Dev Chunks

Make Code Readability your Priority - Get Out of the Perl Mentality

Carey — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:54:25 +0000

One thing that has always been important to me, no matter what coding language I am using, is maintaining readability of my code. We are always under pressure to get our developing done, although a bit of forsight can help with maintanability in the future. The Perl mentality is the idea of solving a problem in a [...]

Stay On Top - Get All Your Info using Feeds (RSS, ATOM, etc.)

Carey — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 20:24:23 +0000

Feeds have been around for a long time now and most net savvy users have adopted them as a quick and clever way to keep up to date on the information you want. However, I must admit I am a late adopter of this technology and although I was aware of them I didn’t use [...]

Storing Simple Values and Parameters - define() your PHP constants

Carey — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:48:25 +0000

In most applications there is a need for set values that do not change during the execution of a script. Examples of these values are: Database Settings (username, password etc.) Database Table Names Directory Paths Website URLs A bad way to handle these values is to “hard code” them. This is the process of inserting the values in your code [...]

Improve Your Development Knowledge - Freelance for Fun

Carey — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 00:39:17 +0000

One of the best ways to improve your skills as a developer is to work to a purpose; that is, work to achieve something. If you attempt to study any area Web Development you will probably find that if you don’t work towards a goal there is little motivation to keep you going. For example, what [...]

PHP REGISTER_GLOBALS turned off? Hack It Back

Carey — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:29:54 +0000

For those of you that don’t know, REGISTER_GLOBALS is a PHP directive that when enabled automatically initialises variables with the values from forms, session, GET etc. For example, the data a login form with the input fields named “username” and “password” will automatically be available as $username and $password. REGISTER_GLOBALS is, in my opinion, bad practice and [...]

Simple Shortcut to PHP echo - Keep it Neat and Tidy

Carey — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 12:42:38 +0000

Try this for a simple way to echo a variable in the midst of your html: <?= $variable ?> You can also use this to show the return value of a function: <?= aFunction() ?> This requires the php directive short_open_tag to be set to 1 (done via php.ini or .htaccess). Most hosts will have this set to 1 [...]

PHP boolean values - shorter and semantic IFs

Carey — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 01:57:22 +0000

This is a simple one but I am all for making code neater, tidier and more readable. If you are using a boolean value for evaluating an IF statement, you would typically: $valid = true; if ($valid == true) { # do something } else { # do something else } A shorter and more readable (try saying it out loud in pseudo code) method [...]

Create Google and Yahoo Site Maps for Search Engine Listings

Carey — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:27:10 +0000

For better search engine visibility, consider submitting a sitemap to the google and/or yahoo search engines. By submitting a site map the search engines know what pages to look at on your site and if you add or change your pages often you can automatically keep the search engines up to date. For google sitemaps visit: http://www.google.com/sitemaps For [...]

Alternative to phpMyAdmin MySQL Database Administration - Navicat

Carey — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:17:58 +0000

For those of you a bit frustrated using web based MySQL administration tools such as phpMyAdmin, consider the Windows or Mac based NaviCat. Providing your database host will allow remote access or tunneling, you can use NaviCat to access the database using a quicker and more functional GUI. Please note that NaviCat is not free software, although [...]

Debugging an Array - Print it Recursively with print_r()

Carey — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 18:02:05 +0000

Nice and simple one.. If you want to see whats in an entire array, use the print_r function. This will give you a nicely formatted output of the array showing all dimensions. Try it: $anArray = array(0=>'cheese',1=>'bacon',2=>'apples'); print_r($anArray); Tip if you are viewing this via the output of a webpage, view the source to see the nicely formatted [...]