We are proud to announce the completion and launch of Xbox-Repair-Bristol.com.

Xbox-Repair-Bristol.com is a new brand of Hightower IT LTD, offering Xbox console repair in Bristol, Bath and the rest of the South West.

Hightower IT LTD, trading as Mad Capsule Media are proud to announce the launch of PSD to XHTML conversion service, PSDSquirrel.com.

PSD Squirrel is aimed at the US market, offering PSD To XHTML conversion services from just £40 ($65 USD) per PSD file converted. PSD Squirrel also offers PSD to Magento and PSD to wordpress services.

Of late there have been a noticeable amount of support requests on freelance websites and on the Magento forums regarding the MCRYPT_BLOWFISH error some users have seenon both Linux and Microsoft servers. Some are effected after server moves and others suggest it is random. Here we are going to take a quick look at the error, why it has happened and how to resolve it.

The reason for the error is actually quite simple and the fix is usually not a massive problem either unless your server is running old or legacy software. The error is caused when PHP cannot find the php-mcrypt module and or the libmcrypt libary.

How to install php-mcrypt and libmcrypt on my Linux server?

First find out which version of PHP you are running and also find out your version of Linux. Once you know your version of Linux you need to lookup how to install programs on there. Usually this will be done with the RPM command, apt-get command or yum install command etc. Then at the command line type (without the hash and replacing apt-get with whatever you installing is, of course) ...

# apt-get install php5-mcrypt

or if you are running php 4 ..

# apt-get install php4-mcrypt

Also if you don't have the library we mentioned ...

# apt-get install libmcrypt

Once you have installed those you will need to restart apache to get them to work. That should be it! If you are having troubles with this then post a comment below and let us know your system specs, we will do our best to help.

How to install php-mcrypt and libmcrypt on my Windows server?

Download libmcrypt.dll from php.net and place it in your PHP directory on your server. This is the directory that usually holds the PHP configuration files and so forth. Now open up php.ini (usually in the same directory, if not then do a Windows search for it) and find the line...

# extension=php_mcrypt.dll

Remove the hash '#' and restart your server and you should be good to go.

What is a CMS website?

Well, CMS stands for Content Management System and refers to software that sits in the background of your website and 'powers' the content your visitors see. Having a website built with a CMS in mind allows you, your staff and your visitors to post content to the website easily and quickly. Generally a CMS will allow you to add pages, images and so forth. You can edit/add content in the same way that you create office documents in office programs, however online.

Are CMS's easy to use?
Yes. If a CMS is not easy to use, its a bad CMS. The idea of a CMS is that everyone and anyone, skills aside, can update their website content with ease.

Do I need a CMS Website?

If you already have an upto date website, and updating it's content is easy and not overly time consuming then you probably don't. If you are getting a new website built or making serious upgrades to your current site then it would be a good idea when keeping in mind future development. Even if you plan not to update your website yourself and pay a third party to update it, it will probably be cheaper for you if you can provide the third party a CMS as it saves them time thus saving you money.

Are CMS's worth the outlay?

This depends specifically on your needs, time and required frequency of updates.

How much does a professional CMS cost?

The cost of a CMS on your website will vary a great deal. If you are having a new website built from scratch and a CMS is in your specification from the start, you are going to save the most money. There are a few free CMS systems out there, and if you are skilled within web technologies you can put your own look and feel on top of these free CMS's relatively painlessly. Many web development companies offer their own bespoke CMS system (we do, price starts from £500). You can also request most web development companies to develop your website with one of the known free or commercial CMS systems if you have a preference. This may work out less expensive, however in some cases it may work more expensive as some developers will be so expierenced with their own bespoke software, less man-hours are envolved.

Can I move my CMS to another host?

The free CMS systems that are already out their will transfer to other hosts relatively easily, providing the new host meets the same requirements that the original did. If you have had a website/CMS developed by a web development company then you should check at the start of the project when you receive the original quote if it is transferable to another host. Some companies will prefer to host your website themselves and therefore charge a release fee (or just outright refuse to release your website at all) to protect their intellectual property.

A common question new starters to CakePHP ask is regarding debugging. Many users start off with basic scaffolding and confronted with the uninformative error ....

Not Found

The requested URL /index.php was not found on this server.

This is because your CakePHP application is set to production mode. In production mode you would not want your visitors and clients seeing detailed error reports, it would worry them.

To find out what the actual problem is open up file app/config/core.php and find line 45(ish) and you will see the following ....


Configure::write('debug', 0);


Change the above value from 0 to either 1, 2 or 3 and you will get a much more helpful error message. We recommend you set it to 2.

Direct from the CakePHP comments itself; here is an explanation of each debug level...

* Development Mode:
* 1: Errors and warnings shown, model caches refreshed, flash messages halted.
* 2: As in 1, but also with full debug messages and SQL output.
* 3: As in 2, but also with full controller dump.

It is worth noting that when debug level is set to anything other than production mode (0), any 'flash' messages and redirects you have will not redirect automatically, you must click the link to forward on.