Thursday, June 11. 2009
Server2Go - Apache, MySQL, SQLite, PHP and Perl all on a CD-ROM
The title's a bit misleading, Server2Go also works on a USB drive as well (and like most portable webservers, runs better on a USB drive). However, that's not why I'm all excited about this.
Recently, our web host's newsletter stated that users with Wordpress-MU installed would no longer be able to run it on a shared webhosting plan, it was just too resource intensive. If it was desirable to continue running it, a private server plan would be required. We were using Wordpress-MU, only had 5 blogs, and it hadn't been touched in about 5 months. BYE BYE MU! However, there was a lot of useful information on 2 of the blogs, and I wanted to give the users an opportunity to save their work.
I had two choices:
1. Use a spider, like HTTrack to copy all of the rendered HTML viewable by random visitors, or...
2. Try to find a solution that would let the author log in, view any unpublished pages/posts, and still get some educational benefit out of using a well-known web-based product. (Note: I was only looking for something that works on Windows.)
There were a couple (2) hits from Google explaining how to do it all manually, and a few products that claimed they could do it (if you bought their product; the free version only worked for USB drives, not CD). Server2Go came up as my last opened tab from my search, and it was what I needed. It was free (I wasn't going to pay if I could do it myself manually - though I may donate), and even looked really slick, and was configurable.
It took me two tries to get Wordpress installed and working with Server2Go. I needed to change "localmirror" to 0 while installing it and change it when done, but I didn't do that...so I had to reinstall it all. Wordpress' export/import feature saved the hassle of moving from Wordpress-MU to a single, standalone install of Wordpress, and after that, it only took maybe 3 minutes to set everything up.
If you need to have a product presented on CD to a client, I'd highly recommend Server2Go. USB drives will always work, but run the risk of accidental editing/deletion. A backup plan is always good! ...this is just yet another tool for the arsenal.
Recently, our web host's newsletter stated that users with Wordpress-MU installed would no longer be able to run it on a shared webhosting plan, it was just too resource intensive. If it was desirable to continue running it, a private server plan would be required. We were using Wordpress-MU, only had 5 blogs, and it hadn't been touched in about 5 months. BYE BYE MU! However, there was a lot of useful information on 2 of the blogs, and I wanted to give the users an opportunity to save their work.
I had two choices:
1. Use a spider, like HTTrack to copy all of the rendered HTML viewable by random visitors, or...
2. Try to find a solution that would let the author log in, view any unpublished pages/posts, and still get some educational benefit out of using a well-known web-based product. (Note: I was only looking for something that works on Windows.)
There were a couple (2) hits from Google explaining how to do it all manually, and a few products that claimed they could do it (if you bought their product; the free version only worked for USB drives, not CD). Server2Go came up as my last opened tab from my search, and it was what I needed. It was free (I wasn't going to pay if I could do it myself manually - though I may donate), and even looked really slick, and was configurable.
It took me two tries to get Wordpress installed and working with Server2Go. I needed to change "localmirror" to 0 while installing it and change it when done, but I didn't do that...so I had to reinstall it all. Wordpress' export/import feature saved the hassle of moving from Wordpress-MU to a single, standalone install of Wordpress, and after that, it only took maybe 3 minutes to set everything up.
If you need to have a product presented on CD to a client, I'd highly recommend Server2Go. USB drives will always work, but run the risk of accidental editing/deletion. A backup plan is always good! ...this is just yet another tool for the arsenal.