CodePyro

k2 how to show comments on latestitem or category

2010-08-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

If your here you are wondering how the heck am i able to show the comments section for a K2 item in either the latestitem or category template.

For starters you need to create a customized template override by placing a copy of
components/com_k2/templates into /templates/[YOUR TEMPLATE]/html/com_k2/.
Note: notice there will not be a templates folder in your custom html/com_k2. The template files go directly into the com_k2 folder!
More details on templates

I am using a menu item to pull k2 content, which doesn't show you the menu for selecting a sub-template. Basically this requires you to edit the template in the Default folder.

Now go ahead and edit the /templates/[YOUR TEMPLATE]/html/com_k2/latest_item.php. Find the line that says...

<?php echo $this->item->event->K2AfterDisplay; ?>

Now paste the following code just after that line.

<?php 
     //you can set the limit start by using pagination; we only needed the top 3 comments
  //look at line 143 of /components/com_k2/views/item/view.html.php
  $limitstart =0;
  $limit = 3;
  //get the comments array
  $comments = K2ModelItem::getItemComments($this->item->id, $limitstart, $limit);
   $this->item->comments = $comments; 
  ?>
  
  <?php if($this->item->params->get('itemComments') && ( ($this->item->params->get('comments') == '2' && !$this->user->guest) || ($this->item->params->get('comments') == '1'))):?>
  <!-- K2 Plugins: K2CommentsBlock -->
  <?php echo $this->item->event->K2CommentsBlock; ?>
  <?php endif;?>

 <?php if($this->item->params->get('itemComments') && !JRequest::getInt('print') && ($this->item->params->get('comments') == '1' || ($this->item->params->get('comments') == '2')) && empty($this->item->event->K2CommentsBlock)):?>
  <!-- Item comments -->
  <a name="itemCommentsAnchor" id="itemCommentsAnchor"></a>

  <div class="itemComments">

   <?php if($this->item->comments): ?>
  

   <ul class="itemCommentsList">
     <?php foreach ($this->item->comments as $key=>$comment): ?>
   <li class="<?php echo ($key%2) ? "odd" : "even"; echo (!$this->item->created_by_alias && $comment->userID==$this->item->created_by) ? " authorResponse" : ""; ?>">
 
    <span class="commentLink">
     <a href="<?php echo $this->item->link; ?>#comment<?php echo $comment->id; ?>" name="comment<?php echo $comment->id; ?>" id="comment<?php echo $comment->id; ?>">
      <?php echo JText::_('Comment Link'); ?>
     </a>
    </span>
 
     <?php if($comment->userImage):?>
     <img src="<?php echo $comment->userImage; ?>" alt="<?php echo $comment->userName; ?>" width="<?php echo $this->item->params->get('commenterImgWidth'); ?>" />
     <?php endif; ?>
 
     <span class="commentDate">
     <?php echo JHTML::_('date', $comment->commentDate, JText::_('DATE_FORMAT_LC2')); ?>
    </span>
 
    <span class="commentAuthorName">
     <?php echo JText::_("posted by"); ?>
     <?php if(!empty($comment->userLink)): ?>
     <a href="<?php echo $comment->userLink; ?>" title="<?php echo $comment->userName; ?>" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">
      <?php echo $comment->userName; ?>
     </a>
     <?php else: ?>
     <?php echo $comment->userName; ?>
     <?php endif; ?>
    </span>
 
    <p><?php echo $comment->commentText; ?></p>
 
     <div class="clr"></div>
   </li>
   <?php endforeach; ?>
    </ul>
 
  <?php endif; ?>
 

   <?php $user = &JFactory::getUser(); if ($this->item->params->get('comments') == '2' && $user->guest):?>
<!--     <div>
   <a href="<?php echo $this->item->link.'#itemCommentsAnchor'; ?>" title="<?php if(!empty($this->item->image_caption)) echo $this->item->image_caption; else echo $this->item->title; ?>">
   <?php echo JText::_('Login to post comments');?></a></div>-->
   
   <div class="s5box_login cboxelement"><a href="#"><?php echo JText::_('Login to post comments');?></a></div>
   <?php endif; ?>

  </div>
  <?php endif; ?>

If your interested the magic comes from the call to the K2ModelItem::getItemComments function. It actually retrieves the Comments array since it is not included in the Categories nor latest item. The Comments display code came directly from the item.php in the templates. Take a look at it if you need to add other functionality!

joomla feedburner email signup module

2010-08-25T14:14:00.001-07:00

Just a simple module so you can setup the feedburner Email form signup. It would be easy to add the RSS link as well.

mod_feedburner

Modalizer show hidden DIV in joomla

2010-08-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

If you need to show a hidden div in joomla using modalizer, i have the hack for you!.

Unfortunatly the mootools squeezebox script that comes with modalizer is different than normal joomla 1.5 squeezebox. Yep thats right the developers skipped the "adopt" feature that the normal squeezebox has, so I added it!

Here is an example of how to set it up.
First download my hacked version of nn_squeezebox.js, extract and copy it to "\plugins\system\modalizer\modals\squeezebox"

<a   class="nn_squeezebox" rel="{handler: 'adopt', adopt: 'test',size:{x: 650, y: 500}}" >test</a>

<div id="test" style="display:none">YEA!!! it works</div>

DOWNLOAD fixed nn_squeezebox.js

NOTE: For some reason all the ID attributes get stripped from the code in the hidden div when displayed in the popup, so make them classes!

Zipcodes to go radius search MySQL table

2010-08-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

Recently I have finished a customized zip radius search and used the one from Zipcodes to go. Unfortunately they only have csv, xls, and mdb formats for the database. To make use of their data you need to import it into mysql, but first you must create the table which phpmyadmin won't do automagically (please tell me im wrong by the way).

First you must create the table.

I tried to be as lazy as possible and tried to export the mdb to mssql then to mysql but it didn't really work and took waayy too long so i ended up having to write out the create table anyway.

SQL to create the gold table
Note: Remove the ID field until after you import all the data from the csv, otherwise the field lengths wont match!

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `zipcodes_full` (
 `ID` int(12) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
 `ZIP_CODE` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `CITY_NAME` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `STATE_NAME` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `STATE_ABBREV` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `STATE_FIPS` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `COUNTY_FIPS` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `COUNTY_NAME` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `TOTAL_COUNTY_POPULATION` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `TOTAL_COUNTY_HOUSING_UNITS` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `LATITUDE` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `LONGITUDE` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `TIMEZONE` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `DAYLIGHT_SAVINGS` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `Returns` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `$ AVG AGI` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `Refunds` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `$ AVG Refund` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `Single` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `Married Joint` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `Head of Household` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `<30` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `30_44` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `45_60` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `>60` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
 `TV_Designated Market Areas` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '' ,
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
)

Second:

Importing the data is a freaking pain through phpmyadmin. I ended up using the commandline on my local machine and now i am trying to use BigDump php to migrate it to the server.

Use the below script in the mysql commandline to import the csv into the db table. It worked wonderfully 4.6 some seconds. Great Now how do i get it to the server....

Note i dont have mysql mapped in my environment variables in windows so i needed to copy the csv file into the mysql bin directory.

load data local infile '5-DIGIT-ZIP-GOLD.csv' into table zipcodes_full fields terminated by ','  ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n'

flash cs3 file upload IOerror #2038 in firefox 3.6.8

2010-08-02T23:29:00.000-07:00

Narf! The latest version of firefox 3.6.8 has a bug with flash cs3 file upload. The standard file/image upload throws an ioError, for some reason only in the latest firefox. It works perfectly in previous versions and in IE 8 and Chrome.

Error message from flash

ioerror:[IOErrorEvent type="ioError" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 text="Error #2038"]

here is an example of how to upload an image file using as3 and php
http://entrance4.net/labs/?p=51

some inter-search (googling) returns 0...
Does anyone know how to fix this?

NOTE: mod_security is not turned on and the upload does work in other browsers

IE thickbox iframe background is white

2010-07-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

If your thickbox iframe background is white you need to add allowtransparency='true' to the iframe.

open up the thickbox.js file and do a search for "<iframe" then just add the missing parameter.

jQuery("#TB_window").append(" ");

Or if your lazy just download my fixed version

Virtuemart titles:change the category settings in SH404SEF

2010-06-30T15:14:00.000-07:00

The SH404Sef plugin for sef urls in viretumart appends every category in the title. It does this even when you change the "Insert Categories" parameter in the sh404sef admin config.

(before modification titles look like this)
example title: Product Name | Category Name | Category Name | Category Name | Site Name

(after change)
example title: Product Name | Category Name

Download the Fix

The 2 changes made to the plugin.

Used the "Insert Categories" param to show all the categories or just the last one
Removed the Site name from the title

unzip and copy the com_virtuemart.php to
components\com_sh404sef\meta_ext\

note:
changed lines: 162 - 179
added lines: 340-343

Download the Fix

CSVI virtuemart image export - remove HTTPS

2010-06-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

When exporting products in virtuemart using csvi and using the picture_url field the export will have https for all the image urls.

open up
administrator\components\com_csvimproved\models\productexport.php

do a quick search for "picture_url". it should be around like 443 (interesting considering http is 443).

Anyway here is the line to swap out https

if (substr($picture_url, 0, 5) == 'https') $picture_url = 'http'.substr($picture_url, 5);

place it just after 448, likea so...

447:if (substr($record->product_full_image, 0, 4) == 'http') $picture_url = $record->product_full_image; 
        else $picture_url = 448:JURI::root().'components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/'.$record->product_full_image;
if (substr($picture_url, 0, 5) == 'https') $picture_url = 'http'.substr($picture_url, 5);

Excel format cells with quotes

2010-05-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

Here is how to format a text cell so it will have either double or single quotes. I needed to import a csv file with text fields formatted with double quotes. There are probably some more reasons why you might need to do this.

Edit the cell or column you need to format
choose format cell
Select Custom from the bottom
use the formula \"@\"

The @ symbol represents the text in the field. You can wrap any text field with any character but make sure to escape it.

FedEx Handling fee as a percent in virtuemart

2010-04-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

If your like me, and every client needs something special and different. One of my latest e-commerce stores used FedEx for shipping. Great, no problem its an easy setup in Virtuemart. Their FedEx account gives them special pricing for the online shipping calculator, which they need to add 40% too. Virtuemart doesn't allow you to add a percent only a set integer amount.

The handling fee variable in virtuemart is setup only to add a base amount to the shipping cost. We needed to add 40% to each shipping amount.

This is a change specifically for FedEx, but the other shippers should be similar.

Change the handling fee in the FedEx preferences to 0.40.

components/com_virtuemart/classes/shipping/fedex.php: around line 206
change & add the lines below.

//add the percent or set amount 
if(FEDEX_HANDLINGFEE < 1)
     $charge =$rate_Ret['1419-'.$i]+ $rate_Ret['1419-'.$i] * floatval( FEDEX_HANDLINGFEE );
    else
     $charge = $rate_Ret['1419-'.$i] + floatval( FEDEX_HANDLINGFEE );

Joomla Administrator force SSL login loop FIX

2010-03-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

It took me A LONG time to find a solution on how to fix this problem. All credit for this fix goes to member:jptkts from http://forum.joomla.org.

This fixes the login loop issue when trying to login to the admin after making the Force_SSL to 1 or Administrator.

His original forum post is
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?p=1619969#p1619969

I just wanted to re-post it in an easy to find place!

In the file: Joomlaroot/libraries/joomla/environment/uri.php
starting on line 214 replace this if statement:
Code:
if(JPATH_BASE == JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR) {
   $base['path'] .= '/administrator';
}

with the following:
Code:
if(JPATH_BASE == JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR) {
   $force_ssl = $config->getValue('config.force_ssl');
   if($force_ssl > 0){
      $base['prefix'] = ereg_replace("http://","https://",$base['prefix']);
   }
   $base['path'] .= '/administrator';
}

virtuemart google analytics with ppc

2010-03-25T23:45:00.000-07:00

Good morning today we needed to add google analytics to a virtuemart joomla store. Heres how we done it.

Over on joomlacode.org Matthieu Barbe did a great job of creating a google analytics plugin. His plugin will work on every page. It shows the generic google analytics code for normal pages and for the shopping cart finish/confirmation will track a users order, price, items etc.

Visit joomlacode.org to download the original mod_gavirtuemart.

I have requested to join the project, but until that goes through ill post my modifications to the module here.

The module had a bug in several queries with user_info_id using the default or wrong id when a different shipping address is used.

Our SEO consultant Scott Orth for this project recommended setting up google PPC conversion code. To make life easy I added some settings and template for ppc.php to show only on the order thank you/confirmation page.

This is one of my first actual joomla module posts so let me know if it works, or doesn't.
mod_gavirtuemart w ppc

User Port: upgrades

2010-03-16T01:34:00.000-07:00

Been working with the userport extension for joomla and importing 2500 users for a site. This import utility is amazing and saves a ton of time GO GET IT!

I ran into a "feature" that I needed. That feature is to generate random passwords for users on update; when the password field is missing. It also needed to email the new password to the users.

Note: you normally don't want to do this because the import utility automatically loads all the users. Therefore you could accidentally change all your users passwords so be careful.

I chose to modify the userport utility because, well lets face it I'm lazy and making code changes is infinitely more fun than deleting and re-importing records yuk.

Zipped version of the full change for a "quick fix". Oh and it belongs in the folder "administrator\components\com_userport\admin.userport.php"

//change #1 around line 80
//added the userlog to the email body; the userlog contains the new email
'{email_body}' => $params->get( 'message_body_when_notifying_existing_user', JText::_( 'DEFAULT_MESSAGE_BODY_WHEN_NOTIFYING_EXISTING_USER' ) ).
implode( "\n- ", $userLog )


//change #2 around line 228
//create random password on update
else if((bool)$params->get( 'overwrite_password_of_existing_user', false ) == true)
{

$userData->password  = JUserHelper::genRandomPassword( 12 );
//add the password to the userlog so it can be emailed
$userLog[] = JText::sprintf( 'INFO_PASSWORD_UPDATED', $userData->password );
if((bool)$params->get( 'given_passwords_are_already_encoded', false ) == true )
$userData->password = JUserHelper::getCryptedPassword( $userData->password);

$user->password = $userData->password;

}

Also fixed a couple of variable warnings caused by missing quotes

//line 446
$title .= JText::_( 'FORM_ADDED_NEW_USERS' ).' ';
//line 450 
$title .= JText::_( 'FORM_UPDATED_EXISTING_USERS').' ';
//line 466
HTML_userport::userportPrintConfiguration( $option, $task, JText::_( 'FORM_CONFIGURATION' ) );
HTML_userport::userportLog( $option, $task, JText::_( 'FORM_RETRIEVED_USERS' ).' '.JText::_( 'FORM_LOG' ), $log );
HTML_userport::userportExport( $option, $task, JText::_( 'FORM_USER_LIST' ), $csvExportString );

I wanted to post this to the project on the project page http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/userport/, or forums but couldn't find a good place on joomlacode.org. Let me know if there is a place for it, i would like to help the community and submit this for the project.

Importing Categories/Products/Sub items with Virtuemart CSVI

2010-03-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

Finally after much trial/error/re-dos I finally have a grasp on correctly importing into virtuemart with the CSVI tool. Here is a run down to hopefully make it easier for you aka "me" later.

Note 1: Export your data from your existing store
The default in the CSVI is Carots ^ for field delimiters and tilde ~ to wrap text content.

Step 1:
Go into the CSVI templates and make a template that you can match your data too. Become familiar with the field listings . I ended up using category_path, category_list_order, category_full_image, category_description, category_publish, category_products_per_row, category_flypage.

Category_path -> use this field to setup your structure of parents and children

Make sure your images don't have a path i.e. 'someimg.jpg' not 'images/someimg.jpg' and are copied into the /components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/category/ folder.

Import the categories, then go into virtuemart category list and verify everything is correct

Note 2: make sure your categories are correct!! Every time you re-import your categories it will make new ones instead of overwriting the old ones which also screws up the products linked to the correct category. //BOO!!
Product import will update/overwrite existing products! //YEA!!

Step 2: Prep/import your products.
You need a csv import of products that will be listed under categories/sub-cats. These products will be added directly to your category structure using the category_path field. The Category_id didn't work for me so use the category_path instead. It will be something like 'Computers/hardware'.

Again the images don't need a path and need to be uploaded into /components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/products/

Step 2: Prep/import your sub-products.
Setup a product import with a blank CATEGORY_PATH and have the product_parent_sku setup. This field will need to have the EXACT product_sku of the parent product item.

Note 3: Products with a category path will be listed under the category NOT under the parent product.

Note 4: the product_currency field MUST BE UPPER case i.e. 'USD' otherwise it formats your prices to something random (I didn't bother trying to figure it out it probably uses EUR or something).

Note 5: When importing users, the users must be imported into joomla first then imported into virtuemart

Joomla: Artforms %5C%22 \" in the texts section

2010-03-10T16:54:00.000-08:00

If you are having problems with \" in links or %5C%22 in images in artforms you need to make a couple of quick edits.

in \administrator\components\com_artforms\admin.artforms.php: line 420


//after  $formid = $row->id;
//add the line
$row-> text = stripcslashes($row-> text);

in \components\com_artforms\artforms.php: line 131


//after  $row = $rows[0];
//add the line
$row-> text = stripcslashes($row-> text);

virtuemart addtocart_list_single.tpl.php on line 38

2010-02-24T17:22:00.000-08:00

If you are getting an attributes error in virtuemart with child products on line 38. Just open the file and add an if isset to the attributes around the foreach statement.

likea-so


 if(isset($product['attrib_value']))
            {
            foreach($product['attrib_value'] as $attribute) { ?>
                <span class="vmChildDetail<?php echo $cls_suffix ?>" style="width :<?php echo $attrib_width ?>;" />
                <?php echo " ".$attribute ?></span>
            <?php
            }
       }

Open a Thickbox window from inside a thickbox window

2010-01-03T15:33:00.000-08:00

Do you need to open a thickbox window in the originating page from inside a thickbox window/iframe? (I know its confusing right? definitely pandoras box of thickboxes )

download the modified thickbox code
(Note I have not made a sample but can upon request)

Setup a normal thickbox link/page. For instance this link opens the first thickbox window in an iframe 650 wide by 400 tall.


//header information for test page
<link href="assets/css/thickbox.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<script src="assets/javascript/jquery-1.3.2.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> 
<script src="assets/javascript/thickbox.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> 

<a href="FirstWindow.htm?=true&TB_iframe=true&height=400&width=650" class="thickbox" title="First Window">Open First Window</a>

Then setup the page that opens in the iframe window with the thickbox_iframe. It has been modified to open a new thickbox window in the iframes "Parent window".
By using this method the new window will replace the original window the user originally clicked on.


//header information for Second Window
<link href="assets/css/thickbox.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<script src="assets/javascript/jquery-1.3.2.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> 
<script src="assets/javascript/thickbox_iframe.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> 

<a href="SecondWindow.htm?=true&TB_iframe=true&height=400&width=650" class="thickbox" title="second window">Open second Window</a>

Joomla jxListFiles with Pagination

2009-12-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

Heres a quick upgrade to the jxListFiles Joomla module to setup pagination.

Just replace the /mod_jxlistfiles/tmpl/default.php with this code


 <?php // no direct access
defined( '_JEXEC' ) or die( 'Restricted access' ); 
require_once(  JPATH_ROOT.DS.'/libraries/joomla/html/pagination.php' );    
$pageLimit  = JRequest::getVar('limit', 10, '', 'int');
$pageStart  = JRequest::getVar('limitstart', 0, '', 'int');

$pageNav = new JPagination( count($filelist), $pageStart, $pageLimit);
$genCounter=1;

?>
 
<ul class="jxfilelist">
<?php foreach($filelist as $file): ?>
<?php $genCounter++; 
if($genCounter >= $pageStart && $genCounter<=($pageStart+$pageLimit)): ?>
    <?php if ($params->get('linkfiles') == 'yes'): ?>
    <li class="<?php echo $file->class; ?>"><a href="<?php echo $params->get('url') . '/' . $file->filepath; ?>"><?php echo $file->filename; ?></a></li>
    <?php else: ?>
    <li class="<?php echo $file->class; ?>"><?php echo $file->filename; ?></li>
    <?php endif; ?>
  <?php endif; ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
 
 <form id="pagination" method="post">
 <?php echo $pageNav->getListFooter(  ); //Displays a nice footer  ?>
 </form>

coldfusion simple email script

2009-12-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a simple Form email script for any generic form. I needed a quick generic email script for a few basic websites on a non coldfusion server to be able to send email through a cf server. So this script takes a form submission from another server and emails it to

. It does check the referers IP address to make sure its a valid request.


 
<cfset inet_address = CreateObject("java", "java.net.InetAddress")>
<cfset referer= replaceNocase(cgi.HTTP_REFERER,'http://','')/>
<cfset referer= listGetAt(referer,1,'/')/>
 
<cfset host_IP = listLast(inet_address.getByName(referer),'/')>
 <!---required parameters --->
<cfparam name="form.mailfrom" />
<cfparam name="form.mailto" />
<cfparam name="form.mailsubject" />
<cfparam name="form.success" />
 

<!---check the remote IP address so spammers cant abuse it --->
<cfif host_IP  eq "192.168.1.1">
 <cfoutput>
       <cfmail to="#form.mailto#" from="#form.mailfrom#" subject="form.mailsubject" type="html"> 

  <cfloop collection ="#form#" item="thisAttribute">
     #thisAttribute#:#form[thisAttribute]#<br>
  </cfloop> 
   </cfmail> 
 </cfoutput>
 
<cflocation url="#form.success#"/>
<cfelse>

wrong ipaddress

</cfif>

I know I know this is not an ideal situation and is pretty insecure. Sometimes you just have to do as the client asks

Filezilla: clear out all the Site Manager entries

2009-12-12T13:40:00.001-08:00

I have multiple machines each with filezilla and today I tried to import an updated site manager list to an outdated list on another machine. Unfortunately the sites that were previously in the site manager were not updated but Duplicated.

So now I have 200+ ftp sites duplicated in the list. The only way to get rid of them is by manually deleting them one by one eewwww.. Thats painfull!

If you have this problem just look for the sitemanager.xml file, and clear out all the entries.

In windows its located in C:\Documents and Settings\USERACCOUNT\Application Data\FileZilla

Having a frustrating day tring to get IE7 or IE8 to load javascript

2009-11-25T03:13:00.000-08:00

Today, I experienced a 10hr hate-fest with Internet Explorer. Normally the foaming at the mouth and snarling ends after a couple of hours of fighting CSS. Well not this time. Today's issue revolved around IE and javascript.

For those techies out there I would like to explain that I keep Win Auto Updates turned off. This is because I very rarely approve of anything Microsoft "Fixes" on its first try.

THE ISSUE:
Yesterday I needed to debug some CSS & jQuery issues with IE, no big deal just some margin adjustments. Inexplicably neither IE7 (standalone) nor IE8 would run jQuery, eventually I figured out that it was not only jQuery but JavaScript itself. To discover this I used the development tools in IE which stated that "a break-point cannot be added, because the document has not loaded" (or some such nonsense). Which confirmed my theory that JS was not loading at all.

To try and fix the issue, I tried checking the security settings to Enable JavaScript, setup the site as a trusted site and re-installed the program a few times. Nothing worked and javascript continued not to run. I even tried running the browsers from Spoon.net.

After much "googling" forums, jQuery, IE, etc a friend of myne over at xaossoft.com discovered the following fix. Which fixed the issue INSTANTLY!!

Start > Run...
In the Run box, type in (without quotes) "regsvr32 jscript.dll"
You should receive a popup says that it registration succeeded.

Original solution

Simple jQuery UI Reservations select

2009-11-12T01:27:00.000-08:00

If you need a quick jQuery & jQuery UI datePicker script that will restrict the range of the selects, then you've come to the right psot.

Today's script is a widget that has 2 datePicker choices "check in" and "check out".
The date selector for the #checkout needs to be setup so a #checkout date cannot start before the #checkin date and viceversa.

Here is the snippet to setup the jQuery UI datepicker object for both the #checkin and #checkout.
Note that in order for the date picker to open on both the image and input box you need the attribute "showOn" set to "both", other options and documentation can be found at the jQuery UI site.

The attribute "beforeShow" is an event handler that will call the customDateFunction before the datepicker is shown to the user.


$(document).ready(function(){ 
   $("#checkin,#checkout").datepicker({
          showOn: "both",
          buttonImage: 'assets/javascript/jquery/calendar.png',
          buttonImageOnly: true,
          beforeShow: customDateFunction,
          dateFormat: "mm/dd/yy",
          firstDay: 1, 
          changeFirstDay: false
      });
});

The "beforeShow" event passes a reference to the object that its being called on i.e. the input box in this case. We will use this to check which input box it is.

To make sure the #checkout date cannot start before the #checkin date we need to make sure the #checkout is not empty then set & return the attribute maxDate to the jQuery UI datePicker. The maxDate will disable any future dates so the user will only be able to select a start date up to the maxDate.



/*
use the dateMin and dateMax attributes to enable
the date selection to not end before the start date and 
not start before the end date
*/
function customDateFunction(input) 
{   
  //if the button called is checkin
  //set the maxDate to the checkout date
        if (input.id == "checkin") 
        {
               if ($("#checkout").datepicker("getDate") != null)
                  dateMax = $("#checkout").datepicker("getDate"); 
                 
          return {maxDate: dateMax};                     
        }
        else if (input.id == "checkout")
        { 
                if ($("#checkin").datepicker("getDate") != null)
                  dateMin = $("#checkin").datepicker("getDate"); 
               
   return { minDate: dateMin  }; 
    
        }
  

}

programming is like dreaming

2009-11-05T19:54:00.001-08:00

I needed to share this quote. or place it somewhere where i can remember it.
its from this article . Which perfectly describes a programmers state().

Let’s take a maze for example. There is a task for the programmer to come up with an algorithm of finding the way out of the maze. When a programmer is working on this task he isn’t just a God’s Finger showing the directions to a little girl lost in a great maze. He isn’t that girl or the walls of a labyrinth either. He is actually all of that in a same time. In order to solve the task he must BECOME the labyrinth, the walls, the lost little girl and whatever else may just came along with it. It is not a figure of the speech – the programmer is literally SLEEPING and DREAMING that all in his mind.
–Don’t Wake Up the Programmer

atlas or @lists on twitter

2009-10-29T04:44:00.000-07:00

Twitter recently started adding list sorting ability to your personal twitter accounts. This is a great feature and something i was thinking about asking for. Its impossible to find/follow specific people when your account is bursting with tweets. The new lists feature gives us the ability to sort tweeters into meaningful categories.

http://twitter.com/codepyro/coldfusion (people i find interesting cf tweets about)
http://twitter.com/codepyro/durango (folks that live in my area that do stuffs)

Twitter Followers Bird image on Blogger

2009-10-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

The instructions on http://twittercounter.com/pages/buttons page says you need to use the script at the bottom in order to post a box on your blog.

I quickly took a look at the script generated for the nice bird icon and realized they are using php to modify the image with information passed in the image url, very clever.

Blogger does not allow cross scripting javascript so instead you would need to grab the direct html that the javascript would generate. Here is the example, just change Codepyro in the username to your twitter username.


<div id='TwitterCounter'>
<a href='http://twittercounter.com/codepyro?from=button' target='_new' title='TwitterCounter for @codepyro'>
<img alt='TwitterCounter for @codepyro' height='90' src='http://srv2.twittercounter.com/counter/index_bird.php?username=codepyro' style='border:none;' width='149'/>
</a>
</div>

Then paste the code into your blog, i used the expand widgets checkbox and posted the twitterFollower code in my profile section.