TheCodeCave.com is back
October 1, 2007
Hi all!
Remember me?
I’m the guy that pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth back in May! I have been THOROUGHLY enjoying my new job at b5media. And there’s been soooooo much to do at b5 that I’ve not been taking the time I should have been taking to visit with you guys. When I started at b5 the posted blog count was 185 or something like that. The count is currently 260 blogs. Yes, we’ve added 75 new blogs in the last four months. And there are a good many more blogs on their way.
As a result of five months of fun and mayhem (Heck, I’ve even been out to WordCamp and had supper with Matt Mullenweg and the whole automattic gang). I’ve got loads of tips to share with you, things I’ve learned to do better. What enables me to do that is that we’ve just hired a great new employee, Corey Shaffer. He was my student for the 2007 Google Summer of Code project. He’s been a tremendous help at b5 and has helped tip the balance between the day to day tasks of mananging a existing network of 22 dozen blogs and the need for forward progress.
So, now I feel that I can responsibly take some time to get back into the WordPress world on my own again too. Oh I’ve still been out helping other with their blogs. I helped my sister with a site for the family of my Brother in Law’s army unit: The 298 Sandbandits. I also helped a friend get his own blog running: Iggy the Biker. But I haven’t done much for just me.
Well in October, that’s gonna change. I’m starting the month by falling back to my old tried and true and I’m posting a Delphi program I wrote tonight. It’s a really simple program that I’m going to find incredibly useful.
All it does is reverse the slashes of what is in the clip board. How is that useful? Well, in my setup I work in a Telnet (SSH) window half the time and half the time I use SFTPDrive to map the b5media resources to my local drives. Well when I am in telnet my paths might look like this: /var/www/blogname/.htaccess. But if I want open up that .htaccess file in Notepad++, I have to change the path to look like y:\var\www\blogname\.htaccess. Now I have a simple way to do that. In fact I just used it to convert the slashes. I’ve got a shortcut to that program on an auto-hide taskbar on the left side of my screen. So I just click it and boom the slashes are reversed (again) like this: /var/www/blogname/.htaccess. That is sooo awesome.
And it was sooo simple. I’ve been wanting to write this for ages. I actually did write it in Delphi 5 but it didn’t work under Vista (which came on my laptop). I’ve now rewritten it using CodeGear RAD Studio 2007 (which is simply awesome). And it works great!
Here’s the code & exe in a zip: http://www.thecodecave.com/downloads/delphi/SlashFix.zip
program SlashFix;
[delphi]
uses
Forms, Clipbrd, SysUtils;
{$R *.res}
var
S: String;
begin
Application.Initialize;
Application.Title := ‘Slash Fix from TheCodeCave.com’;
Application.Run;
S := Clipboard.AsText;
if (pos(‘/’, S) > 0)
then S := stringreplace(S, ‘/’, ‘\’, [rfReplaceAll])
else S := stringreplace(S, ‘\’, ‘/’, [rfReplaceAll]);
Clipboard.AsText := S;
end.
[/delphi]
Here’s the exe only: http://www.thecodecave.com/downloads/delphi/SlashFix.exe
Of course the version I use is tweaked a bit to work specifically with my common tasks at b5 and will be growing even more. I’m sure you can thing of ways to automate the tasks you do everyday in the same way.
Any way, more tomorrow. There’s another b5 blog that is launching tomorrow, and I’ve got to tweak somethinb befor it launches. Here you can check it out: http://www.LadiesCourt.com/ which is all about Women’s basketball. I just wish that the Cleveland Rockers were still around to be featured on it. My kids went to a number of cleveland Rockers games and we have still have some logo material around.
Delphi for PHP Update 1 Hits the streets
May 9, 2007
OK folks, the long awaited update has been released from beta testing.
You can get it yourself right here: http://dn.codegear.com/article/36406
There are some good fixes in this. The big one for most folks will be the input filter fix. For many the UTF-8 cleanup will be a god send. Deployment tweaks are included too.
In fact here’s the complete list:
- Fix to the IDE to ensure correct storage of UTF-8 strings in the .xml.php
- Fix to VCL for PHP to parse .xml.php in UTF-8 mode
- Save Project As… fixed (QC 43580)
- Updated sourcecode documentation for the VCL
- Fixed problem with PHP 5.2.1. The Input Filter extension is out of beta and function for filter data was changed to a new name, so Input object now takes that into account (QC 43607)
- Fixed problem with vcl-bin folder. The alias is set to be a root alias, making it easier to configure on deployment
- Added global var to specify if properties are html_decoded when read from the .xml.php
- Corrected support phone list .txt file
Enjoy!
Sweet Linus Benedict Turvalds, I’m working from home!
April 30, 2007
Long time readers of mine my might have had a suspicion. You see when I have something big that I can’t talk about, I get severe writers block. I can’t talk about what I want to talk about so I go from a one to two quality post a day period down to NOTHIN’ for three weeks!
Well this time it was VERY big! After a 17+ year career as a Delphi programmer, I’ve started a new carreer. Today was my first day working for b5media. I am now one of an ever increasing number of professional making my living off WordPress, PHP and other Open Source programming. So, at the end of the day, I’m breaking the day of silence in the blogosphere with a post about joy and success. That seems a more fitting remembrence. Progress and fullfilment rather than silence.
You can read the official announcement here: “Brian Layman Joins Tech Team“. It all started just over four weeks ago when I got a call from Aaron Brazell. It was a fast whirlwind since then. I’ll tell you all about my trip to Canada, dozen or so trashed cars, the flaming car of doom, all about b5media and other exciting goodies over the next few days. There have been loads of firsts and progress being made on the Delphi for PHP front over the last two weeks that I’ll post about too.
For now, though, I just wanted to share the good news!
And Oh yes, I let my wife scoop the story. She was soo excited about the chance to get a scoop! No, Aaron, that pic wasn’t from today, but a month or so ago. But I’m not making any promises I won’t be out there sometime…
See also: My interview with b5media
Capture an image to a fully paletted bitmap
April 20, 2007
This code does not look like it was mine originally, but I found it in a stray file on my hard drive. I decided I didn’t want to lose it.
It takes a picture of any component you pass in and populates a TBitmap with an image using a custom palette built from device context of the component you are capturing.
[Delphi]
{******************************************************************************
ComponentToImg
******************************************************************************}
procedure TForm1.ComponentToImg(CHandle: HWND; x: Integer; y: Integer; Width: Integer; Height: Integer; bm: TBitMap);
var
dc: HDC;
lpPal : PLOGPALETTE;
begin // ComponentToImg
// Test width and height
if ((Width = 0) OR (Height = 0)) then exit;
bm.Width := Width;
bm.Height := Height;
// Get the screen dc
dc := GetDc(CHandle);
try
// If the device doesn’t have a handle, we can’t do anything with it.
if (dc = 0) then exit;
// Do we have a palette device?
if (GetDeviceCaps(dc, RASTERCAPS) AND RC_PALETTE = RC_PALETTE)
then begin
// If so, allocate memory for a logical palette
GetMem(lpPal, sizeof(TLOGPALETTE) + (255 * sizeof(TPALETTEENTRY)));
try
// Zero it out to be neat
FillChar(lpPal^, sizeof(TLOGPALETTE) + (255 * sizeof(TPALETTEENTRY)), #0);
// Fill in the palette version
lpPal^.palVersion := $300;
// Grab the system palette entries
lpPal^.palNumEntries :=GetSystemPaletteEntries(dc,0,256,lpPal^.palPalEntry);
// Create the palette
if (lpPal^.PalNumEntries <> 0) then bm.Palette := CreatePalette(lpPal^);
finally
FreeMem(lpPal, sizeof(TLOGPALETTE) + (255 * sizeof(TPALETTEENTRY)));
end;
end;
// Copy from the screen to the bitmap}
BitBlt(bm.Canvas.Handle, 0, 0, Width, Height, Dc, x, y, SRCCOPY);
// Release the screen dc no matter what happened above.
finally
ReleaseDc(0, dc);
end
end; // ComponentToImg
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
ComponentToImg(self.Handle, 0, 0, 800, 600, Image1.Picture.Bitmap);
end;
[/Delphi]
A non-CodeGear patent application on “compiling” Object Pascal code?
April 3, 2007
I read in the Newsgroups today that there is a new patent that’s been filed that affects what Borland can do with Object Pascal. According to this patent application, Mirkazemi; Aram; (Lindisfame, AU) ; Besharati; Shahram; (Kingston Beach, AU) would have a US patent upon producing JavaScript code from Delphi’s Object Pascal and several other languages
Who knows if this will fly, but the idea of restricting what a company can do with the product they’ve made is just…. irratating!
A key quote from the patent application:
9. A method for producing a web application that runs natively in a browser, comprising: writing in a high-level language to develop a source file; parsing the source file to produce a semantic map; and processing the semantic map by emitting browser-side JavaScript comprising at least one dispatcher having a set of parameters to invoke a code segment utilizing the same set of parameters.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the high-level language comprises a high-level language from among the programming languages consisting of Ada, C, C++, C#, COBOL, ColdFusion, Common Lisp, Delphi, Fortran, Java, Object Pascal, SmallTalk, Visual Basic, and Visual Basic.NET.
So, this program will take all Delphi source code and forms and convert them to a web app in javascript.
First, I think it is hilarious to hear javascript described as a low level language, but that’s beside the point.
If Borland wanted to provide javascript as a target, as they do .NET and W32, they SHOULD be allowed to. It is THEIR product. They of course would have to do the work themselves, but it is a programming language they’ve made. Why should they be restricted? Especially when they’ve been nice folks and allowed programs like Free Pascal the benifit of the Delphi’s innovation.
BAH! It’ll probably pass with a rubber stamp of approval.
CodeGear Names New CEO
April 3, 2007
Marco caught an interesting story in InfoWorld, today.
As EWeek says:
Borland Software’s CodeGear development tools unit has changed leadership, naming Jim Douglas, a veteran of the high-tech industry, to the position of chief executive officer.
Jim Douglas will be replacing former CEO Ben Smith who guided CodeGear into existence. EWeek continues:
Smith, who was brought on for his ability to foster startups through their initial phases and broker deals, has decided to step aside to return to the private equity, acquisition and venture arena, CodeGear officials said. Smith had been onboard with the CodeGear team, then known as “DevCo” internally, in a consulting capacity since February 2006.
About Douglas they say:
Douglas most recently was president and CEO of ReShape, an electronic design automation startup backed by the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. Douglas led the company’s transition from an engineering-services firm to a software-business model. These efforts resulted in the sale of the company to Magma Design Automation.
So, Smith was there to start CodeGear up, and Douglas is now there to guide CodeGear into the future. I wonder what other changes are in the wind. Obviously, with this new quarter, there’s going to be a new set of challenges that Douglas is believed to be the right man to face. Obviously this sort of thing doesn’t happen overnight. So, my question is what’s the next thing we will see as CodeGear marches forward?
How to have a central VCL for PHP location for all your websites
April 3, 2007
I have a number of sites that on which I want to use the VCL for PHP library components with Delphi for PHP creations. I don’t want to waste uneeded space for a bazillion copies of the VCL. As far as that goes, I don’t want to have to sit through the deployment wizard every time either.
You could edit PHP.ini and add the location to your include path, but the VCL for PHP is MORE than just a textual code libary. It includes image files as well, for things like the dropdown arrow in the combo boxes.
So what’s a person to do? Well, it’s simple. Create some symbolic links!
Just put the VCL in your root directory or at least one that can be accessed with a common path from the your website directories. I use the root since I can use ~ to get at it easily on linux. It could just as easily be /usr/local/lib/vcl or d:\VCL. Then in your directories you just put two symbolic links, one named vcl and the other named vcl-bin. Both pointing to the vcl directory you made.
Here’s the step by step for *nix systems:
- Upload the whole VCL folder to the root web directory
- Telnet/ssh into the account
- Change to the directory for your website
- Run these two commands
- ln ~/vcl
- ln ~/vcl vcl-bin
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all of your sites.
- When you deploy, just grab the files in your project directory and upload them. No worrying about the VCL any more. You should be able to make a batch file that does that step!
That’s it (oh and just in case your font makes “ln” hard to readand that is a lower case “LN” as in link.)
On Windows, you should be able to do the same thing. If you have Vista you have native support for symbolic links. And in XP, you can use NTFS links. But I’ll leave it up to you to look up those technologies. With that sort of thing, if you aren’t able to find and digest how to do it, you’re probably better off just using the deploy tool.
Hope this helps someone! It’s made my life a little easier.
Windows Implementation
Kevin Berry came up with this windows implementation:
For my Windows 2000 webserver, which I have total acces to, below is how I followed Brian Layman’s advice to made this work.
1. Downloaded linkmagic.exe from
http://users.pandora.be/jbranders/linkmagic.exe
2. Ran linkmagic.exe (setup program) on my webserver.
3. Launched Junction Link Magic program.
4. Created empty “vcl” folder in my clock project folder in my webserver root (c:\web\htdocs\clock\vcl) and selected this vcl folder as my junction folder.
5. Selected my true vcl folder loaded with vcl files as my destination folder (c:\web\vcl)
6. Clicked “create” button
Now my D4PHP clock sample program runs just fine in c:\web\htdocs\clock with only one main vcl installation on my webserver.
I suppose I could use the Junction Link Magic program to create new vcl junction folders in other vcl project subfolders on my webserver, but I discovered that once the first vcl junction folder is created, I can create more of these just by copying an existing vcl junction folder into a new project folder and choosing cancel when the file overwrite prompt appears. If I delete a vcl junction point folder, the real folder and its files don’t get deleted.
I for one don’t want different versions of my vcl all over my webserver in different folders (assuming I’ll have lots of web projects someday). For me it’s just simplest knowing the latest and greatest vcl library is always in one spot on my web server.
I don’t know if one could duplicate the directory structure of a windows hosted web from a remote server on one’s own computer to create the junction folder and then ftp that junction folder out to the remote server and preserve the redirection. If so, that would be great.
For my webserver, this is pretty nifty, Thanks again to Brian for the workaround until Codegear/Qadram figure out what I hope to be a better vcl deployment method.
Alternative Solution
David Plock also suggested another methot that uses a VCL-BIN alias. Jose Leon Serna provided the final fix to get this working. Kevin has done a great job of writing up these steps as well:
2. In my Apache httpd.conf file, I added the following alias line and directory permissions. For now, I just copied the permissions the icon
folder uses a few lines up. Anyone more enlightened is welcome to suggest a more appropriate permission set for the vcl folder. And of course, if you
put your vcl folder inside your web server's root directory, you can skip the directory permissions.
Alias /vcl-bin "c:/web/vcl"
Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
3. In my php.ini file I added the following so that php will know in which folder to find the vcl folder.
include_path = “.;c:\web”
If I had dropped my vcl folder into my root directory on my webserver, the entry would have been:
include_path = “.;c:\web\htdocs”
4. Jose added the final piece to make this work. In my vcl.inc.php file I modified a line so that the alias name gets passed properly to my webserver. The line that mentions vcl-bin needs a forward slash in front of vcl-bin so the final line appears like this:
if (!array_key_exists(‘FOR_PREVIEW’,$_SERVER)) $http_path=’/vcl-bin’;
5. Make sure all configuration file changes above are saved and then restart the webserver.
Now you can drop D4PHP projects in any subfolders or even subfolders of subfolders of your root directory on your webserver and they work.
The nice thing about this solution in addition to it being a single vcl deployment is that it seems to me any web hoster can implement it once for
the entire web server and any subscribers can simply ftp D4PHP web files to their own folders on the server and they’ll work.
Thanks Brian, David, and Jose for two ways to make a single vcl deployment work!!!
If you want to see this solution in action, you can visit these links (on my slow webserver) for as long as my internet service provider leaves my ip address alone. The vcl folder is outside the web root and only clock.php, clock.xml.php, and background.gif are in each of these folders.
http://24.2.90.16/clock.php
http://24.2.90.16/clock/clock.php
http://24.2.90.16/clock/clock/clock.php
http://24.2.90.16/clock/clock/clock/clock.php
There you are. Two different methods proven successful in the field! Enjoy!
VCL 4 PHP source code has been checked into SourceForge
April 2, 2007
Here you go:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=189419
Anyone care to do a check out and file compare to see what changes there are?
Wahoo! I did it! The last part of a WP-DB.PHP for Interbase/Firebird
April 1, 2007
I knew 9 years of IB/FB experience would come in handy.
wp-db is the mini database abstraction layer for WordPress. It allows you to run WordPress on various database. Right now MySQL is pretty much it, but some folks have been doing a PostgreSQL version as well.
Well, I wanted it to connect to an Interbase db for the .TEXT blog conversion I’ve been doing. I’m not going to run WordPress off of Interbase yet, but it simplified the import for me to use WP-DB for my database import connection.
It’s interesting to note that I’ve come to the point where the other editors that I’ve been using for PHP code just don’t feel right anymore. Delphi for PHP just feels better now for editing. I wasn’t doing any visual designing in it, but it was still a nice quick editor with the additional help of hints and parameters. Maybe if I had Zend, I would stick with that for non visual stuff, if I were used to it, I don’t know. I don’t have it. I tried it once and found it too bulky for my needs. D4PHP with all of the design boxes closed, still feels light and has a quick open time.
Anyway, most of the conversion was pretty easy. I just had to substitute ibase_ php calls for mysql_ calls. I had to add a little cleanup for handling of empty strings and quotes and some reserved IB words like type, role, password, and etc. But the really problem was that WordPress relies heavily on the InsertID feature that many databases have. It returns the last value of the autoinc field in the table referenced by the last insert command. IB/FB has no equivelent. PHP documentation did not indicate any solution was provided. And all of the database abstration layers out there don’t support it either.
So, I’ve done a work around. It is possibly not 100% accurate for all databases configurations out there, but it should work for WordPress and .TEXT.
See, the trick was to find the primary key for the table you are working on. So, first I had to find what table I was working. I had the SQL INSERT statement, so all I needed to do was find the table name after the words “INSERT INTO “. Fine. There are a bunch of ways to do that.
Next, armed with the table name, I had to find the primary key. How do I do that with just the commands available to PHP? That was the tricky part.
Luckily, IB/FB is a relational database. That in short means the tables are all stored in bits and pieces throughout the database table and then linked back together according to the structure information stored in “hidden” tables.
The long and short of it is that this statement will give you what is needed:
[SQL]
select RDB$RELATION_CONSTRAINTS.RDB$RELATION_NAME, RDB$INDEX_SEGMENTS.RDB$FIELD_NAME, RDB$INDEX_SEGMENTS.RDB$FIELD_POSITION
from RDB$RELATION_CONSTRAINTS, RDB$INDEX_SEGMENTS
where
RDB$RELATION_CONSTRAINTS.RDB$CONSTRAINT_TYPE = ‘PRIMARY KEY’ and
RDB$INDEX_SEGMENTS.RDB$INDEX_NAME=RDB$RELATION_CONSTRAINTS.RDB$INDEX_NAME
order by RDB$RELATION_CONSTRAINTS.RDB$RELATION_NAME, RDB$INDEX_SEGMENTS.RDB$FIELD_POSITION
[/SQL]
In WordPress and .TEXT every AutoInc field I looked at was the first field in the table. So, now armed with the table name, and autoinc field, it is a simple query to get the highest value, which should be the most recent insert unless there’s been some kind of corruption.
So that’s just a select Max(fieldname) from tablename statment and I return the value I’ve found in field one (handling an empty result set of course).
Hey – It’s not pretty, but it should work 100% of the time for my uses. If it does, I’ll submit it to ADOdb and see what they think. Since ADOdb is a core part of the Delphi for PHP project, I might get my little bit of code included! Actually, I hope to contribute to the VCL for PHP long before then.
OK, everyone’s eyes have glazed over but it’s still pretty cool honest!
Some basic PHP calls for use in Delphi for PHP or pure PHP
April 1, 2007
I was doing some coding today and couldn’t find some routines I’ve used often in the past. Since I had to search for them, obeying my rule, they get posted here. Maybe they can be of use to others. These are examples I’ve written and once I’ve collected and customized. I’ve not put comments in most of these routines, sorry.
(THIS IS A LIVING POST AND WILL CHANGE PERIODICALY AS I DIG UP OTHER COMMON ROUTINES)
Clean an array of all vulnerabilities:
[php]
function strip_and_slash_deep($value) {
return is_array($value) ?
array_map(‘strip_and_slash_deep’, $value) :
strip_tags($value);
addslashes($value);
}
[/php]
Use:
[php]
$protected_post_vars = array();
$protected_post_vars = strip_and_slash_deep($_POST);
[/php]
My print_r replacement to print an array in full depth:
[php]
function print_array($array) {
if (is_array($array))
{
reset($array);
while (list($key, $val) = each($array))
{
if (is_array($val))
{
while (list($akey,$aval) = each($val))
{
$array[$key][$akey] = strip_tags($aval);
echo “Array: “.$key . “=” . htmlspecialchars($array[$key][$akey]).”<br/>”;
}
}
else
{
$array[$key] = strip_tags($val);
echo “Val: ” .$key . “=” . htmlspecialchars($array[$key]).”<br/>”;
}
}
}
else print($array);
}
[/php]
Basic structure for using PHP to connect to an interbase or firebird database:
[php]
function ib_execsql ($sql) {
$aresult = array();
$fulldbpath = “localhost:d:\blah.gdb”;
$username = “sysdba”;
$password = “masterkey”;
$ib = ibase_connect ($fulldbpath, $username, $password,’NONE’, ’100′, ’1′);
if ($ib===false) echo “No Connection”;
$result = @ibase_query ($ib, $sql);
if ($result===false) echo “<hr/>Error ‘”.ibase_errmsg().”‘ while executing ‘”. $sql.”‘<hr/>”;
while ($row = ibase_fetch_row ($result)) $aresult[] = $row;
ibase_close ($ib);
return $aresult;
}
[/php]
use:
[php]
$array = ib_execsql(“select * from whatever”);
print_array($array);
[/php]
Run a single query across many databases on the same MySQL server:
[PHP]
function execdbsql ($databasename) {
$link = mysql_connect(‘SERVERNAME’, “USER”, “PASS”);
if (!$link) {
die(‘Could not connect: ‘ . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db ( $databasename );
$result = mysql_query(‘SELECT desiredfield FROM tablename where field=”keyvalue”‘);
if (!$result) {
return; // Don’t error out just skip this database.
}
echo mysql_result($result, 0).”<br/>”;
mysql_close($link);
}
echo ”Values:<br/>”;
execdbsql (‘firstdb’);
execdbsql (‘seconddb’);
execdbsql (‘thirddb’);
[/PHP]