be targeting sites hosted by popular blogging platform WordPress, according to Websense it has detected
Read original article

30,000 Wordpress Sites Infected to Redirect to Fake AV Sites

7th March 2012 - Maximum PC

Fake antivirus is by no means a recent phenomenon. In fact, it has been around for ages, with the first documented instance of fake antivirus reportedly dating back to 1989. Of course, it has become much more widespread over the past few years. But in case you needed reminding that rogue antivirus software continues to be a threat, security firm Websense has just the reminder for you.
Read original article

Fake AV attack targets Wordpress users

7th March 2012 - Network World

Security company Websense has detected a new wave of mass-injections of a well-known rogue antivirus campaign, targeting websites hosted by the WordPress content management system.
Read original article

New mass injection wave of WordPress websites

7th March 2012 - Help Net Security

Websense has detected a new wave of mass-injections of a well-known rogue antivirus campaign. The majority of targets are Web sites hosted by the WordPress content management system.
Read original article

Mass injection wave whacks WordPress webpages

7th March 2012 - IT PRO

Almost 30,000 websites have been hit by a mass injection attack, most of which are based on the WordPress content management system, Websense has found.
Read original article

30,000 WordPress Blogs Infected to Distribute Rogue Antivirus Software

7th March 2012 - PC World Business Centre

Almost 30,000 WordPress blogs have been infected in a new wave of attacks orchestrated by a cybercriminal gang whose primary goal is to distribute rogue antivirus software, researchers from security firm Websense said in a blog post on Monday.
Read original article

Compromised websites leading to banking malware

2nd March 2012 - Info Security

M86 Security is warning that recent spam campaigns are luring victims to compromised websites that redirect to malicious Phoenix-hosting sites, which in turn seek to infect the visitor with the Cridex trojan.
Read original article

Hackers Infect WordPress 3.2.1 Blogs to Distribute TDSS Rootkit

1st February 2012 - PC World Business Center

Hackers are compromising WordPress 3.2.1 blogs in order to infect their visitors with the notorious TDSS rootkit, according to researchers from Web security firm Websense.
Read original article

WordPress attacks try to infect users with dangerous rootkit

1st February 2012 - SC Magazine

he number of WordPress blogs that have been compromised to hurl malware onto the machines of unsuspecting users is gradually growing, security researchers said this week.
Read original article

Hackers Infect WordPress 3.2.1 Blogs to Distribute TDSS Rootkit

31st January 2012 - CSO

IDG News Service — Hackers are compromising WordPress 3.2.1 blogs in order to infect their visitors with the notorious TDSS rootkit, according to researchers from Web security firm Websense.
Read original article

Adding a database index to a SilverStripe DataObject

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 05:31:14 +0000

If you have large amounts of data, you should be using database indexes. This is how you add a database index to a DataObject in Silverstripe.

There is a static variable called $indexes The way to use it is to pass an array to indexes using array('index name' => 'fields to index')

Here is a quick example.

static $indexes = array(
  'MyIndex' => '(Name)'
);

To index more than 1 field, you can use the following

static $indexes = array(
  'MyIndex' => '(Name,ShortDescription)'
);

To use a unique index as you would on a URLSegment field, you need to pass array('Field name to index' => true) to the $indexes variable.

static $indexes = array(
  'URLSegment' => true
);

Dont forgot to dev/build?flush=1 your database.

Loading the contents of a module into a component using Joomla

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:04:13 +0000

One of the best methods of loading the contents of a module into a component in Joomla is to have another editable content area. You could build this into the component but why bother when there is already a custom HTML module out there.

The first step is to create a module. You have to give the module a name and you also need to assign it to a module position. This module position needs to be a unique name. You can click on the textbox and enter a unique name. I have used mod_publications as the component i'm using is called com_publications.

You will need to also make sure that the module is displayed on all pages.You won't need to worry about the module actually being displayed on all pages as the module position mod_publications does not exist in your template.

The next step is to drop some code yo. This only takes a few lines to get it to work and you will need to edit a view.html.php file and a view template file. The following is an example of the file locations:

components/com_publications/views/productdetail/view.html.php
components/com_publications/views/productdetail/tmpl/productdetail.php

In the view.html.php file, what we need to do is use the module helper to load the modules for a module position. We have used the mod_publications position. We then assign this to the template using $this->assignRef

view.html.php

<?php

defined ('_JEXEC') or die;

jimport ('joomla.application.component.view');

class PublicationsViewProductDetail extends JView
{
	function display($tmpl = null)
	{
		jimport('joomla.application.module.helper');
		$modules = JModuleHelper::getModules('mod_publications');

		$this->assignRef('modules', $modules);
		parent::display($tmpl);
	}
}

?>

tmpl/productdetail.php

In the tmpl/productdetail.php file, we just need to render the contents of the modules.

<div class="publications-product-modules">
	<?php foreach ($this->modules as $m): ?>
		<?php echo JModuleHelper::renderModule($m); ?>
	<?php endforeach; ?>
</div>

I've only supplied the code required to get this to work.

The benefit of using this approach is that we can load any module. We can have image galleries, forms, etc.

WordPress :: Include the content of one page on another page

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:50:58 +0000

Have you ever wanted to include the content from one page into another page in WordPress. Perhaps you want an editable sidebar! This is how to achieve this.

Below is a simple code snippet that you can put into your page.php file or whereever you need it.

<?php 
	$sidebar_page_id = 110; 
	$sidebar_page = get_page( $sidebar_page_id ); 
	$sidebar_content = apply_filters('the_content', $sidebar_page->post_content); 
?>


	<?php echo $sidebar_content; ?>

You must pass a variable to the get_page function. If you do something like $sidebar_page = get_page( 110 ); wordpress will drop an error on yo a$$.

SilverStripe HTML5 Boilerplate Version 2 Theme

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:54:06 +0000

The HTML5 Boilerplate project released version 2 in August so its time to create a SilverStripe HTML5 Boilerplate version 2 theme.

The theme was mainly based on the BlackCandy5 theme but it uses version 2 of the HTML5 Boilerplate and i've also upgraded the jquery version to 1.7 All of the blackcandy images have been removed as well as a lot of the un-necessary styles. Also added is a default email template as from the hard yakka theme. The IE conditional statements have been removed from the BlackCandy theme.

When starting a new project, I always grab the following 2 modules:

Also, we will want to remove prototype by adding the following to mysite/_config.php

Validator::set_javascript_validation_handler('none');

Then i create a SiteConfig Extension to remove the theme drop down list from the SiteConfig as explained in this post on ssbits.com and I add other site wide configuration options.

Finally I modify the Page_Controller class init() function so that its ready to combine the javascript and css.

	public function init() {
		parent::init();

		$theme_folder = sprintf('themes/%s', SSViewer::current_theme());
		$js_files = array(
			sprintf('%s/javascript/plugins.js', $theme_folder),
			sprintf('%s/javascript/script.js', $theme_folder)
		);

		$css_files =
			array(
				sprintf('%s/css/layout.css', $theme_folder),
				sprintf('%s/css/typography.css', $theme_folder),
				sprintf('%s/css/form.css', $theme_folder),
			);
		foreach($js_files as $js) {
			Requirements::javascript($js);
		}

		foreach($css_files as $css) {
			Requirements::css($css);
		}

		Requirements::combine_files("js.js", $js_files);
		Requirements::combine_files("css.css", $css_files);
		Requirements::process_combined_files();
	}

Comments are welcome and is there anything differently you do when starting a project?

Grab the theme here

Falcon90 Motoryacht website

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:07:31 +0000

I worked with Gold Coast company Creating Demand to deliver the Falcon90 Motoryacht website. The objective of the website is to get potential buyers in touch with the seller. So if you have a spare 5.8m lying around, you can buy this beauty.

The site was built using the SilverStripe CMS & features a custom built image gallery.

eco d e-commerce website launched today

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:58:48 +0000

Today I launched an e-commerce website for eco d. The site is built with LemonStand and has a lot of custom functionality including a stockists module which uses Google Maps.

Have a look at the site www.ecod.com.au

Here is some screen shots of the new site, enjoy!

Using AJAX with twitter tweet buttons and facebook like buttons

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:32:21 +0000

Currently working on a website which uses ajax to reload parts of the page and the twitter tweet button and the facebook like button disappear and do not reload after calling an ajax request.

We need to use a simple bit of javascript to force the buttons to re-appear.

Twitter:

twttr.widgets.load()

Facebook:

try{
	FB.XFBML.parse(); 
}catch(ex){}

The following is a jQuery snippet of how the code should be used:

$.ajax({
	url: "reload-content.html",
	cache: false,
	success: function(html){
		$("#results").html(html);    
    	twttr.widgets.load();    
    	try{
			FB.XFBML.parse(); 
    	}catch(ex){}  
  	}
});

The example page where this is being used is http://shop.ecod.com.au/product/split-v-shirt. When clicking a colour, it uses ajax to reload the product area which is where the facebook like and twitter tweet buttons are located.

Using a shortcode in a WordPress theme

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:39:38 +0000

Currently working on a WordPress project and I needed to include a WordPress shortcode into the theme files. This is to include a gallery as the background on all the pages.

This is how you add a WordPress shortcode into the theme.

Open up the themes php file. The file i used on my project is page.php

Use the do_shortcode function as below:

<?php echo do_shortcode('[shortcode option="value"]'); ?>

The code which I used to display the gallery on every page is:

<?php echo do_shortcode('[portfolio_slideshow id=27]'); ?>

Checkout the codex page

Rob Mills website powered by Wordpress

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:58:39 +0000

Recently relaunch the Rob Mills website. The new site is build in wordpress and I worked with Lee Wong on this project.

The main changes which I was involved in was modifying existing plugins to work the way the client wanted.

Miss Bossy Boots website powered by SilverStripe and jQuery

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:00:47 +0000

Yesterday the new site for Miss Bossy Boots was launched. The site is basically a collection of photographers works. I worked with the Envelope Group who provided the creative for the site.

The site is completely custom built and is optimised for all the major browsers on mac and pc and it is also optimised for the iPad. The galleries support the swiping event which is pretty cool.

One of the big challenges was creating the sliding gallery that could expand with the browsers size and when it is resized.

The site also contains a customised blog where the images also resize to the available screen real estate.

One great thing about SilverStripe is that the content area looks the same as the rendered output as opposed to other CMS's.

The easiest way to move a live wordpress site to localhost

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 06:52:57 +0000

This is the easiest way to move a live wordpress site to a localhost environment such as MAMP or WAMP.

Step 1: Download all of the files into a directory on your computer. If you are using MAMP, the directory would be Applications/MAMP/htdocs/

Step 2: Grab a copy of the database and import it into your mysql database server into a new database.

Step 3: Update the following in wp-config.php

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME', 'mywordpressdatabase');

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'root');

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', '');

/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

Step 4: Now we need to update the home and siteurl values. The easiest way to do this is by adding the following to the wp-config.php

define('WP_HOME','http://localhost:8888');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://localhost:8888');

Thats it. Its not advisable to use the WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL constants on a live site because you won't be able to update the settings from the admin.

There is a couple of other ways to update the home and siteurl values.

1: Use a tool such as phpmyadmin to update the values. The database table to edit is wp_options. Change the field option_value to http://localhost:8888 for the 2 records which have an option_name of siteurl and home.

2: Run the following SQL commands in a tool such as phpmyadmin.

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'http://localhost:8888' WHERE option_name = 'siteurl';
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'http://localhost:8888' WHERE option_name = 'home';

3: Update functions.php and place the following code after the opening <?php You will need to fire up the site by visiting http://localhost:8888 in your browser.

update_option('siteurl','http://localhost:8888');
update_option('home','http://localhost:8888');

If the live site was in a sub directory you will need to update the .htaccess file. Below is a copy of the htaccess file which will work as a root level site.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]


# END WordPress

If your local environment is in a subdirectory such as mysubdirectory, you will need to update the .htaccess as below.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /mysubdirectory/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /mysubdirectory/index.php [L]

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /mysubdirectory/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /mysubdirectory/index.php [L]


# END WordPress

Running Last.FM on a mac over airport express

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:32:34 +0000

Need the last.fm goodness using airport express.

Step 1: Open the last.fm client & go into Preferences > Radio. Enter a port number into the textbox 'Connect to localhost on port'.

Step 2: Restart the last.fm client

Step 3: Play a radio station.

Step 4: Launch iTunes

Step 5: Goto the advanced menu and select Open Stream

Step 6: Paste the following into the texbox. If you have used a different port number, make sure to change that. http://localhost:6969

Step 7: Click the repeat icon in itunes so that it repeats continually. It will turn blue and have a circle on it. You need to click it twice. This is on the bottom left of the player.

Step 8: Rock out forever! You might want to turn the volume down on your mac. Sometimes a song starts playing, then it will start playing on airport.

Moving office to sunny Mermaid Beach

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 09:39:01 +0000

Recently I moved office to sunny Mermaid Beach. The new address is 2485 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach 4218 on the corner of francis street and its in the same building as LJ Hooker.

PROS:

200m to the beach
across the road from mermaid beach tavern & mini golf putt putt
awesome area and people

CONS:

none

Check out some pics:

Getting the body background image to display correctly on the iPad

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:01:06 +0000

To get the background images to display correctly on the iPad you need to specify the image dimensions using the -webkit-background-size property in css.

Example: If you have a background image with the dimensions of 1920 x 1200

body {
	background: url(http://www.chillburn.com.au/images/bg.jpg) no-repeat 50% 0%;
	-webkit-background-size: 1920px 1200px;
}

Getting the thumbnails to appear in the facebook sharer from a SilverStripe content field

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:37:50 +0000

I recently worked on a project that uses SilverStripe and uses the facebook sharer to share content and I noticed that the images from the $Content field are not converted into thumbnails. This is my solution for the problem.

When the sharer scapes your page, it does not parse images such as

<img src="assets/Uploads/_resampled/resizedimage400579-image006.jpg">

which is what SilverStripe renders a content field as.

The solution is to add the following code to your mysite/code/Page.php file.

class Page_Controller extends ContentController {

	...

	public function init() {
		parent::init();
		
		$this->Content = str_replace('src="assets/', sprintf('src="%sassets/', $this->baseHref()), $this->Content);


	}

	...
}

What the code does is it adds the BaseHref to the front of the images. This allows the facebook sharer to scrape them.