From the deep
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Jul 11
An introduction to PDO: The basics and benefits
MySQL is/was deeply integrated within PHP. No doubt you have seen and used the mysql_*() functions at some stage, but there is an alternative that makes your database interactions much more reliable. It’s called PDO (PHP Data Object) and here’s a quick guide that should get you up to speed in no time at all. [...]
Jun 29
Update: Reversi board game in PHP and Javascript
I like playing the occasional game of Reversi, and thought it would prove to be an interesting project (creating something like RedHotPawn for chess). Several hours programming later I had a simple working prototype. A couple more hours later I added in some missing features and smartened everything up. Demonstration and Download To view a [...]
Jun 20
StackOverflow challenge: Replicate (almost) HTML text-align justify
Quite an interesting little test, I thought. Has zero practical world application, but it does require the person to have a somewhat analytical mind and problem solving skills. Also a reasonable knowledge of PHP. So I thought I would have a go (without looking at others’ solutions). 10 minutes later a working script which does exactly what was requested.
Feb 10
PHP Unit Testing: Test your code like a pro
Running through a website checking for errors is time consuming. It’s also boring and prone to human error. Unit testing has been around for years and is a much faster and reliable way to test for errors.
Sep 5
Amazon S3 batch uploading + upload stream
It was hard to track down if these two features were possible with the latest Amazon S3 SDK, but they are and have documented them for you below.
May 25
Simple PHP Encryption and Decryption
The need for encryption and decryption in general day-to-day Web programming is quite rare. But it can crop up from every now and again. I use a class that handles both encryption and decryption using mcrypt and the Rijndael algorithm (AES) and a 256 bit key size.
Mar 13
PHP autoload: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The autoload function is one of my favourite aspects of PHP. I’ve even blogged about it before. It makes writing code quicker and more reliable (no more typos or worrying about whether you forgot to include a class file) giving you more time to actually program.
Dec 5
CSS Variables and why you’re doing it wrong
I can’t browse the Internets these days without stumbling into some new fang-dangled state-of-the-art CSS-parsing-framework Web 2.0 (beta). And every time I see them I cringe. And to be honest they’re normally written in Ruby. Which answers a hell’uva lot of questions.
Sep 26
Design Pattern II: Factory
As you might have grasped from the name of the pattern its role is to produce and dispatch a product. In this case a classes. We use the Factory pattern as it is a standard way to create a class which is very similar to other classes by containing the same functions, but implemented in a different way. I always like to use non-technical terms when explaining, and this example will be no different.
Aug 24
Cookie replay attack protection
So let’s jump straight in, what is a replay attack? Essentially a security breach whereby someone poses as someone else using some unique piece of data the user supplied/was issued to/from the Web server. It’s kind of similar to a man-in-the-middle attack. We’re going to be looking at the attack using specifically cookie authorisation, a very common means of implementing a “remember me” function.
Aug 2
Defensive programming
Earlier in the week, whilst implementing a domain registration API into another client project (and pulling my hair out), I thought back to a seminar from university. The module was Component Based Design and it was all about writing code in a standard way, helping to aid both the supplier (API creator) and the client (the person using the API). Although I didn’t realise it until now it actually played a large role…
Jul 12
PHP __auoload
PHP5 reared it’s head mid 2004, 5 long years ago and all PHP developers rejoiced. Especially me. It gave us lots of new shiny tools to play with, including the obvious improved OO support and my particular favourite: the __autoload function. For all you Java developers out there you know that you never have to include or require files, the Java language instinctively knows where to find them thanks to the…
Apr 2
PHP class: SimpleXML
One thing I have found is the lack of really simple XML classes—that’s not to say there aren’t any good ones out there, I have used several really cracking ones. For my new version of my personal site (yes, this site is planned for a revamp) I wanted to integrate my Twitter feed somewhere. I looked and looked for a really simple XML class but was unable to find one. So I made one. And here is the result:
Jun 28
PHP class: Text to anything
I recently had a client who sent me a 300+ list of items they wanted placing into a drop down select menu. Beside the obvious accessibility issues they were quite set in their ways about what they wanted—per usual.
Jun 26
Design Pattern I: Singleton
In this first episode of PHP design patterns, we will be looking at the Singleton. The Singleton is available in most, if not all, OO languages. The purpose of the Singleton is to only ever have 1 instance of a class available which supplies the rest of the application with consistent data. I would like to point out that my version of a Singleton may differ slightly from other peoples; design patterns are not exact nor are they set in stone.
Jun 19
phpSimpleAuthent
I was browsing a couple of PHP forums the other day, and it seems people require a simple authentication script for their website. So, I thought I would make just that.
Jun 11
Magically dynamic PHP
There are several functions in the PHP language which were made to make classes more accessible and dynamic. I am going to be talking about two of these so called “magic functions” which allow you to set and get information dynamically, whilst also providing a simple log to show you what is really going on behind the scenes. These two functions are of course __set() and __get().
Jun 8
PHP exception handling
Arguably one of the best things to come out of PHP5 was its improved OO support. With OO comes easier separation of presentation, data, and business logic layers which leads to reusable code and better code management, amongst a host of others.
