I have geo-tagged content in my “yellow pages” project stored in a “Content” table, and needed to allow users to search for records within a distance of a number of various identifiers (Zip Code, City, State, GPS Coords from Mobile Devices, etc).  With this knowledge, I enabled the Geographical behavior from Doctrine to add Latitude and Longitude fields to my database.  I also imported a Census Zip Code Table and called it “GeoData”.  The GeoData table contains ZipCode, City, State, Latitude and Longitude fields; I used Geographical on this table as well.  My “Content” table also has the Geolocatable behavior attached to it, from the csDoctrineActAsGelocatablePlugin from Centre{source}.

I quickly became stumped on how to proceed from here.  I created my custom search form, built a module and created some actions and views and then … nothing.  I sat there reading documentation and experimenting by means of trial and error repeatedly until I almost put a blunt object through one of my displays.

The Doctrine documentation for Geographical has the following example:

// test.php
// ...
$q = $zipcode1->getDistanceQuery();
$q->orderby('miles asc')
  ->addWhere($q->getRootAlias() . '.city != ?', $zipcode1->city)
  ->limit(50);
echo $q->getSqlQuery();

The Geolocatable plugin has absolutely no documentation, but mentions that the following method is added to the “Table”:

Table Methods

addDistanceQuery( $query, $latitude, $longitude, $distance = null) adds distance query to a preexisting query.

field “distance” on each object represents the distance away from the passed latitude and longitude.

If $distance is not null, results are limited to that distance from the given geocodes.

After many hours, I discovered that the following code was what I needed:

$zipcode = Doctrine_Core::getTable('geoData')
  ->findOneByZipCode($this->form->getValue('zip_code'));
$query = Doctrine_Query::create()
  ->select('d.*, c.*')
  ->from('ContentDirectory d')
  ->innerJoin('d.Content c')
  ->orderBy('miles asc');
$query = Doctrine_Core::getTable('ContentDirectory')
  ->addDistanceQuery($query, $zipcode->getLatitude(), $zipcode->getLongitude(), 25);
$this->searchResults = $query->execute();

So let’s break this code down:

$zipcode = Doctrine_Core::getTable('geoData')
  ->findOneByZipCode($this->form->getValue('zip_code'));

This simply loads up an instance of my “GeoData” object for the zip code entered by the user in the form.  Since the GeoData table contains many records for the same Zip Code I call the “findOneBy” magic method.

$query = Doctrine_Query::create()
  ->select('d.*, c.*')
  ->from('ContentDirectory d')
  ->innerJoin('d.Content c')
  ->orderBy('miles asc');

This code is my base query joining my “ContentDirectory” and “Content” tables together and then ordering them by the “miles” (distance) they are from the source (zipcode from search).  I’d like to note that “miles” is not part of my data schema, and is added by the Geolocatable Plugins code in the following lines.  This Doctrine_Query should be fairly familiar to most users, so I won’t go into any detail about it.

$query = Doctrine_Core::getTable('ContentDirectory')
  ->addDistanceQuery($query, $zipcode->getLatitude(), $zipcode->getLongitude(), 25);

This bit here is where the “magic” occurs.  Since “addDistanceQuery” is a table method, I can’t just simply append it to my Doctrine_Query above.  As such, I access my Geolocatable Table (ContentDirectory) and then call the ‘addDistanceQuery’ method of that table, passing in the necessary parameters as defined by the documentation.  $query is the query we are adding the logic too, $latitude and $longitude are self explanitory and $distance allows me to limit my results within a specific distance (in miles) from the source.  If distance is not passed, then the query simply appends the “miles” logic which allows me to sort my results by distance but not limit them by it.

This may seem quite simple to some, and it does to me now as well.  However, it took quite a bit of time to realize how to string this all together.

This concludes, what I believe may be the first of many Symfony and Doctrine related posts.

Typing without a keyboard is difficult, but otherwise the app is rather solid.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Lexington,United States

He is tasked with creating an educational video game for Kindergarten and First Graders, to teach simple math skills.

The rules are quite simple, he has to design the concept on his own (he’s allowed to ask for opinions, and receive guidance on the educational aspect).  He then has to build this video game with any tools available.  I bought him a copy of “The Game Makers Apprentice” sometime last year, and he has his own Game Maker license.  So, more than likely, he’ll be building it with YoYo Game’s Game Maker software.

What does he get if he completes the challenge, successfully? Well, he receives a $100 ‘prize’ for completing the game and … we’ll build a web site together in which we can market the game to parents and sell it for a small fee (probably something like $9.95 … ).

So … if he keeps his interest in this challenge, and does anything with it … I’ll keep track of his progress here.

Anyone whose interested in knowing me, drop a comment … I’m sure the attention will just add incentive.

The patch was submitted by James Moberg of Sunstar Media.

As usual, you can download the latest version of jQuery Growl here.

I started out with the intent to create a mermaid, and …well, as all creative flows go… wound up with something different.

Here’s the original stock photo I started with:

Girl On Water - Original Stock Photo Source

And, after about 30-45 minutes … here’s what I wound up with:

Girl on Water - Copyright © 2009 David Higgins

The Palm Pre looks like a rather nice device, but, can it hold up to what the Apple iPhone is capable of? Can it ‘do everything an iPhone can do’, it does not appear so.  However, I have applied for access to become a Palm Developer, and would like to give the Palm Pre a fair shot at game development.  The games I develop, are largely 2D based and could be ported to HTML/CSS/JavaScript fairly easily because of this, but … can the Palm Pre’s webOS handle the resource requirements of a 2D game with moving parts, we don’t know.

It does, however, appear to be more than capable of handling 2D puzzle games, in the genre of Bejewelled, and Sudoko, etc.

The iPhone, on the other hand, has access to OpenGL ES, and is essentially just a crippled version of Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.x), designed to run on a mobile platform.  This, allows the iPhone to do an unbelievable number of things … it’s great for viewing web pages, it’s great for productivity tools, and it’s one of the funner hand held game systems I’ve ever owned (compared to GB, GBA, NDS, PSP, etc).

So, will the Palm Pre really compete with the Apple iPhone … ? Perhaps in the corporate market, but … for the ‘day to day’ person, I believe the iPhone will continue to ‘rule the market’ so to speak.

I hope to eventually look into Google Android, as well as Blackberry Storm as well.  As the Andriod OS is comparative to the iPhone OS, and the Blackberry Storm is similar in nature as well (however, I’ve not yet looked into either … with the exception of seeing some advertisements here and there).

I read through the example code, and learned a new trick … that little spinning ‘gear’ that Apple has made so popular for the ‘twiddle your thumbs for a while’ moments in life … is easily accessible with iPhone development, just by using the UIActivityIndicatorViewto display it.

It has startAnimating, stop Animating and isAnimating calls available … and runs on it’s own thread, so when you have code that is going to ‘stop everything’ for a moment, you can splash this up on the screen … and make people ‘feel better about themselves while they wait’.  We all love a useless gear that tells us … ‘everything is working as expected, just hold your horses and be patient’.

So, I thank the author of if {…} then {…} for showing me something new on Sunday morning.

Great fun for all ages, easy to use controls, simple enough concept that you don’t need to “learn how to play”, but for those of you who love the strategy, there’s always a better way to get out faster and go further.

Released by Gear Worx Productions, and developed by me, David Higgins.  Art is completely by Steve Adamson, with a wicked custom sound track by PunkArts.com.

Check out the Stockboy Stanley homepage and view the gameplay trailer.

Steve Adamson (GWPGearWorx) on Twitter.