dBlog.com.au

Big Click Studios is a dynamic company based on the NSW Central Coast with a relaxing and innovative work environment.

Fantastic office just minutes from the beach and train station. You will be working on many of our current and upcoming web development projects all bursting at the seams begging for the right person to dig their teeth into!

Essentials:

• PHP5 + MySQL
• XHTML + Javascript (jQuery a bonus) & CSS
• An eye for well structured code and clean database structures
• Understanding of Object Orientated Programming

Bonuses:

• CakePHP framework
• AJAX
• Flash / Actionscript 2 & 3

Personal characteristics:

• Must be able to work as part of a team
• Proactive involvement in the business (we work closely with all staff to provide a safe, fun and mentally challenging environment)
• Strong communication skills (both written and spoken)
• Xbox skills are not required but highly desired if you dont want to get whooped at lunch!

For more information please send an email to jobs@bigclick.com.au or give us a call on 1300 677 924.

Look forward to hearing from you soon!

Popularity: 1% [?]

While setting up some dedicated servers at the office I needed a quick and easy way to backup each server to an offsite location. After looking around for a while and trying some of the existing S3 backup scripts I couldn’t find anything that satisfied my needs (Apache htdocs & MySQL databases).

So after playing around a bit I decided to write up my own quick and dirty bash script. It doesn’t do incremental backups, rotation or any of that fancy stuff but it does everything I needed and I may expand on it later to remove any backups more than 30 days old but for now I will just delete them manually.

After scrounging around a bit I decided to go with the s3cmd command line tool to provide the access to the S3 service. If you use debian you can simply install it from the default repositories by running “apt-get install s3cmd”

You will need to configure s3cmd before using this script otherwise your backup transfers will fail. Follow the instructions over at http://s3tools.org/s3cmd

Now onto the script!

#!/bin/bash
unset PATH

# S3 VARIABLES
S3BUCKET=my-backups # S3 Bucket name

# LOCATION TO STORE BACKUPS WHILE PROCESSING
BACKUPDIR=./backup

# MYSQL DETAILS
MYSQLUSER=root
MYSQLPWD=password
MYSQLHOST=localhost

# APACHE FILES TO BACKUP
HTDOCS=/var/www

# PATH VARIABLES
MK=/bin/mkdir;
TAR=/bin/tar;
GZ=/bin/gzip;
RM=/bin/rm;
GREP=/bin/grep;
MYSQL=/usr/bin/mysql;
MYSQLDUMP=/usr/bin/mysqldump;
DATE=/bin/date;
FIND=/usr/bin/find;
S3CMD=/usr/bin/s3cmd

# OTHER VARIABLES
NOW=$($DATE +_%b_%d_%y);

#REMOVE EXISTING BACKUP DIRECTORY
$RM -Rf $BACKUPDIR$NOW

# Create new backup dir
$MK $BACKUPDIR$NOW

# FILE BACKUP
for i in $($FIND $HTDOCS/* -maxdepth 0 -type d -printf '%f\n'); do
   $TAR -czf $BACKUPDIR$NOW/httpdocs_$i.tar.gz $HTDOCS/$i;
done

# MYSQL BACKUP
for i in $(echo 'SHOW DATABASES;' | $MYSQL -u$MYSQLUSER -p$MYSQLPWD -h$MYSQLHOST|$GREP -v '^Database$'); do
  $MYSQLDUMP                                                    \
  -u$MYSQLUSER -p$MYSQLPWD -h$MYSQLHOST                         \
  -Q -c -C --add-drop-table --add-locks --quick --lock-tables   \
  $i | $GZ -9 > $BACKUPDIR$NOW/mysql_$i.sql.gz
done;

# ARCHIVE ALL FILES FROM THIS BACKUP
$TAR -czvf fullbackup$NOW.tar.gz $BACKUPDIR$NOW
$RM -Rf $BACKUPDIR$NOW

# UPLOAD THE BACKUP TO S3
$S3CMD put fullbackup$NOW.tar.gz s3://$S3BUCKET/fullbackup$NOW.tar.gz
$RM -Rf fullbackup$NOW.tar.gz

Simply put the above contents into a file (e.g. /root/s3backup.sh) and chmod it to 755.

Now to give it a test just execute the file s3backup.sh from the command line and check the output for errors and check your S3 account to make sure the file has arrived.

I know it’s not elegant, it’s not anything special but it does exactly what I need and I couldn’t find anything that did MySQL databases and Apache htdocs in the one foul swoop.

Good luck and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Why did I do it?

While working on a client project I needed a way to heavily integrate with Twitter for an interactive competition. I could have built a quick and dirty script to do this but I knew that I would be dealing with more clients that wanted Twitter integration.

What did I do?

I built a CakePHP Component to access all the Twitter API features along with the Twitter Search API for Searching/Trending.

There are already some Twitter API components for CakePHP but they all had their own little bits that I didn’t like so I decided to whip one up and share it for everyone to use.

As the component is 1140 lines I wont be posting it here in the article, but you can view the source code here.

How does it all work?

There is nothing like a fully functioning example to show you how to use it! So I have built a quick replica of the Twitter homepage to give you a feel for it.

View the example first to see what we will be building, it is updated every refresh and everything is pulled straight from Twitter’s API.

First up you will need to put the Twitter Component into your /app/controllers/components/ folder and call it twitter.php, you can find the text version here or download the source files at the bottom of the page.

Now create a new controller called twitter_controller.php and put the following content into it. Don’t forget to change the {USERNAME} and {PASSWORD} place holders to your Twitter details.

<?php
/**
* Twitter Controller
*
* This class is used to manage twitter communication
*
* @version 0.1
* @author Dean Collins <dean@bigclick.com.au>
* @project dblog
*/
class TwitterController extends AppController {
	/**
	* Controller Name
	* @access public
	* @var string
	*/
	var $name = 'Twitter';

	/**
	* Components that are used in this controller
	* @access public
	* @var array
	*/
	var $components = array('Twitter');

	/**
	* Models that are used in this controller
	* @access public
	* @var array
	*/
  	var $uses = array();

	/**
	* Helpers
	* @access public
	* @var array
	*/
  	var $helpers = array('Text', 'Html');

	/**
	* Default action
	*
	* The index function is used as a default action, in this case it will replicate your twitter page
	*/
	function index() {
		$this->layout = 'twitter';
		$this->Twitter->username = '{USERNAME}';
        $this->Twitter->password = '{PASSWORD}';
		// Grab the recent activity
		$feed = $this->Twitter->statuses_friends_timeline();
		// Grab the users details
		$user_details = $this->Twitter->account_verify_credentials();
		// Get your friends
		$friends = $this->Twitter->statuses_friends();
		// Get your followers
		$followers = $this->Twitter->statuses_followers();

		$this->set('feed', $feed);
		$this->set('user_details', $user_details);
		$this->set('friends', $friends);
		$this->set('followers', $followers);
	}

}
?>

Now create a new layout in your /app/views/layouts/ called twitter.ctp and put the following content in:

<!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>CakePHP/Twitter API Example</title>
<style type="text/css">
/* v1.0 | 20080212 */

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe,
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code,
del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var,
b, u, i, center,
dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,
fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	border: 0;
	outline: 0;
	font-size: 100%;
	vertical-align: baseline;
	background: transparent;
}
body {
	line-height: 1;
}
ol, ul {
	list-style: none;
}
blockquote, q {
	quotes: none;
}
blockquote:before, blockquote:after,
q:before, q:after {
	content: '';
	content: none;
}

/* remember to define focus styles! */
:focus {
	outline: 0;
}

/* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */
ins {
	text-decoration: none;
}
del {
	text-decoration: line-through;
}

/* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */
table {
	border-collapse: collapse;
	border-spacing: 0;
}

</style>
</head>

<body>
<div style="top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 45px; padding-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
	<div style="width: 800px; margin: 0 auto;">
    <h1 style="font-size: 24px;">CakePHP Twitter API Class Example</h1>
    </div>
</div>
<?php echo $content_for_layout; ?>
</body>
</html>

Finally create a new view under /app/views/twitter/ called index.ctp and put the following content in:

<style type="text/css">
body { font-size: 12px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-image: url('<?php echo $user_details['User']['profile_background_image_url']; ?>'); background-attachment: fixed; background-repeat: no-repeat; }
.status_update img, .avatar { float: left; width: 48px; height: 48px; margin-right: 10px; }
.status_update { overflow: hidden; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; padding: 5px; border-bottom: 1px dashed #333; }

.status_update:hover { background-color: #CFF }

a {color: #0084B4;}
#lcol { width: 600px; border-right: 1px solid #333; float:left; }
#rcol { width: 180px; padding: 10px; float:left;}
#wrapper {width: 801px; margin: 0 auto; border: 1px solid #333; overflow: hidden; background-color: #FFFFFF}

#user_stats { margin-left: 15px; overflow: hidden; }

#user_stats a { color: #333333; display: block; float: left; font-size: 20px; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; background-color: transparent;}

#user_stats a span { font-size: 12px; color: #0084B4; }

#profile_title { font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; overflow: hidden; }

.avatar_small { width: 24px; height: 24px; }

.avatar_list { list-style: none; list-style-type:none; overflow: hidden }

.avatar_list li { float: left; }

#rcol h2 { font-size: 18px; padding: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 10px; }
</style>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="lcol">
    <ol>
    <?php foreach($feed['Statuses']['Status'] as $status) { ?>
    <li class="status_update">
    <img src="<?php echo $status['User']['profile_image_url']; ?>">
    <p><?php echo $status['text']; ?></p>
    </li>
    <?php } ?>
    </ol>
</div>
<div id="rcol" style="background-color: #<?php echo $user_details['User']['profile_sidebar_fill_color']; ?>">
    <div id="profile_title">
        <img class="avatar" src="<?php echo $user_details['User']['profile_image_url']; ?>"/>
        <?php echo $user_details['User']['screen_name']; ?>
   	</div>
    <strong>Name</strong> <?php echo $user_details['User']['name']; ?><br/>
    <strong>Location</strong> <?php echo $user_details['User']['location']; ?><br/>
    <strong>Web</strong> <a href="<?php echo $user_details['User']['url']; ?>"><?php echo $text->truncate($user_details['User']['url'], 20, '...'); ?></a><br/>
    <strong>Bio</strong> <?php echo $user_details['User']['description']; ?><br/>
    <div id="user_stats">
        <a href=""><?php echo $user_details['User']['friends_count']; ?><br/><span>following</span></a>
        <a href="" style="margin-left: 20px;"><?php echo $user_details['User']['followers_count']; ?><br/><span>followers</span></a>
    </div>
    <h2>Followers</h2>
    <ul class="avatar_list">
    	<?php foreach($followers['Users']['User'] as $follower) { ?>
        	<li><a href="http://www.twitter.com/<?php echo $follower['screen_name']; ?>/" target="_blank"><img alt="<?php echo $follower['screen_name']; ?>" width="24" height="24" class="avatar_small" src="<?php echo $follower['profile_image_url']; ?>"/></a></li>
        <?php } ?>
    </ul>

    <h2>Following</h2>
    <ul class="avatar_list">
    	<?php foreach($friends['Users']['User'] as $follower) { ?>
        	<li><a href="http://www.twitter.com/<?php echo $follower['screen_name']; ?>/" target="_blank"><img alt="<?php echo $follower['screen_name']; ?>" width="24" height="24" class="avatar_small" src="<?php echo $follower['profile_image_url']; ?>"/></a></li>
        <?php } ?>
    </ul>
</div>
</div>

And that’s it! You can head to http://yourcakeinstall.com/twitter and you should see a Twitter-like page with all your details with friends, followers, tweets, etc.

You can see my example over here

There is ALOT you can do with the data from Twitter so please let me know if you build something using this component and I will chuck a link up here for you.

Download the Source Files

You can download the source files, including the above example below.

CakePHP/Twitter API Component Download

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter and subscribe to my RSS to stay in the loop.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Whilst trekking around the wilderness learning the ins and outs of CakePHP I have compiled a list of helpful CakePHP related sites that have gotten me through some tough times.

After spending so much time finding these resources I thought that I would compile them into a list and publish them.

1. Official CakePHP website: The number one source for CakePHP manuals, blogs, API’s, articles and tutorials.

2. Donutczar.com: Great information and examples on Helpers in CakePHP 1.2, a really good source for people who want a hand’s on and visual explanation.

3. cakebaker.42dh.com: Always has new and brilliant ideas for CakePHP applications and offers easy to understand and user-friendly tutorials.

4. ThinkingPHP: Although ThinkingPHP is an all-round PHP information site it also has a very helpful and detailed area dedicated to CakePHP. ThinkingPHP also monitors other popular CakePHP blogs and provides all the information in a common and easy to manage area.

5. Rolsoft.wordpress.com: The RolSoft Blog is an oldie, but a goodie! It has articles on integrating AJAX, speeding up SQL queries in CakePHP and much more. Most of the content is outdated, but it still serves to point people in the right direction and to offer food for thought.

6. Mariano Iglesias: Not only does this blog look amazing, it has buckets of information, everything from CakeFest information, CakePHP tips, framework write-ups and more. This is a a site that you will want to add to your favourites and your blog reader!

7. CakePHP Google Group: This is the official Google Code group for CakePHP and it has a large memberbase and has lots of information available. Sometimes it can be a little unwielding to find your way around, but once you have the hang of it you will be flying around in no time.

8. Tim Trice: This is a great blog that concentrates on articles aimed at the CakePHP beginner. With articles ranging from “What CakePHP can do” through to extending the CakePHP Blog tutorial.

9. CakePHP.nu: Another little CakePHP blog that had a couple of articles that really stood out to me. It is relativly new so there isn’t a great deal of content, but its more like quality over quantity.

10. In the Kitchen with CakePHP: This isn’t really a “site” as such but I thought it was worth a mention. “In the Kitchen with CakePHP” is a great tutorial for beginners who need a start to finish walkthrough of CakePHP and its features, it is also useful to have a read before selecting CakePHP as your framework of choice as it goes over many of the key features.

Well for now thats my 10 Helpful resources that got me out of some trouble, if you have any suggestions or comments then please feel free to post them below.

Popularity: 1% [?]