Category Archives: Coding

Using AutoHotKey and Ditto with PHP

I’m a purist I suppose. I write PHP, Javascript, CSS, and HTML in Notepad++. I don’t use an IDE (such as NetBeans), but I do have some shortcuts to make things go faster for me. The first one, Ditto, is a clipboard program that remembers the last 10 things put into the clipboard. This means you don’t have to worry about losing that copy/paste because it was overwritten. It’s simple, open, and a no-brainer addition. For those on OSX, Jumpcut is a great option.

The second one is AutoHotKey, which is crazy powerful, but for this example, I’m using its simple text replacement features. For instance, when I type qwhi, it is replaced with this:

while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)){
 
}mysqli_free_result($result);

You can imagine how handy this can be. Below are some of the shortcodes I use in my AutoHotKey file. Enjoy.
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Mysqli and BLOB binary database fields

This post exists to save you hours of research on the web. The following things may be true about you:

  • You recently transitioned from mysql PHP functions to mysqli functions (staying current)
  • You prefer procedural PHP over object-oriented PHP (functions and arrays are cooler than classes)
  • You are storing some data in a MySQL BLOB, MEDIUMBLOB, or LONGBLOB field, which is Binary

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mysqli_result() function to match mysql_result()

This code is licensed under Creative Commons 0 (Public Domain)

As of PHP 5.5, the MySQL functions are deprecated and are removed in PHP 7. The recommendation is to switch to MySQLi functions, which conveniently offer both a procedural (my preference) and an object-oriented structure. Luckily, it’s a rather easy transition to MySQLi as functions names and functions are nearly identical (just change mysql_ to mysqli_). The only exception to this is the mysql_result() function, which has no analog.

Quick review: mysql_result() is used to write less code when your database query is returning only a single row (LIMIT 1) and/or a single column.

$output = mysql_result($result,0);

Pretty simple and straightforward. To replicate this in MySQLi, the following function can be used:

function mysqli_result($res,$row=0,$col=0){ 
    $numrows = mysqli_num_rows($res); 
    if ($numrows && $row <= ($numrows-1) && $row >=0){
        mysqli_data_seek($res,$row);
        $resrow = (is_numeric($col)) ? mysqli_fetch_row($res) : mysqli_fetch_assoc($res);
        if (isset($resrow[$col])){
            return $resrow[$col];
        }
    }
    return false;
}

It has one improvement over mysql_result(), which is you can choose to only include the resource and no row and/or column. It will just assume mysqli_result($resource,0,0).

EDITED Dec 19, 2014
Function updated to allow for the column to be referenced by field name as well as numerical offset.

Regular Expression Crossword – Fun Practice with RegEx

RegEx CrosswordAfter seeing the post on Slashdot about the Regular Expressions crossword, I was inspired. I also wanted a puzzle that was easier and more approachable for the beginners or intermittent RegEx users.

So, I found a great base puzzle generator (javascript) and after a few hours, some graph paper, and some tweaks to the code, I created a RegEx crossword puzzle for others to check out. If people enjoy it, let me know in the comments. I’m thinking of putting out a physical workbook of these for fun.

jQuery Mobile 1.3 Swipe to Reveal Panel with Demo

I wanted to make use of the new jQuery Mobile 1.3.0-beta1 feature called Panels, allowing you to overlay, push, or reveal a hidden panel of content on the left or right of the main window. This is most commonly used to provide extra navigation options. In my case, I wanted to show static content that is hyper relevant, but without crowding up the main window.

However, the docs recommend and demonstrate how to use a hyperlink to activate the panel, which is great in a header, footer, or in a button, but it seemed more natural to allow the user to swipe the screen either left or right to show the panel. Thus, I need to add the following code to the bottom of the page:

<script type='text/javascript'>
$(document).on('pageinit',function(){
	$("#content").on("swiperight",function(){
		$("#leftpanel").panel( "open");
	});
	$("#content").on("swipeleft",function(){
		$("#rightpanel").panel( "open");
	});
});
</script>

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HTML5 and jQuery Mobile Shortcut and Tip Sheet

jQuery MobileI’ve been exploring jQuery Mobile lately and consequently, HTML5 and mobile HTML design. What I’ve come to realize is that the framework is incredibly powerful and looks fantastic! I first looked at it almost 2 years ago and was overwhelmed, so either it has gotten that much better, or I have. Either way, I’m incredibly satisfied.
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HTML Headers for Social Media – Meta Information

It seems that markup is getting more and more important on the web today, especially if you want your pages to show up just right when your visitors click that magical share button. To that end, here is a quick sample of what I stick at the top of every HTML page before I ever get to the body tag.


<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us" />
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
<title>PAGE NAME | SITE NAME</title>
<meta itemprop="name" content="PAGE NAME | SITE NAME"/>
<meta property="og:title" content="PAGE NAME | SITE NAME"/>
<meta property="og:site_name" content="PAGE NAME | SITE NAME"/>
<meta name="keywords" content="LIST 5-8 KEYWORDS HERE" />
<meta name="description" content="THIS SHOULD BE YOUR DESCRIPTION; LESS THAN 160 CHARACTERS." />
<meta itemprop="description" content="THIS SHOULD BE YOUR DESCRIPTION; LESS THAN 160 CHARACTERS."/>
<meta property="og:description" content="THIS SHOULD BE YOUR DESCRIPTION; LESS THAN 160 CHARACTERS."/>
<meta property="og:url" content="http://www.WEBSITE.com/HTMLFILENAME.htm"/>
<meta property="og:image" content="http://www.WEBSITE.com/IMAGENAME.jpg"/>
<meta itemprop="image" content="http://www.WEBSITE.com/IMAGENAME.jpg"/>
<meta name='viewport' content='width=930, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=1' />
<meta name="author" content="Mario Lurig - http://mariolurig.com/" />
<link rel='stylesheet' href='MYCSSFILE.css' type='text/css' />
</head>

The very first line is for IE9 compatibility, forcing it to display things properly (I believe any doctype declaration will work). The remaining lines are self-explanatory with one exception: the viewport option decides how your page will look in a mobile browser upon first load.

You can double-check what Facebook sees (or refresh the cache) using their debug tool.