Quick References

As a constant learner, I get to touch upon many ideas in different areas. This category is for me to capture those ideas which I felt people may reference to get ahead of their tasks. Most of the time, I do come back to this section of my blog to remember what I had learnt in the past.

How to turn on WiFi Personal hotspot on your iPhone so that multiple devices can connect to the Internet

When you want to get multiple IOT devices to send data to the Internet, your iPhone can be very handy. After all, you can connect those devices to the Internet via your iPhone WiFi Personal hotspot.

Whenever you need some reference, you can read this post to understand how to turn on WiFi Personal hotspot on your iPhone.

Programming languages that you can use to build applications for Raspberry Pi, via Raspbian Stretch Lite

A programming language give programmers an interface to create computer applications to serve different use cases. On the other hand, a Raspberry Pi is one of the things that a programmer should consider getting.

Raspbian Stretch Lite is the official operating system for programmers to run server applications on a Raspberry Pi. You can use Raspbian Stretch Lite for applications that do not require a graphical user interface.

So what programming languages can you use for building applications for Raspbian Stretch Lite?

This post discusses some programming languages that you can use for building applications for Raspbian Stretch Lite.

Configuring Nginx and PHP 7 stack in Linux to increase or decrease file upload size limit

PHP web applications can utilize Nginx as the reverse proxy server and PHP FPM as the upstream server. Whenever you encounter HTTP file upload issues, limitation in file upload size is one common cause.

This post shows how to adjust the file upload size limit for your application running on a Nginx-PHP stack in Linux.

Implementing Google Custom Search as a WordPress page without using any plugin

Creating a search engine to search content across a polyglot website is not an easy task. In order to do that, you need to either:

  • take a search query and match it across data repositories from different application processes, or
  • have a process that will maintain an index of content from the different applications and search within that content.

Since Google had indexed most of the content in the Internet, Google Custom Search can be the easiest way for us to implement site-wide search. In addition to fast searching, Google Custom Search also comes with AdSense monetization.

In case you need it, this is how you can implement Google Custom Search as a WordPress page without using any plugin.

How to create a custom page template in WordPress

We use pages in WordPress to hold content of our website that are not specifically time-dependent.

Examples of such content at Techcoil include the about page, disclaimer page and Raspbian Stretch Lite project ideas.

When you want to show content in different page layouts, you can create different customized page templates to show content in different ways.

In case you need a reference, this post describes how to create a custom page template in WordPress.

How to host your own file sharing website on Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx, ProjectSend, MariaDB and PHP

While experiencing Northern Lights in Finland, you may capture some Northern Lights pictures with your DSLR. In case you want to share them with friends through your own file sharing website, have a look at ProjectSend.

Since a Raspberry Pi 3 is energy efficient and affordable, you may want to setup ProjectSend on a Raspberry Pi 3. With this in mind, this post discusses how to do so with Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx, MariaDB and PHP as the LEMP stack.

Setting up your own Raspberry Pi 3 git server with Go Git Service (Gogs) and Raspbian Stretch Lite

When Microsoft bought Github, some developers who had trusted GitHub with their code, are considering ditching it. In case you have the same thought, you may want to consider hosting your own Git server. After all, that is the best approach to ensure that your code repository stays under your control.

In view of hosting your own code repository, you may want to setup a Raspberry Pi 3 Git server. Together with Go Git Service and Raspbian Stretch Lite, you can get a Git server with decent performance.

Given these points, this post discusses how you can setup your own Git server on a Raspberry Pi 3 with Go Git Service (Gogs) and Raspbian Stretch Lite.

How to configure Nginx on Raspberry Pi 3 as a reverse proxy server for Synology DiskStation Manager

Raspberry Pi proxy Synology DSM network architecture

When you get a Synology NAS like DS218j or DS418, you will also get the Synology DiskStation Manager. Eventually, you may want to access websites other than Synology DiskStation Manager from outside your home. In that case, you may want to use Nginx as a reverse proxy server for your websites.

Without a doubt, Raspberry Pi 3 is one single-board computer that packs enough computing power for many use cases. For example, you can setup a Raspberry Pi 3 reverse proxy server with Nginx, Certbot, Raspbian Stretch Lite. Thereafter, you will be able to host multiple websites from home.

In case you have both a Raspberry Pi 3 and a Synology NAS, read on to see how you can configure Nginx on Raspberry Pi 3 as a reverse proxy for Synology DiskStation Manager.