Xdebug has been called the swiss army knife for php developers and for good reason. It’s a must have tools with helps with everything from debugging to code coverage.

Once of the many cool features of xdebug is that it formats and and syntax highlights the output from var_dump. However a negative side effect is that it truncates this output.

To fix this simple enter the information below in you php.ini file and restart apache. -1 sets the value to unlimited

 xdebug.var_display_max_data=-1
 xdebug.var_display_max_children=-1
 xdebug.var_display_max_depth=-1

See the five part series on Zend Developer Zone for a complete tutorial on using xdebug

So you’ve installed MAMP and its been working fine for your one site you’ve been developing locally. However like most developers you are probably now working on several projects at a time or perhaps you are using a framework that does not like the “localhost” url.

For the issue of multiple websites, there are a couple of solutions. MAMP makes it pretty easy to switch your document root folder in their settings. Another option is to support the MAMP team and go pro.

However if you are a do-it-yourself-er. Here is how to set up virtual hosts with MAMP

First edit your hosts file to create your custom local domain. I use the vim editor but you can use your favorite. You will need root access to edit your hosts file.

sudo vim /etc/hosts

Once you access you hosts file, add the following line to tell it to redirect your custom url to you MAMP server.

127.0.0.1       test.local

The next step is to create the folder where you want your web content to reside. The default is the MAMP htdocs folder, but i like to create my sites under a Sites folder in my home directory for example:

/Users/darren/Sites/test

Ok now we need to edit the apache config file and tell it to to enable virtual hosts. Open the following file “Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf” and un-comment or add the following line.

Include /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Save and close.

Now lets tell apache about our site content folder. Edit the file “/Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf” adding the following minimal tag block.

<VirtualHost *:80>
        DocumentRoot /Users/darren/Sites/test
        ServerName test.local
</VirtualHost>

Save and close.

Thats all there is to it. Simply restart apache with MAMP and point your browser to test.local.

Few useful web applications have a trivial design; most have a set of “moving parts” that are integrated to form the end product. As the functionality and features of a product change, so does its definition of intended or correct behavior. The purpose of automated testing is to assure that an application’s intended behavior and its actual behavior are consistent over its lifetime.
– PHP Master: Write Cutting-edge Code by Lorna Mitchell, Davey Shafik, and Matthew Turland

So with that said here is a short tutorial on installing phpUnit with MAMP.

Step 1: Install MAMP. The downloads and instructions are here http://www.mamp.info/en/index.html

Step 2: Open up terminal and go to the pear directory within your mamp installation. You specific path may differ slightly.

cd /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5.3/bin/

Step 3: Use either sudo each time or enter the root prompt with sudo su.

Step 4: Update Pear

pear channel-discover pear.phpunit.de
pear channel-discover components.ez.no
pear channel-discover pear.symfony-project.com
pear channel-update pear.php.net
pear upgrade pear

Step 4: Install PHPUnit

pear install phpunit/PHPUnit

During the process you get the following error:

Notice: unserialize(): Error at offset 276 of 1133 bytes in Config.php on line 1050
ERROR: The default config file is not a valid config file or is corrupted.

To fix, edit /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/conf/pear.conf

Change

"php_dir";s:44

To

"php_dir";s:43

Check your installation

phpunit --version
# PHPUnit 3.5.15 by Sebastian Bergmann.

There you have it, happy unit testing.

The Event Schedule is one of the lesser known tools built into mysql. My latest project involves a creating  a modbus simulator and the bulk of the project is data driven. It involves taking data from several MySQL tables and converting each field into a 2 byte word and storing in another table which represents a set of modbus registers. I know, not exactly your typical web developer task but who ever said i was a typical web developer.

So this process would occur several times an hour, possibly every five minutes. My first thought was “CRON JOBS”.  However the thought of breaking out a server side language just to call some queries or maybe even a stored procedure, was not appealing. Enter MySQL Scheduler. There really is no magic to the scheduler. It operates much like cron jobs but for the database. It runs an operation at a particular time or at a specified interval.

Here is a simple example how to use it. This information is pretty basic and can be extracted from the awesome MySQL docs.

Step 1. Create table to store scheduled events. Add auto incrementing id, value field and auto updating timestamp.

CREATE TABLE zTestSchedule(
  id INT,
  value VARCHAR(10),
  t timestamp DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

Step 2. Create recurring event

delimiter |
CREATE EVENT e_TEST_MIN
    ON SCHEDULE
      EVERY 1 MINUTE
    COMMENT 'ADDS A NEW COMMENT EACH MINUTE'
    DO
      BEGIN
        INSERT INTO zTestSchedule (`value`) VALUES ("NEW test value");
      END |
delimiter ;

Step 3. Check if the event was created

SHOW EVENTS;

Step 4. Wait a few minutes and check you table for updates

SELECT * FROM `zTestSchedule`;

Step 5. Delete event

DROP EVENT IF EXISTS e_TEST_MIN;

Recently I had a client who had his entire website remade by an outside designer. His old site had very good search engine placement, so he insisted that the designer use the exact same file names for every html file. The designer followed the spec was was not concerned about case sensitivity. So something the old site that may have read “www.mysite.com/Free-Beer.html” the designer made it “www.mysite.com/free-beer.html”.

I was tasked with changing this, but was in no mood to rename all files, especially since the its probably better to keep everything lowercase and goggle would re-index anyway.
A quick google lead me to joebert’s post on digitalpoint forum. He provided this htaccess rule to convert all uppercase letters in the url to lowercase. Works great and my client is happy.

thanks joebert

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ![A-Z] - [S=26]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(A)(.*)$ $1a$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(B)(.*)$ $1b$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(C)(.*)$ $1c$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(D)(.*)$ $1d$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(E)(.*)$ $1e$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(F)(.*)$ $1f$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(G)(.*)$ $1g$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(H)(.*)$ $1h$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(I)(.*)$ $1i$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(J)(.*)$ $1j$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(K)(.*)$ $1k$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(L)(.*)$ $1l$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(M)(.*)$ $1m$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(N)(.*)$ $1n$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(O)(.*)$ $1o$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(P)(.*)$ $1p$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Q)(.*)$ $1q$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(R)(.*)$ $1r$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(S)(.*)$ $1s$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(T)(.*)$ $1t$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(U)(.*)$ $1u$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(V)(.*)$ $1v$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(W)(.*)$ $1w$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(X)(.*)$ $1x$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Y)(.*)$ $1y$3 [N,R=301]
RewriteRule ^(.*)(Z)(.*)$ $1z$3 [N,R=301]

Last Saturday, I took a break from the usual grind, and attended the AT&T Mobile Hackathon. The At&t Sponsored event in the heart if downtown Atlanta, featured prominent, mobile framework vendors such as AppMobi, Titanium, Apigee, Immersion and more.

The Event began with quick introductions from the framework vendors present, then it was on to coding.  Here is a rundown of the event posting on AT&T’s blog.

This last Saturday’s AT&T Mobile App Hackathon produced some of the best apps I’ve seen and the technical proficiency of the group was extremely high. Around 82+ developers showed up with a number of people that popped in at the end to check out the app pitches (8 total apps produced). The top three apps (Four Corners, YouJuke & Food Porn)received universal approval from the judging panel without much discussion. The top app was Four Corners, which was a highly interactive game that really ignited the crowd and showed that a simple game was possible in an afternoon.
As a tip for future hackathons, here are a couple of common themes that seem to resonate with the judges:

• Interactivity – Does your app engage the masses? Is it multiplayer?
• Fun Factor – Remember how jumping in those big blowup castles was so much fun? Recreate that feeling in your next app!
• Technical Complexity – deploy Node.js, device to device messaging, Augmented Reality, QR Code reader, accelerator or vibration (check out Immersion.com)
• Speed – Can you rapidly deploy your solution? Bonus kudos points if you can achieve a solution within a couple of hours.
• Cloud Hosted Solution – Deploy to AWS, Heroku, Joyent, etc
• Use APIs – Pull data from Yelp, Twitter, Facebook or any other online data provider
• Use a Database – Use Mongolabs.com to store and retrieve your data
• Check your code into github – This enables sharing of your code with other participants as well as promotion of your technical abilities.

Here is a rundown of all the apps that were produced:

• Color Me – Digital coloring book
• Travel Warnings – It uses hyperlocal to connect people in a small space to others to present, view, and comment on speeches in real time using our feature-rich HTML5 client. App was written
• GeoSpeaker – This app uses hyperlocal to connect people in a small space to others to present, view, and comment on speeches in real time using our feature-rich HTML5 client
• Business License Finder – Search for Business Licenses and Permits. App was written natively for Android
• Four Corners – Code: https://github.com/lorennorman/four-corners Demo: http://four-corners.herokuapp.com – Allows multiple players to scan a QR code to join a team in a game.  Players tap on their own mobile device, which the impact is seen on the game board on a larger shared screen. @cyu @blakebyrnes @dsims @lorennorman
• YouJuke – Social music selection – @urvaksh
• Food Porn – https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nightshadelabs.foodporn&feature=search_result – Food Porn only shows beautiful pictures of a food near by you and gives you directions to it.It does nothing else and has absolutely no social networking whatsoever by design.
• Road Rage – http://roadrage.heroku.com/ – @maysundays @mannyblum @ardell – report potholes, bad road signs and other traveling problems.

As for the food that was consumed, I have to say that I’ve never see so many donuts or pizza consumed so fast. Though, the consumption speed was probably due to the fact that we ordered Sublime Donuts and Antico Pizza. Even though I am tempted to order other types of food, Antico Pizza is such a mind blowing experience, it’s going to be hard to replace. The crust was crispy and chewy all at the same time and the pizza sauce had a delightfully light touch of garlic. If you are in Atlanta, you must stop by Antico Pizza. Be sure to ask for Fabiana, the owner, and she’ll take good care of you.

http://developerboards.att.lithium.com/t5/AT-T-Developer-Program-Blogs/Mobile-App-Hackathon-Atlanta-Event-Recap/ba-p/30073

Ever wanted to take a course from Harvard, MIT, UC Berkley or Stanford? These Universities among others have made some of their coursework available and live on the web. Here are some of the Computer Science courses.

• Artificial Intelligence – Introduction to Robotics – YouTube – iTunes – Multiple formats – Oussama Khatib, Stanford
• Artificial Intelligence – Natural Language Processing – Multiple formats – Christopher Manning, Stanford
• Artificial Intelligence – Machine Learning – YouTube – iTunes – Multiple formats – Andrew Ng, Stanford
• Artificial Intelligence – YouTube – P.Dasgupta, IIT
• Bits – Multiple Formats – Harry Lewis, Harvard
• Building Dynamic Web Sites – iTunes - Video & Audio – David Malan, Harvard Extension
• Building Mobile Web Sites – iTunes – Web Site - David Malan, Harvard Extension
• Computational Camera and Photography – Download Course – Ramesh Raskar, MIT
• Computational Discrete Mathematics – Web Site – Carnegie Mellon
• Computer Graphics – YouTube – Sukhendu Das, IIT
• Computer Language Engineering - YouTube – iTunes Video – Web Site – Martin Rinard, MIT
• Computer Networks – YouTube – S.Ghosh, IIT
• Computer System Engineering – Web Site – Profs. Robert Morris and Samuel Madden, MIT
• Data Structures - iTunes Video – Paul Hilfinger, UC Berkeley
• Developing Apps for iOS (iPhone & iPad) – iTunesU – Paul Hegarty, Stanford
• Discrete Mathematical Structures YouTube – Kamala Krithivasan, IIT
• Intensive Introduction to Computer Science Using C, PHP, and JavaScript – Multiple Formats – David Malan, Harvard
• Introduction to Algorithms – iTunes – YouTube - Web Site –  Prof. Charles Leiserson & Erik Demaine, MIT
• Introduction to Computer Programming for Scientists and Engineers - iTunes Audio – iTunes Video – Roberto Horowitz, UC Berkeley
• Introduction to Computer Science and Programming - YouTube – iTunes – MIT Web Site – Eric Grimson, John Guttag, MIT
• Introduction to Computer Science: Programming Methodology – YouTube – iTunes – Multiple formats – Mehran Sahami, Stanford
• Introduction to Computer Science: Programming Abstractions - YouTube – iTunes - Multiple formats – Julie Zelenski, Stanford
• Introduction to Computer Science: Programming Paradigms - YouTube – iTunes - Multiple formats – Jerry Cain, Stanford
• Introduction to Computer Graphics – YouTube – Prem Kalra, IIT
• Introduction to Embedded Systems - YouTube – Professors Sanjit Seshia, Edward A. Lee, UC Berkeley
• Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming – YouTube – Deepak Gupta, IIT
• iPhone Application Development (Spring 2009)- iTunes – Stanford
• iPhone Application Development (Winter 2010) – iTunes – Stanford
• Logic & Proofs – Web Site – Carnegie Mellon
• Machine Structures – iTunes Video – David Culler, UC Berkeley
• Multimedia Systems - iTunes – Surendar Chandra, Notre Dame
• Operating Systems and System Programming – iTunes – Multiple professors, UC Berkeley
• Operating Systems Principles – iTunes – Surendar Chandra, Notre Dame
• Principles of Digital Communications I - YouTube – iTunes – Profs Gallagher and Zheng, MIT
• Principles of Digital Communications II - YouTube – MIT
• Programming Languages and Compilers - YouTube – Professor Paul Hilfinger, UC Berkeley
• Quantum Computing for the Determined - YouTube – Michael Nielsen, The University of Queensland
• Search Engines: Technology, Society and Business – YouTube – Marti Hearst, UC Berkeley
  
• The Beauty and Joy of Computing – iTunes - Brian Harvey, UC Berkeley
• The Beauty of Joy of Computing – YouTube – Professor Daniel Garcia, UC Berkeley
• The Future of the Internet – iTunes – Ramesh Johari, Stanford
• The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – YouTube - iTunes – Brian Harvey, UC Berkeley
• Understanding Computers and the Internet – iTunes – Feed – David Malan, Harvard University

This list was extracted from http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

An Ajax loader image is an animated gif that give your users a visual que that your widget is doing something. (Usually fetching data from the server via ajax). It’s very simple to implement one on your ajax site.

Step 1 is to get a suitable animated gif. You can create your own, or just grab one from http://www.ajaxload.info/

Step 2. Create css class, that uses your new gif as a background image. ex

.ui-widget-loading { background: #f5f3e5 url(spinner.gif) 50% no-repeat; top }

Step 3. The jquery. So i assume you are using jquery to perform some sort of ajax call. Simply use the following

 $(this).ajaxStart(function(){
  $(this).removeClass('ui-widget-content');
  $(this).addClass('ui-widget-loading');
 });

  $(this).ajaxStop(function(){
    $(this).removeClass('ui-widget-loading');
    $(this).addClass('ui-widget-content');
  });

so the ajax start and stop functions are native jquery handler functions which are triggered when an ajax call starts or stops. so when the ajax call starts we remove the content class and add the loading class, when the call is finished we remove the loading class and replace it with the content.

Happy Coding !!

Random Thought:>> There really isn’t or wasn’t any need for 2 compressed music file formats…. This was just Microsoft being up to their old shenanigans so that the consumer could purchase their software!!!
http://www.scinet.cc/articles/wma-vs-mp3/wma-mp3.html

There are just a few audio compression formats out there, just like there are only a few image compression formats (you may have heard of them: JPG, GIF, BMP). Two of the most popular audio formats are WMA, or Windows Media Audio, and MP3 (Short for MPEG, Moving Pictures Experts Group, Audio Layer 3). WMA is the older audio format, produced by Microsoft, to work with Microsoft’s Windows media player. The WMA compression format was designed specifically for this format, and thus can not be converted to other audio formats.The audio quality of WMA and MP3 audio formats tends to be noticeably different. WMA is a decent quality audio format when streaming at phoneline speeds (maybe 30kbps or so). At such speed WMA almost reaches an FM level of audio quality, although not quite. At 128kbps, Microsoft claims the WMA is nearly CD-quality, although many would deny this. WMA, however, is not to be completely looked over. The compression provides relatively small audio files and they require less processing power to execute. It thus retains a deminishing niche as MP3 has become more popular and widely used.

The MP3 audio compression was developed in Germany in 1991 by the Fraunhofer Institute. MP3 typically provides higher quality sound than WMA because it uses perceptual audio coding to compress CD-quality sound by a factor of 12. As a result, MP3 has become almost the universal standard among audio usage and broadcasting. It provides CD-quality sound at reasonable compression sizes and high streaming speeds. Watch out, however, at low bitrates, as MP3 quality will likely suffer

If you use a windows editor and upload code to a Linux server to run from the command line, then you have probably run into the dreaded ^M issue. This happens when uploading files from a windows system, using ascii mode. Some Windows editors may add the character to the end of each line as well during editing.

This can be very annoying but here is a simple way to fix it:

Install the dos2unix utility
yum install dos2linux

run dos2linux [filename]