Ever wonder why you can’t use query strings with CodeIgniter? This post will explain to some degree, but more importantly, show you how to parse query strings and how to get the GET back in CodeIgniter!
I’ve been using CodeIgniter for a couple years now. It’s small, it’s simple, it’s powerful. Admittedly, it’s not perfect (what framework is?) but it’s a wonderful way to slap together a website using MVC design principles and PHP. I do have one big complaint, however.
So, you finished that CodeIgniter Website last month. It was a tedious project and you’re glad it’s over! But wait! Now, your client informs you that you’re missing all the tracking code! The client also mentions he wants to use the popular, free Analytics tools from Google. This is gonna require inserting some javascript into all of your Web pages. Not a problem if you used a global footer in your views. A potentially huge pain otherwise. Either way, if you’re looking for a very simple way to globally implement Analytics code in your application, CodeIgniter hooks can make your life much easier. I’m going to show you how to take advantage of the ‘display_override’ hook point in CodeIgniter to get the job done fast! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on : 12-07-2010 | By : Brett | In : Mac, PHP
Foreword
Lately, when attempting to install extensions for MAMP, I’ve had a difficult time making my extensions work properly because my Darwin ports settings seem to override. Fortunately, I recently found a blog post with instructions that worked. There are a few steps that are different, however, for getting this to work with version 1.9. Therefore, I decided to post the original instructions with those modifications here. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on : 24-06-2010 | By : Brett | In : Linux, Technology
I’ve been with my current company for 10+ years (at the time of writing.) It’s been a roller-coaster ride with ownership changing hands several times. But I’ve managed to hang on and I’m still riding even after the most recent change in drivers. Unfortunately, many have fallen out over the years and that leaves me to do two jobs: Web programmer and IT Administrator. Finding time to do both jobs well can be a problem to say the least. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on : 18-06-2010 | By : Brett | In : PHP, Programming
Currently, I am working on a minimal MVC framework for a somewhat ambitious project. I chose to host this website using the latest and greatest: PHP-FPM on nginx running PHP 5.3. After realizing that I needed a form validation library, I came up with one that is fairly easy to use and somewhat extensible. This is the first time I have been able to use Closures in PHP code so maybe I am just a little bit geeky-giddy.
After nearly two months of using OS X, I think I have finally found my groove when it comes to doing my job. That is, writing code for websites, mainly in PHP.
For many years prior to using a Mac for PHP development, I had been using Windows or Linux and Zend Studio 5.x. When I was looking several months back for the Mac version download for my Zend Studio license, I was presented, instead, with a free upgrade to version 6. Wow, that was nice Zend! Unfortunately, the version I paid for (the “perpetual” license) was no longer there to download.
UPDATE: As of my last login to Zend, the 5.5.1 download was available. I installed and everything worked well. Still using Netbeans but appreciated all the same.
But hey! I got the brand-new version. That’s great right? Wrong! Zend decided to drink the Eclipse Kool Aid and completely changed an IDE that I had grown accustomed to (I guess it’s only fair to point out that Zend Studio 5.x was so old at this point that it was getting increasingly more difficult to install on more modern operating systems and newer java platforms.) In spite of the seemingly “over-bloat” of Zend Studio 6.0, I decided to give it a try. I must say that everything just felt wrong. Now I’m sure there are many PHP developers out there that have been using Eclipse for years and can’t live without it, but I just couldn’t seem to make it work my voodoo. I didn’t have the patience to get my Eclipse PHD, so I went looking elsewhere. That led me to a surprising alternative: Netbeans. Although very similar to Eclipse, an IDE with modules/plug-ins for multiple computer language support, Netbeans (entirely free) impressed me right on the spot. I know Zend Studio has all the same features more or less, but the way Netbeans is put together just seemed more natural to me (things I wanted to do actually worked.) Let it suffice to say that I have been using Netbeans since then and I haven’t looked back!
In this post, we will discover how to go about debugging a specific page in your website through setting up debugging in your MAMP stack, the free Netbeans IDE and your Firefox browser.
I’ve jumped in! I’ve slipped on the proverbial black turtleneck. Yes, I’m a switcher!
About a month ago I decided that my large, hot lead-brick-of-a-laptop, otherwise known as my HP Pavilion ZD8000, was getting a bit “long in the tooth.” On a hot July day, in my air-conditioned home office, it decided to to test my patience by overheating and shutting off without warning in approximately 10 minute intervals. My only thought, “Time to ship this sucker away!” Fortunately, my “brick” belonged to my employer. So, I asked for a new laptop; and I asked for a MacBook Pro!
Two-thousand years ago, it was conquered soldiers and Christians. Since recently reading some blogs, and after hanging out in a few chat rooms with the “techno-elite”, I’m thinking the newest group to be “thrown to the lions” are PHP developers!
It’s convincingly apparent if you search the “blogosphere” that many “techies” think that the phrase PHP programmer is an oxymoron. If you use PHP does that really earn you the despised title of newbie? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on : 06-09-2008 | By : Brett | In : Technology
Well, it’s been several months/years/millennium since my last blog post. However, lately, there have been a number of cool tech gadgets that have been released and I need a place to spout off my geek enthusiasm.
I am really digging the simplicity of Google’s new browser called Chrome. In case you haven’t been following the “Internets” these days, Chrome is Google’s attempt at a “new approach to the web browser.” Okay, so you may ask, “why do we need yet another web browser?” I mean, we do have Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (version 7.0 isn’t too terrible.) We have the very good and versatile Mozilla Firefox (my personal pick for quite a few years.) Don’t forget the under-rated and less-used Opera or the beautiful and refined Apple Safari (mostly used by the minority, techo-ellitist gang we like to call mac users who equate luxuriant expense with quality.) Google is touting that Chrome is different because it’s built for running the newly-prevalent torrent of Web applications that are coming on stage in today’s Web 2.0 world. Of course, some of the best examples include many of Google’s offerings such as Gmail and Google Docs. Because of the heavy client-side processing nature of these new Web applications, Chrome has some innovations that attempt to make “cloud computing” somewhat more palatable. The first innovation is that each browser tab is a browser unto itself. This means (for you tech savy individuals out there) that each tab “window” has it’s own process. That means that if one of your tabs hangs, only that tab needs killing. In other words, one tab doesn’t take down the whole browser (I wish they had a linux version. Firefox is always hanging for me in Ubuntu!) The second innovation (Among others. See Google’s comic book explanation for more information.) is new javascript engine called V8 that is supposed to increase browser speed for client-side processing and handle memory better (think leaving firefox running all day.)
Posted on : 29-06-2007 | By : Brett | In : Linux, Technology
Here’s a screencast video I made to demonstrate downloading the ie7 installer (the installer still does a WGA check but once you have the file, you can try and hack it.) I used firefox so I could pretend to be a browser running ie in windows to get past the first check. This is hard to see (I should have set my resolution higher.) By the way, I did not discover this. I heard it on a TWiT podcast and wanted to confirm this. So much for WGA checking.
Note: I should have increased my screen resolution. If you want to read what I did, follow the embedded youtube link.
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