I had php scripts failing and generating “500″ errors on the browser because they were running too long, or sometimes because a large file was being uploaded. I spent time playing with php.ini variables, only to find out that PHP wasn’t processing some of them!

Using phpinfo(), I noticed that the vars were not being set via php.ini, which I had set properly when it was compiled, ala:

‘./configure –with-apxs2=/opt/apache2/bin/apxs –with-mysql=/opt/mysql –with-zlib –with-config-file-path=/etc/php.ini –with-curl=/usr/lib64 –with-pear=/usr/share/pear –libdir=lib64 –with-pdo-mysql –with-gettext –enable-bcmath –with-oci8=instantclient,/home/instantclient10_1′ ‘–enable-sigchild –with-pdo-oci=instantclient,/home/instantclient10_1,10.1.0.5′

I didn’t want to risk affecting the system by re-installing PHP, so instead I found the workaround was to create a .htaccess file that contained:

php_value upload_max_filesize 8M
php_value max_execution_time 600

and this did the trick! So hopefully that helps anyone who is running this version of php and encountered this problem.

[Ac]

to show the card of Ace of Clubs for example. You use a two-letter code that is Rank and Suit to show a card. The ranks/suits are as follows:

Ranks: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, T, J, Q, K, A

Suits: c, d, h, s, x

where c=Clubs, d=Diamonds, h=Hearts, s=Spades, and x=Unknown

So go ahead and tell people how you had your cracked by a donkey with !

Download the plugin here

I assume you have already done the basics, like created your developer account (and know your secret key), and installed the command line tools.

Note that you will need Java installed on your system for the tools to function.

You can find the official EC2 docs here.

Now, on to my tips!

Find A Starter Image

You can browse the images at Amazon via the command :

You’ll see a bunch of images that are out there, in different UNIX flavors, and some with LAMP already installed. I found that whatever you pick, you’ll want to do your own package installs anyway, so just pick a baseline that you like, i.e. Ubuntu or Redhat or whichever you feel comfortable.

Note that you need the AMI string of your choice to continue. Not only will you see a number of Amazon created AMI’s, but other folks have created some public AMIs that you can choose from. Here are some AMIs for Ubuntu you can check out.

Choose A Server Size

Note that EC2 provides a small, large, and extra-large version your can use. I’ve found that the small instances are incompatible with the the large and XL, so be careful! You should start with the large if you plan on any expansion whatsoever.

So when you are ready to create an instance, you’ll need to specify the size (m1.large or m1.xlarge) on the command line otherwise it will default to small, i.e.:

You’ll need to create a gsg-keypair file first of course. This is described nicely in the command line docs, you’ll use “ec2-create-keypair”.

Note that you can apply a firewall to your instance via the “-g <name>” option, where you define a group with the name of “<name>”. You can see what groups you have via:

You can create these groups using commands like:

Access Your Instance

After you run an instance, you can check on the progress via:

And you can provide the instance name also, e.g.

Then you can SSH into it when it is ready by using the domain name it returns, e.g.

Customize Your Instance

You should now make sure your instance has all the packages you want, and configure them how you like. I install the latest Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, etc, and edit all the configuration files to my liking.fone

Make sure you stay in “/”, and do not use “/mnt” since this will go away if you reboot and won’t be saved when you save your instance.

If you need more space, you can use the extra storage service from Amazon although I have not done that at this point.

When you have everything the way you like it, you should save your instance. You will use ec2-bundle-vol to create the image, and ec2-upload-bundle to upload it to Amazon’s storage service.

You’ll need your secret key, access key, cert key, user id and a sample command set is as follows. You will run these from your Amazon instance (where real keys and numbers are replaced by X’s and fake numbers):

Once it is uploaded, you will need to now register it as an AMI image you can access later. You need to do this command from your local host:

This will output your AMI string that you need to note so you can use it later to use your new instance on new Amazon servers.

Cleanup When Done

Don’t forget to make sure you terminate instances you don’t need to use anymore, or you will continue to be charged for them! Run “ec2-describe-instances” to see what you are running, and then you can use “ec2-terminate-instances” with the instance string as an argument to remove them.

To do this, you can create this actionscript class in your main mxml directory (or get fancy and name it within subdirectories) as ” ObjTimer.as” and the contents are simply:

// ActionScript file
// ObjTimer is just a timer that can hold an object of variables to pass along
package {
    import flash.utils.Timer;
    public class ObjTimer extends Timer {
        public var obj:Object = new Object;
        public function ObjTimer(delay:Number, repeatCount:int = 0) {
             super(delay, repeatCount);
        }
    }
}

and then you can access it from within your mxml like so for example:

var newTimer: ObjTimer = new ObjTimer(900,1);
newTimer.obj["myvar1"] = "test";
newTimer.obj["firstname"] = "joe";
newTimer.obj["count"] = 10;
newTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, handleFunction);
newTimer.start();

private function handleFunction(e:Event):void{
    var value:String = e.target.obj["myvar1"];
    var fn:String = e.target.obj["firstname"];
    var count:int = parseInt(e.target.obj["count"]);
}

This example is really quick-n-dirty, you can make it nicer by adding setters and getters in the new class, but for an easy implementation this should get you going.

Ujogo Poker: This is a more condensed version of the official Ujogo.com website, and allows the FB avatars to be shown, adding friends, seeing user’s profiles inside the app, and various alerts to users based on performance, etc. The backend code is done in J2EE using the Java API.

Confessions: This is a game to let users create confessions that are put in front of their group of friends for judgement. The backend is done in PHP using the FaceBook PHP API.

The Driving Test: A test-taking game where you can add your own questions into the database. The backend is in PHP. It is a good thing I have an approval process function for when people submit their own questions, some of the stuff people submit is crazy! Perhaps I’ll post some of it someday.

All the applications are Flash (SWF) developed in Flex, communicating with standard backend services.

I struggled with finding a way, as I talk about in another posting, and found that using the dataChange event does the trick, and I always create the ItemRenderer as a separate component instead of trying to put all the logic in the main mxml. The component gets the initial setting of the value for that cell via “.data” and then you need to maintain and check it within the component. This can end up with the coder doing some hacking, and my example is only that — an example. I’m sure there are more elegant ways to achieve this. But that’s one of the things I think Flex shares with Perl — there are always multiple ways to get something done!

Take a look at the first flash example, where I DON’T use the dataChange — then see how it works nicely on the 2nd example.

First example (Try sorting columns and see it randomizes each time):

This movie requires Adobe Flash Player — Download at www.adobe.com

Second example (Works!):

This movie requires Adobe Flash Player — Download at www.adobe.com

Download my code sample here.

The Flex folks have some good solutions, see more on Flexcoders.

I found posts that talked about solutions for very simple things like a checkbox in a column that did not have any elaborate actionscript behind it, but not to address a component that sat behind the itemRenderer. I figured it out though, and the answer is pretty simple.

I had to add a dataChange function call in the component’s main tag so it would force the cell to rethink it’s status when the grid would scroll.

The main mxml:

<mx:DataGrid id="userGrid" dataProvider="{userData}" sortableColumns="true"
    draggableColumns="false" width="100%" height="100%">
  <mx:columns>
    <mx:DataGridColumn dataField="Topic" width="100" />
    <mx:DataGridColumn id="votecol" dataField="status" headerText="Vote" sortable="true"
        itemRenderer="castVote" width="120" />
    </mx:columns>
</mx:DataGrid>

The castVote component:

<mx:Canvas xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" xmlns="*" dataChange="gridMoved()"
    width="100%" height="100%">
<mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
        import mx.core.Application;
        import mx.events.ListEvent;

        private var myStatus:int = 0;

        private function gridMoved():void{
                if (data != null) {
                        myStatus=data.status;
                }
                doShow(myStatus);
        }

        private function doShow(n:int):void {
                // 0 means already voted, 1 is for, 2 is against
                if (n==0) {
                        buttons.visible=true;
                        v1.visible = v2.visible = false;
                        return;
                }else if (n==1) {
                        v1.visible=true; v2.visible=false;
                        myStatus = n;
                        buttons.visible=false;
                }else if (n==2) {
                        v2.visible=true; v1.visible=false;
                        myStatus = n;
                        buttons.visible=false;
                }
        }

        private function doClick(n:int):void {
                data.status = myStatus = n;
                doShow(n);
        }

        ]]>
</mx:Script>

        <mx:Label id="v1" text="You voted FOR this resolution" visible="false" />
        <mx:Label id="v2" text="You voted AGAINST this resolution!" visible="false" />
        <mx:HBox id="buttons">
                <mx:Button label="YES" click="doClick(1);" />
                <mx:Button label="NO" click="doClick(2);" />
        </mx:HBox>

</mx:Canvas>