Continue reading »]]> While Google’s documents for maps API does good job in showing how to get lat/long from an address in JavaScript they do not really show any example of doing the same with PHP.
So to make you life simple here is a small script in PHP that does that.

$geocode=file_get_contents('http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=573/1,+Jangli+Maharaj+Road,+Deccan+Gymkhana,+Pune,+Maharashtra,+India&sensor=false');

$output= json_decode($geocode);

$lat = $output->results[0]->geometry->location->lat;
$long = $output->results[0]->geometry->location->lng;


The line above makes a request to Google maps API. Passes the address, and receives the response in JSON format.

The URL has following options
http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/output?parameters

where output can be 1) JSON or 2) XML

For more details about parameters check out the Google’s geocoding documentation.

Continue reading »]]> irontec have just launched an open source project to bring PHP to Android platform. PHP for Android project (PFA) aims to make PHP development in Android not only possible but also feasable providing tools and documentation.

The project already have an APK which provides PHP support to Android Scripting Environment (ASE). To get started you can follow the screencast below :

APK and source code both available at http://phpforandroid.net. Minimum requirement to get PHP for Android running is Android 1.5 phone or emulator. There is even an unofficial ASE build with PHP 5.3 support included. Now Rasmus can get an Android phone and start scripting on mobile.

Continue reading »]]> Wall4PHP is one of the framework that I recommend to mobile web application developer for the number of useful information that you may find inside it and related to different models of mobile phones. WALL4PHP is implementation of WALL, Wireless Abstraction Library, originally created by Luca Passani for the Java platform; for PHP. The main purpose of Wall is to generate a generalized markup language which help the web application to be compatible with most available model in the market.

Wall is used like a template engine, the sample below for example will show your user agent :


My Document

UA :

Body part 2

Continue reading »]]> I used in my code a modified version of Admob code that you can find the original on admob website. The idea that I never use print inside my applications, so i wrote it as a PHP class, the original code is a little bit modified. To use it simply replace $admobs variable with your own and enjoy!

/**
* Mobile Advertising PHP class
*
*/
class mobileads {

var $admobs = ‘a1458adcf8cca66′;

/**
* Return Admob code – Original code from admob.com
*
* @param mob_mode change mode from “test” to “live” when you are done testing
* @param mob_alternate_link use this to set a default link to appear if AdMob does not return an ad.
*/
function admob($mob_mode = ‘test’, $mob_alternate_link = ”) {

global $_SERVER;

//used for ad targeting
$mob_ua = urlencode(getenv(“HTTP_USER_AGENT”));
$mob_ip = urlencode($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);

if ($mob_mode==’test’)
$mob_m = “&m”;

$mob_url = ‘http://ads.admob.com/ad_source.php?s=’.$this->admobs.’&u=’.$mob_ua.’&i=’.$mob_ip.$mob_m;

$mob_contents = implode(”,@file($mob_url));

$mob_link = explode(“><”,$mob_contents);

$mob_ad_text = $mob_link[0];
$mob_ad_link = $mob_link[1];

if (isset($mob_ad_link) && ($mob_ad_link !=”)) {
//display AdMob Ad
$result = ‘‘. $mob_ad_text . ‘‘;
}
else {
//no AdMob ad, display alternate
$result = $mob_alternate_link;
}

return $result;
}

}

Continue reading »]]> iPFaces framework is a new mobile solution designed to simplify the creation of native, form-oriented network applications for mobile devices. Its usage allows the programmer to focus on design and functionality and save hours of programming a mobile platform itself. Why? iPFaces transfers the entire application logic to central application server level.

Mobile applications are adapted to the design and control style of the specific mobile platform. The iPFaces application provides the end users with higher user comfort and overall user-friendliness, both at a professional level. Simple usage of advanced mobile functions (GPS localisation, use of integrated camera, compass and many others) is an

important part of the iPFaces solution.

Knowledge of the specific platform is often required for programming of applications for mobile devices, as well as being familiar with the programming code and development environment. Devices using the same platform often differ, as even two versions of firmware for the same device can. Mobile applications programming and testing is a frequent nightmare for most developers.

The use of iPFaces avoids the programming of the mobile client completely. All the developer has to do is install the general iPFaces client to the mobile device in the standard way and file the address of the iPFaces server upon its first launch.

This fully functional, stable and tuned application supported by all mobile platforms is totally free. Besides that, the entire solution ensures easy distribution of the client application to its end users. To top it all, Edhouse, the iPFaces creator, provides special libraries for iPFaces support for programming in ASP.Net, Java and PHP web technologies.

Compatibility between device versions, developer user-friendliness and the simplicity of application version changing and editing are only some of the features iPFaces has to offer. For more information, visit their website at www.ipfaces.org.

Continue reading »]]> The APF team is proud to anounce the new website together with the 1.11 stable release.

Revision 1.11 serves a reworking of the form support on the basis of taglibs. Now generic definition of validators and filters on the basis of the observer pattern is supported and forms can be customised to own needs more easily.

The OR mapper GenericORMapper already added in the release 1.9 was extended with tools to automatically setup and update a database. Now the developer can completely concentrate on the development of the logic of the application since the storage of the objects is completely managed by the mapper.

Part of the performance optimisations of the releases were optimisations in the core of the frameworks and the reworking of the integrated BenchmarkTimer. It now supplies the developer with a better graphic representation of the measurements to find hot-spots within an application. Thus, an application can the optimally prepared for operation.

With appearance of the release 1.11 the support for PHP 4 was announced discontinuation and the compatibility with PHP 5.3 was improved. In the coming version 1.12 lies the focus on the extension of the new form support and the reworking of the configuration component.

Continue reading »]]> Speed kills. In the case of website usability, the lack of speed kills. Many have erroneously assumed the advent of high speed internet connections would make website performance optimization irrelevant. On the contrary, it seems as internet connection speeds increase, users simply become more impatient and demand faster browsing. Below, I’ve gathered some simple (and advanced) ways to speed up your site.

Before making any changes, I would recommend benchmarking your download time with WebSite Optimization’s webpage optimization tool.

Image Optimizing Tips:

1. Compress .jpg and .gif images: If you use photoshop, always use the “Save for Web” feature. If you don’t have access to PS, there’s a ton of free image compressing freeware out there.
2. Compress or eliminate unnecessary Flash elements: In my opinion, flash is over-rated, slow, and buggy. It has it’s benefits, but make sure you don’t rely on it for navigation or other necessary site elements.
3. Don’t Resize Images within HTML: Don’t use the width or height attribute in the IMG tag to resize larger options. For example, if you resize an image that was originally 300 x 300 to 100 x 100, the user still has to download the full size one. Instead, use thumbnails.
4. Specify Image Dimensions: Don’t leave the width or height attributes blank. By doing so, you’ll slow down the browser rendering of the page, since it doesn’t know how much space to give for each image.
5. Slice Your Images: Slicing doesn’t actually reduce image size (in fact, it increases the overall size). However, it does increase the apparent load time by making each slice appear one at a time rather than one big image popping up after it downloads.
6. Avoid Too Many Slices: Don’t use too much of a good thing. As mentioned above, each slice actually increases the total size. I would recommend using no more than 4 slices, unless you are dealing with a huge image.

Coding Tips

7. Use CSS instead of Images: Cascading style sheets can do more than you think. Many sites make effective use of CSS formatting and eliminate the need for excessive images. Even effective brand logos can be created with CSS. CSS Zen Garden has some examples of creative use of CSS.
8. Convert from Table to CSS based layout: Tables are ok for displaying data in columns and rows, but is grossly inefficient for designing web page layouts. By using DIV tags with CSS, you can cleanup your code extensively, which will reduce page load time and also offer SEO benefits.
9. Use External Style Sheets: Rather than formatting through embedded inline styles in pages or html elements, reference an external css files that the entire site can reference. The browser will cache this page on the first visit, so it won’t need to download it repeatedly.
10. Use External Javascript: Simliar to above, put all of your JavaScript functions in an external file for caching benefits.
11. Remove Unnecessary White Space in HTML: Surprisingly, white space hogs
    a lot of disk space. Remove unnecessary space and other code clutter with this handy tool called HTML Tidy.
12. Use Shorthand CSS: Instead of putting each CSS attribute on its own line, use shorthand CSS to prevent extra line breaks in your external CSS file.
13. Use CSS Images instead of IMG tag: An easy way to speed up the rendering of an image is to simply call as a background of a div tag.
14. Use Relative Links: Removing the ” http://www.yoursite.com ” from the beginning of every link will shed some weight. Just be careful not to allow people to jump back and forth between secure and insecure pages, which will generate one of those annoying “insecure items” errors in the
    browser.
15. Specify the DocType: Pages that have the DocType specified tend to load faster than those that don’t.

Server & Database Tips

16. Reduce Http requests from other sites: Try to eliminate connecting to other servers to retrive images, audio, or video. Each http:// connection only slows things down.
17. Don’t Use Https://: Don’t use secure pages if you don’t have to. Connecting through secure http is about 3 times slower than regular http. Obviously, your checkout process needs to be secure, but your product pages most likely do not. In addition, make sure your navigation doesn’t use relative links which forces users to flip flop between secure and non-secure pages.
18. Upgrade your Web Server: Just like that old PC you bought 5 years ago, web servers can go down hill and become outdated.
19. Use Gzip Compression to Reduce HTML Size: Gzip is great for compressing html code, however it does nothing for images, flash, or other embedded files. Many open source programs such as WordPress and Joomla already support it.
20. Upgrade Server Memory: A boost in memory resources on your server can reduce processing time and greatly increase performance.
21. Upgrade your Database Server Hard Drive: The faster your server’s hard drive is able to access data, the faster it can serve up files. A fast hard drive is especially important for your database server.
22. Separate Content and Database Servers: If you have a high traffic, database driven website, you can benefit by placing your content on one server and your database on another. In addition to the speed benefits, it is more secure.

Other Tips

23. Loading Progress Indicators: By letting users know that you are processing their request, you can assuage their impatient fears. This won’t necessarily speed things up, but it will update them on the progress.
24. Use AJAX instead of Page Refreshes: Interacting with a web page is far different than interacting with your computer OS. Imagine if Windows XP had to refresh the whole screen ever time you perform an action like websites do? In the next few years, we will probably see more adoption of AJAX technology, which will make page refreshing uncessary.
25. Reduce Size & Number of Cookies: Each time a browser makes a request, cookies must be transmitted. Keep an eye on the total number and size of the cookies your site uses.

Continue reading »]]> WordPress was a single-site platform but WordPress 3.0 already have the functionality to run MultiSites, before that it require  to use WordPress MU, which enables multiuser (multi-tenant) installations with multiple sites all under one roof.

MultiSite functionality is not enabled by default in WordPress 3.0, You need to check out the new MultiSite settings in the WP Admin under Tools > Network. To enable MultiSite, you need to add the following line of code in  wp-config.php file:

define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true);

A new link “Create a Network” will appear in the WP Admin under the Tools menu, After uploading your updated config.php file to the server, where you will define a few options and create a network.

Clicking on the Network link in the Tools menu loads the network setup/installation page. It should look like this:

After adding required information in “Create a Network”, install and update your wp-config.php file and .htaccess. Before updating never forget to backup your both file.
Now you will see a New feature in admin panel as “Super Admin” in Dashboard.

Welcome, Super Admin!

You are now “Super Admin,” and have ultimate control over every site in your network. Here you can mange Create New Site, Create New User along with other options. The good news is that all of your network settings are available through the Super Admin menu panel located at the top of the left sidebar.

Enable Multisite in WordPress 3.0 With One Click!

Easily upgrade your WordPress 3.0 blog into Multi-Site with the click of a single button.
This plugin takes care of most of the dirty work of installing Multi-Site on WordPress 3.0. However, there may be some server-side changes you may need to do before upgrading to Multi-Site. Please refer to Plugin Documentation or the WordPress Codex before using this plugin.

Continue reading »]]>

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