This is a quick follow up post from Tony Spencers post “cURL with PHP and Apache on Windows.” I’d like to thank him for sharing his knowledge.

The reason i wanted to post this is to clear up any confusion you about getting Curl to work on Windows XP (with PHP 5.2.9-2 and Apache 2.2.11). Most likely this solution will work with all versions of PHP5 and Apache 2.2.x and if you are running XAMPP you can check how easy it is to >> enable << .

Getting Curl to Work!!

1. First thing to do is to have the development environment installed locally on your computer. I have one at the office with installed without the installer and one here at home with the installer. For all intensive purposes lets concentrate on using php/apache installed with the MSI installer. If you got that going thats great, if not head on over to this >> Tutorial to install your local development << (the manual way with the installer) If you got it installed already head on over to the next point
2. Next thing you need to do (after your installation) is to check your phpinfo() file. If you don’t have one make one and load it up on your local web-server. It should look like the screen below:
   

   If you don’t see your Curl extension in phpinfo() after trying to find it I suggest you install php again using the installer. Make sure your ENABLE all extensions/features in your installation as you will get an option to do so. (install all features please) If you explore the extension features in your install dialogue box you will see CURL there. This my friends is the key to the problem. If the installer gives you the option for less headache then use it. Did I mention that you can also rerun the installer and choose “Change”, then add the CURL extension?!

3. Once you have installed properly and find the Curl extension in your phpinfo() screen make sure to copy these files from your PHP root directory (mine was D:\Program Files\PHP) to your c:\windows\system32:
   libeay32.dll
ssleay32.dll
   Also make sure that a copy of php5ts.dll is also in your Apache/bin directory
4. Last step is to uncomment this line curl: extension=php_curl.dll in your php.ini file. That should do it for you and hopefully everything worked out right!
5. To test that Curl is actually working use this snippet of code and drop it in to your server root (usually htdocs):

   <?php
       error_reporting(E_ALL);
       ini_set('display_errors', '1');
       $ch = curl_init();
       curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,
       'http://news.google.com/news?output=rss');
       curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
       $contents = curl_exec ($ch);
       echo $contents;
       curl_close ($ch);
       ?>
       

   Try this as well to display feeds from your blog (where $sXML = show_feeds(’put the url of your blog here/atom’)

   <?php
   function show_feeds($path) {
           $ch = curl_init();
           curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$path);
           curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR,1);
           curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION,1);
           curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
           curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 15);
           $retValue = curl_exec($ch);
           curl_close($ch);
           return $retValue;
   }
   $sXML = show_feeds('http://blogspot.fluidnewmedia.com/atom');
   $oXML = new SimpleXMLElement($sXML);
   <p>foreach($oXML->entry as $oEntry) {
           echo $oEntry->title . "\n";
   }
   ?>
   

6. If you see the the rss feed of Google then you are done! Change the output to ‘html’ and you will see the RSS feed displayed properly in html.

Scripting Twitter with cURL via Command Line

Ok the above explanation shows you how to use Curl and PHP together to build applications based on API’s that you would like to hook into. It doesn’t mean that you have Curl installed in your command like prompt where you can actually see the XML.

To do that is quite simple. Go over to http://curl.haxx.se/download.html and download the the Win32 Generic (7.19.4) by Dirk Paehl. Go ahead and extract it to a local folder (I extracted it to D:\Program Files\Curl).

Next open up the command prompt and cd into the same directory you extracted it into. Now just type in curl at the prompt to make sure the command is recoginized

If you want to easily overcome the shortcomings of Twitter’s API us this command below:

curl --basic --user username:password --data status="Checking out Curl!!" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml
//replace username:password with your user name and password


You should end up with this below:

So by now you should have a good idea of how Curl works with Apache and PHP as well as on the command line. The way i explained above should work straight out of the box. Good Luck!

This is a quick and dirty way to display Google Maps in Android. Its really not that hard and after learning how to do this you can easily start thinking about how you want to architect your Android App using the different bundles that come with google (Maps are only one of them!!).

Fire up Eclipse / Create your Project

Easily set up your own project here => I am using GANEYMEDE eclipse, which is the international version of the popular Eclipse IDE. If you don’t have the Android SDK you can download it from here and you can download Eclipse from here.Also make sure you have the latest version of Java => download it from here.

Your first step is to create the project within Eclipse (I will not get into how to install Android onto your computer) so refer to the screenshot.

GET YOUR MAPS API KEY

With the Android SDK release v1.0, you need to apply for a free Google Maps API key before you can integrate Google Maps into your Android application. Please follow the simple steps below on how to obtain your key. You may also refer to Googles detailed documentation here. You can also refer to Google’s detailed documentation on the process here.

Since you are testing the application on the emulator locate the SDK debug certificate located in the default folder of "C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Android". The filename of the debug keystore is debug.keystore. For deploying to a real Android device, substitute the debug.keystore file with your own keystore file.

To make things simple just add (debug.keystore) to a folder in C:\ (for example, create a folder called "C:\Android").

Using the debug keystore, you need to extract its MD5 fingerprint using the Keytool.exe application included with your JDK installation. This fingerprint is needed to apply for the free Google Maps key. You can usually find the Keytool.exe from the "C:\Program Files\Java\\bin" folder.

Issue the following command to extract the MD5 fingerprint.

keytool.exe -list -alias androiddebugkey -keystore "C:\android\debug.keystore" -storepass android -keypass android


Modify your android manifest.xml file

The manifest file describes the components of the application — the activities, services, broadcast receivers, and content providers that the application is composed of. It names the classes that implement each of the components and publishes their capabilities (for example, which Intent messages they can handle). These declarations let the Android system know what the components are and under what conditions they can be launched.

Displaying your map

Next to display the Google Maps in your Android application, modify the main.xml file located in the res/layout folder. You shall use the element to display the Google Maps in your activity. In addition, let’s use the element to position the map within the activity:

Make sure that you have applied your android api key

Modify the MapActivity class

Lastly all you need to do is modify the MapActivity class in your #src folder. (Maps.Activity.java)

package com.ahadbokhari.GoogleMaps;
import com.google.android.maps.MapActivity;
import com.google.android.maps.MapView;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class MapsActivity extends MapActivity
{
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
    }

    @Override
    protected boolean isRouteDisplayed() {
        return false;
    }
}

The above steps are all you need to actually display the maps in your emulatore. Press F11 in Eclipse to deploy the application onto an Android emulator. If you are experiencing problems then look over these three troubleshooting steps below:

Make sure that you add the package in your AndroidManifest.xml file.

Make sure you have internet permission (if you see nothing but grids in the emulator.) in the AndroidManifest.xml File.

I have been analyzing Open Source social media, how it works and what are the best platforms out there available for us to use. Though this is not a comparison of frameworks, or an in-depth article it’s a good place to start checking out the different frameworks that help us create these dynamic robust sites that are becoming more and more popular by the day.

There is always the option to build your own social media site (which we have already done, contact us for a demo). I have talked to companies that have taken the giant leap into social media and have implemented fully-featured scenarios enabling their users to interact, share and connect with others.

Much like other companies we have spent a lot of time and energy developing this system in-house and were lucky enough to have the development skills to get started + my own development expertise. I’ll tell you developing in-house isn’t as straightforward as leveraging an existing Open Source Platform or using Open-Source scripts.

The fact is that the web changes everyday and if you are not in the position to hire developers (the competent ones have high rates) you might be looking down a double edged sword. Instead why not avail the power of thousands of developers constantly improving one platform (of your choice) and then customizing it from there. This approach will save you a lot of time, money and hair-loss! Another point to note is that most of these open source systems are stable, easy to deploy and at fractions of the cost than that of In-house or contractual development.

So let’s get to it shall we? Ohh before I move on I would appreciate any comments or extra information that might add value to this article. Thanks..

Mahara:

Mahara is an open source e-portfolio system with a flexible display framework. Mahara, meaning ‘think’ or ‘thought’ in Te Reo Māori, is user centered environment with a permissions framework that enables different views of an e-portfolio to be easily managed. Mahara also features a weblog, resume builder and social networking system, connecting users and creating online learner communities.

Home Page: http://mahara.org/
Demo: http://demo.mahara.org/

Spree

Spree is an expert search engine where users ask questions to find other participating users, who are knowledgeable in that area and willing to help. Spree aims to create an active online community, especially in enterprises, where every user can ask questions or act as an expert helping fellow users.

Home Page: http://project.askspree.de/
ScreenShots: http://spree.dai-labor.de/screenshots/

Appleased

The Appleseed Project is an effort to create open source Social Networkingsoftware that is based on a distributed model. For instance, a profile on one Appleseed website could “friend” a profile on another Appleseed website, and the two profiles could interact with each other.

Homepage: http://appleseed.sourceforge.net/
Notes: Interoperable meaning that two appleased apps can communicate with each other (Like Myspace)

GetBoo

GetBoo was created more than 3 years ago (April 2005) for the main purpose of learning PHP and MySQL. Also, I wanted to be trained in the web environment, because since we browse the web almost daily I wanted to know how things work. My first idea was to make a bookmarking website. Little I knew about social bookmarking.

Homepage: http://www.getboo.com/project.php
Notes: Social bookmarking, interesting code and thought provoking no holds barred developer.

Elgg

Elgg was started in 2004 with the aim of providing an elegant and powerful solution for anyone who wants to create their own online community. Elgg is free and open source and powers all kinds of social networks – from education and business to martial artsand rugby. If you are looking for a professional social intranet or just want to run a site for your fishing club, Elgg is a great choice.

Homepage: http://elgg.org/
Notes: Extremely well laid out with and has options for a turnkey solution.

Movable Type Motion

From Twitter to FaceBook, you’re already using social media to build relationships with customers online. But those services don’t give you total control over your brand. Now Motion gives you a way to manage your message across all of these social networks, while still empowering your community to be part of the conversation.

Home page: http://movabletype.com/motion/
Demo: http://www.movabledemo.com/motion_demo/

BuddyPress

BuddyPress is a suite of WordPress plugins and themes, each adding a distinct new feature. BuddyPress contains all the features you’d expect from WordPress but aims to let members socially interact.

Homepage: http://buddypress.org/
Demo: http://buddypress.org/demo

PHP MOTION

PHPmotion Media Sharing CMS – PHPmotion is a free video sharing software that also has support for other types of media such as audio/mp3 sharing. The Content Managent System or (media cms application) will allow you to create and run your very own Video Sharing website, Music Sharing Site, Picture Sharing Site.

HomePage: http://www.phpmotion.com/
Features: http://phpmotion.com/content/view/17/33/

Dolphin

Match, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Odeo and Facebook combined, free Web 2.0 software. Create a unique community, social network, or dating site instantly with the world’s most popular open-source community script.

Home Page: http://www.boonex.com/
Demo: http://www.boonex.us/

PHPizabi

PHPizabi is one of the most powerful social networking platforms on the planet. With literally thousands of websites powered by PHPizabi including everything from simple friends sites to the most complex networking super sites out there. Easy to install, use, and raising the bar on what it is to provide a reliable, fast, social networking package to raise your business to the next level.

Home Page: http://www.phpizabi.net/

Pligg

Pligg is an open source Content Management System (CMS) that you can download and use for free. Pligg CMS provides social networking software that encourages visitors to register on your website so that they can submit content and connect with other users.
Homepage: http://www.pligg.com/

The above list will give you a lot of options to choose between the different types of Social Media sites. You can check them out and see which one *closest fits your needs and then extend upon that. These platforms are worth the fuss if you are able to use them properly and customize them to you needs.

Good information is where its at. Filtering out that information can be a little time consuming lest you know where to go so I just wanted to share what I thought would be useful to designers out there.

If you check slide # 51 in Object Oriented CSS you will see that you should never specify an element first. This is a practice i didn’t know about. Sometimes learning yourself can lead into bad practices and thats why I like to learn from the pros. Thanks Stubbornella..

Though some of the slides are a little old, you can still learn a whole lot from them.

Also for more slides and interesting presentations check: http://www.slideshare.net/andhttp://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/

Thanks to everyone for helping me learn….

I’m a big believer in “Quality”, and its what keeps me alive in this business. Its also what attracts others to my work and that is what keeps me satisfied => to grow and grow “the right way” with the web.

Having said that its true that many people do compromise on the quality that they deliver for their clients (especially in Pakistan) and thats a real shame, to say the least….

A good example of what i mean here is at Obaids blog where he talks about the Dawn website and it’s redesign. I mean a huge newsgroup like Dawn cant even develop a decent portal for their users??

I have talked to so many people about this but they just look at me and say “Oh thats an awesome site!!” After all most of them dont have anything to compare it with, nor do they care to. Obaid is one individual that steps up and isnt afraid to speak out loud and have people here his voice. And thats a good thing..

Reasons why “A quality driven approach” in all its entirety has helped me, and might help you too

1. Get noticed and fast with quality over quantity: Might is right just doesn’t work anymore. Try and revel in the LIM Approach (Less is More!)
2. Satisfaction: A deep feeling of satisfaction is achieved when you put the desired effort into your work. At the end of the day if you feel good about your work, you will never work a day in your life.
3. Staying out of your comfort zone: When approaching a solution try and move away from your comfort zone and target higher-end technologies that you don’t really know about. Higher end solutions are always quality driven…
4. Build Confidence: Confidence is one of the keys to success in any business and especially with the ever-changing web. Start out by actually implementing what you have learned into your solutions on a day to day basis.
5. Setting yourself apart from the rest of the pack (Individualism): This is debatable here in Pakistan, nevertheless I still believe that you should distinctly separate your work from the rest of the pack. A v

Ultimately the above reasons is why i have stuck to my guns in the last year and half or so. I could have easily gone the “average” way but what fun and challenge would that be. I like to push myself, and really feel that the youngsters here in Pakistan should also.

If anyone is interested in group learning sessions where we can exchange ideas about how to improve ourselves i am ready.

For free Ruby on Rails training and awareness please visit our company blog

My hunt for knowledge usually leads me to interesting places (in Rails as well as generally). Today I found a priceless little book by 37 Signals titled “Getting Real”. The book is available for purchase here

I’ve skimmed through the free online book and it looks extremely insightful for new designers, developers etc etc coming to the Rails framework.

You might just want to check it out…

This is a follow up post from the one I read over at Rails Envy. Indeed its true that Rails need Active Members for their growing community, but the fact is that they don’t and this is one of the reasons Greg Pollack posted on his blog.

Read what Greg had to say:

Here in the Rails community I feel we’ve been lucky enough to have several great coders who are also great leaders. I’m not just talking about the people on the Rails core, I’m talking about people who create educational media such as rails blogs, tutorials, books, classes, screencasts, podcasts. I’m also talking about anyone who has taken the time to release a Rails Plugin or Gem, support new Rails developers (like on mailing lists, forums, or IRC), or run events promoting Rails or Ruby.

Doing this sort of community development (as you may already know), can often be a thankless job. It may feel like the people at the top (or in our case, the core developers) get all the credit. Just like I’ve heard people say “Why bother coding a Rails patch, it won’t get accepted” in regards to code, I’ve also heard “Why bother producing this Rails content, if it won’t be appreciated or recognized” in regards to community development. Thus, I’ve personally done my best to recognize and publicize these people, either by promoting them in the Rails Envy Podcast or through the Ruby Hero Awards, but sometimes I wish I could do more.

You know that this man is sincere about Rails and knows exactly where it is headed in the future. Ok, so you are not a great coder (don’t worry you will be if you take the time to). You can help out however by contributing to anyone of these destinations or by signing up:

Rails User Voice
Rails Envy => Start by commenting on their blog.
Rails Google Activist Group

Two other points that i liked (from the Rails Envy blog)

Empower People to do good work:

If you want to help with the documentation, you have an idea for a new resource, or you want to completely redo the wiki, let us know. Come to us with your ideas on how you can support the community on the internet or even in your local neighborhood. Lets figure out how we can help you spread the word.

Listen to the community

I care a great deal about growing Rails in 2009, and pushing it deeper into the enterprise. Each of the Activists has their own initiatives and projects to help do this, but we’re going to need community involvement to attack some of the bigger issues. Two examples of this might include fixing the Wiki, and the creation of some sort of Rails Book.

Valid points by Greg no doubt, so let the Rails Core team do what they do best => and that is program. I for one will help out wherever i can, even if it means spending extra hours on the computer aside all my other work..

This is an unforgettable mistake i made today while running some migrations in Rails.

Here is the first migration file. It was generated by using this simple command:

ruby script/generate model Articles

Simple enough right? The output of the generation was:

def self.up
  create_table :articles do |t|
    t.column :user_id, :integer
    t.column :title, :string
    t.column :synopsis, :text, :limit => 1000
    t.column :body, :text, :limit => 20000
    t.column :published, :boolean, :default => false
    t.column :created_at, :datetime
    t.column :updated_at, :datetime
    t.column :published_at, :datetime
    t.column :category_id, :integer
  end

def self.down
  drop_table :categories
 end
end

When i went ahead and tried the rake command to migrate to my database: rake db:migrate I kept getting an error “Uninitialized constant Create Articles” Rake Aborted!!

Having forgot that everything in Rails is Object Orientated (extends from one base class or another) i overlooked two things.

1. I did not declare the class and what base it extended
2. I did not add the schema file name into my migration file

Usually Rails generates the schema and adds the base class (Active Record) but this time it didn’t. Anyhow the fix was easy enough…

#20090106022023_create_articles.rb
class CreateArticles < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :articles do |t|
      t.belongs_to :user, :category
      t.string :title
      t.text :synopsis, :limit => 1000
      t.text :body, :limit => 20000
      t.boolean :published, :default => false
      t.datetime :published_at
      t.timestamps
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :articles
  end
end

So this is a classic mistake of us all having our moments..Thanks again to the users over at Stack Overflow for helping out. Their are some excellent trouble shooters out there.

RPM Lite is a FREE, supported Rails production monitoring product that helps you keep your app humming. You get deep, real-time visibility into your app, so you always know what’s up. Use it on as many applications and hosts as you like. For as long as you like.

Troubleshoot in development. Troubleshoot in production. Build high speed into your app from the very beginning.

Sign up for New Relic (its free!!)

I spent two minutes checking it out with the *small flex/rails app that i made the other day. What i liked straight off the bat was two things:

1. Installing the plugin: Easy as pie! I’m not exactly sure if you can install it without signing up, nevertheless it was a cinch!
2. Point and Go!: All you got to do is point your browser to:
   http://localhost:3000/newrelic and you are done!!

So its pretty much a straight outta the box type of deal here. Will definitely be using this little baby from now on!

Today we had our first training session on Ruby and Ruby on Rails. The boys over at office where extremely excited and so was I. We went over:

1. What is Ruby?
2. What is Rails?
3. History of Ruby and Ruby on Rails.
4. Brief Approach to MVC and Design Patterns.
5. Skinny Vs. Fat Controllers.
6. Intro and History of MERB.
7. Intro to Git/Putty/SSH.
8. Pre-Requisites (Ruby, Cap, Mongrel, Rails, Gems, SQL).
9. Difference between Instant Rails and Manual Install.
10. Common commands.
11. Installing Rails.
12. Skeleton Application.
13. Intro to routes, database.yml, common folders in a Rails App.
14. Review and Questions

Its amazing to see how quickly developers get the hang of Rails framework. Some of the team members are versed in Oracle, Java and we have a dedicated database architect also. Sure it took them a little bit of Spoonfed goodness but thats aight! We hope to continue our training till we reach a point where we can do the Agile Web Development Thang (aint too far away InshAllah). Thats not to say thay we will “ditch” our “bread and butter” work for Rails. Its just really exciting to see Pakistanis gel with sincerity.

Rails has given me not only the opportunity to share with others, but bridge the divide amongst my own people. That is itself says alot for one Framework. With the merge of Merb and Rails (OMG), i guarantee you lots of adoption in the near future.

DHH will you get on making Rails easier to deploy in the near future. In my limited knowledge deployment is one aspect that will doom Rails for early adopters out there.

Sheesh i need to post some pics up of the office and the guys!! Well done team, I am proud of you all today (MashAllah).

We be chopping game soon baby CHOP CHOP CHOP!!!