johnro

Tag: php

  • johnro.net Now on AWS!

    My WordPress site is now on AWS! I spent a good chunk of my time debugging the All-in-One WP Migration plugin to get my migration working, and I finally realized I skipped an important step in their migration documentation:

    Migrate WordPress from PHP 5 to PHP 7

    1. Make sure that all plugins are deactivated. This will ensure your website error is not caused by any third-party software

    If you are getting stuck in the “Done Preparing Blogs” stage, then it could be because you didn’t deactivate all the plugins.

    Cheers!

  • PHP: Connect to SQL Server Database on Linux (and Mac OS X)

    Microsoft SQL Server
    Microsoft SQL Server

    I have used PHP to connect to SQL Server plenty of time, and every time I would use the SQLSRV extension. The problem with that is, PHP’s SQLSRV extension is only available for Windows servers. Which wasn’t a problem for me because I would normally develop PHP on Windows machines. It wasn’t until recently I needed SQL Server access on a Linux machine.

    It wasn’t as straightforward as I had hoped, and it certainly did not help to learn that the MSSQL PHP extension was removed in version 7.0, which took me a few hours to discover. I am writing this post in hopes that I save some people a few hours of pain, including my future self.
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  • PHP: How to array_merge Without Losing Numeric Keys

    PHP function array_merge is nice in that you can easily merge one (or more) arrays into a single array with a single call of the function. The keys are retained, but only if they’re not numeric keys(!).

    E.g.

     "hi");
$array2 = array(3 => "data");
$result = array_merge($array1, $array2);
?>

Result:
Array
(
    [0] => hi
    [1] => data
)

    Perhaps this is the behavior you want. But what if you want to retain the original numeric keys?

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  • PHP: sqlsrv problems with UTF-8 values? Set your CharacterSet option!

    Are you banging your head trying to figure out how to convert a seemingly invalid UTF-8 value into a valid one? You might be surprised to know that the problem isn’t how PHP interprets the characters, but rather a database connection issue. If the UTF-8 value in question looks valid in the database but does not look right when displayed on a web page, that could mean your database connection settings are not set correctly.
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  • Sorting your photo collection by date the PHP way

    Ever wanted to sort your photo collection in the order by date taken? Can’t find the right program that will do it for you? I decided that I had a large enough collection myself to warrant organizing, but I could not find a program that can organize it the way I want it. I have always wanted the photos to be sorted by the date taken and grouped by the year, so I decided to create a short script for myself.
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  • Data scraping: how to prevent

    Data scraping is common these days with so many data driven web applications out there. Regardless of the legality and ethics of the subject, it just sucks to know that there may be people out there who might hammer at your site to “take” all your hard work for their selfish use. That being said, it’s almost impossible to prevent people from taking your data, especially if your data is easily accessible by the public.

    You’re probably here because you’re suspicious of possible data scraping activities happening in your website. While there are preventive measures you can take to keep the scrapers out, there are always holes for the smart ones to get through and eventually take the data they want. What we want to do is make it very difficult for the average scraper to hack away the data.
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  • PHP Warning: json_encode() [function.json-encode]: Invalid UTF-8 sequence in argument in god_i_hate_this.php

    Ever get the following error?

    • PHP Warning: json_encode() [function.json-encode]: Invalid UTF-8 sequence in argument in…

    Then you are in the same boat I was in, and unfortunately for me, the solution wasn’t as straightforward as I thought it was. The problem we are seeing is that the value being encoded to json is not UTF-8 encoded data. PHP function json_encode, unfortunately, will only accept UTF-8 as its parameter. (more…)

  • Convert XML to array and vice versa in PHP

    As a developer, it is common to search the web for an existing (open source) code snippet to re-use for an application, but it is rare for the developer to just copy code online and use it straight in their application without modifying it first.

    I am one of many developers who like to save time if possible by using open source code if coding from scratch takes longer than a couple of minutes, but there are times when one cannot be found. I ran into such situation when I wanted a function that converts an XML string into an array. Unfortunately, most are overly complicated for what I wanted, so I decided to create my own and share with the world. The following function converts XML strings into a PHP array while retaining the level depths of the XML but all attributes are ignored. (more…)

  • PHP MVC framework war

    Back when CakePHP’s v1.2 was still in its beta stage, I started learning the PHP language using the MVC (model-view-controller) framework, and I grew to love the language. I became more fluent with the language as I grew more biased towards cake. I would often google MVC comparisons like “CakePHP vs codeigniter“, or “CakePHP vs symfony“, etc, but in my heart, I knew CakePHP was the one for me.
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