This is just a really quick post to hopefully help anyone out that may be running into the same annoying problem I was with Flash CS4 and ActionScript 3 on Apple OS X (specifically 10.5).

I kept receiving the error pictured above, “Error initializing Java Runtime Environment. You may need to reinstall Flash,” whenever I would try to open a new ActionScript 3 project/file, or whenever I would try to run any AS3 code. The error didn’t occur when I was running ActionScript 2.0 projects.

After doing some searching on Google, and finding mostly solutions that were regarding the ‘CLASSPATH’ variable on Windows systems, it dawned on me that when I installed NetBeans IDE a few weeks back, it also installed a newer version of the Java Runtime Environment.

So I opened ‘Java Preferences.app’ which is installed in my ‘/Applications/Utilities/’ folder and found what I had suspected. My JRE was set to ‘Java SE 6.’

Apparently, Flash for some reason needs to run a 32-bit instance of JRE 5 on my machine when running ActionScript 3 code. This may be due to the fact I am running an older Intel Macbook Pro, or maybe Flash CS4 just needs an older version of Java. I honestly have no idea. But, after changing the Java Preferences to ‘J2SE 5.0 32-bit,’ Flash CS4 now runs without a hitch, and has no problem executing ActionScript 3. I do have to switch the preferences back to 6 when I run NetBeans, but that is fairly trivial using the Java Preferences panel.

If you don’t have ‘Java Preferences.app’ installed for some reason, you could try changing the preferred version manually from the command line by creating a symlink from ‘CurrentJDK’ to J2SE 5.0. However, I don’t recommend this route unless you know what you are doing.

Now, as I stated before, there are apparently several other issues that will also throw this same error (it’s pretty generic and unhelpful). This post isn’t intended to solve them all, but this is what worked for me. I hope it helps someone else and saves you a bit of a headache.

So a buddy of mine, Charlie Glisan, was having issues installing Bugzilla on Fedora 11 and CentOS 5 a while back. After hours of strife, and finally getting the software up and running, he decided he would write detailed instructions on how to accomplish the install. He doesn’t have a blog himself and thought that it might be helpful to others out there that are trying to accomplish the same goal to have the instructions available, so he asked if I would like to post the instructions on my blog.

I am always a fan of finding helpful information out on the interwebs, so I am posting his instructions, verbatim, in hopes that they are helpful to a few struggling souls. If you have any questions, or find errors, please post them in the comments below and we will try to get to them as quickly as possible.

Installing Bugzilla on Fedora 11 & CentOS 5

Log in as root or su:

$ su
(enter root password)

For CentOS only, add the EPEL repository (which contains Bugzilla):

$ rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-3.noarch.rpm

Install Bugzilla:

$ yum install bugzilla

Install MySQL:

$ yum install mysql-server

Install Apache:

$ yum install httpd

Start the the MySQL service:

$ /etc/init.d/mysqld start

Set password for the root user in MySQL:

$ mysqladmin -u root password {password}

Log into MySQL:

$ mysql -u root -p

Create ‘bugs’ user in MySQL:

mysql> CREATE USER 'bugs'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '{password}';

Create ‘bugs’ database in MySQL:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE bugs;

Grant privileges to ‘bugs’ user:

mysql> GRANT ALL ON bugs.* TO 'bugs'@'localhost';

Run checksetup.pl to check modules and to create a new copy of localconfig:

$ /usr/share/bugzilla/./checksetup.pl

Edit your copy of localconfg – change $db_pass to the password you entered for the MySQL user ‘bugs’ earlier:

$ gedit /etc/bugzilla/localconfig

$db_pass = ‘{password}’;

Run checksetup.pl again to finish setting up Bugzilla:

$ /usr/share/bugzilla/./checksetup.pl

When prompted to do so specify the Bugzilla administrator’s email address, name, and password.

Start apache:

$ /etc/init.d/httpd start

Go to http://localhost/bugzilla/ in a browser and behold.

If, upon a reboot, mysqld and/or httpd are not running, you can add them to the list of services that run at startup:

$ ntsysv (Or $ /usr/sbin/ntsysv on CentOS)

Arrow up or down to find mysqld and/or httpd. Hit the space key to select/deselect the service. When done, hit Tab to get to the Ok or Cancel buttons.

Now I am not a software reviewer by any stretch of the imagination, but I still feel the need every now and then, when I run across something I feel is useful, to sing it’s praises, or at least describe why I feel it is useful. I am definitely singing the praises of VirtualHostX, developed by Tyler Hall.

VirtualHostX is a GUI solution that allows Mac based web designers/developers to virtually host multiple websites on their development machines.  I won’t get into a long description of what virtual hosts are, if you aren’t familiar, you can find more information by Googling “Apache Virtual Hosts.”  Basically virtual hosts allow you to host multiple website URLs (testsite1.site, testsite2.site, testsite3.site, etc…) from a single machine (in this case, most likely your development/design machine) and single IP address (more than likely you are using 127.0.0.1).

I love using v-hosts (that’s what they call them in the biz…) with my development environment (I prefer to use MAMP).  Using v-hosts is so much nicer than having to constantly nest folders, or re-arrange my root folder while I am working on multiple projects.  However, I always hated having to constantly edit hosts files and httpd.conf files. VirtualHostX makes all of the tedious configuration file editing and web server restarting a thing of the past.

Here is a quick run-down of features from the ClickOnTyler website that VirtualHostX provides:

• Automatically configures your Mac’s web server settings
• Works with MAMP, XAMPP, and Apple’s built-in web server
• Share your hosts with other users on the same local network
• Supports custom Apache directives
• Backup and Restore your web server settings
• Create a complete web development environment on your Mac

Installation is a breeze, and in case you do have problems, there is plenty of support on the ClickOnTyler Customer Support Forum.  The installation walks the user through all the background changes that need to be made, and gives you the opportunity to back-up your configuration files.  Basically by answering a few questions and entering your password, you are up, running and ready to create some v-hosts in just a few clicks.

There are a few screen shots available on the ClickOnTyler website, and I have to say the GUI is very easy to use.  I had no problems setting up my MAMP server environment to work with VirtualHostX, and I literally had the whole thing running with three v-hosts in less than five minutes.  Adding and removing v-hosts is quite simple, and basically just includes clicking the add button, naming your virtual URL and locating the directory of the project you are working on.  It’s just that simple.

One of the main features I like about VirtualHostX is the seamless flow of setting up v-hosts.  All necessary files are edited by the software itself, and there is no manual restarting of the web server needed.

You can download VirtualHostX for free if you only need to host three projects at a time, or just want to try it out before you buy it.  However, if you would like to host more than three projects at a time, you will need to buy a license for $19.95.  I personally have been using VirtualHostX for a little over three weeks, and feel that the $19.95 price tag has already saved me three times that amount in config file editing time alone.  If you are a command-line geek (which I do fancy myself as) this software may not be for you.  However, I find that the GUI is quite nice, and saves me quite a bit of time.

VirtualHostX’s ease of installation and simplicity in operation make it a great value at quite a reasonable price.  I would highly recommend this software to any web designer/developer who would like to get some v-hosting going in their Mac/Apple based development environment.

Buy/Download VirtualHostX from ClickOnTyler

So I have been designing websites for quite a while now. I realize the importance of a robots.txt file, and the implications it holds for search engine optimization (SEO) and preventing duplicate content. However, for some reason, I have never bothered looking into building a better robots.txt file for my personal blog/WordPress powered portfolio. Weird, right? Honestly, what made me realize I needed to do something better was Google’s Webmaster tools, which I started using since re-launching my website this month. After looking through a few weeks of data in my account, I quickly realized that I would be running into duplicate content issues at the very least. So, I started re-searching best practices for writing robots.txt files for WordPress installations.

My first stop of course was the WordPress Codex.  Suffice it to say, I wasn’t disappointed.  They have a VERY good example of a robots.txt file written specifically for a base WordPress install.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin
Disallow: /wp-admin
Disallow: /wp-includes
Disallow: /wp-content/plugins
Disallow: /wp-content/cache
Disallow: /wp-content/themes
Disallow: /trackback
Disallow: /feed
Disallow: /comments
Disallow: /category/*/*
Disallow: */trackback
Disallow: */feed
Disallow: */comments
Disallow: /*?*
Disallow: /*?
Allow: /wp-content/uploads

# Google Image
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow:
Allow: /*

# Google AdSense
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google*
Disallow:
Allow: /*

# digg mirror
User-agent: duggmirror
Disallow: /

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Most of this is quite useful just the way it is. It solves almost all duplicate content problems (comments, categories, query strings (?)), and keeps the robots out of unnecessary/private directories such as the ‘wp-’ group of folders (wp-content, wp-admin, etc…). It allows a few important bots into all directories, such as the Google Image bot, and the Google AdSense bot (if you are displaying AdWords ads).

An interesting, and I feel, important item is that they are blocking ‘duggmirror.’ DuggMirror is a site that mirrors content from other sites that have been dugg (see digg). DuggMirror can be a duplicate content nightmare, and can cause Google to index THEIR site instead of YOUR site or value their content more highly. So, what does that mean for you? That means say “bye-bye” to that traffic that you have earned and deserve. Blocking DuggMirror solves that problem.

So, for the most part, I have decided to keep this robots.txt file in-tact. However, I did make a few changes, and my robots.txt file is below in its entirety, along with an explanation of the changes I made.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin
Disallow: /wp-*
Disallow: /trackback
Disallow: /feed
Disallow: /archives
Disallow: /comments
Disallow: /category/*/*
Disallow: */trackback
Disallow: */feed
Disallow: */comments
Disallow: /*?*
Disallow: /*?
Allow: /wp-content/uploads

# Google Image
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow:
Allow: /*

# digg mirror
User-agent: duggmirror
Disallow: /

Sitemap: http://www.kevin-deleon.com/sitemap.xml.gz

For starters I got rid of most of the ‘wp-’ directives and shortened them to the one 'Disallow: wp-*' directive using the robots.txt wildcard character. The wildcard character allows you to match one or more characters in a URL. Historically there was a bit of controversy over using wildcards in robots.txt files because early on they lacked support. However, most (and all of the engines that I really care about) now support the use of wildcards. You do need to be safe when using wildcards though, because if you don’t, you may cause yourself some unwanted headaches.

I also got rid of the directives that were in reference to Google AdSense bot. I don’t use Google AdSense, and I doubt I ever will, so having it in there serves no purpose.

So there you have it. That is my strategy so far with my robots.txt file when it comes to my WordPress powered website.  It’s definitely a work in progress that I will have to continually monitor to make sure I am getting the results that I want. Thankfully Google Webmaster tools makes that pretty simple.

The site is a lot more streamlined, and in my opinion quite a bit easier on the eyes. Let me know what you think, and if there is anything that you feel could be changed for the better, shoot me an email, or leave me a comment (who knows…I may just use your idea).

It has been a huge undertaking, and with the help of another developer, we are actually nearing the finish line.

I plan on writing a few blog posts discussing the ups and downs of the process, along with screenshots of the new and old sites.

Keep your fingers crossed!