Archive for April 20th, 2007
PHP Developer - April 20th, 2007
On the Photogapple.co.uk blog today, there’s some handy code that can definitely be useful when working with dates in PHP - a function to find the difference between the current time and a timestamp you give it.
I found it incredibly difficult to find any form of time_since function in php so to save anyone else the trouble to hunting through hundreds of useless websites here is the function you may want to use, written by Natalie Downe (you don’t want to know how long it took to hunt it down).
The function takes in the value, subtracts the two timestamps and loops through an array of “time chunks” to each other to show nicely formatted output of how long the difference it.
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PHP Developer - April 20th, 2007
On the Technovated.com blog, there’s a new post that walks through - start to finish - the process of setting up a CMS hosted on a Mediatemple server with the help of the Seagull framework (along with Google Maps).
I developed the (Atalink) site using the Seagull php framework, using the publisher module (which has recently been superseded by the CMS module).
The publisher module requires a bit of hacking to make it run effectively, especially if the site requires content pages which have different layouts. But, overall the site works well and looks pretty good, even if I say so myself 
.
I have still had a number of difficulties, so for those of you who are planning on building a similar site, here are some of the things which I have learnt.
Included among his “lessons learned” were some tips for using the publisher module, solving a server issue, fixing browser-related problems, and the integration of Google Maps.
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PHP Developer - April 20th, 2007
There’s two new posts out there that anyone involved with Open Source projects would do well to check out - one from Tobias Schlitt and the other from Greg Beaver.
Coming first, Tobias’ post talks about what he considers the “Ten Golden Rules” for starting out in the Open Source community. Included in the list are things like:
…and more. Check out the full post for more.
In a response/continuance of this theme, Greg - his own list of rules developers should take to heart when working in and around Open Source applications. Some selections from his list:
- If you must criticize, criticize with a gentle and humble tone
- Despite the evidence, it’s probably your fault
- Assume everything you ever say will become permanent and don’t say things that will come back to haunt you
That last one’s my personal favorite - be sure to check out both lists for some great thoughts from both of these developers.
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PHP Developer - April 20th, 2007
If you’re a user of the PhpED IDE in your development work and have had a bit of a hard time with the CVS support, you might want to check out this new post from Richard Davey with a guide on how to get started - specifically with the CVSDude.com hosting service.
If you use NuSphere’s excellent PhpED IDE then you’ll know it has built-in CVS support for source control. This is a guide I wrote to using PhpED with the CVSDude.com service, so you can get your projects up and running in no time at all.
He talks about getting a new project set up, configuring the server correctly in the Project Properties, and running an import for all of the files in your application’s directory.
With that all in place, he also helps you set up the reverse - a place to check the files back out to be able to work with them easily (in a few simple steps). There’s even shortcuts you can assign to help make running the CVS functions simpler.
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PHP Developer - April 20th, 2007
As mentioned by Elizabeth Naramore in this new post to the php|architect site, the PEAR elections are happening today to help vote a bit of new life into the PEAR group.
This is a reminder to get out and vote for your favorite PEAR contenders who wish to be part of the new PEAR governing group.
The vote is for PEAR developers only, so the rest of the community will just need to wait and see the outcome. She also references this post from Joshua Eichorn with several of the candidates’ names and links to their PEAR pages for a list of the projects they’ve worked with. Included in the list are Joshua himself, David Coallier, and Paul Jones (of the Solar framework).
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