The most common support items for Mimbo Pro are to do with the TimThumb script - and minor problems with it’s usage. Below are the three things that fix the problems with the image resize system.
- The scripts/cache folder needs to be given the permissions 777 in order to save the cache files. This speeds up the image serving which in turn makes your server happy.
- The custom field key is case sensitive. It must be “Image” not “image”
- The custom field value for the image path should be relative to the site root. This means you should not include the http://sitename.com bit, but include everything else.
- On some server setups the .htaccess file found in the scripts folder can break things. If this happens then renaming/ deleting the .htaccess file should fix things. Make sure you try all the other suggestions first.
With any luck the suggestions above will solve your Tim Thumb related problems. If not then you can still contact us through the help ticketing system.
When you’re working on your website it is often best to test locally and then upload to your website. Either that or you should have a test site of some sort. Working on your website whilst it’s live is just asking for problems (as I’ve found out a number of times… I’ll learn eventually).
To test on your local computer requires a few things.
- A copy of Wordpress - easy, grab one here
- A decent text editor - I like PsPad but you can use whatever you prefer
- A local webserver - this is the most complicated bit but is worth doing so read on to find out how.
Local Webserver (EasyPHP)
I should probably also point out that this post is a guide for getting set up to develop themes on a pc - sorry Mac and Linux users.
Download a webserver package. You want one that includes a server (normally Apache), and installers for both MySQL and PHP. There are many of these packages around but my fave is EasyPHP (although it hasn’t been updated in a while). Click here to download EasyPHP. If you have one you prefer then please do let me know in the comments.
As the name suggests it’s very easy to use EasyPHP. Just run as you would any other installer and it’s there. Now run the app (start->EasyPHP etc) and yourlocal copies of Apache and MySQL will be started up. You can now browse your brand new local webserver from the wonderfully titled url - http://localhost/
Note - you may find that you can’t start Apache if Skype (or some other network based software) is running. Just turn off Skype then start EasyPHP. You can restart Skype afterwards with no problems.
Once you have the package downloaded and installed you need to get Wordpress up and running so open up your previously downloaded version and extract it to your new local directory (most likely c:\program files\easyphp\www\ ).
Before setting up Wordpress we need to create a database. To do this open up the EasyPHP window and administration. This will take you to the admin panel on your localhost (probably - http://localhost/home/) from there click “mysql manager”, and you will be taken to a copy of phpMyAdmin which has rather nicely been installed for you. From the phpMyAdmin splash page create a new database making sure to remember the db name/
Now you can set up Wordpress using the fabled 5 minute install. Browse to the new Wordpress folder - http://localhost/wordpress/ and follow the instructions. EasyPHPs database defaults are host: localhost, username: root, and the password is blank. You can also enter the name of the database you just created.
If you were currently setting up a proper website then you should create proper mysql users and use nice strong passwords. Since this is for testing locally I don’t think it’s worth the time and effort.
Once complete you are good to go. Just treat the wordpress folder as if it were a remote website folder. You can install plugins, and themes, through windows explorer and start work on your local development. There are however some more changes you can make that will make the whole process even better still…
Permalinks
To make the most of your blog, you really should enable permalinks, which means enabling mod_rewrite on the server. Most web hosts have this turned on, but it’s something you will need to do yourself with your new local server. To do this run EasyPHP and click the “E” on the control panel. Select configuration -> Apache. This will open the httpd.conf file. Now search for and uncomment (uncomment means remove the #) the following two lines.
- LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
- AddModule mod_rewrite.c
Restart Apache, rewrite your permalinks (from the wordpress admin) and you’re all set.
Let me know how you get on in the comments.