Sydney PHP User Group - April 2010 Meeting

April 2010 Meeting
Hi all,

Again sorry for the delay, there were some "issues" with the venue.

Please note the CHANGE OF DATE. It is now the 21st NOT the 22nd.

Sorry to complicate things, but here is how this is going to work for this month. We're booked for a double room which allows up to 40 people. Unfortunately, we've only got a 2 hour slot for this and it starts from 7pm through to 9pm.

This means a change in the schedule. I've made some rough adjustments and this is how it looks:

6:00 - Meet at SMCA
6:15 - Eat Somewhere
7:00 - Head back to SMCA
7:30 - Welcome
7:35 - Introductions
7:45 - Group Announcements
7:50 - Open Floor Discussion
8:00 - Presentation 1
8:30 - Presentation 2
9:00 - Be Out The Door

So the idea is that we all meet at SMCA at 6pm as planned. However we'll go eat someplace together first and give everyone a chance to meet and greet before the event.

Feedback is definitely welcome for this and adjustments can be made to try and suit everybody. Suggestions on where to eat also welcome.

The details for the event are below.

When: Wednesday 21st of April 2010.

Where : Sydney Mechanics School of Arts - 280 Pitt St, Sydney

What: Two presentations, two presenters, three hours of PHP Group goodness.

Presentation 1
Steven Roddis - Two Factor Authentication

A presentation without the FUD covering accessibility, usability, cost and security of Two Factor Authentication Systems. Part 2 explains how to securely implement these systems in your webapp via PHP.

Presentation 2
Graham Weldon - Unit Testing with PHP

An overview of the benefits and importance of Unit Testing your code. Graham Weldon, Lead Developer of the CakePHP Framework v2.0 will overview the benefits and cost of developing unit tests for PHP. Including the benefits seen at the individual develop level, and show how it can enhance productivity.

RSVP
You MUST RSVP to attend. Anyone who does not RSVP and shows up may not get in as space is strictly limited by the venue owners. The Yahoo! RSVP link is below, if you really really really don't want to sign up for a yahoo account just to RSVP, then email organisers@sydphp.org.

RSVP Link: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5655030/NSW/Sydney/Sydney-PHP-Group-April-2010/Sydney-Mechanics-School-of-Arts/?ps=5

Entry Fee
There will be an entry fee of $5 per person for this event. The fee covers the cost of the venue hire.

Hope to see you all there!

Feeling good

Feeling happy, someone just recently (10-14 April) checked my blog. It feels good to know that out there someone is curious about me. Someone like to see or read, whats going on my life, my feeling or my sorrow, pain or happiness. My life is going through storms of challenges. Looking out for good job. Have almost lost the faith & courage. Fighting each day to conquer the feeling of insignificance..my life has really become hectic.. these days I have become more introvert... I am not sure why is that.. may be of age..Guilt or something.. Anyway, today I am feeling happy. Happy Happy Happy for the day! Thank you..Hope you will come back again read more of my post.

Enabling HTML5 in IE

If you have read my previous article "About HTML5" and gone through those links and seriously read those tutorials and articles about HTML5, then by now you should be able to make web page using HTML5. Some may have already started experimenting and found its not rendering  properly in IE. Here is small tip for those geeky ones who act than simply read and forget.

You may have noticed in HTML5 there are many new elements like < header>,<section>,<article> etc and the only way to acknowledge these new elements to IE is to use John Resig  HTML5 shiv technique.Using that technique, Remy Sharp has created an excellent mini script (html5.js) that enables all the new elements.

It is very easy to use, simply put the following code in the head element (this is because IE needs to know about the element before it comes to render them - so it can't sit in the footer of the page, i.e. below the elements in question. ). Also Its better to wrap it in an IE conditional call to reduce the http pulls for other browsers.

<!--[if IE]>
<script src="http://html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script>
<![endif]-->

Hope that was useful!

About HTML5

These days everyone is talking about HTML5.
IS HTML5 READY? or NOT? When will it be ready?

There are even sites that showcase HTML5 made websites.

• 101 Best HTML5 Sites
• A showcase of sites using HTML5 markup

There are lots of tutorials on HTML5

• Yes, You Can Use HTML 5 Today!
• Coding A HTML 5 Layout From Scratch
• Building web pages with HTML5
• Simple Website Layout Tutorial Using HTML 5 and CSS 3
• 23 Essential HTML 5 Resources
• 70 Must-Have CSS3 and HTML5 Tutorials and Resources

And there are some sites that are experimenting HTML5

• HTML5 Experiments
• HTML 5 Demos and Examples

Just go through above links, certainly you will find your answers about HTML5.
Well, I enjoy learning, and this list was especially made for that purpose.

Happy Learning HTML5 now!

Some one line ASCII Art for Twitter, Instant Massages and Status updates

If you have to impress someone with just 140 characters in one line, how do you do it??
The answer is ASCII art.

Below I have listed some common ascii arts composed on only one line of text, so you can use them on Twitter, Facebook, SMS text messaging, IM, or any other status update tool.. Enjoy,

Ascii Animals 

Caterpillar ,/\,/\,/\,/\,/\,/\,o

Fish <`)))><

Fish Swimming ¸.·´¯`·.´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸><(((º>

Happy Cat <(^.^)>

Kitty cat =^..^=

Koala @( * O * )@

Loch Ness monster _mmmP

Monkey @('_')@

Mouse <:3 )~~~~

Rat (to the left) <^__)~

Rat (to the right) ~(__^>

Sheep °l°(,,,,);

Spider ///\oo/\\\

Ascii Objects 

Crayon ())__CRAYON___)) >

Cup of coffee [_]3

Glasses -@-@-

Needle |==|iiii|>-----

Pie fight ---=======[}

Rose 1 @-}--

Rose 2 @}}>-----

Rose 3 @)}---^-----

Rose 4 @->-->---

Rose 5 --------{---(@

Ascii Faces/People 

Angel ^i^

Concerned (@_@)

Heart <3

In Love <*_*>

Looking at you ô¿ô

Very Happy ^_^

Very Happy 2 [^_^]

Sleeping (-.-)Zzz...

Sleeping Baby w/Pillow [{-_-}] ZZZzz zz z...

Whoa O_o

Miscellenous Ascii Art 

Ascii Waves 1 *~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*

Ascii Waves 2 `'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'

Hearts w/text »-(¯`·.·´¯)->TEXT<-(¯`·.·´¯)-«

Robot d[ o_0 ]b

Text Embellishment 1 (¯`·._.·(¯`·._.·(¯`·._.· Your Text ·._.·´¯)·._.·´¯)·._.·´¯)

Text Embellishment 2 ,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸-(_Your_Text_)-,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸

Must read before you speak to a web developer

A very true story in the life of web designer. This has really happened to me also a lot of times. I used to wonder why this happens to me only but i know now that its very common...sigh.. such a relief...


Looking forward to make website, you must read it before you speak to a web developer... Please!!!

Faster PHP using Facebooks Hip Hop

Just found an articles on Hiphop for PHP accidentally.

"HipHop for PHP transforms PHP source code into highly optimized C++. It was developed by Facebook and released as open source in early 2010."

Reading about it, its interesting and may have bright future. Check the following links:

Hip Hop for PHP - Project Page

HipHop for PHP: Move Fast

Hip Hop for PHP Testing Video

Hip Hop for PHP Compatibility blog

Right Brain Vs. Left Brain - Optical Illusion

I am always fascinated by the way our human brain works. I feel it is so mysterious though there has been so many studies done. One interesting fact is how our Left Brain and Right Brain are so different from each other.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses logic detail oriented facts rule words and language present and past math and science can comprehend knowing acknowledges order/pattern perception knows object name reality based forms strategies practical safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses feeling “big picture” oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and future philosophy & religion can “get it” (i.e. meaning) believes appreciates spatial perception knows object function fantasy based presents possibilities impetuous risk taking

Take a look at the spinning girl below. Do you see it spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise?

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

Well this is not my research study but i read it in some news... then did some google to find the details.

The most interesting article about this phenomenon is found in Steven Novella, MD NeurologicaBlog

Also read Bicameral Images reveal our two selves.

If you like Optical Illusions, check this site Mighty Optical Illusions

Ok, now its freaking me out.. I can control the way it moves clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Look for a while, you will see what i mean.

Dynamically setting the height of an iframe

This is reposted from blog.pixelmedia.com.

---

Recently, we had a situation that required us to pull in some content from one server to another using an iframe. Generally, this is something we would try to avoid, but we needed to pull some data from a new .NET application into a legacy ColdFusion application.

Unfortunately, the height of the page being pulled in would vary wildly. This led to a fairly disappointing experience where the page was either far too long, or content in the iframe was cut off and the user had to scroll within the iframe to see everything.

We came up with what we thought might be an interesting solution. If the page loading inside of the iframe (the child page) could calculate its height, and somehow let the parent page know, the parent page should be able to reset the height of the iframe.

With a little inspiration, we came up with a pretty neat solution that we’d like to share. Our solution requires that you have the ability to edit the code of both the parent and child pages.

The child page being loaded into the iframe will simply reset the location of the parent page, and include a hash with the height of itself.


<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.1/jquery.js"></script>
<script>
var parentUrl = "http://kingston/other/test/iframe-outside.html";

setHash = function() {
parent.location = parentUrl + "#" + $('body').height();
}();
</script>


We’re using jQuery here to easily get the height of the <body> tag.

On the parent page that includes the iframe, we’ll again use jQuery and write a small function that gets the height from the hash in the URL, and uses that to reset the height of the iframe.

function setHeight() {
var newHeight = parseInt(location.hash.substring(1)) + 50;
$('#hashFrame').attr('height', newHeight);
}

We ran into a bit of an issue: the page we were loading was taking a few seconds to load, and we didn’t want to set our height on the iframe until the content within the iframe had finished loading (and it had a chance to set the proper height to the url hash).

More jQuery to the rescue! The jQuery .load() method allowed us to call our setHeight() function after the iframe had finished loading.

$('#hashFrame').load( function() {
setHeight();
});

Putting it all together gave us a great way to use our new application inside our legacy application, and make it faily seamless to the end user.

Installing Joomla

When working with JDMConcept I had problem uploading the files. I was using dodo mobile wireless broadband with just 1 GB data allowance plan so uploading about 12,836 files (7,070 folders) i.e about 40mb was nightmare. So I had to find other ways. Once simple solution was download the archived(compressed) Joomla file directly to the server and decompress it there. Then upload the templates only and add required components, plugins and modules. Easy in theory but practically its tricky. Below I have listed the methods that I have used.

1st Method: Using "JoomlaStart"
1. Download it from http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/tools/site-management-tools/610/details

"JoomlaStart is a tool that will help you install/upgrade Joomla software much faster just by uploading one file on your server and running it! V1.2 release changes: - added a fix for permissions problems, so you may try to install Joomla by simulating a ftp upload process - you can install now Joomla from your local server, this in case your provider does't allow to use fopen() function remotelly to get the package - for the ftp mode we added an automatic permission changer for the required directories! If you encountered any problems in using this tool please use our forums at http://www.joomlaplug.com/Forum/ ! We will try to help you the best we can!"

2. It has 2 files Joomla.Start.php & ver.txt. Update ver.txt with the link of joomla file to be downloaded.
3. Upload 2 files to the web server.
4. Run Joomla.Start.php and follow the instruction.

Ur Joomla will be ready to be installed.
Upload the template & any other required files to the server using FTP and you are ready.

That time it didnt work as expected for me as there was some issues with the permision in the server..

2nd Method: Installing Joomla with remote Shell Access

I had a SSH previleges on the web server so I started SSH client (bitvise tunnelier/putty).
1.
CD /var/www/html/jdmconcept/

This is there my site goes..( it may be different for other..)

2. Download the joomla file to the server
WGET http://joomlacode.org/gf/download/frsrelease/9910/37907/Joomla_1.5.10-Stable-Full_Package.tar.gz

you should have Joomla_1.5.10-Stable-Full_Package.tar.gz file in /var/www/html/jdmconcept/

3. Now decompress the file

gunzip 'Joomla_1.5.10-Stable-Full_Package.tar.gz'
tar -xvf 'Joomla_1.5.10-Stable-Full_Package.tar'

gunzip will uncompress the Gzip archive. This will leave you with the Tar achive: Joomla_1.5.10-Stable-Full_Package.tar.
You want to uncompress this too so so you use tar -xvf.
Regarding -xvf: x if for extract, v is for verbose, and f is for file

Now joomla is ready to Install.

Finally I successfully installed JDMConcept in less than an hour.

I found out later some more methods to install Joomla easily to the server.

Hope it has help you for your Joomla Project.

How to Uninstall Office Genuine Advantage Notifications (KB949810)

Yesterday, My Vista said new important updates are available and I let it update without knowing what it was. Then after restarting I get an error message "This copy of Microsoft Office you are using is not genuine. We apologize for the interruption. The Microsoft Office program has not passed validation. For more details and to identify the most appropriate way to obtain a genuine copy of Microsoft Office, click More Info. “

Bloody hell, it came with the laptop and frankly I don’t know. Anyway I don’t have right now any job and have just money to survive for 2 months. Need to find the job within that period and quick. Well that is another story.

Back to the point, I found it was Microsoft latest released office update KB9810 also known as OGA (Office Genuine Advantage). I tried to uninstall the normal way but it didn’t show under "Control Panel", "Add Remove Programs" list even if "Show Updates" checkbox was ticked.

Doing some research, I found:
“According to the Microsoft Director of Genuine Software Initiative this OGA validation process was designed catch the users of non-genuine Office products. Users will receive a pop-up dialog box alerting them their Microsoft Office software is not genuine. The customer will receive this dialog box the first time they open an Office application every day, and again 2 hours later for next month. Users can also receive information on how to learn more about the issue if they click more info link. Eventually Microsoft wants illegal users to acquire genuine copy of Microsoft Office. After receiving these dialogs box notifications for 30 days, Office applications will be marked with a visual reminder that the copy of Office is NOT GENUINE. Both the dialog box and/or the visual reminder will disappear once the customer gets genuine Office and/or uninstalls the non-genuine Office products. None of the visual cues presented will impair a customer from accessing their data or preparing documents.”
Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Genuine_Advantage

After being nagged by the message, I researched for the solution to stop the message. I figured out 3 solutions and 3rd solution worked for me. Go ahead and try them:

Solution 1:
Simply RESTORE to last well known good working restore point before Feb,10th 2009.

Revert back to previous state, If you have a full backup you can restore from your good copy of the backup and remember to decline that update (KB949810) and not install it anywhere again in future because its optional "voluntary Microsoft update".

Solution 2:

1. Open your computer
2. Write in the address bar:%SystemRoot% / System32
3. Menu, select "Tools" and then "Folder Options ..." tab and "View" is selected, make sure that "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types" then press "OK"
4. Find all files that start with OGA (find files with the extension. Dll and. Exe) and rename the file as a substitute. Old
5. Check if this is in the same folder as the file and rename WgaTray.exe to WgaTray.old and OGAAddin.dll to OGAAddin.old
6. Replace display options files as they were initially - See section 3 (optional)
7. Restart your PC

Solution 3:

1. Run this DOS command at C:\>
2. MsiExec.exe /uninstall {B148AB4B-C8FA-474B-B981-F2943C5B5BCD}

You will be prompted if you are sure you want to uninstall. Click ‘Yes’
This will uninstall the OGA notifier 1.7.0105.35.0.

This solution worked for my Vista and may be it will work for your XP too.

Happy computing!

Loved the Article from phpimpact.wordpress.com

30 Useful PHP Classes and Components

May 29, 2008

Simplicity and extensibility are the main reasons why PHP became the favourite dynamic language of the Web. In the last decade, PHP has developed from a niche language for adding dynamic functionality to small websites to a powerful tool making strong inroads into large-scale Web systems.

Below I present 30 useful PHP classes and components that you can use to test, develop, debug and deploy your PHP applications. Let me know if I missed anything or if you have something to add.

Database

Creole

Creole is a database abstraction layer for PHP5. It abstracts PHP’s native db-specific API to create more portable code while also providing developers with a clean fully object-oriented interface based loosely on the API for Java’s JDBC. Creole was originally created as a sub-project of Propel to meet specific needs that none of the available abstraction layers were able to address in any satisfactory way.

LINQ for PHP

LINQ is a component that adds native data querying capabilities to PHP using a syntax reminiscent of SQL. It defines a set of query operators that can be used to query, project and filter data in arrays, enumerable classes, XML, relational database, and third party data sources.

ADOdb

ADOdb Database Abstraction Library for PHP. It supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, Interbase/Firebird, Informix, Sybase SQL Anywhere, Oracle, MS SQL 7 and 2000, SAP DB, Sybase, DB2, FrontBase, Foxpro, Access, Netezza, LDAP, ODBTP, ADO, and generic ODBC. It also features portable database creation, database-backed session support (with encryption), SQL performance monitoring and database health checks.

Propel

Propel is an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) framework for PHP5. It allows you to access your database using a set of objects, providing a simple API for storing and retrieving data.

Doctrine

Doctrine is a tool for object-relational mapping in PHP. It sits on top of PDO and is itself divided into two main layers, The DBAL and the ORM. The Doctrine ORM is mainly build around the ActiveRecord, Data Mapper and Metadata Mapping patterns.

PHPillow

PHPillow is an object orientated wrapper for CouchDB.

Development

phpDocumentor

phpDocumentor is the current standard auto-documentation tool for the php language. Similar to Javadoc, and written in php, phpDocumentor can be used from the command line or a web interface to create professional documentation from php source code. phpDocumentor has support for linking between documentation, incorporating user level documents like tutorials and creation of highlighted source code with cross referencing to php general documentation.

HTML Purifier

HTML Purifier is a standards-compliant HTML filter library written in PHP. HTML Purifier will not only remove all malicious code (better known as XSS) with a thoroughly audited, secure yet permissive whitelist, it will also make sure your documents are standards compliant, something only achievable with a comprehensive knowledge of W3C’s specifications.

PHP CodeSniffer

PHP CodeSniffer is a PHP5 script that tokenises and “sniffs” PHP code to detect violations of a defined set of coding standards. It is an essential development tool that ensures that your code remains clean and consistent. It can even help prevent some common semantic errors made by developers.

GeSHi

GeSHi is a generic syntax highlighter for PHP that takes any source code and highlights it in XHTML and CSS. It features case-sensitive or insensitive highlighting, auto-caps/non-caps of any keyword, an unlimited scope for styling, the use of CSS in which almost any aspect of the source can be highlighted, the use of CSS classes to massively reduce the amount of output code, function-to-URL capabilities, line numbering, and much more.

Unit Testing

PHPUnit

To make code testing viable, good tool support is needed. This is where PHPUnit comes into play. It is a member of the xUnit family of testing frameworks and provides both a framework that makes the writing of tests easy as well as the functionality to easily run the tests and analyse their results.

SimpleTest

Unit testing, mock objects and web testing framework for PHP built around test cases. If you know JUnit/JMock or some of the PHPUnit clones this will need no explanation. Includes a native web browser for testing web sites directly.

PHPSpec

PHPSpec allows you to write executable examples reflecting specifications of the desired behaviour of the source code being described. You can write code examples which are repeatable, this means you write an example and may repeat it as often as you wish to ensure the implementation code it relates to continues to abide by the example.

Debugging

PHP Debug

During both the development and deployment phases, developers require a consistent stream of diagnostic information in order to determine whether the application is working as intended. The functionality of the PHP Debug component can be used to write debug messages and measure the execution time.

dBug

dBug is the PHP version of ColdFusion’s cfdump. It outputs coloured and structured tabular variable information and has the ability to force certain types of output.

Deployment

Phing

Phing it’s a project build system based on Apache Ant. You can do anything with it that you could do with a traditional build system like GNU make, and its use of simple XML build files and extensible PHP task classes make it an easy-to-use and highly flexible build framework.

Xinc

Xinc is a continuous integration server written in PHP 5. It has built-in support for Subversion and Phing (and therefore PHPUnit), and can be easily extended to work with alternative version control or build tools.

Security

Securimage

Securimage is an open-source free PHP CAPTCHA library for generating complex images and CAPTCHA codes to protect forms from spam and abuse. It can be easily added into existing forms on your website to provide protection from spam bots. It can run on most any web server as long as you have PHP installed, and GD support within PHP.

Scavenger

Scavenger is an open source real-time vulnerability management tool. It helps you respond to vulnerability findings, track vulnerability findings, review accepted or false-positive answered vulnerabilities, and not ‘nag’ you with old vulnerabilities.

PHP Security Scanner

PHP Security Scanner is a tool written in PHP intended to search PHP code for vulnerabilities. MySQL DB stores patterns to search for as well as the results from the search. The tool can scan any directory on the file system.

PHPIDS

PHPIDS (PHP-Intrusion Detection System) is a simple to use, well structured, fast and state-of-the-art security layer for your PHP based web application. The IDS neither strips, sanitizes nor filters any malicious input, it simply recognizes when an attacker tries to break your site and reacts in exactly the way you want it to.

User Authentication

phpGACL

phpGACL is an set of functions that allows you to apply access control to arbitrary objects (web pages, databases, etc) by other arbitrary objects (users, remote hosts, etc). It offers fine-grained access control with simple management, and is very fast.

XML and PHP

SimplePie

SimplePie is a very fast and easy-to-use class, written in PHP, that puts the “simple” back into “really simple syndication”. Flexible enough to suit beginners and veterans alike, SimplePie is focused on speed, ease of use, compatibility and standards compliance.

PHP Universal Feed Generator

This package can be used to generate feeds in either RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 or Atom formats.

Image Handling

WideImage

WideImage is an object-oriented library for image manipulation, written in PHP 5. It’s a pure-PHP library and doesn’t require any external libraries apart from the GD2 extension.

Graphs and Charts

pChart

pChart is a PHP class oriented framework designed to create aliased charts. Most of todays chart libraries have a cost, our project is intended to be free. Data can be retrieved from SQL queries, CSV files, or manually provided. Focus has been put on rendering quality introducing an aliasing algorithm to draw eye candy graphics.

JpGraph

JpGraph can be used to create numerous types of graphs either on-line or written to a file. JpGraph makes it easy to draw both “quick and dirty” graphs with a minimum of code as well as complex graphs which requires a very fine grained control. The library assigns context sensitive default values for most of the parameters which minimizes the learning curve.

PHP Google Charts API

The Google Chart API returns a PNG-format image in response to a URL. Several types of image can be generated: line, bar, and pie charts for example. For each image type you can specify attributes such as size, colors, and labels.

PHP/SWF Charts

PHP/SWF Charts is a simple, yet powerful PHP tool to create attractive web charts and graphs from dynamic data. Use PHP scripts to generate or gather the data from databases, then pass it to this tool to generate Flash (swf) charts and graphs.

Open Flash Chart

This is an object oriented library for live-manipulating Open Flash Chart.

Template Engines

Savant

Savant is a powerful but lightweight object-oriented template system for PHP. Unlike other template systems, Savant by default does not compile your templates into PHP; instead, it uses PHP itself as its template language so you don’t need to learn a new markup system. Savant has an object-oriented system of template plugins and output filters so you can add to its behaviour quickly and easily.

Smarty

Smarty is a template engine for PHP. More specifically, it facilitates a manageable way to separate application logic and content from its presentation. One of the unique aspects about Smarty is the template compiling. This means Smarty reads the template files and creates PHP scripts from them. Once they are created, they are executed from then on. Therefore there is no costly template file parsing for each request.

PHPTAL

PHPTAL is a templating engine for PHP5 that implements brilliant Zope Page Templates syntax. PHPTAL is fast thanks to compiled templates and fine-grained caching. Makes it easy to generate well-formed XML/XHTML.

Documents

TCPDF

TCPDF is a PHP class for generating PDF documents without requiring external extensions. TCPDF supports all ISO page formats and custom page formats, custom margins and units of measure, UTF-8 Unicode, RTL languages, some HTML code, barcodes, TrueTypeUnicode, TrueType, Type1 and encoding, JPEG, GIF and PNG images, graphic functions, bookmarks, JavaScript, forms, page compression, and encryption.

PHP Excel

Create Excel documents in PHP. This component provides a set of classes for the PHP programming language, which allow you to write to Excel 2007 files and read from Excel 2007 files. This project is built around Microsoft’s OpenXML standard and PHP.

Lifes in Sydney

Now I am realising how hard the life is. How cruel the world is. I was never so alone as I am now.
I have everything yet i have nothing. I am happy to be in new land and sad I lost the purpose to be here. Relative and Friends shows enimity and strangers are god sent saviour. Though harder it seems lifes here. I have to be positive, create new dreams and find a new meaning of life. Life continues regardless of chosen path. In darkness or in a blistering midday sun, life finds a motion.
So still surving & fighting the for the better cause the future holds for me.

Drupal Issues on Window Server 2008/Vista SP1 and IIS7

Early monday morning my phone started ringing. It was a recruiter. He was saying my client in Sydney CBD is looking for Drupal Expert. He asked couple of questions..I was saying yes yes yes.. drupal.. no problem..I will have some sample sites ready by the week.

I am expert in PHP and I have hands-on experience with Joomla on responsibletravelnepal.com but I never had an oppurtunity to work in Drupal. Anyway being PHP Geek, I know i can quickly grab anything if its related with PHP. So, I did some googling, downloaded Drupal and bought some books on Drupal (Pro Drupal Development & Learning Drupal 6 Module Development) and video tutorial from Lynda (Drupal Essential Training), I spend around two days reading and watching.

I installed Drupal 6 on my Laptop. It has Vista SP1 and IIS 7. Installation was very simple and smooth. I was smiling thinking it easy. I tried adding Users but it was not registering. I tried creating Blocks again in vain. I copied it to my apache server and It worked fine. I had absolutely no idea what was happening but at least I know its IIS7 issues. I Google for the solutions and found out that FAST CGI module in IIS7 sets the REQUEST_URI server variable incorrectly. Microsoft has released an update to fix this bug (KB 954946).

I installed it and now it’s running well. I also installed Microsoft URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7.0 (x86), which allows .htaccess to work correctly. I found the following sites useful. Check em:

1. Using Drupal with Microsoft URL Rewrite Module for IIS 7
   
   
2. Using URL Rewrite Module

I liked Prado as its is Delphi Style Coding. Sice

Starting to Review PHP Frameworks

I have been searching for the ultimate PHP Framework that suits my style. Thats easy, lean learning curve, supports OOP, MVC, modules, multi DB and templates.

I have downloaded the following PHP Frameworks:

Akelos, CakePHP, PRADO, Symfony, Zend, ZooP, CodeIgniter, Seagull, PHPDevShell

I have started reviewing PRADO. I will review each soon and will publish the result.

my sister engagement

14 Dec 2007. Today is my sister Kshamata engagement with Dr. Roshan Raut.
The tentative date of wedding is Febraurary 14 (Valentine Day).

The photos from her engagement can be found in http://picasaweb.google.com/sijank/KshamataEngagement

IELTS Result

Today i got my IELTS result. I got overall of 6.5 point.
Listening: 7.5 , Reading: 6 , Writing: 6 , Speaking: 6

Well ... it may be little for most but I m happy coz it is far more than what i have expected.

IELTS Exam

Saturday 3rd November 2007. I had an IELTS exam. The exam was held in Pulchowk Bishal Bazaar Multicomplex conference hall. The exam went OK. I am little worried about the Reading Section. I had practice this section more than others and I got nervous on this on the exam hall. I had missed the last 3-4 questions. Anyway, its already gone. Hope for the best..... Crossing Fingers... GOD help me out la!

I have speaking test on Thurday 8th Nov. at 12:40 a.m at Ambassador Hotel, Lazimpat, Ktm, Nepal. I will prepare for this tonight & tomorrow. mmm.. Kay Garnu nobody is wishing me good luck.. So, I wish Good Luck to myself! :)

Conquer the evil inside

Today, I thought a lot.
Today, I thought about Life.
Today, I thought about Love
And Today, I thought about all posibilities.

Today, I realize I have lost Siju somewhere,
Today, I realize the world is cruel
Today, I realize the life is hard
Today, I realize no love means no life
And Today, I realize I was always wrong

Give me some time to search inside
Give me some trust to turn things right
Give me some support to win the battle inside
And Give me one chance to blossom life.

On this festive weeks of Dashain.
Let all your good wishes help me
Win! Win! Win!
Conquer the evil inside.

I need the change
Be new now
With new Tika & Jamara..
I need to begin new life
Life not as brat but a simple life.
Life of success & healthy mind.

Love, Just wish me true,
Wish me luck

- Sijan.