Pragmatism in the real world

OT: Need something? Ask Hoosgot!

If it takes off, I expect everyone will be talking about hoosgot over the next weeks and months. The idea is to allow you to ask the world if anyone has got what you want maybe help you find what you are looking for, given the international nature of the web. All you have to do is include "hoosgot" (pronounced "who's got") or "lazyweb" in your blog post or tweet and it'll pick it up.… continue reading.

Notes to self, re: IE6

I've just spent way too long today debugging stuff in IE6 that I already knew once I found the problems! So, next time I have vertical spacing issue in IE6, I can come here and remind myself that in IE, <form> has margin on it by default… Also, the YUI panel doesn't seem to work properly in IE6 if it's contained within an element that is positioned "relative" with CSS. Now that Christmas is over,… continue reading.

Simple Zend_Layout Example

Zend_Layout is in the trunk now, so here's a super simple MVC example that shows it in action: This example consists of three view files: the outer layout file, the index action view script and a right hand side bar. The remainder of this post describes the key files. If you just want to poke around with the code, then it's at the bottom, so page down now! Setting up This is the directory layout:… continue reading.

Where to set up your view?

With Zend_Layout on the horizon, I've been looking at how to use it and it will remove the need for my own front controller plugin which I call SiteTemplate. As a result, I need to find a new home for the view customisation stuff I do in SiteTemplate. My current plan is to create a new front controller plugin called ViewSetup (for want of a better name!) that contains just the view setup stuff from… continue reading.

Zend_View: Access the view from a view helper

It's in the manual, but I thought I'd blog about my simple View Helper setup that ensures that I can get at the view with minimal effort. Firstly we create a parent class: < ?php abstract class My_View_Helper_Abstract { protected $_view; public function setView($view) { $this->_view = $view; } } This class contains the code required by Zend_View to collect an instance of the view and assign it to a protected variable. All my view… continue reading.

Back to zero bugs

I've just finished going through the open Zend_Config issues and fixing them all. Nothing major, but a couple of nice fixes and one new function. The bugs recently fixed are: ZF-2209 Zend_Config* contructor should have the section defaults to null ZF-2162 Zend_Config_Xml usage without sections bug ZF-2021 Zend_Config::toArray() does not support generic object values Lastly, I've added a new function called setReadOnly() in response to issue ZF-2061. This allows you to lock down a Zend_Config… continue reading.

TaskPaper

One of the apps that I've found that I'm using daily is TaskPaper from Hog Bay Software. It's a brilliantly simple idea where all it does is format up a standard text file to make it easier to use as a todo list. You just start each item with a dash and it will automatically provide a checkbox next to the item. When you tick the checkbox, then a tag, @done, is added to the… continue reading.

svn and case-insentive file systems

Another one to chalk up to a doh! moment… I'm checking out my wife's website to my new MacBook and get this error message: svn: In directory 'website/gallery/piccies' svn: Can't move source to dest svn: Can't move 'website/gallery/piccies/.svn/tmp/prop-base/IMG_0013-thumb.jpg.svn-base' to 'website/gallery/piccies/.svn/prop-base/IMG_0013-thumb.jpg.svn-base': No such file or directory I'm pretty sure that there's no problem with the subversion repository as I've been using it for months with no problem so I asked a friend to check it out… continue reading.

post2cat doesn't exist after upgrading WordPress

Note to help anyone else who has the same problem! If you are a "little behind" the times when you upgrade you WordPress installation, you may see errors like this: WordPress database error: [Table 'xxx.wp_post2cat' doesn't exist] SELECT cat_ID AS ID, MAX(post_modified) AS last_mod FROM `wp_posts` p LEFT JOIN `wp_post2cat` pc ON p.ID = pc.post_id LEFT JOIN `wp_categories` c ON pc.category_id = c.cat_ID WHERE post_status = 'publish' GROUP BY cat_ This is because the tables… continue reading.

The move to Mac

A couple of days after Leopard came out, my wife and I found ourselves in the Apple store in Solihull and came away with an iMac for her and a MacBook Pro for me. The main reasons we have been interested in Macs recently are: Disappointed with Vista on my wife's brand new computer Disappointed with our last two Inspiron laptops Sleep that works The hardware looks good! Unix in the terminal Interestingly, the biggest… continue reading.