Below I will cover how to use the Models in the Skoot PHP framework. First a little about Skoot:

This small but powerful PHP “micro” framework is a result from another project. I started using a “micro” framework called NiceDog, NiceDog is a very cool little one file framework that is super simple to use and get started with. It lacks the basic needs such as a database layer and theme helpers but it’s great to use for projects that don’t need a full framework with all the bells and whistles.

The name Skoot comes from my dog “Skooter” he’s a little black MinPin. The Skoot framework adds the basic database layer and layout functions into NiceDog making it more powerful and giving you a big jump start on any small project.

Let’s Start

Looking into the basic setup the “welcome” controller we will see no reference to the model in any way. We can simple do that by building a construct:

function Welcome(){
		$this->UsersModel = new User();
	}

Above we are making a call to the Users model from the welcome controller. You can now access any of your model actions from “$this->UserModel->ACTION”. Let look at how to make sure the model is usable and of correct setup.

The Model

Below is how to construct a model in Skoot PHP framework:

<?php
class Users extends M {
   function test(){
      echo "Test";
   }
}

All models extend the class “M”, just like controllers extend “C”.

Now lets make a call to the model from the controller:

function index(){
   $this->UsersModel->test();
}

The above output would be “Test”.

Don’t have Skoot?

• Get Skoot!
• Skoot Docs

Capistrano loves PHP also!

When I say Capistrano to most PHP developer they think Ruby on Rails right away. This is mostly the case because Capistrano got it’s fame from the Rails community. Capistrano has been good to thousands and thousands of Rails developers so why can it do the same for a PHP developer here or there? Well i have great news for you, it can. In fact you can start using it on your current project today!

Whats needed to start using Capistrano?

Well Capistrano runs as a gem on Ruby, so you will need to install Ruby on your system.

sudo aptitude install ruby build-essential libopenssl-ruby ruby1.8-dev

After you have Ruby installed you can now run a simple command to install one of the greatest gem’s of all time.

sudo gem install capistrano

Now lets setup Capistrano in your project new or existing. To do so lets just run a simple command in the root directory of your project.

capify .

After that lets edit your configuration file; below are the important items you should add or edit.

ssh_options[:keys] = %w(/Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa)
default_run_options[:pty] = true
set :use_sudo, true
set :application, "App Name"
set :repository,  "git@gitpath.git"
set :branch, "master"
 
set :scm, :git
# Or: `accurev`, `bzr`, `cvs`, `darcs`, `git`, `mercurial`, `perforce`, `subversion` or `none`
 
role :web, "url.com"                          # Your HTTP server, Apache/etc
role :app, "url.com"                          # This may be the same as your `Web` server
 
set :deploy_to, "/var/www/app"
 
namespace :apache do
  [:stop, :start, :restart, :reload].each do |action|
    desc "#{action.to_s.capitalize} Apache"
    task action, :roles => :web do
      invoke_command "/etc/init.d/apache2 #{action.to_s}", :via => run_method
    end
  end
end

Now it’s time!

Run the following command to setup the directory structure.

cap deploy:setup

Now lets deploy your code!

cap deploy:cold

What about updates?

Well cap will let you take care of this by simply running update like so:

cap deploy:update

Want more? Checkout this older post: http://wiki.ocssolutions.com/Step-by-step_setup_using_Capistrano_2.0_and_Mongrel

Multiple views!

Did you know you can load multiple views in a Codeigniter controller method? I have always believed it was one view to one action, but that is not the case! CodeIgniter will intelligently handle multiple calls to $this->load->view from within a controller. If more than one call happens they will be appended together. For example, you may wish to have a header view, a menu view, a content view, and a footer view.

Example:

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class Page extends CI_Controller {
 
   function anypage()
   {
      $data['page_title'] = 'Title';
 
      $this->load->view('header');
      $this->load->view('nav');
      $this->load->view('content', $data);
      $this->load->view('footer');
   }
 
}

To make this easier you can store views within sub folders.

Storing Views within Sub-folders

Your view files can also be stored within sub-folders if you prefer that type of organization. When doing so you will need to include the folder name loading the view.

Example:

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$this->load->view('folder_name/view_name');

Thanks for reading, hope this helped!

Skoot a micro framework

This small but powerful PHP “micro” framework is a result from another project. I started using a “micro” framework called NiceDog. NiceDog is a very cool little one file framework that is super simple to use and get started with. It lacks the basic needs such as a database layer and theme helpers but it’s great to use for projects that don’t need a full framework with all the bells and whistles.

The name Skoot comes from my dog “Skooter” he’s a little black MinPin. The Skoot framework adds the basic database layer and layout functions into NiceDog making it more powerful and giving you a big jump start on any small project.

Getting started

After you take a look at the demo code provided in the checkout over at Github you will quickly see that is very easy to use. Creating new methods is as simple as adding a new function like so:

public function index(){
$this->layout_tamplate = 'views/layouts/welcome.php';
echo $this->render('views/welcome/index.php');
}

Database layer

The database layer is much like codeigniter’s. So if your a CI fan like i am then you’ll quickly understand. Below are some basic methods:

// A basic select
$this->db->select('*')->from('users');
$query = $this->db->getQuery();
 
// A more complex query:
$this->db->select('*')->from('users')->where('status', 1);

View more examples here.

Download the framework and start building!

With the latest release of Codeigniter, they added whats called “Caching Driver” allowing you to now use Memcache without going to a separate library as detailed in an older post: Memcache with Codeigniter. They now also support File based caching, Alternative PHP Cache (APC) Caching and Dummy Cache.

CodeIgniter features wrappers around some of the most popular forms of fast and dynamic caching. All but file-based caching require specific server requirements, and a Fatal Exception will be thrown if server requirements are not met.

Functions

get(id['string'])

This function will attempt to fetch an item from the cache store. If the item does not exist, the function will return FALSE.

$foo = $this->cache->get('my_cached_item');

save(id['string'], data['mixed'], ttl['int'])

This function will save an item to the cache store. If saving fails, the function will return FALSE.

The optional third parameter (Time To Live) defaults to 60 seconds.

$this->cache->save('cache_item_id', 'data_to_cache');

delete(id['string'])

This function will delete a specific item from the cache store. If item deletion fails, the function will return FALSE.

$this->cache->delete('cache_item_id');

cache_info()

This function will return information on the entire cache. More for really debugging the application.

var_dump($this->cache->cache_info());

Drivers

To get started load the cache driver into your project.

$this->load->driver('cache');

Alternative PHP Cache (APC) Caching

$this->cache->apc->save('foo', 'bar', 10);

Memcached Caching

$this->cache->memcached->save('foo', 'bar', 10);

Memcached Caching

Multiple Memcached servers can be specified in the memcached.php configuration file, located in the application/config/ directory.

$this->cache->memcached->save('foo', 'bar', 10);

This was written for a friend who was having issues with getting an auto complete form to work.

Auto complete forms are now becoming essential to every day web development and knowing how to build such a tool will in some cases make you a hero! In the tutorial below i will be using PHP and jQuery. jQuery offers its own tool for this common problem in the jQuery UI library.

Autocomplete, when added to an input field, enables users to quickly find and select from a pre-populated list of values as they type, leveraging searching and filtering.

By giving an Autocomplete field focus or entering something into it, the plugin starts searching for entries that match and displays a list of values to choose from. By entering more characters, the user can filter down the list to better matches. This can be used to enter previous selected values, for example you could use Autocomplete for entering tags, to complete an address, you could enter a city name and get the zip code, or maybe enter email addresses from an address book. You can pull data in from a local and/or a remote source: Local is good for small data sets (like an address book with 50 entries), remote is necessary for big data sets, like a database with hundreds or millions of entries to select from.

Lets get right into it. Lets say you need to pull a list of usernames from the database. So when the user types, it will start completing the username for them.

The HEAD of the document

I will be including jQuery and jQuery UI into the page.

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<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.4.4.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.6/jquery-ui.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
 
<!-- You may also include the jQuery css document -->

The HTML:

<input id="get_usernames" name="username" type="text" />

As you see this is a super basic just one input needed.

The Javascript:

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$("#get_usernames").autocomplete({
	source: "/search/get_username",
	minLength: 1
});

The above code is doing a few things first it’s looking to the id get_usernames (#get_usernames). Now that we have found the element we want let’s add jQuery’s autocomplete to it. The autocomplete needs some basic stuff, first off lets tell it where to get the data (source: “/search/get_username”). Next lets tell it when to start looking, this should be an integer. In the sample i am telling autocomplete to look to the database after the user types in only 1 character. You can set this to what you need. (minLength: 1)

The PHP (Using Codeigniter)

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function get_username() {
                $usernames = false;
		if($_GET['term']){
			$usernames = $this->db->select('username')->from('users')->where_like('username', $_GET['term'])
		}
		echo json_encode($usernames);
}

Need to return key and value?

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function get_username() {
                $usernames = false;
                $UList = array();
		if($_GET['term']){
			$usernames = $this->db->select('username')->from('users')->where_like('username', $_GET['term'])
		}
 
		foreach($usernames->result() as $user){
			$UList[$user->id] = $user->username;
		}
		echo json_encode($UList);
}

You will see that we are looking for a request named “term” this is default. After getting the value i am selecting usernames like the one entered into the text field. After grabbing the data i am returning it in a json format by using (json_encode). This will then send the data back to the UI showing a list of usernames like the one you typed in.

Hope that helped!

After applying Security Update 2010-05, some users have reported PHP and MySQL problems, including an inability to connect to MySQL databases. Apple reports that the following procedure resolves the database connection issue:

1. In the Terminal type sudo nano /etc/php.ini (Terminal will ask you for your password)
2. Change: mysql.default_socket = to: mysql.default_socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
3. Press Ctrl-O, then Enter to save
4. Type sudo apachectl graceful

Note that you may need to duplicate the original install php.ini.default file, just simply copy the contents of the file and create a php.ini. (cp php.ini.default php.ini)

phpArmory is a PHP class library. It allows php software developers to easily access data from the World of Warcraft Armory website. This is useful because the Armory website contains up-to-date and official details on characters, guilds, and items in World of Warcraft.

I discovered this simple library about 4 days ago and have been reviewing it. I came to a conclusion to use it after about 3 hours of playing with it! I was able to pull back all the information i needed to complete my new application and add-on to Wordboxes. Below i will cover a few samples of what this class will do.

Character

The first thing i did was try to pul my character information back. This was simple and done quickly with just a few minor calls. Once i got the multi level array back (when i say multi level I am talking about 4 to 5 levels deep) i was able to sift through it by using print_r() and a pre tag.

// First include the phpArmory class
include 'classes/phpArmory.class.php';
$a = new phpArmory();
 
// Character lookup
$character = $a->characterFetch('Name', 'Realm');
 
print_r($character);

Now, I wanted to take this a bit farther and list my characters gear with the image and item level. Below is a foreach loop, looping through the ‘item’ array. You may also notice i am 4 levels deep in the array at this point, i figured that out by just looking at the above code output. As i am looping through the ‘item’ array i will also have to step one level deeper into the ‘attributes’ array so i can see the information on the gear.

foreach($character['characterinfo']['charactertab']['items']['item'] as $item){
	echo '<p><img class="gearicon" src="http://www.wowarmory.com/wow-icons/_images/64x64/'.$item['attributes']['icon'].'.jpg" alt="' . $item['attributes']['name'] . '" />';
	echo $item['attributes']['name'] . ' (ilvl ' . $item['attributes']['level'] . ')</p>';
}

The above will output:

Items

Another great thing about this library is that you are able to pull back just single items based on ID. This is great because after pulling back character info you also get gear ID’s. Then you can use the gear ID’s to get more information on that single item. This also makes it handy for tool tips as you will see on may wow sites.

// Item lookup
$item = $a->itemFetch(41922);
 
print_r($item);

The above will be a large multi level array with that item information.

Other stuff

There are other things you can use this library for such as Guild lookups and PVP team lookups.

Download the phpArmory.class.php and start building a web based wow app! Full documentation and support at http://phparmory.sourceforge.net/.

namespace Foo;
class Bar {
    public function Bar() {
        // treated as constructor in PHP 5.3.0-5.3.2
        // treated as regular method in PHP 5.3.3
    }
}

Update from PHP.net

It’s quite simple to use, below is an example of how to use it.

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class A { 
     public $var; 
}
$a = new A;
$a->var = 5;
var_export($a);

The output from the above code would be…

A::__set_state(array(
   'var' => 5,
))

Note: var_export() does not handle circular references as it would be close to impossible to generate parsable PHP code for that. If you want to do something with the full representation of an array or object, use serialize().