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One of the things I’ve learned in my career is to code defensively.
Laravel makes it very easy to ask for an object, but it also makes it very easy to get it wrong. If you request an object using the find method and it doesn’t find it, you don’t get an error. You get a null. If you then request a property on that object, without first checking for a null, you will get a run-time error.
This is pretty basic stuff, but it never hurts to go over it again.
Wrong:
$name = Widget::find(23)->name;
Right:
if ($widget = Widget::find(23)) { $name = $widget->name; }
The first block will throw an error if Widget #23 doesn’t exist in the database. The second checks for it’s existence and then only reaches for the name if it found it.
Are you also a PHP programmer? I’ve got other blog entries that you might be interested in!
I have been programming for almost 20 years. It all started with Basic and RPG III way back in high school, and have played around with many languages. PHP is my main language today.
Some sites I have built:
For fans of BMX legend Scotty Cranmer: https://ScottyFan.com
Meet my Basenji’s Graham and Ginger: https://BarooBoos.com
Meet my newest Basenji, Zulu: https://ZuluJoy.com
Recently, after setting up another virtual host on my Linux server, for a WordPress site, permalinks were not working. Any page other than home was getting a 404 error. I searched Google for help, but kept finding the same advise, which was basically to make sure that the .htaccess file was writable and had the correct permissions.
Sadly, it took me 2 days to solve this puzzle. (About 3-4 hours total.)
This was the second time I was doing this, so I knew I had figured it out once before, and done all the work to learn how it is done, but for some reason the dots just weren’t connecting for me. It was very frustrating!
So now I am documenting it so that if I ever add another site, I’ll have a guide to remind me of exactly what is required to get it done in minutes, rather than hours.
It was at this point that I realized that the permalinks were not working.
I began confirming that the .htaccess was correct. Then I remembered that I had done something to avoid .htaccess last time because I had read at least one page showing how it negatively affects site performance.
I started poking around the .conf file, adding in the Directory block, and making sure it contained the code that the .htaccess file had.
But the changes were not having any effect. I was a bit baffled as to why.
Finally, I realized that I was not in the right file! Let’s Encrypt creates a second .conf file, and that is where the code needs to be!
The first .conf file has :80 in it, and handles HTTP traffic, and it redirects to HTTPS, so then the .conf from Let’s Encrypt is active. It has :443 in it, and that is where the code needs to be.
I opened up the :443 .conf file from the first site and immediately saw the code I was looking for. A few copy/paste’s later and the new site was working properly, and the mystery was solved.
The :443 .conf file has a Directory block in it, which tells the web server not to look for .htaccess files. This improves performance. All that was required was to copy the .htaccess file content into that section.
Are you also a PHP programmer? I’ve got other blog entries that you might be interested in!
I have been programming for almost 20 years. It all started with Basic and RPG III way back in high school, and have played around with many languages. PHP is my main language today.
Some sites I have built:
For fans of BMX legend Scotty Cranmer: https://ScottyFan.com
Meet my Basenji’s Graham and Ginger: https://BarooBoos.com
Meet my newest Basenji, Zulu: https://ZuluJoy.com