After these, I shed light on some topics that a company/developer should keep in mind in order to write good software in PHP. This was followed by live session on caching, mysql query optimization, use of Xdebug, etc.

So here goes the presentation:

And a big thanks to Ivo Jansch’s “PHP in the real wolrd” presentation, from where I took inspiration.

Cheers!

So I extended the CI_Router core class and made change to the _validate_request method. Now I can name my controller classes in this fashion: UsersController and it resides on the file system as controllers/UsersController.php. If you’ve tried other established frameworks, you should notice that this naming convention is widely used. So, if you have the same need, then just download the MY_Router.php file and put it on your application/libraries folder. That’s it.

Here is how your controller would start:

<?php

class UsersController extends Controller
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
    }
}

If you’d like to have a look at the code, here is the source for quick view:

<?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

/*
 * MY_Router
 *
 * Extended the core CI_Router class in order to force a different naming
 * convention for controllers.
 *
 */
class MY_Router extends CI_Router
{
    /*
     * Suffix in controller name
     *
     * @var String
     */
    private $_suffix = "Controller";

    /*
     * Call the parent constructor
     *
     * This is a requirement for extending base CI core class. Just abiding by
     * the rules.
     *
     * @access  public
     * @return  void
     */
    public function MY_Router()
    {
        parent::CI_Router();
    }

    /**
     * Validates the supplied segments.  Attempts to determine the path to
     * the controller.
     *
     * @access   private
     * @param    array
     * @return   array
     */
    function _validate_request($segments)
    {
        // Retain the original segments
        $orgSegments = array_slice($segments, 0);

        // Add suffix to the end
        $segments[0] = ucfirst($segments[0]) . $this->_suffix;

        // Does the requested controller exist in the root folder?
        if (file_exists(APPPATH.'controllers/'.$segments[0].EXT))
        {
            return $segments;
        }

        // OK, revert to the original segment
        $segments[0] = $orgSegments[0];

        // Is the controller in a sub-folder?
        if (is_dir(APPPATH.'controllers/'.$segments[0]))
        {
            // Set the directory and remove it from the segment array
            $this->set_directory($segments[0]);
            $segments = array_slice($segments, 1);

            if (count($segments) > 0)
            {
                // Add suffix to the end
                $segments[0] = ucfirst($segments[0]) . $this->_suffix;

                // Does the requested controller exist in the sub-folder?
                if ( ! file_exists(APPPATH.'controllers/'.$this->fetch_directory().$segments[0].EXT))
                {
                    show_404($this->fetch_directory().$segments[0]);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                // Add suffix to the end
                $this->default_controller = ucfirst($this->default_controller) . $this->_suffix;

                $this->set_class($this->default_controller);
                $this->set_method('index');

                // Does the default controller exist in the sub-folder?
                if ( ! file_exists(APPPATH.'controllers/'.$this->fetch_directory().$this->default_controller.EXT))
                {
                    $this->directory = '';
                    return array();
                }

            }

            return $segments;
        }

        // Can't find the requested controller...
        show_404($segments[0]);
    }
}

Cheers!

I have created a quick start example which outlines both Facebook Connect and the Open Stream API. You can check that here. A blog post covering the steps is coming soon in 3-4 days.

Stay tuned if you have interest in them.

Cheers

Here goes the slides:

All the other slides, pictures, and videos are available here.

Enjoy!

<?php

// Specify the target URL in your server
$targetUrl  = 'http://YOUR_SERVER_URL';

// Specify what the response is from the server
$targetText = 'Hello from Daredevil';

// We will be using cURL for fetching the content
$ch = curl_init();

// Set the params
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $targetUrl);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

// Get the response
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

// Are things in right place ?
if ($response == $targetText) {
    die('Site is up and running!');
}

// Nope, so here are the sender's twitter info
$username = 'SENDER_TWITTER_USERNAME';
$password = 'SENDER_TWITTER_PASSWORD';

// Receiver's twitter username
$receiver = 'RECEIVER_TWITTER_USERNAME';

// Alert message to send
$message = 'Daredevil is not responding, please fix ASAP!';

// The Twitter API address (new direct message)
$url = 'http://twitter.com/direct_messages/new.json';

// We will be using cURL for this
$ch = curl_init();

// Set the params
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "user=$receiver&amp;text=$message");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");

// Send the request
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

// Success or failure
if (!empty($response)) {
    echo 'Recipient has been notified.';
} else {
    echo 'No response from twitter.';
}

Why I needed this?

Recently we have setup a server at our office for committing work to a local SVN repository and have the QA test our work whenever they are ready. We also have a staging server where we do SVN update from this repo. Now, for the last few days, I’ve found the local server to be off due to a few reasons – but every time I realized this at night when I am back home and can’t do anything to turn it on. So I thought about this Twitter alert which is sent to my cell phone immediately when the server goes offline.

Btw, if Twitter doesn’t send SMS to your country, don’t worry. Check out the excellent service at Twe2 that I’ve been using for a couple days.

Cheers!

You can download the presentation file here in two formats: PDF and Powerpoint.

The full workshop description is provided below. If you’re interested in attending the next workshop on April, get in touch with BDjobs.com.

Freelancing IT Jobs – How to Make Yourself Ready

A freelancer is a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any particular employer. A freelancer provides some sort of service whether it is design, programming, content writing or almost any other occupation. The main difference is that a freelancer has many clients rather than one steady employer. Freelancers often charge by the hour, the day or the project and are effectively running a small business with their skill set as the star product.

Although you might be thinking that freelancing is simply a different kind of job, in fact it is running your own business. When you are a freelancer, you are a one-person business. At some point you might even expand to a larger operation by hiring staff. Or you could remain a freelancer permanently.

So, if you’re looking for the next major break in your career OR you’re a fresh graduate who wants to make a living OR you want to check what the thing freelancing is, this workshop will help you out.

Contents of Training:

Session One: Introduction to IT Freelancing

1. Introduction

• What is freelancing?
• Benefits of freelancing
• Type of freelancing scope
• Type of freelancing jobs

2. The Basics

• Things you need to start freelancing
• Popular freelancing websites
• Early success factors
• Preparing yourself

Session two: Successful Freelancing

1. Getting Projects

• Signing up in freelancing sites
• Building a good profile
• Successful bidding
• Project scope & Timing
• Project budget

2. Working with Project

• Milestones and deadlines
• Communication
• Track progress

3. Working with Clients

• Essential client skills
• Professional Relationship
• How to keep client happy

Session three: Payments and Others

1. Getting Paid

• Status reports
• Invoices
• Payment methods
• How to avoid payment pitfalls

2. Questions & Answers

As they were not required together in one single project, I used them whenever needed. But in one project, I needed them all. I thoughts it’s a chance and decided to stop using them and wrote my own ones where I can use the same methods for all the gateways.

So, here is an abstract PaymentGateway library which is being extended to be used for three popular payment gateways (Paypal, Authorize.net, and 2Checkout) in order to provide you with a similar way of using them. Note that the libraries are for basic usage only and do not contain options for recurring payments. Without much babble, let’s see a few examples of how you can use them.

You can straight-away download the package with all the libraries, examples, and readme.

Paypal

In order to process payments using Paypal, you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Send the required information to Paypal (snippet 1). Be sure to specify your Paypal email where you want to receive the funds, the success and failure pages, the IPN page, and the product information. The example has the test mode ON, which you will not need in real scenario.

2. Create a payment success page where Paypal will send your customer after payment.

3. Create a payment failure page where Paypal will send your customer after failed payment.

4. Create a IPN page where Paypal will send payment notification in the background. Make sure you use/remove the test mode in conjunction with step 1. (snippet 2)

<?php

// Include the paypal library
include_once ('Paypal.php');

// Create an instance of the paypal library
$myPaypal = new Paypal();

// Specify your paypal email
$myPaypal->addField('business', 'YOUR_PAYPAL_EMAIL');

// Specify the currency
$myPaypal->addField('currency_code', 'USD');

// Specify the url where paypal will send the user on success/failure
$myPaypal->addField('return', 'http://YOUR_HOST/payment/paypal_success.php');
$myPaypal->addField('cancel_return', 'http://YOUR_HOST/payment/paypal_failure.php');

// Specify the url where paypal will send the IPN
$myPaypal->addField('notify_url', 'http://YOUR_HOST/payment/paypal_ipn.php');

// Specify the product information
$myPaypal->addField('item_name', 'T-Shirt');
$myPaypal->addField('amount', '9.99');
$myPaypal->addField('item_number', '001');

// Specify any custom value
$myPaypal->addField('custom', 'muri-khao');

// Enable test mode if needed
$myPaypal->enableTestMode();

// Let's start the train!
$myPaypal->submitPayment();

Snippet 1

<?php

// Include the paypal library
include_once ('Paypal.php');

// Create an instance of the paypal library
$myPaypal = new Paypal();

// Log the IPN results
$myPaypal->ipnLog = TRUE;

// Enable test mode if needed
$myPaypal->enableTestMode();

// Check validity and write down it
if ($myPaypal->validateIpn())
{
    if ($myPaypal->ipnData['payment_status'] == 'Completed')
    {
         file_put_contents('paypal.txt', 'SUCCESS');
    }
    else
    {
         file_put_contents('paypal.txt', "FAILURE\n\n" . $myPaypal->ipnData);
    }
}

Snippet 2

Authorize.net

In order to process payments using Authorize.net, you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Send the required information to Authorize.net(snippet 3). Be sure to specify your Authorize.net login and secret key, the success/failure pages, the IPN page, and the product information. The example has the test mode ON, which you will not need in real scenario.

2. Create a payment success/failure page where Authorize.net will send your customer after payment.

3. Create a IPN page where Authorize.net will send payment notification in the background. Make sure you use/remove the test mode in conjunction with step 1. (snippet 4)

4. In order to set the secret key, log into your authorize.net merchant account. Go to “MD5 Hash” menu and set a secret word to desired values and use that in the “setUserInfo” function showed in the example.

<?php

// Include the paypal library
include_once ('Authorize.php');

// Create an instance of the authorize.net library
$myAuthorize = new Authorize();

// Specify your authorize.net login and secret
$myAuthorize->setUserInfo('YOUR_LOGIN', 'YOUR_SECRET_KEY');

// Specify the url where authorize.net will send the user on success/failure
$myAuthorize->addField('x_Receipt_Link_URL', 'http://YOUR_HOST/payment/authorize_success.php');

// Specify the url where authorize.net will send the IPN
$myAuthorize->addField('x_Relay_URL', 'http://YOUR_HOST/payment/authorize_ipn.php');

// Specify the product information
$myAuthorize->addField('x_Description', 'T-Shirt');
$myAuthorize->addField('x_Amount', '9.99');
$myAuthorize->addField('x_Invoice_num', rand(1, 100));
$myAuthorize->addField('x_Cust_ID', 'muri-khao');

// Enable test mode if needed
$myAuthorize->enableTestMode();

// Let's start the train!
$myAuthorize->submitPayment();

Snippet 3

<?php

// Include the paypal library
include_once ('Authorize.php');

// Create an instance of the authorize.net library
$myAuthorize = new Authorize();

// Log the IPN results
$myAuthorize->ipnLog = TRUE;

// Specify your authorize login and secret
$myAuthorize->setUserInfo('YOUR_LOGIN', 'YOUR_SECRET_KEY');

// Enable test mode if needed
$myAuthorize->enableTestMode();

// Check validity and write down it
if ($myAuthorize->validateIpn())
{
    file_put_contents('authorize.txt', 'SUCCESS');
}
else
{
    file_put_contents('authorize.txt', "FAILURE\n\n" . $myPaypal->ipnData);
}

Snippet 4

2Checkout

In order to process payments using 2Checkout, you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Send the required information to 2Checkout(snippet 5). Be sure to specify your 2Checkout vendor id, the return page, and the product information. Please note that 2Checkout does not send IPN in the background, so you will need to handle the payment data in the return page. The example has the test mode ON, which you will not need in real scenario.

2. Create a return page where 2Checkout will send your customer after payment. This is also where you will need to retrieve and use the payment data. Make sure you use/remove the test mode in conjunction with step 1. (snippet 6)

3. In order to set the secret key, log into your 2checkout.com account and go to “Look and Feel” section. At the bottom enter the “Secret Word” and use it in the IPN verification process as shown in the example.

<?php

// Include the paypal library
include_once ('TwoCo.php');

// Create an instance of the authorize.net library
$my2CO = new TwoCo();

// Specify your 2CheckOut vendor id
$my2CO->addField('sid', 'YOUR_VENDOR_ID');

// Specify the order information
$my2CO->addField('cart_order_id', rand(1, 100));
$my2CO->addField('total', '9.99');

// Specify the url where authorize.net will send the IPN
$my2CO->addField('x_Receipt_Link_URL', 'http://YOUR_HOST/payment/twoco_ipn.php');
$my2CO->addField('tco_currency', 'USD');
$my2CO->addField('custom', 'muri-khao');

// Enable test mode if needed
$my2CO->enableTestMode();

// Let's start the train!
$my2CO->submitPayment();

Snippet 5

<?php

// Include the paypal library
include_once ('TwoCo.php');

// Create an instance of the authorize.net library
$my2CO = new TwoCo();

// Log the IPN results
$my2CO->ipnLog = TRUE;

// Specify your authorize login and secret
$my2CO->setSecret('YOUR_SECRET_KEY');

// Enable test mode if needed
$my2CO->enableTestMode();

// Check validity and write down it
if ($my2CO->validateIpn())
{
    file_put_contents('2co.txt', 'SUCCESS');
}
else
{
    file_put_contents('2co.txt', "FAILURE\n\n" . $my2CO->ipnData);
}

Snippet 6

Hope this will help you integrate the payment gateways in an easy manner. If you have any questions, or find any bug, have a suggestion, feel free to post them as comment here. Btw, this library is released under the MIT license.

Cheers!

Download

payment.zip PHP Payment Library for Paypal, Authorize.net and 2Checkout Downloaded: 6591 times

So here goes seven random (weird) things about me:

1. The veins in my left eyes are dried up, so I practically use my right eye for everything…pirate king!

2. The real break in my programming life came when I went to a programming contest with a team and was declined to participate. We had our rights and they later let us in, but gave us a almost broken PC. We cracked three out of 5 problems straight in DOS edit as the compiler would hardly run

3. I do not watch TV programs for the last 5 years. DVDs and downloaded movies/TV series are the only source of entertainment. My most fav TV series is The X Files.

4. When I was a kid, I was damn fond of toys. I had a whole collection of figures from HE-MAN, J.I.JOE, Thundercats, Transformers, and a few others.

5. I was present only in 48% classes in my second year in college, whereas the rule of thumb was a minimum of 85%. After the test exams, I was given a punishment of attending to library from 8am to 5pm for 26 days where the only thing allowed is study (textbook only). No friends, no gossip, no newspaper.

However, I convinced my father that this punishment was imposed to me as one teacher did not like my attitude in his class; i made my father to the principal with an application where its mentioned that I cannot attend this due to medical condition. Principal had to agree and I only had to do it for 2hrs for the sake of records

6. The first program I wrote for money was a file copying & renaming program in VB6 for $20. It would transfer some old mail server (don’t rem the name) files from an old server to a new one and would rename their extension to match Microsoft Exchange. Exchange was smart enough to read & convert automatically, so it looked as if the program did the conversion. Heh heh.

The fun part is, later another company was somehow convinced that it’s a huge work and went into a partnership with me where I received a down payment of $1500 and a 30% profit sharing with the same application plus a few UI improvement. Not bad

7. I never studied Computer Science nor did any programming classes. I have been in business studies concentration since school and did my bachelors in Business Administration (BBA). Currently I’m pursuing my masters in Business Administration (MBA) as well.

Here are the seven people I’m tagging:

1. Hasin Hayder
2. Anis Uddin Ahmad
3. NHM Tanveer Hossain Khan
4. Omi Azad
5. Trivuz
6. M.M.H Masud
7. Suhreed Sarkar

And here goes the rules:

- Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
- Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
- Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
- Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Enjoy!

Many of you have been writing to me in the last couple days when I took the site down. The main objective was to add the new theme and push a few code updates of the existing libraries. I really appreciate your concern and would like to reassure you that the site is up and will be up as usual Now, besides the slightly customized theme from Elegant Themes, I have put a few code updates. They are detailed below:

Extended Model for CodeIgniter

The original version of the Extended Model for CodeIgniter has been serving many people well. Although most users loved the nifty functions of the Model, many (including me) didn’t like the hacking of CI core to get this functionality. With the release of CodeIgniter 1.7, we can avoid that as we can now overload the Model class of CI like the other libraries. Follow this instruction:

1. Download the updated version from here
2. Put it in your application/libraries folder
3. In your model files, use it this way: class Product extends MY_Model
4. Everything else is same just like the original one

HTTP Class

There is not much update in this class except for a few bug fixes (thanks to you guys). Also, I have included a license file in the package as many of you have asked. It’s released under the MIT license. The original post is here for reference.

Download the update from here and the API reference is here.

Cross-domain AJAX calls using PHP

A minor bug fix in the code. Thanks to a few of you who pointed them out. Original post is here. Download the update from here.

I have accelerated plans for the blog in 2009 so stay tuned for some worthy posts in this month. And do write to me if you feel you have any questions/ideas/suggestions.

Cheers!

Nokia N81 8GB

Now, good points first. The N81boosts an extremely loud set of sterio speakers – combined with its Music Express, it delivers the highest quality of music I’ve ever purchased. Combined with the built-in FM radion, the dedicated music keys, and a multimedia menu – this is a music powerhouse, thanks to the all new Symbian 9.3 OS.

The Symbian OS is superb with all the applications and now has some stunning gameplay capabilities. The phone also has all kind of connectivity point you might need – GPRS, EDGE, Wifi, Bluetooth, WLAN, 3G. And don’t forget the built-in 8GB memory.

The only downside of this phone is the camera. It’s a 2 megapixel camera – which I don’t have any clue how got into a Nseries phone. If there is not enough light, the pictures are somewhat blurry. It has flash and a number of picture modes, so its a decent one – but nowhere in comparison with other Nseries 3.2mp and 5mp cameras.

All in all, here are the facts:

• 2.4” QVGA main color display (320 x 240 pixels), up to 16.7 million colors
• S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 based on Symbian OS v9.2
• Dedicated media keys for quick and easy access to music and video
• WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g with UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) support
• Bluetooth Specification 2.0 (profiles supported: DUN, OPP, FTP, HFP, GOEP, GAP, SPP, HSP, BIP, A2DP)
• Micro USB 2.0 Full Speed (mass storage class)
• Nokia AV Connector 3.5mm
• Up to 2 megapixel (1600×1200 pixels) camera, MPEG-4 VGA video capture of up to 15fps
• Zoom: digital up to 20x
• Front camera (CIF)
• Video call and video sharing support (WCDMA network services)
• Integrated flash (modes: on, off, automatic, redeye reduction)
• Rotating gallery with Navi wheel support
• Nokia Nseries digital music player supports MP3 (VBR), AAC, eAAC+, AAC+, WMA/M4A, WAV
• OMA DRM 1.x, 2.0, Windows Media DRM (OTI/OTA with Nokia Music Store*)
• Synchronize music with Windows Media Player 11
• Media keys (play/pause, stop, forward, rewind)
• Stereo FM radio (87.5-108MHz /76-90MHz)

Let’s see how long it can serve my ever-growing thirst of technology