Replacing Union Platform Default Derby Datasource with MySQL Server
Union Platform is powerful and easy-to-use multiplayer server written in Java. By default it uses an embedded Derby database. In this article I’ll show you how you can replace this datasource with a MySQL one and how to process the database with minimum downtime.
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Correct Name Capitalization in PHP
One annoying scenario is when you let users enter their names and then you need to output their names nicely, for example in a newsletter. Some users simply enter their names in upper/lowercase, but obviously when you address them you can’t do the same. On the other hand PHP’s ucfirst() and ucwords() functions are too naive for proper capitalization.
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PHP Download Script with Resume option
A while ago I wrote an article about the common pitfalls of handling file downloads in PHP. One thing I did not realize at that time is that in most cases developers don’t have the time to write such a script and they’ll use whatever they can find, even if it has flaws. Because of this, I decided to write a download script and release it free for everyone with a BSD License. It’s not a class, just a script that accepts a “file” parameter via GET or POST and outputs the file. For security purposes any paths are stripped and replaced with a path in the script (the folder containing the downloadable file(s) should be protected against direct access).
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A simple server-side dashboard for Union Platform
Union is a development platform for creating multiuser applications. It contains a server written in Java and client libraries in AS3, Javascript with Websocke and even server-side with Node.js. The communication protocol is XML-based and open so anyone can write a custom client in any language. In fact, in this article I’ll show you how Union can talk with PHP.
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The “right way” to handle file downloads in PHP
I’ve seen many download scripts written in PHP, from simple one-liners to dedicated classes. Yet, at least half of them share common errors; in many cases programmers simply copy the code from something that works, without even attempting to understand what it really does. What follows is not a complete working download script, but rather a set of issues you should be aware about and that will allow you to write better code.
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Should your CMS be allowed to do that?
I happen to love WordPress. Its features and sheer variety of plugins makes it ideal not just for blogs but for a whole range of sites. Having worked with many CMSes, both opern source and proprietary, I think WP strikes the best balance between features and ease of use. However, recently there has been quite [...]
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A Simple Twitter Search Parser with PHP
I was recently asked to aggregate tweets based on their hashtags using PHP (no Ajax), so I decided to turn this into a small tutorial that will hopefully enable you build all sorts of XML parsers in PHP.
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VirtueMart quick tip: show brand/manufacturer logo in product details
VirtueMart supports Manufacturer details but by default it just shows the manufacturer’s name in brackets, with a javascript pop-up window, that looks pretty ugly. Fortunately we can add the logo by using the description field of the Manufacturers details and by hacking one file.
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Using MySQL to generate daily sales reports with filled gaps
I was surprised to see that there’s not a great deal of info on the web on how to do a proper daily report – one that doesn’t have any gaps when data is missing. In this post I’ll try to quide you through building such a report using MySQL and PHP for a nice chart.
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Does your PHP/MySQL app speak Unicode?
I find it very annoying when I come across web apps that still can’t handle non-ASCII characters correctly. In this article, I’ll show you how, with just a few lines of code, you can “globalize” your online app.
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