Derek Gallo

We recently upgraded our servers at NFi from PHP 5.1.2 to PHP 5.2.2. We needed to upgrade to fix a bug in PHP’s COM object support. PHP 5.2.2 and PHP 5.2.1 have proven to be buggy on windows and broken things that have previously worked. Upgrading to 5.2.2 introduces a bug in the mysql module that keeps outputting the following at the end of every script:

Error in my_thread_global_end(): 3 threads didn’t exit

Wordpress is based upon MySQL so this obviously won’t work even though the error is present even when non MySQL code is being run. Downgrading to PHP 5.2.1 fixes that problem. You are not in the clear yet though. With PHP 5.2.1 there is a problem with the standard method Wordpress uses for permalinks.

The default method for using permalinks with Wordpress is to use the following URL style:

/index.php/2007/05/31/sample-post/

This will not work with PHP 5.2.1 though. It appears that it treats that location as the full path to the file to serve. It looks for the folder index.php instead of running the actual script. Since the folder doesn’t exist you get a 404 File Not Found Error.

Moving down yet again to PHP 5.2.0 will fix the problem and that is what I am now running with this blog. Alternatively you can use ISAPI Rewrite for WordPress which will rewrite your URL’s to not use the standard style. There is another popular Wordpress Permalink ISAPI Filter though that still relies upon the /index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ style. If you are using this filter you will need to use PHP 5.2.0.

We have returned from the ACTE conference in Miami. Overall the conference was a success, both for ACTE and for NFi Studios. ACTE reached every goal they aimed for despite a few setbacks due to inclement weather. The nQuest Event Browser supported decent usage and great feedback from attendees, particularly on the newly released features.

The Green Movement is catching wind among many associations and events. Due to this they are not releasing conference collateral or presentations via printed hard copies any more. nQuest was equipped with a new Paperless Portal allowing attendees to insert their USB flash drive to easily select and download some or all of the conference presentations. The process is almost completely automated. Overall we received tremendous feedback from users on how quick and simple the process was to grab the presentations.

Usage of the Event Browser was consistent with previous events although usage of the Messaging component was down. This was most likely due to the conference location being in the United States with a large amount of U.S. attendees that all had working mobile email devices. We tend to see higher messaging usage at overseas conferences that still have a large U.S. attendee base. Usage of the new Paperless Portal was very good despite attendees gaining knowledge of it not until later in the conference. We now look forward to future events in Singapore, Munich and Washington D.C.

Tomorrow Tom, Sterling and I head down to The Doral in Miami for another ACTE Educational Conference. Chris will be meeting us down there on Sunday. We will be heading down there to help support website updates and technology during the conference. We will also be providing our Meetings Connect solution including the nQuest Browser.

This conference will have the largest attendee count in ACTE’s history. We will be hosting 10 kiosks. It should be good times as usual at the events. We will be launching a couple new features and the skin for this conference is by far my favorite so far. I can’t wait to get some feedback on the new look.