4Jan/121

How to run PHP cron tasks without cron available

In most cases hosting panels has CRON jobs available, so using cron is not an issue. Just sometimes you do not want to bother with it because of many reasons like no cpanel password, makes your script installation process complicated, or even cron is simply not available at all.

In this case I found interesting technique how to overcome this.

Filed under: dev, php Continue reading
7Oct/114

How to merge/mix/combine RSS feeds

One problem I faced on my multi-language blog setup - it has different feeds for each language. Multi-language plugin WPML which I use does not have feature to mix feeds into one. I like my subscribers to see one common feed which is merged for all languages and leave possibility to subscribe to one language also. I setup simple solution using pure PHP.

Filed under: dev, php Continue reading
6Oct/110

Introduction to HTML5 History API

HTML5 slowly releases all its beauty. Before HTML5 one thing which was almost completly out of our control was  the browser history manipulation without full page reload (location.hash hacks are not counted here). With appearence of HTML5 History API all things changed, now it is possible to add elements to the history, add navigation handlers and more.  This time I am going to dive into HTML5 History API.

Filed under: php, web Continue reading
12Jun/110

Deploying a web application via FTP

When your brand new application looks shinny, it is time to put it on the Internet, process called deployment. Usually this involves several steps, like uploading application files, creating remote database, setting up configuration, etc.. Once it is setup and running you reazlise that your app is missing features X, Y and Z and deployment starts over and over again, this often leads to strange bugs.

I use simple lftp command line tool to automate project deployment via FTP and eliminate any possible deployment errors.

Filed under: dev, php Continue reading
2Jun/110

File uploads in HTML5 – what’s new ?

html5 file upload

File uploads have traditionally had very bad usability on the web. The standard solution was uploading files as part of a form, leaving the user to just wait until the process was done. We could offer barely any feedback of what was going on. Several options appeared in HTML5 to make the process more bearable for the user.

Filed under: php, web Continue reading
29Apr/110

PHP Development in the Cloud

Nevertheless Amazon recent downtime showed us that clouds are not panacea for all problems, they are the future. Especially when quick scale, precise resource allocation is needed.

This book is about  applying your PHP skills in a clouds.

Most developers gloss over when they hear “the cloud” as the term has been appropriated by marketing types and has very little true meaning anymore. In this book, Vito and Ivo strip bare the buzzwords and help PHP developers figure out what the cloud is actually about and how they can take advantage of what cloud computing has to offer. After reading this book, you will not only have a clear picture of what cloud computing is, but you’ll also be able to utilize the various cloud services that are out there.

Filed under: book, cloud, php Continue reading
25Apr/110

OpenID login for Yahoo and Google accounts

I've updated my Openid sample code for logging in  with Yahoo and normal Google accounts.

Filed under: dev, php Continue reading
2Mar/1114

Google Apps as single authentication point for your corporate applications

This is an update to my post "Google Apps Premier federated login with PHP". Idea is simple, users do not like passwords, less passwords - less pain and more security.

Nowadays many companies have gone cloud, which covers most needs, but leaves space for homegrown small applications, ideas, prototypes, etc. It is convenient to organize user login into these applications using already existing Google Apps login infrastructure.

This is about using it with PHP.

Filed under: I|T, php Continue reading
21Dec/102

PHP Closing tag ?>

Sometime ago I saw some framework where all files missed PHP closing tags, I wondered why ? Simply, this tag is not required by PHP parser, interesting when this was introduced. But one advantage of this is elimination of hunting down final carriage return character in the end file. This additional CR mess up the output when including.

In projects with 200+ code files, one simple return at the end of file can cause bugs hard to find.

Filed under: php Continue reading
30Sep/100

Publish PHP Code on the web – Highlight.js

It is often required to publish some code snippets in the blog on PHP or other popular languages like Python, Ruby... Here is simple way to do this..

Filed under: php Continue reading