Data structures in PHP 5.3

In the programming world there are quite a few well understood and explored data structures. Which are commonly used in tons of applications, still the only things PHP offered till 5.3 in regards to structuring data were arrays (more precise: hash tables) and objects. So people had to either abuse them for other structures or implement the structures themselves on top of these. Thanks to Etienne things now are changing and PHP's Standard PHP Library (SPL) extension will offer quite a few standard implementations of data structures. The implemented data structures are implemented using these classes:

* SplDoublyLinkedList
* SplStack
* SplQueue (SplPriorityQueue)
* SplHeap (SplMinHeap, SplMaxHeap)
* SplFixedArray

For more details head over at http://schlueters.de/blog/archives/90-Data-structures-in-PHP-5.3.html

Usage of IF condition in mysql

Scenario:

Suppose we have the field in the table lets say status which has the ENUM value ACTIVE,INACTIVE.Usually after getting the value of this field(through the query)

we used to write return ($result['status']=='ACTIVE')?1:0 in class methods.

Here we are getting the db result array and based on the check(ACTIVE/INACTIVE) we are returning the boolean value.Instead of that we can have that check in the query itself like below

SELECT IF(status='ACTIVE',1,0) AS statuscheck from table1

Note that in the condition we need to give single equal symbol

so the code return ($result['status']=='ACTIVE')?1:0 will be replaced by return $result['statuscheck'].

Google Turns its Back on Firefox

About a month ago, Google dropped StarOffice from the Google Pack, a downloadable package of free Internet and productivity software for Windows users. StarOffice is a desktop office suite based on the open source OpenOffice.org program and distribute by Sun, and we theorized that Google was laying the ground work for a future push to get users to dump their desktop software in favor of Google’s own web-based application offerings.

For more details head over at http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/12/15/google-turns-its-back-on-firefox/

CodeIgniter - Open source PHP web application framework

For more details check it in http://roshanbh.com.np/2008/12/codeigniter-programmer-php.html

Introduction To Xajax

The Xajax library provides a useful and simple method of generating asynchronous requests with next to not knowledge of javascript. All the javascript code is generated internally and leaves the developer to simply implement PHP functions. This tutorials is an absolute basic beginners guide to getting started with xajax. Full source code is provided with an explaination of how the process works.

More details on this, check it on http://www.phpro.org/tutorials/Introduction-To-Xajax.html

Quick and Easy Graphing with the Google Chart API

Google has created an API for displaying the data in terms of chart which will be helpful in visualizing the data for reporting.For more details head over at http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/11/28/quick-and-easy-graphing-with-the-google-chart-api/

Application Configuration

PHP applications come in many shapes and sizes. Some used locally from command line, and more commonly, for web based applications. More often than not, regardless of size or type, some form of configuration variables will be stored for global access. Usually these configuration options are held in one of these four types of containers.

* ini file
* XML file
* PHP file
* Database

Each options has its pros and cons. Here each of these options is explored to see which method is right for your application.

For more details head over at http://www.phpro.org/articles/Application-Configuration.html

GROUP_CONCAT in MySQL

I had the scenario for the table like below.

Table: test

id title
_________________

1 T2
1 T3
1 T1
2 L2
2 L1

I want the results like

id title
_________________

1 T2,T3,T1
2 L2,L1


For this, SQL would be

select id,GROUP_CONCAT('title') from test GROUP BY id ORDER by id


Now i want the values of title to be sorted.

This can be done using the below query

select id,GROUP_CONCAT('title' ORDER BY title) from test GROUP BY id ORDER by id

The results would be

id title
_________________

1 T1,T2,T3
2 L1,L2

Some useful Linux commands

Zipping the contents

tar -cvzf Destination folder Source folder from where files need to copy

Extracting the contents

tar -xvzf Source folder to extract

Zip the contents excluding the folders

tar -cvzf Destination folder Source folder from where files need to copy
--exclude="contents" --exclude="tmp"

To delete all occurance of files start with some extension

Eg:

find . -name ".svn" -exec rm -rf {} \;

Handling the Javascript Errors

1.Method using onerror event

onerror=handleErrors; //Invoke the method here

//Method definition

function handleErrors(msg,url,lineno)
{
//Here we will get the error message along with page url with lineno so tracking the error will be easier
//Handle the error here
return true or false
}


2.Try and Catch block

try
{
//Run some code here
}
catch(err)
{
//Handle errors using error object
}

Creating a Secure PHP Login Script

This morning i was going through some article which tells about the methods that we can approach for secure login.You can check it in http://www.devshed.com/c/a/PHP/Creating-a-Secure-PHP-Login-Script/

How to install Apache, MySQL and PHP (LAMP) in Ubuntu

For details you can Head over at http://www.devolio.com/blog/archives/221-How-to-install-Apache,-MySQL-and-PHP-LAMP-in-Ubuntu-7.10.html

How to use MySQL REPLACE function

update my_table SET `my_field` = replace(`my_field`, "old_text", "new_text")

Head over for more details to http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum10/8113.htm

Picking datatype for status field

Quite commonly in the applications you would need to use some kind of “status” field - status of order - “new”, “confirmed”, “in production”, “shipped” status of job, message etc. People use variety of ways to handle them often without giving enough thought to the choice which can cause problems later.For more details on this topic you find it on http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2008/08/09/picking-datatype-for-status-feilds/

How to filter posted data easily in PHP?

Today i found one good article on how to filter the posted data in php.You can find the same in
http://roshanbh.com.np/2008/08/how-to-filter-posted-data-easily-in-php.html#more-217

ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool

ab is a tool for benchmarking your Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server. It is designed to give you an impression of how your current Apache installation performs. This especially shows you how many requests per second your Apache installation is capable of serving.

You can find more details on how to use benchmark tool in below mentioned link.

Reference:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-performance-benchmarks-a-web-server.html

Riding carousels with jQuery

jCarousel is a jQuery plugin for controlling a list of items in horizontal or vertical order. The items, which can be static HTML content or loaded with (or without) AJAX, can be scrolled back and forth (with or without animation).

Reference:

http://sorgalla.com/jcarousel/

Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) 9 Pro Extended

Check Out the New Adobe® Acrobat® 9 Pro Extended software.Now it includes Adobe Presenter, Adobe LiveCycle® Designer ES, and Adobe 3D Reviewer software.

You can embed Web Links, Video on Web Page, excel sheets, PowerPoint animation, transitions, & speaker notes within the PDF.

Refer the Link http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatproextended/

Few Helpful Jquery Links

http://www.malsup.com/jquery/form/#code-samples
http://marcgrabanski.com/article/list-of-useful-jquery-plugins
http://fancy.klade.lv/
http://visualjquery.com/1.1.2.html
http://www.sastgroup.com/jquery
http://jquery.com
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-ajaxjquery.html
http://docs.jquery.com/Tutorials