Where should I keep JS and CSS code — inline or in an external file

nullJavaScript0 Comment
6 min. reading

Hamlet’s great question (“To be or not to be“), turns in web development and mobile world into Javascript (or CSS stylesheet) asking the developer: “To be inline or not to be”. In other words: what is better — to put code inline of HTML page or to put it in an external file? I was more than sure, that the answer is pretty straightforward — external file is always better. And I keep myself with this answer. However, I found a few arguments, that my sound interesting at first, but must be answered.

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Invert non-consecutive data column in Excel

nullMicrosoft0 Comment
2 min. reading

Let’s say, that you have a one or more columns, in which you would like to invert data. What is most important — data does not follow step-by-step (in which case you’d use simple data sorting function in Excel), It can have something like –1, 5, 76, 23, –65, 124 in each following row of column and you want it to have like 124, –65, 23, 76, 5, –1. How to do this, if you deal with hundreds or thousands of rows, so manual change is not an option?

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A library for gauges, charts or data visualisation

nullCordova, JavaScript0 Comment
3 min. reading

There are certain drawing and graphic libraries in Javascript that can be considered for:

  • drawing charts,
  • doing some data visualization for the website,
  • using them as gauges / clocks for the mobile client

(gauges can be used in limited manner on the website as well).

This article deals with most interesting ones that you may consider for above purposes.

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Reverse geolocation with OpenStreet Maps reverse geocoder. Pros and cons

nullother0 Comment
3 min. reading

Reverse geolocation is a process of obtaining certain geographical information (like street name, city, country etc.) based on geographical coordinates only.

OpenStreet Maps offers a cool looking (at least at first sight) reverse geocoder that can feed your application or website with a valuable geolocation data. However, as you go deeper in to the details, more cons over pros can appear.

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Open phpMyAdmin with preselected database

nullPHP, SQL0 Comment
< 1 min. reading

The correct URL should be like that:

http://[HOST_AND_PATH]/index.php?db=[DB_NAME]#PMAURL-1:db_structure.php?db=[DB_NAME]

I found this path to work in any conditions. After logging-in with this path, user should see phpMyAdmin open with pre-selected database ([DB_NAME]) and should see that database’s tables list, not pMA‘s home screen.

And, as I just verified this, it works even on as old phpMyAdmin as version 2.11.3.

Static map from Google with no API key required [updated]

nullGoogle, JavaScript0 Comment
3 min. reading

You must be a member of Google APIs Console and obtain a valid API to embed Google Maps into your website or web application. That’s a well known fact.

Not everyone knows that this is required only, if you want to embed a fully-featured Google Maps, i.e. with ability to scroll, zoom, use markers, calculate routes etc. For embedding a static image of Google Maps showing requested location you don’t need API and required Javascript code is nearly a one-liner.

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Configure email sending solution under XAMPP

nulldev0 Comment
6 min. reading

This is the ultimate (at least for me! :]) solution to configuring mail sending in your XAMPP. Verified and confirmed that this is working. If you go through these steps and still have no results, I’m 95% sure, that problem is outside XAMPP or sendmail (i.e. something is wrong with your configuration). I hope, I don’t have to remind you, that every wise guy uses XAMPP only for development purposes and never, ever as stand-alone, production, webserver!

Do not get confused! This article is about fake sendmail, a solution designed for development environments, like XAMPP, to mimic mail delivery subsystem for developers, that is found on production servers. This text has nothing to do with original sendmail, world famous MTA, started 1979 (25 years before fake sendmail!) and still widely used on production servers and anywhere else in hosting area.

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Round functions in PHP still returns float!

nullPHP0 Comment
< 1 min. reading

When you round any float number to integer, rounding function (for example floor) still returns float type variable! What?

Well… on second thought, this is reasonable (and explained). PHP does it, because “the value range of float is usually bigger than that of integer“.

So, for example, if you would try to round a number bigger, that integer type can handle (> 2 147 483 647), PHP wouldn’t be able to do anything with the result of such rounding, if it would return it as integer.

Change prompt and enable command auto-completion [updated]

nullLinux, Microsoft, QNAP0 Comment
4 min. reading

I really like some simple extensions and changes to command line in Linux. An ability to enable command auto-complete, commands history navigation and changing prompts look in particular.

However, not every console is suited with these changes, so I wrote this simple article to keep all my how-tos around Linux command line in one place.

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Enable LDAP support in PHP served under XAMPP and Windows

nulldev0 Comment
4 min. reading

Connection to LDAP in PHP isn’t that easy task by itself. Things get even more complicated, if you’re working in XAMPP environment under Windows. It hope this article will help you in getting un-stuck, if you’re stuck on the similar things, as I did.

Notice: solution provided in this article may not work for you! It worked on my office computer and failed completely on my home computer, though both are quite similar (same version of Windows and XAMPP etc.).

Since, we’re talking about very stupid system (Windows) and about even more stupid situation (claiming, that file is not found, though it exists in folder listed in PATH variable), I have no bloody idea, why it doesn’t work (or why it does work on certain computers) and how to solve this problem.

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Two-way encryption in PHP

nullPHP0 Comment
4 min. reading

I found two quite interesting examples at Stack Overflow about two-way encrytion / hashing in PHP. While two-way encryption is never as secure as one-way version (some claim, that two-way encryption methods are not secure at all), it is still a good alternative to not using encryption at all. For certain simple tasks, you may find it quite useful.

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Never allow users to transfer files with non-Latin characters in name

nullPHP0 Comment
5 min. reading

I have received a PM message at Yii forum asking about possibility of transferring (via HTTP upload) files with non-English characters in filename. In this particular example, a Greek and Chinese (and English), but with option to support all the languages, that exists.

Conclusion: No f*ing way! But, if you wish to read something more about this, follow with this article.

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Logging user to LDAP directory under Yii

nullYii0 Comment
< 1 min. reading

On certain systems and LDAP configurations you are required to use two-step login approach. It goes like this:

  1. Bind anonymously, by specifying only $bind = @ldap_bind($connection);.
  2. ldap_search for a given username. Search will return you a valid user’s DN (or NULL, if user does not exist).
  3. Using returned LDAP call another ldap_bind, this time attempting to actually login user.

Thus, in this approach you are not constructing your own DN, but relying on returned one instead.

List of all countries in the world, split by continent

nullHTML, other0 Comment
6 min. reading

Here is the list of 197 countries in the world, split by five continents, put as simple, not formatted list (for future use as data for some form or selection) and as HTML code.

Note, that this list contains only “full featured” countries, without any dependent territories, special municipalities, incorporated territories etc. So, you won’t find here many of the Oceania’s or Antarctic islands. Also very small, Caribbean-based dependent territories are not listed here.

Note also, that this list contains both North America’s and South’s America’s contries put together.

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Downloading large files with PHP

nullPHP0 Comment
3 min. reading

First define, what do you mean, by “large” and “huge”? In this post I present the quickest solution of using file chunking. It works fine (tested!) for files of size up to 2 GB. If this is enough for you, fine — go ahead. If you need to download something bigger, consider using mod-xsendfile (only on Apache — more here and here).

Chunking files is the fastest / simplest method in PHP, if you can’t or don’t want to make use of something a bit more professional like cURL, mod-xsendfile on Apache or some dedicated script.

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BitBucket vs. GitHub — VCS and repo management tools compare

nullVCS0 Comment
9 min. reading

I decided to migrate from GitHub to BitBucket purely for economic reasons.

On GitHub I can’t have any private repository in my free account. I have to pay for every non-open source project that I host there. On BitBucket I can have unlimited number of private repos and I’m only paying for users, that has access to each of my repository (first five users are free).

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Please rebase the change locally and upload again for review

nullVCS0 Comment
3 min. reading

You’ve passed all the way of flames, blood and pain, through Gerrit, you done reviewing a change and you’re ready to click Review and Publish button. You hit it and Gerrit hits you with: Project policy requires all submissions to be a fast-forward. Please rebase the change locally and upload again for review. How, the hell this happend and how to handle this?

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