Doctrine is a great abstraction layer, and I've resolved to use it more and more through my projects to keep things simple and maintainable. The problem is, the documentation isn't always great for it. Take the below image as an example of the documentation for the building a "LIKE" clause…
I mentioned back in August that I'd changed my backups to use a NAS enclosure rather than a full blown server. I'm glad I did, as I recently suffered a drive failure on the NAS which, if it had happened in my old server, I wouldn't have known about it.…
Having recently updated a Magento installation to apply SUPEE-11219, there were issues when searching for products using the filters for the grid. I had an error message of: Invalid attribute name: blcg_custom_field_2The only reference to 'blcg_custom_field_' was a constant: const GRID_COLUMN_CUSTOM_GRID_…
I've previously covered the issues I have with CMS platforms. They aren't bad (I use one for this blog), however some seem to want to make it as difficult as possible to update. I currently use Magento as part of my day job, and therefore I need to maintain and…
We all know about HTTP codes, or at least we know there is a 404 one which means not found. Some of us know that there's a 200 code (meaning OK), and that there's some odd ones in the 500 meaning something went bang! Those interested in SEO will be…
It's been a long time since I turned my old PC into a home media server, but time has come for that machine and some of its components, so it's time it retired with grace. Fortunately the main issues are around the network card, which stops working every time it…
If you have a website, the chances are it runs on a CMS (Content Management System). There are hundreds of them out there, some you will have heard of; Wordpress is the obvious one. Others include Drupal, Joomla, and Umbraco. These are great for the most part, as they require…
It's been a while since I last posted anything, despite starting off really well with weekly posts since moving to the Ghost platform. This hasn't fully been out of choice, however. My enforced break from the computer outside of work hours has been down to an injury. I broke my…
There's hardly a week goes by that Facebook isn't in the news for one thing or another - usually something privacy related. Privacy and data protection have been firmly on everyone in Europe's radar following the introduction of the new data protection laws (GDPR) in May 2018; and being in…
I use Gitlab a lot. I use it for personal projects and have also implemented it at work - I love the platform. Others are available, but for me, having everything in one place (though risky!) saves me having several tabs open. I've previously covered what CI/CD is, and…