Mac: 4 easy steps to Install Tomcat on Mac OSX Snow Leapord

4 easy steps to Install Tomcat on Snow Leopard.

STEP 1: -- Download Tomcat 6, Binary Distribution, under Core (zip or tar.gz) from http://tomcat.apache.org/download-60.cgi
-- Unzip the downloaded package.

STEP 2: -- Change directories to Library
      cd /Library
-- Create the Tomcat directory
    mkdir Tomcat

-- Copy the unzipped downloaded package: apache-tomcat-6.0.x
-- Paste it in this newly created Directory : /Library/Tomcat. 

STEP 3:
-- Edit the shell local startup script. Create if it does not exist.
nano ~/.profile
-- Add the following 2 lines to the .profile file: (BASH)
-- Remember in apache-tomcat-6.0.x, the 'x' refers to what ever version # you have downloaded
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home
export CATALINA_HOME=/Library/Tomcat/apache-tomcat-6.0.x

STEP 4:
-- Open a new Terminal window. Execute the following
-- cd /Library/Tomcat/apache-tomcat-6.0.x/conf
-- Edit the tomcat-users.xml file
nano tomcat-users.xml
-- Add the following, where admin is the administrator name you assign and password is the password
<user username="admin" password="password" roles="standard,manager,admin"/>

-- The tomcat-users.xml file should look something like this:
<tomcat-users>
<!--
<roll rollname="tomcat"/>
<roll rollname="role1"/>
<user username="tomcat" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat" />
<user username="role1" password="tomcat" roles="role1" />
<user username="both" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat,role1" />
-->
<user username="admin" password="password" roles="standard,manager,admin"/>
</tomcat-users>

-- Save the tomcat-users.xml file and quit the editor

And This is it....
Now, to start tomcat
-- Execute the Tomcat startup script located under /Library/Tomcat/apache-tomcat-6.0.x/bin
-- ./startup.sh
-- Test it by opening the page : http://localhost:8080/

Now, to stop tomcat
-- Execute the Tomcat startup script located under /Library/Tomcat/apache-tomcat-6.0.x/bin
-- ./shutdown.sh

Useful AJAX Modal windows using javascript frameworks

This is an interesting link which has 30 useful AJAX Modal windows implemented using javascript frameworks.
These have neat little descriptions about the framework it uses.
It is easy to pick the solution based on the current javascript framework your using !

http://www.dottony.com/30-useful-ajax-lightbox-and-modal-dialog-solutions/

Installing UBUNTU on MAC using Parallels Desktop

To install any Linux guest OS on Parallels Desktop, we need to download the respective .dmg from http://www.parallels.com/ptn/download/va/?categ=5&sort=rating&lsort=www

Now at this time, the latest release of UBUNTU for Parallels is 8.04.1 and is available at http://www.parallels.com/ptn/download/va/?va_id=228 Click getApp and download the .dmg.

Administration Interfaces:

GUI
Login: ubuntu
Password: 123

I tried downloading .iso files directly from ubuntu site but could not set it up as it asks for a partition !
Also no luck downloading the CentOS.iso from its site, it wouldn't even create the VM.
Windows 7 gets installed fine !

Get names of month, weekday of the year for any date value in PHP

To get the names of month, weekday, of the year for any date value in PHP, use the function getDate();

Example:

$datePieces = getDate(strtotime($mydate));

echo "Month name: ".$datePieces['month'];  

echo "Weekday name: ".$datePieces['weekday'];

Make sure to use quotes for the key value like $datePieces['month'] instead $datePieces[month], since it would throw : Notice: Use of undefined constant .... 

The associative array $datePieces contains all of the following:

Array
(
    [seconds] => 40
    [minutes] => 58
    [hours]   => 21
    [mday]    => 17
    [wday]    => 2
    [mon]     => 6
    [year]    => 2003
    [yday]    => 167
    [weekday] => Tuesday
    [month]   => June
    [0]       => 1055901520
)