I started working on 1.6 at the ends of 2009 and before the release of today we had two release candidates: RC 1, RC 2. Also I installed RC 2 successfully  in a few web sites.

In the upcoming dates we will update all the site FAQs but we already have the forum and the demo running.

What’s new
Just a briefing of what’s new:

• Using Db class phpMyDb
• Prefix for DB tables
• Advanced search
• Settings, everything from config.php in a simple form
• Now templates can have their own index (listing) and template for items
• New themes
• New Languages
• Check more in readme.txt

Download 1.6 now!

How to upgrade from previous versions:

• Make a backup of your files and DB, just in case
• Erase the files form your FTP (NOT the folder /images/)
• Upload the new files
• Run http://yoursite.com/install/
• Done

c&p from Open Classifieds blog

What about forcing the user to type a number/letter in the input you want.

With just a bit of JavaScript we can control this what is the user typing int he input.

Allow only numbers:
(also dot and del)

function isNumberKey(evt){
	var charCode = (evt.which) ? evt.which : event.keyCode;
 
	if((charCode==46||charCode==8||charCode==45||charCode==47) ||(charCode >= 48 && charCode <= 57) ){
		return true;
	}
	else {
		return false;
	}		
}

And to use it in a input would be like this for example:

<input id="math"  type="text"  onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event);" />

Try it: How much is 20+10?

Allow only letters:
(also space, del, enter)

function isAlphaKey(evt){
	var charCode = (evt.which) ? evt.which : event.keyCode;
	 if ((charCode==231 || charCode==199) || (charCode==241 || charCode==209) ||(charCode==8 || charCode==32) || ( (charCode >= 65 && charCode <= 90) || (charCode >= 97 && charCode <= 122) ) ) {
	 	return true;
	 }
	 else {
		 return false;
	 }
}

And to use it in a input would be like this for example:

<input id="name" type="text"  onkeypress="return isAlphaKey(event);"  />

Try it: Your name:

I know should be easier, but just wait a bit for HTML 5 that is going to make our life better. For sure ;)

Demo | Download | For Open Classifieds

Since I’m not a web designer, make this templete it’s been a bit difficult for me.

Why I did it then? easy, I want to learn just a bit of CSS, in order of been able to make my own changes also I had an Idea for a template for Open Classifieds but since no one would help me I’ve decided to do it myself.

I will not normally release this short of things.

With Open Classifieds 1.6, that is coming really soon, I hope I will have this template ready by then ;) In the meantime please try 1.6 RC 2.

Few webpages they are not longer supporting ie6 and are recommending to change it, to use other browser. But now the giant the “Big Boss” Google is doing one step further to say bye to IE6.

They sent me this email yesterday that I absolutely aprove!

Dear Google Apps admin,​

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting next week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team

2010 it’s going to be a better world for web developers ;)

With this function you can generate an input select from a given query.

Parameters:
1- Query to be displayed as a select, the query needs to returns at least 2 values, 1st one for the option value, and the 2nd one for the display value.
2-Input Select name, thisw woud be the name that your select will have in the form.
3-Which option it’s selected from the list. I non is set the first one it’s selected.

function sqlOption($sql,$name,$option){//generates a select tag with the values specified on the sql, 2nd parameter name for the combo, , 3rd value selected if there's
	global $ocdb;
	$result =$ocdb->query($sql);//1 value needs to be the ID, second the Name, if there's more doens't work
	$sqloption= "<select name='".$name."' id='".$name."'>
				<option value='0'>Home</option>";
	while ($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
	{
		$first=mysql_field_name($result, 0);
		$second=mysql_field_name($result, 1);
 
			if ($option==$row[$first]) { $sel="selected=selected";}
			$sqloption=$sqloption .  "<option ".$sel." value='".$row[$first]."'>" .$row[$second]. "</option>";
			$sel="";
	}
		$sqloption=$sqloption . "</select>";
		echo $sqloption;
}

Same function but that can group:

Parameters:
1- Query to be displayed as a select, the query needs to returns at least 2 values, 1st one for the option value, the 2nd one for the display value, and 3rd the value we use to group with.
2-Input Select name, thisw woud be the name that your select will have in the form.
3-Which option it’s selected from the list. I non is set the first one it’s selected.

function sqlOptionGroup($sql,$name,$option){//generates a select tag with the values specified on the sql, 2nd parameter name for the combo, , 3rd value selected if there's
	global $ocdb;
	$result =$ocdb->query($sql);//1 value needs to be the ID, second the Name, 3rd is the group
	//echo $sql;
	$sqloption= "<select name='".$name."' id='".$name."' onChange=\"validateNumber(this);\" lang=false ><option></option>";
	$lastLabel = "";
	while ($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
	{
		$first=mysql_field_name($result, 0);
		$second=mysql_field_name($result, 1);
		$third= mysql_field_name($result,2);
 
		if($lastLabel!=$row[$third]){
			if($lastLabel!=""){
				$sqloption.="</optgroup>";
			}
			$sqloption.="<optgroup label='$row[$third]'>";
			$lastLabel = $row[$third];
		}
 
			if ($option==$row[$first]) { $sel="selected=selected";}
			$sqloption=$sqloption .  "<option ".$sel." value='".$row[$first]."'>" .$row[$second]. "</option>";
			$sel="";
	}
		$sqloption.="</optgroup>";
		$sqloption=$sqloption . "</select>";
		echo $sqloption;
}

NOTE: Requires phpMyDB.

function getIp(){//obtain the ip
		// if getenv results in something, proxy detected
		if (getenv('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR')) {
			$ip=getenv('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR');
		}
		else {// otherwise no proxy detected
			$ip=getenv('REMOTE_ADDR');
		}
 
		return $ip;
}

Anyway of doing this better?

Please DOWNLOAD try / test and give me feed back in the forum for this release.

Open Classifieds 1.6 RC2 demo.

New things:

Fixed many bugs.
addthis instead of the older slower service add to any
Now templates can have their own index (listing) and template for items (check theme gallery-blue to see what I mean)
Using j.mp instead of bit.ly to short urls
sort ads by price asc or desc in advanced search
Improved seo now friendly urls for new, contact, sitemap, privacy, advanced search…

Neeed translation for all languages (except english and spanish):

//1.6 new words!
define ("T_SORT","Sort");
define ("T_LINKS","Links");
define ("T_ERROR_CODE","There was a problem with your post. Please do not include code. Go Back");
define ("T_SPAM_CONTACT","Ups! Spam? if you are not spam contact us.");
define ("T_SPAM","Spam");
define ("T_NO_SPAM","NO Spam!");
define ("T_SPAM_REPORTED","Spam reported");
define ("T_PRIVACY_COUNTRY","Spain");
define ("T_MAP","Map");
define ("T_ADV_SEARCH","Advanced search");

Please try and report.

Thanks!

Please DOWNLOAD try / test and give me feed back in the forum for this release.

Open Classifieds 1.6 RC1 demo.

Once more the change log for V 1.6 RC1:

Romanian language thank to tutankanon, russian thanks to levgen, italian thanks to paolo
Now languages are in /languages/
Created include controller that loads the needed data (before was called data.php)
Db class phpMyDb
new cache class integrated with db class
Mark as spam sends to akismet
no install if minimun requirements (PHP > 5 and writable in /includes/)
prefix for db tables (allows you to have more than one install in the same DB)
Adsense deleted, there was problems with google. please donate
Sidebar allows to change theme
config.php define in admin
categories allow duplicates, changes the post slug
advanced search in /search/
fixed few mistakes at sitemap.php

Also it’s important to check all the themes that are included since there’s few changes.

But how to make it work using PHP?

This is the way I do it for Open Classifieds:

First of all I use to defines, for the path of the file, and when it would expire:

define(SITEMAP_FILE,"sitemap.xml");
define(SITEMAP_EXPIRE,3600); //seconds

At the beginning of any of your scripts we check if the sitempa it’s expired, if it’s expired we generate another time the sitemap :

if (time()>(filemtime(SITEMAP_FILE)+SITEMAP_EXPIRE)){
	generateSitemap();// the sitemap is expired then generates it
}

Then I use this function to generate the file, everytime it’s needed.

function generateSitemap(){//generates the sitemap returns the xml
	global $ocdb;
	$file=SITEMAP_FILE;
	$sitemap="<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
	<urlset xmlns='http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9'
	xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'
	xsi:schemaLocation='http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9
			    http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd'>";
 
//////////////variable part
//retrieve categories from DB
	$query="SELECT name,friendlyName,
				(SELECT insertDate FROM ".TABLE_PREFIX."posts p where idCategory=c.idCategory and isConfirmed=1 order by 1 desc limit 1 ) time
			FROM ".TABLE_PREFIX."categories c order by idCategoryParent,'order'";
	$result =	$ocdb->query($query);
	while ($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
	{
		 $sitemap.=makeUrlTag (SITE_URL."/category/".$row['friendlyName'], $row['time'], "hourly", "0.2");
	}
//also I add all the posts of course, but for this example it's enough with categories	
//Some manual urls
	$sitemap.=makeUrlTag (SITE_URL."/rss/","", "hourly", "0.6");
	$sitemap.=makeUrlTag (SITE_URL."/contact/","", "yearly", "0.6");
	$sitemap.=makeUrlTag (SITE_URL."/new/","", "yearly", "0.6");
	$sitemap.=makeUrlTag (SITE_URL."/sitemap/","", "monthly", "0.6");
	$sitemap.=makeUrlTag (SITE_URL."/privacy/","", "monthly", "0.6");
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 
	$sitemap.="</urlset>";
 
	if (file_exists($file))  unlink ($file);
	$file = fopen($file, "w");
	fwrite($file, $sitemap);
	fclose($file);
 
	return $sitemap;
}

Also we need this functions that I use from smart-it-consulting to make everything work good:

function makeUrlString ($urlString) {
    return htmlentities($urlString, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
}
 
function makeIso8601TimeStamp ($dateTime) {
    if (!$dateTime) {
        $dateTime = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
    }
    if (is_numeric(substr($dateTime, 11, 1))) {
        $isoTS = substr($dateTime, 0, 10) ."T"
                 .substr($dateTime, 11, 8) ."+00:00";
    }
    else {
        $isoTS = substr($dateTime, 0, 10);
    }
    return $isoTS;
}
 
function makeUrlTag ($url, $modifiedDateTime, $changeFrequency, $priority) {
    GLOBAL $newLine;
    GLOBAL $indent;
    GLOBAL $isoLastModifiedSite;
    $urlOpen = "$indent<url>$newLine";
    $urlValue = "";
    $urlClose = "$indent</url>$newLine";
    $locOpen = "$indent$indent<loc>";
    $locValue = "";
    $locClose = "</loc>$newLine";
    $lastmodOpen = "$indent$indent<lastmod>";
    $lastmodValue = "";
    $lastmodClose = "</lastmod>$newLine";
    $changefreqOpen = "$indent$indent<changefreq>";
    $changefreqValue = "";
    $changefreqClose = "</changefreq>$newLine";
    $priorityOpen = "$indent$indent<priority>";
    $priorityValue = "";
    $priorityClose = "</priority>$newLine";
 
    $urlTag = $urlOpen;
    $urlValue     = $locOpen .makeUrlString("$url") .$locClose;
    if ($modifiedDateTime) {
     $urlValue .= $lastmodOpen .makeIso8601TimeStamp($modifiedDateTime) .$lastmodClose;
     if (!$isoLastModifiedSite) { // last modification of web site
         $isoLastModifiedSite = makeIso8601TimeStamp($modifiedDateTime);
     }
    }
    if ($changeFrequency) {
     $urlValue .= $changefreqOpen .$changeFrequency .$changefreqClose;
    }
    if ($priority) {
     $urlValue .= $priorityOpen .$priority .$priorityClose;
    }
    $urlTag .= $urlValue;
    $urlTag .= $urlClose;
    return $urlTag;
}

And that should be all ;)

Now you can submit your sitemap.xml to the google webmaster tools!

When I’ve installed 9.04, I had problem with the network (wifi and ethernet drivers), and the display drivers. That was all, the rest was great.

When I did the upgrade, the display once more was not working properly but the worst was the speed connection, awful.

Then I’ve decided to do a fresh clean installation:

1. Download Karmic Koala
2. Make a pen drive bootable with the app in system->administration->Usb Startup Disk Creator
3. Boot you Eeepc form the pendrive (you can find this in the bios F2->Boot)
4. Install Karmic Koala
5. After this almost everything was working fine but the display and still the internet connection

Problems and how I fixed them:

Display resolution:

I found many solutions the easier was this one:
In command shell:

wget http://gma500re.altervista.org/scripts/poulsbo_ppa.sh && sh ./poulsbo_ppa.sh
dpkg-reconfigure psb-kernel-source

Restart and works ;)

Internet connection Speed:

There’s some short of bug that for some weird reason makes your browsing experience really slow. As far as I know (and how I did to solve it) it’s caused by ipv6.

If you use firefox you can use this solution to disable ipv6 only in firefox of course.

Open a firefox browser window and type this in the address bar:

about:config

In the filter bar put:

network.dns.disableIPv6

You will disable the IPv6 DNS if you set the value to true. Once you have done that close Firefox and then reopen a browser a window. Your internet should be fast again!

But I use Chomium!! and skype….then we need to disable the module ipv6 to load on start (boot).

Open a terminal:

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Look for this line and add:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="ipv6.disable=1 quiet splash"

Save and close your file then run:

sudo update-grub

That’s all until now…seems everything to work pretty good, just I don’t like from karmic the new Ubuntu Software Center, I liked more the old one…

This year was specially fast at least for me. I did many things, that involves many areas from my life, travelling, studying, developing…

Maybe some of you are interested in what I’ve done this year:

• In February I moved from Holland to Thailand for 5 months.
• In March I started developing Open Classifieds, just for learning.
• I’ve visited Malaysia , Vietnam,Liverpool, …
• In July I moved from Thailand back to my home in Barcelona.
• I have twitter account since July only…
• Since August we have our lovely cat Chang (means elephant in Thai).
• In August I started this blog, with the forum and the lab ;) (Currently I have 300 unique visitors day)
• In September I started English school for first time in my life and it’s in the official school level 4 of 5.
• In October I’ve quited my work and I started a Software Engineering Master.
• I’ve went to the PHP international conference in Barcelona as Speaker.
• I started playing paddle and Ive been defeated twice by my dutch girlfriend :S

Goals 2010:

• Finish my studies successfully.
• Release Open Classifieds 2.0.
• Visit more and more countries!
• Start my own E-business (already working on it).
• Defeat my gf in Paddle, finally.
• Learn to use a PHP Framework (Still don’t know which one).
• Learn to relax and take it easy.
• Driving license for motorbike (now I can only drive 125cc).
• Attend to more conferences, even if I’m not an Speaker.
• Stop smoking (wait I never smoked!!)

BTW, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I’ve wrote this class just few weeks a go since I need it for the new version of Open Classifieds (coming soon I promise, many changes).

This class uses fileCache class to be able (if you want to) to cache the query result in a really simple way (transparent to the programmer).

First Download

Usage with examples:

Constructor:
DB Constructor – connects to the server and selects a database

$ocdb = new phpMyDB(DB_USER, DB_PASS, DB_NAME,DB_HOST,DB_CHARSET);

In case of error will print using the private function print_error

Debugger:
Logs all the connection or action inside the class, you can set it on whenever you want.

$ocdb->setDebug(true);
$ocdb->returnDebug();

We set it on, and at the end of our script(or whenever you want) we should returnDebug, by default in “HTML”, but can return as an “array”.
Also you can add new “logs” with $ocdb->addLog(“any string”);

Activate cache:
Uses fileCache class. As parameter we have:
1: true or false to activate or deactivate the cache, by default false
2: Time in seconds by default 3600 (10 seconds expires in the example)
3: Path for the cache, by default cache/

$ocdb->setCache(true,10);

Normal query:
Just performs a normal query, but keeps the query counter and logs the action if debugger it’s on

$result =$ocdb->query($query);
if (mysql_num_rows($result)){
     while ($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
          echo 	$row['title'];
     }
}

getRows
Returns in rows the target query. If cache is activated automatically cache the result as an array.
Parameters:
1: Query to return values
2: Returning as “assoc” (default), “row” , “object” ,”value” (returns first field form the query)
3: Cache type “cache” or “APP” by default “cache”
Example: Cached query, returning the row as an object (cache must be activated):

$result=$ocdb->getRows($query,"object");
if ($result){//more than 1 result
	foreach ( $result as $row ){
           echo $row->title;
       }
}

getValue
Get value from first value of the query and stores it in the cache.

$query="SELECT count(*) total FROM oc_postshits";
$total_records = $ocdb->getValue($query,"APP");

In the second parameter we can use “cache” (default).

Insert:
Insert into,parameters:
1: table + fields
2: values

$ocdb->insert("categories (name,friendlyName)","'name','fname'");

To get the last id use $ocdb->getLastID();

Update:
Updates table, parameters:
1: table
2: sets
3: where

$ocdb->update("posts","isAvailable=0,isConfirmed=0","idPost=1 and password='asdsadsad'");

Delete:
Delete from, parameters:
1: table
2: where

$ocdb->delete("categories","idCategory=2");

Close db:
Closes DB connection and unsets variables.

$ocdb->closeDB();

Full example:

include "phpMyDB.php";
 
define('DB_HOST','localhost');
define('DB_USER','user');
define('DB_PASS','some pass');
define('DB_NAME','openclassifieds');
define('DB_CHARSET','utf8');
 
$ocdb = new phpMyDB(DB_USER, DB_PASS, DB_NAME,DB_HOST,DB_CHARSET);
 
$ocdb->setDebug(true);
$ocdb->setCache(true,10);
 
$ocdb->insert("postshits (idPost,ip)","97,'10.0.0.0'");
echo 'test insert see id:' . $ocdb->getLastID();
 
$query="SELECT count(*) total FROM oc_posts";
$total_records = $ocdb->getValue($query,"APP");
echo 'Total records: '.$total_records;
 
$query="SELECT p.title from oc_posts p Limit 3";
$ocdb->setCache(false);//cache deactivated
$result=$ocdb->getRows($query,"object");
$ocdb->setCache(true);//after the query is done activated once more
 
if ($result){//more than 1 result
	foreach ( $result as $row ){
		echo $row['title'];	
	}
}//if count
else echo "nothing found";
 
$ocdb->closeDB();
$ocdb->returnDebug();
 
echo $ocdb->getQueryCounter().' queries generated and '.$ocdb->getQueryCounter("cache").' queries cached';

After trying few solutions (for KDE, gnome ), I finally managed to make it work:

First you need to install Spotify in linux

At the console we create this script:

echo '#!/bin/sh' > ~/.browser2spotify
echo 'wine  "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Spotify/spotify.exe" /uri "$@"' >> ~/.browser2spotify
chmod 755 ~/.browser2spotify

Then we change few options from gnome to know what to do with the url’s:

gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/spotify/command "/home/USER/.browser2spotify %s"
gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/spotify/needs_terminal false -t bool
gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/spotify/enabled true -t bool

Remember to replace the user name in the folder.

That’s all!

To see if it works, try to open this any from this list:

Top 100 2009 PlayList

List provided thanks to soyplastic.

Do you remember rir.li this service to prevent you to do image hotlinking?

To make easier the usage of this service, here you have the plugin for WordPress.

Installation:

• Download
• In your WordPress go to admin Dashboard -> Plugins -> Add new->Upload
• Select the downloaded file
• Activate
• Enjoy ;)

Usage:
Once it’s installed, you can use it to copy any images in the service of rir.li like this:

<rir>http://www.turisbot.com/images/maastricht.jpg</rir>

or

[rir]http://www.turisbot.com/images/maastricht.jpg[/rir]

Few days a go I wrote about a cache class and longer a go about application variables for php. This is a mix of both in just one powerful class.

Explanation:

In this class we have 2 different kinds of cache.

First the normal file cache, where we store values in a single file. This is good for example to cahe an entire page.

Second we have an APPLICATION kind integrated in the cache. This means that whatever you store in the APP cache it would be kept in the same file as all the other APP. Really useful to store small amount of data, for example menus, counters etc… Remember that this file is loaded everytime yo create a new object fileCache, you need to be careful to not store many things on it.

Usage:

$cache= new fileCache();
//$cache= new fileCache(180);//second
//$cache= new fileCache(180,'cache/');//seconds and path
 
////cahe application in the same file!!!
$test= $cache->APP("test");
if (!$test){
	$cache->APP("test","value test application cache<br />");
} else echo $test;
$cache->APP("test2","value test 2 application cache<br />"); //same file as variable test
 
//end cache app
 
//normal cache in different files
$test = $cache->cache("test");//getting values from cache
if (!$test) {	//not value from cache found
	$cache->cache("test", "value test normal cache<br />");	//save cache			
}else echo $test;	
//end normal cache
 
$cache->deleteCache(60);//deletes any cache older than X seconds xD

The Class: (Download)

/*
 * Name:	fileCache
 * URL:		http:/neo22s.com/
 * Version:	v0.1
 * Date:	18/12/2009
 * Author:	Chema Garrido
 * Support: http://forum.neo22s.com
 * License: GPL v3
 * Notes:	fileCache class, used in phpMydb
 */
 
/////////////////////class cache
 
class fileCache {
	private $cache_path;//path for the cache
	private $cache_expire;//seconds that the cache expires
	private $application;//application object like in ASP
 	private $application_file;//file for the application object
 
	//cache constructor, optional expiring time and cache path
	public function fileCache($exp_time=3600,$path="cache/"){
		$this->cache_expire=$exp_time;
		$this->cache_path=$path;
		$this->APP_start();//starting application cache with filename...
	}
 
	//returns the filename for the cache
	private function fileName($key){
		return $this->cache_path.md5($key);
	}
 
	//deletes cache from folder
	public function deleteCache($older_than=""){
		if (!is_numeric($older_than)) $older_than=$this->cache_expire;
 
		$files = scandir($this->cache_path); 
		foreach($files as $file){
			if (strlen($file)>2 && time() > (filemtime($this->cache_path.$file) + $older_than) ) {
				unlink($this->cache_path.$file);//echo "<br />-".$file; 
			}
		}
 
	}
 
	//write or read the cache
	public function cache($key, $value=""){
		if ($value!=""){//wants to wirte
			if ($this->get($key)!=$value){//only write if it's different
				$this->put($key, $value);
			}
		}
		else return $this->get($key);//reading
	}
 
	//creates new cache files with the given data, $key== name of the cache, data the info/values to store
	private function put($key, $data){
		$values = serialize($data);
		$filename = $this->fileName($key);
		$file = fopen($filename, 'w');
	    if ($file){//able to create the file
	        fwrite($file, $values);
	        fclose($file);
	    }
	    else return false;
	}
 
	//returns cache for the given key
	private function get($key){
		$filename = $this->fileName($key);
		if (!file_exists($filename) || !is_readable($filename)){//can't read the cache
			return false;
		}
		if ( time() < (filemtime($filename) + $this->cache_expire) ) {//cache for the key not expired
			$file = fopen($filename, "r");// read data file
	        if ($file){//able to open the file
	            $data = fread($file, filesize($filename));
	            fclose($file);
	            return unserialize($data);//return the values
	        }
	        else return false;
		}
		else return false;//was expired you need to create new
 	}
 
 	//load variables from the file
	private function APP_start ($app_file="application"){
		$this->application_file=$app_file;
 
	    if (file_exists($this->cache_path.$this->application_file)){ // if data file exists, load the cached variables
	        $file = fopen($this->cache_path.$this->application_file, "r");// read data file
	        if ($file){
	            $data = fread($file, filesize($this->cache_path.$this->application_file));
	            fclose($file);
	        }
	        // build application variables from data file
	        $this->application = unserialize($data);
	    }
	    else  fopen($this->cache_path.$this->application_file, "w");//if the file does not exist we create it
 
	    //erase the cache every X minutes before loading next time
		$app_time=filemtime($this->cache_path.$this->application_file)+$this->cache_expire;
		if (time()>$app_time) unlink ($this->cache_path.$this->application_file);//erase the cache
	}
 
	// write application data to file
	private function APP_write(){
		    $data = serialize($this->application);
		    $file = fopen($this->cache_path.$this->application_file, "w");
		    if ($file){
		        fwrite($file, $data);
		        fclose($file);
		    }
	}
 
	//returns the value or stores it
	public function APP($var,$value=""){
		if ($value!=""){//wants to wirte
			if ($this->application[md5($var)]!=$value){
				$this->application[md5($var)]=$value;
				$this->APP_write();
			}
		}
		else {//reading
			$return=$this->application[md5($var)];
			if (!isset($return)) return false;//nothing found
			else return $return;//return value
		}
	}
 
}

Legal stuff (for Spain):

• LSSI, Ley de Servicios de la Sociedad de la Información, only if you have benefits form your site
  
• LOPD, Ley orgánica de protección de datos, if you store data from you clients, customers, visitors…
  
• Privacy Policy, about cookies, links to 3rd parts, terms and conditions…
  

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

• Title, description and keywords dynamically generated depending on the content.
• Friendly URLS (human readable URI)
• Title and alternative text for all the images!
• Robots.txt: say to the bots what they can/can’t see or how often they can do it.
• Sitemap.xml: Say to the bots what’s updated and when

User/Browser:

• About: I think it is important to know a bit more about the site or what they are reading…
• FAQ: I’m sure there’s always questions and you have the right answers, important to keep it updated
• Cookies: Check if the browser of the user able you to read them…
• JavaScript: Check that JavaScript is enabled or they could not enjoy your beautiful ajax…
• Screen resolution: Don’t do a site with fixed width of 1600px…almost no one have that, my preference is a variable width.
• Sitemap: Make easier to the users to browse your site with a proper sitemap
• Contact: Just a contact form, makes you more reliable in front of the user and really useful. really important.
• Search: Is always welcome an small form to make a search
• Favicon: Something really simple to do but would make lot easier to see your site in a tabbed browsing
• NO pop ups: That’s terrible! please no Java Script pop up! at least use some modal box or something more friendly…
• RSS: This is mandatory…make to your regular readers live easier!

Make money  / ask for money:

• Paypal: I think nowadays is the best way to receive donations or to pay for something.
• Adsense: Use some adsense just if it’s not a professional site of course…you don’t want the people to leave your site without buying!

Statistics:

• Google analitycs: Really important to analyze your traffic!
• Site Up Time: also important to know if your site is down or not!

Finally:

• If our site it’s about downloads or videos, use external services such as megaupload daylimotion imageshack….
• It’s your site fast enough? is compatible with other browsers? many small details that are important

As you can see I don’t say anything about flash web sites, since you can do nothing of this almost xD

I’ve forgot something? Any ideas?

Idea and Why?

It’s time for a change, there’s too many things that OC versions 1.x is not able to do.

For instance you can’t set location for your advertisements, there’s not a proper control panel (dashboard), no user registration, not possible to pay for ad, you can’t change language…

Also for an small project as OC, was ok to use procedure development, but now I’m finding really difficult to continue like this and I need to change the technology. Object Oriented is the most probably, using some sort of MVC (Model View Controler). As Framework I’m already working in one to manage DB, localization, cache ….

Open Classifieds it’s been downloaded 8.500 times, there’s lot of sites using OC, lot of people interested in the project and I feel for doing (with some help if it’s possible) something great.

Meet the Requirements

I did a bit of Requirement Engineering, to see what’s needed. But it’s difficult since the client can be anyone, not only me.

Please think that not any of this requirements are for sure. Your feedback in this is really important.

Functional requirements:

• Location:  Would be possible to browse advertisements by location and do something like this USA->California->San Francisco
• User: To post you must be registered. To make it easier to the end user, OpenID, Google or Facebook to login would be possible. In this way always we could see the posts from a single user.
• Localization: To make localization possible, now would be possible to choose the currency and language by location.  Also categories could be translated. Also each user could set this parameters in their own settings. For the translations probably I would use glotpress.org.
• Pay to post: Many people asked to be able to set a rate to pay if they want to post, this would be controlled by the category. This would use Paypal.
• Dashboard: right now all the options are stored as defines. The idea is to have it in a Table, to make lot easier to the admin to manage any configuration parameter.

No functional requirements:

• Object Oriented
• New DB model
• New framework

Possible deprecated:

• Post Type: there’s a need to set the type? like Need, Offer, Sell, Buy? it’s important? many Classifieds sites don’t use this
• Post Pictures: The path for the pictures, would be no longer stored in the DB, I don’t see it necessarily, since you can always read the content of the folder for each post and from there read the images.

With bubbl.us I did this brainstorming:

Any other ideas?

DB Model

This is an example for the requirements translated to DB:

Help is needed

List of things that I’m short of:

• Design: I need a logo, design for Open Classifieds,  Open Classifieds site, dashboard, installation, forums…..I know it’s a lot of work but later you would get your part of glory, been part of the team. I’m sorry I’m that bad designer….
• SEO: Some SEO help would be much appreciate it since this would really help the project to succeed.
• Sponsors: We need sponsors to support this project, money it’s a need for hosting and at least cover minimal expenses such as rentals, drinks, transport… for meetings. Also Investment would be really great to move forward and welcome.
• Translators: As you can see my English it’s not the best ever…I’m still learning how to write properly…but anyway any other language would be great! sure!
• Marketing: What about someone to deal with affiliates, adsense and get new ways of making money or to advertise our software? if it’s you don’t wait!

Join the team

The perfect scenario would be to make an small team (3 people), to split work and do a meeting sometimes in Barcelona. I have a friend’s place (restaurant) that they will let us be there for free and they will provide us with some beverage.

Also this will may be good for you to know other people with your own interests, have some fun, drink some beers and who knows even make some money in the future (there’s already some income).

As part of the team you would be involved at any decision. There’s some market ideas I need to develop but they can be really good.

Please if you are interested send an email to chema (at) garridodiaz.com, of course never mind to talk Spanish ;)

Notes

This is just a draft. I have no idea when this would be possible, it depends of how much free time I  have, how much help I get on developing and not any stopper (as another project).

But I really would like to have it done by/or during summer.

Any comment or feedback or help, everything it’s really welcome.

We have some data sotred in a data base that must be returned as PDF.

Sounds easy but what if I tell you that between that data you need to attach other PDF files?

It makes everything more complicated. We already saw how to convert from Word to PDF in PHP and Concatenate PDF in PHP but that’s not enough…

First download in your work space TCPDF and FPDI.

Then you can use this class I did for this.

//CONFIG
require_once('tcpdf/tcpdf.php');
require_once('fpdi/fpdi.php');//concatenation
//END CONFIG
 
 
class PDFmaker extends FPDI{
	  /////////////////////////////////////////////////
  // PROPERTIES, PUBLIC
  /////////////////////////////////////////////////
	//here we set the default font, margins, etc.
	//TODO define the default parameters for font, etc.
 
	protected $idDocument;
	public $header;
 
 
	function PDFmaker(){
		parent::__construct('P','mm', 'A4', true, 'UTF-8', false);
	}
 
 
	function configPdfFile(){
		//set margins
		$this->SetMargins(20, 30, 20);//(PDF_MARGIN_LEFT, PDF_MARGIN_TOP, PDF_MARGIN_RIGHT);
	}
 
	 //Page header
    public function Header() {
 
		// set header fonts
		$this->setHeaderFont(Array('arial', '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_MAIN));
 
    	//Set the margins
    	$this->SetY(5);
 
    	// Colors, line width and bold font
        $this->SetFillColor(255, 255, 255);
        $this->SetTextColor(0);
        $this->SetDrawColor(0, 0, 0);
        $this->SetLineWidth(0.1);
        $this->SetFont('', '');
 
        $this->SetX(50);
        //Carriage return to the following line
        $this->Ln();
 
        // Color and font restoration
        $this->SetFillColor(255, 255, 255);
        $this->SetTextColor(0);
        $this->SetFont('');
         // Line break
        $this->Ln(20);
 
    }
 
    // Page footer
    public function Footer() {
    	//Set footer margin
    	$this->SetFooterMargin(PDF_MARGIN_FOOTER);
       // set header and footer fonts
		$this->setHeaderFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_MAIN, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_MAIN));
		$this->setFooterFont(Array(PDF_FONT_NAME_DATA, '', PDF_FONT_SIZE_DATA));
 
        // Position at 1.5 cm from bottom
        $this->SetY(-15);
        // Set font
        $this->SetFont('helvetica', 'I', 8);
        // Page number
        $this->Cell(0, 10, 'Page '.$this->getAliasNumPage().'/'.$this->getAliasNbPages(), 0, 0, 'C');
    }
 
    public function addPdfText($htmlMyText=""){
 
    	//check if there is already a page in the document. If there is no page it must be created before
    	if($this->getPage()==0){
    		$this->AddPage('P',"");
    	}
    	else{//if there is already a page, the cursor must point to it
    		$this->setPage($this->getPage(), false);
    	}
    	$this->writeHTML($htmlMyText, false, false, false, false, 'J');
    	//Without the following line, next time we use addPdfText the first line of the new content will overlap the last line that was already written in the document
    	$this->Ln(10, false);
    	//Now we leave the cursor in the last page, ready for a future addition of more content
    	$this->lastPage();
 
 
    }
 
 	protected function AddPagePdf($orientation='', $format='') {
			if (!isset($this->original_lMargin)) {
				$this->original_lMargin = $this->lMargin;
			}
			if (!isset($this->original_rMargin)) {
				$this->original_rMargin = $this->rMargin;
			}
			// terminate previous page
			$this->endPage();
			// start new page
			$this->startPagePdf($orientation, $format);
		}
 
	protected function startPagePdf($orientation='', $format='') {
			if ($this->numpages > $this->page) {
				// this page has been already added
				$this->setPage($this->page + 1);
				$this->SetY($this->tMargin);
				return;
			}
			// start a new page
			if ($this->state == 0) {
				$this->Open();
			}
			++$this->numpages;
			$this->swapMargins($this->booklet);
			// save current graphic settings
			$gvars = $this->getGraphicVars();
			// start new page
			$this->_beginpage($orientation, $format);
			// mark page as open
			$this->pageopen[$this->page] = true;
			// restore graphic settings
			$this->setGraphicVars($gvars);
			// mark this point
			$this->setPageMark();
			// print page header
			//$this->setHeader();
			// restore graphic settings
			$this->setGraphicVars($gvars);
			// mark this point
			$this->setPageMark();
			// print table header (if any)
			//$this->setTableHeader();
		}
 
    public function addPdfFile($file){
 
	    //check if there is already a page in the document. If there is no page it must be created before
	    	if($this->getPage()==0) $this->AddPage('P',"");
	    	else $this->setPage($this->getPage(), false);//if there is already a page, the cursor must point to it
 
     		$pagecount = $this->setSourceFile($file);
            for ($i = 1; $i <= $pagecount; $i++) {
                 $tplidx = $this->ImportPage($i);
                 $s = $this->getTemplatesize($tplidx);
                 $this->AddPagePdf('P', array($s['w'], $s['h']));
                 $this->Ln($s['h'], false);
                 $this->useTemplate($tplidx);
			}
            $this->lastPage();
    }
 
}

And as an example of usage:

include_once('pdfMaker.php');
	//Create the pdf object and configure it
	$pdf = new  PDFmaker();
	$pdf->configPdfFile();
 
	$pdf->SetCreator("some name");
	$pdf->SetAuthor("some name");
	$pdf->SetTitle("some title");
	$pdf->SetSubject("some subject");
 
	//set auto page breaks
	$pdf->SetAutoPageBreak(TRUE, PDF_MARGIN_BOTTOM);
 
	//set image scale factor
	$pdf->setImageScale(PDF_IMAGE_SCALE_RATIO);
 
	$pdf->AddPage();
	$pdf->Bookmark(" ".$anyName, 0, 0);
	$pdf->addPdfText("<h1>".$anyName."</h1>");
 
	$pdf->addPdfFile($pdf_path);
 
	//ADD TOC
		// add a new page for TOC
		$pdf->AddPage();
		// write the TOC title
		$pdf->MultiCell(0, 0, 'Content table', 0, 'C', 0, 1, '', '', true, 0);
		$pdf->Ln();
		// add table of content at page 1
		$pdf->addTOC(1, '', '.');
	//End TOC
 
	//Close and output PDF document
	$pdf->Output("pdf_file_name", 'I');

The difference? super easy to use ;)

Usage:
Initialize:

$cache = new Cache();

Set expire time (by default 3600 seconds)

$cache = new Cache(15);

Set the path (by default “cache/”)

$cache = new Cache(120,"/any_other_path/");

Read a “Key”:

$value = $cache->get("some_data");

Write a “Key”:

$cache->put("some_data", "some_value");

Full example to cache a query:

$cache = new Cache();
$values = $cache->get($query);//setting values from cache
 
if ($values==false) {	//not value from cache found
	$result=mysql_query($query);
	if (mysql_num_rows($result)>0){//checking if there's more than one result
		while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))  array_push($values, $row);  //feed array
		$cache->put($query, $values);	//save cache			
	}
}		
print_r($values);

The Class:

class Cache {
	private $cache_path;//path for the cache
	private $cache_expire;//seconds that the cache expires
 
	//cache constructor, optional expiring time and cache path
	public function Cache($exp_time=3600,$path="cache/"){
		$this->cache_expire=$exp_time;
		$this->cache_path=$path;
	}
 
	//returns the filename for the cache
	private function fileName($key){
		return $this->cache_path.md5($key);
	}
 
	//creates new cache files with the given data, $key== name of the cache, data the info/values to store
	public function put($key, $data){
		$values = serialize($data);
		$filename = $this->fileName($key);
		$file = fopen($filename, 'w');
	    if ($file){//able to create the file
	        fwrite($file, $values);
	        fclose($file);
	    }
	    else return false;
	}
 
	//returns cache for the given key
	public function get($key){
		$filename = $this->fileName($key);
		if (!file_exists($filename) || !is_readable($filename)){//can't read the cache
			return false;
		}
		if ( time() < (filemtime($filename) + $this->cache_expire) ) {//cache for the key not expired
			$file = fopen($filename, "r");// read data file
	        if ($file){//able to open the file
	            $data = fread($file, filesize($filename));
	            fclose($file);
	            return unserialize($data);//return the values
	        }
	        else return false;
		}
		else return false;//was expired you need to create new
 	}
}

Today I’ve made a new plugin to use the Twitter Badge generator easily in your WP.

Features:

• No image or flash for text
• No JavaScript needed
• Link directly to you twitter account!
• You can select background color, text color and your own text

Installation

To install it you can do as any other plugin of WP.

• Upload (you can do it to from the control panel) it to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder and activate it!
• Then you need to configure it
• Check your homepage it will be in the right side

NOTE: Works in Works in FF 3.5, Chromium (No Autoscroll), ie7,ie8, NO IE6.

Download from wordpress.org

What is useful for?

In my case in few blogs I only display advertisements when the post is older than 7 days for example. For this I need to know the difference between dates, in a easy way.

Download

Usage:

To display  something (like an ad) depending on a a expiring date:

if (post_is_expired(7)){
echo "display something";
}

As a param we have number of days, by default is 30. Returns true or false if it’s expired or not.

Date difference for a post:

$p_time=datediff_post("2008-01-12","M");

First parameter, date in YYYY-MM-DD format, second parameter can be “D” day , “M” month or “Y” year.

Returns in the specified second parameter an int with the difference.

Install:

• Download
• Go to your WP Dashboard
• Plugins -> Add New -> Upload -> Select the WP-Datediff.zip file
• Activate plugin
• Now, you may want to edit your single.php file form your theme for example to enable the datediff

First of all, maybe it is helpful to know what I’m talking about with this introduction on wikipedia Requirements Engineering , that since now on  I will abbreviate as RE.

I’m not a big fan for certified, but I must admit that now a days they seem to be pretty useful when you seek for work.

When you are certified and for my experience (Master in Java architecture), you have already an advantage over the rest of the candidates, Why? normally Human Resources are not qualified IT people, been certified makes for them easier this “first” selection  over other selective points.

We should not forget that once you are certified means that you past a test that you studied for it, you will share common language and is supposed you have same knowledge as any other.

I never liked exams at all. I’ve been a good student always and I had great scores, but come on, because you have good scores doesn’t mean that much, I explain: I rather do an small “work” where I can use what I’m learning and that may be useful in the future than doing an exam where you study, normally without understanding, you do the exam and you may forget. If you did a “work/project” you will always have it and the research you may do, brings to you much more.

Other point why been certified is not fair at all comes when you have an innate talent, there’s this people that seems to be so good at RE, but they have the same certified as one that really have no idea. Your innate talent may be communication skills, good speaker for example, or good at understanding problems and listening. This things hardly you will learn them.

Same happens if you have been working for 10 years or a newbie, you have the same certified.

Finishing my point is: It’s up to you to be certified or not, but I’ve been involved in few work position selections and there’s things that are more important, experience, talent, work dedication… that are far more important than been certified.

As a resume from my perspective:

Pros:

• Certifies your knowledge about RE.
• Usage of common syllabus.
• It may be useful for seeking work.

Cons:

• Knowledge can be forget.
• Doesn’t demonstrate work experience.
• Not value for innate talent.
• Not certified for your communicative skills.

Now you have in total 9 different themes to install with your OC.

Download Aqueous (Demo in classifieds Barcelona)

Other themes:

• Indigo (Demo)
• Plain and simple (Demo)
• Primitive (Demo)
• Simply Fluid (Demo)
• Edit_80 (Demo)
• neoMobile (Demo only for mobile devices)
• anunciamex (Demo)

Question: Which of them is your favourite?

There’s not big changes, just improvements and especially SEO.

Download Open Classifieds 1.5.4

• filter need offer keeps filtered with a session
• changes in ocdb.php
• if an item is tagged as spam you can not edit anymore
• price box made bigger
• When you insert code now redirects you to /error/ where we can set other messages
• Improved seo title in categories new, index, item…
• contact opened always (you can close it)

To upgrade from previous versions:

• Make a backup of your files and DB, just in case
• Erase the files form your FTP (NOT the folder /images/)
• Upload the new files
• Run /install/
• Done

As always support can be found in the official forum.