Initially, this html code composes the product attribute and cart button, notice that <span class="c">Cherry</span> is a one word attribute for scent

<div class="cartbutton" style="background-image: url(images/button-long-add-to-bag.gif);">
  <span class="c">Cherry</span>
  <span class="c">8 oz.</span>
  <span class="c">$5.99</span>
  <span class="d">
    <a class="e" href="cart.php?product=5|33404&amp;as=5">Add to bag</a>
  </span>
  <span class="e">» ITEM: 33404</span>
</div>

And the new ones came with the colors “Casino Red”, “Golden Chestnut” and “Orchid Black” – long attributes, and two others “Copper” and “Spice” – short and manageable, as the column width will fit the entire word.

I was really planning to rewrite the whole attribute and cart button section, but I didn’t had much time. I figured I can make the font smaller and paddings or margins can go smaller than the regular so that two lines would fit in the box if the attribute value is a word longer. But I cannot be in PHP, its not really the way to go. So, if I can add another class that would override existing font-size and parent margin/padding, that would work. Here, I thought, word count doesn’t really need be in the PHP side and since I’m using Smarty, I found in it a variable modifier that can print the number of words in a variable, and that’s it. I can add another class in the column span like words-10 or countwords-3 in my template by the number of words that is present in the variable. Below is the generated code

<div class="cartbutton" style="background-image: url('images/button-long-add-to-bag.gif');">
  <span class="c col-color words-2">Casino Red</span>  	  	  	  	  	  	
  <span class="c col-volume">8 oz.</span>  	  	
  <span class="c">$11.39</span>
  <span class="d">
    <a href="cart.php?product=28|33825&amp;as=14" class="e">Add to bag</a>
  </span>
  <span class="e">&raquo; ITEM: 33825</span>
</div>

CSS rules

/* default rules */
.cartbutton { height: 23px; background: url('/images/button-add-to-bag.gif') no-repeat left center; color: #333; }
.cartbutton span { display: block; text-align: center; float: left; font-weight: bold; font-size: 10px; padding-top: 5px; }
.cartbutton span.c { width: 45px;  }
.cartbutton span.d { width: 80px;}
.cartbutton span.d a { color: #fff; text-decoration: none; }
.cartbutton span.e { margin-left: 10px; width: 100px; }
/* special rule for two word attribute */
span.words-2 { padding-top: 3px; line-height: 98%; font-size: 9px; }

And this is how it is setup in the template.

<div class="cartbutton" style="background-image: url('images/button-long-add-to-bag.gif');">
{if $attr[at].color}
  <span class="c col-color words-{$attr[at].color|count_words}">{$attr[at].color}</span>
{/if}
{if $attr[at].strength}
  <span class="c col-strength words-{$attr[at].strength|count_words}">{$attr[at].strength}</span>
{/if}
{if $attr[at].scent}
  <span class="c col-scent">{$attr[at].scent}</span>
{/if}
{if $attr[at].volume}
  <span class="c col-volume">{$attr[at].volume}</span>
{/if}
<span class="c">
  $ {if !$attr[at].amount} {$results[r].amount} {else} {math equation="x" x=$attr[at].amount format="%.2f"} {/if}
</span>
<span class="d">
  <a href="cart.php?product={$results[r].id}|{if $results[r].sku && !$attr[at].sku}{$results[r].sku}{elseif $attr[at].sku}{$attr[at].sku}{/if}&amp;as={$attr[at].pas_id}" class="e">Add to bag</a>
</span>
<span class="e">&raquo; ITEM: {if $results[r].sku && !$attr[at].sku}{$results[r].sku}{elseif $attr[at].sku}{$attr[at].sku}{/if}</span>
</div>

Those extra class names like col-volume, col-scent and col-strength are only for future use, who knows what other formatting and adjustments on the data and theme will happen. Its really fun working with MVC model. Hope it helps

Happy coding!

• New Year’s Day – January 1 (Friday)
• Maundy Thursday / Good Friday – April 1 / 2 (Thursday / Friday)
• Araw ng Kagitingan – April 9 (Friday)
• Labor Day – May 1 (Saturday)
• Independence Day – June 14 (Monday), moved from June 12
• National Heroes Day – August 30 (Monday)
• Bonifacio Day – November 29 (Monday), moved from November 30
• Christmas Day – December 25 (Saturday)
• Rizal Day – December 27 (Monday), moved from December 30

Special (non-working) holidays

• Ninoy Aquino Day – August 23 (Monday), moved from August 21
• All Saints’ Day – November 1 (Monday)
• Christmas Eve – December 24 (Friday)
• New Year’s Eve – December 31 (Friday)

Others

• 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution anniversary – Special holiday for schools – February 22 (Monday), moved from February 25
• Eid’l Fitr and Eid’l Adha 2010 – To be announced later
• Founding Anniversary of Iglesia ni Cristo – July 27, 2010 – Special national working holiday

Source : http://www.pinoymoneytalk.com/philippine-holidays-2008/

The New York Times reported today that Apple has opened its first Apple Store in Paris, underneath the Louvre no less, and just two weeks after Microsoft opened up a Windows 7 cafe in Paris in another location. The idea of these two companies competing in a retail environment, and especially a Windows-themed cafe, got me thinking about what would happen if three cafes opened each run in the same style of the operating system it was named for. I figure it might look something like this:

Windows Cafe

The Windows Cafe is in a bland store front. The furniture consists of straight wooden chairs with tables with sharp angles. Unfortunately, every so often when you sit in a chair it crashes the to the floor, but you get used to this and figure it’s just part of the experience of going to the Windows Cafe. (To be fair they have been testing chairs from a new manufacturer and they are reportedly less prone to breaking in this fashion.) Pictures of a smiling Bill Gates and Windows logos adorn the walls. The coffee tastes fine most of the time, but a surprising number of patrons get sick there, so that it’s become standard practice to use hand sanitizer before you go in to protect yourself. The coffee is expensive, and refills are definitely not free, but it’s a known quantity, and many people are comfortable going there.

Linux Cafe

The Linux Cafe is a funky place in an artsy neighborhood with eclectic furniture donated by the patrons. It doesn’t match, but it’s comfortable and the walls are covered with donated pictures and paintings by local artists. The coffee is free, served in black cups (or you can just bring your own), but you need to make it yourself. If you can’t do it yourself, the cafe has consultants available to help you for a fee. It’s great for people who know about coffee brewing, but many people are intimidated by the idea of making their own coffee and stay away, even though very few people ever get sick who go there.

Apple Cafe

The Apple Cafe is a modern, state-of-the-art facility. The tables are stainless steel and the chairs are ultra-contemporary. Shrines to Apple CEO Steve Jobs are dotted around the wide space. The cups are cool and come in a variety of bright colors. The coffee is well made by a highly trained staff, and even though it costs a lot more, people line up around the block for a chance to drink it. Just don’t ask the staff about their coffee-making techniques because they are extremely tight lipped about this. People occasionally get sick there, but it’s rare enough for the cafe to brag about its safety record.

So there you have it. Three cafes with three distinct personalities just like the operating systems they represent

Source: http://www.daniweb.com/news/story236836.html?urlhash=yp4q&trk=nus_ritm-title by Ron Miller

And don’t look for it in WP Plugins repo, you won’t find it there

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/*
Plugin Name: Top Visitors Flag
Plugin URI: http://www.marvinmarcelo.com/
Description: This plugin displays visitors on sidebar as widget dependent on <a href="http://dadabase.de/weblog/archives/2006/05/23/wordpress-geotrack-plugin">WP/GEO-Track plugin</a>.
Author: Marvin Marcelo
Author URI: http://www.marvinmarcelo.com/
Version: 1.0.0
*/
function tvf_get_topvisits()
{
  global $wpdb, $table_prefix;
  $sql = "select count(*) as `rows` , `country` , `flagname` from `".$table_prefix."geotrack` group by `country` order by `rows` desc limit 0 , 12";
  $flagstats = $wpdb->get_results($sql);
 
  $html = "<li id='top-country-flags'><h2>Top Visiting Countries</h2><div>\n"; /*  id string */
  foreach ($flagstats as $cf)
  {
    $cf->rows = number_format($cf->rows, 0, "", ",");
    $html .= "<img src=\"". GEOTRACK_URL . "flags/" . $cf-/>flagname . ".png\" alt=\"Flag of $cf->country with $cf->rows visits\" title=\"$cf->country with $cf->rows visits\" />\n";
  }
  $html .= "</div></li>";
  echo $html;
}
 
function init_tvf_init(){
	register_sidebar_widget("Top Visitors Flags", "tvf_get_topvisits");
}
 
if (defined('GT_NOT_INSTALLED'))
{
  echo "<!-- You need \"http://dadabase.de/weblog/archives/2006/05/23/wordpress-geotrack-plugin\" installed first-->";
}
else
{
  add_action("plugins_loaded", "init_tvf_init");
}

Also, you have to forgive the function, constants, and variables names, we all struggle for a better and sensible one Happy coding!

I still remember way back the upgrade of MSN’s Hotmail (or not exactly sure if older versions work smoothly on Firefox), it was always complaining that it’s not compatible with my browser. But this one, this one is really good, so Kudo’s to Windows Social team. When I found this in the Twitter’s box in popurls, posts just started popping in, sweet! Though I suppose it would do the same as on MS and IE platform. But if someone knew of a “flaw”, “fail” or “weak link”, complain about it properly to their support, and if you can bother to let me know LOL

First log in on A as user a and generate a pair of authentication keys. Do not enter a passphrase:

a@A:~> ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/a/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory '/home/a/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/a/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/a/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
3e:4f:05:79:3a:9f:96:7c:3b:ad:e9:58:37:bc:37:e4 a@A

Now use ssh to create a directory ~/.ssh as user b on B. (The directory may already exist, which is fine):

a@A:~> ssh b@B mkdir -p .ssh
b@B's password:

Finally append a’s new public key to b@B:.ssh/authorized_keys and enter b’s password one last time:

a@A:~> cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh b@B 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'
b@B's password:

Now I can work as ‘owner’ and ‘user’ within each user home directory.

a@A:~> ssh b@B hostname
B

Some notes, depending on your version of SSH you might also have to do the following changes:

• Put the public key in .ssh/authorized_keys2
• Change the permissions of .ssh to 700
• Change the permissions of .ssh/authorized_keys2 to 640

Source: http://linuxproblem.org/art_9.html

I found this great tutorial that would make a ‘css nobody’ become a ‘big guy’ on CSS, and I myself is going to keep this page available when needed.

Mastering CSS Coding: Getting Started covers:

1. Padding vs. Margin
   • What Is Padding and Margin?
   • Margin and Padding Values
   • Quick Tip
2. Floats
3. Center Alignment
   • Horizontal Alignment
   • Vertical Alignment
4. Ordered vs. Unordered Lists
   • Customizing Unordered Lists
   • Using Unordered Lists for Navigation
5. Styling Headings
6. Overflow
   • What Is Overflow?
7. Position
   • Adding Flavor With CSS
8. Background Images
   • Using Large Backgrounds
   • Text Replacement
   • CSS Sprites
9. Image Enhancement
10. PSD to HTML

Task: List a year/month links from the present to the oldest published image sets.

Sounds easy, and I believe it is.

But when I checked on the existing script, this is what I got.

 $month_array = array("1"=>'January',"2"=>'February',"3"=>'March',"4"=>'April',"5"=>'May',"6"=>'June',"7"=>'July',"8"=>'August',"9"=>'September',"10"=>'October',"11"=>'November',"12"=>'December');
	$smarty->assign('y2day',$y2day); $y=0;
	for ($q=12; $q >= 1; $q--){
			$month = $month_array[$q];
			if( ($_GET[year] < '2000') && ($m2day ==$q ) ) $w_string = $week_string; else  $w_string ='';
			if( ($_GET[year] == '2007') && ($_GET[month] == $q) ) $w_string = $week_string;
 
		  if($m2day >= $q){
			$tmp_cal_month_now_array = array(
					'month' => $month,
					'string' => $w_string,
					'link' => $q
					); $date_month_now_array[$y++] =  $tmp_cal_month_now_array;	 }
		} //for
 
	 $smarty->assign('calendar_now_month',$date_month_now_array);
 
	$y=0;	$c_yeartoday = date("Y") -1; //echo $c_yeartoday;
	for($q=0; $q < = 5; $q++){
			$tmp =$c_yeartoday - $q; //echo $tmp;
 
		 $tmp_cal_date_array = array(
					  'year' => $tmp
 
				 );  $date_year_array[$y++] =  $tmp_cal_date_array;
	 } //for
 
	$smarty->assign('calendar_year',$date_year_array);
 
	    $y=0;
		for($q=12; $q >= 1; $q--)
		{
			$month = $month_array[$q];
			if( $_GET[month] == $q ) $w_string = $week_string; else $w_string='';
			$tmp_cal_month_array = array(
					'month' => $month,
					'string' => $w_string,
					'link' => $q
					); $date_month_array[$y++] =  $tmp_cal_month_array;
 
		}//for
	 $smarty->assign('calendar_month',$date_month_array);
 
	 $y=0;
		for($q=12; $q >= 10; $q--)
		{
			$month = $month_array[$q];
			if( ($_GET[year] == '2000') && ($_GET[month] == $q) ) $w_string = $week_string; else $w_string='';
			$tmp_cal_month_old_array = array(
					'month' => $month,
					'string' => $w_string,
					'link' => $q
					); $date_month_old_array[$y++] =  $tmp_cal_month_old_array;
 
		}//for
	 $smarty->assign('calendar_month_old',$date_month_old_array);

Looking at the above script, it looks like they were grouped in to 4 sections, deriving the values of $date_month_now_array, $date_year_array, $date_month_array and $date_month_old_array. And the hardcoded values ’2000′ and ’2007′ will definitely set limit and obviously introduce bug, and so it did. Honestly, I would have coded it this way when I was moving into PHP 3 years ago, and perhaps even now if I’d have been coding for a whole day confronted with bugs.

Anyway, the main problem with the above code is, there was always a reference for dates and the original programmer didn’t use it, the date column in the content’s table. Instead, I’m guessing, he setup a start ‘year’ which is probably he asked someone about the oldest possible year a content was published – there he arrived at using ’2000′ in the code. And if I’m not mistaken, this code was written in 2007, LOL, so there was a condition on year set to 2007.

Here’s how I modified it, optimized it as much (well I hope). The date column had a unix timestamp values, so it’s not in typical date format.

/**
 * Calendar modification
 * @author marvin marcelo
 * @uses ez_sql
 * @link http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/package/790.html
 */
/* present */
list($y, $m, $d) = explode(" ", date("Y n j"));
 
$sql = "select distinct(from_unixtime(updateStartDate, '%Y')) year
          from series_table where updateStartDate > 0 order by updateStartDate desc";
 
/* ezSql stuff */
$years = $db->get_results($sql, ARRAY_A);
 
for ($i = 0; $i < count($years); ++$i)
{
  $months = array();
  for ($j = 12; $j > 0; --$j)
  {
    $endofmonth = date("t", strtotime("{$years[$i]["year"]}-$j-1"));
    if ($years[$i]["year"] == $y && $j > $m)
    {
      continue; /* future year-month */
    }
    if ($years[$i]["year"] == $y && $j == $m)
    {
      /* this day in this month of this year is also future, use current date instead */
      $endofmonth = $d;
    }
    $ts0 = strtotime("{$years[$i]["year"]}-$j-1"); /* unix timestamp start of month */
    $ts1 = strtotime("{$years[$i]["year"]}-$j-$endofmonth"); /* unix timestamp last day or today of month */
    if ($db->get_row("select * from series_table where updateStartDate > $ts0 and updateStartDate < = $ts1"))
    {
      if ($year == $years[$i]["year"] && $j == $month)
      {
        $months[] = array("active" => "1", "j" => $j, "F" => date("F", $ts0));
      }
      else
      {
        $months[] = array("j" => $j, "F" => date("F", $ts0));
      }
    }
  }
  if (count($months))
  {
    $years[$i]["months"] = $months;
  }
}
/* template */
$smarty->assign('calendar', $years);
/**
 * Calendar modification end block
 */

The process I did …

1. Select distinct years from all published content by converting unix timestamp to readable year value, then iterate on them
2. Do a for loop from 12 (december) to 1 (january) to generate a unix timestamp for use in the next query
3. Query the table for a matching timestamp of the first day and the last day of month-year pair; Use current day of month if iterating year and month matches the present
4. Show the month link for the year in iteration if a match is found

Couple of notes though, I didn’t name the table as ‘series_table’ , it’s been there years since. I also named my variables when referring to start and end as $x0 and $x1, $ts0 and $ts1. I got used to this when college years in physics – the start and end of a distance, I don’t know, I just like the thought .

Hope it didn’t went order to chaos at all!

/**
 * This one is on top of a movie player page. Maybe 'he' wasn't so sure 
 * that the parameters passed on to this page is for a 'video'. Just making
 * sure for the nth time I guess.
 */
$videoistrue=0;
/**
 * I think 'he' hate lines. And this one is good, page title is saved 
 * in a session variable, so if another programmer writes a new page
 * and forgot to assign $_SESSION['pagetitle'] a new value for an FAQ
 * page, say faq.php, it'd show up <title>Show Series</title>
 */
session_start();$_SESSION['pagetitle'] = "Show Series";
/**
 * ... and it went on and on
 * $_SESSION['pagetitle'] = "Calendar";
 * session_start();$_SESSION['pagetitle'] = "Browse Model";
 *
 * Hmmmm, $ii as iteration variable, struggling with names? I often 
 * use $i, $n or $x, sometime $c, hehehe! I've seen $i for many. And 
 * have you noticed the class name 'smalleditnoline', can it be any 
 * longer? Yes! and if he had enough time, it may have look like 
 * 'smalleditnolinewitharialbold' or 'smalleditnolineFFFbgcolor333fgcolor'
 * crazy! This is CSS anyway, will surely post one for that, hahaha!
 */
for ($ii=1;$ii< =$totalpages;$ii++)
{
  if ($ii==$page) {
    echo "<font class='smallediton'>[$ii]";
  }
  else {
    echo "<a href='?sort=" . $_GET['sort'] . "&page=$ii' class='smalleditnoline'>[$ii]</a>";
  }
}
/**
 * more variables with default values, note that this is set just
 * before a loop starts
 */
$thisCat = "";
$firstrun = true;
$firstrow = 0;
$rowcount = 0;
/**
 * "NO QUOTES" for key names in square brackets :( 
 * if only my IDE could complain
 */
$GLOBALS[catadded] = false;
$GLOBALS[keywordadded] = false;
$GLOBALS[modeladded] = false;
/**
 * Consistent! Maybe 'He' doesn't want anybody to easily understand 
 * the script that's why no new lines after semi-colon at least.
 */
if ($seriesRow[seriesNo] < 10) $seriesNoTxt = "0".$seriesRow[seriesNo]; else $seriesNoTxt = $seriesRow[seriesNo];

Ok, enough of grumbling here. I have released my frustration for today, going back to work. But if I am to start a project or even a simple script, I follow formatting conventions, consistent quotes and escapes, logical variable names and useful comments with links and samples. It doesn't only make your code readable, it helps a lot for the next programmer to just add-in the stuff he needs to and keeping his sanity.

Found this post from Smash!ng Apps

PHPanywhere is a new online service that’s changing the way people develop on the web. They enable users to develop and maintain their php/html projects online using any standard web browser.

This is a web based free Integrated Development Environment or IDE for the PHP language, in other words it is an application that gives developers all the code editing capabilities they need to develop PHP applications online. It includes a real-time syntax code editor with support for all web formats and a powerful FTP editor.

Because it works in a browser you can start coding right away, no need for installing anything and best of all you can work from anywhere, all you need is an internet connection and a web browser and you’re ready to go.

You can develop and maintain multiple projects with ease using PHPanywhere, because as soon as you log in all your projects (FTP servers) are immediately accessible. PHPanywhere even remembers what files you were working on and reopens them as well.

Real-time syntax code editor

The real-time syntax code editor is really what PHPanywhere is all about, so here is a list of just some of the things it does:

• Syntax highlighting
• Smart indentation for each language
• Code folding
• Full internationalization
• Unlimited undo/redo (now handled on client (browser) side, no more waiting for server response)
• Unlimited tabs
• Find and replace feature (New Feature)
• Displays line numbers (New Feature)
• Code auto completion, snippets (New Feature)
• Displays line numbers (New Feature)
• Code indention (TAB key) (New Feature)

Projects (New Feature)

Create and use projects to group files you commonly use together, so you can easily open them next time you need to work on the project.

File permissions (New Feature)

Change your file and folder permissions using PHPanywhere’s ftp explorer.

Messages Window (New Feature)

Your every action is now logged in the window at bottom of the screen, so you can now easily track changes you made using PHPanywhere.

Skins (New Feature)

Choose from different skins to change the look and feel of PHPanywhere.

Welcome Screen (New Feature)

Besides giving you a nice and warm welcome , it also displays shortcuts to your most common commands, and recently opened files and projects.

Powerfull FTP explorer

This is a full-blown FTP explorer. You can add as many servers as you like, edit files, create/delete files or folders and you can even edit the permissions on folders. It will definitely satisfy all you FTP needs.

Work without restrictions

PHPanywhere doesn’t install anything on your computer, so you can use it without asking your IT administrator for permission. Also since it isn’t on your computer, it works even if your corporate firewall is blocking the FTP port.

Share your work

Because all your projects are on our servers you can easily allow others to work on your project, without duplicating you files. Also PHPanywhere enables real-time document collaboration (**) which makes it the ideal work environment.

PHPanywhere can be comfortably run on Opera 9+ and Gecko-based browsers (Firefox, Camino, Seamonkey, …) on any OS. Support for IE and Safari/Chrome coming soon.

Source: http://www.smashingapps.com/2009/09/01/now-use-phpanywhere-to-code-directly-from-your-browser.html