- Log in to your WHMCS Admin dashboard
- Navigate to Setup -> Products/Services -> Servers
Continue reading “Setting Up Your Liquid Web Server in WHMCS”
Category: Getting Started
What is a LAMP stack?
The LAMP stack is the foundation for Linux hosted websites is the Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (LAMP) software stack.
The Four Layers of a LAMP Stack
Linux based web servers consist of four software components. These components, arranged in layers supporting one another, make up the software stack. Websites and Web Applications run on top of this underlying stack. The common software components that make up a traditional LAMP stack are:
- Linux: The operating system (OS) makes up our first layer. Linux sets the foundation for the stack model. All other layers run on top of this layer.
- Apache: The second layer consists of web server software, typically Apache Web Server. This layer resides on top of the Linux layer. Web servers are responsible for translating from web browsers to their correct website.
- MySQL: Our third layer is where databases live. MySQL stores details that can be queried by scripting to construct a website. MySQL usually sits on top of the Linux layer alongside Apache/layer 2. In high end configurations, MySQL can be off loaded to a separate host server.
- PHP: Sitting on top of them all is our fourth and final layer. The scripting layer consists of PHP and/or other similar web programming languages. Websites and Web Applications run within this layer.
We can visualize the LAMP stack like so:
Applying what you’ve learned
Understanding the four software layers of a LAMP stack aids the troubleshooting process. It allows us to see how each layer relies on one another. For instance; when a disk drive gets full, which is a Linux layer issue. This will also affect all other layers in the model. This is because those other layers rest on top of the affected layer. Likewise, when the MySQL database goes offline. We can expect to see PHP related problems due to their relationship. When we know which layer is exhibiting problems. We know which configuration files to examine for solutions.
Some Alternatives
The four traditional layers of a LAMP stack consist of free and open-source products. Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP are the cornerstone of a free, non-proprietary LAMP stack. There are several variants of the four stack model as well. These variants use alternative software replacing one or more of the traditional components. Some examples of these alternatives are:
- WAMP: Windows, Apache, MySQL & PHP
- WISA: Windows, IIS, SQL & ASP.net
- MAMP: MacOS, Apache, MySQL & PHP
You can explore these alternative software stacks in greater depth using online resource. The LAMP stack Wiki is a great place to start:
How can we help?
The LAMP stack is an industry standard and is included in all of our Core-Managed and Fully Managed Linux based servers. Our support teams work hand in hand with the LAMP stack on a daily basis. You can rest assured we are at your disposal should you have questions or concerns. To learn more you can browse our latest product offerings.
Using SSH Client Natively in Windows 10
Have you ever wanted to use SSH to control your Linux server from Windows? You’ve most likely downloaded and launched third-party applications like PuTTY or KiTTY to get this functionality on your Windows computer. Thankfully, with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, you can now use a built-in SSH client directly within your Windows OS. Continue reading “Using SSH Client Natively in Windows 10”
Customize the WooCommerce Thank You page
Have you ever wanted to provide product specific information right after a customer checks out? Or, what about customizing the title of the thank you page? Well we’ve thought about that too. So we built a plugin that allows you to set a global and product specific thank you pages. Continue reading “Customize the WooCommerce Thank You page”
Add a questions form tab to all products in WooCommerce
Depending on the products you sell, you may want to add a product inquiry tab so that it’s available for your shoppers in the event that they want to contact you about the product. Let’s look at two ways you can do this.
How can I add a product inquiry tab and form to all of my products on my store?
Option #1: WooCommerce Plugin
The easiest way to add a product inquiry form on your products is to use the Products inquiry form from WooCommerce. This creates a form tab and has a few minor settings but it’s pretty much plugin and play.
Option #2: Form Builder Compatible Plugin
If you use a form builder like Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, WPForms or even Formidable Forms, you can use WooCommerce Tab Manager from SkyVerge. WooCommerce Tab Manager allows you more finite control over the tabs on your products page, including the option to add a form to a tab.
Setting Featured Products in WooCommerce
Featuring products on your website is a great way to show your best selling or popular products from your store. And setting products as featured products is super simple. WooCommerce has some built in functionality to making this happen. Let’s take a look below.
How do I set certain products as featured products?
To begin open and log into your WooCommerce sites Admin area. Navigate to your products page and find the product you want to have be featured, click the star to make that product be a featured product. It’s really that simple.
Once you have featured products set up, WooCommerce will allow you to show all of your featured products by using a shortcode. An example is below. Note that you can change the per page and columns to fit your needs.
[featured_products per_page=”10” columns=”2”]
It’s that easy. With those two steps, you are now showing your featured products to your visitors.
Selling digital products with WooCommerce
So far, we’ve covered a good variety of WooCommerce topics – we touched on order management, product creation and shop customizing. One scenario we haven’t covered yet is selling non-physical products. For example, what would you do if you needed to sell a subscription or a digital download?
In this article we’ll quickly go over how you can setup digital products for download. These are products that are not shipped to the user but rather an item they download – like an eBook.
How can I add digital download products to my store?
You can add a digital download product the same way as you would a simple product or a variable product. The only big difference is that you need to mark it as ‘downloadable’. Next you need to add the downloadable file, or files, to that product.
As you can see, in the example above, the process is very similar to creating any other product. Once you click the Downloadable check box you’ll have fields specific to digital products. In these fields you can control: a) the files included in this digital product, b) the amount of times the consumer can download the product, and c) the number of days before the download link expires.
Further reading
Overall the process is the same as creating a basic product in WooCommerce with a few new options. If you’re familiar with building products in WooCommerce then creating your first digital product should be a breeze. If you’re trying to create something more advanced though you can always read the official WooCommerce docs on Digital/Downloadable Product Handling.
Setting custom related products in WooCommerce
In one of our last articles on WooCommerce we covered how to turn off the related products section. Along a similar line of thought what if you want to customize this area instead of disable it? In this article we’ll show how you can control the related products that show in this section of your product pages!
By default WooCommerce allows you to have related products by categories. But what if you want to specify specific products to be related to other products? What do you do? The good news is there’s a free way to make this happen.
How can I set specific related products?
Custom Related Products for WooCommerce is a free plugin available in the WordPress.org plugin repo. You can download this directly from your site and activate it with a few clicks. Once installed and active you should see a new Related Products field in your products Linked Products tab.
With the plugin activated you can now begin manually setting related products for your shop items. Once you type three letters the text field will provide a drop down to select the products you’d like to show up.
Using this text field select all the products you’d like to show up as related. Once you’ve selected the products you can save, or update, the product to commit the changes. It’s really that easy to manage once you have the plugin installed.
TAKEAWAY
Running your own eCommerce store can be a very fulfilling experience, setting up and customizing that store can be another story. Picking the right eCommerce solution and hosting platform is a big deal though. If you go with a less common solution you’re gonna have less knowledge resources when it comes to customizing your store.
When you choose WooCommerce, you’re choosing a store platform that powers 42% of all eCommerce stores. That’s kinda a big deal – it means that if you want to try something custom, someone else may have a solution already. With such a huge, and active, community there’s no doubt WooCommerce is a great choice. When paired with a great host choosing WooCommerce becomes a no-brainer.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is a free eCommerce plugin that provides website shop functionality within WordPress. The plugin is currently built and developed by Automattic which is the company behind WordPress as a whole. With just a few clicks almost any WordPress site can turn into a fully-functional eCommerce store. Continue reading “What is WooCommerce?”
What are man pages?
When you buy a new tool, piece of equipment, or hardware device, in the box you’ll find a useful manual. The manual covers various methods to use device, safety procedures and troubleshooting tips. These manual books are an invaluable knowledge tool when learning to use new equipment – what about computers though?
When it comes to computers you rarely, if ever, get a physical manual. When you do it’s usually going to be very specific to the hardware of the device, but not the software. On UNIX based OS’s when you need to read about software you pull up the man pages. Short for manual pages, the man pages are a type of document that provides details on using various commands and applications. Man pages are super simple to use and can help you learn without Google! Continue reading “What are man pages?”