Why did I choose PrestaShop?

Largely because of the simplicity and functionality. Store has a modern look and follows MVC architecture, which makes easy and rapid development. New themes and modules are added via administrator interface. You can find few templates and modules on the net for free, but for most of them you have to pay. PrestaShop is definitely a very big part of the future of e-commerce!

I wanted to add Facebook Like Box plug-in to be shown at e-shop, but there aren’t any free modules available¹. If you don’t know how to code in PHP / HTML / Smarty the only option what is left is buyin the module on PrestaShop². I didn’t want yo pay 40 EUR for a very simple module, so I’ve decided to write it myself. Module is written for the PrestaShop version 1.3.1

If you don’t have the latest version of PrestaShop open blockfblikebox.php file in directory modules/blockfblikebox and delete this two lines:

if (!defined('_CAN_LOAD_FILES_'))
    exit;

I’ve also made a video which demonstrates how to install Facebook Like Box plugin to your PrestaShop page.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Facebook Like Box plugin for Prestashop free download:
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

And remember, contributions earn you karma ;)

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1. at least I couldn’t find it
2. 30 / 40 EUR

What else is new?
I was approached about two weeks ago by Packt Publishing to write a review of a new book on Nginx. I’ve never done it before, but it will be a new challenge for me. I’ll publish my review on Celavi|Blog so you should check back from time to time :) They found me by Google Search. Especially they noticed valuable and informative post about setting up Nginx on Ubuntu. I have to say, it sure does make all the time spent blogging feel a little more worthwhile!

Nginx HTTP Server

Nginx HTTP Server is a new book from Packt, written by Clement Nedelcu. This book is a detailed guide to setting up Nginx in different production situations: as standalone server, as reverse proxy, interacting with applications via FastCGI, and more. Using this book readers will be able to explore possible interactions between Nginx and Apache to get the best of both worlds.
Using this book, readers will be able to download and build Nginx from source along with its dependencies. In addition to this, they will learn the basics of Nginx configuration, process of replacing Apache by Nginx and troubleshooting. Users will also be able to configure Nginx to work as frontend for their existing HTTP server and establish advanced rewrite rules with the Nginx Rewrite module.
To read more about the book, please visit Packt Publishing Technical & IT Book Store.

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1. as usual

Download

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First step is updating your Ubuntu Installation

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

This will update the apt package database and install all the latest updates (if there are any). If you see that a new kernel gets installed as part of the updates, you should reboot the system afterwards.

Installing Nginx is the next step. This can be easily done by following the next step (assuming there is no other web server up and running). Everything will be installed by default.

sudo aptitude install nginx

Start nginx afterwards:

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx start

After typing your web server’s hostname into a browser¹, you should see the Nginx welcome page.

To make Nginx start at boot time, run

sudo update-rc.d nginx defaults

Next, we need FastCGI deamon to run PHP5 in fcgi mode. First off, Nginx doesn’t have its own internal FastCGI process manager, so we must run the FastCGI service separately. Usually the preferred method was to use spawn-fcgi program provided by the lighttpd web server. That’s not necessary any more, because from version 1.6.0 ahead spawn-fcgi was separated from lighttpd project.  To install spawn-fcgi, run the following command.

sudo aptitude install spawn-fcgi

For now, we’re going to leave everything as it is and we’ll move forward with installing MySQL and PHP5.

Let’s install MySQL server and client binaries. The process is quick and easy.

sudo aptitude install mysql-server mysql-client

You will be asked to provide a password for the MySQL root user. After we specify a MySQL root password, the installation will finish. We can try the MySQL client program via command line tool:

mysql -u root -p

Installing PHP5. Now it’s time to install PHP5 via FastCGI. Ubuntu provides a FastCGI-enabled PHP5 package. We’ll install only core packages and add others when needed.

sudo aptitude install php5 php5-cli php5-common php5-suhosin php5-cgi php-pear php5-mysql

We’ve installed everything for running PHP on our computer, so let’s move on to necessary configuration. First, let’s write a script which will spawn FastCGI PHP processes on a unix domain socket, so there is no need for tcp/ip on localhost. Let’s create file /usr/sbin/fastcgi-php

sudo touch /usr/sbin/fastcgi-php

#!/bin/sh
FCGIPHP_BIN_PATH="/usr/bin/php5-cgi"
FCGIPHP_USER="www-data"
FCGIPHP_GROUP="www-data"
FCGIPHP_CHILDREN="2"
FCGIPHP_MAX_REQUEST="1000"
FCGIPHP_SERVER_ADDR="127.0.0.1"
FCGIPHP_SOCKET="/tmp/php-fastcgi.sock"
PIDFILE="/var/run/php5-fcgi.pid"
SPAWN_FCGI="/usr/bin/spawn-fcgi"
FCGIPHP_ENV="SHELL PATH USER"

COMMAND_ARGS="$SPAWN_FCGI -C $FCGIPHP_CHILDREN -s $FCGIPHP_SOCKET -f $FCGIPHP_BIN_PATH -u $FCGIPHP_USER -g $FCGIPHP_GROUP  -P $PIDFILE"

export FCGIPHP_MAX_REQUEST
export FCGIPHP_SERVER_ADDR
ALLOWED_ENV="$FCGIPHP_ENV FCGIPHP_MAX_REQUEST FCGIPHP_SERVER_ADDR"
E=""
for i in $ALLOWED_ENV; do
	eval "x=\$$i"
	E="$E $i=$x"
done

start(){
	echo "STARTING PHP-FCGI"
	if [ -f $PIDFILE ];then
        echo "PHP-FCGI is running already.";
        exit 1;
    fi
	echo $COMMAND_ARGS
	env - $E $COMMAND_ARGS
}
stop(){
	echo "STOPING PHP-FCGI"
	if test -f $PIDFILE;then
        killall `basename $FCGIPHP_BIN_PATH`
        rm -f $PIDFILE
    else
        echo "PHP-FCGI is not running"
    fi
}

#Main################
case "$1" in
    'start')
    start
    ;;
    'stop')
    stop
    ;;
    'restart')
    stop
    start
    ;;
    *)
    echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
    ;;
esac
exit 1

and give it execute permissions. After that let’s start the process.

sudo chmod a+x /usr/sbin/fastcgi-php
sudo /usr/sbin/fastcgi-php start

Final step, Nginx configuration. To get the web server up and running properly, we need to edit the file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. We’ll pass all PHP calls to an upstream server called php5 so edit your configuration file to look like this:

http {
	include /etc/nginx/mime.types;

	access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;

	sendfile 			on;
	keepalive_timeout 	65;
	tcp_nodelay 		on;

	gzip on;
	gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6]\.(?!.*SV1)";

	upstream php5 {
		server    unix:/tmp/php-fastcgi.sock;
	}

	include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
	include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

Any further configuration files needed for our applications will be located in /etc/nginx/sites-available and linked to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled. Let’s add new site which will link to our home public folder ~/Public and we will call it my.public.local. Now create my.public.local.conf in /etc/nginx/sites-available

server {
	listen       80;
	reset_timedout_connection on;

	server_name my.public.local;
	root /home/celavi/Public;
	client_max_body_size 500m;
	autoindex on;

	location / {
		index  index.php;
	}

	# Handle Static Content Here
	location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico)$  {
		access_log off;
		gzip off;
		expires 30d;
	}

	location ~* ^.+\.(css|js)$ {
		access_log off;
		expires 1d;
	}

	location ~* ^.+\.(pdf|gz|bz2|exe|rar|zip|7z)$ {
		gzip off;
	}

	location ~ \.php$ {
		include        /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
		fastcgi_pass   php5;
		fastcgi_index  index.php;
		fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root/$fastcgi_script_name;
	}
}

and create a symbolic link to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-availible/my.public.local.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/my.public.local.conf

We need to tell the operating system to map my.public.local to local IP address. Open file /etc/hosts and add this line:

#local maping
127.0.0.1       my.public.local

Let’s restart Nginx

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

In order to test if the execution of PHP is working, create an index.php file in ~/Public folder with the following content:

<?php
echo phpinfo();

Open browser and type http://my.public.local. If you did not see the phpinfo, there might be something wrong. In order to track down what went wrong, you can check the Nginx error log:

sudo tail /var/log/nginx/error.log

Remember, if you did change your php.ini you have to restart /usr/sbin/fastcgi-php. Restarting nginx isn’t’ necessary.

Well, that’s it. Now you can start developing your PHP apps.

Screenshots:

And remember, contributions earn you karma. ;)

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1. http://localhost

The most appropriate translation¹ would be: “Where’s The Party?”, or in this particular case “Where I can find upcoming rock concerts in Slovenia?”.

Rokat / rokaj

Word rokat/rokaj has common origin in South Slavic languages (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian) and can have a lot of different meanings.

Let’s look at these examples:

• Reprezentacija Portugala totalno je srokala Sjevernu Koreju sa 7:0 = Portugal’s team has totally crushed North Korea with 7:0
• Ajmo rokat! = Let’s get the party started =  Let’s Rock! ©Duke Nukem
• Glazbenici, definicija vaše muzike, šta je to što rokate? = Musicians, the definition of your music, what is it that you play?
• Oko njega su rokale granate a mitraljez koji je cijepao po polju držao ga je zakovanim za zemlju. = While the gradates were falling all around him, the machine gun was keeping him low to the ground.
• Frenkie feat. Baby Dooks – Bruce Lee Rap – … Frenkie će rokat i dalje jer ta ti mašina ne staje … = Frenkie will always rule, because this machine does not stop …
  

  Click here to view the embedded video.

• Edo Maajka – Pare, pare … Edo i Dash, pare, pare, keš, bolje od nas rokat` nikad nemožeš … = Edo and Dash, money, money, cash, you can’t ever rock better than us …
  

  Click here to view the embedded video.

I hope these examples where enough illustrated. :D

And remember, contributions earn you karma. ;)

1. more interpretation

Download

Screenshots

• Si.mobil winning applications
• ORTO.si winning applications

Programming in a fresh, unknown language can be very frustrating, but successfully completing an application can be equally⁴ satisfying. The most important fact is to never give up if you don’t understand a concept at first – the best way is to keep learning and/or trying. Knowing one programming language may be good enough, but knowing four or five is much better. So my next step is to learn Objective C and port “KjeSeRoka” to it. To finish my thought – as of now I’m available for Android Application Development and if you have a challenging project, feel free to contact me. I’m interested in cooperation, partnering, sharing ideas and my services are, obviously, for hire too.

And remember, contributions earn you karma ;)

1. on Twitter
2. implements Java
3. the winning application actually had almost one year of development :)
4. if not more

One of the most popular discussions on forums, mailing lists and blogs regarding Zend Framework and its component Zend_Translate are about plural support in the gettext adapter. The Gettext Adapter is the Adapter which is used most frequently. Gettext is a translation source format which was introduced by GNU, and is now used worldwide. It is not human readable, but there are several freeware tools (for instance, POEdit), which can be very helpful. Zend_Translate does not use PHP‘s gettext extension because it is not multi-thread aware. Adapter reads the mo files directly, therefore it does not need PHP’s workaround. Because Zend has focused on a simple API which covers many sources (array, scv, gettext, ini, tbx, tmx, qt, xliff, xmltm) , implementation of plurals (which are native to translation in general, not unique to gettext) would be a hard task in early deployment of Zend Framework.

First step

in implementing plural support to Gettext Adapter in Zend Framework is understanding how gettext handles plural forms. I won’t get into details here, you can read more about this at GNU / gettext . For us the crucial information is about the plural form selections, which has to be stored in the header of entry of the PO file (the one with the empty msgid string). The plural form information looks like this:

Plural-Forms: nplurals=4; plural=(n%100==1 ? 0 : n%100==2 ? 1 : n%100==3 || n%100==4 ? 2 : 3);

Here you can find the list of plural forms, as used by Gettext PO, that are appropriate to each language.

Second step

in achieving our goal would be extracting that information from PO file and storing it somewhere safe for later use. I’ve decided to store it as a translation keyword “Plural-Forms” and then use it as necessary. The supplemented code which is added to Zend_Translate_Adapter_Gettext is:

//store PluralForm
if ($this->_adapterInfo[$filename] != 'No adapter information available') {
    $this->_data[$locale]['Plural-Forms'] = $this->_getPluralForms($this->_adapterInfo[$filename]);
}

/**
* Retrieve Plural-Forms string from MO file
*
* @param array $meta
* @return string
*/
protected function _getPluralForms($meta)
{
    $pluralForms = 'nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1);';
    $array = array();
    foreach (explode("\n", $meta) as $info) {
        if ($info = trim($info)) {
            list($key, $value) = explode(':', $info, 2);
        $array[trim($key)] = trim($value);
        }
    }
    if (array_key_exists('Plural-Forms', $array)) {
        $pluralForms = $array['Plural-Forms'];
    }

    return $pluralForms;
}

Third and final step

is to write a function which would return translated plural form for the provided text, plural version of text, count and optional parameters.
This is just a piece of code from the whole translate class which holds Zend_Translate object (Zend_Translate_Adapter_Gettext):

/**
* Translate Plural message
*
* @param string $text simple text
* @param string $plural plural version of text
* @param int $count count
* @param string/array $params
* @return string
*/
public static function translatePlural($text, $plural, $count, $params = array())
{
    //set Plural Forms String
    self::_setPluralForms();

    if(!is_string($text) || strlen($text) == 0)
        return '';

    // find out the appropriate form
    $select = self::_selectString($count);

    // this should contains all strings separated by NULLs
    $key = $text.chr(0).$plural;
    // verify if translation Exists
    self::_verifyMessage($key);

    if (!self::getInstance()->_translate->isTranslated($key)) {
        $translated = ($count != 1) ? $plural : $text;
    } else {
        $result = self::getInstance()->_translate->translate($key);
        $list = explode(chr(0), $result);
        $translated =  $list[$select];
    }
    // return formated translation
    return vsprintf($translated, $params);
}

Use case

within action controller

//Change Locale to Slovene
ZendX_T::setLocale('sl_SI');
$threeSeconds = ZendX_T::translatePlural("%d second","%d seconds", 3, 3);
/**
$threeSeconds will have value '3 sekunde'
*/

The Zend Framework way of implementing this thing right would be writing a View_Helper. :) I’ll leave that task to you.

Source Code

Download a zip archive of the project Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file. or grab your copy at GitHub. Feel free to download and judge for yourself. :D

And remember, contributions earn you karma. ;)

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• Online resources for Zend Framework (robertbasic.com)

Instructions

• Type “about:config” (without quotation marks) into the address bar and click the Agree button
• Right-click anywhere in the window and choose New – Boolean. Name the new config value “extensions.checkCompatibility” (without quotation marks) and set it to false
• Restart Firefox

NOTE: This might lead to unexpected behavior or even a crash. Make sure that you properly backup your add-ons before editing.

And remember, contributions earn you karma. ;)

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Instructions are pretty straightforward. You need to open a terminal window, execute few commands, hit Enter as defaults are OK, reboot and you are done. :D

wget http://chrysaor.info/scripts/ubuntu904vmtools.sh
sudo bash ./ubuntu904vmtools.sh

And remember, contributions earn you karma. ;)

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