Developer Tips

How to do a System Restore from Safe Mode (Windows 7)

2014-03-18T20:47:00.001-07:00

2012-08-21T19:41:00.001-07:00

MySQL can be used to do some string replacements rather using any programming languages. The following is used to replace space with hyphen in list names


UPDATE list SET list_name =
REPLACE(list_name, ' ', '-')
WHERE list_name LIKE '% %';

Zend Form Validator check record exists

2012-08-13T06:35:00.001-07:00

User registration form is a good example for this validator. Checking the username exists or not.

Db_NoRecordExists validator helps to achieve this

$username = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('username',
 array('label' => 'Username',
     'required' => true,
     'filters' => array('StripTags', 'StringTrim'),         
     'validators' => array('NotEmpty', array('Db_NoRecordExists',false,array(
  'users_table','username_column', 'messages' => array( Zend_Validate_Db_Abstract::ERROR_RECORD_FOUND => '%value% already exists')
 )))));

How to Load Putty Session in Connection Manager

2012-06-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

If your Putty Connection Manager doesn't load Putty inside the Manager then do this :

1. Go to View -> Connection Manager
2. Right Click in side the right panel -> create a Database ( give any name )

That will create SSH and Telnet folders

3. Right Click on SSH folder and then New -> Connection Manager
4. Add Host Name and select SSH protocol
5. File -> Save All Databases

You are done now.

Execute system commands from PHP

2012-06-06T08:36:00.003-07:00

System commands can be executed from PHP using exec command.
eg:

$out = array();
$command = "memcat --server=10.10.10.10 ITEMS > /tmp/items.txt";

exec($command, $out);

The $out variable would hold the output of the command. If there is any issue with executing a command , have the command with path.

eg:
$command = "/usr/local/bin/memcat --server=10.10.10.10 ITEMS > /tmp/items.txt";

exec($command, $out);

for further info: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.exec.php

Zend Db Select with like

2011-08-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

Like keyword can be used with Zend_Db select query


$query = $this->select()

           ->where("firstname like ?", $letter."%");

try that works.

SQL to select comma separated data from table

2011-08-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

There is a way to select comma separated data from any mysql table.


SELECT poll_id,group_concat(option_id) FROM `poll_elements` 

group by poll_id

this will output as follows:

poll_id | group_concat(option_id)
1 | 3855,5098,8474
3 | 3855,9469,15677
6 | 509,3855,9469,10489

Zend Form - Adding a hidden field without decorators

2011-06-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

If the hidden field added to the Zend form leaves extra space between elements, remove those tags around it.



$this->addElement("hidden", "id", 
                   array('disableLoadDefaultDecorators' => true));

That will do it.

Select records from tables of different databases

2011-06-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

This is the way to select records from tables of different databases


SELECT * FROM `db`.table tb
INNER JOIN `db2`.table2 tb2 ON tb2.id = tb.id

hope it helps someone.

Zend Form - Adding Custom Error Messges to element

2011-06-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

Custom error messages can be added to a form element:

The following shows how to add custom error message to a select element


$countryList = array("0" => "select" ,"1" => "Canada", "2" => "India", "3" => "America");
$countries = new Zend_Form_Element_Select('country');
$countries->setLabel("Country")
     ->setRequired(true)
     ->addFilter('Int')     
     ->addMultiOptions($countryList)
     ->addValidator('GreaterThan',false, array("min"=>1, "messages" => array("notGreaterThan"=>"country is required")));

validator name = GreaterThan
message for = notGreaterThan ( get it from validator library file or api doc)

The customr error message will display now.

Merging two arrays without changing numeric keys

2011-03-12T00:54:00.000-08:00

Merge two arrays together using array_merge function



$result = array_merge(array(0=>"Hello"), array(3=>"World"));

The result will have an array with keys got re-numbered
therefore the key 3 will be changed to 1.

If you want to keep your array keys unchanged



$result = $arr1 + $arr2;

That will do it.

Zend Form - make a text field read only

2011-02-18T05:13:00.000-08:00

A text element of a form can be made read only therefore user cannot touch the value



$this->addElement('text','current_date',array(            
            'attribs' => array('readonly' => 'true')));

that will do it.

Zend Framework - Fetch rows in key value pair

2011-02-18T05:07:00.000-08:00

If you happened to select records in key value pair, try this way



$query = $this->select()
->from($this->_name, array('id', 'name'));

$this->getAdapter()->fetchPairs($query);

that will return
222 => "Velvom"

MySQL Update on Same Table

2011-02-09T17:08:00.001-08:00

If any chance to do an UPDATE on the same table, here is the SQL for that



UPDATE my_list AS a 
INNER JOIN my_list AS b 
ON a.id = b.id 
SET a.list_name_val = md5( b.list_name )

the above SQL will update list_name_val column with md5 of list_name.

Let User Selects Language in Joomla 1.5

2010-11-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

If you'd like to let visitors select their language on your site, do the following in your index.php file



$lang_request = JRequest::getWord('lang'); 
$lang_choice = implode("-", str_split($lang_request, 2));
$currentSession = JFactory::getSession();

if(!empty($lang_choice))
{
 $currentSession->set("langChoice",$lang_choice); 
 $lang =& JFactory::getLanguage();
 $lang->setLanguage( $lang_choice );
 $lang->load();
}
elseif($currentSession->getState())
{ 
 $lang =& JFactory::getLanguage();
 $lang->setLanguage( $currentSession->get("langChoice") );
 $lang->load();
}

when user clicks on a link have your url like the following:
http://www.yoursite.com/?lang=de-DE or /?lang=en-GB

the lang would be stored in session so you don't need to worry about it anymore.

Get SQL out of Zend select object

2010-03-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

To display SQL of Zend_Db_Select object, try this


$query = $this->select()
                    ->where("permitted = 'Y'")
                    ->order("id DESC")
                    ->limit($count);

echo $query->__toString();

that will do it.

Add Select option to your Joomla select list

2010-01-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

If you like to add 'Select Category' option to the option list you got from DB.



$db    =& JFactory::getDBO();
$query = "SELECT id as value,name as text FROM  categories WHERE parent_id > 0 ORDER BY name";
$db->setQuery($query);
$categories = $db->loadAssocList(); 
$begin_categories = array(array("value"=>0,"text"=>"Select Category"));
$categories = array_merge($begin_categories,$categories);
$lists['categories'] = JHTML::_('select.genericlist',  $categories, 'categories', 'class="inputbox" size="1"', 'value', 'text', null);

I am not sure any better way to do with Joomla classes.

How to add jQuery to Joomla ?

2010-01-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

The Joomla 1.5 is coming with Mootools therefore you might experience some conflict with jQuery now.
Just follow the way below to avoid any conflicts. Add the following lines to your view.html.php.



$document = &JFactory::getDocument();
$document->addScript( 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js' );
$document->addCustomTag( '' );

The above code fragment would solve your problem.

How to add Javascript / css to Joomla?

2010-01-02T10:39:00.001-08:00

How to add Javascript or css to your Joomla template?

Just do the following to get it working. Add the following lines to your view.html.php.



$document = &JFactory::getDocument();
$this->document->addStyleSheet('your path/style.css');
$this->document->addScript( 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js' );

That would solve your problem.

Adding a calendar / date picker to Joomla form

2009-11-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

This is how you add a calendar / date picker to Joomla form.

add the following code to your
xx.html.php class



$document = &JFactory::getDocument();
$document->addScript("includes/js/joomla.javascript.js");

JHTML::_('behavior.calendar');

and add the following code to the default.php template file

All those codes above will have a calendar / date picker close to the input field.

Enjoy your coding.

Debugging view of 2D array

2009-11-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

If you are in a position to have a better view of 2 dimensional array then try this



$fruits["apple"] = array("Canada","US","Extra");

print_r($fruits) won't show a better view but the following way would show a clear view of arrays and values



echo "";
print_r($fruits);
echo "
";

Enjoy.
cheers.

Redirect dynamic URL using .htaccess

2009-10-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

If you are trying to redirect a dynamic URL follow the steps to do it.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^product_id=(.*)$
RewriteRule ^product_view\.php$ /products/%1? [R=301,L]

The above statements would do the following,

http://www.example.com/product_view.php?product_id=4

redirected to

http://www.example.com/products/4

Hope it helps someone.
cheers.

select records whose id is not present in the other table

2009-09-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

If you are trying to select records whose ids are not present in the other table,

eg: articles table has article_id, categorized table has article_id and cat_id.
If you are trying to select the article that is not categorized yet



SELECT * FROM articles WHERE article_id NOT IN ( SELECT article_id FROM categorized );

That will solve your problem.

SQL to filter duplicate records

2009-09-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

If you are trying to filter out duplicate records from your table.



SELECT DISTINCT column_name,id FROM table_name 
GROUP BY coulumn_name
HAVING COUNT(column_name) > 1

The above sql would filter out duplicate records with their ids.

cheers.

SQL to get count of records

2009-08-31T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is for MySQL I have no idea about other DBs



$query = mysql_query("SELECT count(*) FROM accounts");
$ctr = mysql_result($query,0,0);

Hope it helps someone.