NadeauSoftware.com articles from all months, all years

Speed up a Drupal web site by preloading the page cache

Dave_Nadeau — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:23:21 -0800

Drupal's page cache stores fully-built pages for quick delivery to anonymous visitors to your site. However, any change to your site's content clears the cache soon afterwards. The next visitor to each page must wait for the page to be rebuilt fresh. For some pages, such as long view lists, this may take a few seconds. This article shows how to completely rebuild the page cache automatically so that visitors are always delivered cached pages quickly.

Java tip: How to parse integers quickly

Dave_Nadeau — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:34:54 -0700

Java has several ways to parse integers from strings. Performance differences between these methods can be significant when parsing a large number of integers. Doing your own integer parsing can provide an important speed boost. This tip looks at five ways to parse integers, compares their features, and benchmarks them to see which method is the fastest.

Drupal and Apache Web Site Security Checklist, part 3

Dave_Nadeau — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:03:09 -0700

Default Drupal, Apache, and PHP settings broadcast to hackers much more about your site's configuration than hackers should know. In this third article in a series, I review settings to tighten security and reduce this information leakage.

Drupal and Apache Web Site Security Checklist, part 2

Dave_Nadeau — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:01:45 -0700

Drupal's default settings provide rather loose security. In this second article in a series, I review Drupal configuration changes to tighten security and control who can create and view content.

Drupal and Apache Web Site Security Checklist, part 1

Dave_Nadeau — Sat, 16 May 2009 07:01:15 -0700

Default configurations of Apache, PHP, and Drupal often serve files they shouldn't. In this first article in a series, I review configuration changes to tighten security by limiting access to files and directories for a Drupal web site served by Apache.

Mac Java tip: How to customize Aqua sliders

Dave_Nadeau — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:10:18 -0700

Java's Swing JSlider creates a sliding widget for selecting a number within a fixed range. The sliding "thumb" icon, the track it slides on, tick marks, and labels may be turned on and off, but Swing has no other methods to affect the appearance of a JSlider. That's left up to the current look and feel. This article shows how to use Apple's "Mac OS X" look and feel for Java on a Mac to create smaller JSliders and switch between two thumb icon styles. The article also shows work-arounds for controlling tick and label sizes and colors.

Mac Java tip: How to create Aqua recessed borders

Dave_Nadeau — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:52:38 -0700

Grouping together related components helps organize a user interface and make it easier to learn and use. Java provides several border styles for outlining groups, but none of them match the Mac's recessed style. This article shows how to create a recessed border using special UI defaults available to Mac Java applications.

Windows Java tip: How to control window decorations

siteadmin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:53:38 -0800

Windows automatically adds a window frame to all Java windows, but there is more that you can do to make sure Java windows look and feel right on Windows XP, Vista, 7, and beyond. This article discusses Swing settings to control the appearance of window decorations on a PC.

Mac Java tip: How to control window decorations

Dave_Nadeau — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:37:36 -0800

The Mac automatically adds a Mac-style window frame to all Java windows, but there is more that you can do to make sure Java windows look and feel right on a Mac. This article discusses Swing settings and Mac-specific client properties to control the appearance of window decorations on a Mac.

Mac Java tip: How to access Aqua file and folder icons

Dave_Nadeau — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:42:00 -0800

File and folder icons are an important part of the look and feel of the Mac. These icons are available to Java applications through several different classes in Swing and sometimes as UI defaults for Apple's "Mac OS X" look and feel. This article shows to how to get at these icons using Java on a Mac.