Adrian's Web Log » IT

Magento claims it is in Maintenance Mode (and it isn’t)

Adrian — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 10:49:07 +0000

Assuming that Magento is not actually in maintenance mode (i.e. downloader is not being used) then the following error is the result of a lock file not being removed, probably as the result of an ungraceful exit from the downloader:

Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

To take Magento out of maintenance mode, just delete the file:

maintenance.flag

from the Magento root.

Eye-Fi Support Response

Adrian — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:22:06 +0000

Problem:Eye-Fi center doesn’t appear when I click on it in the tool tray, following an upgrade.
Eye-Fi answer:

Your request (#27954) has been deemed solved.
________________________________________

Michal, Apr-20 05:25 (PDT):
Hello Adrian,
As discussed could you please do the following:
- format the card in your camera
- uninstall Eye-Fi software as well as Adobe AIR
- install the latest version of the Adobe AIR from the following link:

http://get.adobe.com/air/

- download and install the latest version of the Eye-Fi software:

http://support.eye.fi/support-resources/downloads/software/eye-fi-manager-desktop-software/

Please feel free to contact us again if you have questions or would like further assistance.
Kind regards,
Michal
Eye-Fi Customer Care

… or to put it another way, turn it off and turn it back on again!
Sometimes I think that things haven’t really changed since I did support back in the 1990s.

Update:
The correct solution is to uninstall & reinstall Adobe Air.

Copy or move Magento to another instance

Adrian — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:52:25 +0000

A quick how-to if you want to copy or move Magento to another database instance, e.g. to create a test site, or move test to live.

(1) Backup Magento using the built in backup tool. Download and uncompress the resulting SQL script. If changing the server or domain, search and replace “old.mysite.com” with “new.yoursite.com” Execute it to populate the new database instance.

(2) Copy all Magento files with the exception of the contents of the var/ directory.

(3) Edit app/etc/local.xml on the target instance and change the database, user and password, but not the encryption key. Also edit downloader/pearlib/pear.ini to correct the absolute paths it contains; no reason why these shouldn’t be relative to the Magento root directory, e.g. “./downloader/pearlib”.

(4) Execute the following SQL to prevent those nasty “Integrity constraint violation: 1062 Duplicate entry” errors from the log files when adding to the basket:

TRUNCATE `log_customer` ;
TRUNCATE `log_quote` ;
TRUNCATE `log_summary` ;
TRUNCATE `log_url` ;
TRUNCATE `log_url_info` ;
TRUNCATE `log_visitor` ;
TRUNCATE `log_visitor_info` ;
TRUNCATE `log_visitor_online` ;

Now tidy up permissions:

chmod o+w var var/.htaccess app/etc
chmod -R o+w media

That should be it.

Flip Text Generator

Adrian — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:57:07 +0000

Something searching for a use.

http://www.fliptextgenerator.com/

Uses apparently little-known character codes to invert most text (struggles with capitals).

reCAPTCHA for Magento

Adrian — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:42:44 +0000

Well done Fontis for integrating reCAPTCHA into Magento to prevent SPAM through the contact form and “social” pages. About time!
Well though-out and integrated beautifully into admin.
Keys are required from reCAPTCHA andthe extension can be installed through Magento Connect using the extention key on the Magento Extention page.

Free Map Tools

admin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:21:15 +0000

This site has some super Google Map tools – including Meeting Centre Of Gravity by Postcode and Map Tunnelling.

http://www.freemaptools.com

Magento

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:27:30 +0000

Since I last looked (around 9 months ago, I think) the Magento web store project seems to have shaped up nicely. It is certainly prettier than OSCommerce, but more importantly they have kept the code and the presentation separate using – of course – CSS.

It is written in PHP, and has a growing collection of add-ins, so I’ll be seriously evaluating it as an alternative to OSC for the Oriental Food Shop.

More fonts

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:19:38 +0000

Not sure why I haven’t come across this before, but a great source of free fonts;

dafont.com

PayPal login problem

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:24:39 +0000

PayPal have more or less admitted that there are problems for some users logging in to complete payments, either direct or using the eBay flow. There are many threads on the eBay forums about this problem, for example;

Can’t login to PayPal

(Remember, PayPal, Skype and eBay are the same beast.)

It is faintly amusing that every time somebody reports the problem, PayPal ask for browser, operating system, screenshots, etc. – delaying tactics, I’m sure that they have identified a cause already.

There is a history of similar problems going back to April, and Grace’s theory is that it is a result of the changes to the eBay look-and-feel at around this time.

But I have worked out a solution – a bit sneaky, but works for both eBay and PayPal – use the mobile sites from your usual browser.

To login, bid and pay from eBay: eBay mobile site – this works for UK accounts too.

To pay for an item through PayPal: PayPal mobile site – you will need to know the item number if paying for an eBay item, or the email address of the recipient for another payment. Again, this works OK for UK accounts.

Skype Supernode Registry Hack

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:27:38 +0000

If you are running Skype v3 or later, there is a registry change (provided by Skype for Universities etc.) that reportedly prevents your PC becoming a supernode. I say reportedly, because whilst I have been a guinea pig for the last week I haven’t noticed being a supernode, but of course Skype may not have tried. If you aren’t running the latest version of Skype yet you should probably upgrade (Help, Check for updates), because later versions allow you to edit previous messages, and voice quality is improved.
If you think that being a supernode may cause you problems, try editing the registry as shown in the code below. (WordPress security doesn’t allow this file to be uploaded). You will need to reboot your PC for it to take effect.
This is the edit:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Skype] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Skype\Phone] "DisableSupernode"=dword:00000001