API to get screenshots of url
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in general on June 25th, 2009
Just discovered a quick way to do a screenshot based on a url
They even have a cool and easy to use api!
Hands on Usage of ZF 1.8.x
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in php on May 13th, 2009
Well that was fast, new maintenance release of Zend Framework is now out! Checking out the changelog, noticed this little gem: Addition of module generation capabilities to Zend_Tool; I posted about that in my initial thoughts of ZF 1.8 post.
I started using 1.8 on a new project recently, while actual hands-on usage of the new stuff (Zend_Application, Zend_Tool) and the documentations are great, there are still some confusion with regards to how the Resource Autoloader works, there are some conflict with the quick-start tutorial from Zend and the actual reference documentation. According to the documentation, Resource Autoloader should work automatically when using Zend_Application, but according to the quick-start tutorial, you have to initialize it in the Bootstrap. Maybe i’m missing something, but I’ve decided to go with the quick-start tutorial for the time being since it works. I’ve also noticed that there are some new view helpers like ($this->cycle for one) minor stuff but very helpful!
Using Zend_Form is still an exercise in frustration, especially the decorators. I love the way symfony handles the form layouts, it just passes the form object as an array to the view layer and gets out of the way, allowing designers to actually do the form design. Zend_Form just seems counter-intuitive. They got majority of the stuff correct, but laying out the forms to display how you want them is very hard. Let the view layer handle the layout stuff, allowing the Form object to be more flexible and reusable.
Apache 2: Self-Signed Certificates
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in general, how-to on May 12th, 2009
Self-signed certificates are very useful when doing testing on your local machine. The following was tested using a unix based environment.
Generate the Key and Certificate
First we generate the private key
openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
Then we create a certificate signing request
openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
We make sure that everytime we start the apache server, we don’t have to type the passphrase
cp server.key server.key.org openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key
Lastly we self-sign the certificate
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt
Configure the Apache Server
Edit your apache’s httpd.conf and uncomment the following lines (just search it in the file)
LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so #PATH MAY DIFFER TO YOUR SETUP Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf
Next edit your apache’s httpd-ssl.conf, search for the following configuration item: SSLCertificateFile & SSLCertificateKeyFile, change it to where your server.crt and server.key files are located respectively (absolute path!)
Finally if you’re using VirtualHost it is important to declare two NameVirtualHost (one for port 80 and port 443). Example:
NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80 NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:443 <VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80> ServerName local.example.com DocumentRoot /path/to/your/example.com/www </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:443> ServerName local.example.com DocumentRoot /path/to/your/example.com/www SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /path/to/your/server.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/your/server.key </VirtualHost>
Save and restart your Apache server!
Thoughts on the new Zend Framework 1.8
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in php on May 12th, 2009
Been playing around with the new version of Zend Framework (1.8). The command line Zend_Tools has alot of potential and is very useful for newbies, but still lacks a lot of functionality (support for modules in the command line would be pretty cool!). I loved the Application/Bootstrap approach this puts a lot of much needed structure to a very flexible framework. It also centralizes plugins to the front controller and of course custom initializations using _init methods in the Bootstrap file. Although missing in the reference documentation are examples when using a more modular approach when using the Zend_Application.
Also the quick-start tutorial from Zend’s website has been updated! It includes a very nice approach to models (much needed overhaul in the next version of ZF). Overall a very solid release from the community. Looking forward to using it in new projects.
Bash script to backup mysql database
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in general on February 19th, 2009
This is the first bash script I wrote, I used crontab to periodically backup and compress a mysqldb in a shared hosting environment
#!/bin/sh user=testdbuser password=testdb dbname=testdb location=~/db_backups ts=$(date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M') mysqldump -u$user -p$password --opt $dbname > $location/temp-$ts.sql cd $location tar -cvzf $dbname-db-$ts.tar.gz temp-$ts.sql rm -f temp-$ts.sql
5 ways to pissed off your teammates
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in general on February 17th, 2009
These are all speaking through experience
- Stubbornly kept on using deprecated code knowing that it will be remove from the code base in the next version, thereby hindering a smooth transition.
- Violating all of the company’s coding and naming standards making things difficult to trace for bugs when you go on leave all of a sudden!
- You raise a shitstorm once you find a bug in other people’s code regardless of how minor it is. While we quietly fix your mess and continue with the development, because we are already behind schedule because of your incompetence.
- Design patterns apparently don’t mean much.
- While trying to resolve SVN conflicts, you immediately resolve it using your copy without even looking what has changed that caused the conflict.
Something’s cookin’
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in general on January 3rd, 2009
I’ve been experimenting with different ways to manage releases (major and maintenance) and this resulted in a very good solution which i’ve been using for several weeks now. This is a fantastic tool for small to medium software companies and freelancers looking for a really cheap release management software to help their clients manage the intricacies and confusion that comes with releasing a software.
Watch out for this, will be launching a beta version soon!
Venture Diary: Initial thoughts and questions about hosting
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in general on December 4th, 2008
Ever since i’ve starting working in the consulting business, and now in product development with a Fortune 20 company, i’ve always dreamt of having an online business. I’ve always hated the 8 hour grind everyday for 5 days a week, although the pay is great, but there’s something really exciting with working for yourself whether it be freelance consulting or starting an online business; creativity is the only limiting factor. The hardest part of an online business is the idea, well we all know that, once an idea has been solidified the easiest part is execution of said idea which the only limiting factor (for me) has been the lack of time.
W’ve been steadily developing some ideas right now, and we’ve also finalized the revenue stream and from the looks of things it will be very feasible. Right now i’m very much interested on how other ventures started, did they rely on shared hosting services, or did they just rolled their own solution (own hardware). From our own assessment we would be using shared hosting services until we reached a certain milestone (number of users), and from there on will be rolling our own hardware.
Post your thoughts on the matter in the comments section
Zend Framework Model Based Validation Part 1
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in php on October 24th, 2008
I’m not really a big fan of Zend_Form, too verbose and less flexible. I’ve been using this little base class for several of my freelance projects. It basically allows you to define validation rules for your model’s columns. This is a very basic version that I’m planning to enhance soon with custom validation functions.
USAGE EXAMPLE
Model
<?
class User extends AbstractModelValidator {
protected $_name = 'users';
protected $_primary = 'id';
protected $_rules = array(
array('name'=>'firstname', 'class'=>'NotEmpty', 'message'=>'Required Field (Firstname)'),
array('name'=>'firstname', 'class'=>'StringLength', 'options'=>array(0, 50),'message'=>'Max length is 50 (Firstname)'),
array('name'=>'lastname', 'class'=>'NotEmpty', 'message'=>'Required Field (Lastname)'),
array('name'=>'lastname', 'class'=>'StringLength', 'options'=>array(0, 50),'message'=>'Max length is 50 (Lastname)'),
);
}
Controller
<?
class UsersController extends Zend_Controller_Action {
public function addAction() {
$this->view->req = $this->_request;
if($this->_request->isPost()) {
$u = new User();
if($u->isValid($this->_request->getParams())) {
}
else {
$this->view->errors = $u->getValidationMessages();
}
}
}
}
View
<html>
<head>
<title>Add User</title>
</head>
<body>
<? if(isset($this->errors) && sizeof($this->errors) > 0): ?>
<ul>
<? foreach($this->errors as $e): ?>
<li><?=$e?></li>
<? endforeach; ?>
</ul>
<? endif; ?>
<div>
<form action="<?=$this->url()?>" method="post">
<div>Firstname:</div>
<div><?=$this->formText('firstname', $this->req->getParam('firstname'), array('size'=>20))?></div>
<div>Lastname::</div>
<div><?=$this->formText('lastname', $this->req->getParam('lastname'), array('size'=>20))?></div>
<div><?=$this->formSubmit('submit', 'Submit')?></div>
</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Simple Pagination
Posted by Jan Michael Tan in php on September 24th, 2008
I use alot of Zend Framework for my freelance projects and prior to version 1.6 they have no pagination class to do the dirty work. I know what you’re thinking right now, why didn’t I just reused some of the many pagination scripts in the internet and/or in PEAR. I just really needed something simple that I can quickly reuse all over my web-app and here it is
To get the offset for your sql query just do this:
$offset = $numOfItemsPerPage * ($page - 1);
Here’s the code for the pagination, take note that the logic can be use regardless of the programming language, i’ve also use this in some of my java webapps
<?php
class Paginator {
const NUM_TRAIL_LEAD_LINKS = 5;
public static function generate($url, $total, $current = 1, $numPerPage = 5, $var = 'page', $separator = ' ') {
$totalNumberOfPages = ceil($total / $numPerPage);
$linksArray = array();
$isFirstLinkDone = false;
$i = 1;
if(($current - self::NUM_TRAIL_LEAD_LINKS) > $i) {
$i = $current - self::NUM_TRAIL_LEAD_LINKS;
}
for(;$i<=$totalNumberOfPages;$i++) {
if(!$isFirstLinkDone && $current > 1) {
$linksArray[] = '<a href="'.$url.'/'.$var.'/1">First</a>';
$linksArray[] = '<a href="'.$url.'/'.$var.'/'.($current-1).'">Prev</a>';
$isFirstLinkDone = true;
}
if($i == $current) {
$linksArray[] = '<span style="font-weight:bold">'.$current.'</span>';
}
else {
if(($current + self::NUM_TRAIL_LEAD_LINKS) < $i) {
break;
}
$linksArray[] = '<a href="'.$url.'/'.$var.'/'.$i.'">'.$i.'</a>';
}
}
if($current < $totalNumberOfPages) {
$linksArray[] = '<a href="'.$url.'/'.$var.'/'.($current+1).'">Next</a>';
$linksArray[] = '<a href="'.$url.'/'.$var.'/'.$totalNumberOfPages.'">Last</a>';
}
return implode($separator, $linksArray);
}
}
