Let’s install Nginx

 sudo apt-get install nginx

Start your server and test:

/etc/init.d/nginx start

Update your nginx configuration (see later section!) /etc/nginx/sites-available/default (make a backup of the old one):

server {
listen   80 default;
server_name  localhost;

access_log  /var/log/nginx/localhost.access.log;

## Default location
location / {
root   /var/www;
index  index.php index.htm index.html;
}
## Images and static content is treated different
location ~* ^.+.(jpg|jpeg|gif|css|png|js|ico|xml)$ {
access_log        off;
expires           30d;
root /var/www;
}

## Parse all .php file in the /var/www directory
location ~ .php$ {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
fastcgi_pass   backend;
fastcgi_index  index.php;
fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /var/www$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param  QUERY_STRING     $query_string;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_METHOD   $request_method;
fastcgi_param  CONTENT_TYPE     $content_type;
fastcgi_param  CONTENT_LENGTH   $content_length;
fastcgi_intercept_errors        on;
fastcgi_ignore_client_abort     off;
fastcgi_connect_timeout 60;
fastcgi_send_timeout 180;
fastcgi_read_timeout 180;
fastcgi_buffer_size 128k;
fastcgi_buffers 4 256k;
fastcgi_busy_buffers_size 256k;
fastcgi_temp_file_write_size 256k;
}

## Disable viewing .htaccess & .htpassword
location ~ /\.ht {
deny  all;
}
}
upstream backend {
server 127.0.0.1:9000;
}

Visit the IP number in your web browser to make sure it’s installed ok “Welcome to nginx!“. Next, add to /etc/apt/sources.list:

 deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/brianmercer/php/ubuntu lucid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/brianmercer/php/ubuntu lucid main

then run

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 8D0DC64F
sudo apt-get update

Now let’s install PHP 5.3, and the things you need. Here’s my stack:

sudo apt-get install php5-cgi php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl php5-json php5-suhosin php5-common php-apc php5-dev

A few of these are replaced by php5-common – this is ok and I should update the stack at some point but it’s automatic!

Now we grab the PHP FPM + CGI Module:

sudo apt-get install php5-fpm php5-cgi

Restart Nginx + Fast CGI

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

and you should get something like this:

ryan@localhost:~# sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart
Restarting nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
nginx.

Get CGI up:

/etc/init.d/php5-fpm start

Create an index.php in /var/www with and test your configuration. This was all working for me on Ubuntu Server amd64. Now it’s time to try and deploy an application to see how it can work :)

My nginx.conf file:

user www-data www-data;
worker_processes  4;

error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log;
pid        /var/run/nginx.pid;

events {
worker_connections  1024;
# multi_accept on;
}

http {
include       /etc/nginx/mime.types;
default_type  application/octet-stream;

access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log;

sendfile        on;
#tcp_nopush     on;

#keepalive_timeout  0;
keepalive_timeout  65;
tcp_nodelay        on;

gzip  on;
gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6]\.(?!.*SV1)";
gzip_comp_level 2;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_types      text/plain text/html text/css application/x-javascript text/xml
application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

I installed memcache and APC (beta works with 10.04 lucid but you need libpcre installed ). Select the [no] defaults:

sudo pecl install memcache
sudo apt-get install libpcre3-dev
sudo pecl install apc-beta

Didn’t need to modify any php.ini so far, but it is in 3 locations so I’ll see how this goes :-)

Update: Don’t forget to install postfix and configure it as an Internet Server if it was not part of your default installation. Then you can send emails…. Also, just to make sure… “ufw” the default firewall needs your attention ;)

sudo apt-get install postfix

Personally, I found the redirect annoying as I required my results from Google English mainly. A way to stop this was to set your home page to http://www.google.com/ncr

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/update-on-china.html

Ever since we launched Google.cn, our search engine for mainland Chinese users, we have done our best to increase access to information while abiding by Chinese law. This has not always been an easy balance to strike, especially since our January announcement that we were no longer willing to censor results on Google.cn.

We currently automatically redirect everyone using Google.cn to Google.com.hk, our Hong Kong search engine. This redirect, which offers unfiltered search in simplified Chinese, has been working well for our users and for Google. However, it’s clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable—and that if we continue redirecting users our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed (it’s up for renewal on June 30). Without an ICP license, we can’t operate a commercial website like Google.cn—so Google would effectively go dark in China.

That’s a prospect dreaded by many of our Chinese users, who have been vocal about their desire to keep Google.cn alive. We have therefore been looking at possible alternatives, and instead of automatically redirecting all our users, we have started taking a small percentage of them to a landing page on Google.cn that links to Google.com.hk—where users can conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering. This approach ensures we stay true to our commitment not to censor our results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of our services from one page.

Over the next few days we’ll end the redirect entirely, taking all our Chinese users to our new landing page—and today we re-submitted our ICP license renewal application based on this approach.

As a company we aspire to make information available to users everywhere, including China. It’s why we have worked so hard to keep Google.cn alive, as well as to continue our research and development work in China. This new approach is consistent with our commitment not to self censor and, we believe, with local law. We are therefore hopeful that our license will be renewed on this basis so we can continue to offer our Chinese users services via Google.cn.

]]> http://www.crystal-asia.com/an-update-on-google-china/feed/ 0 http://www.crystal-asia.com/monday-madness-top-seo-improvements/ http://www.crystal-asia.com/monday-madness-top-seo-improvements/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 04:24:13 +0000 ryansnowden http://www.crystal-asia.com/?p=862 SEO (“Search Engine Optimisation”) matters, I think most self resecting web developers know this. Below are some simple things you can do to improve your ranking (you might need a developer to update your website!). One thing that strikes me about this list is that it is based on the notion that it’s doing your customer or user a favor by allowing them to find you. When they are on your website, do they really need or notice all the work that has been done so they can find you? Most of these changes are transparent, but some interfere with the design of your website and the excuse of doing it “because of SEO”.

Not all of us agree in this philosophy as it means you’re building a website for Google instead of your target audience (although many would argue it’s for your customer THROUGH Google). So just remember, whilst SEO might be EVERYTHING in your mind, it might not matter when your website starts having content for Googles sake and not your customer.

So without no further adeu, the top 9 ways to improve your  SEO Ranking thanks to Alex Cleanthous and Six Revisions:

1. Add a Blog
2. Add Google Analytics to every page
3. Reduce code bloat
4. Make each page unique
5. Use META description tags
6. Remove repetitive wording from the website layout
7. Add footer links to every page
8. Create a separate web page for each keyword or keyword phrase
9. Use keyword rich title tags on each page

Follow the link above for some basic explanations of each and while reading, think to yourself “Who is for? Google or my Customer?“. Of course, some things Google needs, and a visitor is not aware of them as they’re embedded in the HTML of the page, but some things are visible to us… ;-)

More on SEO-101 coming soon!

Having worked on subsidiary companies DPCleanTech and Dragon Power (coming soon), we have gained insight into bio-energy, bio-fuels, it’s benefits, and the energy market.

Crystal wishes to extend this knowledge in the coming months so we can work further with NBE and other subsidiaries to further their online brands by using the latest tools from the web development world and design trends.

Using Open Source software (CakePHP) and a strong technical know-how on petri-nets & workflows, we plan to make big waves in the company. Spearheading the development, an agile approach to developing the core software is used enabling us to be highly responsive to user feedback which will govern some important UI & interface decisions, as well as design aesthetics.

We got a call from a customer having the person in charge of their website, in this case the marketing manager, leaving the company. And of course he “forgot” to give the administrator password.

So here is the easy way to reset Joomla! administrator password :

- Simply access to the hosting panel. Use your control panel file editing or use a FTP program.
- Edit the file : plugins/authentication/joomla.php , and find :

if ( $crypt == $testcrypt) {

- Change this line by :

if ( true /* $crypt == $testcrypt */ ) {

- Et voila ! Now you can login with you super administrator user, without any password, and change the password directly from the administrator control panel

What we have done it’s simply removing the authentication in the Php code. Of course don’t forget to change back the line to

if ( $crypt == $testcrypt) {

And we have another happy customer in Beijing !

Worldwide, Ringier publishes more than 120 newspapers and magazines and produces and markets more than 20 TV programmes. The company also holds considerable stakes in television and radio stations and operates about 80 websites and mobile platforms. It has eleven printing plants.

Ringier is responsible for the Beijing publications of City Weekend, Parents & Kids and Bettys Kitchen. They are based in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. We can’t disclose the exciting work we’re doing with them just yet, so stay tuned for these developments, hitting a city near you soon!

The Crystal Asia Team!

China’s top provider of electronic payment serviceswill tie up with online payment platform PayPal, the two companies said, in a move that will let Chinese customers buy from overseas merchants.

So it’s no surprise that this news of linking the countries is good news (although it’s interesting to read 2 comments, one about Googles departure). Under what rules we don’t know, for sure it won’t be as easy as it sounds, but it will supply an avenue through the PayPal API which is 10 times better and more advanced than all the Chinese banks and payment gateway API’s put together (error codes anyone?).

We have been implementing PayPal’s chained payments on a current customer, along with authorised payments, and like the new feature. Perhaps this can be part of the whole fanfare to allow some protection for buyers and sellers (and some great new apps!).

Watch this space!

UX encompasses the better half of how a user interacts with a website, the architecture of the content/information, just about all of the visual design and over half of the content.

Lets just say that again, but a bit more clearly:

User interaction
Content Architecture
Information Architecture
Visual Design (navigation, interface design)
Content
Search Engine Optimisation (“SEO”)

That’s your whole website in a nutshell. You see, UX is all about examining “what goes on inside the user”. It takes an scientific and imaginative approach to analysing the content, it’s importance and how to display it and where.

By producing user scenarios of your target audience, a list of your most important content and wireframes to reflect the position and kind of content inside these positions, you have just created 80% of what you need for a successful website. After all, if your website is not performing a specific function like encouraging sales leads through contact, advertising your products to lead to an online sale, then what is the purpose of investing in a website?

What about an example?

Easily done. Let’s say you want a corporate, brochure website where your main purpose is to generate new business leads through potential customers contacting you through your website. Sounds easy enough, right? Let’s examine it from the customers point of view:

I am not going to contact you unless your company has what I am looking for displayed clearly (information about a product or service)
I have to know something about your company or it’s people before I feel comfortable with the idea of contacting you.
I must be able to contact you without filling out complicated forms. I hate online forms.
I really don’t want to dig through sub-menu after sub-menu finding out more about your services

Those four points (and there are many more) have one answer.

The more I know about your company and it’s people allows me to build up enough knowledge and therefore trust to want to contact you.

The longer this takes, the less I feel like contacting you. So time-to-information is a factor. This is heavily influenced by navigation, and what blocks of content you show on the home page.

What about “Choice”?

Finding the information, and the right amount of it with the ability to find more if I choose too is really important. But what if it is not enough for me? I will need to be presented with a choice to find out more about a service or product. By presenting the user with a choice to “discover more” you’ve now got an informed and driven customer. A customer who will more than likely contact you.

What about the design?

You could have hundreds of different designs for the same layout which help a potential customer contact you, but only the content itself remains the defining factor in it’s success. From a marketing and user experience standpoint, you’ve got a pretty good grasp of what content is being shown… now it’s a matter of striking a balance between your brand, visual imagery and your product or service.

A capable designer can stress the importance of whether a contact button needs to be in orange or green. They will understand that there is a visual path a user will follow because they have created visual queues where the eye will follow using colour, animation, graphic imagery and typography.

All of these in beautiful subtle (or unsubtle!) balance, combined with well thought out content targeted at the purpose of a user making contact. That’s the difference between a cheap “web development” company and the professionals (like us ;).

We were chosen to produce 2 websites, the DPCleanTech (below) and Dragon Power (in the pipeline). Focusing on the international accomplishments and keeping a clean corporate brand there was a requirements to bring natures curves back into the first impression, thus creating quite a striking slideshow.

Keeping page length down, a image & information UI slider was used to condense the necessary content into a acceptable visual form…but we’re not finished yet. We will be integrating Google maps fully and now focusing on Search Engine Optimisation of the website. Further to this, a brilliant animation of how their technology works, carbon emission saver counter and money returned to farmers which will appear on the Dragon Power website in the coming weeks. Enjoy!