Web Development London UK » Interesting

What is xmlrpc.php?

Admin — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:02:59 +0000

It is a script which allows clients to make procedural calls over the net.
As it says in the name, the encoding is XML and because it is used on websites we can make the fair assessment that it uses the HTTP protocol.

If we break the name down we get: XML transmition via Remote Procedure Calls.

So you are still not sure what this is all about? Read on..

xmlrpc.com has a very simple yet rather effective diagram which illustrates what’s going on with it all:

As we can see above, xmlrpc is basically a simple way of transporting data using a common protocol used on the web.

This file is usually added to the root of a domain when using packages such as WordPress, Drupal or similar.

XMLRPC.php only accepts POST requests so using the CURL library or similar would be the best option when interacting with it. The PHP source file is quite long so I will not include it here, as it is 3375lines long. But you can easily find it online using your favorite search engine!

Ternary Operation

Admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:46:56 +0000

If you do not know what the Ternary operator is, or do not use it while you are coding, let me be the first to tell you how much you are missing out!

The Ternary operator looks like this: “?“, that’s right, it’s a question mark!

My favourite way of using it is to shorten Conditional If Statements, so let me show you what I’m on about.

The long way:

if ($someVariable==true) {
$someOtherVariable=1;
} else {
$someOtherVariable=2;
}

The slightly shorter way:

if ($someVariable==true) $someOtherVariable=1;
else $someOtherVariable=2;

The Ternary Operation way:

$someOtherVariable = ($someVariable) ? 1 : 2;

So this is how it works:

$result = ($condition) ? $ifTrue : $ifFalse;

This can also be used while outputting a string on runtime, I will show this using some javascript:

function aFunction(arg1,arg2) {
this.arg1 = arg1;
this.arg2 = arg2;
}
function printIt() { with (this) document.write(arg1+’ > arg2 ‘+(arg2?’isTrue’:'isFalse’)+’ arg2′); }
something=new aFunction(‘FooBar’,true);
something.printIt();

If you did not know this or were not sure how it worked, then I’m sure you will now start using it in your code, it really does save time and it looks quite snazzy too!

Test Your Password Strength

Admin — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:46:59 +0000

I came across this site today and it’s quite an interesting one as it works out the approximate time it would take a desktop pc to crack the password.

Check it out here.

How to Hire a Hacker

Admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:00:06 +0000

I came across a very interesting and quite funny read, take a look here for How to Hire a Hacker: http://www.setec.org/hirehacker.html

Weird Pagination on a Google Page

Admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:32:55 +0000

Not sure how long this one will last, but for now:
Go to: http://www.google.co.za/search?q=MFI/06/ASA-778658&hl=en&start=0&sa=N

If you scroll to the bottom, there are 4 pages (pagination), press Next, now there are only 2, WEIRD HUH!

Turbo C++ in DosBox for Windows 64bit

Admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:31:35 +0000

I had to compile a C++ application under a DOS environment and was running Windows 7 64bit.

Firstly, Turbo C++ is a 32 bit x86 application and therefore will not run when initialised from an x64 environment.

This can easily be solved by installing the DOS Emulator called DosBox. One can then mount the Turbo C++ folder as a drive and install it under a subdirectory.

e.g. mount c c:\PathToMyTurboCppDirectory\

Once in there it’s quite easy to open and compile the source code, but good luck to anyone that tries to write anything from scratch, it’s really painful and half the keys are not mapped in the DosBox, eventhough you can press Ctrl+F1 to open the Keymapper.

I will never try that one again.

Next time I will just load it all onto an old machine that is still running an x86 32 bit operating system.

Actionscript2: Split string by line length with & without word-wrap

Admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 10:04:25 +0000

Split string into sentences by max line length.
This uses a character array but doesn’t use word-wrapping.

var personalMessage:String = "You got this far so we reckon that you could be curious enough to learn a little more, we’ll contact you shortly to answer any questions you may have.";
_root.myArray = newArray();
_root.myArray = personalMessage.split("");
_root.mySentences = newArray();
var currentCharCount:Number = 0;
var currentCharItem:Number = 0;
var currentCharString:String = "";
var maxLength:Number = 65;
for (var i=0; i<_root.myArray.length; i++ ) {

        if (currentCharCount<maxLength) currentCharString += _root.myArray[i];

        if (currentCharCount==maxLength || currentCharItem==(_root.myArray.length-1)) {

                _root.mySentences.push(currentCharString);

                currentCharCount = 0;

                currentCharString = "";

        }

        currentCharCount++;

        currentCharItem++;

}
trace(_root.mySentences.length);

trace(_root.mySentences[0]);

trace(_root.mySentences[1]);

trace(_root.mySentences[2]);

This outputs the following:

3

You got this far so we reckon that you could be curious enough to

learn a little more, we’ll contact you shortly to answer any que

tions you may have.

Split string into sentences by max line length and use word-wrapping.

var personalMessage:String = "You got this far so we reckon that you could be curious enough to learn a little more, we’ll contact you shortly to answer any questions you may have.";
_root.myArray = newArray();
_root.myArray = personalMessage.split(" ");
_root.mySentences = newArray();
var currentCharString:String = "";
var maxLength:Number = 60;
for (var i=0; i<_root.myArray.length; i++ ) {

        if (currentCharString.length<maxLength) currentCharString += _root.myArray[i] + " ";
        if ((currentCharString.length >= (maxLength-1)) || (i==(_root.myArray.length-1))) {

                _root.mySentences.push(currentCharString);

                currentCharString = "";

        } else currentCharCount++;

}
trace(_root.mySentences.length);

trace(_root.mySentences[0]);

trace(_root.mySentences[1]);

trace(_root.mySentences[2]);

This outputs the following:

3

You got this far so we reckon that you could be curious enough

to learn a little more, we’ll contact you shortly to answer

any questions you may have.

Search and Replace Anchor Href using Javascript

Admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:04:50 +0000

I have a site that is under development and it was made really badly so I needed a quick way to replace all anchors on page to the relevant path.

The problem is because it was a testsite that lived away from the public facing domain, the anchors had to be changed because they were all coded in as absolute paths.

I included a JavascriptDebug file and put the following in there:

function replaceAnchorsTestSite(){

        var allAnchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");

        var string1 = "http://***.***.***.***/testsite/";

        var string2 = "http://***.***.***.***/";

        for (var i=0; i<allAnchors.length; i++) {

                var str = allAnchors[i].href;

                allAnchors[i].href = str.replace(string2, string1);

        }

}

window.onload = replaceAnchorsTestSite;

I then placed the following at the bottom of the index page to start it all up.

<script src="http://***.***.***.***/testsite/jsDev.js" type="text/javascript">script>

iTunes keeps maximizing!

Admin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:58:48 +0000

Oh my goodness, this can be an annoying issue with iTunes.

The problem is: iTunes will restore itself or maximize itself all the time every 20 or so seconds without being clicked on, it will also get main focus and whatever you were doing will have to wait!

I solved this by right clicking on the iTunes program icon where I launch it from and selecting Properties, then selecting “Compatibility” then making sure “Run this program as an administrator” was checked.

When first starting iTunes I now have to click on “Yes, I would like to start this program as an administrator….blablabla…” but it’s a LOT less irritating than having to constantly minimise iTunes.

Set line leading / line spacing in flash actionscript 2

Admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:14:40 +0000

This is how to add text leading using Actionscript 2 for Flash.

var txtFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();

txtFormat.leading = 5; // change this to whatever you need it to be

ttt.setTextFormat(txtFormat);

ttt2.setTextFormat(txtFormat);span>

There is also a GUI way of doing this:

Select your textfield and and under the paragraph section, set the top/right hand icon (Line Spacing) to whatever you like.