Ricardo rickycheers

Clearing Nginx's HTTP Cache

I recently implemented Nginx HTTP content caching on our WordPress web servers to improve page load speeds and eliminate redundant, unneeded server-side page rendering. Caching the pages was relatively straightforward, but clearing the cache required a custom workaround.

Nginx comes in two versions: free and “Nginx Plus” at $2,500/year. The free version of Nginx does not offer the needed cache-clearing features of Nginx Plus, and I wasn’t comfortable paying $20,000 for 8 instances without trying to build my own solution.

Our Nginx servers run as an HTTP proxy for multiple PHP/MySQL-backed WordPress sites. The goal was to cache the dynamic PHP HTML responses in Nginx and serve the HTML pages from Nginx to avoid redundant, CPU-intensive PHP renders.

Site Cache Configuration

The example below shows how PHP response caching is configured for a site (other nginx configuration details are excluded for brevity). A cache named cachedemo-prod is defined to store cached HTML f

Story: Writing Scripts with Go

This is a story about how I tried to use Go for scripting. In this story, I’ll discuss the need for a Go script, how we would expect it to behave and the possible implementations; During the discussion I’ll deep dive to scripts, shells, and shebangs. Finally, we’ll discuss solutions that will make Go scripts work.

Why Go is good for scripting?

While python and bash are popular scripting languages, C, C++ and Java are not used for scripts at all, and some languages are somewhere in between.

Automatic TiShadow Installs

Execute "tishadow run" in your Titanium app directory whenever a JavaScript file changes. Edit your JS files in a text editor, save, then switch to the test device or simulator. Profit.

Install supervisor

[sudo] npm install -g supervisor

	#! /bin/bash

	# Please only run IF YOU ARE SURE YOU SHOULD!
	#
	# This script will remove PHP and attempt to install the latest
	# "Stable" version! To help me with LARAVEL installations, it'll
	# also install composer and turn on mod_rewrite as well if it cannot
	# be sure it is installed
	#
	# @author @JakeLPrice

	function doClickMenu(evt){
	alert(evt.source.title);
	}

	// we need to do some things to the Window once it is properly instanciated, so we add an event listener to its OPEN event
	$.win.addEventListener('open',function(){
	var actionBar = $.win.activity.actionBar; // get a handle to the action bar
	actionBar.title='My App'; // change the App Title
	actionBar.displayHomeAsUp=true; // Show the "angle" pointing back
	actionBar.onHomeIconItemSelected = function() { // what to do when the "home" icon is pressed

	$coupon_code = 'UNIQUECODE'; // Code
	$amount = '10'; // Amount
	$discount_type = 'fixed_cart'; // Type: fixed_cart, percent, fixed_product, percent_product

	$coupon = array(
	'post_title' => $coupon_code,
	'post_content' => '',
	'post_status' => 'publish',
	'post_author' => 1,
	'post_type' => 'shop_coupon'

	#!/bin/pseudo-bash
	# Read through this and modify to taste.
	# Tested on:
	# dataset_uuid: c36a3d28-80c2-11e1-9ec6-df5bd8b43f76
	# sdc:sdc:smartosplus:3.2.0

	mkdir /data
	useradd -d /data dev
	groupadd dev
	cd /data

	/* ---------------------------------------------------------- */
	/* */
	/* A media query that captures: */
	/* */
	/* - Retina iOS devices */
	/* - Retina Macs running Safari */
	/* - High DPI Windows PCs running IE 8 and above */
	/* - Low DPI Windows PCs running IE, zoomed in */
	/* - Low DPI Windows PCs and Macs running Firefox, zoomed in */
	/* - Android hdpi devices and above */

	<script type="text/ng-template" id="one.html">
	<div>This is first template</div>
	</script>

	<script type="text/ng-template" id="two.html">
	<div>This is second template</div>
	</script>