SPWD » PHP

Three Simple Yet Effective PHP Tips and Tricks

Billy — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:47:20 +0000

Working on some freelance projects and personal projects recently, I found myself needing to do some simple things in PHP that actually had some great value in the end. I share these now in hopes that they will help someone else.

Adjusting Case Sensitivity – You can use the following code to take any string and perform an initial caps on it. The outer function ucfirst performs the first letter capitalization, while the strtolower will automatically convert the entire string to lower case first. This allow any string with mixed case to be converted to initial caps on the first word.

Quick Code

More Case Sensitivity – instead of using just ucfirst, why not take a look at ucwords. This nifty little built-in PHP function will take and perform an initial cap on every word of a given string. Again, we would probably want to run the string through strtolower to ensure only the initial caps was performed. This may cause issues, however, if you are converting strings that contain acronyms or other words that are generally in all caps.

Quick Code

The output will be: Cool PHP

However using it this way, you can see how it would change the output:
Quick Code

The out of that last one will become Cool Php.

File Uploads – When you allow file uploads, say for web site owners to upload images, it is best to check to see if the file exists first and if so remove the old version first. In this short example a filename is being dynamically built, but that is another discussion in another post.
First, we build our file name – the second thing we do, since we are renaming and files to a standard naming convention is to check to see if the file exists. In this case we used a unique ID, an underscore and the image file name being passed into this function. You can use what ever you need to name your files. Second, the if statement checks for the existence of the file, and if true it deletes it using the PHP unlink function, then copies the new file over and finally reports any errors. If the file does not exist, the function simply moves to the else block and copies the new file.

Quick Code


$fileName = "images/".$id."_".$image;
    if(file_exists($fileName))
    {
      unlink($fileName);
      $copied = move_uploaded_file($_FILES['form_element_name]['tmp_name'], $fileName);
      if(!copied) 
      {
        echo "upload failed for image ".$fileName." or you didn't upload that file 
";  
      }
    }
    else
    {
      $copied = move_uploaded_file($_FILES['form_element_name']['tmp_name'], $fileName);
      if(!copied) 
      {
        echo "upload failed for image ".$fileName." or you didn't upload that file 
";  
      }
    }

Get My Tweets Plugin Updates

Billy — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:54:59 +0000

Earlier I was working with the Get My Tweets Plugin and found a bug in the URL parsing scheme I used to parse URLs in Tweets. I am working on rewriting this portion of the code, and will release an update to the plugin as soon as it has been tested and is available.

Daily PHP Book Recommendation – 01/03/2009

Billy — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 08:37:59 +0000

Daily PHP Book Recommendation – 01/02/2009

Billy — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:06:24 +0000

A Year In Reflection

Billy — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:08:24 +0000

Well, today marks the end of 2008 here in my part of the world, and looking back I re-read a post from January 1, 2008 – quoted below with inserts as to how I did.

As I sit here, having just stepped outside to see the revelry around my neighborhood of the ringing (or exploding) in of the New Year, I find myself seeking several things this year:

1. Write More Blog Posts, More Frequently – I did post more frequently, but still not enough
2. Expand My Knowledge in Ajax, PHP and Web2.0 Design – This is on-going, but I gained much in the PHP area, a bit in Ajax and sharpened some of my visual design skills as well
3. Enhance My Blog with a custom layout – This one did not happen, still using free themes
4. Generate more readership – This one did happen, though not as much as I would have liked, but that’s related to number 1
5. Become more active in the blogosphere – I started to do this late in the year and am experiencing some benefits to it now, but still growing.

While not lofty goals, they are all things I had wished to do in 2007, but unforseen complications mandated a different direction – thus is the blogger life (okay, the casual blogger life). It is funny, I keep up on several blogs, many of which are operated full time, and I think to myself how can I create more space in my alloted time each day/week/month to blog more.

The first item is to create a schedule for my time and try to stick to it, albeit allowing for variances as necessary. Reading these blogs also prompts me to think of a new section, one devoted to the “Casual Blogger” rather than the full-time blogger. There are several items I would like to examine in this area, of course time permitting as I have several half-finished tutorials to get posted straight away this year.

Well, anyways – Happy New Year if you celebrate it at this time of year, and good wishes on successful blogging, successful web design and stressful life in general this year.

Having a post like this was helpful, but I did not refer back to it near enough to truly succeed at the few goals I had listed, though in all but one there was growth. The growth was not as expected, but I know the factors that made it so, and I know how to control those factors now. You see in any given situation we either let the situation control us, or we control it. Yes, yes I know there are those situations that we cannot exert control over, and with life there will always be exceptions.

This year has seen many changes in my life, some good and some not so good. In April I was fortunate enough to buy my first Harley-Davidson motorcycle, in July we bought my wife her first horse and in August we closed on our first house. In that time I learned I can ride a motorcycle better than a horse, mainly because the motorcycle doesn’t have an attitude like the horse does. I also learned that once you let the horse know who is boss, they will still try to control the situation. I also learned that buying a house is a long and grueling process, especially when you are trying to find one that will fit 2 adults, 5 children, 3 cats, 2 dogs, 2 fish and a horse that is within your budget.

I was also reminded, several times, of just how it is in the world I live in. People will lie through their teeth and make you look like a complete moron. They will lie through their teeth just to protect their own self, no matter the cost to you. People will lie through their teeth just to make sure they are the ones, at the end of the day, that are smiling, not you. These people are people that sometimes you consider friends, yet what kind of friends are they in the end? They are not. I also was reminded that even though you try to do the right thing, sometimes you will fail and it never fails that those failures will be thrown at you in your face every chance someone else gets, just to make the feel better when they look at themselves in the mirror every morning.

I also found out what it is like to lose two jobs within months of each other, neither of them my fault. Two weeks after closing on our house, I found myself walking out of one my ex-employer’s building having been cursed at and told rather nasty things. Some people thrive off treating others like dirt, another lesson I was reminded of. The countless hours I lost with my family, getting kicked out of school because I did not have the time to attend class due to long working hours made me realize that sometimes some people just aren’t happy, no matter what sacrifices you make for them, and in the end they treat you like dirt, spit in your face and expect you to suck-it up, work harder and still smile while you are there. The funny thing with that is, even when they break the law, they expect that from you and expect you to follow the rules and threaten you with your job if you falter one step.

The next job was ended due to the funny thing that every top government official wanted to say was not happening for the longest time, the “recession”. It’s funny that they can keep denying things so long, until the markets of the world are trashed, and then finally say it has happened, and will only get worse before it gets better. To that I have to ask, just like I have to ask the CEO’s of the “bailout” companies that take home more in a month than the majority of Americans will in a lifetime: What makes you so special to vote yourself a raise when congress starts up again each year? To the CEO’s I have this to ask: In what world can your company lose millions, sometimes billions, you layoff 25% of your workforce and yet you still expect well over $10,000,000 a year salary, benefits and perks of private jets, limousines and personal assistants?

I say 2009 should be earmarked the year the worker takes back what is his/hers. Why should we be put into dangerous situations, be put down, be cursed and yelled at, and be paid nothing what the market rate is for our time, our services and value we bring to your company? That is what I learned this year, is the value of an employee is nothing, as all employees are expendable, replaceable or weren’t needed in the first place.

Late in the year I started networking more, with some larger names in the industry. Once again I was reminded how doing things sometimes just doesn’t work out. Case in point, I wrote a decent review for a well known blog, operated by an even more well known blogger. Suffice it to say, other persons that provided such reviews, or articles were at least credited for their work, and many times linked to. My work was not credited in any way shape or form, and I didn’t think to ask for it to be credited until after I read the post and I guess that was too late. I expected this upstanding, well-favored person to, I dunno, automatically attribute properly work that was not his, and in the end it just didn’t work out. So no extra exposure for yet another little guy in the blogosphere, and yet again someone using what was not theirs to enhance their life. Sometimes you just don’t know about people, but all you can do is hope for the best, which is what I did, and still do.

I also found out what it is like to experience the grace and goodness of people. After losing the second job, we had the support of many family and friends, some friends that we don’t even know about. They helped my family have an enjoyable Christmas, as well as helped us keep our house. To these blessed souls, they make me realize that none of the rest of it matters, because as long as there is one person out there that cares enough to do the right thing, the light will always be on, and someone will always be home to welcome you in. Without people like this in the world, it would truly be a nightmare to try and survive, it would be the epitome of the worst horror fiction novel ever wrote, but would be our daily life. There are some that I have no clue who they are, how they know myself or my family, but they helped in anyway they could – and it has made a world of difference in our lives.

This year has seen a lot of changes here on this blog as well, with intermittent errors starting just after the new year started back in January. After 11 1/2 months of fighting with the server, which was old and needing replaced, I finally got my new server up and online. It has been runny steady for several weeks, and in that time I have been able to post quite a bit and enjoy having physical access to the server when I need it, since it is no longer a 4 hour drive to the co-lo facility. I have a new theme this past month, some more items on the back-end and have been striving to post more frequently, since obviously I have time to while I still look for employment.

I hope your year has been good to you, and if not I hope you can find the good in it, and in the people around you. Don’t hold a grudge, as that does nothing but drag you down – trust me from experience on that one. While I vent about what happened to me with the jobs, article and all of that, remember these are experiences that make us stronger, they make us wiser and in the end may make us just the person we need to be to succeed at our next task.

Daily Random PHP Book – 12/31/2008

Billy — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:17:11 +0000

Daily Random PHP Book – 12/26/2008

Billy — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:33:39 +0000

Daily Random PHP Book – 12/23/2008

Billy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:28:55 +0000

Daily Random PHP Book – 12/22/2008

Billy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:24:21 +0000

Get My Tweets WP Plugin Released

Billy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:58:37 +0000

I have officially created my first Wordpress plugin and widget, Get My Tweets.

While there are other plugins that do similar things, display your recent tweets on your Wordpress powered blog, this one makes special use of PHP 5 and the XMLReader extension. So in other words if your hosting provider does not meet those requirements, you will not be able to use the plugin.

There are only two options for the plugin, Twitter user name and numer of tweets to retrieve. The user name supplied must be set to have the time line be public in order for the plugin to parse the xml file from Twitter.

DOWNLOAD THE CURRENT VERSION

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