SOPA PIPA and ACTA Emergency IP List

cool stuff, digg, facebook, google, Network Security, news, tech remedy, Tutorials, twitter, web 5 Responses »

Dec 312011

Funding Breakdown for SOPA

With SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA still looming, I have been coming across lots of ways to gain access to websites during a government shutdown of the internet. Everything from dial-up modems to creating a mesh wireless network for communicating with others. In the event of a DNS shutdown, all sites that have a dedicated IP address will still be reachable. All you have to do is enter the IP. Here’s an emergency list of IP’s for such a situation:

HTML Colors – A Complete Guide

cool stuff, diy, html5, php, programming, tech remedy, Tutorials, web, web design, web development No Responses »

Dec 132011

HTML Colors

What do those html hex values for colors actually mean? Well, I intend to explain it as clearly as possible right here. HTML colors aren’t supposed to be complex or confusing. The hex values are six digits following a (#) sign. The six digits are actually 3 pairs of digits. Each pair represents either Red, Green, or Blue (RGB). The lowest value that a pair can get is 00. The highest value that a pair can get is FF. So, #000000 is the lowest RGB value possible. #00FF33 has the lowest possible value for Red (first pair), the highest possible value for Green (second pair), and the value “33″ for Blue (third pair).

Color Values

Color	Color HEX	Color RGB
	#000000	rgb(0,0,0)
	#FF0000	rgb(255,0,0)
	#00FF00	rgb(0,255,0)
	#0000FF	rgb(0,0,255)
	#FFFF00	rgb(255,255,0)
	#00FFFF	rgb(0,255,255)
	#FF00FF	rgb(255,0,255)
	#C0C0C0	rgb(192,192,192)
	#FFFFFF	rgb(255,255,255)

With all three colors allowing values from 0 to 255, there are a total of 16 Million colors. I know this isn’t anything ground breaking, but I have found that while many people are familiar with the #FFFFFF hex notation, very few actually know what the hex values mean and how to use that information to tweak colors.

Below is a nice color chart to help you find most of the hex values you’ll need for web sites:

Primary/Main/Basic Colors
000000	000033	000066	000099	0000CC	0000FF
003300	003333	003366	003399	0033CC	0033FF
006600	006633	006666	006699	0066CC	0066FF
009900	009933	009966	009999	0099CC	0099FF
00CC00	00CC33	00CC66	00CC99	00CCCC	00CCFF
*00FF00*	00FF33	00FF66	00FF99	00FFCC	00FFFF
330000	330033	330066	330099	3300CC	3300FF
333300	333333	333366	333399	3333CC	3333FF
336600	336633	336666	336699	3366CC	3366FF
339900	339933	339966	339999	3399CC	3399FF
33CC00	33CC33	33CC66	33CC99	33CCCC	33CCFF
33FF00	33FF33	33FF66	33FF99	33FFCC	33FFFF
660000	660033	660066	660099	6600CC	6600FF
663300	663333	663366	663399	6633CC	6633FF
666600	666633	666666	666699	6666CC	6666FF
669900	669933	669966	669999	6699CC	6699FF
66CC00	66CC33	66CC66	66CC99	66CCCC	66CCFF
66FF00	66FF33	66FF66	66FF99	66FFCC	66FFFF
990000	990033	990066	990099	9900CC	9900FF
993300	993333	993366	993399	9933CC	9933FF
996600	996633	996666	996699	9966CC	9966FF
999900	999933	999966	999999	9999CC	9999FF
99CC00	99CC33	99CC66	99CC99	99CCCC	99CCFF
99FF00	99FF33	99FF66	99FF99	99FFCC	99FFFF
CC0000	CC0033	CC0066	CC0099	CC00CC	CC00FF
CC3300	CC3333	CC3366	CC3399	CC33CC	CC33FF
CC6600	CC6633	CC6666	CC6699	CC66CC	CC66FF
CC9900	CC9933	CC9966	CC9999	CC99CC	CC99FF
CCCC00	CCCC33	CCCC66	CCCC99	CCCCCC	CCCCFF
CCFF00	CCFF33	CCFF66	CCFF99	CCFFCC	CCFFFF
FF0000	FF0033	FF0066	FF0099	FF00CC	FF00FF
FF3300	FF3333	FF3366	FF3399	FF33CC	FF33FF
FF6600	FF6633	FF6666	FF6699	FF66CC	FF66FF
FF9900	FF9933	FF9966	FF9999	FF99CC	FF99FF
FFCC00	FFCC33	FFCC66	FFCC99	FFCCCC	FFCCFF
FFFF00	FFFF33	FFFF66	FFFF99	FFFFCC	FFFFFF

Secondary/Mixed/Pastel Colors
FF4848	FF68DD	FF62B0	FE67EB	E469FE	D568FD	9669FE
FF7575	FF79E1	FF73B9	FE67EB	E77AFE	D97BFD	A27AFE
FF8A8A	FF86E3	FF86C2	FE8BF0	EA8DFE	DD88FD	AD8BFE
FF9797	FF97E8	FF97CB	FE98F1	ED9EFE	E29BFD	B89AFE
FFA8A8	FFACEC	FFA8D3	FEA9F3	EFA9FE	E7A9FE	C4ABFE
FFBBBB	FFACEC	FFBBDD	FFBBF7	F2BCFE	EDBEFE	D0BCFE
FFCECE	FFC8F2	FFC8E3	FFCAF9	F5CAFF	F0CBFE	DDCEFF
FFDFDF	FFDFF8	FFDFEF	FFDBFB	F9D9FF	F4DCFE	E6DBFF
FFECEC	FFEEFB	FFECF5	FFEEFD	FDF2FF	FAECFF	F1ECFF
FFF2F2	FFFEFB	FFF9FC	FFF9FE	FFFDFF	FDF9FF	FBF9FF
800080	872187	9A03FE	892EE4	3923D6	2966B8	23819C
BF00BF	BC2EBC	A827FE	9B4EE9	6755E3	2F74D0	2897B7
DB00DB	D54FD5	B445FE	A55FEB	8678E9	4985D6	2FAACE
F900F9	DD75DD	BD5CFE	AE70ED	9588EC	6094DB	44B4D5
FF4AFF	DD75DD	C269FE	AE70ED	A095EE	7BA7E1	57BCD9
FF86FF	E697E6	CD85FE	C79BF2	B0A7F1	8EB4E6	7BCAE1
FFA4FF	EAA6EA	D698FE	CEA8F4	BCB4F3	A9C5EB	8CD1E6
FFBBFF	EEBBEE	DFB0FF	DBBFF7	CBC5F5	BAD0EF	A5DBEB
FFCEFF	F0C4F0	E8C6FF	E1CAF9	D7D1F8	CEDEF4	B8E2EF
FFDFFF	F4D2F4	EFD7FF	EDDFFB	E3E0FA	E0EAF8	C9EAF3
FFECFF	F4D2F4	F9EEFF	F5EEFD	EFEDFC	EAF1FB	DBF0F7
FFF9FF	FDF9FD	FEFDFF	FEFDFF	F7F5FE	F8FBFE	EAF7FB
5757FF	62A9FF	62D0FF	06DCFB	01FCEF	03EBA6	01F33E
6A6AFF	75B4FF	75D6FF	24E0FB	1FFEF3	03F3AB	0AFE47
7979FF	86BCFF	8ADCFF	3DE4FC	5FFEF7	33FDC0	4BFE78
8C8CFF	99C7FF	99E0FF	63E9FC	74FEF8	62FDCE	72FE95
9999FF	99C7FF	A8E4FF	75ECFD	92FEF9	7DFDD7	8BFEA8
AAAAFF	A8CFFF	BBEBFF	8CEFFD	A5FEFA	8FFEDD	A3FEBA
BBBBFF	BBDAFF	CEF0FF	ACF3FD	B5FFFC	A5FEE3	B5FFC8
CACAFF	D0E6FF	D9F3FF	C0F7FE	CEFFFD	BEFEEB	CAFFD8
E1E1FF	DBEBFF	ECFAFF	C0F7FE	E1FFFE	BDFFEA	EAFFEF
EEEEFF	ECF4FF	F9FDFF	E6FCFF	F2FFFE	CFFEF0	EAFFEF
F9F9FF	F9FCFF	FDFEFF	F9FEFF	FDFFFF	F7FFFD	F9FFFB
1FCB4A	59955C	48FB0D	2DC800	59DF00	9D9D00	B6BA18
27DE55	6CA870	79FC4E	32DF00	61F200	C8C800	CDD11B
4AE371	80B584	89FC63	36F200	66FF00	DFDF00	DFE32D
7CEB98	93BF96	99FD77	52FF20	95FF4F	FFFFAA	EDEF85
93EEAA	A6CAA9	AAFD8E	6FFF44	ABFF73	FFFF84	EEF093
A4F0B7	B4D1B6	BAFEA3	8FFF6F	C0FF97	FFFF99	F2F4B3
BDF4CB	C9DECB	CAFEB8	A5FF8A	D1FFB3	FFFFB5	F5F7C4
D6F8DE	DBEADC	DDFED1	B3FF99	DFFFCA	FFFFC8	F7F9D0
E3FBE9	E9F1EA	EAFEE2	D2FFC4	E8FFD9	FFFFD7	FAFBDF
E3FBE9	F3F8F4	F1FEED	E7FFDF	F2FFEA	FFFFE3	FCFCE9
FAFEFB	FBFDFB	FDFFFD	F5FFF2	FAFFF7	FFFFFD	FDFDF0
BABA21	C8B400	DFA800	DB9900	FFB428	FF9331	FF800D
E0E04E	D9C400	F9BB00	EAA400	FFBF48	FFA04A	FF9C42
E6E671	E6CE00	FFCB2F	FFB60B	FFC65B	FFAB60	FFAC62
EAEA8A	F7DE00	FFD34F	FFBE28	FFCE73	FFBB7D	FFBD82
EEEEA2	FFE920	FFDD75	FFC848	FFD586	FFC48E	FFC895
F1F1B1	FFF06A	FFE699	FFD062	FFDEA2	FFCFA4	FFCEA2
F4F4BF	FFF284	FFECB0	FFE099	FFE6B5	FFD9B7	FFD7B3
F7F7CE	FFF7B7	FFF1C6	FFEAB7	FFEAC4	FFE1C6	FFE2C8
F9F9DD	FFF9CE	FFF5D7	FFF2D2	FFF2D9	FFEBD9	FFE6D0
FBFBE8	FFFBDF	FFFAEA	FFF9EA	FFF7E6	FFF4EA	FFF1E6
FEFEFA	FFFEF7	FFFDF7	FFFDF9	FFFDF9	FFFEFD	FFF9F4
D1D17A	C0A545	C27E3A	C47557	B05F3C	C17753	B96F6F
D7D78A	CEB86C	C98A4B	CB876D	C06A45	C98767	C48484
DBDB97	D6C485	D19C67	D29680	C87C5B	D0977B	C88E8E
E1E1A8	DECF9C	DAAF85	DAA794	CF8D72	DAAC96	D1A0A0
E9E9BE	E3D6AA	DDB791	DFB4A4	D69E87	E0BBA9	D7ACAC
EEEECE	EADFBF	E4C6A7	E6C5B9	DEB19E	E8CCBF	DDB9B9
E9E9C0	EDE4C9	E9D0B6	EBD0C7	E4C0B1	ECD5CA	E6CCCC
EEEECE	EFE7CF	EEDCC8	F0DCD5	EACDC1	F0DDD5	ECD9D9
F1F1D6	F5EFE0	F2E4D5	F5E7E2	F0DDD5	F5E8E2	F3E7E7
F5F5E2	F9F5EC	F9F3EC	F9EFEC	F5E8E2	FAF2EF	F8F1F1
FDFDF9	FDFCF9	FCF9F5	FDFAF9	FDFAF9	FCF7F5	FDFBFB
F70000	B9264F	990099	74138C	0000CE	1F88A7	4A9586
FF2626	D73E68	B300B3	8D18AB	5B5BFF”	25A0C5	5EAE9E
FF5353	DD597D	CA00CA	A41CC6	7373FF	29AFD6	74BAAC
FF7373	E37795	D900D9	BA21E0	8282FF	4FBDDD	8DC7BB
FF8E8E	E994AB	FF2DFF	CB59E8	9191FF	67C7E2	A5D3CA
FFA4A4	EDA9BC	F206FF	CB59E8	A8A8FF	8ED6EA	C0E0DA
FFB5B5	F0B9C8	FF7DFF	D881ED	B7B7FF	A6DEEE	CFE7E2
FFC8C8	F4CAD6	FFA8FF	EFCDF8	C6C6FF	C0E7F3	DCEDEA
FFEAEA	F8DAE2	FFC4FF	EFCDF8	DBDBFF	D8F0F8	E7F3F1
FFEAEA	FAE7EC	FFE3FF	F8E9FC	EEEEFF	EFF9FC	F2F9F8
FFFDFD	FEFAFB	FFFDFF	FFFFFF	FDFDFF	FAFDFE	F7FBFA

Get a Paginated Grid of Results Using PHP/MySQL

cool stuff, mysql, php, programming, tech remedy, Tutorials, web, web development 11 Responses »

Jul 302011

PHP/MySQL

Have you ever tried to create a nice grid of MySQL results before? Perhaps something 4 items across and 4 items down with pagination for more than 16 results? Well, let’s go ahead and build that here so you can learn how to do it! Using tables for this is tricky and ugly. I don’t recommend it. We will be using some very straight forward PHP and CSS for this! Okay, this tutorial is not difficult to follow if you are familiar with PHP and MySQL. If you are brand new to PHP and/or MySQL, you should familiarize yourself with them by going through some more basic tutorials first! This tutorial also assumes that you have access to a web server that is running PHP 5.x and MySQL server. One last disclaimer…this tutorial doesn’t cover securing any of this stuff. I will likely create another tutorial in the future for keeping your stuff secure. So, be warned, none of what I’m giving you here is secured!

First, let’s look at the basic HTML and CSS that make this work:

<style type="text/css">
#dataGrid{
  width: 800px;
  margin: auto;
}

.thumb{
  width: 150px;
  height: 100px;
  float: left;
  clear: none;
  margin: 5px;
  background: #ccc;
}
</style>

<div id="dataGrid">
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
</div>

DEMO THE ABOVE CODE!

Okay, let’s get into the details. We need a database. I’m calling mine dbGallery. Using phpMyAdmin, or another MySQL client, create your new database and name it whatever you want. Now, inside of the dbGallery database, I’m going to create a table called tblPhotos. Again, call yours whatever you like. tblPhotos is going to have the following fields: photoID(int 11), photoName(varchar 30), category(varchar 20), active(int 1). Make sure to set photoID as the primary key and also set it to auto-increment! Next we need to add some photos to tblPhotos. So, let’s create a nice script that will make this more automated. In your web root, create a new folder called galleryScripts. In the galleryScripts folder, create a new PHP file called mysqlConnect.php and give it the following contents:

<?php  

$db_host = "";  //put your hostname in the quotes

$db_username = "";  //put your username in the quotes

$db_pass = "";  //put your password in the quotes

$db_name = "dbGallery"; //change dbGallery to whatever your db is called

mysql_connect("$db_host","$db_username","$db_pass") or die ("could not connect to mysql");
mysql_select_db("$db_name") or die ("no database");
?>

Now, back in the web root, create a folder called galleryPhotos. Also in the web root, create a new PHP file called addPhotos.php and give it the following contents:

<?php
include "galleryScripts/mysqlConnect.php";

//Parser for Add Photo Form
if (isset($_POST["photoName"])){
	$photoName = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST["photoName"]);
	$category = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST["category"]);

	//add photo to db
	$sql = mysql_query("
			   INSERT INTO
			   	tblPhotos (
				photoName,
				category,
				active
			   )VALUES(
				'$photoName',
				'$category',
				'1'
			   )") or die(mysql_error());
	$pid = mysql_insert_id();
	$newname = "$pid.jpg";
	move_uploaded_file($_FILES['fileField']['tmp_name'],"galleryPhotos/$newname");
	header("location: addPhotos.php");
	exit();
}

?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Add Photos</title>

</head>
<body>

<h3>Add New Photo</h3>
<form action="addPhotos.php" enctype="multipart/form-data" name="myForm" id="myForm" method="post">
	Photo Name: <input name="photo_name" type="text" id="photoName" size="64" /><br />
	Category: <input name="category" type="text" id="category" size="64" /><br />
	Upload Image (jpg only):
    <label>
    	<input type="file" name="fileField" id="fileField" />
    </label>
    <label>
    	<input type="submit" name="button" id="button" value="Add Photo" />
    </label>
</form>

</body>
</html>

And now, in your web root, create a new PHP file called gallery.php and give it the following contents:

<?php
//connect to db
include "galleryScripts/mysqlConnect.php";

//check for a page number. If not, set it to page 1
if (!(isset($_GET['pagenum']))){
	$pagenum = 1;
}else{
	$pagenum = $_GET['pagenum'];
}

//query for record count to setup pagination
$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tblPhotos WHERE active = 1");
$rows = mysql_num_rows($data); 

//number of photos per page
$page_rows = 16; 

//get the last page number
$last = ceil($rows/$page_rows); 

//make sure the page number isn't below one, or more than last page num
if ($pagenum < 1){
	$pagenum = 1;
}elseif ($pagenum > $last){
	$pagenum = $last;
}

//Set the range to display in query
$max = 'limit ' .($pagenum - 1) * $page_rows .',' .$page_rows;

//get all of the photos
$dynamicList = "";
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tblPhotos WHERE active = 1 $max");
//check for photos
$photoCount = mysql_num_rows($sql);

if ($photoCount > 0){
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
			$photoID = $row["photoID"];
			$photoName = $row["photoName"];
			$category = $row["category"];

			$dynamicList .= '
							<div class="thumb">
								<a href="photo.php?id=' . $photoID . '"><img class="clip" src="galleryPhotos/' . $photoID . '.jpg" alt="' . $photoName . '" width="175" border="0" /></a>
							</div>
							';
	}
}else{
	$dynamicList = "There are no photos at this time!";
}

mysql_close();
?>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Tech Remedy Grid Gallery Demo</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" />
</head>
<body>
	<?php
	    echo '<p style="text-align:center; font-weight:bold;">Page ' . $pagenum . ' of ' . $last . '</p>';

        if ($pagenum == 1){
          	echo '<div class="pagination" align="center"><ul>';
        }else{
            echo '<div class="pagination" align="center"><ul><li><a href="' . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '?pagenum=1">« first</a></li>';
            $previous = $pagenum-1;
        }       

		//check if number of pages is higher than 1
		if($last != 1){
			//Loop from 1 to last page to create page number links
			for($i = 1; $i <= $last; $i++){
				echo '<li><a href="' . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '?pagenum=' . $i . '">' . $i . '</a></li>';
			}
		}

        if ($pagenum == $last){
            echo '</div>';
        }else{
            $next = $pagenum+1;
            echo '<li><a href="' . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '?pagenum=' . $last . '">last »</a></li></ul></div>';
        }
    ?>

    <div id="dataGrid">
		<?php echo $dynamicList; ?>
    </div>

</body>
</html>

Okay, we are ready to start adding some photos to our gallery! Open a browser and navigate to your addPhotos.php file. Fill out the form and add a photo. Repeat the process until you have added several photos. Make sure to add more than 16 if you want to see the pagination working!

Now, if you go to gallery.php in your browser, your images should be displayed in a vertical list. It doesn’t look all that great. So, let’s create a CSS file that will make the images appear in a grid and clip them to all fit real nicely! In the web root, create a new CSS file called style.css and give it the following contents:

#dataGrid{
  width: 800px;
  margin: auto;
}

.thumb{
  width: 175px;
  height: 100px;
  float: left;
  clear: none;
  margin: 5px;
}

.clip {
	position: absolute;
	clip:rect(0px 175px 100px 0px);
}

.pagination{
	padding: 2px;
}

.pagination ul{
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	text-align: center;
	font-size: 16px;
}

.pagination li{
	list-style-type: none;
	display: inline;
	padding-bottom: 1px;
}

.pagination a, .pagination a:visited{
	padding: 0 5px;
	border: 1px solid #9aafe5;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #2e6ab1;
}

.pagination a:hover, .pagination a:active{
	border: 1px solid #2b66a5;
	color: #000;
	background-color: #FFFF80;
}

Now, just navigate to your gallery.php file in your browser and you should see a nice paginated grid of photos! All of the photos links are broken though! Let’s fix that. Create a new PHP file called photo.php and give it the following contents:

<?php
//connect to db
include "galleryScripts/mysqlConnect.php";

//initialize some vars
$photoID = '';
$photoName = '';

//check what photo we are looking for
if(isset($_GET['id'])){
	$photoID = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['id']);
	//get the photo
	$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tblPhotos WHERE photoID='$photoID' LIMIT 1");
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
		$photoName = $row['photoName'];
		$category = $row['category'];
	}
}else{
	echo 'No photo was selected!';
	exit();
}

mysql_close();

?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Tech Remedy Gallery Demo - <?php echo $photoName; ?></title>
</head>

<body>
<div id="photo">
	<img src="galleryPhotos/<?php echo $photoID; ?>.jpg" alt="<?php echo $photoName; ?>" width="400" /><br />
    <h2><?php echo $photoName; ?></h2>
    <p><?php echo $category; ?></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

And that’s it! Now, when you click on a photo in your gallery it will take you to a page that nicely displays your photo along with some photo information. Pretty cool, huh?

DEMO

Let me know in the comments if you come across any problems!

ColdFusion: My First Impressions

ColdFusion, cool stuff, mysql, news, php, programming, Tutorials, web, web development 3 Responses »

Mar 282011

Adobe ColdFusion

After working with Adobe ColdFusion for about a month now, I have to say that I’m really impressed. I had this expectation that it would leave me longing for my beloved PHP. It’s actually a very cool server side language that allows for insanely fast development of dynamic web applications! I know, I sound like a commercial…so, let’s start with the negatives of ColdFusion just so you know I’m not getting paid by Adobe or something!

First, ColdFusion is very proprietary. In order to use it, the web server must have Adobe’s ColdFusion Server software installed and running. That software isn’t free. Many web hosts don’t bother with it for this reason…why pay for ColdFusion when PHP is free? I get that…there is an open source alternative called Railo and it is pretty good too! Unfortunately, trying to convince your web host to install this is a different story!

The next negative aspect of ColdFusion is that it is overly simplified. For example, there is only one loop tag. CFLOOP is your only option! There are different parameters to set what kind of loop it is, but this causes confusion when reading over someone else’s code. In PHP it is always very clear what kind of loop I’m looking at. If it’s a while loop, it says ‘while’.

So, the CFLOOP tag was supposed to make things easier. You only need to remember one LOOP tag and then just set the parameters for the loop to determine what kind of loop it will be.

Now, what I LOVE about ColdFusion how elegantly it interacts with SQL databases! So much can be done with very little code and that makes for insanely fast development! Let’s look at a comparison of a simple SQL query with some output in both PHP and ColdFusion. First, in PHP:

<?php
  //connect to db
  mysql_connect("localhost","username","password") or die ("Failed to connect to mysql");
  mysql_select_db("databaseName") or die ("database not found!");

  //check url for id variable
  if (isset($_GET['id'])){
    $id = $_GET['id];
    $sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM products WHERE id='$id' LIMIT 1");
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
        $product_name = $row["product_name"];
        $product_details = $row["product_details"];
        $product_price = $row["product_price"];
    }
  }else{
    echo "No product was selected!";
    exit();
  }

  mysql_close();

  //dynamic output
  $output = '
                 <table>
                   <tr>
                     <th>Product Name</th>
                     <th>Product Details</th>
                     <th>Product Price</th>
                   </tr>
                   <tr>
                     <td>' . $product_name . '</td>
                     <td>' . $product_details . '</td>
                     <td>' . $product_price . '</td>
                   </tr>
                 </table>';
?>

<html>
<body>
<?php echo $output; ?>
</body>
</html>

Next, let’s look at the exact same thing done in ColdFusion:

<!---Check url for id variable--->
<cfif isDefined url.id>
  <cfquery name="products" datasource="store">
    SELECT *
    FROM products
    WHERE id = '#url.id#'
    LIMIT 1
  </cfquery>
<cfelse>
  <cfoutput>No Product Was Selected!</cfoutput>
  <cfabort>
</cfif>

<!---Dynamic Output--->
<html>
<body>
  <table>
    <tr>
      <th>Product Name</th>
      <th>Product Details</th>
      <th>Product Price</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <cfoutput query="products">
        <td>#product_name#</td>
        <td>#product_details#</td>
        <td>#product_price#</td>
      </cfoutput>
    </tr>
  </table>
</body>
</html>

The ColdFusion took me half as much time to write as the PHP and it works just as well. So, overall, I am very impressed with ColdFusion. A lot of my web developer friends talk crap about ColdFusion, and that’s okay…Most of them have never actually developed with it, so I take those opinions with a giant grain of salt!

Keep on the lookout for some ColdFusion Tutorials in the near future!

ColdFusion: To # Or Not To #

ColdFusion, cool stuff, programming, Tutorials, web development 2 Responses »

Mar 112011

In ColdFusion, it can get a little confusing to know when you should and should not wrap your variables in the # symbol. Here’s a little reference that helps me:

When To #:

Within a string
Within CFOUTPUT
Within CFQUERY
In the CFDUMP var attribute
When Referencing an Array or List as a Parameter

When Not To #:

Within a CFSET
Within a CFIF
ANYWHERE ELSE

HTML ascii Symbols and Character Codes

cool stuff, php, programming, Tutorials, web, web design, web development 1 Response »

Mar 012011

This is a helpful reference for any web developer. Let me know if I missed any!

Math Symbols Supported by HTML

Character	Entity Number	Entity Name	Description
∀	∀	∀	for all
∂	∂	∂	part
∃	∃	∃	exists
∅	∅	∅	empty
∇	∇	∇	nabla
∈	∈	∈	isin
∉	∉	∉	notin
∋	∋	&ni;	ni
∏	∏	∏	prod
∑	∑	∑	sum
−	−	−	minus
∗	∗	&lowast;	lowast
√	√	√	square root
∝	∝	&prop;	proportional to
∞	∞	∞	infinity
∠	∠	&ang;	angle
∧	∧	&and;	and
∨	∨	&or;	or
∩	∩	∩	cap
∪	∪	∪	cup
∫	∫	∫	integral
∴	∴	&there4;	therefore
∼	∼	&sim;	similar to
≅	≅	&cong;	congruent to
≈	≈	≈	almost equal
≠	≠	≠	not equal
≡	≡	&equiv;	equivalent
≤	≤	≤	less or equal
≥	≥	≥	greater or equal
⊂	⊂	⊂	subset of
⊃	⊃	⊃	superset of
⊄	⊄	&nsub;	not subset of
⊆	⊆	&sube;	subset or equal
⊇	⊇	&supe;	superset or equal
⊕	⊕	&oplus;	circled plus
⊗	⊗	&otimes;	cirled times
⊥	⊥	&perp;	perpendicular
⋅	⋅	⋅	dot operator

Greek Letters Supported by HTML

Character	Entity Number	Entity Name	Description
Α	Α	Α	Alpha
Β	Β	Β	Beta
Γ	Γ	Γ	Gamma
Δ	Δ	Δ	Delta
Ε	Ε	Ε	Epsilon
Ζ	Ζ	Ζ	Zeta
Η	Η	Η	Eta
Θ	Θ	Θ	Theta
Ι	Ι	Ι	Iota
Κ	Κ	Κ	Kappa
Λ	Λ	Λ	Lambda
Μ	Μ	Μ	Mu
Ν	Ν	Ν	Nu
Ξ	Ξ	Ξ	Xi
Ο	Ο	Ο	Omicron
Π	Π	Π	Pi
Ρ	Ρ	Ρ	Rho
	undefined		Sigmaf
Σ	Σ	Σ	Sigma
Τ	Τ	Τ	Tau
Υ	Υ	Υ	Upsilon
Φ	Φ	Φ	Phi
Χ	Χ	Χ	Chi
Ψ	Ψ	Ψ	Psi
Ω	Ω	Ω	Omega

α	α	α	alpha
β	β	β	beta
γ	γ	γ	gamma
δ	δ	δ	delta
ε	ε	ε	epsilon
ζ	ζ	ζ	zeta
η	η	η	eta
θ	θ	θ	theta
ι	ι	ι	iota
κ	κ	κ	kappa
λ	λ	λ	lambda
μ	μ	μ	mu
ν	ν	ν	nu
ξ	ξ	ξ	xi
ο	ο	ο	omicron
π	π	π	pi
ρ	ρ	ρ	rho
ς	ς	&sigmaf;	sigmaf
σ	σ	σ	sigma
τ	τ	τ	tau
υ	υ	υ	upsilon
φ	φ	φ	phi
χ	χ	χ	chi
ψ	ψ	ψ	psi
ω	ω	ω	omega

ϑ	ϑ	&thetasym;	theta symbol
ϒ	ϒ	&upsih;	upsilon symbol
ϖ	ϖ	ϖ	pi symbol

Other Entities Supported by HTML

Character	Entity Number	Entity Name	Description
Œ	Œ	&OElig;	capital ligature OE
œ	œ	&oelig;	small ligature oe
Š	Š	&Scaron;	capital S with caron
š	š	&scaron;	small S with caron
Ÿ	Ÿ	&Yuml;	capital Y with diaeres
ƒ	ƒ	&fnof;	f with hook
ˆ	ˆ	&circ;	modifier letter circumflex accent
˜	˜	&tilde;	small tilde
		&ensp;	en space
		&emsp;	em space
			thin space
‌	‌	&zwnj;	zero width non-joiner
‍	‍	&zwj;	zero width joiner
‎	‎	&lrm;	left-to-right mark
‏	‏	&rlm;	right-to-left mark
–	–	–	en dash
—	—	—	em dash
‘	‘	‘	left single quotation mark
’	’	’	right single quotation mark
‚	‚	&sbquo;	single low-9 quotation mark
“	“	“	left double quotation mark
”	”	”	right double quotation mark
„	„	&bdquo;	double low-9 quotation mark
†	†	&dagger;	dagger
‡	‡	&Dagger;	double dagger
•	•	•	bullet
…	…	…	horizontal ellipsis
‰	‰	&permil;	per mille
′	′	′	minutes
″	″	″	seconds
‹	‹	&lsaquo;	single left angle quotation
›	›	&rsaquo;	single right angle quotation
‾	‾	&oline;	overline
€	€	€	euro
™	™	™	trademark
←	←	←	left arrow
↑	↑	↑	up arrow
→	→	→	right arrow
↓	↓	↓	down arrow
↔	↔	↔	left right arrow
↵	↵	&crarr;	carriage return arrow
⌈	⌈	&lceil;	left ceiling
⌉	⌉	&rceil;	right ceiling
⌊	⌊	&lfloor;	left floor
⌋	⌋	&rfloor;	right floor
◊	◊	&loz;	lozenge
♠	♠	&spades;	spade
♣	♣	&clubs;	club
♥	♥	&hearts;	heart
♦	♦	&diams;	diamond

Complete List of Essential Tools For Web Developers

apple, computer humor, cool stuff, Linux, Mac, mysql, Open Source Software, php, programming, Software, Tutorials, web, web development, Windows 1 Response »

Feb 242011

PHP while loop with MySQL

I have been coming across a lot of “Essential Tools For Web Developers” lists lately and I noticed that they are all really extensive. Some of them have as many as 100 tools listed! This begs the question, “Do you understand what ‘essential’ means?”. So here is my EXTENSIVE list of essential tools for web developers. This is literally every essential tool you will need to develop web applications.

Web Server Software and Extensions

First and foremost, you’re going to need a web server. If you have a web host, disregard this tool because this is essentially the service that they provide. If you plan to run your own web server, check out WAMP for Windows and LAMP for Linux.

Text Editor

Notepad will work. However, I would recommend getting a better one than that since it doesn’t really have any features! There are a ton of free options. Some people swear by Eclipse. I prefer Notepad++ on Windows, TextWrangler on Mac, and VIM on Linux.

FTP Client

After you have created a new script or app using your awesome text editor, you will have to upload it to the web server. Again, there are several free FTP clients out there. I prefer FileZilla personally. It was originally written for Windows, but has since been ported to Mac and Linux. The Mac version can be a tad buggy from time to time but it’s super fast still and I love it!

Ummmm…yeah…that’s it. Nothing else is needed to develop web applications. There are lots of helpful tools out there and they should certainly be used, but they are NOT essential!

PHP MySQL Tutorial: Part 1 – Connecting To The Database

cool stuff, mysql, php, programming, Tutorials, web, web development 8 Responses »

Jan 182011

PHP and MySQL were made for each other!

Hi Everyone! I wanted to post a very basic tutorial series on using PHP and MySQL. This tutorial is Part 1 and it will not focus on anything complicated, rather it will break down the process of connecting to your MySQL database. This tutorial assumes that you know how to create a MySQL database and it also assumes that you have web hosting with PHP and MySQL installed. For MySQL database management, I personally prefer using phpMyAdmin. Some people prefer other MySQL clients, while some hardcores prefer doing all of their database management from within their PHP script. I’ll leave the decision as to which method you’ll use up to you.

We will be using the following database throughout this entire tutorial series, so don’t delete it after you complete this tutorial! You’ll need it for Part 2 and so on!

Now, the first thing we need to do is create a database. So, using whatever method you prefer, create a database called “test_data” (without the quotes) and give it one table called “test_table” with 3 fields. The first field should be labeled “id”, and it should be set to INT, Auto-Increment, and set it as the primary key. The second field should be labeled “name”, and it should be set to VARCHAR with a length of 32. The third field should be labeled “city”, and it should be set to VARCHAR with a length of 64.

Okay, so now we have our database and table all set up! So, the next thing we need to do is create our PHP script! Open a good text editor such as Notepad++, Dreamweaver, etc. The first thing we need to do is create a PHP code block. Here’s how it should look:

<?php

?>

Next, we need to establish a connection to the database. We do this using the mysql_connect function that is built in to PHP. You will need to know the hostname of your MySQL server, as well as the username and password for the database. Typically, the hostname is “localhost”.

<?php
//connect to mysql database server
mysql_connect("hostname","username","password");
?>

Replace hostname with your actual hostname, username with your actual username, and password with your actual password. This code attempts to connect to your database with the credentials that you provided. The problem is, there is nothing in place to inform you if your script was successful or not! So, we will need to add some error handling.

<?php
//connect to mysql database server
mysql_connect("hostname","username","password") or die (mysql_error());
?>

Now, if you get an error, then there is something wrong with your connection script. If nothing happens at all, that means the connection is successful!

Next, we will want to make this script a little cleaner and add some code that will tell you if the connection to the database was successful or not. So we will want to create three variables at the top of our script. db_host, db_user, and db_pass. We will also create an echo for a successful database connection.

<?php
$db_host = ""; //place your hostname in this variable
$db_user = ""; //place your username in this variable
$db_pass = ""; //place password in this variable

//connect to mysql database server
mysql_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_pass) or die (mysql_error());
echo "Successfully connected to MySQL Database!";
?>

Now that our script is connecting to our MySQL server, we just need to tell it which database we want to use. Do this using the mysql_select_db function in PHP. So, we will add one more variable at the top of our script called db_name. We will add the mysql_select_db function at the bottom of the script with an echo for a successful selection. You will notice that the success message is dynamic which will allow you to use it on other scripts without changing the code.

<?php
$db_host = ""; //place your hostname in this variable
$db_user = ""; //place your username in this variable
$db_pass = ""; //place password in this variable
$db_name = ""; //place your database name in this variable

//connect to mysql database server
mysql_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_pass) or die (mysql_error());
echo "Successfully connected to MySQL Database!";

//Select Database
mysql_select_db($db_name) or die (mysql_error());
echo '<h2>Successfully selected ' . $db_name . ' database!</h2>';
?>

And there you have it! A perfectly respectable MySql connection script! The next tutorial will focus on the basic while loop for pulling data from the database!

DIY Color Changing Solar Lantern

cool stuff, diy, Hardware, solar, Tutorials 2 Responses »

Dec 282010

by Tom Duffy

Every Christmas, my wife and I make gifts for people rather than buying them…it isn’t that we’re cheap, we just love to make things. This year, we decided that she would make custom dish towels and I would make a color changing solar lantern. Here’s a video of the final lantern:

Now, just so you know up front…I didn’t “make” the color changing solar part of this project…I just took an affordable and existing product and modified the casing.

Materials Needed

3/16″ Diameter Wood Dowels
4″x4″ Blank Wood Coasters from Michael’s
Pack of 2 Garden Creations Color Changing Solar Yard Lights
A Dremel or other quick cutting tool
200 Grit Sandpaper
Thin Natural Fabric – from fabric store
Sewing Machine
Electric Drill
Wood Glue
A Pencil
Flat Black Spray Paint

SAFETY WARNING

Any time that you are using power tools you need to be careful. Make sure that you have a safe work area and always wear eye protection. Personally, I prefer these safety glasses from PlugsSafety. They actually have built in ear plugs which help when you’re in a small area with noisy equipment and tools! Also, I’m not responsible if you hurt yourself or others while doing this project. Just use common sense and you’ll be fine.

Step 1 – Preparing The Solar Light

The first thing we need to do is remove the part that we want from the yard light.

We just want the top solar part which is also attached to the LED. Carefully twist the solar top counter-clockwise until it unlocks from the bottom piece.

It should now look like this:

Now would be a good time to mention that I ordered 5 pairs of these solar yard lights. Of the 10 total lights, only 3 of them actually worked out of the box. I discovered that of the 7 that failed, 4 of them had drained batteries and 3 of them still failed after a full charge on the batteries. So, I unscrewed the housing and had a look inside. All three of them had the same problem…the solder had broken free between the switch and the battery leads. I re-soldered them and sealed them back up.

Step 2 – Preparing the Base

The base of the lantern starts with the 4″x4″ blank wooden coasters that I got from Michael’s. They start out looking like this:

The first thing that you will want to do is give the whole piece a nice sanding with the 200 grit sandpaper. If you are really picky about finish, you can then go over it again with some 600 grit automotive sandpaper to make it really smooth! Next, you want to outline the shape of the solar top with pencil onto the coaster. I had a bunch of these and I know how to solder, so I just removed the LED housing from one and cut the wires:

Next, we will mark where we want to drill our pilot holes that our wooden dowels will slide into. I didn’t really need to measure since we actually DON’T want it to be exact. We aren’t going to be using anything but tension to hold the top piece onto the dowels, so our lack of accuracy in this step actually keeps the top piece securely in place!

Next we drill! The dowels are 3/16″ in diameter, so I used an 11/64″ drill bit. Go ahead and drill straight down all the way through where we marked our coaster.

Step 3 – Preparing the Dowels

Next, we are going to cut our wood dowels to the correct length. Here’s the dowels that I used:

The length that I used is 5″, but this can easily be changed…just remember that whatever length you use, you will need to adjust the size of your fabric wrap accordingly! I started out using my dremel to cut the dowels to size, but found later in the process that wire cutters were a lot quicker. Wire cutters also pinch the ends of the dowels a little, which makes it a lot easier to push them into the pilot holes in our base.

Step 4 – Getting The Dowels in Place

Next, just push the dowels into the pilot holes until they just start to appear from the bottom of the base…don’t let them actually poke through though.

Next, turn the whole thing over so the base is on top and let the dowels act like table legs. Add one or two drops of wood glue to each hole on top of the dowel. I personally let wood glue dry overnight, but if you are confident that it is dry before then, go ahead and move on to the next step when you are ready.

Step 5 – Preparing The Fabric Wrap

Okay, this part is hard unless you know how to sew or know someone who does! I don’t know the first thing about sewing, so my wife handled this part like a champion! Basically, the wrap will have a circumference of 13 1/2″ and the height is entirely dependent on your dowel length. All you really need to keep in mind is that when all is said and done, there should be 1/4″ of dowel sticking up above the wrap after it is in place. My wife managed to create a nice seam on both the top and the bottom to keep things nice and neat. Here she is hard at work:

And the finished wrap:

Step 6 – Put it All Together

Next, slide the wrap over the dowels and make sure that all sides are pushed all the way down flush with the base. Next, push the dowels that are protruding from the top of the wrap into the corners of the solar housing.

Step 7 – Paint it!

Next, remove the solar top and the fabric wrap. Go over all of the wood again with sandpaper to make sure it is nice and smooth. Place the piece base down on some newspaper in a well ventilated area. I wore rubber gloves for this part because you will have to touch the paint. Spray an even coat over all of the exposed wood. Grab the end of one of the dowels and flip the piece over so it is resting on the dowels like a table. Spray an even coat over the base. Let the paint dry for 24 hours. Apply more coats if needed. That’s it! You’re done! Now try it out!

Feel free to comment if you have any questions or if you get stuck on any of the steps. I wish I had better photo documentation of everything, but I did the best I could. I plan to make several more of these, so if there is a particular step that many people want photos of, just let me know and I’ll make sure to get some pictures. Thanks for reading!

Detailed Breakdown of the Linux File System Structure

bash, Linux, Open Source Software, tech remedy, Tutorials, ubuntu No Responses »

Sep 142010

There seems to be a lot of confusion out there regarding the structure of the Linux File System. Why are certain programs located in /bin while others are in /sbin or /usr/bin? Why can I save files in one directory and not another? How can I tell where I should save my files and programs? Well, I hope to assist in clearing all of that up today!

First, let’s take a look at a graphical representation of the Linux File System:

The first thing we need to talk about is the root directory (/). It is the directory where all of the other directories in the file system are stored. The root user is the only one who can write to this directory. It is not to be confused with /root which is the root user’s home directory!

Within the root directory, you will find the following sub-directories. I have included some descriptions of each:

1. /bin

The /bin directory is for User Binaries. It is where many of the most common Linux commands are stored. Specifically, this is where the single user mode binaries are stored.

2. /sbin

This directory is almost exactly like the /bin directory, with one exception. The binaries here are primarily used by Administrators for system maintenance.

3. /etc

The configuration files for your programs and operating system are stored in /etc.

4. /dev

This is where all of the device files are located. For example, this is the directory that you would call to in order to mount a drive with a command like: mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/backup

5. /proc

The /proc directory is one of the most interesting in the whole Linux File System. It is actually its own virtual file system with a massive amount of text information about system processes.

6. /var

This is where all of the variable files are stored. Most commonly, this is where log files and web server files are stored.

7. /tmp

These are simply temporary files.

8. /usr

Programs installed by single users get stored here.

9. /home

This is where all of the user home directories are except for the root user’s home directory which is /root.

10. /boot

The files that make up the boot loader go in /boot. Everything from boot loader menus, to the actual kernel files are stored here.

11. /lib

All of the binary files that are located in /bin and /sbin are supported by the library files located in /lib.

12. /opt

/opt is short for “optional”. It is the directory where individual vendors can install optional add-on software for the operating system.

13. /mnt

The /mnt directory is the mount point that system administrators can use to mount file systems temporarily.

14. /media

The /media directory serves the same purpose as the /mnt directory except it is specifically for removable devices and can be used by non administrators.

15. /srv

The /srv directory contains server specific service files.

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