alexyz

WordPress Functions.php add_filter after comment redirect

admin — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:47:20 +0000

add_filter(‘comment_post_redirect‘, ‘redirect_after_comment‘);
function redirect_after_comment()
{
wp_redirect($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']);
}

Mysql Command Line Import

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:34:00 +0000

navigate to the folder containing the .sql file you’d like to import

>mysql -user -password databaseToImportInto < newData.sql

return – no ; (unless you are IN mysql>)

password:

example:

>mysql -root -p someDB

password: (return – default config has none, unless you’ve, hopefully, changed it, then enter it)

MYSQL Query clear all data in a column

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:09:22 +0000

UPDATE table SET column = ”

example:

UPDATE wp_posts SET post_excerpt = ”

jQuery .hover change div background-position example

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:48:11 +0000

example for reference:

$(“#formButtonSubmit“).hover(function(){
$(this).css({
backgroundPosition: ’0px 0px’
});
}, function(){
$(this).css({
backgroundPosition: ’0px 30px’
});
});

PHP command line accept inputs – $argv

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:51:51 +0000

http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.argv.php

example:

~a sudo php scriptname.php 100

pass IN 100 to the script.

In the script, receive input:

$batchNumber = $argv[1]

test it:

var_dump($argv);

handy when calling a php script via a cron, thus allowing the script parameters to be configurable via the cron.

PHP $_Server Host Name etc. command line equivalent

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:49:20 +0000

http://php.net/manual/en/function.php-uname.php

string php_uname ([ string $mode = "a" ] )

mode is a single character that defines what information is returned:

‘a’: This is the default. Contains all modes in the sequence “s n r v m”.
‘s’: Operating system name. eg. FreeBSD.
‘n’: Host name. eg. localhost.example.com.
‘r’: Release name. eg. 5.1.2-RELEASE.
‘v’: Version information. Varies a lot between operating systems.
‘m’: Machine type. eg. i386.

Secure HTML form example using PHP htmlentities, passing a token PHP, AJAX submission via jQuery

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:55:44 +0000

// form page (index.php): initialize a session so that we can set a unique, random, encrypted value to a user session
session_start();
$token = md5(uniqid(rand(), true));
$_SESSION['token'] = $token;
? >

// The jquery.validation.js class uses a regular expression to stop the process if the email entered isn’t acceptable

;(function($) {
$.validation = {};
$.extend( $.validation, {
email:function(email) {
var filter = /^([a-zA-Z0-9_.-])+@(([a-zA-Z0-9-])+.)+([a-zA-Z0-9]{2,4})+$/;
if ( filter.test(email) ) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
});
})(jQuery);

// The registerSubmit.js submits the entered email via AJAX, returning a success or failure message, to our contactSubmit.php script, which handles the submission of the new email to a database

$(document).ready(function() {

$(“#reg-button”).click(function(){
$(“#topForm”).submit();
});

$(“#topForm”).submit(function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
var $form = $( this ),
emailAddress = $form.find( ‘input[name="emailAddress"]‘ ).val(),
token = $form.find( ‘input[name="token"]‘ ).val(),
formaction = $form.attr( ‘action’ );

if($.validation.email(emailAddress)){
$( “#reg-description” ).html (“submitting…”);
$.ajax({
type: “POST”,
url: “contactSubmit.php”,
data: “firstName=” + firstName + “&lastName=” + lastName + “&emailAddress=” + emailAddress + “&token=” + token,
success: function(){
$( “#reg-description” ).html( “Thank you. You have been registered.” );
},
});
}
else{
$( “#emailAddress” ).val (“Please enter a valid email address”);
}
});
});

// contactSubmit.php: receive the email, check the token, clean the data, pass to a database layer API

session_start();

set_include_path(‘DBlayerClass’);
require_once(‘EmailContact.php’);

if (isset($_SESSION['token']) && $_POST['token'] == $_SESSION['token']){
if(isset($_POST['emailAddress'])){
$emailAddress = htmlentities($_POST['emailAddress']);
} else { $emailAddress = ”; }

$contact = new EmailContact($emailAddress)

try {
$contact->save();
} catch (Exception $e) {
; // do something
}
//$retrieve = new EmailContact($emailAddress);
//$retrieve->load();
//print_r($retrieve);
//}
? >

PHP retrieving user input when executing a script from the command line

admin — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:15:21 +0000

So either execute the script via the browser, http://someserver/somescript.php
or via the command line >php somescript.php
the example below shows how to support either eventuality

//first we check to see whether the script is being run via the command line, or via a browser

if(defined(‘STDIN‘) ){
echo “Running from CLI” . PHP_EOL;
echo “How many items would you like to batch?”;
$handle = fopen (“php://stdin”,”r”);
$line = fgets($handle);
$batchNumber = trim($line);
// and so on…
}else{
echo “Running from the Browser
”;
// and so on…
}

Post via jQuery across domains (in this case to a Zend Controller and subsequent view) and display the results

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:09:49 +0000

the jQuery posting page, in brief:

<head>

</head>
<body>
<form id=”enewsform” name=”enewsform” action=”http://componentserver/controllername/post” method=”post”>
” />
sign up

// the component Zend controller in question receives the post, does whatever it does, renders its view, and we access the results from the view (don’t forget to pass data to the view with something like this:
$this-> view-> viewresult = $this-> viewData;)

echo $_REQUEST['jsoncallback'] . ‘(‘ . json_encode($this-> viewresult) . ‘)’;
? >

Bronto API PHP Class to Send a Contact a particular Message (Zend Helper)

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:36:23 +0000

< ? php
class Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_BrontoSendMessage extends Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract {

public $message;
public $client;
public $viewData;
public $list;
public $now = “date(‘c’)”;
public $recipientObject;
public $email;
public $contact;
public $contactId;

private $fromName = ‘WHATEVERYOUWOULDLIKE’;
private $fromEmail = ‘YOU@YOURMAIL.COM’;

public function login(){
ini_set(“soap.wsdl_cache_enabled”, “0″);
date_default_timezone_set(‘America/New_York’);

$wsdl = “https://api.bronto.com/v4?wsdl”;
$url = “https://api.bronto.com/v4″;

$this-> client = new SoapClient($wsdl, array(‘trace’ => 1, ‘encoding’ => ‘UTF-8′));
$this-> client->__setLocation($url);

// Login
$token = “YOUR BRONTO TOKEN HERE”;
$sessionId = $this-> client->login(array(“apiToken” => $token))->return;
if (!$sessionId) {
return “Login failed”;
}
$this-> client->__setSoapHeaders(array(new SoapHeader(“http://api.bronto.com/v4″,
‘sessionHeader’,
array(‘sessionId’ => $sessionId))));

$this-> viewData['login'] = “logged in”;
}

public function setContact($email){
$this-> email = $email;

$filter = array(‘email’ => array(array(‘operator’ => ‘EqualTo’,'value’ => $this-> email)));

$this-> contact = $this-> client->readContacts(array(‘pageNumber’ => 1,
‘includeLists’ => true,
‘filter’ => $filter,
));
if(!isset($this->contact->return->id))
{
//return ‘Email not subscribed’;
}
else
{
$this-> contactId = $this->contact->return->id;
//return $this->contactId;
}

$this-> recipientObject = array(‘type’ => ‘contact’, ‘id’ => $this->contactId);
}

public function setDelivery($messageid){
$delivery = array(‘start’ => date(‘c’),
‘messageId’ => $messageid,
‘fromName’ => $this-> fromName,
‘fromEmail’ => $this-> fromEmail,
‘recipients’ => array($this-> recipientObject),
);

$this->client->addDeliveries(array($delivery));
}
}
? >

called from another Zend Controller as a helper in this fashion:

$this-> _helper-> BrontoSendMessage->login();
$this-> _helper-> BrontoSendMessage->setContact($this-> email);
$this-> _helper-> BrontoSendMessage->setDelivery($this-> messageid);

Bronto Direct Import API import .csv file (upload) via HTML form post or via PHP CURL with code examples

admin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:46:44 +0000

We are building a Cassandra based system (of record) to capture emails so that we can handle 100k users converging on an online event as quickly as possible. Rather than relying on our third party email marketing vendor, Bronto, to handle the volume we could possibly experience, and risk possibly failing (as others doing the same thing recently have done…cough cough….Oprah and Eckhart Tolle), we’ll build our own system that can be tested correctly, and thus handle the volume, and then we’ll dump said new emails in reasonably sized files out to Bronto, who will then send out confirmation emails for us…

This post covers the script that will take file exports from Cassandra (sorry, no Cassandra in this one…), and Post them to Bronto. Below is an example that uses a standard HTML form Post, for understanding and comprehensiveness, and an example that uses CURL (which easily allows this process to happen as part of an ordinary CRON job).

First we have to set up, and get some connection values, from Bronto:

Log into Bronto
From the top menu select Home->Settings
select Data Exchange
scroll to the bottom to Direct Import and grab the following connection values:
- URL: http://app.bronto.com/mail/subscriber_upload/index/
- site_id: YOUR_SITE_ID
- user_id: YOUR_USER_ID
- key: YOUR_KEY

Further reference, Bronto support docs are here:
https://app.bronto.com/mail/help/help_view/?k=mail:home:api_tracking:tracking_direct_import

Next let’s look at what this Post might look like as your common HTML form:

http://app.bronto.com/mail/subscriber_upload/index/” enctype=”multipart/form-data”>
Test Contacts” />
csv” />
C:\xampp\htdocs\YOUSITEFOLDERPATH\batch.csv” />
YOUR_SITE_ID” />
YOUR_USER_ID” />
YOUR_KEY” />

Next let’s look at what this Post might look like in a PHP script using CURL:

$fields = array(
‘source‘=>”Test contacts“,
‘format‘=>csv,
‘filename‘=>’@‘.’C:\xampp\htdocs\YOURSITEFOLDERPATH\batch.csv‘,
‘site_id‘=>YOUR_SITE_ID,
‘user_id‘=>YOUR_USER_ID,
‘key‘=>’YOUR_KEY‘,
);

/* The key here is the ‘@’ above, which tells CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS to UPLOAD that file, parenthesis critical! */

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, ‘http://app.bronto.com/mail/subscriber_upload/index/‘);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, count($fields));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

var_dump($result);
? >

Last but not least, make (or in our case receive from Cassandra export dump) the .csv file to be Posted.
First column, Email, 2nd through n filled with email addresses, save it as .csv comma delineated.
Yes, it’s actually that simple.
I hope this helps somebody.

Create a php page with a form that searches (curls) two separate WordPress applications

admin — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 23:28:41 +0000

We have many installations where I work, some of them newer, some older, some severely whacked at by coders, some pretty much default installations.

Anyhow, now they want a page from which a visitor could enter a search term, click submit, and get results from all of the separate applications!

Here is my solution:

The new page has your basic self submitting form:

Then, of course, it grabs what has been submitted:

/**
* Get Search parameters
*/
$search = $_POST['s'];
$search = str_replace(” “,”%20″,$search);
echo $search;

This checks to ensure that the user didn’t submit nothing (as WordPress would give us every post as currently coded…! ick). This would also be a great place to guard against injection attacks (or in the last step of course), to filter what may be searched for, etc., but I’ll leave those concerns for another discussion:

/**
* If desired search is NOT empty, search, otherwise don’t
*/
if(($search != ”) && ($search != null) && (!empty($search)) )
{
?>

Now we curl in the results from each installation:

/**
* Get Search results from WP app 1
*/
$sub_req_url = “http://YOURAPP1URLHERE/searchpage.php?s=” . $search;
$ch = curl_init($sub_req_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$podcast_return = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo $podcast_return;

/**
* End
*/
?>

/**
* Get Search results from WP app 2
*/
$sub_req_url = “http://YOURAPP2URLHERE/searchpage.php?s=” . $search;
$ch = curl_init($sub_req_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$podcast_return = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo $podcast_return;

/**
* End
*/
?>

Now let’s close our IF block, and maybe provide ELSE if we want to…

/**
* close if empty block
*/
}
else
{
}
?>

Ok, that’s the end of our new page, again, I’ll leave formatting of the results and the rest of the page to another discussion. Now let’s make the above mentioned search pages “searchpage.php” (make one for EACH APP, lives in the ROOT of EACH WP installation that we’re searching!):

/**
* WordPress App 1 Post Results Pull-In
*/
define(‘WP_USE_THEMES‘, true);
include(‘wp-load.php’ );
$query = new WP_Query(‘s=’ . $_GET['s']);
if ($query->have_posts()) : while ($query->have_posts()) : $query->the_post(); ?>

/* Again, how you choose to skin the results could be implemented here, but I’ll leave that up to you… */

the_ID(); ?>“>

the_title(); ?>

the_content(‘

Read the rest of this page »

‘); ?>
wp_link_pages(array(‘before’ => ‘

Pages: ‘, ‘after’ => ‘

‘, ‘next_or_number’ => ‘number’)); ?>

endwhile; endif; ?>

Whoohoo! Great Work!

PHP script to download .ics Outlook Event Schedule Calendar Alarm add

admin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:32:52 +0000

My boss wanted the ability to put a button on an event on our site that would book it in the user’s Outlook calendar. Short story is the link downloads an .ics file to their computer, opened with Outlook it schedules the Event, Reminder, Priority, Schedule, and so on. Thank you http://www.myhow2guru.com

//This is the most important coding.
header(“Content-Type: text/Calendar”);
header(“Content-Disposition: inline; filename=filename.ics”);
echo “BEGIN:VCALENDAR\n”;
echo “PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 12.0 MIMEDIR//EN\n”;
echo “VERSION:2.0\n”;
echo “METHOD:PUBLISH\n”;
echo “X-MS-OLK-FORCEINSPECTOROPEN:TRUE\n”;
echo “BEGIN:VEVENT\n”;
echo “CLASS:PUBLIC\n”;
echo “CREATED:20091109T101015Z\n”;
echo “DESCRIPTION:How 2 Guru Event\\n\\n\\nEvent Page\\n\\nhttp://www.myhow2guru.com\n”;
echo “DTEND:20091208T040000Z\n”;
echo “DTSTAMP:20091109T093305Z\n”;
echo “DTSTART:20091208T003000Z\n”;
echo “LAST-MODIFIED:20091109T101015Z\n”;
echo “LOCATION:Anywhere have internet\n”;
echo “PRIORITY:5\n”;
echo “SEQUENCE:0\n”;
echo “SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:How2Guru Event\n”;
echo “TRANSP:OPAQUE\n”;
echo “UID:040000008200E00074C5B7101A82E008000000008062306C6261CA01000000000000000\n”;
echo “X-MICROSOFT-CDO-BUSYSTATUS:BUSY\n”;
echo “X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:1\n”;
echo “X-MICROSOFT-DISALLOW-COUNTER:FALSE\n”;
echo “X-MS-OLK-ALLOWEXTERNCHECK:TRUE\n”;
echo “X-MS-OLK-AUTOFILLLOCATION:FALSE\n”;
echo “X-MS-OLK-CONFTYPE:0\n”;
//Here is to set the reminder for the event.
echo “BEGIN:VALARM\n”;
echo “TRIGGER:-PT1440M\n”;
echo “ACTION:DISPLAY\n”;
echo “DESCRIPTION:Reminder\n”;
echo “END:VALARM\n”;
echo “END:VEVENT\n”;
echo “END:VCALENDAR\n”;
? >

WordPress base url path for multiple platform development links

admin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:33:57 +0000

so that anchor tags always nicely point to your application root use:

get_bloginfo('url')

http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/get_bloginfo

WordPress the_excerpt() strips html tags, create a custom function to leave them in

admin — Fri, 27 May 2011 22:44:29 +0000

go to your theme’s function script:

wp-content/themes/yourthemename/function.php

at the top insert the following (add to ‘’ below to NOT strip out other specific tags, or simply comment the line out…):

some references: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/the_excerpt, http://www.aaronrussell.co.uk/blog/improving-wordpress-the_excerpt/

Create a Facebook App

admin — Thu, 26 May 2011 22:31:44 +0000

first visit facebook and register your new app:
http://www.facebook.com/developers
configure the facebook settings to point to your server

grab the facebook php library:
http://github.com/facebook/php-sdk/tarball/master
or here:
developers.facebook.com/resources.php

upload your application’s new index.php to your server, something like this:

require_once ‘facebook.php’;
$appapikey = ’1234′;
$appsecret = ’1234′;
$facebook = new Facebook($appapikey, $appsecret);
$user_id = $facebook->require_login(); $html = ‘PUT YOUR HTML HERE’;
$facebook->api_client->profile_setFBML(NULL, $user_id, $html, NULL, NULL, $html);
echo ‘
’;
? >

it’s that simple.

references:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roOYZKsN3Yg
http://www.merchantos.com/blog/makebeta/facebook/facebook-php-tutorial

Dreamweaver Remember and re-open documents when closed

admin — Tue, 24 May 2011 23:20:05 +0000

Are you wanting to close Dreamweaver,
and work on that task tomorrow,
but you have all of the files that you need open,
and you don’t want to find them all and have to open them all again?
Do you want Dreamweaver to remember which files were open,
and open them all again for you?
(Something that is default, by the way, in something like Zend Studio, enough said…)

Preferences:

Edit | Preferences | General | Document Options: Reopen documents at startup

WordPress convert podcast from Podpress to Powerpress support HTML5 mobile devices

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:08:57 +0000

If you found this post, you think you’re stuck with Podpress, and/or you’re wanting to make your podcast viewable on mobile devices. I was in the same boat until just recently, stuck with a podcast I’d initially setup with Podpress years ago, support for which has been worryingly spotty and dwindling, wishing I could now ditch Podpress, but I had over 160 posts I didn’t want to convert….

What I didn’t realize is that the creators of Powerpress had exactly that in mind when they developed Powerpress! All I had to do was install Powerpress, activate it, ensure that it’s settings were correct, and then deactivate Podpress, and bam, it worked. SO AWESOME, highly recommended.

So I can successfully declare today, that I’ve migrated now 3 podcasts from Podpress to Powerpress, one with 84 posts, one with 164, another with 11.

The feeds are unaffected, Feedburner is completely unaware of the change
views/layouts unaltered
I didn’t even need to go back into the posts and alter the data, Powerpress simply interprets it
iTunes unaffected
Powerpress serves up the flashplayer if the requesting browser support flash, and theL HTML5 audio or video player if it doesn’t, enabling by many versions of the iPod, iPad, Android, and so on, handled, done!
HUGE win.

Persistence of GET URL parameters passed to WordPress site with Permalink clean pretty URLs turned on

admin — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:16:03 +0000

Here’s the scenario:
We have a store site.
The store site has a link on its homepage that leads to a wordpress site.
When a visitor clicks the link,
we want a url parameter that is passed with the visitor to the wordpress site
to remain in the url
so that when/if they click a link in the wordpress site that leads back to the store,
the parameter comes back with them.

Normally, you’d simply add a $_GET in your theme somewhere,
assign it to a variable,
and then append that onto any links that are headed back to the store site.

The trouble, though, is that when WordPress’
clean and pretty Permalinks URL function is active,
it takes over, and forwards (via htaccess, wordpress base code functions, or otherwise),
at which point in time data passed over is lost.

Solution:
In WordPress’ index.php (the very first root directory index),
include another file.

include(‘passback.php’);

In that file, instantiate SERVER SESSIONS, and save received parameters.
Something like this (of course looping through the REQUEST parameters dynamically would be smarter, but for simplicities sake, let’s just target a particular parameter):

session_start();
if($_GET['persistme'] != ”){ $passit = $_GET['persistme']; }
if(!isset($_SESSION['passback'])){ $_SESSION['passback'] = $passit; }

Now you can include your passback retrieval class in your theme, grab the parameter, and use your JavaScript library of choice to loop through all the links in the page and append it onto them.
Something like this (Prototype, and only appending links that already have a ? and thus other parameters they’re sending back…):

jQuery json crossdomain example

admin — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:18:47 +0000

echo $_REQUEST['jsoncallback'] . ‘(‘ . json_encode($this-> viewresult) . ‘)’;

iTunes remove podcast example rss xml feed itunes:block

admin — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:58:04 +0000

So you submitted your podcast, with a post containing placeholder content because you had to have it approved and live by some deadline, but now it’s deemed not presentable, because marketing has changed the title last minute, and as you change this first post’s content via its RSS feed, some of it changes, the dynamic parts most likely, the media, and so on, but the title isn’t changing in the iTunes store…

In my example, I used a feedburner feed (iTunes is using that), so I can simply change the feed source in feedburner, to something like the example xml feed in this post, and we can at least get the eyesore out of iTunes, freeing us up to make a new feedburner feed, and re-submit THAT anew to iTunes for a fresh clean go of things…

Host something like this somewhere, and point the old feedburner feed to it, done.

yes
A Title Is Required For The Feed To Validate

WordPress determine version number

admin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:16:06 +0000

wp-includes/version.php

WordPress custom sidebar category filtered archive code

admin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:07:38 +0000

mostly in thanks to:

http://www.z-oc.com/blog/2008/03/category-based-archive/

http://www.themightymo.com/2009/07/22/includeexclude-category-from-wordpress-wp_get_archives/

http://kwebble.com/blog/2007_08_15/archives_for_a_category

WordPress Post to Category ID association in the Database

admin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:01:40 +0000

WordPress 3

Start with a Post and get Category ID:

Get the id number(A) for the post you’re interested in in wp_posts table, id column

Go to wp_term_relationships table, and find that same id number(A) in the object_id column, read over to the term_taxonomy_id column and get that number, that’s the category id

Start with a Category ID and get Category Name:

Go to the wp_terms table, and find the category you’d like in the name column, read over to the term_id and note the number

Find all Cateogry IDs:

Go to the wp_term_taxonomy table and sort by taxonomy value ‘category category number is in term_taxonomy_id column

Ruby on Rails : rateatrack app notes to self

admin — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:49:56 +0000

add in item to an array/object example:

@artists << track.artist

order object contents example:

def index
@tracks = Track.all(:order => ‘artist‘)

…

simple rating average math:

rating = params['rating'].to_i
@track.average = ((@track.average * @track.numberofvotes) + newlysubmittedrating)/(@track.numberofvotes + 1)
@track.numberofvotes = @track.numberofvotes + 1

simple db update conditional redirect with reporting:

if @track.update_attributes(params[:track])
format.html { redirect_to(“/”, :notice => ‘Track updated.’) }

similar db object one liners:

@object.save
@object.destroy
@track = Track.find(params[:id])
@object = Track.new
@record = Track.find_by_sql “SELECT * …”

simple char substitution:

somevariablename = variablecontainingcharstoswap.gsub(“_”, ” “)

method simply needs to render a view other than that matching its name:

render :viewname

.each loop fills text variable, then renders it:

@record.each do |track|
$str << “#EXTINFO:#{track.length},#{track.title}
#{track.url}
”
end
render :text => $str

notice: to substitute variables into such a statement, #{variablename}

simple and example model with validation and some messaging:

class Track < ActiveRecord::Base
validates :url, :presence => true
validates :title, :presence => true, :length => { :minimum => 1 }
validates :artist, :presence => true
validates :length, :presence => true
validates_format_of :url, :title, :artist, :length, :with =>/^[a-zA-Z \\ \/. : 0-9]+$/x, :message=>”alphanumeric characters, colons, periods, forward/backward slashes only please”
end

routes.rb

Rateatrack::Application.routes.draw do

match “tracks/generate/” => “tracks#generate” // custom :action route
resources :tracks

get “home/index”

root :to => “tracks#index” // sidestep app index, route to desired controller
end

heroku only uses Postgres, used MySQL locally, fun experiment to RELY on persistence:

database.yml

development:
adapter: mysql2
encoding: utf8
reconnect: false
database: rateatrack_development
pool: 5
username: user_name
password: password_removed
socket: /tmp/mysql.sock

production:
encoding: unicode
adapter: postgresql
database: rateatrack_production

simple schema.rb

ActiveRecord::Schema.define(:version => 0) do

create_table “tracks”, :force => true do |t|
t.string “url”,     :limit => 64
t.string “title”,   :limit => 64
t.string “artist”, :limit => 64
t.integer “length”
t.decimal “average”, :default => 0.0, :precision => 8, :scale => 2
t.integer “votes”,   :default => 0
end

end

RoR version of include, partial, snippet, and so on…

<%= render ‘form’ %>

this will pull from the same folder as the calling resource, file name _form.erb

form example with error checking:

<% @track %>
<%= form_for(@track) do |track_form| %>
<% if @track.errors.any? %>
<%= pluralize(@track.errors.count, “error”) %> prohibited this post from being saved:
<% @track.errors.full_messages.each do |msg| %>
<%= msg %>
<% end %>

<% end %>

<%= track_form.label :url %>
<%= track_form.text_field :url %>

<%= track_form.submit %>
<% end %>

Gemfile

gem ‘rails’, ’3.0.4′
gem ‘mysql2′

Ruby on Rails simple authentication

admin — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:25:10 +0000

project/app/controllers/application_controller.rg

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
protect_from_forgery

private

def authenticate
authenticate_or_request_with_http_basic do |user_name, password|
user_name == ‘admin’ && password == ‘password’
end
end
end

example usage: project/app/controllers/example_controller.rb

class TracksController < ApplicationController

before_filter :authenticate, :except => [:index, :show]

…

end

Create Rails Application Directory Godaddy Hosting

admin — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:11:45 +0000

If you use 4GH:

http://community.godaddy.com/help/article/1091

visit http://www.YOUR-URL-HERE.com/_h_admin_/index.php

Ruby on Rails 3 Mac OSX 10.6.6 – Some Basics

admin — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 06:52:37 +0000

If you just switched to Rails 3, prepare for some changes…

Need an IDE?

http://netbeans.org/downloads/index.html

http://www.aptana.com/

Recommended tutorials:

http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/ruby/rapid-ruby-weblog.html

http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html

Gems mysql2 problems?:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3129644/rails-3-mysql-problems

New Project:

Navigate to the folder where you’d like to create a new project, terminal:

$ rails new projectname

Start Server:

Navigate to the new project, terminal:

$ rails s

Create a database for the new project, terminal (if you have phpMyAdmin simply type name and push Create):

$ mysqladmin -u root -p create projectname

Scaffold example:

$ rails generate scaffold Post name:string title:string content:text

Migrate now (env specific):

$ rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production

link_to example:

<%= link_to “My Blog”, posts_path %>

Console:

$ rails console

Active Record Doc:

http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_querying.html

Unescaped HTML (escaped now default in 3):

<%= raw post.name %>

Layout and Rendering:

http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/layouts_and_rendering.html

Routing from the Outside In:

http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html

Ruby on Rails Guide:

http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/index.html

Ruby on Rails Tutorial:

http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book

WordPress control number of posts per archive page

admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 02:03:23 +0000

edit archive.php

replace this:

< ?php get_header(); ? >

with something along these lines:

< ?php get_header(); ? >
< ?php
$paged = (get_query_var(‘paged’)) ? get_query_var(‘paged’) : 1;
$args=array(
‘showposts’ => 10,
‘paged’=>$paged,
‘caller_get_posts’=> 1
);
query_posts($args);
? >

Perl valid email regular expression

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:23:55 +0000

# Check for valid email address

/
^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*$
/

CSS !important override

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:23:05 +0000

A rule that has the !important property will always be applied no matter where that rule appears in the CSS document.

example:

p { color: #ff0000 !important; }

CSS text-transform

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:22:24 +0000

{text-transform:uppercase}
{text-transform:capitalize}
{text-transform:lowercase}

also consider:
{font-variant:small-caps}

CSS pseudo elements & pseudo classes

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:21:21 +0000

CSS Pseudo Elements

:after
Adds content after an element

:before
Adds content before an element

:first-letter
Adds a style to the first character of a text

:first-line
Adds a style to the first line of a text

example:
h1:after
{
content:url(smiley.gif);
}

Posted on 5 Oct 2009, 17:00 – Category: CSS
Comments – Edit – Delete

Pseudo Classes

:active
Adds a style to an element that is activated

:first-child
Adds a style to an element that is the first child of another element

:focus
Adds a style to an element that has keyboard input focus

:hover
Adds a style to an element when you mouse over it

:lang
Adds a style to an element with a specific lang attribute

:link
Adds a style to an unvisited link

:visited
Adds a style to a visited link

CSS em

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:18:36 +0000

pixels/16=em
example:
h1 {font-size:2.5em} /* 40px/16=2.5em */
h2 {font-size:1.875em} /* 30px/16=1.875em */
p {font-size:0.875em} /* 14px/16=0.875em */

Perl string substitution substr

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:16:07 +0000

example:

my $text = “This is one heck of a story”;

my $swap = “heck”;

my $replacement = “hell”;

substr($text, index($text, $swap), length($swap), $replacement);

print $text;

Perl chop chomp

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:14:06 +0000

sub spacer

{ print “
”; }

my $text = “This is one heck of a story”;

# remove the last character

print chop($text); spacer(); # returns y

print $text; spacer(); # we can see that it also DID alter the variable

# remove newlines from the end of a string only

$text = $text . “\n\n”;

print $text; spacer();

print chomp($text); spacer(); # again, returns # of items “chomp”ed

print $text; spacer();

Perl output pretty HTML

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:11:28 +0000

# outputting pretty HTML

# basically a matter of including \n
# and using Perl qq function

my (@time,@days,@months,$time,$days,$months);

@time = localtime;

@days = qw(Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday);

@months = qw(January February March April May June July August September October November December);

print qq(\n\n\nGet the date\n\n\n);

print qq(Today is $days[$time[6]], $months[$time[4]] $time[3].);

print “\n\n”;

print ‘’;

CakePHP Setting up your system to Bake

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:10:08 +0000

http://i.justrealized.com/2009/02/16/how-to-run-xampps-php-cli-and-cakephp-console/
start baking:

C:\xampp\htdocs\project\app>”../cake/console/cake” bake

Starting a new project with CakePHP

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:09:20 +0000

download the current release:

cakephp.org

unzip, copy/rename folder as desired

check apache file permissions
app/tmp – 0777

app/config
core.php – change Security.salt to new value
database.php.default – remove .default, and configure values according to your database

done

CakePHP naming conventions

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:08:08 +0000

URL will trigger controller
example:

http://appname.com/data_users

in app/controllers:
data_users_controller.php
in there:
class DataUsersController extends Controller {
}

this should be the same as the table it will reference:
data_users

in app/models:
data_user.php
class data_user extends AppModel {
}

in app/views/data_users:
function.ctp

Rails Git Heroku Terminal command notes

admin — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:50:19 +0000

first cd to the project directory:

git init

git add .

git commit master

heroku create “NewApplicationName”

git push heroku master

heroku rake db:schema:load

rake db:schema:dump (handy to dump local db if you’ve been modifying it w/o migrations…)

heroku rake db:migrate

WordPress affect categories search form searches – solution 2

admin — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:39:43 +0000

Please see this post if you’re only wanting to limit the form to a single category, as it’s as simple as adding a hidden form field.

This solution uses functions.php, adding something like the following:

function SearchFilter($query)
{
if($query->is_search){
$query->set(‘cat’,’0′);
}
}
add_filter(‘pre_get_posts’,'SearchFilter’);

http://alexyz.com/wordpress-limit-search-form-to-a-category-2/

similar reference:

http://speckyboy.com/2010/09/19/10-useful-wordpress-search-code-snippets/

Design Patterns Reference: Visitor

admin — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:48:16 +0000

“The Visitor Design Pattern constructs distinct objects containing an algorithm that, when consumed by a parent object in a standard way, apply that algorithm to the parent object.”

class CD
{
public $band;
public $title;
public $price;

public function __construct($band, $title, $price)
{
$this->band = $band;
$this->title = $title;
$this->price = $price;
}

public function buy()
{
// stub
}

public function acceptVisitor($visitor)
{
$visitor->visitCD($this);
}
}

class CDVisitorLogPurchase
{
public function visitCD($cd)
{
$logline = “{$cd->title} by {$cd->band} was purchased for {$cd->price} “;
$logline .= “at ” . sdate(‘r’) . “\n”;

file_put_contents(‘/logs/purchases.log’, $logline, FILE_APPEND);
}
}

// usage
$externalBand = ‘Never Again’;
$externalTitle = ‘Waste of a Rib’;
$externalPrice = 9.99;

$cd = new CD($externalBand, $externalTitle, $externalPrice);
$cd->buy();
$cd->acceptVisitor(new CDVisitorLogPurchase());

// adding a new Visitor to accomplish a new functionality is straight forward
class CDVisitorPopulateDiscountList
{
public function visitCD($cd)
{
if ($cd->price < 10)
{
$this->_populateDiscountList($cd);
}
}

protected function _populateDiscountList($cd)
{
// stub connects to sqlite and logs etc…
}
}

// again, usage
$cd = new CD($externalBand, $externalTitle, $externalPrice);
$cd->buy();
$cd->acceptVisitor(new CDVisitorLogPurchase());
$cd->acceptVisitor(new CDVisitorPopulateDiscountList());

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

WordPress creating users in MySQL via script wp_user_level wp_capabilities wp_users

admin — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 22:16:01 +0000

Scenario:
Creating a WordPress blog with an entire company of users.
We want employees to already have an account, so that registration may be turned OFF otherwise.
From an excel list of employees, we’ll extract their email, make an account for each email in the WordPress database, and then they may change their passwords themselves. You can imagine what the php script will look like, to extract the email, and foreach insert the following (uniqueusername and 5 replaced of course with incrementing id numbers and changing emailnames@ourcompany.com):

INSERT INTO wp_users
(id,user_login,user_pass,user_email,display_name)
VALUES
(’5′,’uniqueusername’,md5(‘pass’),’uniqueusername@ourcompany.com’,'uniqueusername’);

// to note, this below is simultaneously a nice example of how to insert multiple rows with one MySQL INSERT statement

INSERT INTO wp_usermeta
(user_id,meta_key,meta_value)
VALUES
(’5′,’wp_capabilities’,'a:1:{s:6:”author”;s:1:”1″;}’),
(’5′,’wp_user_level’,’10′);

Thus, the full script looks something like this:

$employees = array(‘employee1@somesite.com’,'employee2@somesite.com’,'employee3@somesite.com’,'andsoon…’);

$startNumber = 10; // if you already have users, pick the next highest number, as it uses this for several tables below, we need them to happen at the same time so that attributes belong to specific users…

$db_name = “databasename”;
$db_host = “localhost”;
$db_username = “username”;
$db_password = “password”;

// note the nice error reporting so that we can troubleshoot connections, users, table selections, and so forth…
$link = mysql_connect($db_host, $db_username, $db_password);
if (!$link) {
die(‘Could not connect: ‘ . mysql_error());
}
else
{
echo ‘Connected successfully
’;
}

$db_selected = mysql_select_db($db_name, $link);
if (!$db_selected) {
die (‘Can\’t use foo : ‘ . mysql_error());
}
else
{
echo ‘Selected manyvoices database successfully
’;
}

foreach($employees as $employee)
{
list($user_name, $therest) = explode(‘@’,$employee);

$query1 = “INSERT INTO wp_users
(id,user_login,user_pass,user_email,display_name)
VALUES
(‘” . $startNumber . “‘,’” . $user_name . “‘,md5(‘pass’),’” . $employee . “‘,’” . $user_name . “‘)“;
//echo $query1 . “
”;

$result1 = mysql_query($query1);
if(!result1){
die(‘Error: ‘ . mysql_error());
}
else{
echo “User: ” . $user_name . ” : Added
”;
}

$query2 = “INSERT INTO wp_usermeta
(user_id,meta_key,meta_value)
VALUES
(‘” . $startNumber . “‘,’wp_capabilities’,'a:1:{s:6:\”author\”;s:1:\”1\”;}’),
(‘” . $startNumber . “‘,’wp_user_level’,’10′)“;
//echo $query2 . “
”;

$result2 = mysql_query($query2);
if(!result2){
die(‘Error: ‘ . mysql_error());
}
else
{
echo “User Credentials: ” . $user_name . ” : Updated
”;
}

$startNumber++;
}

mysql_close($link);

Design Patterns Reference: Template

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 03:48:01 +0000

“The Template Design Pattern creates an abstract object that enforces a set of methods and functionality that will be used in common by child classes as a template for their own design.”

abstract class SaleItemTemplate
{
public $price = 0;

public final function setPriceAdjustments()
{
$this->price += $this->taxAddition();
$this->price += $this->oversizedAddition();
}

protected function oversizedAddition()
{
return 0;
}

abstract protected function taxAddition();
}

class CD extends SaleItemTemplate
{
public $band;
public $title;

public function __construct($band, $title, $price)
{
$this->band = $band;
$this->title = $title;
$this->price = $price;
}

protected function taxAddition()
{
return round($this->price * .05, 2);
}
}

class BandEndorsedCaseOfCerial extends SaleItemTemplate
{
public $band;

public function __construct($band, $price)
{
$this->band = $band;
$this->price = $price;
}

protected function taxAddition()
{
return 0;
}

protected function oversizedAddition()
{
return round($this->price * .20, 2);
}
}

// use
$externalTitle = “Waste of a Rib”;
$externalBand = “Never Again”;
$externalCDPrice = 12.99;
$externalCerealPrice = 90;
$cd = new CD($externalBand, $exteralTitle, $externalCDPrice);
$cd->setPriceAdjustments();

print ‘The total cost for CD item is: $’ . $cd->price;

$cereal = new BandEndorsedCaseOfCerial($externalBand, $externalCerealPrice);
$cereal->setPriceAdjustments();

print ‘The total cost for the Cereal case is: $’ . $cereal->price;

“When creating an object where the general steps of a design are defined but the actual logic is left to be detailed by a child class, using the Template Design Pattern is best practice.”

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Strategy

admin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 02:33:38 +0000

“The Strategy Design Pattern helps architect an object that can make use of algorithms in other objects on demand in lieu of containing the logic itself.”

class CDusesStrategy
{
public $title = ”;
public $band = ”;

protected $_strategy;

public function __construct($title, $band)
{
$this->title = $title;
$this->band = $band;
}

public function setStrategyContext($strategyObject)
{
$this->_strategy = $strategyObject;
}

public function get()
{
return $this->_strategy->get($this);
}
}

class CDAsXMLStrategy
{
public function get(CDusesStrategy $cd)
{
$doc = new DomDocument();
$root = $doc->createElement(‘CD’);
$root = $doc->appendChild($root);
$title = $doc->createElement(‘TITLE’, $cd->title);
$title = $root->appendChild($title);
$band = $root->createElement(‘BAND’, $cd->band);
$band = $root->appendChild($band);

return $doc->saveXML();
}
}

class CDAsJSONStrategy
{
public function get(CDusesStrategy $cd)
{
$json = array();
$json['CD']['title'] = $cd->title;
$json['CD']['band'] = $cd->band;

return json_encode($json);
}
}

// usage
$cd = new CDusesStrategy($externalTitle, $externalBand);

// xml output
$cd->setStrategyContext(new CDAsXMLStrategy());
print $cd->get();

// json output
$cd->setStrategyContext(new CDAsJSONStrategy());
print $cd->get($cd);

“When it’s possible to create interchangeable objects made of self-contained algorithms to be applied to a base object, it is best practice to use the Strategy Design Pattern”

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Snippets: HTML object swf embed within a WordPress post snag it n’ publish it code excerpt

admin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 23:58:00 +0000

output XML with PHP (here loaded by Flash)

admin — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 19:00:34 +0000

using something like this in Flash AS perhaps?

playlist.load(“http://www.site.com/playlist.xml”);

wish it were this instead?

playlist.load(“http://www.site.com/playlist.php”);

instead of something like this in xml thus that must be updated…:

you could have something like this, that updates the output xml file each time a new file is added to the songs directory:

< ? p h p

header(‘Content-type:text/xml; charset=utf-8′);
echo “”;

if ($handle = opendir(‘../songs’)) {
while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
if ($file != “.” && $file != “..”) {
//echo “$file\n”;
$file_no_extension = implode(‘.’, explode(‘.’, $file, -1));
echo “”;
}
}
closedir($handle);
}

echo “”;
? >

WordPress RSS feed exclude categories or only serve one particular category

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:35:03 +0000

// This will make the site feed ONLY contain category id 9.

add to wp-content/themes/your-active-theme/function.php

function myFilter($query) {
if ($query->is_feed) {
$query->set(‘cat’,’9′);
}
return $query;
}

add_filter(‘pre_get_posts’,’myFilter‘);

// To EXCLUDE categories 9 and 11:

function myFilter($query) {
if ($query->is_feed) {
$query->set(‘cat’,’-9, -11‘);
}
return $query;
}

add_filter(‘pre_get_posts’,’myFilter‘);

odd annoying Dreamweaver errors

admin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:04:57 +0000

Find the Dreamweaver cache file and delete it:

C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Macromedia\Dreamweaver\Configuration\WinFileCache-*.dat

done

source: http://www.gthelp.com/showthread.php?t=80230

anchor tag mailto subject body link example

admin — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:11:14 +0000

href=”mailto:?subject=Whatever you want the subject to be goes here&body=Whatever you want the body text to be goes here%0Aurl: http://www.alexyz.com/”>

WordPress Custom Structure URL Permalinks

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:31:47 +0000

Admin

Settings

Permalinks

Custom Structure radio text entry field

use this:

/%postname%/

so that your posts appear as they do in this blog, here:

http://www.sitename.com/post-name

httpd.conf or .htaccess for apache WordPress redirect

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:26:39 +0000

This is simply a note to save this block of code should I need it again.

The server in question is one of many cloud instances, and local development machines, in an environment using PHP, JAVA, Surf, among other technologies.

In short, it’s a pretty complex implementation/configuration…

Some URLs are being rewritten, others forwarded, directory crawling is off, but…

a legacy WordPress blog is being converted to clean/pretty URLs for SEO purposes

(which “look” like directory folder URLs)

(rather than WordPress relying on URL parameters by default)

so, along with editing the WordPress Setting for this,

the following was added to the httpd.conf file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /podcastInQuestionFolder/index.php [L]

Of course, quite similar code in the .htaccess within that folder would accomplish a similar aim.

WordPress limit search form to a category

admin — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:34:17 +0000

example:

source: http://wpgarage.com/code-snippets/how-to-hack-the-wordpress-search-function-search-categories-and-child-categories/

WordPress Visual editor inactive

admin — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:33:46 +0000

All of a sudden you can’t click on your visual editor tab when adding a post?
Did you recently install a new plug-in?
Disable it and try again.
It isn’t compatible with your current version…
Just a short note.

Design Patterns Reference: Singleton

admin — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 01:55:42 +0000

“The singleton Design Pattern is used to restrict the number of times a specific object can be created to a single time by providing access to a shared instance of itself.”

“The constructor of the object should be a protected method. This will not allow anything but the class itself to create an instance of it. Then it can make a public method to actually create, store, and provide that instance.”

Most common use: database connection

More interesting possible use, food for thought: configuration option management…

class InventoryConnection
{
protected static $_instance = NULL;
protected $_handle = NULL;
public static function getInstance()
{
if(!self::$_instance instanceof self){
self::$_instance = new self;
}
return self::$_instance;
}

protected function __construct()
{
$this->_handle = mysql_connect(‘localhost’,'user’,'pass’);
mysql_select_db(‘CD’, $this->_handle);
}

public function updateQuantity($band, $title, $number)
{
$query = “update CDS set amount = amount+” . intval($number);
$query .= ” where band=‘ ” . mysql_real_escape_string($band) . ” ‘ “;
$query .= ” and title=‘ ” . mysql_real_escape_string($title) . ” ‘ “;
mysql_query($query, $this->_handle);
}
}

class CD
{
protected $_title = ‘ ‘;
protected $_band = ‘ ‘;
public function __construct($title, $band)
{
$this->_title = $title;
$this->_band = $band;
}

public function buy()
{
$inventory = InventoryConnection::getInstance();
$inventory->updateQuantity($this->_band, $this->_title, -1);
}
}

$boughtCDs = array();
$boughtCDs[] = array(‘band’=>’Never Again’, ‘Waste of a Rib’);
$boughtCDs[] = array(‘band’=>’Therapee’, ‘Long Road’);

foreach($boughtCDs as $boughtCD){
$cd = new CD($boughtCD['title'], $boughtCD['band']);
$cd->buy();

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Proxy

admin — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 02:43:54 +0000

The Proxy Design Pattern buils an object that is positioned transparently within two other objects in order to intercept or proxy the communication or access.

class CD
{
protected $_title = ”;
protected $_band = ”;
protected $_handle = null;

public function __construct($title, $band)
{
$this->_title = $title;
$this->_band = $band;
}

public function buy()
{
$this->_connect();

$query = “update CDs set bought=1 where band=’”;
$query .= mysql_real_escape_string($this->_band, $this->_handle);
$query .= “‘ and title=’”;
$query .= mysql_real_escape_string($this->_title, $this->_handle);
$query .= “‘”;

mysql_query($query, $this->_handle);
}

protected function __connect()
{
$this->_handle = mysql_connect(‘localhost’, ‘user’, ‘pass’);
mysql_select_db(‘CD’, $this->_handle);
}
}

// CD class simply takes a band and title, updates the DB, and completes the sale
$externalTitle = “Waste of a Rib”;
$externalBand = ‘Never Again’;

$cd = new CD($externalTitle, $externalBand);
$cd->buy();

// A new store in another city will leverage this now via Proxy
// simply by overwriting the protected connect method of the CD class
class DallasNOCCDProxy extends CD
{
protected function __connect()
{
$this->_handle = mysql_connect(‘dallas’, ‘user’,'pass’);
mysql_select_db(‘CD’);
}
}

$externalTitle = “Waste of a Rib”;
$externalBand = ‘Never Again’;

$cd = new DallasNOCCDProxy($externalTitle, $externalBand);
$cd->buy();

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

PHP Ternary Conditionals quick reference

admin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:34:28 +0000

with variable:

$greeting = (date(“G”) < 12) ? ‘Good morning’ : ‘Good afternoon’;
echo $greeting;

without:

echo (date(“G”) < 12) ? ‘Good morning’ : ‘Good afternoon’;

another great example
courtesy of:
http://www.addedbytes.com/php/ternary-conditionals/
alternate color with ternary and modulus:

$i = 1;
echo ‘

’;
while ($data = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo ‘ ’;
echo ‘ ’;
echo ‘ ’;
$i++;
}
echo ‘

echo (($i % 2) == 0) ? ‘#eee’ : ‘#ddd’ ;
echo ‘”>’;
echo $data['field'];
echo ‘

’;

/* another basic usage */
courtesty of:
http://davidwalsh.name/php-shorthand-if-else-ternary-operators

$message = ‘Hello ‘.($user->is_logged_in() ? $user->get(‘first_name’ ) : ‘Guest’ ) ;

also see:
http://php.net/manual/en/language.operators.comparison.php
for more examples,
search the page (F3 in FF) for ternary

another nice example from:
http://deadlytechnology.com/web-development-tips/php-ternary-syntax/

instead of:

$bTest1 = false;
$bTest2 = false;

if ($bTest1) {
if ($bTest2) {
echo ‘test 1 true, test 2 true’;
}
else {
echo ‘test 1 true, test 2 false’;
}
}
else {
if ($bTest2) {
echo ‘test 1 false, test 2 true’;
}
else {
echo ‘test 1 false, test 2 false’;
}
}

better:

echo $bTest1 ? ( $bTest2? ‘test 1 true, test 2 true’ : ‘test 1 true, test 2 false’ ) : ( $bTest2 ? ‘test 1 false, test 2 true ‘ : ‘test 1 false, test 2 false ‘
) ;

Design Patterns Reference: Prototype

admin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 06:09:09 +0000

“In situations where a resource intensive object needs to be created often, the Prototype Pattern provides a welcome route to faster execution.”

“The Prototype Design Pattern creates objects in such a way that an initial object or prototype can be copied and cloned more efficiently than creating a new instance.”

class CD
{
public $band = ”;
public $title = ”;
public $trackList = array();

public function __construct($id)
{
$handle = mysql_connect(‘localhost’, ‘user’, ‘pass’);
mysql_select_db(‘CD’, $handle);

$query = “select band, title, from CDs where id={$id}”;

$results = mysql_query($query, $handle);

if ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($results)){
$this->band = $row['band'];
$this->title = $row['title'];
}
}

public function buy()
{
// cd buying magic here
var_dump ($this);
}
}

class MixtapeCD extends CD
{
public function __close()
{
$this->title = ‘Mixtape’;
}
}

$externalPurchaseInfoBandID = 12;
$bandMixProto = new MixtapeCD($externalPurchaseInfoBandID);

$externalPurchaseInfo = array();
$externalPurchaseInfo[] = array(‘brrr’, ‘goodbye’);
$externalPurchaseInfo[] = array(‘what it means’, ‘brrr’);

foreach ($externalPurchaseInfo as $mixed) {
$cd = clone $bandMixProto;
$cd->trackList = $mixed;
$cd->buy();
}

“When working with objects whose creation is expensive and whose initial configuration stays relatively the same through new instances, using duplicate classes made with the Prototype Design Pattern is best practice.”

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

jQuery check if image with specific source exists on page

admin — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:35:42 +0000

$(document).ready(function() {

$(“img”).each(function(){
imgtofind = “http://alexyz.com/images/example.jpg”;
source = $(this).attr(‘src’);
if(source == imgtofind){
alert(source); // or otherwise
}
});

}

Using folder structure, URL, instead of parameters, setup a virtual host, apache httpd-vhosts.conf, and then grab the url via PHP

admin — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:28:53 +0000

This post is about creating a small application in a folder, that behaves like Zend, or you could also say that it behaves like a service, in that it uses (converts) the folder structure of the url for the application’s use, rather than passing it url parameters. Another common example of such a system is employed by WordPress when “clean urls” is turned on.

Instead of this: http://alexyz.com?someparameter=something

We want this: http://alexyz.com/something

PHP then acquires that last value (call it a “command” or an “action” or whatever you’d like) and proceeds…

First, setup an apache virtual host, so that everything after the folder your app will live in is redirected back to that folder’s index along with any following parameters. You do this via httpd-vhosts.conf

example contents of httpd-vhosts.conf (there are several virtual host projects in this example, for independant Zend applications, the code relevant to this lesson is red):

# Setup Listening Port
NameVirtualHost *:80

# Ensure “localhost” is preserved

ServerName localhost
DocumentRoot “C:\xampp\htdocs”

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ – [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^.*$ /html/bonus/index.php [NC,L]

# Setup “components” Virtual Host

ServerName components
DocumentRoot “C:\xampp\htdocs\components\public”

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

RewriteEngine off

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ – [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

# Setup “myzendresource” Virtual Host

ServerName myzendresource
DocumentRoot “C:\xampp\htdocs\myzendresource\public”

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

# Setup “datamodels” Virtual Host

ServerName datamodels
DocumentRoot “C:\xampp\htdocs\datamodels\public”

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

So, any Url after /bonus, in this example, like: http://www.alexyz.com/bonus/something

will be pointed back to /bonus/index.php by apache for us.

Next, we simply grab that last part of the url in our index.php (in this example it’s the value “something”). There are many ways we could do this, the example here is a very basic implementation of one way we might grab that value and proceed…

< ? php

$parameters = explode(“/”, $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);
foreach($parameters as $param){
if($param != NULL) { // This won’t fire if there is a terminating slash, we don’t want to set the parameter to empty!

$bonus_parameter = $param;

}
}

// now we can proceed with index.php just as though we’d done this, but we haven’t…:

$param = $_GET['parameterName'];

MySQL optimization refresher notes

admin — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:48:57 +0000

reference: http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mysql/article.php/10897_1382791_1/Optimizing-MySQL-Queries-and-Indexes.htm

Notes from above reference:

place EXPLAIN before your SELECT and learn a lot!
index index index…
in query, if possible, leave indexed field (usually after WHERE…) alone, or else every record must be calculated prior to conditional analysis…
ANALYZE TABLE tablename;
OPTIMIZE TABLE tablename

[quote block]

EXPLAIN SELECT employee_number,firstname,surname
FROM employee
WHERE employee_number= '10875';

+--------+----+-------------+----+-------+----+---+---------+
|table   |type|possible_keys|key |key_len|ref |rows| Extra  |
+--------+----+-------------+----+-------+----+---+---------+
|employee|ALL |NULL         |NULL|   NULL|NULL|  2|whereused|
+--------+----+-------------+----+-------+----+---+---------+

So what are all these things?

table shows us which table the output is about (for when you join many tables in the query)
type is an important one – it tells us which type of join is being used. From best to worst the types are: system, const, eq_ref, ref, range, index, all
possible_keys Shows which possible indexes apply to this table
key And which one is actually used
key_len give us the length of the key used. The shorter that better.
ref Tells us which column, or a constant, is used
rows Number of rows mysql believes it must examine to get the data
extra Extra info – the bad ones to see here are “using temporary” and “using filesort”

[quote block end]

jQuery select anchor tags that contain specific text, then change id, onClick (Capitalized!!!!), href, :contains, .attr(), .each()

admin — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:32:52 +0000

Easy actually, on load, select an anchor tag (or several, and do the following for .each()), that contains, among other contents, the word ‘Read’,

then set its id attribute, a Mouse event, and alter its href value:

$(document).ready(function(){

$(“a:contains(‘Read’)”).each(function(){

$(this).attr(‘id‘,’newid’);

$(this).attr(‘onClick‘, ‘return false;’); // Capitalize the C!!!!

$(this).attr(‘href‘, ‘http://www.alexyz.com’);

});

// alternatively, line them all up like this:

$(this).attr(‘id‘,’newid’).attr(‘onClick‘,’return false;’).attr(‘href‘,’http://www.alexyz.com’);

// UPDATE: Better method

$(“a[href*='search phrase']“).each(function(){
var postId = $(this).attr(“href”).split(‘?’)[1].split(‘=’)[1].split(‘#’)[0]; // of course this will vary by need
$(this).attr(“href“,”?version=full&source=folder&post=”+postId);
});

Design Patterns Reference: Observer

admin — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:56:47 +0000

The Observer Design Pattern facilitates the creation of objects that watch the state of a target object and provides state targeted functionality that is uncoupled from the core object.

The most obvious example, applications that support some type of plugin system. Another example, cache systems, or message notification (example, members are notified when an item is in stock, to add that members may also be notified when it’s out of stock, simply add another observer, or perhaps another that texts them rather than emailing them…and so on).

When adding features to software that are activated by an action or state change but are loosely coupled, objects based on the Observer Design Pattern should be created.

MyObject is the Observable object. It contains a protected array of observers. A public method addObserver() takes an instance of an observer and stores it in the array.

A public method doSomething() applies a state change to MyObject, whose notify() public method then loops through the array of observers.

Each such MyObjectObserver has a public method change(), that accepts an instance of MyObject, which modifies said object via a notify() method of MyObject that calls MyObjectObserver’s change() method directly as it’s encountered in the array of observers.

class CD
{
public $title = ”;
public $band = ”;
protected $_observers = array();

public function __construct($title, $band)
{
$this->title = $title;
$this->band = $band;
}

public function attachObserver($type, $observer)
{
$this->_observers[$type][] = $observer;
}

public function notifyObserver($type)
{
if(isset($this->_observers[$type])){
foreach($this->_observers[$type] as $observer)
{
$observer->update($this);
}
}
}

public function buy()
{
// stub actions of buying
$this->notifyObserver(‘purchased’);
}
}

class buyCDNotifyStreamObserver
{
public function update(CD $cd)
{
$activity = “The CD named {$cd->title} by “;
$activity .= “{$cd->band} was just purchased.”;
activityStream::addNewItem($activity);
}
}

class activityStream
{
public static function addNewItem($item)
{
// stub functions
print $item;
}
}

$title = “Wast of a Rib”;
$band = ‘Never Again’;
$cd = new CD($title, $band);

$observer = new buyCDNotifyStreamOberver();
$cd->attachObserver(‘purchased’, $observer);
$cd->buy();

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Support Prototype script.aculo.us and jQuery, page built with Prototype now being pulled into page that uses jQuery

admin — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 17:15:17 +0000

So I developed a handful of sites several years ago using Prototype and script.aculo.us,

but now they’re being pulled into/included/required by pages, a site, that is strictly jQuery,

so I need to amend the Prototype site’s functions to check which library is loaded and then act accordingly.

It begs the question, if I were doing this completely fresh, which pattern (see Design Pattern posts) would I attempt to employ…? For example, I’d love to have the option right now to simply write an adapter pattern function instead of burying this conditional within each function…

Aside from Namespacing either or both libraries of course…

Example:

Design Patterns Reference: Mediator

admin — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 07:20:07 +0000

The Mediator Design Pattern is used to develop an object that communicates or mediates changes to a collection of similar objects without them interacting with each other directly.
class CD
{
public $band = ”;
public $title = ”;
protected $_mediator;

public function __construct($mediator = null)
{
$this->_mediator = $mediator;
}

public function save()
{
// stub – writes data back to database – use this to verify
var_dump($this);
}

public function changeBandName($newName)
{
$this->band = $newName;
$this->save();
}
}

class MP3Archive
{
public $band = ”;
public $title = ”;
protected $_mediator;

public function __construct($mediator = null)
{
$this->_mediator = $mediator;
}

public function save()
{
// stub – writes data back to database – use this to verify
var_dump($this);
}

public function changeBandName($newName)
{
if (!is_null($this->_mediator)){
$this->_mediator->change($this, array(‘band’=>$newName));
}
$this->band = $newName;
$this->save();
}
}

class MusicContainerMediator
{
protected $_containers = array();

public function __construct()
{
$this->_containers[] = ‘CD’;
$this->_containers[] = ‘MP3Archive’;
}

public function change($originalObject, $newValue)
{
$title = $originalObject->title;
$band = $originalObject->band;

foreach ($this->_containers as $container){
if (!($changedObject instanceof $container)){
$object = new $container;
$object->title = $title;
$object->band = $band;

foreach ($newValue as $key=>$value){
$object->key = $val;
}

$object->save();
}
}
}
}

// To use the new Mediator object
$titleFromDB = ‘Waste of a Rib’;
$bandFromDB = ‘Never Again’;

$mediator = new MusicContainerMediator();
$cd = new CD($mediator);
$cd->title = $titleFromDB;
$cd->band = $bandFromDB;

$cd->changeBandName(‘Maybe Once More’);

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Podpress Plugin WordPress Outside the Loop Single page

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 22:50:39 +0000

Am building a page that pulls in a single post from a WordPress podcast site that I built that uses Podpress. The long and short of it is that it requires instantiating the WordPress app externally, and using a mini-loop, pretty straight forward, but for the longest time I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why the Podpress player wasn’t showing up…

Instead, I was only getting the [display_podcast] token that one places in a post for Podpress and WordPress to then replace upon rendering the post…

I knew there had to be a simple solution. My final code is below. The key: wp_head();

< ? php

require_once(‘../podcast/wp-load.php’ ); // load the app
wp_head(); // this gets all the plugins and dependencies!!!!
query_posts(‘p=1807′); // documentation on using query_posts is nice and simple and clear
while (have_posts()) : the_post(); // iterate over the return

// use various things to output the data

the_ID(); the_time(‘l, F j, Y’); the_title(); the_content(); // and so on

endwhile;

? >

Design Patterns Reference: Interpreter

admin — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:14:28 +0000

“The Interpreter Design Pattern analyzes an entity for key elements and provides its own interpretation or action corresponding to each key.”
class User
{
protected $_username;

public function __construct($username)
{
$this->_username = $username;
}

public function getProfilePage()
{
// In lieu of getting the data from a DB, we mock here
$profile = “

I like Never Again!

”;
$profile .= “I love all of their songs. My favorite CD:
”;
$profile .= “{{myCD.getTitle}}!!”;

return $profile;
}
}

class userCD
{
protected $_user = NULL;

public function setUser($user)
{
$this->_user = $user;
}

public function getTitle()
{
// mock here
$title = “Waste of a Rib”;

return $title;
}
}

class userCDInterpreter
{
protected $_user = NULL;

public function setUser($user)
{
$this->_user = $user;
}

public function getInterpreted()
{
$profile = $this->_user->getProfilePage();

if (preg_match_all(‘/\{\{myCD\.(.*?)\}\}/’, $profile, $triggers, PREG_SET_ORDER)){
$replacements = array();

foreach($triggers as $trigger){
$replacements[] = $trigger[1];
}
$replacements = array_unique($replacements);
$myCD = new userCD();
$myCD->setUser($this->_user);
foreach($replacements as $replacement){
$profile = str_replace(“{{myCD.{$replacement}}}”, call_user_func(array($myCD, $replacement)), $profile);
}
}
return $profile;
}
}

/**
* implementation
*/
$username = ‘aaron’;
$user = new User($username);
$interpreter = new userCDInterpreter();
$interpreter->setUser($user);
print “

{$username}’s Profile

”;
print $interpreter->getInterpreted();

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Factory

admin — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 04:44:50 +0000

“The Factory Design Pattern provides a simple interface to acquire a new instance of an object, while sheltering the calling code from the steps to determine which base class is actually instantiated.”
class standardCD
{
public $title = “”;
public $band = “”;
public $tracks = array();

public function __construct()
{
//
}

public function setTitle($title)
{
$this->title = $title;
}

public function setBand($band)
{
$this->band = $band;
}

public function addTrack($track)
{
$this->tracks[] = $track;
}
}

/**
* create a complete standardCD object
*/
$title = ‘Waste of a Rib’;
$band = ‘Never Again’;
$tracksFromExternalSource = array(‘What It Means’,'Brrr’,'Goodbye’);
$cd = new CD();
$cd->setTitle($title);
$cd->setBand($band);
foreach ($tracksFromExternalSource as $track)
{
$cd->addTrack($track);
}

/**
* another slight variation of a CD
* ‘enhanced’ is required as well
*/
class enhancedCD
{
public $title = “”;
public $band = “”;
public $tracks = array();

public function __construct()
{
//
}

public function setTitle($title)
{
$this->title = $title;
}

public function setBand($band)
{
$this->band = $band;
}

public function addTrack($track)
{
$this->tracks[] = ‘DATA TRACK’;
}
}

/**
* We could use conditional logic
* to determine which class to instantiate
* standardCD or enhancedCD
* but behold, instead, the Factory Pattern!
*/
class CDFactory
{
public static function create($type)
{
$class = strtolower($type) . “CD”;
return new $class;
}
}

/**
* Thus, to create a CD or an enhancedCD
*/
$type = ‘enhanced’; // or $type = ‘standard’;
$cd = CDFActory::create($type);
$cd->setBand($band);
$cd->setTitle($title);
foreach($tracksFromExternalSource as $track)
{
$cd->addTrack($track);
}

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Facade

admin — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 05:14:19 +0000

“The Facade Design Pattern hides complexity from a calling object by creating a simple facade interface in front of the collection of required logic and methods.”

class CD
{
public $tracks = array();
public $band = ”;
public $title = ”;

public function __construct($title, $band, $tracks)
{
$this->title = $title;
$this->band = $band;
$this->tracks = $tracks;
}
}

/**
* build a CD
*/
$tracksFromExternalSource = array(‘What It Means’,'Brrr’,'Goodbye’);
$title = ‘Waste of a Rib’;
$band = ‘Never Again’;
$cd = new CD($title, $band, $tracksFromExternalSource);

class CDUpperCase
{
public static function makeString(CD $cd, $type)
{
$cd->$type = strtoupper($cd->$type);
}

public static function makeArray(CD $cd, $type)
{
$cd->$type = array_map(‘strtoupper’, $cd->$type);
}
}

class CDMakeXML
{
public static function create(CD $cd)
{
$doc = new DomDocument();

$root = $doc->createElement(‘CD’);
$root = $doc->appendChild($root);

$title = $doc->createElement(‘TITLE’, $cd->title);
$title = $root->appendChild($title);

$band = $doc->createElement(‘BAND’, $cd->band);
$band = $root->appendChild($band);

$tracks = $doc->createElement(‘TRACKS’);
$tracks = $root->appendChild($tracks);

foreach ($cd->tracks as $track){
$track = $doc->createElement(‘TRACK’, $track);
$track = $tracks->appendChild($track);
}
return $doc->saveXML();
}
}

/**
* instead of applying CDUpperCase & CDMake XML on CD object as follows:
*/
CDUpperCase::makeString($cd, ‘title’);
CDUpperCase::makeString($cd, ‘band’);
CDUpperCase::makeArray($cd, ‘tracks’);
print CDMakeXML::create($cd);

/**
* a facade object better serves the purpose!
*/
class WebServiceFacade
{
public static function makeXMLCall(CD $cd)
{
CDUpperCase::makeString($cd, ‘title’);
CDUpperCase::makeString($cd, ‘band’);
CDUpperCase::makeArray($cd, ‘tracks’);

$xml = CDMakeXML::create($cd);

return $xml;
}
}

/**
* thus implemented in ONE line instead, as follows:
*/
print WebServiceFacade::makeXMLCall($cd);

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Delegate

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:44:42 +0000

“The Delegate Design Pattern removes decisions and complex functionality from the core object by distributing or delegating them to other objects.”

This example accomplishes this by utilizing PHP’s ability to dynamically create class instances based on a variable, and thus functionality may be spread across multiple objects rather than managed by one conglomerated block of conditional logic.

/**
* version 1
* NON-Delegate implementation
* as you’ll see,
* could easily become unweildly
* to extend…
*/
class Playlist
{
private $__songs;

public function __construct()
{
$this->__songs = array();
}

public function addSong($location, $title)
{
$song = array(‘location’=>$location, ‘title’=>$title);
$this->__songs[] = $song;
}

public function getM3U()
{
$m3u = “#EXTM3U\n\n”;

foreach($this->__songs as $song){
$m3u .= “#EXTINF:-1,{$song['title']}\n”;
$m3u .= “{$song['location']}\n”;
}
return $m3u;
}

public function getPLS()
{
$pls = “[playlist]\nNumberOfEntries=” . count($this->__songs) . “\n\n”;

foreach ($this->__songs as $songCount=>$song){
$counter = $songCount + 1;
$pls .= “File{$counter}={$song['location']}\n”;
$pls .= “Title{$counter}={$song['title']}\n”;
$pls .= “Length{$counter}=-1\n\n”;
}
return $pls;
}
}

/**
* Implemented as follows:
*/
$playlist = new Playlist();
$playlist->addSong(‘/home/aaron/music/brr.mp3′, ‘Brr’);
$playlist->addSong(‘/home/aaron/music/goodbye.mp3′, ‘Goodbye’);
if($externalRetrievedType == ‘pls’){
$playlistContent = $playlist->getPLS();
}
else {
$playlistContent = $playlist->getM3U();
}

/**
* version 2
* Delegate Design Pattern implementation
*/
class newPlaylist
{
private $__songs;
private $__typeObject;

public function __construct($type)
{
$this->__songs = array();
$object = “{$type}PlaylistDelegate”;
$this->__typeObject = new $object;
}

public function addSong($location, $title)
{
$song = array(‘location’=>$location, ‘title’=>$title);
$this->__songs[] = $song;
}

public function getPlaylist()
{
$playlist = $this->__typeObject->getPlaylist($this->__songs);
return $playlist;
}
}

class m3uPlaylistDelegate
{
public function getPlaylist($songs)
{
$m3u = “#EXTM3U\n\n”;

foreach ($songs as $song){
$m3u .= “EXTINF:-1,{$song['title']}\n”;
$m3u .= “{$song['location']}\n”;
}
return $m3u;
}
}

class plsPlaylistDelegate
{
public function getPlaylist($songs)
{
$pls = “[playlist]\nNumberOfEntries=” . count($songs) . “\n\n”;

foreach($songs as $songCount=>$song){
$counter = $songCount + 1;
$pls .= “File{$counter}={$song['location']}\n”;
$pls .= “Title{$counter}={$song['title']}\n”;
$pls .= “Length{$counter}=-1\n\n”;
}
return $pls;
}
}

/**
* Implemented as follows:
*/
$externalRetrievedType = ‘pls’;
$playlist = new newPlaylist($externalRetrievedType);
$playlistContent = $playlist->getPlaylist();

// to see results of course, something like:

print_r($playlistContent);

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Decorator

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:07:25 +0000

“The Decorator Design Pattern is best suited for altering or decorating portions of an existing object’s content or functionality without modifying the structure of the original object.”

class CD
{
public $trackList;

public function __construct()
{
$this->trackList = array();
}

public function addTrack($track)
{
$this->trackList[] = $track;
}

public function getTrackList()
{
$output = “”;

foreach ($this->trackList as $num=>$track){
$output .= ($num + 1) . “) {$track}. “;
}
}
}

/**
* cd object use
*/
$tracksFromExternalSource = array(‘What It Means’, ‘Brr’, ‘Goodbye’);
$myCD = new CD();
foreach ($trackFromExternalSource as $track){
$myCD->addTrack($track);
}
print “The CD contains the following tracks: ” . $myCD->getTrackList;

/**
* aha, but now the requirements change on us…
* now all tracks need to display uppercase!
* Instead of modifying the original class,
* or changing the parent-child relationships for such small “living requirements”…
* we use the Decorator design pattern!
*/
class CDTrackListDecoratorCaps
{
private $__cd;

public function __construct(CD $cd)
{
$this->__cd = $cd;
}

public function makeCaps()
{
foreach ($this->__cd->trackList as &$track)
{
$track = strtoupper($track);
}
}
}

/**
* new object use
*/
$myCD = new CD();
foreach ($tracksFromExternalSource as $track){
$myCD->addTrack($track);
}
$myCDCaps = new CDTrackListDecoratorCaps($myCD);
$myCDCaps->makeCaps();
print “The CD contains the following tracks: ” . $myCD->getTrackList();

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Data Access Object DAO

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:13:34 +0000

“The Data Access Object Design Pattern describes the creation of an object that provides transparent access to any data source.”

/**
* Data Access Object Pattern Example
*/

/**
* first we define the abstract base DAO class,
* which, of course, thus MUST be extended to be used
* to note:
* – the connection is internally referenced,
* allowing multiple simultaneous connections and tables
* – the fetch and update methods are wonderfully abstract
* untied to table name, key, or value
*/
abstract class baseDAO
{
private $__connection;

public function __construct()
{
$this->__connectToDB(DB_USER, DB_PASS, DB_HOST, DB_DATABASE);
}

public function fetch($value, $key = NULL)
{
if (is_null($key)){
$key = $this->_primaryKey;
}

$sql = “select * from {$this->_tableName} where {$key}=’{$value}’”;
$results = mysql_query($sql, $this->__connection);

$rows = array();
while ($result = mysql_fetch_array($results)){
$rows[] = $result;
}

return $rows;
}

public function update($keyedArray)
{
$sql = “update {$this->_tableName} set “;

$updates = array();
foreach ($keyedArray as $column=>$value){
$updates[] = “{$column}=’{$value}’”;
}

$sql .= implode(‘,’, $updates);
$sql .= “where {$this->_primaryKey}=’{$keyedArray[$this->_primaryKey]}’”;

mysql_query($sql, $this->__connection);
}
}

/**
* Finally, let’s extend with a child class
* mapped to a specific table
*/
class userDAO extends baseDAO
{
protected $_tableName = ‘userTable’;
protected $_primaryKey = ‘id’;

public function getUserByFirstName($name)
{
$result = $this->fetch($name, ‘firstName’);
return result;
}
}

/**
* Example of use
* DB connect data, of course, would be elsewhere and flexible
*/
define(‘DB_USER’,'user’);
define(‘DB_PASS’,'pass’);
define(‘DB_HOST’,'localhost’);
define(‘DB_DATABASE’,'test’);

/** fetch row id 1 **/
$user = new userDAO();
$userDetailsArray = $user->fetch(1);

/** update row id 1 **/
$updates = array(‘id’=>1, ‘firstName’=>’aaron’);
$user->update($updates);

/** get users with first name aaron **/
$allAarons = $user->getUserByFirstName(‘aaron’);

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Builder

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:08:54 +0000

“The Builder Design Pattern defines the design of an object that handles the complex building of another object.”

/**
* the Builder Pattern
* creates objects
* so that only its build method need be modified
* if the class it builds changes in the future
* and to automate object instantiation according to requirements
*/

/**
* class that could change with time
*/
class product
{
protected $_type = ”;
protected $_size = ”;
protected $_color = ”;

public function setType($type)
{
$this->_type = $type;
}

public function setSize($size)
{
$this->_size = $size;
}

public function setColor($color)
{
$this->_color = $color;
}
}

/**
* thus, rather than implementing each and every
* instantiation of the product class as follows:
*/
$productConfigs = array(‘type’=>’shirt’,'size’=>’XL’,'color’=>’red’);
$product = new product();
$product->setType($productConfigs['type']);
$product->setSize($productConfigs['size']);
$product->setColor($productConfigs['color']);

/**
* and then having to change every instantiation
* if/when the product class changes!
* instead, we create a productBuilder,
* and then the change simply happens in the product class
* and in the builder build method
*/
class productBuilder
{
protected $_product = NULL;
protected $_xml = array();

public function __construct($configs)
{
$this->_product = new product();
$this->_xml = $configs;
}

public function build()
{
$this->_product->setSize($configs['size']);
$this->_product->setType($configs['type']);
$this->_product->setColor($configs['color']);
}

public function getProduct()
{
return $this->_product;
}
}

/**
* implemented, instead as follows:
*/
$builder = new productBuilder($productConfigs);
$builder->build();
$product = $builder->getProduct();

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Adapter

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:04:51 +0000

“The Adapter Design Pattern simply adapts one object’s interfaces to what another object expects.”

/**
* Example Adapter Class
*/

/**
* original object
*/
class errorObject
{
private $__error;

public function __construct($error)
{
$this->__error = $error;
}

public function getError()
{
return $this->__error;
}
}

/**
* original Log class
*/
class logToConsole
{
private $__errorObject;

public function __construct($errorObject)
{
$this->__errorObject = $errorObject;
}

public function write()
{
fwrite(STDERR, $this->__errorObject->getError());
}
}

/**
* Initial way to utilize this system
* create the new 404 error object
*/
$error = new errorObject(“404:Not Found”);

/** then write the error to the console **/
$log = new logToConsole($error);
$log->write();

/**
* extend the logging functionality
* to log to CSV file instead
* with the log # and text
*/
class logToCSV
{
const CSV_LOCATION = ‘log.csv’;

private $__errorObject;

public function __construct($errorObject)
{
$this->__errorObject = $errorObject;
}

public function write()
{
$line = $this->__errorObject->getErrorNumber();
$line .= ‘,’;
$line .= $this->__errorObject->getErrorText();
$line .= “\n”;

file_put_contents(self::CSV_LOCATION, $line, FILE_APPEND);
}
}

/**
* to use the new log
* original errorObject must either be changed
* or better, extended
*/
class logToCSVAdapter extends errorObject
{
private $__errorNumber, $__errorText;

public function __construct($error)
{
parent::__construct($error);

$parts = explode(‘:’, $this->getError());

$this->__errorNumber = $parts[0];
$this->__errorText = $parts[1];
}

public function getErrorNumber()
{
return $this->__errorNumber;
}

public function getErrorText()
{
return $this->__errorText;
}
}

/**
* new way to implement the system extended
* create the new 404 error object adapted for csv
*/
$error = new logToCSVAdapter(“404:Not Found”);

/** then write the error to the csv file **/
$log = new logToCSV($error);
$log->write();

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Design Patterns Reference: Iterator

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:00:06 +0000

“The Iterator Design Pattern helps construct objects that can provide a single standard interface to loop or iterate through any type of countable data.”

class implements Iterator
{
/**
* Get the current element
* @return mixed
*/
public function current()
{
}

/**
* Gets the current key
* @return mixed
*/
public function key()
{
}

/**
* Checks if current element exists
* @return boolean
*/
public function valid()
{
}

/**
* Moves pointer forward to next element
*/
public function next()
{
}

/**
* Moves pointer to first element
*/
public function rewind()
{
}
}

/**

* Example Implementation

*/
class CD
{
public $band = “”;
public $title = “”;
public $trackList = array();

public function __construct($band, $title)
{
$this->band = $band;
$this->title = $title;
}

public function addTrack($track)
{
$this->trackList[] = $track;
}
}

/**
* SPL Iterator, thus requires:
* current(), key(), rewind(), next(), valid()
* public methods
*/
class CDSearchByBandIterator implements Iterator
{
private $__CDs = array();
private $__valid = FALSE;

public function __construct($bandName)
{
$db = mysql_connect(‘localhost’,'user’,'pass’);
mysql_select_db(‘test’);
$sql = “select CD.id, CD.band, CD.title, tracks.tracknum, “;
$sql .= “tracks.title as tracktitle “;
$sql .= “from CD left join tracks on CD.id = tracks.cid where band=’”;
$sql .= mysql_real_escape_string($bandname);
$sql .= “‘ order by tracks.tracknum”;
$results = mysql_query($sql);

$cdID = 0;
$cd = NULL;

while($result = mysql_fetch_array($results)){
if($result['id'] !== $cdID){
if (!is_null($cd)){
$this->__CDs[] = $cd;
}
$cdID = $result['id'];
$cd = new CD($result['band'], $result['title']);
}
$cd->addTrack($result['tracktitle']);
}
$this->__CDs[] = $cd;
}

public function next()
{
$this->__valid = (next($this->__CDs) === FALSE) ? FALSE : TRUE;
}

public function rewind()
{
$this->__valid = (reset($this->__CDs) === FALSE) ? FALSE : TRUE;
}

public function valid()
{
return $this->__valid;
}

public function current()
{
return current($this->__CDs);
}

public function key()
{
return key($this->__CDs);
}
}
/**
* Implementation
*/
$queryItem = ‘Never Again’; // band Name
$cds = new CDSearchByBandIterator($queryItem);
print ‘

Found the Following CDs

’;
print ‘’;
foreach ($cds as $cd){
print “’;
}
print ‘

Band	Title	Num Tracks
{$cd->band}	{$cd->title}	”; print count($cd->trackList) . ‘

’;

source: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470496703,descCd-DOWNLOAD.html

Zend Notes: Grabbing a resource from the registry via a view helper

admin — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:11:02 +0000

Helper (application/views/helpers):

class Zend_View_Helper_ImageUrlHelper extends Zend_View_Helper_Abstract {
/**
* Helper to grab the path to the images directory
* @param String $imageName
* @param String $imageSize, var for possibly different size requests
*/
public function ImageUrlHelper($imageName, $imageSize) {
$config = Zend_Registry::get(‘config’);
$path = $config-> urlpaths-> productImages;
return $path . ‘/products_’ . $imageSize . ‘/’ . $imageName;
}
}

application.ini (application/configs):

urlpaths.productImages = “/path/images/product_images”

from a view (application/views/scripts/controllerName/viewName.phtml):

$imgSrc = $this-> ProductImageHelper($this-> products[$i]['products_image'], ’100′); ?>

echo $imgSrc; ?>” />

framework.zend.com “Create a Model and Database Table” tutorial fixed, full working code, adapted for MySQL

admin — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:02:51 +0000

http://framework.zend.com/manual/1.10/en/learning.quickstart.create-model.html

Well, I agonized over getting this, and if you read the comments on the tutorial, many others have as well, working on my home Snow Leopard as well as on my work XP pc, and I spent countless hours looking for a post just such as this one is now, to no avail, so here it all is, hope it helps somebody:

hosts

In the event that you don’t have this done already, here is what should go in your environment’s hosts file…

Mac: /private/etc/hosts

PC: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

# Setup “components” Virtual Host

ServerName project
DocumentRoot “C:\xampp\htdocs\project\public” // or /Library/WebServer/Documents/project/public

C:\xampp\htdocs\project\public” // or /Library/WebServer/Documents/project/public>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

create the database that this will use

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `guestbook` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`email` varchar(32) DEFAULT NULL,
`comment` text,
`created` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=3 ;

add dummy data to the database

INSERT INTO `guestbook` (`id`, `email`, `comment`, `created`) VALUES
(1, ‘ralph@schindler.com’, ‘hello’, ’2010-09-17 00:00:00′),
(2, ‘foo@bar.com’, ‘goodbye’, ’2010-09-17 00:00:00′);

if you haven’t done so already, create the user this app will use to connect, and give the user the priviledges they’ll need

CREATE USER ‘guestbook’@'localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘guestbook’;

GRANT ALL ON ‘guestbook’ TO ‘guestbook’@'localhost’;

project/application/Bootstrap.php

class Bootstrap extends Zend_Application_Bootstrap_Bootstrap
{
public function _initAutoloader()
{
// Create an resource autoloader component
$autoloader = new Zend_Loader_Autoloader_Resource(array(
‘basePath’ => APPLICATION_PATH,
‘namespace’ => ‘Application’
));

// Add some resource types
$autoloader->addResourceTypes(array(
‘forms’ => array(
‘path’ => ‘forms’,
‘namespace’ => ‘Form’
),
‘models’ => array(
‘path’ => ‘models’,
‘namespace’ => ‘Model’
),
));

// Return to bootstrap resource registry
return $autoloader;
}

protected function _initActionHelpers()
{
Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addPath(APPLICATION_PATH .’/helpers’);
}

protected function _initDoctype()
{
$this->bootstrap(‘view’);
$view = $this->getResource(‘view’);
$view->doctype(‘XHTML1_STRICT’);
}
}

project/public/index.php

// Define path to application directory
defined(‘APPLICATION_PATH’)
|| define(‘APPLICATION_PATH’, realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . ‘/../application’));

// Define application environment
defined(‘APPLICATION_ENV’)
|| define(‘APPLICATION_ENV’, (getenv(‘APPLICATION_ENV’) ? getenv(‘APPLICATION_ENV’) : ‘development’));

// Ensure library/ is on include_path
set_include_path(implode(PATH_SEPARATOR, array(
realpath(APPLICATION_PATH . ‘/../library’),
get_include_path(),
)));

/** Zend_Application */
require_once ‘Zend/Application.php’;

// Create application, bootstrap, and run
$application = new Zend_Application(
APPLICATION_ENV,
APPLICATION_PATH . ‘/configs/application.ini’
);
$application->bootstrap()
->run();

project/application/configs/application.ini

[production]
phpSettings.display_startup_errors = 0
phpSettings.display_errors = 0
includePaths.library = APPLICATION_PATH “/../library”
bootstrap.path = APPLICATION_PATH “/Bootstrap.php”
bootstrap.class = “Bootstrap”
appnamespace = “Application”
resources.frontController.controllerDirectory = APPLICATION_PATH “/controllers”
resources.frontController.params.displayExceptions = 0
resources.view[] =
resources.layout.layoutPath = APPLICATION_PATH “/layouts/scripts/”

resources.db.adapter = “PDO_MYSQL”
resources.db.params.host = “localhost”
resources.db.params.username = “guestbook”
resources.db.params.password = “guestbook”
resources.db.params.dbname = “guestbook”

[staging : production]

[testing : production]
phpSettings.display_startup_errors = 1
phpSettings.display_errors = 1

[development : production]
phpSettings.display_startup_errors = 1
phpSettings.display_errors = 1
resources.frontController.params.displayExceptions = 1

project/application/controllers/GuestbookController.php

class GuestbookController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{

public function init()
{
/* Initialize action controller here */
}

public function indexAction()
{
$guestbook = new Application_Model_GuestbookMapper();
$guestbook->fetchAll();
//var_dump($guestbook);
$this->view->entries = $guestbook->fetchAll();
}
}

project/application/models/Guestbook.php

class Application_Model_Guestbook
{
protected $_comment;
protected $_created;
protected $_email;
protected $_id;

public function __construct(array $options = null)
{
if (is_array($options)){
$this->setOptions($options);
}
}

public function __set($name, $value)
{
$method = ‘set’ . $name;
if ((‘mapper’ == $name) || !method_exists($this, $method)){
throw new Exception(‘Invalid guestbook property’);
}
$this->$method($value);
}

public function __get($name)
{
$method = ‘get’ . $name;
if ((‘mapper’ == $name) || !method_exists($this, $method)){
throw new Exception(‘Invalid guestbook property’);
}
return $this->$method();
}

public function setOptions(array $options)
{
$methods = get_class_methods($this);
foreach($options as $key => $value){
$method = ‘set’ . ucfirst($key);
if (in_array($method, $methods)){
$this->$method($value);
}
}
}

public function setComment($text)
{
$this->_comment = (string) $text;
return $this;
}

public function getComment()
{
return $this->_comment;
}

public function setEmail($email)
{
$this->_email = (string) $email;
return $this;
}

public function getEmail()
{
return $this->_email;
}

public function setCreated($ts)
{
$this->_created = $ts;
return $this;
}

public function getCreated()
{
return $this->_created;
}

public function setId($id)
{
$this->_id = (int) $id;
return $this;
}

public function getId()
{
return $this->_id;
}
}

project/application/models/GuesbookMapper.php

class Application_Model_GuestbookMapper
{
protected $_dbTable;

public function setDbTable($dbTable)
{
if (is_string($dbTable)){
$dbTable = new $dbTable();
}
if (!$dbTable instanceof Zend_Db_Table_Abstract){
throw new Exception(‘Invalid table data gateway provided’);
}
$this->_dbTable = $dbTable;
return $this;
}

public function getDbTable()
{
if (null === $this->_dbTable){
$this->setDbTable(‘Application_Model_DbTable_Guestbook’);
}
return $this->_dbTable;
}

public function save(Application_Model_Guestbook $guestbook)
{
$data = array(
‘email’   =>   $guestbook->getEmail(),
‘comment’   =>   $guestbook->getComment(),
‘created’   =>   date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’),
);

if (null === ($id = $guestbook->getId())){
unset($data['id']);
$this->getDbTable()->insert($data);
} else {
$this->getDbTable()->update($data,array(‘id = ?’ => $id));
}
}

public function find($id, Application_Model_Guestbook $guestbook)
{
$result = $this->getDbTable()->find($id);
if (0 == count($result)){
return;
}
$row = $result->current();
$guestbook->setId($row->id)
->setEmail($row->email)
->setComment($row->comment)
->setCreated($row->created);
}

public function fetchAll()
{
$resultSet = $this->getDbTable()->fetchAll();
//var_dump($resultSet);
$entries = array();
foreach ($resultSet as $row){
$entry = new Application_Model_Guestbook();
$entry->setId($row->id)
->setEmail($row->email)
->setComment($row->comment)
->setCreated($row->created);
$entries[] = $entry;
}
return $entries;
}
}

project/application/models/DbTable/Guestbook.php

class Application_Model_DbTable_Guestbook extends Zend_Db_Table_Abstract
{
/** Table name */
protected $_name = ‘guestbook’;
}

project/application/views/scripts/guestbook/index.phtml

echo $this->url(
array(
‘controller’ => ‘guestbook’,
‘action’ => ‘sign’
),
‘default’,
true) ?>“>Sign Our Guestbook

Guestbook Entries:

echo $this->escape($entry->email) ?>: echo $this->escape($entry->comment)?>

final URL to hit: http://project/guestbook

MySQL Mac osx Terminal change root password

admin — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 03:53:04 +0000

Silly thing to note, but I had to Google for this too long to do it again…

Have to give credit where credit is due, thank you:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/mysql-change-root-password/

conclusion, command:

mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD

Mac osx Snow Leopard httpd.conf last line error needs removing for virtualhosts to work

admin — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 03:38:51 +0000

reference: http://code.google.com/p/virtualhost-sh/issues/detail?id=9

when you uncomment v-hosts in httpd.conf, they won’t work until you fix that last line…

Mac OSX remove MySQL

admin — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 08:41:02 +0000

sudo rm /usr/local/mysql
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/My*
(Edit /etc/hostconfig) sudo vi /etc/hostconfig (Remove line MYSQLCOM=-YES)
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/MySQL*
sudo rm -rf /var/db/receipts/com.mysql.*

Drupal Notes 7: module custom content type, hook_filter(), custom hook, mail API, sends themed email to all members, creates an action and a trigger

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:44:53 +0000

a few of the hooks utilized in this module:

hook_help(), hook_node_info(), hook_form(), hook_filter(), hook_filter_tips(),
hook_action_info(), hook_theme(), hook_mail(), hook_install()

Biggest concept herein: module_invoke_all()

Step 1: sitenews.info

; $Id$
name = “sitenews”
description = “Sends an email news message to all members”
core = 6.x
php = 5.1
; dependencies = “trigger”

Step 2: sitenews.module

// $Id$
/**
* sitenews Module
* Adds a content type
* Provides an action for admininstrators
* Sends emails to all members
* Defines a new hook and a new filter as well
* @file
*/
/**
* Implementation of hook_help()
*/
function sitenews_help($path, $arg){
if($path == ‘admin/help#sitenews’){
$txt = ‘Keep members current via email.’
. ‘You will need a trigger to the corresponding action.’
. ‘Recommendation: the node publish event should be tied to the action.’;
$replace = array();
return ‘

’ . t($txt, $replace) . ‘

’;
}
}
/**
* Create the sitenewsbrief’ content type
* Implements hook_node_info()
*/
function sitenews_node_info(){
return array(
‘newsbrief’ => array(
‘module’ => ‘sitenews’,
‘name’ => t(‘News Brief’),
‘description’ => t(“A newsletter to all members”),
‘has_title’ => TRUE,
‘title_label’ => t(‘Title’),
‘has_body’ => TRUE,
‘body_label’ => t(‘News Brief’),
)
);
}
/**
* Create the form for editing sitenewsbrief nodes
* Implements hook_form()
*/
function sitenews_form(&$node){
$type = node_get_types(‘type’, $node);
if($type->has_title){
$form['title'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘textfield’,
‘#title’ => check_plain($type->title_label),
‘#required’ => true,
‘#default_value’ => $node->title,
‘#weight’ => -5,
);
}
if($type->has_body){
$form['body_field'] = node_body_field(
$node,
$type->body_label,
$type->min_word_count
);
}
return $form;
}
/**
* Implements hook_filter()
*/
function sitenews_filter($op, $delta = 0, $format = -1, $text = ”){
global $user;

if($op == ‘list’){
$list = array(
0 => t(‘Newsletter Brief Placeholders’),
1 => t(‘Remove ALL HTML/XML Tags’),
);
return $list;
}

switch($delta){
// Delta 0 is for replacing placeholders
case 0:
switch ($op)
{
case ‘description’:
return t(‘Replaces {{salutation}} with newsletter brief ‘
. ‘salutation, and {{brief name}} with the newsletter brief ‘
. ‘name.’);
case ‘prepare’:
return $text;
case ‘process’:
$text = str_replace(
‘{{salutation}}‘,
variable_get(‘sitenews_salutation’, ‘Dear Community Member’),
$text
);
$text = str_replace(
‘{{brief name}}‘,
variable_get(‘sitenews_name’, ‘Site News’),
$text
);
return $text;
case ‘settings’:
$form['sitenews_filter'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘fieldset’,
‘#title’ => t(‘Site Newsletter Filters’),
‘#collapsible’ => true,
‘#collapsed’ => false,
);
$form['sitenews_filter']['sitenews_salutation'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘textfield’,
‘#description’ => t(‘The greeting’),
‘#title’ => t(‘Salutation’),
‘#default_value’ => variable_get(‘sitenews_salutation’, ‘Dear Community Member,’),
);
$form['sitenews_filter']['sitenews_name'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘textfield’,
‘#description’ => t(‘Title of the site newsletter’),
‘#title’ => t(‘Site Newsletter Name’),
‘#default_value’ => variable_get(‘sitenews_name’, ‘Site Newsletter’),
);
return $form;
}
case 1:
switch($op)
{
case ‘description’:
return t(‘Removes all tags (HTML or XML elements).’);
case ‘prepare’:
return $text;
case ‘process’:
return strip_tags($text);
} // end switch for $op
} // end outer switch
}
/**
* Formatting instruction tips for content creators
* Implements hook_format_info()
*/
function sitenews_filter_tips($delta, $format, $long){
switch($delta){
case 0:
$text = “Instances of {{brief name}} will be ”
. “replaced by the global name for site newsletter.”
. ” {{salutation}} will be replaced with the global ”
. “greeting message.”;
if($long){
$text .= “Site Newsletter name and salutation text ”
. “can be configured from the administration interface.”;
}
return $text;
case 1:
$text = “HTML and XML tags will be removed from the final output”;
return $text;
}
}
/**
* Get a format ID by name
* This returns an Input Format ID that can be passed to check_marckup() to filter content
* If a matching format isn’t found, the default format is returned
* @param $name
* String name of the format
* @return
* The ID (an integer) of the format
*/
function sitenews_get_format($name){
$res = db_query(
“SELECT format FROM {filter_formats} WHERE name = ‘%s’“,
$name
);
$format = db_fetch_object($res);
if($format){
return $format->format;
} else {
return FILTER_FORMAT_DEFAULT;
}
}
/**
* Implements hook_action_info()
*/
function sitenews_action_info(){
watchdog(‘action‘,”Called sitenews_action_info”);
$actions['sitenews_send_action'] = array(
‘type’ => ‘node’,
‘description’ => t(‘Send site news as email to all users.’),
‘configurable’ => FALSE,
‘hooks’ => array(
‘nodeapi’ => array(‘insert’,'update’,'presave’),
)
);
return $actions;
}
/**
* Action: Send an email message to all users
*/
function sitenews_send_action(&$object, $context){
// If not a published sitenews, skip
if(!$object->status || $object->type != ‘newsbrief’){
return;
}
// Get addresses
$q = “SELECT mail, status FROM {users} ”
. “WHERE status != 0 AND uid > 0“;
$results = db_query($q);
$addresses = array();
while($obj = db_fetch_object($results)){
$addresses[] = $obj->mail;
}
if(count($addresses) == 0){
watchdog(
‘sitenews’,
‘No user email addresses were found’,
array(),
WATCHDOG_ERROR
);
return;
}
// Execute hook_sitenews()
$content = module_invoke_all(‘sitenews’);
// Build params
$params = array(
‘node’ => $object,
‘to’ => implode(‘, ‘, $addresses),
‘subject’ => $object->title,
‘context’ => $context,
‘additional content’ => $content,
);
$message = _sitenews_do_message($object, $params);
watchdog(
‘actions‘,
‘Site News “Send action fired. Sending to !mail’,
array(‘!mail’ => $params['to'])
);
}
/**
* Internal function to prepare a message and pass it on to the mailer
* @param $node
* The news brief node
* @param $params
* An array of params
*/
function _sitenews_do_message(&$node, $params){
$node = $params['node'];
$content = $params['additional content'];
// Theme the main node:
$params['body'] = theme(‘sitenews_newsbrief’, $node);
// See common.inc (element_sort() and drupal_render()
uasort($content, ‘element_sort’);
// Render each block of content;
foreach($content as $item){
$params['body'] .= theme(‘sitenews_msgblock’, $item);
}
// Send the mail:
drupal_mail(
‘sitenews’,
‘sendsitenews’,
$params['to'],
language_default(),
$params,
variable_get(‘site_mail’,NULL),
TRUE
);
}
/**
* Implements hook_theme()
*/
function sitenews_theme(){
return array(
‘sitenews_msgblock’ => array(
‘arguments’ => array(‘block’ => NULL),
),
‘sitenews_newsbrief’ => array(
‘arguments’ => array(‘node’ => NULL),
),
);
}
/**
* Theme to display a news brief in a sitenews message block
* @param $node
* The news brief node object
*/
function theme_sitenews_newsbrief($node){
$format = sitenews_get_format(‘Tagless text’);
$text = strtoupper(check_markup($node->title, $format)) . “\n\n”;
$text .= check_markup($node->body, $format) . “\n\n”;
return $text;
}
/**
* Theme for email messages
* @param $block
* A block with #title and #body set
*/
function theme_sitenews_msgblock($block){
$msg = array();
if(!empty($block['#title'])){
$title = strtoupper($block['#title']);
for ($i = 0; $i < strlen($title); ++$i){
$underline .= ‘=’;
}
$msg[] = $title;
$msg[] = $underline;
}
$msg[] = $block['#body'] .”\n”; // <– extra newline
return implode(“\n”, $msg);
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_mail()
*/
function sitenews_mail($key, &$message, $params){
switch($key){
case ‘sendsitenews’:
$message['to'] = $params['to'];
$message['subject'] = $params['subject'];
$message['body'] = $params['body'];
}
}

Step 3: sitenews.install

// $Id$
/**
* Install the newsletter module
* @file
*/
/**
* Implements hook_intall()
*/
function sitenews_install(){
$name = ‘Tagless text’;
// Check to see if the format already exists
$res = db_query(
“SELECT name FROM {filter_formats} WHERE name = ‘%s’“,
$name
);
$has_format = db_result($res);
// Create format
if (!$has_format){
db_query(
“INSERT INTO {filter_formats} (name) VALUES (‘%s’)“,
$name
);
}
$res = db_query(
“SELECT format FROM {filter_formats} WHERE name = ‘%s’“,
$name
);
$format = db_fetch_object($res);
$q = “INSERT INTO {filters} (format, module, delta, weight) ”
. “VALUES(%d, ‘newsletter’, %d, %d)“;
// First, insert the “Newsletter Brief Placeholders” filter:
db_query($q, $format->format, 0, 10);
// Second, insert the “Remove ALL HTML/XML Tags” filter:
db_query($q, $format->format, 1, 0);
}

Step 4: add to module_sitenews() to any modules that will be contributing content to these automatically generated email newsletters, example from personality module (Drupal Notes 6) follows:

function personality_theme(){
return array(
‘personality_info’ => array(
‘template’ => ‘personality_info’,
‘arguments’ => array(
‘dates’ => NULL,
‘life’ => NULL,
‘works’ => NULL,
),
),
// NEW
‘personality_sitenews’ => array(
‘arguments’ => array(‘node’ => NULL),
),
);
}
/**
* Theme function for sitenews
*/
function theme_personality_sitenews($node){
$options = array(‘absolute’ => TRUE);
$url = url(‘node/’. $node->nid, $options);
$title = strip_tags($node->title);
$body = strip_tags($node->teaser); // <– Summary
$text = implode(“\n”, array($title, $body, $url));
$text .= “\n”;
return $text;
}

/*
* Implements hook_sitenews() in sitenews module
*/
function personality_sitenews(){
$q = “SELECT nid, created FROM {node} ”
. “WHERE status = 1 AND type = ‘personality’ ”
. “ORDER BY created DESC“;
$results = db_query_range($q, 0, 3);
$new_bios = array();
while ($row = db_fetch_object($results)){
$node = node_load($row->nid);
$new_bios[] = theme(‘personality_sitenews’, $node);
}
$content['personality'] = array(
‘#weight’ => 0,
‘#title’ => t(‘Recent Biographies’),
‘#body’ => implode(“\n”, $new_bios),
);
return $content;
}

Drupal Notes 6: module + new content type (non CCK)

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:19:09 +0000

Description: Module that uses a new content type (non CCK), that uses the Schema API, Node API, Database API, Forms API and the following hooks:

hook_form(), hook_install(), hook_uninstall(), hook_schema(), hook_node_info(), hook_perm(), hook_access(), hook_insert(), hook_update(), hook_delete(), hook_nodeapi(), hook_load(), hook_view(), hook_theme()

Step 1: sites/all/modules/personality folder

Step 2: personality.info

; $Id$
name = “Personality Content (Node) Type”
description = “This provides a custom content type to store simple online personalities”
core = 6.x
php = 5.1

Step 3: personality.install

// $Id$
/**
* Install the personality module, including its content (node) type.
* @file
*/
/**
* Implementation of hook_install()
*/
function personality_install(){
drupal_install_schema(‘personality’);
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_uninstall()
*/
function personality_uninstall(){
drupal_uninstall_schema(‘personality’);
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_schema()
*/
function personality_schema(){
$schema['personality'] = array(
‘fields’ => array(
‘vid’ => array(
‘type’ => ‘int’,
‘unsigned’ => TRUE,
‘not null’ => TRUE,
‘default’ => 0,
),
‘nid’ => array(
‘type’ => ‘int’,
‘unsigned’ => TRUE,
‘not null’ => TRUE,
‘default’ =>0,
),
‘dates’ => array(
‘type’ => ‘varchar’,
‘length’ => 127,
‘not null’ => TRUE,
‘default’ => ”,
),
// Note: On MySQL, text fields cannot have default values
‘life’ => array(
‘type’ => ‘text’,
‘not null’ => FALSE
),
‘works’ => array(
‘type’ => ‘text’,
‘not null’ => FALSE
),
),
‘indexes’ => array(
‘nid’ => array(‘nid’),
),
// Version is primary key. Could do nid, vid.
‘primary key’ => array(‘vid’),
);
return $schema;
}

Step 4: personality.module

// $Id$
/**
* Provides the Personality content type
* @file
*/
/**
* Implementation of hook_help()
*/
function personality_help($path, $arg){
if($path == ‘admin/help#personality’){
$txt = ‘A personality is a description of a person\’s person. Should include a brief summary, biography, date of birth, optionally date of death, and accomplishments.’;
$replace = array();
return ‘

’ . t($text, $replace) . ‘

’;
}
}
/**
* Imnplementation of hook_node_info()
*/
function personality_node_info(){
return array(
‘personality’ => array(
‘name’ => t(‘Personality’),
‘module’ => ‘personality’,
‘description’ => t(‘A personality of a person.’),
‘has_title’ => TRUE,
‘title_label’ => t(‘Personality of’),
‘has_body’ => TRUE,
‘body_label’ => t(‘Overview’),
)
);
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_form()
*/
function personality_form(&$node){
$type = node_get_types(‘type’, $node);
//Existing files: title (Personality of) and body (Overview)
if($type->has_title){
$form['title'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘textfield’,
‘#title’ => check_plain($type->title_label),
‘#required’ => TRUE,
‘#default_value’ => $node->title,
‘#weight’ => -5,
);
}
if($type->has_body){
$form['body_field'] = node_body_field(
$node,
$type->body_label,
$type->min_word_count
);
}
// Our custom fields: Dates, Life, Works
$form['dates'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘textfield’,
‘#size’ => 50,
‘#maxlength’ => 127,
‘#title’ => t(‘Dates’),
‘#description’ => t(‘Birth and death dates.’),
‘#default_value’ => isset($node->dates) ? $node->dates : ”,
);
$form['life'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘textarea’,
‘#title’ => t(‘Life’),
‘#cols’ => 50,
‘#rows’ => 15,
‘#description’ => t(‘A description of this perons\’s life.’),
‘#default_value’ => isset($node->life) ? $node-life : ”,
);
$form['works'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘textarea’,
‘#title’ => t(‘Works’),
‘#cols’ => 50,
‘#rows’ => 5,
‘#description’ => t(‘This person\’s Personality’),
‘#default_value’ => isset($node->works) ? $node->works : ”,
);
return $form;
}
/**
* Implements hook_perm()
* Responsible for registering new permissions
*/
function personality_perm(){
return array(
‘create personality node’,
‘edit personality nodes’,
‘delete personality nodes’,
);
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_access()
* which implements our new permissions
*/
function personality_access($op, $node, $account){
switch($op){
case ‘create’:
return user_access(‘create personality node’, $account);
case ‘update’:
return user_access(‘edit personality nodes’, $account);
case ‘delete’:
return user_access(‘delete personality nodes’, $account);
}
}
/**
* Implements hook_insert()
*/
function personality_insert($node){
if(!isset($node->life)){
$node->life = ”;
}
if(!isset($node->works)){
$node->works = ”;
}
db_query(
“INSERT INTO {personality} (vid, nid, dates, life, works) VALUES (%d, %d, ‘%s’, ‘%s’, ‘%s’)“,
$node->vid,
$node->nid,
$node->dates,
$node->life,
$node->works
);
}
/**
* Implements hook_update()
*/
function personality_update($node){
if($node->revision){
personality_insert($node);
}
else{
db_query(
“UPDATE {personality} SET dates = ‘&s’, life = ‘%s’, works = ‘%s’ WHERE vid = %d“,
$node->dates,
$node->life,
$node->works,
$node->vid
);
}
}
/**
* Implements hook_delete()
*/
function personality_delete($node){
db_query(
“DELETE FROM {personality} WHERE nid = %d“,
$node->nid
);
}
/**
* This implementation deletes node revisions
* Implements hook_nodeapi()
*/
function personality_nodeapi(&$node, $op, $teaser, $page){
if($op == ‘delete revision’){
db_query(
‘DELETE FROM {personality} WHERE vid = %d‘,
$node->vid
);
}
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_load()
*/
function personality_load($node){
$result = db_query(
‘SELECT dates, life, works FROM {personality} WHERE vid = %d‘,
$node->vid
);
return db_fetch_object($result);
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_view()
*/
function personality_view($node, $teaser = FALSE, $page = FALSE){
$node = node_prepare($node, $teaser);
$dates = check_plain($node->dates);
$life = check_markup($node->life);
$works = check_markup($node->works);
// Add theme
$node->content['personality_info'] = array(
‘#value’ => theme(‘personality_info’, $dates, $life, $works),
‘#weight’ => 1,
);
return $node;
}
/**
* Implements hook_theme()
*/
function personality_theme(){
return array(
‘personality_info’ => array(
‘template’ => ‘personality_info’,
‘arguments’ => array(
‘dates’ => NULL,
‘life’ => NULL,
‘works’ => NULL,
),
),
);
}

Step 5: personality_info.tpl.php template theme file

// $Id$
/**
* Template to display personality nodes.
*
* Fields available:
* $dates: cleaned plain text string
* $life: cleaned HTML string
* $works: cleaned HTML string
*/

< ? php print t(‘Dates’); ? >:

< ? php print $dates; ? >

< ? php print t(‘Life’); ? >:

< ? php print $life; ? >

< ? php print t(‘Works’); ? >:

< ? php print $works; ? >

Drupal Notes 5: admin module emails users from profile: hook_mail(), hook_mail_alter(), hook_help(), hook_menu(), Forms API, hook_user()

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:30:54 +0000

For this module it’s best that your development environment is configured to send live emails.
If it’s local, xampp perhaps, and not currently configured as such,
you may want to refer to this post first:
http://alexyz.com/sending-mail-xampp-gmail/

Step 1, of course, create a new folder entitled emailusers in sites/all/modules

Step 2, in that folder, create emailusers.info, containing the following
(if you’ve read Notes 1-4 this should all be very familiar already):

;$Id$
name = “emailusers”
description = “admin module for emailing users from within their profile”
core = 6.x
php = 5.1

Step 3, create emailusers.module in same folder, contents thereof follow:

// $Id$
/**
* This module provides an email interface for administrators.
* Using this module, administrators can send email to a user from the
* user’s “view” page.
* @file
*/
/**
* Implementation hook_help()
*/
function emailusers_help($path, $arg){
if($path == ‘admin/help#emailusers’){
$txt = ‘This module provides a way for an administrator to send’
. ‘email to a user. ‘
. ‘It assumes that the Drupal mailer is configured.’;
return ‘

’ . t($txt) . ‘

’;
}
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_munu()
*/
function emailusers_menu(){
// Need to pass User ID via placeholder %,
// thus URL will be available here: ?q=admin/emailusers/compose/userIdHere
$items['admin/emailusers/compose/%'] = array(
‘title’ => ‘Compose a Message’,
‘page callback’ => ‘emailusers_compose’,
‘page arguments’ => array(3), // <- userId (from % in node path)
‘access arguments’ => array(‘administer users’),
‘type’ => MENU_CALLBACK,
);
return $items;
}
/**
* Compose a message.
* This creates the form necessary to compose an email message.
*
* @param $to
* The address to send to.
* @return
* HTML.
*/
function emailusers_compose($userid){
$userid = intval($userid);
if($userid == 0){
return t(‘User ID must be an integer.’);
}
$account = user_load($userid);
if(empty($account)){
return t(‘No such user found.’);
}
$to = $account->mail;
$sb = ‘

’
. t(‘Send a message to @email.’, array(‘@email’ => $to))
. ‘

’;
$sb .= drupal_get_form(‘emailusers_compose_form’, $account);
// Forms API / FAPI
// http://drupal.org/node/751826
// http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/developer–topics–forms_api_reference.html/6
return $sb;
}
/**
* Form constructor
*/
function emailusers_compose_form($context, $account){
// This is a value only — equivalent to a hidden field
// except that it is never renered into the HTML
$form['to'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘value’,
‘#value’ => $account,
);
// Create a fieldset for the body:
$form['message'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘fieldset’,
‘#title’ => t(‘Compose the Message’),
);
// Textfield for subject of the body
$form['message']['subject'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘textfield’,
‘#title’ => t(‘Subject’),
‘#size’ => 50,
‘#maxlength’ => 255,
‘#description’ => t(‘The subject of the email message.’),
);
// And a text area for the body.
$form['message']['body'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘textarea’,
‘#title’ => t(‘Message’),
‘#cols’ => 50,
‘#rows’ => 5,
‘#description’ => t(‘The body of the email message.’),
);
// Create a fieldset for details
$form['details'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘fieldset’,
‘#title’ => t(“Details”),
);
// Checkbox: if checked, CC the author too
$form['details']['cc_me'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘checkbox’,
‘#title’ => t(‘BCC Yourself’),
‘#default_value’ => 1,
‘#description’ => t(‘If this is checked, the message will also be sent to you.’),
);
// Finally, a submit button:
$form['submit'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘submit’,
‘#value’ => t(‘Send Mail’),
);
return $form;
}
/**
* Form submission handler, which functions like a hook.
* Note that the params $form and &$form_state are new in D6.
* They replace $form_id and $form_values.
*/
function emailusers_compose_form_submit($form, &$form_state){
$form_values = $form_state['values'];
$account = $form_values['to'];
drupal_mail(
‘emailusers’,
‘composemessage’,
$account->mail,
user_preferred_language($account),
$form_values,
variable_get(‘site_mail’, null),
true // Automatically send
);
// drupal_mail will invoke hook_mail(), or in this case, emailusers_mail(), below
$form_state['redirect'] = sprintf(‘user/%d’, $account->uid);
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_mail()
*/
function emailusers_mail($key, &$message, $params){
// Just catch calls to this hook from compose form.
if ($key == ‘composemessage’){
$language = $params['language'];
$account = $params['to'];
if($params['cc_me']){
// Look up current user’s email address:
//$my_account = user_load(null);
$message['headers']['bcc'] = $GLOBALS['user']->mail;
}
$message['to'] = $account->mail;
$message['subject'] = t(‘Drupal Message: ‘, array(), $language->language);
// If these were automatically-generated messages
// they should be run through t()
// but since text is user-entered
// don’t use t()
$message['subject'] .= $params['subject'];
//$message['body'] = $params['body'];
$message['body'][] = $params['body'];
}
}
/**
* Implements hook_mail_alter()
* !! Note: similar, and also of interest are hook_link_alter() & hook_menu_alter()
* simply put, _alter hooks alter data right after their parent hooks are called, but before output
* also important to note: this _alter() below will augment ALL emails sent to the Mail API
* not just those from this module!
*/
function emailusers_mail_alter(&$message){
$append = “\n==================================\n”
. “This message was sent from !site_name (!website). ”
. “If you believe this message to be a case of abuse, ”
. “please contact !site_email.\n”;
$args = array(
‘!website’ => url(”, array(‘absolute’ => true)),
‘!site_email’ => variable_get(‘site_mail’, null),
‘!site_name’ => variable_get(‘site_name’, ‘Unknown’),
);
$message['body'] .= t($append, $args);
//$message['body'][] = t($append, $args);
}
/**
* Implementation of hook_user().
*/
function emailusers_user($op, &$edit, &$account, $category){
if($op == ‘view’ && user_access(‘administer users‘)){
// Create the outer “block”
$account->content['EmailUsers'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘user_profile_category‘,
‘#attributes’ => array(‘class’ => ‘user-member’),
‘#weight’ => 0,
‘#title’ => t(‘Contact user’),
);
// Create the content of the block
$account->content['EmailUsers']['EmailLink'] = array(
‘#type’ => ‘user_profile_item‘,
‘#title’ => t(‘Send a message to this user from the site administrator.’),
‘#value’ => l(
‘Email’,
‘admin/emailusers/compose/’ . $account->uid
),
);
}
}

Drupal Notes 4: enhance our module with jQuery AJAX/JSON

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:16:42 +0000

create quoteDisplay.js to contain:

var quoteDisplay = {}; // JS Namespace Object Creation
if(Drupal.jsEnabled){
$(document).ready(
function(){
$(“#quoteDisplay-origin”).after(“Next »”).next().click(quoteDisplay.randQuote);
}
);
/**
* A function to fetch quotes from the server,
* and display in the designated area.
*/
quoteDisplay.randQuote = function(){
$.get(Drupal.settings.quoteDisplay.json_url, function(data){
myQuote = Drupal.parseJson(data);
if(!myQuote.status || myQuotes.status == 0){
$(“#quoteDisplay-origin”).text(myQuote.quote.origin);
$(“#quoteDisplay-text”).text(myQuote.quote.text);
}
}); // End inline function
}
}

add this line to quoteDisplay.module file’s theme_quoteDisplay() function (after “drupal_add_js” line, before “$output = ‘

drupal_add_js($module_path . ‘/quoteDisplay.js’);
$opts = array(‘absolute’ => TRUE);
$json_url = url(‘quoteDisplay.json’, $opts);
drupal_add_js(
array(‘quoteDisplay’ =>
array(“json_url” => $json_url)), ‘setting‘);

also add these functions to our quoteDisplay.module file:

/*
* Callback to handle requests for quoteDisplay content.
* @return
* JSON data.
*/
function quoteDisplay_item(){
$item = _quoteDisplay_get_quote();
drupal_set_header(‘Content-Type: text/plain; charset: utf-8′);
printf(
‘{ “quote”: { “origin”: “%s”, “text”: “%s” } }‘,
$item->title,
$item->body
);
}

/**
* Implementation of hook_menu()
* registers quoteDisplay.json
* will call quoteDisplay_item() when called
* anyone that may access content may access this path
* MENU_CALLBACK below is a bitmask,
* that doesn’t authomatically create links to this item in the menu or elsewhere,
* it simnply makes this accessible by URL,
* more than 20 such bitmask types may be used,
* see documentation.
*/
function quoteDisplay_menu(){
$items['quoteDisplay.json'] = array(
‘title’ => ‘Quote Display AJAX Gateway’,
‘page callback’ => ‘quoteDisplay_item’,
‘access arguments’ => array(‘access content’),
‘type’ => MENU_CALLBACK,
);
return $items;
}

now hit the url to see your JSON return! (you may need to clear your drupal cache of course)
http://localhost/yourDrupalSiteName/?q=quoteDisplay.json

Drupal Notes 3: a themed module for a new content type

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:11:30 +0000

create a new content type, create some entries
create a new theme (see earlier notes for how)

quoteDisplay.info contains the following:

; $Id$
name = “Quote Display”
description = “Dynamic display of quotes.”
core = 6.x
php = 5.1

quoteDisplay.module contains this:

// $Id$
/**
* @file
* Module for dynamic display of pithy philosophy quotes.
*/

/**
* Implementation of hook_help()
*/
function quoteDisplay_help($path, $arg)
{
if ($path == ‘admin/help#quoteDisplay’)
{
$txt = ‘This module displays philosophical quotes in blocks. ‘ .
‘It assumes the existence of a content type named “quote”.’;
return ‘

’ . t($txt) . ‘

’;
}
}

/**
* Implementation of hook_block()
*/
function quoteDisplay_block($op = ‘list’, $delta = 0, $edit = array())
{
switch($op)
{
case ‘list’:
$blocks[0]['info'] = t(‘Philosophical Quotes’);
return $blocks;
case ‘view’:
$item = _quoteDisplay_get_quote();
if(!empty($item))
{
$content = theme(‘quoteDisplay_quote’,
check_plain($item->body),
check_plain($item->title));
$blocks['subject'] = t(‘Pithy Quote’);
$blocks['content'] = $content;
return $blocks;
}
}
}

/*
* Return a quote from the Drupal database
*/
function _quoteDisplay_get_quote()
{
$sql = “SELECT nid FROM {node} “.
“WHERE status = 1 AND type = ‘quote’ ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1″;
$res = db_query($sql);
$item = db_fetch_object($res);
$quote = node_load($item->nid);
return $quote;
}

/*
* Implementation of hook_theme().
*/
function quoteDisplay_theme()
{
return array(
‘quoteDisplay_quote’ => array(
‘arguments’ => array(
‘text’ => NULL,
‘origin’ => NULL
),
),
);
}

/*
* Theme function for theming quotes.
*
* @param $text
* The quote content as a string.
* @param $origin
* The original source of the quote, as a string.
* @return
* An HTML themed string.
*/
function theme_quoteDisplay_quote($text, $origin)
{
$module_path = drupal_get_path(‘module’,’quoteDisplay‘);
$full_path = $module_path . ‘/quoteDisplay.css’;
drupal_add_css($full_path);
$output = ‘

’ . t($text) . ‘

’ . t($origin) . ‘

’;
return $output;
}

quoteDisplay.css (also in /sites/all/modules/quoteDisplay) contains:

#quoteDisplay-text:first-letter{
font-size:18pt;
font-weight:bold;
}
#quoteDisplay-origin{
font-style: oblique;
text-align: right;
margin-right: 5px;
}

Note:

This module thus has a default “theme” of its own. This may be overridden via CSS, or via a quoteDisplay.tpl.php file placed within the themes/module/currentTheme folder

Drupal Notes 2: sub-theme derivative of bluemarine : Theme inheritance, overriding, preprocessing

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:22:48 +0000

add folder to:
sites/all/themes(createThis)/subThemeName(createThis)/

create subThemeName.info (in newly created folder):
; $Id$
name = subThemeName
description = blah blah blah blah blah
version = 1.0
core = 6.x
base theme = bluemarine
stylesheets[all][] = descartes-style.css // copy images from parent theme into sub-theme.
stylesheets[all][] = new.css

finally, create above mentioned new.css (in newly created folder) and add styles you’d like to modify, example:
/*
** Style to override the styles.css in
** bluemarine.css
*/

/*
* Plain white right nav.
*/
#sidebar-right{
border-left: 1px solid #ea940c;
background-color: white;
}

ready to go further? copy any of the following over from bluemarine into yourNewSubTheme and edit away:
page.tpl.php (hint: start here), block.tpl.php, box.tpl.php, comment.tpl.php

even further, you’ve moved $breadcrumb in page.tpl.php to where you’d like it, but you want to edit INSIDE that…
these PHPTemplate functions that render content can be found in yourSite/includes/theme.inc
find the one that spits out the content you’d like to modify, and then create a template.php in your new theme directory and override that function…
example: theme_breadcrumb() uses “>>” as separators, in
yourSite/sites/all/themes/yourNewTheme/template.php (make it)
overwrite theme_breadcrumb() via something like this:

// $Id$
/**
* @page
* Override theme_() functions for the youNewTheme.
*/

// Overrides theme_breadcrumb()
function phptemplate_breadcrumb($breadcrumb){
if (empty($breadcrumb)) return;
$sep = ‘

’;
$breadcrumb_string = ‘

’ . implode($sep, $breadcrumb) . ‘

’;
return $breadcrumb_string;
} // end of template.php example

other PHPTemplate theme functions from includes/theme.inc to investigate:
theme_image(), theme_links(), theme_progress_bar(), theme_username(), theme_table(), theme_item_list()

called as follows:
$variable = theme(‘functionName’, $arg1, $arg2, …) , which looks like this:
$crumb = theme(‘item_list’, $breadcrumb, null, ‘ul’, array(‘class’=>’breadcrumb-items’));

IMPORTANT NOTES/REMEMBER:
- a phptemplate_block() function redefined in template.php will override a block.tpl.php file in template folder!
- if you want to preprocess CONTENT before it’s passed to template.php, thus, instead use phptemplate_preprocess_functions()!
- if you’re NOT making a sub-theme, add to .info this line: engine=phptemplate instead of using the base theme line
- don’t forget to make a nice screenshot.png (150×90)

Drupal Notes 1: module hook_block(), hook_help(), check_plain(), check_url(), watchdog(), t(), l(), placeholders(!,%,@)

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:12:28 +0000

Create:
moduleName.info & moduleName.info, save them in sites, all, modules

.info example content:
;$Id$ // This will be substituted by Drupal CVS
name = “ModuleNameHere”
description = “Displays items blah blah blah”
core = 6.x
php = 5.1

.module beginnings…:
// $Id$ // This will be substituted by Drupal CVS
/**
* @file // This denotes that this comment refers to this whole file
* Description Here Of Module…
* @see http://www.goodreads.com // Drupal doc is generated by doxygen, this links to a ref
*/

/**
* Implementation of hook_block()
*/
function moduleName_block($op=’list’, $delta=0, $edit=array()){
switch($op){
case ‘list’:
$blocks[0]['info'] = t(‘Module Info Title’);
return $blocks;
case ‘view’:
$url = ‘http://www.moduleXML.com/review/list_rss/’;
$blocks['subject'] = t(‘Module Subject’);
$blocks['content'] = “Module Content Dynamic or Static…”;
return $blocks;
}
}

/**
* Implementation of hook_help()
*/
function moduleName_help($path, $arg){
if($path == ‘admin/help#moduleName){
$txt = ‘The moduleName module uses the !subThisHolder_url API ‘;
$link = l(‘copyForTheAnchorTag’, ‘http://www.moduleName.com’);
$replace = array(‘!subThisHolder_url‘ => $link);
return ‘

’ . t($txt, $replace) . ‘

’;
}
} //end of example .module code…

Other things useful of note:

The watchdog() function: http://api.drupal.org/api/function/watchdog/6
watchdog(‘loggingCategoryNameThisModuleNameMostLikely’, $msg, $varsToSubIntoMsg, WATCHDOG_WARNING):
logging options:
WATCHDOG_EMERG
WATCHDOG_ALERT
WATCHDOG_CRITICAL
WATCHDOG_ERROR
WATCHDOG_WARNING
WATCHDOG_NOTICE
WATCHDOG_INFO
WATCHDOG_DEBUG

check_plain() – http://api.drupal.org/api/function/check_plain/6

check_url() - http://api.drupal.org/api/function/check_url/6

t() example:

t(‘Replacing %value by !urlHere for @emailPerhaps ‘, array(‘%value’=>’test’, ‘@emailPerhaps’=>$email, ‘!urlHere’=>’http://blah.com’);

!placeholders replaced as is, @placeholders replaced effectively “escaped by” check_plain(), %placeholders are replaced themed as well

PHP Interface and Abstract Class example

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:05:03 +0000

abstract class animal
{
abstract function getowned();
private $age;

protected function __construct($age) {
$this->age = $age;
}

public function getage()
{
return $this->age;
}
}
interface insurable {
public function getvalue();
}

class pet extends animal implements insurable {
private $name;
public function __construct($name,$age) {
parent::__construct($age);
$this->name = $name;
}
public function getname() {
return $this->name;
}
public function getowned() {
return (“Owner String”);
}
public function getvalue() {
return (“Priceless”);
}
}

class house implements insurable {
public function getvalue() {
return (“Rising fast”);
}

}

$charlie = new pet(“Charlie”,6);
$catage = $charlie -> getage();
$catname = $charlie -> getname();
print “$catname is $catage years old!

”;

if ($charlie instanceof pet) print (“charlie is a pet
”);
if ($charlie instanceof animal) print (“charlie is an animal
”);
if ($charlie instanceof house) print (“charlie is a house
”);

if ($charlie instanceof insurable) print (“charlie is insurable
”);
reference: http://www.wellho.net/resources/ex.php4?item=h108/animal3.php

simple PHP namespace example

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:22:04 +0000

Foo.class.php
class Foo
{
function Simple()
{
$var = “Hello”;
return $var;
}
}

namespace.php
namespace Second;
include(‘Foo.class.php’);

class Foo
{
function Simple()
{
$var = “Hello in Second Namespace
”;
return $var;
}
}

$fooSecond = new \Second\Foo();
echo $fooSecond->Simple();
//option 1
//$fooFirst = new \Foo();
//$fooFirst->Simple();
//option 2
echo \Foo::Simple();

simple PHP __autoload example

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:40:55 +0000

Foo.class.php
class Foo
{
public static $varz;
public static function Simple()
{
self::$varz = “Hello”;
return self::$varz;
}
}

index.php (in the same directory)
function __autoload($classname) {
include(“$classname.class.php”);
}

//include “Foo.class.php”; //no longer needed!

$foo = new Foo();
echo $foo->Simple();

simple ob_start(), flush(), ob_gzhandler, sleep(), HEREDOC examples

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:11:25 +0000

//ob_start()
ob_start();
print “Hello First!\n”;
ob_end_flush();

ob_start();
print “Hello Second!\n”;
ob_end_clean();

ob_start();
print “Hello Third!\n”;

//outputs “Hello First! Hello Third!”

//flush()

Hello, world!

< ? php flush(); sleep(2); ? >

< ? php flush(); sleep(2); ? >

// compressed output

< ? php
ob_start(‘ob_gzhandler’);
print “My content\n”;
ob_end_flush();
? >

// sleep

< ? php
ob_implicit_flush(true);
for($i=0;$i<5;$i++)
{
$dis=<<

DIS;
echo $dis;

sleep(5);
//flush();
}
? >

memory jogger: Chain of responsibility, Polymorphism, Design Pattern reference, Decorator pattern, Singleton

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:52:29 +0000

Good stuff, take a moment to refresh and review:

Chain of responsibility:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain-of-responsibility_pattern
Polymorphism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphism_in_object-oriented_programming
JavaScript really OOP?:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1044656.html
http://mckoss.com/jscript/object.htm
JS Prototype object:
http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/proto4.shtml
Design Patterns reference/list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_pattern_%28computer_science%29
Decorator Pattern:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decorator_pattern
Loose Coupling def:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_coupling
Singleton Pattern:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singleton_pattern

MySQl sub query example 2

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:09:53 +0000

SELECT
q.questionId,
q.question,
q.questionTopic,
q.questionDate,
q.courseId,
q.customerId,
v.voted_this
FROM
” . $course_database_questions_table_name . ” q
LEFT JOIN
(SELECT questionId voted_this FROM votes WHERE customerId = ‘” . $customer_id . “‘) v
ON
q.questionId = v.voted_this
WHERE
q.courseId = ” . $courseId . ”
ORDER BY q.questionDate DESC

MySQL sub query example – nice

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:20:08 +0000

$cp_output = “”;
if(!$get_cp_data = mysql_query(”
SELECT
q.*,
c.*,
vote_counts.Tally
FROM
questions q
LEFT JOIN
(SELECT
questionId,
count(1) as Tally
FROM
votes
GROUP BY
questionId
) vote_counts
ON
q.questionId = vote_counts.questionId
LEFT JOIN
customers c
ON
c.customerId = q.customerId
WHERE
q.courseId = 1
ORDER BY
vote_counts.Tally desc
“)){ echo mysql_error(); }

while($get_cp_data_array = mysql_fetch_array($get_cp_data)){
$q_id = $get_cp_data_array['questionId'];

$q_fname = $get_cp_data_array['customerFName'];
$q_lname = $get_cp_data_array['customerLName'];
$q_email = $get_cp_data_array['customerEmail'];

$q_topic = $get_cp_data_array['questionTopic'];
$q_question = $get_cp_data_array['question'];
$q_date = $get_cp_data_array['questionDate'];
//$q_count = $get_cp_data_array['votecount'];
$q_customer = $get_cp_data_array['customerId'];

if($q_topic == “”){ $q_topic = “–”; }
if($q_fname != “” || $q_lname != “”){
$from = ‘’ . $q_fname . ‘ ‘ . $q_lname . ‘ – ‘;
}

# Parse the question text.
$old = array(“\n”);
$new = array(“
”);
$q_question = str_replace($old, $new, $q_question);

# Output the question.
$cp_output = $cp_output . ‘

’ . $q_id . ‘

’ . $q_topic . ‘

’ . $q_question . ‘

Submitted ‘ . $q_date . ‘ by ‘ . $from . ‘’ . $q_email . ‘

‘;
}

clean & simple check your $_SERVER var

admin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:43:11 +0000

echo “

”;

print_r($_SERVER);
?>

WordPress PHP custom theme functions.php hook

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:33:07 +0000

In your theme (wp-content/themes/YourNewTheme) create or find functions.php

and start making whatever you need. It’s a nice clean place to put things without hacking away at your code,

dynamically inserting with JS, or whatever other measure you’ve either employed in the past, or are considering now…

for example,

//My own footer hook
function my_footer() {

//code to execute

blah blah blah

}

then, wherever you like, call your new function, example, replace all calls with, you guested it,

thanks to: http://www.raymondselda.com/understanding-action-hooks-in-wordpress/

Don’t forget to include the following in your new custom theme functions.php file if you want the dynamic custom drag widget sidebar!:

if ( function_exists(‘register_sidebar’) )
register_sidebar();

reference: http://codex.wordpress.org/Widgetizing_Themes

“&” preceeding variable & Passing function parameters by reference variable PHP

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:22:46 +0000

& preceeds variable

$original = “foo”;
$ref = &$original;
echo $ref; \\Prints “foo”
// now we change the value of $original
$original = “bar”;
// and then print the value of the referring variable
echo $ref; \\Now prints the new value: “bar”
source: http://www.whypad.com/posts/php-what-is-the-ampersand-preceding-variables/193/

reference variable (&variable)

function add_some_extra(&$string) { $string .= 'and something extra.'; } $str = 'This is a string, '; add_some_extra($str); echo $str; // outputs 'This is a string, and something extra.' ?>

Basically, the argument is treated, referenced by the outside variable, as global
Without the &, it would output ‘This is a string’
source: http://php.net/manual/en/functions.arguments.php

Postincrement Preincrement Postdecrement Predecrement PHP careful! ++ –

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:07:52 +0000

 
echo "Postincrement
";

$a = 5;

echo "Should be 5: " . $a++ . "\n";

echo "Should be 6: " . $a . "\n";
echo "
Preincrement
";

$a = 5;

echo "Should be 6: " . ++$a . "\n";

echo "Should be 6: " . $a . "\n";
echo "
Postdecrement
";

$a = 5;

echo "Should be 5: " . $a-- . "\n";

echo "Should be 4: " . $a . "\n";
echo "
Predecrement
";

$a = 5;

echo "Should be 4: " . --$a . "\n";

echo "Should be 4: " . $a . "\n";

?>

source: http://php.net/manual/en/language.operators.increment.php

I always like to have a nice simple AJAX example on hand, you never know…

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:52:02 +0000

reference:

http://w3schools.com/php/php_ajax_php.asp

HTML:

Start typing a name in the input field below:

Suggestions:

Script:

// Fill up array with names
$a[]=”Anna”;
$a[]=”Brittany”;
$a[]=”Cinderella”;
$a[]=”Diana”;
$a[]=”Eva”;
$a[]=”Fiona”;
$a[]=”Gunda”;
$a[]=”Hege”;
$a[]=”Inga”;
$a[]=”Johanna”;
$a[]=”Kitty”;
$a[]=”Linda”;
$a[]=”Nina”;
$a[]=”Ophelia”;
$a[]=”Petunia”;
$a[]=”Amanda”;
$a[]=”Raquel”;
$a[]=”Cindy”;
$a[]=”Doris”;
$a[]=”Eve”;
$a[]=”Evita”;
$a[]=”Sunniva”;
$a[]=”Tove”;
$a[]=”Unni”;
$a[]=”Violet”;
$a[]=”Liza”;
$a[]=”Elizabeth”;
$a[]=”Ellen”;
$a[]=”Wenche”;
$a[]=”Vicky”;

//get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_GET["q"];

//lookup all hints from array if length of q>0
if (strlen($q) > 0)
{
$hint=”";
for($i=0; $i {
if (strtolower($q)==strtolower(substr($a[$i],0,strlen($q))))
{
if ($hint==”")
{
$hint=$a[$i];
}
else
{
$hint=$hint.” , “.$a[$i];
}
}
}
}

// Set output to “no suggestion” if no hint were found
// or to the correct values
if ($hint == “”)
{
$response=”no suggestion”;
}
else
{
$response=$hint;
}

//output the response
echo $response;
?>

PHP Expat XML Parser refresher

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:40:38 +0000

from: http://w3schools.com/php/php_xml_parser_expat.asp

example XML

Tove
Jani
Reminder
Don’t forget me this weekend!

script to parse:

//Initialize the XML parser
$parser=xml_parser_create();

//Function to use at the start of an element
function start($parser,$element_name,$element_attrs)
{
switch($element_name)
{
case “NOTE”:
echo “– Note –
”;
break;
case “TO”:
echo “To: “;
break;
case “FROM”:
echo “From: “;
break;
case “HEADING”:
echo “Heading: “;
break;
case “BODY”:
echo “Message: “;
}
}

//Function to use at the end of an element
function stop($parser,$element_name)
{
echo “
”;
}

//Function to use when finding character data
function char($parser,$data)
{
echo $data;
}

//Specify element handler
xml_set_element_handler($parser,”start”,”stop”);

//Specify data handler
xml_set_character_data_handler($parser,”char”);

//Open XML file
$fp=fopen(“test.xml”,”r”);

//Read data
while ($data=fread($fp,4096))
{
xml_parse($parser,$data,feof($fp)) or
die (sprintf(“XML Error: %s at line %d”,
xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($parser)),
xml_get_current_line_number($parser)));
}

//Free the XML parser
xml_parser_free($parser);
?>

output:

– Note –
To: Tove
From: Jani
Heading: Reminder
Message: Don’t forget me this weekend!

MySQL refresher

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:28:53 +0000

datatypes:

http://w3schools.com/sql/sql_datatypes.asp

Order results by 2 columns:

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column1, column2

Simple delete:

$con = mysql_connect(“localhost”,”peter”,”abc123″);
if (!$con)
{
die(‘Could not connect: ‘ . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db(“my_db”, $con);
mysql_query(“DELETE FROM Persons WHERE LastName=’Griffin’”);
mysql_close($con);
?>

PHP custom error handling, log and email and user messaging

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:33:30 +0000

http://w3schools.com/php/php_error.asp

//error handler function
function customError($errno, $errstr)
{
echo “Error: [$errno] $errstr
”;
echo “Webmaster has been notified”;
error_log(“Error: [$errno] $errstr”,1,
“someone@example.com”,”From: webmaster@example.com”);
}

//set error handler
set_error_handler(“customError”,E_USER_WARNING);

//trigger error
$test=2;
if ($test>1)
{
trigger_error(“Value must be 1 or below”,E_USER_WARNING);
}
?>

open a file and read it line by line or character by character reference refresher

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:49:11 +0000

from http://w3schools.com/php/php_file.asp

Reading a File Line by Line

The fgets() function is used to read a single line from a file.

Note: After a call to this function the file pointer has moved to the next line.

Example

The example below reads a file line by line, until the end of file is reached:

$file = fopen(“welcome.txt”, “r”) or exit(“Unable to open file!”);
//Output a line of the file until the end is reached
while(!feof($file))
{
echo fgets($file). “
”;
}
fclose($file);
?>

Reading a File Character by Character

The fgetc() function is used to read a single character from a file.

Note: After a call to this function the file pointer moves to the next character.

Example

The example below reads a file character by character, until the end of file is reached:

$file=fopen(“welcome.txt”,”r”) or exit(“Unable to open file!”);
while (!feof($file))
{
echo fgetc($file);
}
fclose($file);
?>

date() and timestamp refresher

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:42:36 +0000

date(format,timestamp)

format is required, example:

date(“Y-m-d”)

of course, Y, m, and d stand for Year, month, day, and they may be separated by whatever you like, so the above example returns 2010-07-27, while date(“m/d/Y”) returns 07/27/2010

now for the timestamp parameter

MAKE what should be supplied for the timestamp, with mktime(hour,minute,second,month,day,year,is_dst)

$tomorrow = mktime(0,0,0,date(“m”),date(“d”)+1,date(“Y”))

date(“Y/m/d”,$tomorrow) returns tomorrow!

I never seem to use the “do…while” loop so here it is just to remind me…

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:36:29 +0000

example from :

http://w3schools.com/php/php_looping.asp

$i=1;
do
{
$i++;
echo “The number is ” . $i . “
”;
}
while ($i<=5);
?>

Key difference, it ALWAYS executes once, and THEN evaluates

variable variables PHP awesome

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:21:43 +0000

variable variables create variables with variable names

$Bar = "a"; $Foo = "Bar"; $World = "Foo"; $Hello = "World"; $a = "Hello";

$a; //Returns Hello
$$a; //Returns World
$$$a; //Returns Foo
$$$$a; //Returns Bar
$$$$$a; //Returns a

$$$$$$a; //Returns Hello
$$$$$$$a; //Returns World

//… and so on …//

From:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.variable.php

using a PHP variable in a MySQL IN batch query example

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:13:18 +0000

Note the ‘s

$product_list = “’1869′, ’1929′, ’549′, ’189′, ’419′, ’176′, ’192′, ’310′, ’291′, ’514′, ’1643′, ’1033′“;

$db_name = “dbName”;
//conditional platform logic to support multiple connection scenarios

switch($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'])
{
case ‘localhost’:
$db_host = “localhost”;
$db_username = “userName”;
$db_password = “Password”;
$dblink = mysql_connect ($db_host, $db_username, $db_password);
mysql_select_db($db_name, $dblink);
break;
case ‘www-staging.site.com’: break;
case ‘www.site.com’:
include(‘/var/www/includes/connection_script.php’);
break;
}

$result = mysql_query(”
SELECT
product_id,
product_name
FROM
tableNameHere
WHERE
product_id IN (“.$product_list.“)
“);
if (!$result) { echo “Could not successfully run query ($sql) from DB: “ . mysql_error(); exit; }

//let’s break out the resource so that it can be singularly requested when needed

while($one = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$prod_id = $one['product_id'];
$product_name[$prod_id] = $one['product_name'];
}
@mysql_close($dblink);

Flash Session Cookie SharedObject

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:11:57 +0000

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AS3LCR/Flash_10.0/flash/net/SharedObject.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Shared_Object

http://www.adobe.com/support/flash/action_scripts/actionscript_tutorial/actionscript_tutorial05.html

to change settings:

right click on any flash swf

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html

stored here:

Windows XP:
- For Web sites: %APPDATA%\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\\\\.sol
- And Also: %APPDATA%\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys

Windows Vista and later:
- For Web sites: %APPDATA%\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\\\\.sol
- And also: %APPDATA%\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys
- For AIR Applications: unknown, likely similar to the above

PHP sprintf() quick example

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:34:41 +0000

$template = ‘

%s
by %s

’;
$designIt = “className”;
$imgSrc = “http://www.imageLivesHere.com/yo.jpg”;
$copyText = “What fabulous and interesting placeholder copy!”;
$sourceAuthor = “Me”;
$altogetherNow = sprintf ( $template, $imgSrc, $linkText, $sourceAuthor);

//Result

className“>
http://www.imageLivesHere.com/yo.jpg“/>

What fabulous and interesting placeholder copy!

by Me

Close Fancybox from within, old (1.2) and new (1.3)

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:48:02 +0000

In 1.2 this worked:

onclick=”$(“#fancy_outer”,window.parent.document).hide(); $(“#fancy_overlay”,window.parent.document).hide();”

1.3+ this has changed to:

onclick=”parent.$.fancybox.close();“

jQuery replace all img tags with certain source…

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:55:31 +0000

$(‘img’).each(function(){
var t=$(this);
var src1 = t.attr(‘src’);
var newSrc = “images/play2.png”;
if(src1 == “images/play.png”)
{
$(this).attr(‘src’, newSrc);
}
});

JavaScript URL parse to load multiple versions

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:54:45 +0000

”;
if(isset($_SESSION['enews_refer_value']))
{
echo “”;
$enews_refer_value = $_SESSION['enews_refer_value'];
}
else { $enews_refer_value = “”; }
break;
default:
echo “”;
$_SESSION['enews_refer_value'] = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
$enews_refer_value = $_SESSION['enews_refer_value'];
break;
}

IE7 php force download FIX

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:40:30 +0000

Normally, as an accomplished programmer, you use all the headers, follow the guidelines, include what you should…

but, when Microsoft won’t play by the rules, you have to fudge…

IE7 rejects forced downloads (in this example I was using doing PDF, mp3, zip, and m4b files).

It opens the download dialog, chooses a location, and then commences to quit having downloaded 0 bits.

So, instead of the dutiful example elsewhere in this blog that chooses the correct content-type, length, transer encoding and so on…

We just do this, seems to work, forces it somehow, sorry, I’ve no further explanation…:

$filename = $_GET['file'];
// required for IE, otherwise Content-disposition is ignored
if(ini_get(‘zlib.output_compression’))
ini_set(‘zlib.output_compression’, ‘Off’);

$file_extension = strtolower(substr(strrchr($filename,”.”),1));
if( $filename == “” )
{
echo “ERROR: download file NOT SPECIFIED.”;
exit;
}

header(“Cache-Control: maxage=1″);
header(“Content-Type: application/force-download”);
header(“Content-disposition: attachment; filename=\”". $filename .”\”;” );
@readfile(“$filename”) or die(“File not found.”);
exit();

htaccess file to restrict Godaddy

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:38:29 +0000

I’m using this to lock a directory of assets for a client on a godaddy hosting plan:

order deny,allow
allow from localhost
deny from all

and then accessing files there from with a php file that checks their Zend logged in/file permissions etc.
(search this blog for “file serve” in content to find the php script)

AWESOME!

PHP htaccess file serve script

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:34:13 +0000

search this blog for the “htaccess” file contents to put in a directory, then use this to serve up pdf files securely from said directory:

file serve php script:

first check Zend permissions…logged in, permissions granted, user active, expirations, etc…..
then:

$file = “path/path/” . $_GET['file'];
//$file = “Broker_Admin/Materials/Course.pdf”;
header(‘Content-type: application/pdf’);
header(“Content-Disposition: inline; filename=”.$file);
/*header(“Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=”.$file);*/
header(‘Last-Modified: ‘.gmdate(‘D, d M Y H:i:s’) . ‘ GMT’);
header(‘Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate’);
header(‘Cache-Control: pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0′);
header(‘Pragma: anytextexeptno-cache’, true);
header(‘Cache-control: private’);
header(‘Expires: 0′);
readfile($file);
?>

then from wherever I want to call it I call this script and pass in the file wanted.

like this:

Download the Test file here

File is NOT accessible directly, or via this script since it first checks visitor’s SESSIONS, ZEND Permissions, that variables passed to it are set, etc. and so on…

jQuery bind select change to anchor window.open variable

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:50:53 +0000

add window.open() to an anchor tag…

HTML:

select dropdown changes the source:

link or button gets source from dropdown via jQuery onReady function:

$(“div.name select”).bind(“change”,function(){
$(‘#button_download’).attr(‘href’,this.value);
windowUrl = $(this).val();
//console.log(windowUrl);
});

Download

log to the console in firefox firebug javascript

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:46:14 +0000

console.log(windowUrl);

but remove it once you’ve learned what you need to as it will break things in other browsers…

session_start() php when to do it again!

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:18:05 +0000

I was stuck for a bit there.

I have a page that loads via AJAX, but I had to modify it to work for Google’s googlebot #! system…

The googlebot logic senses that it’s googlebot, and uses PHP includes instead of the AJAX!

Well the includes don’t need the session_start() again, but the AJAX loads DO!

So, NOT to be forgotten, session_start() will work per LOAD, hard to explain that, but you can wrap your head around it…

fancy!

BETTER SOLUTION: Sessions manager class, framework or similar…

fancy complex php force file download script

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:14:58 +0000

set_time_limit(0);
$file_path=’blah.pptx’;
output_file($file_path, ‘blah.pptx’, ”);

function dl_file($file){

$file = ‘blah.pptx’;
$filename = realpath($file);
$file_extension = strtolower(substr(strrchr($filename,”.”),1));

if (!file_exists($filename)) { die(“NO FILE HERE”); }
$ctype=”application/vnd.ms-powerpoint”;
header(“Pragma: public”);
header(“Expires: 0″);
header(“Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0″);
header(“Cache-Control: private”, false);
header(“Content-Type: $ctype”);
header(“Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\”$filename\”");
header(“Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary”);
header(“Content-Length: “.@filesize($filename));
set_time_limit(0);
@readfile($file);
exit;
}

function output_file($file, $name, $mime_type=”)
{

if(!is_readable($file)) die(‘File not found or inaccessible!’);

$size = filesize($file);
$name = rawurldecode($name);

/* Figure out the MIME type (if not specified) */
$known_mime_types=array(
“pdf” => “application/pdf”,
“txt” => “text/plain”,
“html” => “text/html”,
“htm” => “text/html”,
“exe” => “application/octet-stream”,
“zip” => “application/zip”,
“doc” => “application/msword”,
“xls” => “application/vnd.ms-excel”,
“ppt” => “application/vnd.ms-powerpoint”,
“gif” => “image/gif”,
“png” => “image/png”,
“jpeg”=> “image/jpg”,
“jpg” => “image/jpg”,
“php” => “text/plain”
);

if($mime_type==”){
$file_extension = strtolower(substr(strrchr($file,”.”),1));
if(array_key_exists($file_extension, $known_mime_types)){
$mime_type=$known_mime_types[$file_extension];
} else {
$mime_type=”application/force-download”;
};
};

@ob_end_clean(); //turn off output buffering to decrease cpu usage

// required for IE, otherwise Content-Disposition may be ignored
if(ini_get(‘zlib.output_compression’))
ini_set(‘zlib.output_compression’, ‘Off’);

header(‘Content-Type: ‘ . $mime_type);
header(‘Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=”‘.$name.’”‘);
header(“Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary”);
header(‘Accept-Ranges: bytes’);

/* The three lines below basically make the
download non-cacheable */
header(“Cache-control: private”);
header(‘Pragma: private’);
header(“Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT”);

// multipart-download and download resuming support
if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE']))
{
list($a, $range) = explode(“=”,$_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'],2);
list($range) = explode(“,”,$range,2);
list($range, $range_end) = explode(“-”, $range);
$range=intval($range);
if(!$range_end) {
$range_end=$size-1;
} else {
$range_end=intval($range_end);
}

$new_length = $range_end-$range+1;
header(“HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content”);
header(“Content-Length: $new_length”);
header(“Content-Range: bytes $range-$range_end/$size”);
} else {
$new_length=$size;
header(“Content-Length: “.$size);
}

/* output the file itself */
$chunksize = 1*(1024*1024); //you may want to change this
$bytes_send = 0;
if ($file = fopen($file, ‘r’))
{
if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE']))
fseek($file, $range);

while(!feof($file) &&
(!connection_aborted()) &&
($bytes_send<$new_length)
)
{
$buffer = fread($file, $chunksize);
print($buffer); //echo($buffer); // is also possible
flush();
$bytes_send += strlen($buffer);
}
fclose($file);
} else die(‘Error – can not open file.’);

die();
}

basic php force file download script

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:00:54 +0000

$filename = $_GET['file'];
// required for IE, otherwise Content-disposition is ignored
if(ini_get(‘zlib.output_compression’))
ini_set(‘zlib.output_compression’, ‘Off’);

$file_extension = strtolower(substr(strrchr($filename,”.”),1));
if( $filename == “” )
{
echo “ERROR: download file NOT SPECIFIED.”;
exit;
}
switch( $file_extension )
{
case “pdf”: $ctype=”application/pdf”; break;
case “txt”: $ctype=”text/plain”; break;
case “html”: $ctype=”text/html”; break;
case “htm”: $ctype=”text/html”; break;
case “exe”: $ctype=”application/octet-stream”; break;
case “zip”: $ctype=”application/zip”; break;
case “doc”: $ctype=”application/msword”; break;
case “xls”: $ctype=”application/vnd.ms-excel”; break;
case “ppt”: $ctype=”application/vnd.ms-powerpoint”; break;
case “gif”: $ctype=”image/gif”; break;
case “png”: $ctype=”image/png”; break;
case “jpeg”: $ctype=”image/jpg”; break;
case “jpg”: $ctype=”image/jpg”; break;
case “php”: $ctype=”text/plain”; break;
default: $ctype=”application/force-download”;
}
header(“Pragma: public”); // required
header(“Expires: 0″);
header(“Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0″);
header(“Cache-Control: private”,false); // required for certain browsers
header(“Content-Type: $ctype”);
header(“Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\”".basename($filename).”\”;” );
header(“Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary”);
header(“Content-Length: “.filesize($filename));
set_time_limit(0);
@readfile(“$filename”) or die(“File not found.”);
exit();
?>

meta no archive tag

admin — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:00:52 +0000

jQuery scrollTo id

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:56:17 +0000

Here

text

MySQL phpMyAdmin text string find replace Query

admin — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:21:29 +0000

update TABLE_NAME set FIELD_NAME =
replace(FIELD_NAME,’find this string’,'replace it with this one’);

example (for videodb to turn all “wanted” titles into “DVD” titles):

update videodb_videodata set mediatype =
replace(mediatype,’50’,’1’);

jQuery Javascript CSS gray out faded disabled element fadeTo() onload .ready()

admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:15:45 +0000

Simply fade the element you’d like faded, grayed, via your .ready onload jQuery function:

$(document).ready(function() {

jQuery(‘#top_button’).fadeTo(0, 0.5);

});

jQuery set tag element disabled

admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:13:03 +0000

jQuery(‘#element1′).attr(‘disabled’,'disabled’);

jQuery setTimeout fadeOut() fadeIn() show() hide() example

admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:06:25 +0000

This is a bit of craziness, still it works nicely to hide a element, show another, and then a bit later hide the latter, and again show the original.

$(‘#item1′).bind(‘click’,function() {

$(‘#item1′).fadeOut( function(){

setTimeout( function(){

$(‘#item2′).fadeIn(function() {

setTimeout( function(){

$(‘#item2′).fadeOut(function(){

setTimeout( function() {

$(‘#item1′).fadeIn();

}, 100);

});

}, 2000 );

});

}, 100);

}); return false;

});

HTML form field readonly and disable

admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:26:49 +0000

and equally useful

Platform Environments Config for PHP applications example $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:06:42 +0000

You have to look at all of your different server returned variables for each platform,

and simply find one that you may reference and set per platform via script similar to:

// PLATFORM CONFIG

if($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == ‘localhost’)
{
define(‘HOME’,'http://localhost/url.com/’);
define(‘PLATFORM_DB’,'localhost’);
}
elseif($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == ‘www-staging.url.com’)
{
define(‘HOME’,'http://www-staging.soundstrue.com/’);
define(‘PLATFORM_DB’,'mktgdb.url.com’);
}
elseif($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == ‘www.url.com’);
{
define(‘HOME’,'http://www.url.com/’);
define(‘PLATFORM_DB’,'mktgdb.url.com’);
}

Then simply access the variable when needed:

header(“Location:” . HOME . “event/forums/site/index.php/”);

$boarddir = HOME . “event/forums/dangerous/index.php/board,1.0.html”;

This way you can develop on your local machine, promote your app to staging, where it will still work, and finally to production, all without re-coding those pesky app variables.

Loop through PHP $_SERVER variables / values

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:37:18 +0000

foreach($_SERVER as $key_name => $key_value) {
print $key_name . ” = ” . $key_value . “
”;
}

PHP MySQL date & time reference

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:19:34 +0000

http://www.eltcalendar.com/stuff/datemysqlphp.html

thank you for this great handy reference!

pasted verbatim:

Format	PHP	MySQL
Time	The function is: date(format) where “format” consists of the letters given below.	The functions are: date_format(string, format) time_format(string, format) where “format” consists of the letters given below.)
hour, 2-digit, 12-hour (01-12)	h	%h
hour, 2-digit, 24-hour (00-23)	H	%H
hour, numeric, 12-hour (1-12)	g	%l
hour, numeric, 24-hour (0-23)	G	%k
minute, 2-digit (00-59)	i	%i
seconds, 2-digit (00-59)	s	%S
time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss)	none, use date(“H:i:s”)	%T
time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss AM/PM)	none, use date(“g:i:s A”)	%r
AM / PM (uppercase letters)	A	%p
am / pm (lowercase letters)	a	none
Days
day name, full (Sunday)	l (a lowercase L)	%W
day name, abbreviation (Sun)	D	%a
day as number of week (0-6)	none, use a getdate() array: First do this: $dateInfo = getdate(); Your day as number of the week is $dateInfo[wday];	%w
day number of the year	z (Note: 0-365; ex: January 1st is 0)	%j (Note: 001-366; ex: January 1st is 001)
Dates
month name in full (January)	F	%M
month name, abbreviated (Jan)	M	%b
month, 2-digit (01-12)	m	%m
month, no leading 0 (1, 2, 3 – 12)	n	%c
day of month, 2-digit (01, 02, …)	d	%d
day of month, no leading 0 (1, 2)	j	%e
day of month with ordinal suffix (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th…)	none. Use jS	%D
ordinal suffix (st, nd, rd, th)	S	none; use %D (above)
year, 4 digit (2001)	Y	%Y
year, 2 digit (00-99)	y	%y

Examples: To write:	Use this:	Use this:
Sunday, June 03, 2001	date(‘l, F d, Y’)	date_format(date, ‘%W, %M %d, %Y’)
Sun., Jun 3rd, 2001. 11:30 AM	date(‘D., M jS, Y.g:i A’)	date_format(datetime, ‘%a., %b %D, %Y. %l: %i %p’) Or if there are two columns, one date and one time, you’d use: date_format(date, ‘%a., %b %D, %Y.’) time_format(time, ‘%l: %i %p’) See the note below)
2001-06-03	date(‘Y-m-d’)	(see important note below; this is default for date-type columns so you don’t have to use any special function or formatting at all.)

Important Note:

The choice in MySQL between date_format() and time_format() depends on the type of column you have stored your date in.

MySQL column type:	Data format in the column (all parts are required)	Example:	Use:
date	YYYY-MM-DD	2001-06-03	date_format() to get date values
time (see “NB” below)	hh:mm:ss	13:30:00	time_format() to get time values
datetime	YYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss	2001-06-03 13:30:00	date_format() to get date and/or time values

NB: the time type for MySQL columns actually represents an amount of time elapsed; thus, it can be negative or positive. However, it can also be used to represent the time of day, where it represents the amount of time elapsed since 1 second past midnight. If you forget to add :00 for seconds (for example, using 13:30 for 1:30 p.m.), your time value will be interpreted as the number of minutes and seconds after midnight, or 12:30 a.m. plus 30 seconds.

Firefox password manager asking and asking… turn it off

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:43:11 +0000

options menu

“Security” tab

uncheck “Remember passwords for sites”

http://robert.accettura.com/blog/2007/05/07/disable-password-manager/

jQuery Fancybox IE width issue don’t forget the doctype!

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:10:51 +0000

Required, a doctype!

example:

“http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd”>

also, it never hurts to go get the latest versions of jquery and fancybox, at the time of this post: http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.4.2.min.js & fancybox-1.3.1.js worked nicely…

Lightwindow IE fix

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:08:45 +0000

Replace:

this.checkImage = new PeriodicalExecuter(function(i) {
if (!(typeof $(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).naturalWidth != “undefined” && $(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).naturalWidth == 0)) {

this.checkImage.stop();

var imageHeight = $(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).getHeight();
if (imageHeight > this.resizeTo.height) {
this.resizeTo.height = imageHeight;
}
this.resizeTo.width += $(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).getWidth();
this.imageCount–;

$(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).setStyle({
height: ’100%’, width: ’100%’
});

if (this.imageCount == 0) {
this._processWindow();
}
}

}.bind(this, i), 1);

With:

// We have to do this instead of .onload
var ie = (document.all)?1:0;
this.checkImage = new PeriodicalExecuter(function(i) {
if(ie){ //THE BROWSER IS IE
if ( $(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).complete && !(typeof $(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).naturalWidth != “undefined” && $(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).naturalWidth == 0)) {
this.checkImage.stop();

$(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).setStyle({
height: ’100%’, width: ’100%’
});

if (this.imageCount == 0) {
this._processWindow();
}
//alert(‘IE has been detected’)
}
}
else
{//NOT IE, PROBABLY FF, OPERA, OTHER
//this line works for all other browsers
if ($(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).complete && !(typeof $(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).naturalWidth != “undefined” && $(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).naturalWidth == 0)) {

this.checkImage.stop();

$(‘lightwindow_image_’+i).setStyle({
height: ’100%’, width: ’100%’
});

if (this.imageCount == 0) {
this._processWindow();
}
}
}

}.bind(this, i), 1);

credit:
http://www.silverstripe.org/all-other-modules/show/251991?start=8

MySQL phpMyAdmin Query change table names syntax

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:30:12 +0000

RENAME TABLE

database_name.table_name TO database_name.new_table_name,

database_name.table2_name TO database_name.new_table2_name;

NOTE the comma and the semicolon!

Prototype script.aculo.us form simple handling

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:38:40 +0000

I’ve pretty much left script.aculo.us for jQuery for the most part, but sometimes I’m still animating with it, thought it would be good to make this easily and quickly reference-able just in case:

The Form:

The Javascript:

function enewsSubscribe()
{
var email = document.getElementById(‘email’).value;
var first_name = document.getElementById(‘first_name’).value;
var last_name = document.getElementById(‘last_name’).value;
new Ajax.Updater(‘hp_email_box’, ‘filter.php?email=’ + email + ‘&first_name=’ + first_name + ‘&last_name=’ + last_name //);
, { onCreate: show_subscribe_loader, onComplete: hide_subscribe_loader });
}

function show_subscribe_loader()
{
document.getElementById(‘hp_email_loading’).style.display = ‘block’;
return false;
}

function hide_subscribe_loader()
{
document.getElementById(‘hp_email_loading’).style.display = ‘none’;
return false;
}

Googlebot make your AJAX crawlable #! simply explained

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:30:00 +0000

http://code.google.com/web/ajaxcrawling/

But what?

Put simply, in your URLs, that are currently:

http://www.site.com/index.php#page90

First, make them:

http://www.site.com/index.php#!page90

Your Javascript will just see the ! (bang) as a character, it won’t care, and will continue to work just fine

Googlebot though, sees the ! and changes its query to:

http://www.site.com/index.php?_escaped_fragment_=page90

So your index simply needs to see $_GET['_escaped_fragment_']

If it’s set, load page90 via PHP instead of AJAX, and there you have it,

now Google will link the content it found via:

http://www.site.com/index.php?_escaped_fragment_=page90

to the url:

http://www.site.com/index.php#!page90

Now alter/resubmit your Google Sitemap so that all your URLs are current (WITH the #!) and you’re set!

AWESOME!

Javascript HTML form field onFocus onBlur

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:16:15 +0000

onFocus=”if(this.value == ‘Email’) this.value = ”;” onBlur=”if(this.value == ”) this.value = ‘Email’;”/>

PHP include() doesn’t pass variables!

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:41:24 +0000

Really wanted it to…

Seemed logical enough…

index.php:

some_file.php:

BUT ALAS, NO

Alternatively, simply set the variable, and the included script may access it just as though it were the parent script…duh.

PHP include $_SERVER['Document_Root'] include_once AJAX

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:31:18 +0000

It can be tricky if your include statements don’t always load from the same location in the app, an include(‘that.php’) in the root index file thinks of itself as coming from the index, so anything included THEREIN will too, but then if someday down the line you want to call an evaluation script, for example, and THEN the rest of the application…a bunch might break.

Thus, with EVERY include, it’s best to use one of the available SERVER variables, which is a longer story, but here’s an example:

include($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . “/site/lib/logic.inc.php”);

The next lesson, logically following, is that this new evaluation script needs to load in the app’s functions…but it thinks the second load (which of course only happens SOME of the time via the evaluations…) is trying to redefine the functions, HENCE:

include_once

Prefer it.

Finally, you’ll notice that includes are affected differently when loaded via AJAX. For example, index.php loads in our new evaluation.php, which then loads 1.php or 2.php and so on, that is, when the app is being loaded exclusively by php in order to be crawled by Googlebot, but if it ISN’T Googlebot visiting it this time, let’s load things via AJAX! Short and sweet, use the above mentioned $_SERVER['Document_Root'] everywhere BUT in your JS, and use full paths if possible INSIDE, as such: http://localhost/includeLesson/pages/page1.php, or similar Server variable to sidestep this mess, and now you can recognize these pitfalls when you encounter them, or remember their solutions next time they cross your path (by which time of course you’ll have forgotten how you solved them last…)

PHP 301 redirect forward

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:06:43 +0000

header(“HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently”);
header(‘Location: http://www.google.com’);

jQuery fancybox iframe syntax

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:14:22 +0000

View Tracks »

PHP remove price and/or decimal and zeros Trim and substr methods

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:26:05 +0000

Trim method:


trim(trim($num, '0'), '.');
?>
substr method:


$num = number_format($num, 2);
if((substr($num, -1)==0) && (substr($num, -2)==0)) 

{

$num = number_format($num,0);

}

else

{

$num = $num;

}
?>



quick note: Javascript equivalent to PHP isset variable
admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:57:40 +0000
Check to see whether or not a variable has been declared
if ( typeof ( $variable ) == ‘undefined’ )
{}

else

{}



jQuery change anchor tag href url via select option
admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:31:21 +0000






 id=”tpom_download” title=”blah” href=”media/tpom.mp3″ onclick=”return false;”>Download








Moving WordPress DB changes and/or functions.php
admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:12:47 +0000
change DB values
table:

wp-options
column:

option_name
fields:

siteurl

home
also to note in here:

blogname

upload_url_path

comment_moderation

rss_language

admin_email
ALTERNATE OPTION, (db inaccessible)

add a few lines to:

wp-content/themes/default/functions.php
lines:

update_option(‘siteurl’,’http://yourUrl‘);

update_option(‘home’,’http://yourUrl/soundstrue.com/podcast‘);
If the second option used not to be forgotten, as it will overwrite  DB every time App loads…



WordPress Akismet (spam)
admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:27:02 +0000
WordPress comes with the Akismet plugin.
Use it.
Reference: http://akismet.com/
How:
Create a dashboard.wordpress.com account  if you don’t already have one, & find your API key
then in your blog, activate the Akismet plugin, enter your key, reap the rewards.



This Blog proudly uses the following Widget Plugins
admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:54:18 +0000
Google AdSense Widget
http://wordpress.smullindesign.com/plugins/google-adsense-widget
Google XML Sitemaps
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/
Simple Hit Counter
http://jungwirths.com/2009/03/simple-wordpress-hit-counter-plugin/
WP Simple Paypal Donation
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/?page_id=942
Exec PHP
http://bluesome.net/post/2005/08/18/50/
Deactivate Visual Editor
http://plugindve.wordpress.com/
Google Analytics for WordPress
http://yoast.com/wordpress/analytics/#utm_source=wordpress&utm_medium=plugin&utm_campaign=google-analytics-for-wordpress



Export Dreamweaver Sites CS4
admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:10:10 +0000
You can now multi-select sites in the site manager and export them, easy as pie.
http://www.owenwebs.com/2009/07/07/export-dreamweaver-cs4-site-info/



Runas administrator
admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:53:12 +0000
If runas isn’t in the menu when you right click on a file, add the runas option to that file type in the registry, here’s how:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-run-as-administrator-to-any-file-type-in-windows-vista/
otherwise:
can you run any other program that can edit that file with runas?
example, I wanted to edit C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\config.inc.php as admin,
first run dreamweaver as admin and it will also be able to save as admin!



phpMyAdmin Server config.inc.php remote database connection
admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:19:55 +0000
C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\config.inc.php
add this (or similar) at the bottom:
$i++;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = ‘config’;

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = ‘user’;

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = ‘password’;

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = ‘your_host’;

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose'] = ‘Description to appear in phpMyAdmin’;
//end
params/reference: http://wiki.phpmyadmin.net/pma/Config
And then control remote MySQL databases in your localhost/phpmyadmin
under Actions: Server: dropdown
*note: When connecting to a Godaddy DB, you must enable accessible remotely when creating the database!



PHP copyright year
admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:32:01 +0000
echo date("Y");



Boot Startup Applications MSCONFIG
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:36:59 +0000
Run
MSCONFIG



Perl Regular Expressions cheat sheet
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:35:29 +0000
/.*/ : matches anything

/.*oose/ : wild card .*
[] : class

[a-z] : any lower case letter

[A-Z] : any upper case letter

[a-zA-Z] : any upper or lower case letter, notice runs together

[a-zA-Z0-9] : any upper/lower or zero to nine

[ a-z] : any lower case letter OR a space!

[\-] : any hyphen, notice the excerpting from special inner  expression functionality \

[^a] : negated class, match if sentence does NOT have ‘a’
shorthands:

\d = [0-9]

\D = [^0-9]

\w = [a-zA-Z0-9_]

\s = [ \t\n\r\f]

\S = [^ \t\n\r\f]
In search string NOT classes additional things:

^ at beginning means it must start to match

$ at the end means it must end to match

\b then string means must be beginning of word

string then \b means it must be end of word

\B before or after means it must NOT be start or end
example:

my $example = “This is still a very strange sentence”;

if($example =~ m/\bstill\b/){ print “This string HAS the exact word  ‘still’ in it somewhere at least once, not a variation thereof such as  stillness”; }
example 2:

my $phone = (000) 000-0000;

if($phone =~ /^\(\d\d\d\) \d\d\d\d$/) { print “phone number  formatted correctly”; }



Php db connection close()
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:33:32 +0000
@mysql_close($dblink); 
or the network persistence traffic cop might come calling…YOU



Php simple phone format
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:29:45 +0000
$phone = 3334449999;

$phone =  preg_replace(“/([0-9a-zA-Z]{3})([0-9a-zA-Z]{3})([0-9a-zA-Z]{4})/”, “($1)  $2-$3″, $phone);



MySQL comments
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:27:40 +0000
start of line left only (must have space after  dashes):

– comment
OR

/* */
example:
if(!$result = mysql_query(”

SELECT

products_id,

FROM

runwayProductInfo,

WHERE

products_id IN (’545′,’100′)

/* hello */

– comment

ORDER BY FIELD(runwayProductInfo.products_id, ’100′,’545′)

“)){ echo mysql_error(); exit; }



Php MySQL query shortcut syntax
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:26:33 +0000
$query  = “SELECT

o.FirstName, o.LastName, o.Addr1, o.Addr2, o.City,

s.Name AS State, s.Abbrv as StateAbbrv, o.ZipCode,

o.Phone1, o.EmailAddr, o.CCLastFour, o.CCExp,  o.PromoCode

FROM orders o

INNER JOIN states s ON s.StateID = o.StateID

WHERE o.OrderID = ” . $this->_orderID;



CSS link rollover class change
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:24:40 +0000
onMouseOver=”this.className=’on’” onMouseOut=”this.className=’off’” href=”10_9_08 MEETING.mp3″>October 9, 2008



IE height CSS sheet hack example
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:23:27 +0000
.class_name {

min-height: 10px;

height: auto !important;

/*ie6 min-height hack*/

height: 10px;

}



load IE only CSS stylesheet
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:22:41 +0000
  



Dreamweaver Turn OFF Design Notes
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:21:11 +0000
Manage Sites

Edit Site

Left hand column ‘Design Notes’

Uncheck!
much cleaner SVN



JavaScript image preloader script
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:17:34 +0000
var myimages = new Array();
function preloading(){
for (x=0; x
{
myimages[x] = new Image();

myimages[x].src = preloading.arguments[x];
}
}
preloading(

‘images/1.jpg’,

‘images/2.jpg’,

‘and_so_on.jpg’);



script.aculo.us Scroll to top of page
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:16:38 +0000
/* Scroll to Top of Page  Functino */

var  scroll = {	top: function(event) { new Effect.ScrollTo(‘top’,  {duration: 1.0}); } }



in html place something like:

in onclick or elsewhere place:
scroll.top();



jQuery document ready
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:12:25 +0000






 







Page Content









JavaScript script.aculo.us Fade & Appear + IE Internet Explorer FIX
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:11:16 +0000
new  Effect.Fade(‘left_block3′, { duration: 0.5 });

new Effect.Appear(‘left_block4′, { duration: 0.5, queue:’end’ });

FULL CODE:
Blocks that fade and appear look like this:










copy—P.R.









CSS for blocks:
#block1, #block2, #block3, #block4, #block5, #block6, #block7, #block8, #block9 {

float: left;

position: absolute;

left: 635px;

top: 225px;

height: 375px;

width: 375px;

font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

font-size: 14px;

color: #000000;

padding-left: 0px;

display: inline;

line-height:1.5em;

text-align:left;

}
.smooth_it {

width: 68px;

height: 50px;

}
Full Javascript function:
/* ROTATING BLOCK */

var spot = 0;

var how_many = 7;

var current_rotator = ‘block1′;
function swap_block()

{

new Effect.Fade(current_rotator, { duration: 0.5, queue: ‘end’ });

spot++;

if(spot == 8){ spot = 1; }

current_rotator = ‘block’ + spot;

new Effect.Appear(current_rotator, { delay: 1.0, duration: 0.5, queue: ‘end’ });

rotatorer = setTimeout(“swap_block()”, 10000);

}
The keys, things to remember:
CSS defines the outermost block div, NOT the inner div, but DO note that it has an inner wrapping div (header3) that is NOT CSS defined.
The Internet Explorer IE fix is that if these things aren’t all perfectly done as described, IE simply won’t fade but will show/hide without transition, and furthermore, if the block’s background isn’t defined it may also granulate text rather than treat it as “has layout”.





JavaScript URL tracker function array
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:09:53 +0000




JavaScript URL sniffer forward redirect
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:07:04 +0000









JavaScript use img onload tag to set variable
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:04:18 +0000
onload=”javascript:  number_of_accordians = 5;” src=”images/beauty-2.gif” border=”0″ alt=” ” style=”float:left;  margin:0px 20px 15px 0;” />



JavaScript getElementsByTagName anchor tag CSS function
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:59:42 +0000
function  anchorcss() {
var elements = document.getElementsByTagName(“a”);

var limit = elements.length;

var i = 0;
for(i=0;i< limit;++i)

{
if(elements[i].getAttribute(“name”)) {
elements[i].onmouseover = elements[i].style.color = “#140b48″;

elements[i].onmouseover = elements[i].style.textDecoration = “none”;
}
 }
}



CakePHP Time Helper: how to use it in a view
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:30:15 +0000
First of all, in the controller, add it to the $helpers array:
var $helpers = array(‘Html’, ‘Form’, ‘Time’);
Then in the corresponding view, call it like this:
Date Published: nice($post['Post']['date']);?>

which effectively (in this case from the database in this example) turns this: 2010-01-02 21:54:00
into this: Sat, Jan 2nd 2010, 21:54
—- note: —-


without the Time helper we could of course do this specific thing with the plain ‘ol PHP date function this way:



—-


$post['Post']['date'] is the value of the object Time will beautify, in this case
sent by the following function in the controller:
function view($id = null) {
if (!$id) {
$this->Session->setFlash(__(‘Invalid Post.’, true));

$this->redirect(array(‘action’=>’index’));
}

$this->set(‘post’, $this->Post->read(null, $id));
}



Semantic value: ul li, ol li vs. dl dt dd
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:58:48 +0000





Name: 
John Don

Age: 
64

Gender: 
Male

Day of Birth:
12th May 1946





VS.

Unordered lists 
Use a  tag where the order of items is not  significant.
Ordered lists 
Use an  tag where the order of items is  significant, e.g. listing events in time order, or race results




CakePHP debug
admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:26:01 +0000
need to see inside that specified array?
to be remembered:
app/views/posts/view.ctp

which will also display records from associated models!



WordPress SESSIONS
admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:36:42 +0000
simply add:
session_start();
to the start of:
wp-config.php
right at the top, after 



If homepage : do a second “Loop” to show current article “post” WordPress
admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:35:35 +0000






<h2>



“>Read more…








HTML Meta redirect 301 forward
admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:42:28 +0000










This page has moved







Php Header 301 redirect examples
admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:28:22 +0000
header(“HTTP/1.1 301 Moved  Permanently”);
header(‘Location: ‘ . $new_website_url . $append_qstrings);
//echo $new_website_url . $append_qstrings;

exit;



Location of Windows Hosts Host file
admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:19:52 +0000
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
forward browser requests for www.google.com

instead to IP 192.162.1.1

example:
192.162.1.1     www.google.com



Actionscript 3 Make Cursor a Hand
admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:59:56 +0000
The goal:
SIMPLY turn the cursor into a hand 

(over something that really isn’t a button, in this case it’s just a  dynamic URLREQUEST function/link).
Nice and simple solution:
top of your AS3 package:

import flash.ui.Mouse;
in function reacting to mouse movement or loader success:

this.buttonMode = true;



Actionscript 3 Link
admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:58:39 +0000
import flash.net.navigateToURL;

this.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, fOnClick);
private function fOnClick( e : MouseEvent ):void {

var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(“http://www.google.com”);

navigateToURL(request);

}



Photoshop .ico plugin / Favicon instructions
admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:25:15 +0000
http://www.grafikhaus.co.uk/dwtutsfavicon.htm
save to:
program files/adobe/photoshop/plug-ins/file formats
make it at 64 x 64 or 32 x 32, end at 16 x 16
insert into your doc:




Regex Expression Password Validation; 1 Uppercase; 1 Lowercase; 1 Number; length of 6 – 20
admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:03:21 +0000
function valPassword($Password){
$pRegex = ‘/(?-i)(?m)^(?=.*?\d)(?=.*?[a-z])(?=.*?[A-Z])[a-zA-Z].{6,20}$/’;
if ( preg_match($pRegex, $Password)) { return TRUE; }

return FALSE;
}
Or this also works nicely:
function valPassword($Password)
{
if(

ctype_alnum($Password) // numbers & digits only

&& strlen($Password)>6 // at least 7 chars

//&& strlen($password)<21 // at most 20 chars

&& preg_match(‘`[A-Z]`’,$Password) // at least one upper case

&& preg_match(‘`[a-z]`’,$Password) // at least one lower case

&& preg_match(‘`[0-9]`’,$Password) // at least one digit
)
{
return TRUE;
}

return FALSE;
}
Resource:
http://regexlib.com/REDetails.aspx?regexp_id=31



CakePHP Setting up command line to bake
admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:34:35 +0000
http://i.justrealized.com/2009/02/16/how-to-run-xampps-php-cli-and-cakephp-console/
start baking:
C:\xampp\htdocs\project\app>”../cake/console/cake” bake



Inline Javascript CSS properties
admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:55:34 +0000
Inline Javascript CSS properties
dash replaced by capital

href=”#”

onmouseover=”this.style.textDecoration=’none’”

onmouseout=”this.style.textDecoration=’underline’”

style=”color:#FFFFFF text-decoration:underline;”

>

Details





Sending mail xampp gmail
admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:21:18 +0000
source/reference:
http://expertester.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/how-to-send-email-from-xampp-php/
If you’re developing on your local xampp environment, eventually you will need your apps to actually send mail:
Change the following lines in your php.ini

(usually here C:\xampp\php\php.ini, but possibly also php5.ini, and/or C:\xampp\apache\bin\php.ini):
SMTP = smtp.gmail.com

smtp_port = 587

sendmail_from = [your_gmail_username]@gmail.com]

sendmail_path = “:\”C:\xampp\sendmail\sendmail.exe\” -t”
Change your sendmail.ini to read as follows (again, usually C:\xampp\sendmail\sendmail.ini):
account Gmail

tls on

tls_certcheck off

host smtp.gmail.com

from [your_gmail_username]@gmail.com]

auth on

user [your_gmail_username]@gmail.com]

password [your_gmail_username]@gmail.com

port 587

account default : Gmail
Simple example test script to see that it worked:


$from_name = “yourName”;

$from_email = “whichEver@gmail.com”;

$headers = “From: $from_name <$from_email>”;

$body = “Hi, \nThis is a test mail from $from_name <$from_email>.”;

$subject = “Mail from my development environment”;

$to = “yourUserNameHere@gmail.com”;
if (mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers)) {

echo “success!”;

} else {

echo “fail…”;

}

?>