CodeIgniter Database Prefix For Multiple Domain Projects

Let’s say you’re building an app.  It’s like Flickr + Twitter + Facebook + Vimeo, but better.  You’ve got several domains you’re working on, dev.greatestappevar.com, staging.greatestappevar.com, etc.  You want to keep one codebase, b/c you’re smart.  I mean, look at this mashup app you’re making.  Proof.  Or is it truth?  Truth.  

Anyways, you’re developing this in CodeIgniter and everything is in version control.  Your database tables all have prefixes, so as not to mix your dummy data with the precious real social goldmine mashup data.  You’re all Active Record up in this place, and everything works great, but once you push to Staging, you’re going to have database issues.  Thankfully, there is a feature in CodeIgniter that allows you to add a prefix to database table names.  Drop this little line into your database file in the config directory, and you’ll be all set.  (Keep in mind not to overwrite these on your commits)

$db['default']['dbprefix'] = "staging_";

As easy as that great idea of yours.

Step Away From The Code

Today I was plagued with an issue while working in someone else’s code.  I spent nearly 30 minutes trying to track down a bug, when finally, I just stepped away from the code.  I ate lunch, carved a bear out of a 12-foot tree stump, and when I sat down again at the desk, solved the bug in less than a minute.  

Is it my incredibly good looks that did it?  I think so.  Lesson learned, take time to step away from the code, and come back at it with rested, fresh eyes.

Friday Futon - Zebra

I’m signing up to be an NBA ref.  I heard you could do it on Facebook.  I’m pretty excited about it.  All you have to do is be a Lakers fan.

Friday Futon - Just Like All Those Beer Commercials

I’m pretty sure that the only reason Christopher Columbus even got on that boat was because he was hoping to find a new world that was just like all those beer commercials.  Risk your life for a place where people who are incapable of anything other than happy-party-all-the-time-mode-while-always-looking-amazing gather to drink beer that’s only 55 calories?  Yes, please.

Trouble is, Columbo gets here and instead of finding himself in a swarm of blondes, he finds himself in a swarm of mosquitos.  I kid you not.  It’s cool tho cuz Topher is smart like that.  He invents the Dyson Vortex vacuum.  Bam. Mosquitos can not escape the vortex.  (You can’t even escape the vortex! Unless you were to say, snap into a SlimJim) As if being trapped in a Dyson Vortex wasn’t enough tho, he started adding gasoline and sparking it with his little flint belt dealy; you guessed it - a flaming vortex.  

You can’t make this kinda stuff up.  Last I heard, he was leading a gang down in Jersey called the Mosquito Face Killaz.  

Friday Futon - Six Fingers

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be the one guy in the group with six fingers.  Obviously there are all the fringe benefits like nailing those Photoshop keyboard shortcuts, and well, nothing else really.  But seriously, the Photoshop thing is huge.

Fill from history and preserve transparency, boom.  Stamp visible, bam.  Transform again with duplicate, wa-bloosh. Actually, the six finger thing might be kinda weird.  I take it back.  I think I’d rather have my last name be an anagram of ‘bacon’.